The Tobacco Road

The Tobacco Road is a Georgia historical marker in Richmond County, dedicated 1954.

On GA 56 (Old Savannah road) at Tobacco Road in Augusta.

Get directions ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

The Tobacco Road was first laid out c.1789 to enable tobacco to be transported to the New Savannah warehouses fourteen miles south of Augusta above the Savannah River floodplains. On this road, which extended toward north Georgia without crossing a stream, tobacco, put into barrels known as hogsheads, was rolled to warehouses for inspection before shipment. Later, the Tobacco Road became the site of summer homes such as Kenilworth, Seclusaval, and Windsor, the retreats of wealthy planters to escape the heat of the lowcountry. Use of the road for tobacco transport declined after the Civil War.

Maps this old were drawn largely by eye, so places on them can sit miles from where they really are. The pin is ours and marks the marker's location today.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1778 · Parte Orientale della Florida, della Giorgia, e Carolina Meridionale. Fogl. XI (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1794 · Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1795 · State of South Carolina. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1816 · Georgia. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1816 · Georgia (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, 1794, covering the location of The Tobacco Road, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, 1794, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

Example

For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

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This historical marker is part of the Georgia Historical Marker Program and was erected by the Georgia Historical Commission. Marker texts and locations come from the Society's own marker database.

The Tobacco Road

Historical maps covering this location

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