Book Review: Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War by Jacqueline Jones

We often see or hear about people who appear to be without conscience. Daily, we read in the news about persons who have criminalized their lives and wonder how they judge themselves human. Of course, the problem begins right there: These misguided destructionists do not consider their acts as evil, as immoral, as against either a natural or divine law. Many of these individuals are labeled criminally insane because “they know not what they do.”

The diligently written but unforgettable book, Saving Savannah: The City and The Civil War, is about a misguided people who criminalized their very existence by brutalizing African-American slaves right here in our own United States where “all men are created equal.” The shackling irony of this immoral “in God we trust” behavior went wasted by a population that covered a huge territory, namely the residents of the counties of Georgia and the immediate environs of Savannah itself.

Believing that black Africans were not truly humans, the superior whites treated them much like they’d treat the horse, the donkey, or the mule used to tend their plantations. Since slave labor was cheap compared to labor in the industrialized North, plantation owners thrived. To ensure ongoing wealth, they taught their children, often by horrendous example, how to keep slaves disenfranchised and in their place.

In 1854, Savannah was dying because of an outbreak of yellow fever. Strangely enough, many blacks seemed immune to the mosquito carrying disease. Author Jacqueline Jones mentions that the very trait which made West African groups highly vulnerable to sickle-cell anemia seemed to protect these peoples from malaria and yellow fever. This noticeable immunity bolstered whites’ belief that blacks were ordained to labor in the South’s scorching, humid, mosquito infested climate.

During the epidemic, both free and enslaved blacks often carried food to infected households. Records in Saving Savannah show that in many instances, they even attended those who could not fend for themselves due to weakness and/or fever. The city of Savannah depreciated. Many stunning homes built by slave labor became unkempt looking. What had been shaded tree lined streets with bountiful flower-filled garden-like squares at two dozen major intersections now became trampled barren eyesores.

Article Author: Regis Schilken

Regis Schilken's stories reflect his search for meaning in a very human but frightening way. Three of his books have been published: The Oculi Incident, The Island Off Stony Point, and a third, You Know When was just recently released. …

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