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Pin Point, Georgia
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Pin Point is an unincorporated community in Chatham County, Georgia, United States; it is located 11 miles (18 km) southeast of Savannah and is part of the Savannah Metropolitan Statistical Area.[2] Pin Point is 1 mi (1.6 km) wide and 1.6 mi (2.6 km) long, and lies 13 feet above sea level. The town is best known for its longstanding Gullah-speaking community, and being the birthplace of U.S. Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas.[3]
Key Information
A rural settlement founded by freed people after the abolishment of slavery post-Civil War,[4] it was settled in the 1890s by people from nearby Ossabaw, Green, and Skidaway Islands.[5] In 1897, they founded Sweetfield of Eden Baptist Church.[6] In 1926, as part of a school-building initiative for African American children in the South—who at the time only had access to underfunded, segregated schools—a Rosenwald school was built in the Pin Point community.[6][7]
The town lies on the edge of Shipyard Creek, a branch of the Moon River. The surrounding land has large oak trees and coastal marshes, as well as crab and oyster habitats.[6] The main employer in the community was crab and oyster canning from the 1920s through the 1980s.[5]
Pin Point remains a small, predominantly African American community that has a well-established Gullah community. The Gullah people have been able to preserve many cultural connections to their origins in West Africa, where many of their ancestors were captured and then enslaved in the United States.
Gullah, the only English-based, Afro-Indigenous creole language in the United States, is spoken in Pin Point.[3] It is unknown how many native speakers there are in the town, but along the Southeastern seaboard there are about 5,000 semi-speakers and 300 native speakers.[3] Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is a native speaker of Gullah (then called Geechee).[8] He has attributed his silence on the Supreme Court to his self-consciousness speaking in an all-white school as a teenager, where classmates made fun of him for not speaking “standard English.” Pin Point Heritage Museum, once the Varn and Sons Oyster and Crab Canning Factory, is devoted to the Gullah/Geechee culture and community.[5]
Education
[edit]Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools is the school district for all of Chatham County.[9]
Notable People
[edit]b. 1948 - Clarence Thomas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
References
[edit]- ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Pin Point, Georgia
- ^ "Pin Point, Georgia". Hometown Locator. Retrieved September 13, 2022.
- ^ a b c Wolfram, Walt (2021). "Gullah language". Endangered Language Project.
- ^ Mayer, Jane; Abramson, Jill (November 6, 1995). Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas. Plume. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-452-27499-0. Retrieved October 30, 2011.
- ^ a b c "Pin Point Community". Georgia Historical Society. June 16, 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
- ^ a b c Freeman, Michael (May 5, 2018). "The Story of Pin Point, Georgia". Retrieved September 14, 2022.
- ^ "Fisk University Rosenwald Fund Card File Database". Retrieved September 14, 2022.
- ^ "In Thomas's Own Words". Educational Cyper Playground. New York Times. December 14, 2000. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
- ^ "2020 CENSUS - SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP: Chatham County, GA" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved August 1, 2022. - Text list
External links
[edit]- Pin Point Community historical marker
- Pin Point Heritage Museum official website.]
- Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words
Pin Point, Georgia
View on GrokipediaGeography and Demographics
Location and Physical Setting
Pin Point is an unincorporated community in Chatham County, Georgia, situated approximately 11 miles south of Savannah near the confluence of Shipyard Creek and the Moon River.[9] The community occupies a low-lying peninsula-like projection into the surrounding salt marshes and tidal waterways, which have long served as natural barriers limiting overland access and contributing to its relative isolation.[10] These geographic features, including expansive estuarine systems, have preserved environmental conditions conducive to distinct ecological and cultural dynamics.[1] The physical setting features marshy terrain dominated by Spartina salt marshes, interspersed with tidal creeks that facilitate nutrient exchange and support diverse marine habitats.[12] This landscape provides direct access to productive fishing grounds, with creeks and marshes teeming with blue crabs and oysters, enabling harvest-based sustenance independent of upland farming.[1] The tidal regime, driven by Atlantic influences, regularly inundates low areas, shaping soil salinity and vegetation adapted to brackish conditions.[12] Coastal processes expose Pin Point to ongoing shoreline erosion and episodic high-tide flooding, evident in receding marsh edges and increased saltwater intrusion observed over decades.[13] Regional sea-level measurements indicate an approximate 11-inch rise since 1950, amplifying these effects through heightened tidal reach and storm surge potential without engineered protections.[14] Such dynamics reflect inherent vulnerabilities of the barrier-marsh system, where sediment accretion struggles to match erosive forces from currents and waves.[13]

