Writing Yamacraw Bluff has given me many moments of excitement. I felt like that yesterday when I got the following email:
Professor Luke Pittaway,
My book club is reading your book “Yamacraw Bluff”.
We will be discussing it over a lunch on at the Pink House in Savannah, Georgia. Following the lunch, we intend to take an hour walking tour around Savannah or a trolley tour. Would you provide us with a list of questions in discussing the book that would be helpful to spur conversations? Would you recommend sites for a walking tour that would be applicable to your book or is there one of the trolleys that is giving tours related to your new book?
It’s my first such request, so I wasn’t sure how to respond best. Here are my thoughts on the interesting questions part:
- The first part of the book focuses on debtors’ prisons. The reform of these prisons was one of the underlying reasons that the colony of Georgia was founded. So, a question could be “From the book, what did you find unusual about how debtors’ prisons were run?”. There are many details, but the general gist is that a debtors’ prison was very different from what we understand a prison to be today.
- The founding of Georgia’s colony was a significant entrepreneurial endeavor, marked by a charismatic founder, a Board of Trustees, a prospectus, and extensive advertising. A question could be, “What details about Oglethorpe’s part in founding Georgia stood out for you?”
- The book is rich in historical detail; you could ask, “What historical details surprised you the most?”
- The story onboard the Anne follows an actual account from the colony’s recorder, with a few embellishments. So, a question could be, “What did you enjoy most about the story of the colony’s settlers leaving England and coming to Georgia on the Anne. Why, did you enjoy that part of the story?”
- The second part of the book becomes more fiction and less fact, although there are many aspects that possibly align with what might have happened. I would thus ask some general questions like:
- How did the contrast between England and Georgia work? Did you get a feeling of joining the settlers?
- The portrayal of the Yamacraw Indians and their contributions to Georgia’s founding is essential to its history. How did the author portray their contribution?
- The colony suffered from a severe epidemic of smallpox that threatened its existence. How would you have felt if you’d been part of the community experiencing that suffering?
- Books often need villainous characters – which of the darker characters stood out to you and why?
- As the book concludes, Savannah faces numerous governance challenges. What did you learn about this history from the book?
Luke Pittaway 