Since it first appeared in 1956, Mrs. Vanstory's rich narrative of the barrier islands from Ossabaw to Cumberland--and the mainland towns along the way--has become the standard popular history of Georgia's golden coast. Thoroughly revised and with over forty new illustrations, this edition traces the crucial and colorful role these islands have played from the sixteenth century to the twentieth. Home, at one time or another, to the American Indians, the French, the Spanish, and the English; to buccaneers, friars, and priests; to Puritans and Scottish Highlanders; to slave traders, planters, soldiers, statesmen, and millionaires, these islands are as rich in history as they are in natural beauty. Georgia's Land of the Golden Isles now takes the reader through the years from General James Oglethorpe to President Jimmy Carter, unfolding the stories of the lives that have touched, or been touched by, the golden isles of Georgia.

With this collection of essays, Anthony J. Martin invites us to investigate animal and human traces on the Georgia coast and the remarkable stories these traces, both modern and fossil, tell us. Readers will learn how these traces enabled geologists to discover that the remains of ancient barrier islands still exist on the lower coastal plain of Georgia, showing the recession of oceans millions of years ago. First, Martin details a solid but approachable overview of Georgia barrier island ecosystems—maritime forests, salt marshes, dunes, beaches—and how these ecosystems are as much a product of plant and animal behavior as they are of geology. Martin then describes animal tracks, burrows, nests, and other traces and what they tell us about their makers. He also explains how trace fossils can document the behaviors of animals from millions of years ago, including those no longer extant. Next, Martin discusses the relatively scant history—scarcely five thousand years—of humans on the Georgia coast. He takes us from the Native American shell rings on Sapelo Island to the cobbled streets of Savannah paved with the ballast stones of slave ships. He also describes the human introduction of invasive animals to the coast and their effects on native species. Finally, Martin’s epilogue introduces the sobering idea that climate change, with its resultant extreme weather and rising sea levels, is the ultimate human trace affecting the Georgia coast. Here he asks how the traces of the past and present help us to better predict and deal with our uncertain future.

The Golden Isles of Georgia comprise a group of four barrier islands and the mainland port city of Brunswick on the 100-mile-long coast of the U.S. state of Georgia on the Atlantic Ocean. They include St. Simons Island, Sea Island, Jekyll Island, Little St. Simons Island, and Historic Brunswick. Mild winters, together with natural beaches, vast stretches of marshland, maritime forests, historical sites, and abundant wildlife on both land and sea made the Golden Isles popular amongst wealthy southern planters, who built their homes on these islands. Charles Spalding Wylly of Darien, Georgia, spent the last years of his long life in Brunswick. Sharing the fate of the old, he found it almost impossible to get work, though still strong in body and mind. To divert and interest him, his niece, Caroline Couper Lovell, suggested that he write his memoirs; the manuscripts of the first two little books were presented to his niece, with other unpublished data. After Captain Wylly’s death in 1923, as there had been no second edition of these works, it was suggested that Mrs. Lovell should edit them. This she attempted to do, and then decided that it would be better to use the material, add to it, and compile another story. The result is The Golden Isles of Georgia... Beautifully illustrated throughout with portraits of prominent men and beautiful women who lived on these islands, photographs of the old ruins, and pictures of old homes and scenery.

The Golden Isles are home to a long and proud African American and Gullah Geechee heritage. Ibo Landing was the site of a mass suicide in protest of slavery, the slave ship Wanderer landed on Jekyll Island and, thanks to preservation efforts, the Historic Harrington School still stands on St. Simons Island. From the Selden Normal and Industrial Institute to the tabby cabins of Hamilton Plantation, authors Amy Roberts and Patrick Holladay explore the rich history of the region's islands and their people, including such local notables as Deaconess Alexander, Jim Brown, Neptune Small, Hazel Floyd and the Georgia Sea Island Singers.

Recounts the settlement of coastal Georgia, the development of the plantation aristocracy and the dreary days of War and Reconstruction. Chapter treatment given to: Guale, New Inverness, Frederica, The Revolution, Saint Simons Island, Sapelo, The Eden of Georgia, Wreck of the "Pulaski," Broughton: The Rice Island, Fanny Kemble, Hopeton, and Halcyon Days.

"Written in a lively, accessible style by Jingle Davis and lavishly illustrated with photographs by Benjamin Galland, Island Passages is a solid work of public history that presents a carefully researched document of Jekyll Island, Georgia, from its geologic beginning as a shifting sand spit to its present-day ownership by the state of Georgia. While many books have been published about Jekyll, most focus on specific eras or episodes of island history. Davis and Galland's book makes an important contribution to the island's literature because it synthesizes all these aspects into a comprehensive and beautifully executed history"--Provided by publisher.