Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1919-01-31
OLD SLAVE CELLS
STILL IN PLACE

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Hotel Basement Prison Ter cenvsn.
isncs Of. slavsheiders Who Visit
Cd City and Wished to be ~
Freed Of Responsibility
Savannah, Ga.-Except perhaps for
cid slave market al Milledville. Sa-
vannah probably has. In the founda,
tons of the old Pulaski Hotel. on the
corner Of Bull and Bryan streets.
Georgia's. most remarkable memeuto
Of the days when mem were sold rs
Chattels.
The basement OF this ancient hostel
ry is honeycombed with. bricked up
cells Used during, the period before
the war by slave owners for the safe
keeping OF their charges: en- route to
and from the big slave markets to the
north. There are very few people Of
81 this generation who know OF this fam
Gus "underpinning" OF the old hotel.
Some OF the cells are large enough
to contain q. half dozen men. Others
are smaller. there. not being room In
them for more than one or two hu.
man beings. In each OF the under.
ground apartments there Is q door
with. grated iron bars. through which
food and water were handed &c the In
mates detained at the. request OF their
masters.
When the Pulaski hotel was built II
was necessary to have something of
this character, because many Of Its pa
irons were among the most famous
slave owners Of Georgia and the Caro-
linaa.
Savannah was q great stopping point
tor. the slave owners enroute to. their
rich plantations, who wished TO spend
a. short time in Savannah, then the
metropolis Of Georgia, or who went
through toward the North carrying
their slaves to sell In the markets at
Milledgeyille. Augusta, Charleston or
Richmond. 1t was a matter Of con-
venience 10 these slave. owners that
The underground apartments were pro-
vided when the Pulaski was built
something like 100 years ago.
Since that time the hotel aas under
gone many above ground changes.
but, except In few instances, the
slave cells have remained as they
were originally constructed. Now they
are valuable only as. q reminder Iot
days that have long passed in Georgia.
These dungeons are. a point OF great
interest to those; who know about
them. but there are very few people.
even In Savannah, who are aware Of
their existence.
One OF the largest OF these human
safety vaults was torn out about 10
years ago to make room for the ele.
vator machinery In the, hotel, and an
other was torn away to secure room
for the large boiler that supplies the
hotel with heat. Except for these In
yasions In the name OF progress and
the installation of modern. ideas. the
underground compartments remain a.
they. were constructed In the days be-
fore the war. B.,
They are submerged link between
the new South and the old.
The underground passages now are
inhabited only by cats. Hundreds OF
felines make their homes there. Many
of them seldom come above ground
and as consequence they are grad
ually losing the use of their eyes In
the daylight. although 1t is presumed
that their sight In the darkness OF
their underground habitation is inten-
sified. These cats have bred and null.
tiplied in the gloom of the old dun.
geons for fifty years. and each new
generation finds their eyes of less use
in the glare of the sun. -
The cats are never molested. Indeed
nobody ever goes into the dungeons
for any purpose whatever. The cats
keep the hotel clean OF rodents. ami
so are regarded as useful. Usually.
they wait until night to come above
ground. Each new generation of cats
shun the daylight more and more.