About the Author

Jacqueline Jones teaches American history at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of several books, including, most recently, A Dreadful Deceit: The Myth of Race from the Colonial Era to Obama’s America. Among her numerous awards are the Taft Prize, the Brown Memorial Prize, the Spruill Prize, the Bancroft Prize (for Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow), and, in l999, a MacArthur Fellowship. Saving Savannah won the Georgia Historical Society’s 2009 Malcolm Bell, Jr. and Muriel Barrow Bell Award.

Reviews

“A meticulous re-creation of the Civil War in Georgia’s rice kingdom. . . . Jones traces this tragic story with thoroughness and sophistication.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“An intimate look at a city battered by the tides of history. . . . Few historians have been able to offer such a comprehensive account of how the men and women of a single city could survive such stormy waters.”
—The Atlanta Journal Constitution

“A history rich in social detail and written with deep insight. . . . [The] story of how Savannah and the South was lost to a century of repression and segregation.”
—The Boston Globe

“A compelling social and political history. . . . Jones introduces the voices of numerous slaves, citizens and soldiers as she explores a trove of original sources to create a people’s history of emancipation and the vast social changes it wrought. . . . The guiding insight of Jones’s work is an appreciation of how fully the various stories of the disinherited inform the American narrative.”
—Washington Post Book World

“An important book. . . . Jones tells this story with humanity and precision, giving us a finely wrought, multidimensional portrait of a vanished civilization.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Excellent. . . . Jones covers every conceivable story in her volume. . . .[Saving Savannah] should be on the bookshelf of every student of the Civil War South.”
—Civil War News

“Jones draws on diaries, letters, newspapers, and military records to paint a compelling portrait of antebellum, wartime, and postwar Savannah.”
—National Geographic Traveler

“Captures a complex, fascinating society in stunning period detail.”
—Atlanta Magazine

“Full of complex characters. . . . Jones charges a familiar abstraction—the failures of Reconstruction—with specific, dramatic life.”
—Garden & Gun

“A profound examination. . . . Stands out from many that carry the label of Civil War–era studies. . . . A wondrous work that doesn’t just dip its toe into the . . . humanity of antebellum and postbellum Southerners of both races. It takes you there, and makes it seem more than worth your time.”
—The Anniston Star

“A sweeping history of Savannah (and environs) before, during, and after the war, with an emphasis on race relations and the black struggle for freedom.”
—Providence Journal

“A detailed, compelling portrait of Georgia’s port city from the decade that preceded the Civil War to the decade that followed it. . . . [A] dramatic panorama of everyday life in Savannah.”
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Well-written and well-researched. . . . Its real contribution is chronicling the progress and setbacks of Savannah’s slaves.”
—Civil War Book Review

“Moving and meaningful. . . . In this superb study, Jacqueline Jones mobilizes a remarkable cast of characters—black and white, rich and poor, men and women, military and civilian, insider and outsider—to provide a much bigger, richer, and more compelling saga than any we’ve seen before.”
—John C. Inscoe, editor, The New Georgia Encyclopedia

“Penetrating. . . . Jones combines comprehensive research and evocative prose in this study of a Southern city where complex rules of social and economic hierarchy blurred the lines between slavery and freedom well before the Civil War.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Magnificent in its scope, marvelous in its detail, moving in its telling, Saving Savannah is the art of history at its finest. It is a remarkable, wholly compelling study, one with which historians of the American Civil War simply must engage.”
—Mark M. Smith, author of How Race Is Made: Slavery, Segregation, and the Senses

MacArthur fellow and Bancroft Prize-winning historian Jones (Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow) combines comprehensive research and evocative prose in this study of a Southern city where complex rules of social and economic hierarchy blurred the lines between slavery and freedom well before the Civil War. The prosperous city and labor-intensive rice plantations depended as much on white workers, who tended to be fractious, as on black slaves. At the same time, some blacks, free before the war or emancipated by it, were determined to live on their own terms, economically, socially and, after 1865, politically. But the Civil War brought Northerners into the mix--soldiers, teachers, missionaries, businessmen--motivated by varying combinations of morality and enterprise. After the war, they colluded with Southern whites to keep blacks from attaining full self-determination through conflicts waged in streets and courtrooms, churches and schools and workplaces. Violence and chicanery sustained traditional forms of power, though that power now came through the ballot box and the jury box. With penetrating understanding Jones describes and analyzes the complex processes that impoverished black society but never succeeded in destroying it. 16 pages of photos, 5 maps. (Oct. 9) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

"A meticulous re-creation of the Civil War in Georgia's rice kingdom. . . . Jones traces this tragic story with thoroughness and sophistication."
-The New York Times Book Review

"An intimate look at a city battered by the tides of history. . . . Few historians have been able to offer such a comprehensive account of how the men and women of a single city could survive such stormy waters."
-The Atlanta Journal Constitution

"A history rich in social detail and written with deep insight. . . . [The] story of how Savannah and the South was lost to a century of repression and segregation."
-The Boston Globe

"A compelling social and political history. . . . Jones introduces the voices of numerous slaves, citizens and soldiers as she explores a trove of original sources to create a people's history of emancipation and the vast social changes it wrought. . . . The guiding insight of Jones's work is an appreciation of how fully the various stories of the disinherited inform the American narrative."
-Washington Post Book World

"An important book. . . . Jones tells this story with humanity and precision, giving us a finely wrought, multidimensional portrait of a vanished civilization."
-Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Excellent. . . . Jones covers every conceivable story in her volume. . . .[Saving Savannah] should be on the bookshelf of every student of the Civil War South."
-Civil War News

"Jones draws on diaries, letters, newspapers, and military records to paint a compelling portrait of antebellum, wartime, and postwar Savannah."
-National Geographic Traveler

"Captures a complex, fascinating society in stunning period detail."
-Atlanta Magazine

"Full of complex characters. . . . Jones charges a familiar abstraction-the failures of Reconstruction-with specific, dramatic life."
-Garden & Gun

"A profound examination. . . . Stands out from many that carry the label of Civil War-era studies. . . . A wondrous work that doesn't just dip its toe into the . . . humanity of antebellum and postbellum Southerners of both races. It takes you there, and makes it seem more than worth your time."
-The Anniston Star

"A sweeping history of Savannah (and environs) before, during, and after the war, with an emphasis on race relations and the black struggle for freedom."
-Providence Journal

"A detailed, compelling portrait of Georgia's port city from the decade that preceded the Civil War to the decade that followed it. . . . [A] dramatic panorama of everyday life in Savannah."
-The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Well-written and well-researched. . . . Its real contribution is chronicling the progress and setbacks of Savannah's slaves."
-Civil War Book Review

"Moving and meaningful. . . . In this superb study, Jacqueline Jones mobilizes a remarkable cast of characters-black and white, rich and poor, men and women, military and civilian, insider and outsider-to provide a much bigger, richer, and more compelling saga than any we've seen before."
-John C. Inscoe, editor, The New Georgia Encyclopedia

"Penetrating. . . . Jones combines comprehensive research and evocative prose in this study of a Southern city where complex rules of social and economic hierarchy blurred the lines between slavery and freedom well before the Civil War."
-Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Magnificent in its scope, marvelous in its detail, moving in its telling, Saving Savannah is the art of history at its finest. It is a remarkable, wholly compelling study, one with which historians of the American Civil War simply must engage."
-Mark M. Smith, author of How Race Is Made: Slavery, Segregation, and the Senses