The Tobacco Road

Richmond County · dedicated 1954 · On GA 56 (Old Savannah road) at Tobacco Road in Augusta.

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.

TodayHistorical map

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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The Tobacco Road

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