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Robert Sengstacke Abbott Boyhood Home: Founder of the Chicago Defender

Robert Sengstacke Abbott Boyhood Home: Founder of the Chicago Defender is a Georgia historical marker in Savannah., Chatham County, dedicated 2008.

West Bay and Albion Street, Savannah.

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From 1878 to 1889, Robert Sengstacke Abbott lived in the parsonage of Pilgrim Congregational Church, once located on this site. His stepfather, John H.H. Sengstacke, minister of the church, published the Woodville Times. Abbott learned the printing trade here and developed his commitment to equal rights for African Americans. In 1905, he founded the Chicago Defender, a newspaper that revolutionized African-American journalism. He fought to abolish Jim Crow laws and establish a non-discriminatory society. The Defender played a major role in initiating the Great Migration (1915-1919) of approximately 1.3 million blacks to northern cities.

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

1852 · Georgia, Florida. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1863 · Sketch of sea coast of South Carolina and Georgia from Bull's Bay to Ossabaw Sound (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1865 · South Carolina. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1874 · Plache VII. Sea Islands. (Carolina du Sud). (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1895 · Gen. map IX. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Plache VII. Sea Islands. (Carolina du Sud), 1874, covering the location of Robert Sengstacke Abbott Boyhood Home: Founder of the Chicago Defender, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Plache VII. Sea Islands. (Carolina du Sud), 1874, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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

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