Georgia Stories Video

Just a short ferry boat ride away from the Georgia coast lies Hog Hammock, an African American community on Sapelo Island with cultural traditions that tie it to Africa. Slaves came to Georgia bringing nothing more than memories from their African homeland. Cornelia Bailey, a descendant of slaves who worked the plantations on Sapelo, imagines the terrible sadness her ancestors felt knowing they were so far away from home with no way to return. She believes some died from broken hearts, while others found relief imagining they could turn into sea birds and fly back across the ocean. Today the residents of Hog Hammock are recognized for the African culture they continue. Yvonne Grovner and her son make baskets, a skill passed along from Allen Green who has been making them for more than 70 years. The Sea Island Singers demonstrate African-style singing and movements such as body slapping, hand clapping, and buck dancing. These movements replaced drums that were forbidden for use by slaves. Stanley Walker is a cast net maker, demonstrating how to cast a net that makes a perfect circle in the water. As he uses the cast net to fish, he wonders if his counterpart in Sierra Leone is catching enough fish for his dinner as well.

Within the context of a bar mitzvah, Rabbi R.A. Belzer tells the story of the arrival of Georgia’s first Jewish settlers. Colonial America’s reputation as a haven for those seeking religious freedom is a well-known historical fact. The city of Savannah can boast that it is the home of Congregation Mickve Israel, Georgia’s oldest Jewish congregation and the third oldest in the country. For centuries Jews had been persecuted and forced to hide their beliefs because openly practicing their religion could result in torture and death. In the early 1700s, a small group of Jews living in Portugal sailed for England and then Georgia. Just three months after Oglethorpe and the first colonists arrived in Georgia there was a malaria outbreak, and this second group of colonists made a very timely arrival. In the midst of these Jewish settlers was Dr. Samuel Nunez, a physician knowledgeable in the treatment of infectious diseases. Oglethorpe called Nunez Georgia’s first hero because of the many lives he saved

Look around and you will see people from many different countries studying, living, and working in Georgia. Today’s cultural diversity mirrors the Georgia colony in the early 1700s. One group of colonists from Scotland put down deep roots along the Georgia coast that are in evidence today. Arriving from the highlands of Scotland, this group of settlers came to help defend Georgia from Spanish invaders and to make a new home for themselves. As reenactors explain, the fierce Scottish warriors shared many characteristics with the Native Americans they encountered. Their dress was similar and they had a strong connection to the land. As a reenactor portrays Margaret McIntosh, wife of the Scots’ leader, she makes it clear that Scottish women were strong too and knew how to defend themselves, skills that were critical when the men were away fighting

Pirates! The very word brings shivers to those who sail the seas. Popular movies romanticize their deeds, but to Georgia colonists in the mid-18th century, their exploits were to be feared rather than admired. Georgia’s coast and coastal islands were havens where pirates could hide. Blackbeard Island off the Georgia coast from McIntosh County is named for none other than Edward Teach, the fearsome pirate who sailed the along the coast. David Gurnsey of the Ships of The Sea Maritime Museum in Savannah answers many questions about pirates

Do you know any funny stories to tell about your relatives or even yourself? If you do, you know one way that culture and traditions are passed through generations. Learning stories about our past tells us where we came from and it gives us roots. Cherokee John Standingdeer describes how his family was named and why knowing it mattered to him. He explains how Native Americans were self sufficient and lived off the land prior to the arrival of Europeans. Two events robbed the Indians of their culture: the introduction of diseases such as smallpox, measles, and influenza that wiped out an estimated 80 percent of the native population and a growing dependency on the white man’s steel tools and weapons. With so many people dying, the cultural memory of Georgia’s Native Americans was lost. As Indians adopted the white man’s way their culture eroded further. Danny Arch explains how the Cherokees’ changing relationship with the deer reflected this cultural transition

What happens when a primitive society is overrun by a more advanced one? The travels of Hernando de Soto through Georgia and the Southeast are a good illustration of the havoc created especially when a quest for gold is mixed in. Hernando de Soto and his men, already rich from fighting with the Incas in South America, arrived in La Florida searching for gold. Jerald Milanich, an archaeologist at the University of Florida explains the conquistadors’ success. Under de Soto’s leadership, the Spaniards came to North America with armored horses and attack dogs and never looked back. They intimidated and killed the Indians they encountered, either in battle or through the spread of deadly diseases that nearly decimated the native population. Journals written by several of de Soto’s men remain an important legacy of the encounter. Recorded in them are the names of people and places and stories of the native culture that de Soto nearly destroyed

This segment examines typical wildlife found in the swamp and covers the history of people who lived in the swamp. Don Berryhill, science specialist with the Okefenokee Regional Education Service Agency guides students in a canoe through the swamp and points out alligators, snakes, and insect-eating pitcher plants explaining their places in the food chain. Georgia is home to one of the largest freshwater wetlands in the country and it has a very specialized ecosystem. Bill Cribbs, a descendant of a subsistence farmer who came to Billy’s Island in the Okfenokee in the late 1800s and park ranger Pete Griffin describe life in the swamp when people worked at the Hebard Lumber Company cutting cypress trees. Following in the footsteps of the first human inhabitants of the swamp: the prehistoric Indian cultures, Timucans, Creeks, and finally the Seminoles, members of the logging community lived in the swamp until 1936 when the federal government bought it and established it as a national refuge. Like any mysterious place, legends abound, and Cribbs and Griffin have a few stories to tell

Follow a visit under a mountain led by Allen Padgett from the Department of Natural Resources. Padgett leads a group of students into a cave in Cloudland Canyon in the Appalachian Plateau of northwest Georgia. Along the way he describes how caves and valleys in north Georgia were formed by the forces of nature lifting up massive rocks to create mountains with pockets underneath. Acidic rain dripping through cracks continues the process of hollowing out the earth leaving Georgia with nearly 350 caves. In a trip back through time, the group encounters bats, a cold underground mountain stream, and stalactites and stalagmites as they walk on what once was the bottom of an ocean.

In any story, the stage must first be set. Georgia’s story begins showing how its geography was shaped and molded by the forces of nature. Sweeping scenes show off the geographic variety of the state east to west and north to south, from the ocean to the mountains, the swamp to the rivers, and all of the wildlife in between. The stark contrast of the sandy soils of south Georgia to the granite outcroppings of north Georgia are explained with a visit to Macon’s Museum of Arts and Sciences and the home of the giant whale fossil Zygorhiza known as “Ziggy.” Fossils like this one aid in understanding the formation of the state