Tybee Island’s Lazaretto or Quarantine Station

Tybee Island’s Lazaretto or Quarantine Station. UNESCO Site of Memory Routes of Enslaved Peoples. , "But is not the slave trade entirely a war with the heart of man? And surely that which is begun by breaking down the barriers of virtue involves in its continuance destruction to every principle, and buries all sentiments in ruin"! - Olaudah Equiano, Tybee Island's Lazaretto or Quarantine Station , Tybee Island's main role in the Middle Passage was as a health and safety checkpoint for incoming vessels of Savannah's burgeoning human trade. On August 8th, 1750, eight months after the colony of Georgia lifted its ban on owning "Negro or black slaves," a lazaretto was commissioned to quarantine diseased crew members and enslaved Africans arriving by ship. In 1768, a building was constructed of tabby and lime brick on the western tip of Tybee to serve as a quarantine station to service any ships that were required to hold in place with disease on board. , , A ship quarantined at Tybee , In early March of 1769, the ship Britannia arrived with enslaved Africans from Gambia. There was smallpox discovered on board. Georgia Governor James Wright ordered that the boat be moored in Tybee Creek and for all crew and enslaved Africans to remain in quarantine on Tybee for at least 40 days. Those coming ashore were restricted to remaining on the western tip of Tybee where the Lazaretto was located. Burial instructions were also given for "all such slaves or persons who may die on board, or on shore, during the quarantine hereby ordered, be buried in some convenient place on the publick land at least five feet beneath the surface.", (captions) , "Slaves taken from a captured ship" - The Library of Congress , Colonial Map of Georgia 1795