By Luana M. Graves Sellars
Along Savannah’s River Street you’ll see areas that were specifically built to confine slaves, called a Barracoon or slave castle.
Savannah has a rich Geechee community that needs to be explored. As on one the major slave ports for over 100 years, there are so several sites to absorb the culture and visit. There are several ways that you can experience Historic Savannah, as you travel back in time. One of the few cities that has remained untouched by modernization, just being there sparks your imagination of Savannah in days past. Listed by Conte Naste’s new global magazine Traveler as one of the worlds most amazing places to live, Savannah is definitely worth the trip.
Located on River Street in downtown Savannah, the African American Monument commemorates the contributions of the city’s Black American resident’s, as well as stands as a reminder of Savannah’s role in slavery and the “invisible story of the Trans Atlantic slave trade”.
This is an image of side streets to River Street in the City of Savannah that runs parallel to the Savannah River. The roads are paved with balestones, which are stones that were used in the bowels of ships for balancing cargo and preventing the ships from being top heavy. Savannah was the third largest slave port in the US, with Charleston being the #1. Based on the number of streets filled with balestones in both cities can be directly tied to the significant amount of slave ships that were part of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade.
Whether on a guided walking tour as you meander along the balestone streets, or by bus, the best way to experience Savannah, is on a tour with Sista Pat, a Master Gullah Geechee Storyteller and self proclaimed truth teller. Internationally known as the ‘go to’ tour by celebrities and tourists, Sista Pat, Owner of the Underground Tours of Savannah has been featured on the cover of the August 2021 premiere edition of Traveler Magazine. As your ‘Conductor’ you will be guided on a walking tour and ‘homage journey’ around downtown’s most sacred and historic places that were a part of the Underground Railroad and the path to freedom.
The shared editorial initiative, launching on 1 September (2021), shines a spotlight on 100 locals in 100 countries, asking them what they most love most about where they come from.
Savannah’s Master Geechee Storyteller, Sista Pat from the Underground Tours of Savannah is on the cover.
One of Savannah’s remembered times and places includes the site of the Weeping Time, where in 1859 over two rainy days, Georgia’s largest slave auction sold and forever divided families of 436 men, women and children.
To see more pictures from the Pin Point Museum, click here
One of the last Geechee communities in Georgia
Photo Credit: LMGS
Another great option is spending the day immersed in culture in Pin Point, Georgia, one of the few remaining active Geechcee communities and home of the Pin Point Heritage Musuem. At the museum, you’ll learn how important it was to the Geechee to be able to survive by living off of the sea, by harvesting and shucking oysters for the old A.S. Varn & Son Oyster and Crab Factory.
Other cultural areas with Geechee communities along Georgia’s sea island coastline includes Sapelo’s (Hog Hammond), Cumberland, and St. Simons (Southend, Jewtown, and Harrington) and Jekyll islands, some of which have become popular tourist destinations.
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