The Rise and Fall of America's Most Haunted City: Savannah, Georgia

Savannah, Georgia was supposed to be a utopia. Founded in 1733 by James Oglethorpe as a colony with no slavery, no liquor, and no lawyers, it became one of the wealthiest cotton ports in the antebellum South — and one of the most death-haunted cities in American history. Great fires in 1796 and 1820 leveled its commercial district. Yellow fever epidemics killed thousands, filling Colonial Park Cemetery with mass graves the city eventually paved over and forgot. Sherman's March to the Sea ended here on Christmas 1864, when he spared the historic district and gifted the city to Lincoln — a decision that preserved Savannah's architecture but quietly froze it in time while Atlanta rebuilt into a modern powerhouse. By the 1950s, the grand mansions were rotting, the squares were being demolished for parking lots, and Savannah was erasing itself. Seven women stopped it by saving a single house for $22,500. Then came Jim Williams, the Mercer-Williams House shooting, four murder trials, and a death in the same room as his victim. Then came John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, 216 weeks on the bestseller list, and a tourism explosion that turned Savannah's ghosts into its biggest industry. Today the city draws over 17 million visitors a year — most of them coming to walk among the dead. This is the story of how a city that death kept trying to destroy was ultimately saved by it. Sources: New Georgia Encyclopedia — "Savannah," by Buddy Sullivan (georgiaencyclopedia.org) Georgia Historical Society — "Marker Monday: Old Savannah Cotton Exchange" and "Largest Slave Sale in Georgia History" (georgiahistory.com) Wikipedia — "Great Savannah Fire of 1820" and "1876 Yellow Fever Epidemic," citing Walter J. Fraser's Savannah in the Old South (University of Georgia Press, 2003) Connect Savannah — "Yellow Fever at 200" (connectsavannah.com, June 2020) Georgia Public Broadcasting — "'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' Turns 30," by Benjamin Payne (gpb.org, January 2024) Historic Savannah Foundation — "Our Story" (myhsf.org)