Saving Savannah
Oct 7, 2008
Saving Savannah, the City and the Civil War
Author: Jacqueline Jones
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Pub. Date: October 2008
ISBN-13: 9781400042937
This is a very in-depth and well researched book about African Americans in Savannah before, during and after the Civil War.
The history - derived from letters, journals, first hand accounts that were recorded and military records - tells the stories of everyone from field hands to lawyers. How they dealt with those times: the struggle to be free men and women, the struggle to eat and survive during the war, the struggle to be considered human beings.
At the same time it describes in great detail living in that time period and what was required to survive and thrive on a daily basis. The book delves into the lives of freed slaves, wondering how to survive on their own; "swamp workers", trying to make food grow in wet mess to feed the family and pay the rent to the white farmer who owns the land; and then it visits the lives of city workers, striving to become an accepted part of commerce in Savannah.
It's a great book with a center section of wonderful photographs that really help you to envision that time in our country's history.
