General James Edward Oglethorpe and the 120
travelers of the good ship "Anne" landed on a bluff
high along the Savannah River in February 1733,
Oglethorpe named the Thirteenth and final American
colony Georgia, after England's King George II and
Savannah became its first city. He became the founder of both the
city of Savannah and the state of Georgia.
Oglethorpe laid the city of Savannah out in a
series of grids that allowed for wide open streets
intertwined with shady public squares and parks.
Today, the Historic District is a 2.5 mile walking
district full of bistros, quaint shops, green
squares and grand architecture. General Oglethorpe's
vision of southern hospitality and a genteel way of
life is still alive in the faces of those who call
Savannah home.
The project was both commercial and humanitarian.
Oglethorpe and a group of reformers had become
interested in the plight of England's poor,
especially debtors. The solution of the time,
imprisonment, was harsh and unsatisfactory. To help,
Oglethorpe convinced George II to charter a colony
to a group of trustees. Debtors were to be given
free transportation and lands to farm in the new
colony, named Georgia. The payoff to the crown was
to come in the form of products produced in the
colony and the buffer that Georgia would establish
against the Spanish in Florida.
Oglethorpe established Savannah on a 40 ft bluff
overlooking the river of the same name. He stayed
with the colony for 10 years and established it on a
firm footing.
In
1752 the colony's charter reverted to the crown and
laws were eventually changed to allow slavery. That
allowed for the growing of a rice crop, which
contributed to Savannah's prosperity.
Savannah initially supported the Revolution, but
in December of 1778, the British showed up and held
the city for the rest of the war. That's despite an
unsuccessful siege Patriots mounted in 1779.
In 1793 an important event took place at Mulberry
Grove, a Savannah plantation. Eli Whitney, a teacher
tutoring the family's children, invented the cotton
gin. The machine, which separated cotton fibers from
the seeds, turned cotton into a profitable crop. In
the next century, cotton led the way to Savannah's
rise.
Antebellum Savannah was a prosperous commercial
center exporting cotton, rice, tobacco and naval
stores. Residents even financed the first steam ship
to cross the Atlantic, the S.S. Savannah.
As with most Southern cities, the Civil War is a
dividing line in the history of Savannah. The city's
actual role in the conflict was rather small. In the
spring of 1862, Federal guns on Tybee Island forced
the surrender of Fort Pulaski, effectively closing
the city. That didn't prevent Savannah from being
the subject of the most famous telegram of the war.
On Christmas Eve, 1864, President Lincoln received a
telegram from General Sherman saying "I beg to
present you as a Christmas Gift, the City of
Savannah with 150 heavy guns and plenty of
ammunition; and also about 25,000 bales of Cotton."
Although broke at the end of the war, Savannah
was fortunate not to have suffered destruction. The
local cotton economy rebounded rapidly and the city
experienced several decades of growth.
The 20th century saw American cities moving to
the suburbs. Savannah was no exception as it
abandoned the grid layout and expanded to the south.
Grand old inner city houses
became unfashionable and expensive to maintain. Many
were broken up into apartments. The trend continued
unabated until the 50's, when several close calls
with destruction of landmarks forced local citizens
to act.
The Historic Savannah Foundation was established
to preserve the historic downtown. It took decades
of effort, but they largely succeeded in their task
and now Savannah is widely regarded as a model for
historic preservation.
Visitors will fall in love with Savannah and will
be anxious to tell their friends about our unique
hidden gem of the Southeastern coast. Come and fall
in love with the city's hospitality and savor its
quirky personality. Our city allows to experience
the history, wonder, elegance and mannerisms of the
Old South and the beauty and grace it reveals today.