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Walking on the Dead
If you are in the Historic District of Savannah, chances are good that
you're standing or walking on the dead. Many burial grounds are spread under
the city.
The Native Americans who were here when the colonists arrived were members of the
Creek-Choctaw nation and called themselves Guale (pronounced Wally). Like
the Choctaw, they lived in a necropolis, a city of the dead. They buried their
dead above ground in mounds; the higher up the social strata, the higher up the
mound you were buried. The natives lived around these mounds for thousands
of years. Three of the largest burial mounds on the east coast used to be
located up river at Port Wentworth (the Irene mounds).
The second bloodiest battle of the War of Independence was fought in Savannah, the
Siege and Battle of Savannah. It was a British victory which is why most people
have never heard of the battle. On October 9, 1779, in less than an hour,
1150 men died. It was a massacre by today's standards; only 150 British were
killed, over 1,000 allies were killed.
At the corner of Bull and York Streets at Wright Square, affixed to the wall of
one of the storefronts is a cast iron plaque. It explains that the entire
block (bounded by Bull, York, Whitaker and Oglethorpe) was the city's first burial
ground. Under these buildings and sidewalks and extending out under the Federal
building are the remains of the first colonists. (Yes, they are still down
there) This was the Christian burial
ground, and it filled up fast with fever victims. The settlement needed a
new burial area so they incorporated the old Christ Church Cemetery, and enlarged
it three times. That became Colonial Park Cemetery.
The first Jewish cemetery was located at Bull and South Broad (now Oglethorpe Ave.)
and a granite marker in the west median explains that fact. There are just
sixteen names, a fraction of the names of the people interred there.
The original colonists landed in February of 1733, but by July of that year 35 of
the 114 colonists were dead and in the burial ground. That same month a boatload
of Portuguese Jews landed. Luckily for the colonists, Dr. Samuel Nunez, one
of the most educated physicians of the day, stepped ashore. He was immediately
put to work by Oglethorpe to stem the tide of deaths.
Much of the Historic Downtown area was built on and over graves. It is said
that none of the graves were moved or disturbed so as not to expose any one to the
yellow fever that killed so many. |
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