Enslaved people at Wormsloe

Enslaved people were held and forced to work at Wormsloe. In the nineteenth century Noble Jones’s heirs used enslaved labour to grow and harvest cotton on this land. The estate’s earlier crops included corn, rice, indigo and rare fruits, with mulberry trees planted for silkworms, and the labour that made an estate of this kind function was not free labour. I write that plainly because the alternative is the language the tourist industry has used about places like this for a century, and because the word plantation gets thrown around Savannah as though it described a decorating style rather than a system of forced labour.

Enslaved people held hereYes

Nineteenth centuryCotton, worked by enslaved people

Earlier cropsCorn, rice, indigo, fruits

Also plantedMulberry, for silkworms

Estate begun1736

In one familySince the 1730s

What the record says

Wormsloe was begun by Noble Jones in 1736 and has stayed in the same family since the 1730s, serving in turn as a military outpost, a plantation, a country residence, a farm and a tourist attraction. Enslaved people were held and forced to work here, and in the nineteenth century Jones’s heirs used enslaved labour to grow and harvest cotton. Those are the facts I am working from and I am not going to decorate them. The chronology they sit inside is on the history of Wormsloe.

Why the wording matters

Half the searches that bring people to this site use the phrase Wormsloe plantation, and much of Savannah’s tourism vocabulary treats the word as a period aesthetic. It was not one. A plantation was an enterprise that worked people who were owned, and every acre of oak avenue and every wall of tabby sits on top of that. Saying it does not spoil the visit. It makes the visit honest, which is a different thing, and it is the only way I know to write about this coast without lying by omission.

What you will and will not find on site

Wormsloe presents itself as a colonial-era site: the tabby ruins, a museum of colonial artefacts and a Colonial Life Area with demonstrations on scheduled days. The enslaved people who worked this land are part of that story and not the part the avenue advertises. Go with the history in your head rather than expecting the site to hand it to you at every stop — what is actually there.

Getting there without driving

Practical note rather than a pitch: one bookable tour from Savannah drives into Wormsloe, the six-hour trip that also visits Bonaventure Cemetery, from $59. It exists to solve the transport problem, and nothing on this page is a reason to book it.

Check dates for the Wormsloe tour

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure on most tours — book now, decide later.

Frequently asked questions

Were there slaves at the Wormsloe plantation?

Yes. Enslaved people were held and forced to work at Wormsloe, and in the nineteenth century Noble Jones’s heirs used enslaved labour to grow and harvest cotton here.

What did Wormsloe grow?

Early crops included corn, rice, indigo and rare fruits, with mulberry trees planted for silkworms. Cotton came later, grown and harvested by enslaved people — the full chronology.

Does the site tell this history?

Wormsloe presents itself chiefly as a colonial-era site, with tabby ruins, a museum and a Colonial Life Area. Go knowing the history rather than expecting every stop to spell it out — what is actually there.