Savannah, Georgia. The physical embodiment of Southern charm. Its mystique of manners and decorum are demurred by the telltale Spanish moss. Its polite gentility pushes its funky and eccentric underbelly down out of site. But it’s the places and stories swept under the city’s rug that I seek. Ok, maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but I’m working with a theme here.
Bonaventure is not underground in the way of requiring a secret password, nor is it hidden below ground. But I sure hope its residents are tucked deep down into the earth. The site is famous on its own, but many people know it from “The Book” and film, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, during my last trip to Savannah.
The gray skies and light rain hanging in the sky added to the mystery of the cemetery’s 160 acres. It is divided into sections like a mini-city divided into neighborhoods with small roads making all corners of the site accessible. A burial was in progress in Section K, while tours tiptoed through the paths and trails to visit the famous and not-so-famous interred in Sections M and N.
My travel buddy and I found the resting place of Johnny Mercer, the man of 1,000 songs. The Bird Girl statue, Little Wendy, featured on The Book’s cover no longer resides in Bonaventure. The family moved her to Telfair Academy (museum) for her protection and to maintain the integrity of the family’s plot. Jim Williams and Danny Hansford from The Book do not rest here.
The biggest draw of the cemetery, though, is Bonaventure itself and its Southern Gothic appeal. The Spanish moss drapes over the plots and Victorian headstones. Rocks left on headstones tell others that someone has visited there. Fog hugs the trees like a cozy blanket for the dearly departed. The peace and calm of the grounds combined with the stillness of the statues make for an eerily beautiful final resting place. One that’s also rumored to be haunted.
Underground Tours is underground in the way of presenting knowledge that has been buried or swept away from public knowledge and the standard city tours. In other words, Underground Tours of Savannah spills hot tea1 on the City of Savannah and its place in the slave trade. And there is so much hot tea that I almost don’t know where to begin sipping.
Sistah Patt is the guide and truth-teller, or tea spiller, of the tour. She brings Gullah Geechee2 flavor to her stories and explanations, which adds authenticity to the tales that she regales listeners with. She is a believer in ‘good trouble’ and pushes Savannah to own and be open about its place in slavery’s history.
She begins the tour at the African American Monument along the River Street waterfront. There, she tells the history behind the statue, which includes the reason that Dr. Maya Angelou’s poem almost wasn’t included on it, and the changes that she and her Center for Jubilee are bringing to this corner of the riverfront such as African flowers to accent the area and a permanent mailbox to receive historical reports and letters from the public about slavery.
The tour then moves to other points along the waterfront that had a role or significance in Savannah’s slave trade. One stop included the stones and bricks that we walked over as we moved up Factors Walk. The stones are the original ballast stones from the slave ships, confirmed by geologists’ examination. Some of the bricks are grave markers from the greater region’s plantations. Underneath the stones and bricks are the remnants of the tunnels from the Underground Railroad linking the First African Baptist Church to the river. Plans are in the works to open the underground tunnel by 2026.
Further up Factors Walk are what we might call holding rooms, but the signage claims are part of a retaining wall to hold back the Savannah River if it floods – a retaining wall with windows and doors. Sistah Patt walked us through the slave purchase process which casts doubt on the stated purpose of these rooms: Offloading of the enslaved shipped over from Tybee Island was on the first of the month, but the sale wasn’t until the 10th. The people had to be held somewhere and these rooms were between the river and the square where the sale took place. These rooms are likely the holding place.
Here, Sistah Patt’s co-founder, Sistah Roz, a slavery enactor, relived the pain of a mother being separated from her children through sale. Her reenactment skills are so flawless, her feelings so raw that Sistah Roz will be cast in the film version of Anne C. Bailey’s, The Weeping Time, maybe helmed by a certain film Steven of renown.
The final stop of the tour is Johnson Square where enslaved people were sold on the platform of what is now a commemorative statue. Under the canopy of the 350-year-old Live Oaks, Sistah Patt reminded us that these trees were witness to the ills that took place in this square, so she calls them Witness trees instead of Live Oaks.
The light rains returned as we stood protected by the Witness trees. Apropos since 165 years ago to the day was the Weeping Time, when on Mar. 2 and 3, 1859, slave owner Pierce Mease Butler held the largest auction of enslaved people in U.S. history to pay off his gambling debts. An event so tragic and sorrowful that it’s said that God opened the heavens and rained down tears weeping at all of the inhumanity.
Sistah Patt ended the tour on a positive note roughly saying that all people of all hues should not bear the responsibility for the horrible deeds of the slave trade. Know the history, recognize and honor the people and the history, and move forward together into healing.
Donations to Sistah Patt’s forms of ‘good trouble’ in the way of marking and promoting the history of Savannah’s enslaved can be made through The Center for Jubilee, Reconciliation & Healing
Gullah Geechee term meaning “gossip”, but without actually gossiping. “Hot tea” is just telling what “people are saying.” Gullah Geechee language is a unique, creole language spoken in the coastal areas of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida: https://gullahgeecheecorridor.org/thegullahgeechee/. Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission.
Gullah Geechee people “are descendants of Africans who were enslaved on the rice, indigo, and Sea Island cotton plantations of the lower Atlantic coast.” Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission: https://gullahgeecheecorridor.org/thegullahgeechee/. “Many showing genetic admixtures from Central West Africa, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Bights of Benin & Biafra.” Telfair Museums: https://www.telfair.org/article/who-are-the-gullah-geechee/. “The nature of their enslavement on isolated island and coastal plantations created a unique culture with deep African retentions that are clearly visible in the Gullah Geechee culture.” https://gullahgeecheecorridor.org/thegullahgeechee/ Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission.