Critical Point 2:
The Civil War and the Reconstruction Period (1865-1877):
Although, important is the way the city grew by expansion of replication of the Oglethorpe layout between the American Revolution (1775-83) and the Civil War (1861-65), nothing much significant happened that actually remodeled the face of Savannah until the “War Between the States” was declared. During the Revolutionary War and few years after Savannah as a city was in a stand still until the invention of the Whitney’s cotton gin which boosted its economy and increased transportation facilities following the War of 1812 produced a steady growth in every line of the city’s commerce and industry and the city grew in population. However, during the Civil War Savannah suffered from Union navy’s coastal blockade. It was captured by General William T. Sherman in 1864 after the citizens surrendered rather than risk total destruction of Savannah. The surrender saved Savannah from the fate of total destruction as was written in the fate of Atlanta but the capture brought on widespread destruction marking the most difficult phase in the history of the city’s evolution.
After the war was over, the city people found themselves in a ruined world of no slavery, wasted plantation, closed banks and dead commerce and industry. The prosperity of Savannah post-Revolutionary war depended primarily on vast plantation system which brought wealth and culture to this Southern city. The owners of the vast plantations slowly left their native places and moved towards the town and started earning on small businesses. The cessation in plantation turned Savannah’s once affluent metropolitan region into small recuperating community struggling for existence. Despite all these downfalls, the devastation of the war generated added burden of prejudice among the freed slaves who remained in Savannah and built a thriving community, with its own churches, schools and economic strength. It totally changed the socio-economic chemistry of Savannah and helped it become one of the most historically significant African-American cities in the nation. This turn in Savannah’s advancement reestablished Savannah’s key economy of cotton along with new thriving industries of resin and lumber. This episode not only proved Savannah’s strong social, economic and cultural foundation but also led the city towards the era, often regarded as the renaissance of Savannah.
After the war was over, the city people found themselves in a ruined world of no slavery, wasted plantation, closed banks and dead commerce and industry. The prosperity of Savannah post-Revolutionary war depended primarily on vast plantation system which brought wealth and culture to this Southern city. The owners of the vast plantations slowly left their native places and moved towards the town and started earning on small businesses. The cessation in plantation turned Savannah’s once affluent metropolitan region into small recuperating community struggling for existence. Despite all these downfalls, the devastation of the war generated added burden of prejudice among the freed slaves who remained in Savannah and built a thriving community, with its own churches, schools and economic strength. It totally changed the socio-economic chemistry of Savannah and helped it become one of the most historically significant African-American cities in the nation. This turn in Savannah’s advancement reestablished Savannah’s key economy of cotton along with new thriving industries of resin and lumber. This episode not only proved Savannah’s strong social, economic and cultural foundation but also led the city towards the era, often regarded as the renaissance of Savannah.