Early Days on the Georgia Tidewater: A New History of McIntosh County & Sapelo Island Hardcover – April 1, 2026

The new edition of this book represents a recasting of the several editions published in the 1990s under the same title. The present book thus supersedes all previous editions with respect to additional material and analysis, and corrections from previous editions. Virtually all the information in the original is contained in this volume, and much more. New to the present book is an ecological overview of low country Georgia, with the emphasis on McIntosh County and Sapelo Island. This approach is relevant due to the relation of the ecosystem to the human history of the region. Herein also is a review of coastal conservation and the story of the environmental movement that led to the protection of most of Georgia's barrier islands and riverine estuaries. The thematic focus of this study is largely economic because most of history is shaped and influenced by economic forces. The author argues that ecological factors have been the primary influence on the economic development of the coastal community. With the foundation of a maritime culture, Sullivan's book explores the barrier island cotton economy, the river rice plantations, post-Civil War lumber production, and the 20th century commercial seafood industry. Extensive use of primary sources, including journals, letters, and public records, as well as the research of other historians, past and present, have been utilized by the author. The book is documented and referenced with thorough annotation, and an extensive index and bibliography. It will provide a wealth of information for the serious researcher, scholar, genealogist, and anyone who follows the stories behind this fascinating part of the American landscape. The author considers this work the "magnum opus" of his forty years of coastal research."Historian Buddy Sullivan shows the depth of his research into, and love, for every inch of McIntosh County…Anyone who has not read this enormously readable county history has missed something."―State historian Kenneth H. Thomas, from a review in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Read more