"This narrative tells the story of Savannah from the hopeful arrival of its first permanent English settlers in 1733 to the uncertainties faced by its Civil War survivors in 1865. Alongside the many women and men of European, African, and Native American heritage who helped shape Savannah's first century and a half, Walter J. Fraser Jr. also shows how war, disease, market forces, fire, and other circumstances left their marks on the city and its people.".

"More than any previous history of the city, Savannah in the Old South shows how whites and blacks, bondpeople and free men and women often interacted in ways that smoothed away the rough edges of racism. From Savannah's physical layout to its cosmopolitan culture, from its social services network to its racially diverse poor neighborhoods, the city offered blacks and whites opportunities for daily contact that did not exist in the surrounding rural areas."--BOOK JACKET.