Skidaway Island is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Chatham County, Georgia, and lies on a barrier island of the same name. Located south of Savannah, 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.
Before the American Civil War, planters farmed on the island using enslaved labor. On January 15, 1865, during the final year of the conflict, U.S. General William T. Sherman issued Special Field Order, No. 15 (series 1865). The order reallocated plantation lands on "Skidmore Island" to some formerly enslaved people whom Sherman had freed pursuant to the Emancipation Proclamation. The former slaves received plots of land no larger than . Land records show that many such plots were issued on the 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; plots were issued though that summer and early fall, despite the death of President Abraham Lincoln, and before Georgia's readmission to the Union and the resumption of civil authority there. Lincoln's successor, President Andrew Johnson, opposed such land transfers, as would various courts, especially since no legislation supported it. During the Reconstruction era, federal and state policy emphasized wage labor, not land ownership, for black people. Almost all land allocated to blacks in 1865 was ultimately restored to its original 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 CDP has a total area of , of which is land and (8.45%) is water.