|
|
| 
|
Landscape of Slavery in Savannah
Like
other Southern cities, slaves built most of the buildings (80 percent, according
to a black
tour guide) that are still standing in the historic
sections of Savannah. Their skilled and unskilled labor grew the plantation
crops and did much of the work that went into building these cities.
Slaves made the bricks that were used to build structures, such as the railroad station, and built the cotton warehouses along the waterfront. The cobbled stones used to build the warehouses were ballast brought by 18th century cargo ships to Savannah. Today, the waterfront houses the largest concentration of tourist bars and restaurants in the city.
Slaves were orginally sold at auction in public places, but gradually Savannah passed laws that required that slaves be sold in markets (the center brick building which became a school for freed blacks during Reconstruction), away from the eyes of the "pure and innocent." About 60 percent of Savannah slaves and about 30 percent of all U.S. slaves were imported through the port of Charleston. Charleston is often referred to as the Ellis Island (in the harbor of New York City) for African-Americans.
Slaves built and worshiped in the First African Baptist Church (founded in 1773; building from 1861), the church with the longest history of slave and free black ministers (the stained glass window is from 1885) in the United States. With the help of anti-slavery whites, like the Quakers, free blacks helped slaves via "the underground railroad" (the diamond-shaped holes in the floor allowed slaves to breathe while hiding under the floor) to northern cities.
"Free persons of color and slaves" were buried in separate cemeteries,
such
as 15-acre South Laurel Cemetery (1852)--which does not even appear
on the official city road map. The white North Laurel Cemetery--which is
labeled on the city map--is separated by a highway from the black
cemetery.
Freed blacks had
tombstones similar to whites, but slaves
were buried in their own section
with tombstones identifying them by only
their first names.
Freed blacks built Victorian cottages. A middle-class black family owned this 1896 house, which is now a museum for black culture and history, on the east side just outside the Historic District, where blacks today represent from 60 to 80 percent of the census population.
Source: Personal tour by Johnnie "JB" Brown for Negro Heritage Trail Tours, Savannah, GA.
|
|
|
|
