References

Following is a preliminary list of sources that might be helpful for detailed discussions of human experience on the island. Mary Ricketson Bullard, a fourth generation resident of the island, has spent much of her life studying Georgia’s Sea Islands. Her book, A History of Cumberland Island: Landscape with Figures, is forthcoming from the University of Georgia Press this year. The book will be the definitive history of the island, from pre-Spanish Indian occupation to the present. We will keep you updated on the book’s publication. In the meantime, here are some other references:

An Abandoned Black Settlement on Cumberland Island, Georgia, by Mary Bullard (1982) OP. This publication, available at the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah and the state archives, as well as in libraries, is a detailed description of a freedmen’s settlement at Brick Hill River during Reconstruction.

Black Liberation on Cumberland Island in 1815, by Mary Bullard (1983) OP. Available at the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah, the state archives and libraries, this book discusses the British Royal Navy’s three-month occupation of the island in 1815 and the emancipation of 1,483 slaves.

British Drums on the Southern Frontier, by Larry Ivers. (Chapel Hill, 1974.) OP. This military history discusses the two forts that General Oglethorpe planned on Cumberland.

The Carnegies and Cumberland Island, by Nancy Carnegie Rockefeller (1993). This privately published book has an especially informative opening chapter on the history of Cumberland Island by Mary Bullard. Not available in general circulation, the book can be accessed at the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah and the Georgia Archives.

Caty: A Biography of Catherine Littlefield Greene, by John Stegeman and Janet Stegeman. This book is currently available from University of Georgia Press in a paperback edition. Caty Greene was a strong and independently-minded woman and the wife of Revolutionary War General Nathaniel Greene. A business partner with Eli Whitney, Caty Greene spent the latter part of her life on Cumberland Island.

The Chimneys: Stafford Plantation, Cumberland Island National Seashore Georgia: Archaeological Investigations of a Slave Cabin, by John Ehrenhard and Mary Bullard. Published in 1981, this document may be obtained by writing the Southeast Archaeological Center, Box 7, Tallahassee, FL, 32310. This publication is the report of a National Park Service excavation in one standing chimney within a former slave settlement.

Cumberland: An Island in Time (Film) 1999. This film was written, produced and directed by William VanDerKloot

Cumberland Island National Seashore: A History of Conservation Conflict,  by Lary M. Dilsaver.  "Congress and President Richard Nixon established Cumberland Island National Seashore on October 23, 1972, after an unexpectedly controversial campaign."

Cumberland Island: Strong Women, Wild Horses, by Charles Seabrook.  The author describes the island's natural bounty in the telling of its long and intriguing history.  He writes of Cumberland Island women, such as Caty Greene Miller, widow of Revoluntionary War hero Nathanael Greene, the Carnegie women and of a naturalist, Carol Ruckdeschel.

Cumberland Island: The Unsung North End, by Mary Miller. (1990). This book is available at the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah and the Cumberland Island National Seashore Welcome Center in St. Mary’s. The author takes a personal look at the northern end of the island, where inns flourished after the Civil War. This part of the island was settled by farmers and descendents of slaves from area plantations.

Economic Impact of the Proposed Cumberland Island National Seashore, by William Keeling of the University of Georgia Bureau of Business and Economic Research. This economic impact study was conducted in the 1970s and is available for review at the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah.

Encounters With the Archdruid, by John McPhee. This is a series of three essays, the second of which is devoted to Cumberland Island when it was under threat of development by Charles Fraser. In its 12th printing, the book is a fascinating glimpse into the conservation movement of the early 1970s. It is available in paperback from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Historic Resource Study, Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia, by Louis Torres. Published in 1977, this is a lengthy history of the island and includes a historic structure report as well. Available for review at the Georgia Historical Society and the state archives, it is published by the National Park Service.

A History of Georgia, Kenneth Coleman, general editor. This is a general history originally published by University of Georgia Press in 1977. See specifically Phinizy Spalding’s discussion of the Colonial Period for references to Cumberland Island.

Journal of a Visit to the Georgia Islands, Mary R. Bullard and Virginia Wood, editors. (1996). This book, an extensively annotated journal from 1753 by Jonathan Bryan (1708-1788), is a fascinating first-hand look at the barrier islands at a pivotal point in the area’s history. Cumberland is discussed, along with St. Catherine’s, Ossabaw, Sapelo, St. Simons and Jekyll islands. This book is published by Mercer University Press in association with the Georgia Historical Society.

Portrait of an Island, by Mildred and John Teal. (1997). Originally published in 1964, the University of Georgia Press has reprinted this classic natural history of Sapelo Island. Also a Georgia barrier island, Sapelo is on the coast above St. Simons Island and has flora and fauna similar to Cumberland’s. It is included here because, to date, there is no “natural history” of Cumberland in print. This might serve as introduction to people unfamiliar with the area’s special forms of life.

Robert Stafford of Cumberland Island: Growth of a Planter, by Mary Bullard. Originally published in 1986, the book is available from the University of Georgia Press. The new edition includes an afterward by the author that sheds new light on Stafford, a successful cotton planter who spent his life with Elizabeth Bernadi, slave property of a neighbor on the island.

The Southeast in Early Maps, by William Patterson Cumming. Published by University of North Carolina Press, the third edition (1998) was revised and enlarged by Louis DeVorsey, Jr.

The Spanish Missions of Georgia, by John Tate Lanning. OP (Chapel Hill, 1935). Lanning discusses the early missions established by Spanish Catholics in the 16th century.

The Struggle for the Georgia Coast: An 18th Century Spanish Retrospective on Guale and Mocama, by John E. Worth. This is an anthropological paper (#75) published by the Museum of Natural History in 1995 and distributed by the University of Georgia Press. The study is a documentation of 17th century Spanish activity in the coastal areas that we know as Florida and Georgia. Worth discovered primary sources of diaries, detailed censuses, original letters, et cetera, written in response to treaty violations between Spain and England in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, Spain. The documentation covers Franciscan activities, daily life in the Spanish Catholic Missions and pagan native Indian life in the area in the decades before Oglethorpe’s efforts. (Before this book, our understanding of daily Spanish Mission life on the Georgia Islands was limited to archeological findings.)

Zabette, an opera whose libretto was written by Mary Bullard. Available from the School of Music, Georgia State University, Box 4097, Atlanta, GA, 30302-4097. The opera was performed at a theater in Atlanta in 1999.

Several articles appear in the Georgia Historical Quarterly concerning or referring to Cumberland Island. Contact the Georgia Historical Society at 501 Whitaker St., Savannah, GA 31499. Phone: 912-651-2125.