Mulberry Grove, the long-lost plantation outside Savannah where the cotton gin was reputedly invented, is about to get a bit more recognition.
A nonprofit group, George Civil War Heritage Trails, will soon place a roadside marker honoring the plantation and Eli Whitney, the gin’s founder. It will be the fourth plaque bringing attention to Mulberry Grove and its history, which includes the first site in Georgia where slaves worked.
All the markers, though, sit at least a mile from the plantation site atop a bluff overlooking the Savannah River. Nothing, except a pile of red bricks that served as the foundation of the plantation home, physically denotes the critical importance Mulberry Grove played in Georgia, and U.S., history.
A half-dozen historians queried by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, some who recently visited the overgrown site with the newspaper, said Mulberry Grove should be opened to the public and memorialized.