“Savannah exemplifies the centrality of cities to slave-based economies, and the centrality of slavery to cities. Urban communities such as Savannah incorporated slave labor into their economic, social, and political frameworks, often from the very beginning of their existence.” 

—Leslie M. Harris and Daina Ramey Berry 

The Davenport House and More of Savannah’s Enslaved Past

Built in 1820 by successful businessman and slaveowner Isaiah Davenport, The Davenport House on Columbia Square has survived two-centuries through the ever-changing landscape of Savannah’s history. 

Like few other buildings in Savannah, it tells a more complete tale of the city’s storied history. 

In another important manner, the house marked the beginning of the restoration of Savannah’s Historic District when seven determined women banded together to buy the house in 1955, just as a recking ball was swinging fast and furious in its direction. The Davenport House is the beacon of the restoration movement in Savannah and an important testament to the enormous power of grassroots activism.  

And God knows, I love motivated women driven with spunk, unrivaled determination and pure spitfire! 

Names need be mentioned here out of respect: Lucy Barrow McIntire, Elinor Adler Dillard, Anna Colquitt Hunter, Nola McEvoy Roos, Jane Adair Wright, Dorothy Ripley Roebling, and Katherine Judkins Clark. 

The Davenport House is now a wonderful museum that both visitors and locals need visit. 

Isaiah Davenport was born in New England and moved to Savannah in 1809. His skills were in carpentry and his trade was artisan builder. Soon after he married, tax records show he purchased two slaves and over the next few years bought several more; some of whom he employed in his business. 

At the time of Davenport’s death in 1827, a published inventory of his properties listed nine ‘negroes’ valued at $2150. A later newspaper advertisement listed their names; again, recorded here out of respect: Ned, Davy, Bella, Jack, Jacob, Isaac, Polly, Peggy and Nancy.  

The Davenport House, along with The Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters (Postcard #13), is another example of the largely forgotten world of slavery that existed in and around Savannah. There was the widely known and long reported ‘rural’ slavery on nearby plantations that most people associate with the dark institutional practice of African-slavery; and then there was the ‘urban’ slavery that is increasingly and carefully being unveiled and reexamined throughout Southern cities. 

In Savannah, that story is best told by Leslie M. Harris and Daina Ramel Berry in their expansive 2014 book: Slavery and Freedom in Savannah, from which I have quoted above. 

But you also owe it to yourself to explore The Davenport House and Museum, or at the very least visit its website. There you’ll find posted an excellent study recently written and compiled by Kelly Westfield, a Georgia Southern master’s degree student, who authored The Enslaved Members of the Davenport Household: Geography, Mobility, and Pre-Davenport House Lived Experiences. It is a fascinating read. 

Ms. Westfield consulted deed records, wills, and estate inventories to trace the ownership records of each of the 13-individuals enslaved to serve the Davenports in their home on Columbia Square; she even investigated incarceration records to understand the fate of two slaves who managed to run away.