Skidaway Island is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in

Chatham County, Georgia Chatham County ( ) is the easternmost county in the U.S. state of Georgia, on the state's Atlantic coast. The county seat and largest city is Savannah. One of the original counties of Georgia, Chatham County was created February 5, 1777, a ...

, and lies on a

barrier island Barrier islands are a Coast#Landforms, coastal landform, a type of dune, dune system and sand island, where an area of sand has been formed by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of an ...

of the same name. Located south of

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

, Skidaway Island is known for its waterfront properties and golf courses within The Landings, one of the largest gated communities in the country. The population was 9,310 at the 2020 census. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined Skidaway Island as a

(CDP). A separate area of the island hosts the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, a research institution operated by the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

. It receives scholars and researchers from several other Georgia universities as well, including

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...

Savannah State University Savannah State University (SSU) is a Public university, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically black university in Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is the oldest historically black public university in the state. Th ...

, and the College of Coastal Georgia. Skidaway Island is part of the

Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

It is uncertain why the name "Skidaway" was applied to this island. The name may relate to one in Yamacraw or another Native American Creek language. In his 1967 publication ''How Georgia Got Her Names'', Hal E. Brinkley speculated it might be an Anglicized form of Scenawki, the wife of the Yamacraw chief Tomochichi, for whom Georgia's founder

James Oglethorpe Lieutenant-General James Edward Oglethorpe (22 December 1696 – 30 June 1785) was a British Army officer, Tory politician and colonial administrator best known for founding the Province of Georgia in British North America. As a social refo ...

named the island. Before the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, planters farmed on the island using enslaved labor. On January 15, 1965, during the final year of the conflict, U.S. General

William T. Sherman William is a masculine given name of Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is ...

issued Special Field Order, No. 15 (series 1865), reallocating plantation lands to some formerly enslaved people, whom he freed pursuant to the

Emancipation Proclamation The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War. The Proclamation had the eff ...

, in plots of land no larger than . Land records show many such plots issued on Skidmore Island beginning on April 11, 1865, two days after C.S.A. General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House, and continuing though that summer and early fall, despite the death of President Abraham Lincoln, and before Georgia's readmission to the Union and resumption of civil authority there. Lincoln's successor, President Andrew Johnson, opposed such transfers, as would various courts, especially since no legislation supported it. During the

Reconstruction era The Reconstruction era was a period in History of the United States, US history that followed the American Civil War (1861-65) and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of the Abolitionism in the United States, abol ...

federal and state policy emphasized wage labor, not land ownership, for black people. Almost all land allocated during the war was restored to its pre-war white owners. In a March 2019 referendum, Skidaway Island voters overwhelmingly rejected a bill that would have incorporated their community as the City of Skidaway Island. The island remains unincorporated.

Geography

Skidaway Island is located at (31.927434, -81.042505). According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the CDP has a total area of , of which is land and (8.45%) is water.

Demographics

Skidaway Island was first listed as a CDP in

1980 U.S. Census The 1980 United States census, conducted by the United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 226,545,805, an increase of 11.4% over the 203,184,772 persons Enumeration, enumerated dur ...

. As of the 2020 United States census, there were 9,310 people, 4,272 households, and 3,014 families residing in the CDP.

Notable people

* Dorothea Orem, nursing theorist, who died at her home on Skidaway Island on June 22, 2007. *

Ron Senkowski Ron Senkowski is a writer and producer based in Los Angeles. He is the chief executive officer and president of Symply Entertainment, a production company he founded with Lebanese producer and actress Samira Kawas. Together they also founded The ...

, founder of Farmer's Almanac TV. * Bobby Thomson, baseball player, who died at his home there on August 16, 2010.Paid obituary for Bobby Thomson, Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers, August 21, 2010, p. B-4, accessed August 21, 2010
/ref>

References

External links