Day Two in Savannah

Tuesday, March 24^th

Having had set an alarm for this morning, we were able to get an earlier start on our second day here in Savannah, and enjoyed our breakfast/coffee at the same coffee shop down the street. We spread our large amount of recently collected postcards on the table, and wrote and stamped all of them as we finished our coffee.

Planning to do a few more things today than yesterday, we walked over to the First African Baptist Church. We were told by the woman at the visitor’s center that it would be open today, but after trying all the front doors, we wondered if you aren’t allowed to go in it. We walked around to the side of the church and happened to notice a lady going into the side door, and asked her if we would be allowed to go in.

 

Upon entering the room, which was obviously the Church basement, we were surrounded by a mass of people scurrying about with brown paper bags. After finding our way through the crowded room, we were about to leave, having not seen much more of the church than its basement. We were suddenly met by a man escorting a family into the church, and when he saw us he asked if we wanted to be on the tour. We hadn’t heard anything about a tour or seen any other info, but we accepted and followed the family into the elevator.

The elevator took us to the main floor of the church, where we walked up the left aisle to groups of staring people sitting in pews, listening to the tour guide. We found a spot and joined in listening to her. The pews we sat in were not the originals. Several of the originals, built in 1830-1832, are located in the basement of the church. There were only eight (if I remember correctly) of the original gas lamps left, while the remainder of them are now run on electricity. Stained glass windows behind the altar depict the many pastors of the church who have preached there throughout the years. The pews in the balcony were also built by slaves, but at a later date. On the end panels of each pew were random scribbles, which a few scholars from the archaeology department of the college believe to be Aramaic, but this hasn’t been confirmed. Our tour guide was rather lively and liked to use her imagination a lot, so many of the things she told us were not facts (which she did clearly state).

 

From the balcony, we went back down to the main level, then to a small room in the basement, next to the room where the paper bags were being packed for distribution.

Here we got to see holes in the floor, which they believe to be air holes from the Underground Railroad. I can’t even begin to imagine what they went through, as they ran for their lives in such cramped, horrible spaces, where air holes had to be cut in the “ceilings” of the tunnels.

 

We exited through the basement, where we got to see the original pews, worth $17,000 - $20,000. We were confused as to why brown paper bags were piled all over a couple of the original pews that are worth so much.

 

With that thought, we went out through another side door of the church and walked back to the coffee shop for some lunch. Despite the occasional whiffs of cigarette smoke, we enjoyed eating our lunch outside in the pleasant weather.

Later on, we walked back down to the pier and boarded the free Savannah Belles Ferry, also provided by the DOT.

 

The ferry is just a means of transportation, and makes a triangle of three stops. We stayed on at each stop, and were back where we started from within a half hour. It was the perfect weather for a ferry ride, with the sun shining just a bit, and a cool breeze blowing in our faces. While we were on the ferry, the hugest ship we have ever seen passed by the ferry. The men on it looked like mere Playmobile people. To get some perspective, look at how small the containers on board look compared to the ship.
 

 

 

 

 

The only annoying part of the ferry ride was the abundance of gnats, especially at the stops. There were constant swarms of them, all flying at our faces.

It was the perfect time to enjoy some ice cream in the sunshine from the River Street Sweets shop. We visited this sweet shop yesterday as well, where we watched a man making cotton candy taffy. Part of the process was setting the large roll of taffy onto a machine that had grooves in it, and forced the taffy to stretch into a longer roll. The man then stretched the end of the taffy and fed it into another machine, which cut it into chunks, wrapped it, twisted the ends of the wrapper, and plopped it into the bucket beneath the machine. It was such a neat process, and we got a free sample of it too! This sweet shop is a really cool and yummy smelling place. The walls are lined with bins of brightly colored candy, and the cases are filled with other treats, including specialty candies.
 

 

 

 

 

 

We watched birds hopping around, looking for crumbs, and saw the ships that went by in the river as we ate our ice cream. It was beautiful, and so relaxing.

We finished off the day by eating supper in our hotel room, doing a couple loads of laundry, and listening to the Adventures in Odyssey Underground Railroad episodes. We managed to get to bed at a decent time, knowing that we would have to get up early in the morning to catch our train to Wilson.