Early Days on the Georgia Tidewater: The Story of McIntosh County and Sapelo : Being a Documented Narrative Account, With Particular Attention to th

Author Buddy Sullivans “Early Days on the Georgia A New Revised Edition” represents a complete recasting of a book issued under the same title in 1990 and reprinted five times. Sullivan is a prominent coastal Georgia historian and lecturer with nineteen titles to his credit. This new edition of “Early Days” incorporates all the material in the original version in addition to considerable new information based on the authors recent research. Additionally the new “Early Days” has been reformatted to reflect improved chapter sequence and content to provide a smoother more continuous narrative flow than that of the original edition. In essence the revised edition is a completely new book that will be of improved utility to researchers students and the general reader. “Early Days on the Georgia Tidewater” is a comprehensive history of Sapelo Island Darien and McIntosh County Georgia as well as a general overview of the history of coastal Georgia focusing on Glynn Liberty and Bryan counties Savannah and St. Simons and St. Catherines islands. It covers the full scope of coastal Guale Indians Spanish missionaries and early settlement by English colonists; the rice and cotton economy during the plantation era built upon the labors of enslaved people; Civil War events including the controversial burning of Darien; the timber industry and the associated shipping activity that made Darien a leading center for the export of pine lumber for forty years; the emerging commercial oyster and shrimping fisheries; and the impact of millionaires scientists and resident African Americans on the 20th century history of the region especially Sapelo Island. Significantly the new edition of “Early Days” relates the story of the areas African American communities particularly the developing Geechee settlements at Sapelo Harris Neck and Darien in the years from the end of the Civil War through the 20th century. The authors thematic approach is that of establishing the important connection between the ecology of the area with its history. This recurring theme will be apparent throughout the book in an analysis of just how people utilized the environmental circumstances unique to their region and adapted them to virtually every aspect of their lives and livelihood for 300 years. “Early Days” is thus essentially a story of land use and soils tides salt marshes river hydrology weather and how these conditions impacted the agricultural commercial and social development of the region. Of equal significance is the use people have made of the tidal waterways and fresh-water river systems giving the new edition a distinctly maritime flavor. “Early Days on the Georgia Tidewater” is documented through source notes and an expanded index and includes photographs of places and people and localized maps that provide the geographical context necessary for an understanding of the economic maritime and cultural dynamics of the coast.