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Saving Savannah: The City And The Civil War
A panoramic portrait of the city of Savannah before, during, and after the Civil War—a poignant story of the African American freedom struggle in this prosperous southern riverport, set against a backdrop of military conflict and political turmoil. Jacqueline Jones, prizewinning author of the groundbreaking Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow, has written a masterpiece of time and place, transporting readers to the boisterous streets of this fascinating city.
Drawing on military records, diaries, letters, newspapers, and memoirs, Jones brings Savannah to life in all its diversity, weaving together the stories of individual men and women, bankers and dockworkers, planters and field hands, enslaved laborers and free people of color. The book captures in vivid detail the determination of former slaves to integrate themselves into the nation’s body politic and to control their own families, workplaces, churches, and schools. She explains how white elites, forestalling democracy and equality, created novel political and economic strategies to maintain their stranglehold on the machinery of power, and often found unexpected allies in northern missionaries and military officials.
Jones brilliantly describes life in the Georgia lowcountry—what it was like to be a slave toiling in the disease-ridden rice swamps; the strivings of black entrepreneurs, slaves and free blacks alike; and the bizarre intricacies of the slave-master relationship. Here are the stories of Thomas Simms, an enslaved brickmason who escapes to Boston only to be captured by white authorities; Charles Jones Jr., the scion of a prominent planter family, who remains convinced that Savannah is invincible even as the city’s defenses fall one after the other in the winter of 1861; his mother, Mary Jones, whose journal records her horror as the only world she knows vanishes before her; Nancy Johnson, an enslaved woman who loses her family’s stores of food and precious household belongings to rampaging Union troops; Aaron A. Bradley, a fugitive slave turned attorney and provocateur who defies whites in the courtroom, on the streets, and in the rice fields; and the Reverend Tunis G. Campbell, who travels from the North to establish self-sufficient black colonies on the Georgia coast.
Deeply researched and beautifully written, Saving Savannah is a powerful account of slavery’s long reach and the way the war transformed this southern city forever.
Drawing on military records, diaries, letters, newspapers, and memoirs, Jones brings Savannah to life in all its diversity, weaving together the stories of individual men and women, bankers and dockworkers, planters and field hands, enslaved laborers and free people of color. The book captures in vivid detail the determination of former slaves to integrate themselves into the nation’s body politic and to control their own families, workplaces, churches, and schools. She explains how white elites, forestalling democracy and equality, created novel political and economic strategies to maintain their stranglehold on the machinery of power, and often found unexpected allies in northern missionaries and military officials.
Jones brilliantly describes life in the Georgia lowcountry—what it was like to be a slave toiling in the disease-ridden rice swamps; the strivings of black entrepreneurs, slaves and free blacks alike; and the bizarre intricacies of the slave-master relationship. Here are the stories of Thomas Simms, an enslaved brickmason who escapes to Boston only to be captured by white authorities; Charles Jones Jr., the scion of a prominent planter family, who remains convinced that Savannah is invincible even as the city’s defenses fall one after the other in the winter of 1861; his mother, Mary Jones, whose journal records her horror as the only world she knows vanishes before her; Nancy Johnson, an enslaved woman who loses her family’s stores of food and precious household belongings to rampaging Union troops; Aaron A. Bradley, a fugitive slave turned attorney and provocateur who defies whites in the courtroom, on the streets, and in the rice fields; and the Reverend Tunis G. Campbell, who travels from the North to establish self-sufficient black colonies on the Georgia coast.
Deeply researched and beautifully written, Saving Savannah is a powerful account of slavery’s long reach and the way the war transformed this southern city forever.
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First published January 1, 2008
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July 25, 2022
Saving the city of Savannah, in 1864, from destruction by Union General William T. Sherman’s army – a fate that overtook other Southern cities, like Atlanta and Columbia (South Carolina) – was unquestionably an important achievement by the city’s leaders, and a dramatic moment from the annals of the American Civil War as well. Yet Jacqueline Jones makes clear, in her 2008 book Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War, that those elements of Civil War military history are only part of a larger, and arguably a more interesting, story.
Jones, a University of Texas historian, begins her story not with secession, or with the firing on Fort Sumter, but considerably earlier – with enslaved bricklayer Thomas Simms’s courageous 1851 attempt to escape from slavery by stowing away on a ship bound from Savannah to Boston. In the process of recounting the saga of Simms’s escape attempt – his capture and return, under provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, became a headline-grabbing national-news story that demonstrated the deepening North-South divide over slavery – Jones incorporates a finely nuanced portrayal of life in antebellum Savannah.
One gets from the initial "Antebellum" section of Saving Savannah a strong sense of the day-to-day dynamics of life in a slaveholding antebellum city. A dynamic, trade-oriented urban economy was inextricably intertwined with a system of human bondage that defined virtually all aspects of Savannah life. And while Savannah’s African American population resisted the slave system in every way possible, most Savannah whites worked to maintain the system.
Savannah was a beautiful city then, as it is now – and for that reason, it could be easy, in those pre-Civil War days, for the casual visitor not to see the brutality of the slave system. A visiting Northern minister, Nehemiah Adams, was struck at seeing enslaved people who were well-dressed for Sunday church services. Seeing the fine clothing of these enslaved churchgoers, Adams optimistically reflected “how impossible it must be to treat with indignity men who respected themselves, as these men evidently did.” But historian Jones corrects minister Adams’s over-optimistic assessment, writing that “Adams was mistaken in his assumption that a well-dressed slave could not be ‘violently separated from his family…or abused with impunity’” (p. 108).
The political turmoil of the 1850’s gave way to civil war in the 1860’s, as chronicled in the book's second section, "In Bello" ("At War"). While Savannah’s seaborne trade was cut off by Union forces’ capture of Fort Pulaski on the Georgia coast in April of 1862, the city did not suffer the degree of war-related disruption that other Southern cities did – until the autumn of 1864. When General Sherman captured Atlanta and began his March to the Sea, Savannah became a target, and the city’s leaders worried that Savannah would share Atlanta’s fiery fate. As Sherman’s armies drew closer to Savannah, and as Confederate General William Joseph Hardee led his rebel troops out of Savannah in December of 1864, Savannah’s mayor, Dr. Richard Arnold, and the aldermen of the city council “resolved to save the city by surrendering it at the earliest possible moment” (p. 206).
The efforts of Mayor Arnold and the Savannah city council were successful. The city surrendered peacefully and was spared destruction, and General Sherman sent his famously waggish Christmas telegram to President Lincoln in celebration of Savannah’s fall: “I beg to present to you as a Christmas-gift the city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton” (pp. 207-08).
Yet by the time the war ends for Savannah, we are only on page 209 of a 410-page book – for Jones’s interest is in the entire Civil War era, and in how the search for racial justice went on in Savannah not only during the Civil War but also afterward. The book’s third section, “Postbellum,” provides a thoughtful treatment of the Reconstruction era in Savannah, when African Americans’ hopes for equal treatment and recognition of equal rights blossomed for a while but were eventually cast down.
Both whites and African Americans of the Savannah area, whether they were native-born people of the region or had come from the North, recognized “the revolutionary potential of the ballot box to transform the state of Georgia and obliterate its slaveholding past”, and confronted challenging questions regarding the future of the area: “[J]ust how far could political transformations penetrate the lowcountry, alter the relation between worker and employer, and give hope to the landless black families struggling to survive?” (p. 301)
The last 100 or so pages of Saving Savannah provide a thorough but disheartening look at the city’s postwar history. During the Reconstruction era, African Americans made some impressive political gains; James Merilus Simms – the brother of Thomas Simms, he was a minister and a leader of the city’s African American community – was among a number of African Americans who were elected to the Georgia Assembly during Reconstruction, in spite of attempts by white members of the Assembly to prevent Simms and other blacks from taking office. Yet as the drive to reconstruct the South waned, members of the old white establishment regained control of the levers of power in Savannah; and African Americans in Savannah, as elsewhere in the South, would face several decades of segregation before their efforts to bring about meaningful change in their situation would begin to find success in the Civil Rights Era.
A thought-provoking epilogue titled “Those Peaceful, Powerful Weapons” takes the story of Savannah from post-Civil War years through the Civil Rights Movement to the present day. As the city has become a mecca for tourism, drawing visitors who are enchanted by the elegance of the city’s historic homes, Jones reflects that poverty and violent crime remain central realities of Savannah life, and adds that “In certain key respects, Savannah’s geographical configuration retains the outlines of its postbellum years, with a large impoverished black population segregated in the areas that border the city on the east and west” (p. 407).
As shown in Jones’s setting-forth of the sometimes-contentious discussions of the text (written by Maya Angelou) inscribed on the city’s African American Monument that was dedicated in 2002, Savannah’s struggle to define itself, and to decide what sort of city it is going to be for all its people, continues. Jones chronicles that struggle, its legacy, and its complexities well in Saving Savannah.
Jones, a University of Texas historian, begins her story not with secession, or with the firing on Fort Sumter, but considerably earlier – with enslaved bricklayer Thomas Simms’s courageous 1851 attempt to escape from slavery by stowing away on a ship bound from Savannah to Boston. In the process of recounting the saga of Simms’s escape attempt – his capture and return, under provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, became a headline-grabbing national-news story that demonstrated the deepening North-South divide over slavery – Jones incorporates a finely nuanced portrayal of life in antebellum Savannah.
One gets from the initial "Antebellum" section of Saving Savannah a strong sense of the day-to-day dynamics of life in a slaveholding antebellum city. A dynamic, trade-oriented urban economy was inextricably intertwined with a system of human bondage that defined virtually all aspects of Savannah life. And while Savannah’s African American population resisted the slave system in every way possible, most Savannah whites worked to maintain the system.
Savannah was a beautiful city then, as it is now – and for that reason, it could be easy, in those pre-Civil War days, for the casual visitor not to see the brutality of the slave system. A visiting Northern minister, Nehemiah Adams, was struck at seeing enslaved people who were well-dressed for Sunday church services. Seeing the fine clothing of these enslaved churchgoers, Adams optimistically reflected “how impossible it must be to treat with indignity men who respected themselves, as these men evidently did.” But historian Jones corrects minister Adams’s over-optimistic assessment, writing that “Adams was mistaken in his assumption that a well-dressed slave could not be ‘violently separated from his family…or abused with impunity’” (p. 108).
The political turmoil of the 1850’s gave way to civil war in the 1860’s, as chronicled in the book's second section, "In Bello" ("At War"). While Savannah’s seaborne trade was cut off by Union forces’ capture of Fort Pulaski on the Georgia coast in April of 1862, the city did not suffer the degree of war-related disruption that other Southern cities did – until the autumn of 1864. When General Sherman captured Atlanta and began his March to the Sea, Savannah became a target, and the city’s leaders worried that Savannah would share Atlanta’s fiery fate. As Sherman’s armies drew closer to Savannah, and as Confederate General William Joseph Hardee led his rebel troops out of Savannah in December of 1864, Savannah’s mayor, Dr. Richard Arnold, and the aldermen of the city council “resolved to save the city by surrendering it at the earliest possible moment” (p. 206).
The efforts of Mayor Arnold and the Savannah city council were successful. The city surrendered peacefully and was spared destruction, and General Sherman sent his famously waggish Christmas telegram to President Lincoln in celebration of Savannah’s fall: “I beg to present to you as a Christmas-gift the city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton” (pp. 207-08).
Yet by the time the war ends for Savannah, we are only on page 209 of a 410-page book – for Jones’s interest is in the entire Civil War era, and in how the search for racial justice went on in Savannah not only during the Civil War but also afterward. The book’s third section, “Postbellum,” provides a thoughtful treatment of the Reconstruction era in Savannah, when African Americans’ hopes for equal treatment and recognition of equal rights blossomed for a while but were eventually cast down.
Both whites and African Americans of the Savannah area, whether they were native-born people of the region or had come from the North, recognized “the revolutionary potential of the ballot box to transform the state of Georgia and obliterate its slaveholding past”, and confronted challenging questions regarding the future of the area: “[J]ust how far could political transformations penetrate the lowcountry, alter the relation between worker and employer, and give hope to the landless black families struggling to survive?” (p. 301)
The last 100 or so pages of Saving Savannah provide a thorough but disheartening look at the city’s postwar history. During the Reconstruction era, African Americans made some impressive political gains; James Merilus Simms – the brother of Thomas Simms, he was a minister and a leader of the city’s African American community – was among a number of African Americans who were elected to the Georgia Assembly during Reconstruction, in spite of attempts by white members of the Assembly to prevent Simms and other blacks from taking office. Yet as the drive to reconstruct the South waned, members of the old white establishment regained control of the levers of power in Savannah; and African Americans in Savannah, as elsewhere in the South, would face several decades of segregation before their efforts to bring about meaningful change in their situation would begin to find success in the Civil Rights Era.
A thought-provoking epilogue titled “Those Peaceful, Powerful Weapons” takes the story of Savannah from post-Civil War years through the Civil Rights Movement to the present day. As the city has become a mecca for tourism, drawing visitors who are enchanted by the elegance of the city’s historic homes, Jones reflects that poverty and violent crime remain central realities of Savannah life, and adds that “In certain key respects, Savannah’s geographical configuration retains the outlines of its postbellum years, with a large impoverished black population segregated in the areas that border the city on the east and west” (p. 407).
As shown in Jones’s setting-forth of the sometimes-contentious discussions of the text (written by Maya Angelou) inscribed on the city’s African American Monument that was dedicated in 2002, Savannah’s struggle to define itself, and to decide what sort of city it is going to be for all its people, continues. Jones chronicles that struggle, its legacy, and its complexities well in Saving Savannah.
September 25, 2022
Taking a brief pause from reading every book I can find about Abraham Lincoln, I pulled this book off my shelf to accompany me on a visit to Savannah last week. It’s from the same time period as the Lincoln books I’ve been reading, but is both broader and narrower in scope, as it covers decades of antebellum, Civil War and Reconstruction history, but does so by focusing on a single mid-sized Southern city.
I used to live in Savannah many years ago, so I know there’s a lot more to the place than the romanticized image of a beautiful, charming, easygoing tourist destination - or the quirky, mystical, sometimes-seedy city filled with eccentric characters as popularized by John Berendt. If there’s one thing this book does well, it’s telling the real warts-and-all history of a real city, and how it grappled with inequality, war and integration during a consequential period of time.
The opening chapters set the scene, belying the image of a sleepy, laid-back city by describing what was a busy commercial port with a vibrant but uneasy population mix. The wealthy and powerful who lived in the stately homes that the tourists visit today, presided over what was essentially a caste system of poor white laborers (many of them from the North, or from Ireland), slaves and free Blacks (some of whom even owned slaves themselves).
The book tells of the lower classes’ struggle to survive; the concern among the upper class as northern abolitionists came to town stirring up trouble, while they kept a wary eye on national political developments that threatened their way of life, and were perplexed with and increasingly paranoid about their slaves’ customs and traditions; and scourges like a yellow fever epidemic that did not discriminate based on class.
The middle chapters cover the Civil War years and how they affected the city’s various classes. Poor whites and immigrants who were not particularly involved in politics and were not slaveholders had little incentive to fight for the Confederate cause, while slaveholders worried about deserting, self-emancipating slaves aiding the Union enemy.
General Sherman arrives about halfway through the book, “saving Savannah” by declining to destroy it - or perhaps it’s the mayor who gets credit for “saving Savannah” by eagerly giving it up without a fight. Either way, the war, for Savannahians, effectively ends at this point. So the remaining chapters tell of the adjustment to postwar life, freed slaves attempting to make new lives for themselves, and the early stages of a century’s worth of Jim Crow laws designed to intimidate, disenfranchise and keep Blacks “in their place.“
This overall arc was compelling, as something of a microcosm of how the South experienced the period. But that also felt to me like one of the book’s drawbacks - despite the book being about, and named for, Savannah, in some ways it could have been about anywhere. Even coming into it with my own knowledge of the city, and reading it while in the city, it seemed like the book was somewhat lacking a sense of place. There were a few times I could visualize places and neighborhoods that were referenced, but mostly I didn’t feel anything like a “you are there” sense while reading it, and there were no specific locales described in the book that compelled me to want to visit.
The book also has few recurring, compelling individual characters. There are so many names it’s difficult to keep track of them all, or discern when someone is going to be an important player or is just an individual who’s referenced once and never again. The book ultimately reads rather like a collection of vignettes, chronologically told, that are seemingly meant to add up to a larger story. Jones clearly did her research, but the narrative reads less like a story than a mere recounting of that research, as she cites sources like census records, election results and contemporary newspaper reports and strings them together in an attempt to divine a larger story from them.
I was reminded of an interview I once heard with historian and author Joseph Ellis, in which he said to be wary of historians who say “I’ve done all the research, now all I have to do is write it up.” A good, readable work of history isn’t a regurgitation of research, it needs to tell a story. I felt like this book had the research and the facts, but couldn’t quite turn them all into a compelling story, with characters I cared about or a good sense of the actual city it described.
One particular missed opportunity in the book may have been due in part to when the book was published, back in 2008. Interspersed among other vignettes, Jones spends a few pages on what has become known as the “Weeping Time” slave auction that was held on the outskirts of Savannah in 1859. She describes it somewhat benignly as “one of the largest in recent memory,” when more recent scholarship has established that this was one of, if not the, largest slave auctions in American history, and entire books have since been written about this singular event. Perhaps less was known about it at the time of this book’s publication, but it’s nonetheless a shame that it’s not better and more prominently covered here - instead, it’s just another anecdote, among countless others.
But what makes the Weeping Time auction particularly noteworthy in the context of the larger story that Jones attempts to tell, is that it’s still very much in the consciousness of Savannah today. There are current efforts underway in the city to preserve some of the land where the auction is believed to have occurred, with conflicting opinions about moving forward versus memorializing a painful past. This dovetails with Jones’ conclusion, which ponders the Savannah of today and how it is still struggling to acknowledge its past without jeopardizing its present and future, by presenting a somewhat less rosy picture to the many tourists who aren’t necessarily coming to Savannah to be confronted with some uncomfortable historical truths. In the end, by tracing one Southern city’s history - and seeing how that history resonates in the city even today - Jones ends up proving the point of another well-known Southern author, who wrote that “the past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
I used to live in Savannah many years ago, so I know there’s a lot more to the place than the romanticized image of a beautiful, charming, easygoing tourist destination - or the quirky, mystical, sometimes-seedy city filled with eccentric characters as popularized by John Berendt. If there’s one thing this book does well, it’s telling the real warts-and-all history of a real city, and how it grappled with inequality, war and integration during a consequential period of time.
The opening chapters set the scene, belying the image of a sleepy, laid-back city by describing what was a busy commercial port with a vibrant but uneasy population mix. The wealthy and powerful who lived in the stately homes that the tourists visit today, presided over what was essentially a caste system of poor white laborers (many of them from the North, or from Ireland), slaves and free Blacks (some of whom even owned slaves themselves).
The book tells of the lower classes’ struggle to survive; the concern among the upper class as northern abolitionists came to town stirring up trouble, while they kept a wary eye on national political developments that threatened their way of life, and were perplexed with and increasingly paranoid about their slaves’ customs and traditions; and scourges like a yellow fever epidemic that did not discriminate based on class.
The middle chapters cover the Civil War years and how they affected the city’s various classes. Poor whites and immigrants who were not particularly involved in politics and were not slaveholders had little incentive to fight for the Confederate cause, while slaveholders worried about deserting, self-emancipating slaves aiding the Union enemy.
General Sherman arrives about halfway through the book, “saving Savannah” by declining to destroy it - or perhaps it’s the mayor who gets credit for “saving Savannah” by eagerly giving it up without a fight. Either way, the war, for Savannahians, effectively ends at this point. So the remaining chapters tell of the adjustment to postwar life, freed slaves attempting to make new lives for themselves, and the early stages of a century’s worth of Jim Crow laws designed to intimidate, disenfranchise and keep Blacks “in their place.“
This overall arc was compelling, as something of a microcosm of how the South experienced the period. But that also felt to me like one of the book’s drawbacks - despite the book being about, and named for, Savannah, in some ways it could have been about anywhere. Even coming into it with my own knowledge of the city, and reading it while in the city, it seemed like the book was somewhat lacking a sense of place. There were a few times I could visualize places and neighborhoods that were referenced, but mostly I didn’t feel anything like a “you are there” sense while reading it, and there were no specific locales described in the book that compelled me to want to visit.
The book also has few recurring, compelling individual characters. There are so many names it’s difficult to keep track of them all, or discern when someone is going to be an important player or is just an individual who’s referenced once and never again. The book ultimately reads rather like a collection of vignettes, chronologically told, that are seemingly meant to add up to a larger story. Jones clearly did her research, but the narrative reads less like a story than a mere recounting of that research, as she cites sources like census records, election results and contemporary newspaper reports and strings them together in an attempt to divine a larger story from them.
I was reminded of an interview I once heard with historian and author Joseph Ellis, in which he said to be wary of historians who say “I’ve done all the research, now all I have to do is write it up.” A good, readable work of history isn’t a regurgitation of research, it needs to tell a story. I felt like this book had the research and the facts, but couldn’t quite turn them all into a compelling story, with characters I cared about or a good sense of the actual city it described.
One particular missed opportunity in the book may have been due in part to when the book was published, back in 2008. Interspersed among other vignettes, Jones spends a few pages on what has become known as the “Weeping Time” slave auction that was held on the outskirts of Savannah in 1859. She describes it somewhat benignly as “one of the largest in recent memory,” when more recent scholarship has established that this was one of, if not the, largest slave auctions in American history, and entire books have since been written about this singular event. Perhaps less was known about it at the time of this book’s publication, but it’s nonetheless a shame that it’s not better and more prominently covered here - instead, it’s just another anecdote, among countless others.
But what makes the Weeping Time auction particularly noteworthy in the context of the larger story that Jones attempts to tell, is that it’s still very much in the consciousness of Savannah today. There are current efforts underway in the city to preserve some of the land where the auction is believed to have occurred, with conflicting opinions about moving forward versus memorializing a painful past. This dovetails with Jones’ conclusion, which ponders the Savannah of today and how it is still struggling to acknowledge its past without jeopardizing its present and future, by presenting a somewhat less rosy picture to the many tourists who aren’t necessarily coming to Savannah to be confronted with some uncomfortable historical truths. In the end, by tracing one Southern city’s history - and seeing how that history resonates in the city even today - Jones ends up proving the point of another well-known Southern author, who wrote that “the past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
May 21, 2020
I wanted to like this book - I’m very interested in the topic, and have a read a fair amount on the Lowcountry pre and post CE - but it lacks spark and color. The author has covered her topic thoroughly, graciously, and with great attention to detail - but I wish she’d conveyed more color, more personality, and more sense of place. Academic writing can also be interesting, and unfortunately, the recitations of names without much human characteristic attached made this book hard to get through.
All in all, this is an important work. The story is very similar to most Southern states, especially South Carolina with its shared Lowcountry, so there weren’t any huge facts I discovered. I didn’t realize the competition between Northern-sponsored organizations like the AMA and local churches, so this was a notable learn for me. I would highly recommend this book to someone working in academia or research!
All in all, this is an important work. The story is very similar to most Southern states, especially South Carolina with its shared Lowcountry, so there weren’t any huge facts I discovered. I didn’t realize the competition between Northern-sponsored organizations like the AMA and local churches, so this was a notable learn for me. I would highly recommend this book to someone working in academia or research!
April 15, 2025
I read this book as part of a research project on the relationship between Boston merchants and Southern cotton plantations, and I'm really glad I read it. Not only did it have a trove of information for my project, I also learned so much about Savannah, the rivalry with Charleston, the cultural divides between lowcountry/upstate, coastal/interior, the continuation of Gullah Geechee tradition, the wartime experience in the South, the timeline and practical effects of Reconstruction, and the change from enslavement to Jim Crow. Sometimes the book casts too wide a net for me to track all the small details, but they join to form a really incredible full history.
Jones' writing is remarkable for the way that she manages to tell community stories that still seem to capture the individuality of specific historical figures, with well-known and obscure characters feeling integral to the story. In this book, I found myself most interested in the story of James Sims, who appears consistently and who is related to Thomas Sims, who appears in my own student work. Jones places Sims within his historical, cultural, religious, political, and social contexts without losing the things that make him distinct. (As his descendants noted, he would talk about anything, he wasn't diplomatic at all!) However, there are dozens of people that Jones manages to do this for - Mayor Anderson, the Butlers, Sherman, Aaron A. Bradley - the list goes on. Jones is one of the authors who, when I read her work, I'm genuinely blown away by. The incredibly rich bibliography and note section is just another reminder of the scope, scale, and quality of her research and writing. Even more impressive, and perhaps because of her approach, Jones is able to distinguish between members of the same perceived community - Black religious groups don't blend into one monolithic unit, for example, and white Savannahians are accurately reflected as divided on issues of capital and labor.
I do think there are some drawbacks to this approach, however, as trying to track that many people could sometimes be a problem. Certain figures, especially those involved with education, blurred together because of how many people were mentioned and described. They all merit their names being remembered, especially given the historical and contemporary context of memorialization, but as a reader, it could sometimes be a lot. This isn't a failure on the part of the author so much as a reality of the form of writing she takes up. Altogether, it's overwhelmingly worth the trade-off.
Overall, a really great history and a remarkably valuable addition to scholarship on the transition from antebellum, to bellum, to postbellum America. I would recommend this to friends interested in Savannah history, especially Teri, my grandfather, Emma, Stella, and my CWES classmates.
Jones' writing is remarkable for the way that she manages to tell community stories that still seem to capture the individuality of specific historical figures, with well-known and obscure characters feeling integral to the story. In this book, I found myself most interested in the story of James Sims, who appears consistently and who is related to Thomas Sims, who appears in my own student work. Jones places Sims within his historical, cultural, religious, political, and social contexts without losing the things that make him distinct. (As his descendants noted, he would talk about anything, he wasn't diplomatic at all!) However, there are dozens of people that Jones manages to do this for - Mayor Anderson, the Butlers, Sherman, Aaron A. Bradley - the list goes on. Jones is one of the authors who, when I read her work, I'm genuinely blown away by. The incredibly rich bibliography and note section is just another reminder of the scope, scale, and quality of her research and writing. Even more impressive, and perhaps because of her approach, Jones is able to distinguish between members of the same perceived community - Black religious groups don't blend into one monolithic unit, for example, and white Savannahians are accurately reflected as divided on issues of capital and labor.
I do think there are some drawbacks to this approach, however, as trying to track that many people could sometimes be a problem. Certain figures, especially those involved with education, blurred together because of how many people were mentioned and described. They all merit their names being remembered, especially given the historical and contemporary context of memorialization, but as a reader, it could sometimes be a lot. This isn't a failure on the part of the author so much as a reality of the form of writing she takes up. Altogether, it's overwhelmingly worth the trade-off.
Overall, a really great history and a remarkably valuable addition to scholarship on the transition from antebellum, to bellum, to postbellum America. I would recommend this to friends interested in Savannah history, especially Teri, my grandfather, Emma, Stella, and my CWES classmates.
January 20, 2020
My wife and I are taking a trip to Savannah this spring and I wanted to learn a little more about the city beforehand. I thought this book was was fantastic. The writing is very good, the details are interesting and well put together without getting too caught up in the weeds. I also really liked the structure of the book and how it talked about the Savannah in three parts, before, during, and after the Civil War. While I was reading I was strongly impacted by how important the years 1866 - 1872 were. They were such chaotic years with constantly changing conditions, and so much excitement and possibility for African Americans. This book helped me to feel what a crushing disappointment it was as the confederate veterans and other southern racists found new ways to oppress Blacks in the Jim Crow era. The book concluded in an appropriate place, acknowledging the continued struggle within Savannah and the country due to the failure of reconstruction. While some might find it a little slow, I greatly benefitted from this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in Savannah or the reconstruction era.
March 9, 2018
An interesting and detailed, but not overwhelming history of one of the relatively minor settings of the Civil War. The author details the antebellum and postwar history of Savannah, GA. This allows the reader to understand the society and culture of one southern city and the injustices of slavery in America, as well as its economic and cultural dependence in the immoral practice of slavery in America. A very eyeopening history.
March 24, 2025
The best thing about this book is that by focusing on just one place (or actually area as the surrounding islands and other nearby areas also come into play), we can see the real details of what's happening. The nuts and bolts of the struggles between land owners and their former property in coming to grips with the situation after the war. The role of the occupying Union force and what happened when they were removed. How fast the major players from the former Confederacy arose to power again. Efforts by missionaries from the North to educate the populace and the conflicts with the local population. The author attempts to cover what is going on in every level of society, so there is just as much focus on the lower classes as on the higher echelons.
But the struggle you may have in reading this is that many of these topics covered could be a book or extended essay in and of themselves. I found myself having to skim over some areas and pick and choose what I wanted to try and absorb in detail in order to keep going with the book. But this was a very valuable and educational experience for me in comparing the situation immediately before the Civil War and immediately after.
But the struggle you may have in reading this is that many of these topics covered could be a book or extended essay in and of themselves. I found myself having to skim over some areas and pick and choose what I wanted to try and absorb in detail in order to keep going with the book. But this was a very valuable and educational experience for me in comparing the situation immediately before the Civil War and immediately after.
June 9, 2024
Let’s GO I’ve finally finished this book…don’t look at my read dates they don’t matter…
This book was DENSE. Like I mean this is a conglomerate of an insanely maniacal amount of primary sources. I realized very fast that it was way above my pay grade, for real above my level. Nevertheless I persisted and managed to actually finish a nonfiction historical book hallelujah. Sort of mind boggling how much digging and reading and researching is required to make history books possible.
I expected a book about…well the civil war. It’s an event and time period that I used to be sort of unfamiliar with so I figured I’d go for it. That being said, I quickly found that this is just a bunch of EVERYTHING, politics, economics, culture, religion..with a liiittle bit of military stuff. The section of the book actually about the war itself was (praise God) very brief. But this is completely about African American history and point of view, from slavery to emancipation to reconstruction. Honestly cool. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I learned so much and it was great to be immersed so totally in African American history in a way I haven’t been before. The depth and stories of families, civic leaders, activists, working class people, clergymen, freedmen, and slaves has really built for me a strong historical foundation and monumental respect for these people and this time period.
This book was DENSE. Like I mean this is a conglomerate of an insanely maniacal amount of primary sources. I realized very fast that it was way above my pay grade, for real above my level. Nevertheless I persisted and managed to actually finish a nonfiction historical book hallelujah. Sort of mind boggling how much digging and reading and researching is required to make history books possible.
I expected a book about…well the civil war. It’s an event and time period that I used to be sort of unfamiliar with so I figured I’d go for it. That being said, I quickly found that this is just a bunch of EVERYTHING, politics, economics, culture, religion..with a liiittle bit of military stuff. The section of the book actually about the war itself was (praise God) very brief. But this is completely about African American history and point of view, from slavery to emancipation to reconstruction. Honestly cool. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I learned so much and it was great to be immersed so totally in African American history in a way I haven’t been before. The depth and stories of families, civic leaders, activists, working class people, clergymen, freedmen, and slaves has really built for me a strong historical foundation and monumental respect for these people and this time period.
January 27, 2021
This was an excellent history of Savannah in the 19th century. It was not a fast read for me, being so dense, but I really appreciated how nuanced Jones was in her portrayals of men women and children of many variants of class, race, gender. It was heartbreaking to read about the hope and enthusiasm of black people after emancipation and the political expertise with which the white power structure regained control.
February 6, 2023
Well written book that encapsulate current day Savannah with Savannah in the 1800's. It would involves the truth behind the devastating explosion aboard the Pulaski steamboat. The American Titanic as it's been referred to. Total devastation and loss of complete families. The author bridges between past and present flawlessly.
April 15, 2023
As background for my own 3 books in the Healing Savannah trilogy, this book was key. The author's skillful weaving of historical details with individual stories fit perfectly with my own style of spinning tales of time travel as a lens into current affairs. A must read for anyone with a serious interest in understanding modern Savannah.
June 6, 2011
I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever finish this book. I would only recommend this one if you enjoy academic writing. Honestly, I was only able to read a few pages at a time before falling asleep.
As a native Savannahian, I was attracted to the idea of learning a little more history about my hometown. Yes, the book is filled with civil war history, and some of the urban legends I grew up with were debunked, but it was not an easy read.
If you plan to read this on a Kindle (or even in paper format), I suggest writing down the names of characters and organizations as they are introduced. I would have found the book more enjoyable (and less confusing) had I tracked that information.
As a native Savannahian, I was attracted to the idea of learning a little more history about my hometown. Yes, the book is filled with civil war history, and some of the urban legends I grew up with were debunked, but it was not an easy read.
If you plan to read this on a Kindle (or even in paper format), I suggest writing down the names of characters and organizations as they are introduced. I would have found the book more enjoyable (and less confusing) had I tracked that information.
April 21, 2012
I admit it I skimmed the last 40 pages of this book.
I found the parts about life in Savannah very interesting.
The stuff about politics were totally not interesting to me at all.
Those were the pages I skipped.
Who was mayor, who was governor, who was treasurer did not hold me.
I wanted to be into the entire book, I tried and I just couldn't.
I found the parts about life in Savannah very interesting.
The stuff about politics were totally not interesting to me at all.
Those were the pages I skipped.
Who was mayor, who was governor, who was treasurer did not hold me.
I wanted to be into the entire book, I tried and I just couldn't.
March 3, 2011
Possibly the most boring book ever written on any topic. I skimmed most of it after about page 150.
June 21, 2016
Couldn't put this one down. Loved reading about the history of Savannah as far as the people, places, politics, etc. Great book!
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