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Not a legacy from Oglethorpe,
but English nevertheless |
Georgia was founded by an
English Member of Parliament – James Oglethorpe. The
colony of Georgia was intended as a place to relieve the
overcrowded British debtors’ prisons. There was also a
need for a buffer colony between South Carolina and the
Spanish in Florida, and so his proposal was gladly
accepted by the British government. He founded Savannah
in 1733 with 116 carefully selected colonists.
A very far cry from the squalor of an
English debtors’ prison, Savannah is now perhaps one of
the most beautiful cities in America.
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Along the way Savannah was the home of the invention of the
cotton gin by Eli Whitney. It grew into a major port and the
center of the cotton trade. It was spared from destruction
during the civil war, but later declined dramatically as the
cotton trade died down. By the 1950s America’s largest urban
historic district would have been bulldozed if it hadn’t been
for historic preservation.
But now, where once the debtors lived and then shipping and
cotton reigned, shops and restaurants thrive and Savannah has
become a semi theme park. One of the main streets of the
shipping and cotton area is River Street. This is cobblestoned
still with four storied buildings with restaurants and small
shops everywhere – a mixture of old and new. And the streets
near Factor Walk where each level of the four stories is at
street level due to four separate levels of roads built one
above the other. Walking around the historic area is a
remarkable experience in a remarkable city. It’s all very
pedestrian friendly, but even better than a walk perhaps, is
to take a trolley or horse-drawn carriage tour.
Savannah itself is laid out around a series of squares.
This is a legacy from Oglethorpe and his band of debtor
colonists, but it was the basis for a city that regularly
features in the top ten cities of travel polls and attracts
more and more people every year. |
