History

In 1853 four acres were set aside at Laurel Grove Cemetery for African American burials, and many graves were moved from the earlier cemetery. In 1857, an additional 11 acres were reserved, and in 1859 the city council increased the size of Laurel Grove South to 30 acres and built a caretaker’s house.

The earlier cemetery, which is labeled “Negro Ground” in the map of 1818, lay well beyond the southern edge of the city, and  was reflective of the closeness of earlier generations to their African roots with the tradition of placing on the graves objects the deceased had used during their lifetime. Laurel Grove South Cemetery with its vaults and tombstones in the European manner reflects the waning of traditional African custom and the acceptance of the dominant Euro-American conventions of vaults and tombstones. However, earlier African traditions are still retained to some degree in small towns and in rural areas in parts of the Deep South. Some of the bodies in the earlier cemetery were removed to Laurel Grove South. The custom of using wood markers means that they soon deteriorated and eventually disintegrated. Therefore many graves would no longer be marked.

The first major movement to preserve the history of Laurel Grove South was in 1931, when the cemetery was cleaned up. In 1958, after prominent black Savannahians again mobilized to preserve Laurel Grove, the Savannah Sugar Refinery presented wrought iron gates to the city for the cemetery, and the city itself spent $3000 to clean and renovate the site.

According to Charles Elmore, in the early 1970’s, W.W. Law “almost singlehandedly led the movement to improve Laurel Grove Cemetery South, and identified historically significant grave sites which led to the City of Savannah maintaining this venerable cemetery in a dignified manner by providing street names and markers to make it easy for citizens and historians to identify various burial places.”

 Despite these efforts, time and weather are taking their toll on the headstones, ironwork, and brick.

Source:  Charles Elmore, Laurel Grove Cemetery
 

In his memoir Recollections of a Long and Satisfactory Life (1934), William Harden, a white Savannahian, recalls two early cemeteries, one a Potter’s Field and the other for black burials:

The Potter’s Field was the one farther north and extended from Taylor street as far south as the lot on which the Massie School was built. The negro cemetery began a little farther south of that, extending as far as Huntingdon street. There were no streets laid out in that section of the city then, and houses were not built there until later. Even as late as 1851 I used to go through these burial grounds with my bow and arrow shooting sparrows and other small birds. I do not recall if I ever saw a tombstone in either of these cemeteries, but the grave mounds were numerous, those of the negroes being plainly indicated by the ornaments laid upon them, such as are always found on graves of that race.
 
 

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