Charleston and Savannah: The Rise, Fall, and Reinvention of Two Rival Cities by Thomas D. Wilson (review)

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• Charleston and Savannah: The Rise, Fall, and Reinvention of Two Rival Cities by Thomas D. Wilson
• Abel A. Bartley

Charleston and Savannah: The Rise, Fall, and Reinvention of Two Rival Cities. By Thomas D. Wilson. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2023. Pp. xiv, 348. Paper, $39.95, ISBN 978-0-8203-6319-6; cloth, $114.95, ISBN 978-0-8203-6321-9.)

Thomas D. Wilson chronicles the strange relationship between Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, in Charleston and Savannah: The Rise, Fall, and Reinvention of Two Rival Cities. Charleston and Savannah are rival sister cities and were founded by some of England’s most provocative political thinkers. Charleston was influenced by John Locke, whose colonial admirers passionately argued for the natural rights of individuals but sanctioned a rigid slavocracy in Charleston. Built on an urban pattern called the Grand Model, Charleston was located on high ground, with street grids facing the prevailing winds. Its founders also avoided building near extensive wet-lands. It was a contradiction from the beginning: a city dependent on African labor but dedicated to white supremacy. Charleston utilized slavery and rice cultivation to become the richest city in colonial America. Savannah, in contrast, was founded by James Oglethorpe, who envisioned a land built on yeoman farmers working small plots of land.

The two cities influenced colonial American culture and set a tone for southern urbanization. The cities grew up together, with similar cultural, economic, and architectural beginnings. Though having an age difference of less than sixty years, Charleston had a medieval-style urban plan and was wedded to slavery, while Savannah’s design was influenced by the Age of Enlightenment and, initially, more progressive thinking regarding slavery. Savannah, under the influence of Georgia’s trustees, initially rejected slavery and encouraged small-scale agriculture. Eventually, Charlestonians won the day and shaped the politics of what became the South. As a result, slavery spread like a weed through the area below the Mason-Dixon Line.

The book is a very interesting and exhaustive history of these two cities. Wilson merges the cities’ histories into a compelling story of race, politics, and urban development in the South. Wilson, an independent scholar, takes the reader on an intellectual journey, using economic and political arguments to explain the significance of these cities. He argues that Charleston shaped Savannah and had an outsized role in shaping the South. Its devotion to slavery and white supremacy produced a powerful oligarchy, which profoundly impacted the way white southerners saw everything. By relying on a monoculture underwritten by plantation slavery based first on rice and then on cotton cultivation, its leaders fiercely resisted any ideas that challenged the status quo. [End Page 602]

Wilson traces the two coastal cities from British colonialism through the contemporary era as they developed from virulently racist southern cities into racially progressive tourist destinations. Wilson emphasizes several themes, highlighting transatlantic trade, rice, slavery, war, industrialization, racism, and economic decline. To buttress his arguments, Wilson utilizes a variety of charts, graphs, statistics, and demographic information. He vividly describes the landscape, climate, weather, infrastructure, demographics, and architecture. Charleston and Savannah have unique identities, but they share histories that speak to the problematic pasts of southern cities. Wilson traces the highlights and disappointments of both cities, comparing and contrasting Charleston’s celebration of its colonial past with Savannah’s more formal grids and its housing full faced on squares.

This is a well-written, thoroughly researched book that benefits both the professional scholar and the amateur historian. It offers a new innovative track for scholars to understand the South’s history. It gives both urban planners and historians plenty to chew on. It helps readers understand the evolving politics and cultural adjustments in the South today. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how the South has evolved socially, politically, and racially over the past three hundred years.

Abel A. Bartley Clemson University Copyright © 2024 The Southern Historical Association ...