We hired a car in Atlanta and the first thing we had to find out was how to start it! We are not used to brand new, keyless cars. After the first few miles, Roland got the hang of it and we drove through pine woods to Athens, a very attractive university town.
This is very typical of university campuses. It's basically greek temples, with shady lawns, a pretty good combination.
Athens was a cotton town. It used to be known as the Manchester of the south. It also later became one of the places where there was rioting over desegregation. In 1961 two black students were enrolled in the college here and caused quite a stir. Some of the letters on display are unbelievable talking about dangerous experiments in social engineering and removing children from the college. It's really not that long ago and reminds me that when I was in high school in Virginia in 1969, it was the first non segregated class to metriculate.
We stayed with an old school friend of Roland's, whom he hadn't seen since then!!! He and his wife were very welcoming and had a lovely old house filled with books and lots of artistic creations. Lots to look at, so we felt very at home. It was a good first impression of Georgia.
We next drove to Gray, which is just outside the small university town of Miledgeville. We are staying with the head of history and his wife in a very typical american suburb of affluent houses, set amongst pine trees.
They do know how to build houses here. They are well designed and very comfortable. Having so much space helps.
Our hosts are incredibly welcoming and charming and we immediately feel at home. Sarah becomes our personal guide for the next day and we have private tours of the old capital museum and governors house. There are students on hand to help us everywhere. Milledgeville is the old capital of Georgia and was so during the civil war. It's wealth was also based on cotton and slaves. In 1828 it's population consisted of 789 free whites, 27 free blacks and 783 slaves! Sherman ransacked the place and the capital was moved to Atlanta.
We visit the home of the famous american gothic author- Flannery O'Connor. I'd never heard of her of course, but quite by chance I had given a selection of her short stories to Roland just before we came, thinking they sounded quite interesting. He of course didn't read them and left them behind.
She lived just outside the town, on a farm with this fantastic, old Georgian barn.
The old town of Clinton is nearby, where a Civil War battle took place. There are some lovely old houses, but a lot of it is falling into disrepair.
Roland's paper was a success. A good, mixed audience of faculty, students and town people. We were sad to leave.
Next is Savannah and words do not really do this place justice. Neither do my photos, of which I took rather too many. Savannah is just how you imagine the South to be. Beautiful old houses built around squares filled with huge trees with hanging moss. The trees are Giant Southern Magnolias and Live Oaks, so called because they don't lose their leaves and the moss is spanish and hangs down like draped cobwebs in a silvery grey. It is elegant and gracious and you immediately like the place. It is exactly how I would lay out a city. The temperature is rising all the time and it is now in the mid 70's.
There are a lot of monuments relating to the War of Independence and the Civil War. We are very much in Confederate terroir! It makes me realise my knowledge of both is inadequate to non existent.
Every house and monument is worth a photo and it's difficult to stop. There is so much here and the historic centre is largely unspoilt by modern infill.
I had to take this for Roland. This man was involved with the first railways here.
The graveyard is very atmospheric. The hanging ferns add to the feel of the place.
I like a good graveyard and they are very good here.
We had our evening meal here. The restaurant was furnished as if it was still a private house with pictures and furniture to match.
The food was pretty good too. The cooking down south is robust and spicy. Lots of sea food, never plain, always with a sauce or in a coating of some kind. Lots of vegetables- black eyed beans, okra and collared greens. I have even succumbed to the charms of grits they way they do it here. They flavour it!
So it's hearty not haute cuisine, but very tasty. The couple next to us held hands over the bread basket and prayed before they eat. Rather touching and not something you see very often. He also fondled the rather substantial rolls of fat round her waist- affectionately.
The land drops from the town to the river, which is still lined by nineteenth century warehouses, now done up for the tourist trade.
This is the very important cotton exchange just above the docks.
We loved the place. It was on a very walkable scale. I could imagine living here easily.
On to South Carolina and the equally seductive charms of Charleston.
This is the heartland of the Confederacy and the very right wing conservatives of todays Republicans. It was a South Carolina congressman, who stood up during Obama's inaugural address and shouted 'liar'! Gives you some idea.
The young, democrat professor hosting us was obviously very embarrassed by being in this republican stronghold. The talking point at the moment is the commemorating of the start of the civil war 150 years ago. The event that seems to have brought the controversy to a head here was the Secession ball, held to celebrate South Carolina's withdrawal from the Union. Protestors claim it was celebrating slavery. This issue is very much alive down here. In Virginia, the Governor proclaimed april Confederate history month, but forgot to mention slavery. The Governor of Mississippi said the omission 'doesn't matter for diddly'. Down there they are trying to issue a license plate celebrating a Confederate general called Forrest, well known for trading slaves and probably responsible for killing hundreds of black, Union POW's. He later became the first national leader of the Klu Klux Klan. Apparently for some, Lee was seen as too conciliatory and a wimp! Ah, southern politics, is alive and well and there aint nothin quite like it.
All our hosts down here say racism is very much a live issue down here. Miledgeville is basically a white flight university. Kids from the middle class suburbs of Atlanta avoiding the mixed colleges in town.
Having said all that, as a mere observer and tourist, racism is not apparent. I think you would have to live here for while to judge.
Back to Charleston. We are staying in a university guest house in the middle of the historic district down town. This is also where the university is located.
This is where we are staying.
We are on the first floor overlooking the president's garden, with a balcony or as they call them here a piazza! complete with rocking chairs. How southern can you get.
This is the Philosophy department.
The place is full of beautiful churches in different styles.
Just about every religion you could think of is represented here.
In the commercial centre there are lots of independent, small shops. There is money here judging by what they sell.
A lot of the houses have small street fronts but are very deep, with their piazzas down the side, providing shady outside living.
The front door leads onto the piazza.
Charleston was where the civil war began, at Fort Sumpter, which is at the entrance to the harbour. This was the centre of the slave and cotton trades and was the commercial and cultural centre of the area. The mix of people included a lot of europeans, english, jews and free blacks as well as slaves. It has quite a different feel to it, there are palm trees and the houses are shuttered. It has a more commercial air to it.
The Civil War did for it, but in a way saved it. It was occupied, burnt and the economy slumped. It had an earthquake in 1886 and was ignored for a long time. No money to do it up or knock it down. It's only since the second world war that things began to improve. The Charleston Preservation Society was the first of it's kind in the country and they have done a brilliant job. Tourism is now bringing in the money. The university is thriving, the naval port and docks are expanding and house prices are still high. This is a success story. This seems largely due to a number of far sighted and determined mayors.
The area where the town originally started has some of the largest and oldest houses.
These ones face out to sea.
Charleston is also full of lovely graveyards and interesting monuments. The narcissus are out as well as cherry blossom, magnolias and camelia. We are a bit too early for a lot of the flowers.
They are pretty much all about the heroic efforts of the Confederacy. There is no doubt about whose side this town was on!
Well it was in the 80's by the time we left and we sad to go. I liked everything we saw and thought the towns were places you could live and enjoy yourself. I'm sure the politics would begin to intrude after a while, but I think I could cope. I don't think it's that different to this part of America. This is also a Republican stronghold. Yup, we were were seduced by the South.
I thought I should mention the middle east, just to show that we are aware of what is happening. The coverage on CNN has been excellent and in the papers. CNN had to apologise to it's viewers for having so much about the middle east on, when apparently they should have been having domestic news on!!!
I hope they all rise up and revolt. 2011 may be known as the year of revolution!
