A celebrated past.

The City of Port Wentworth has been an important part of American history since the first Europeans settled here in the early 1700s.

Mulberry Grove Plantation, once home to Revolutionary War hero, General Nathanael Greene and his wife Catherine Littlefield Greene, sits on a grassy bluff in Port Wentworth just up-river from the modern-day Port of Savannah. Not currently open to the public, the site is surrounded by 2,200 acres of wetlands, wildlife, scenic wonders and historical significance. Best known as the place where Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin more than two centuries ago (1793), Mulberry Grove, and its neighbor, Drakie Plantation, were once an integral part of Georgia's First City, growing the crops and creating the technology necessary to make Savannah an important international port. George Washington stayed at Mulberry Grove twice during tours of the Southern states in the early 1790s.

Mulberry Grove was an active plantation from 1736 until the end of the civil war. The great plantation house was destroyed in December, 1864 by General William T. Sherman during his march to Savannah and the sea.

Mulberry Grove exists as a remarkable historical microcosm of Georgia's and the Nation's historical development. It encompasses Native peoples, a series of extraordinary independent colonial women and men, the eventual conflict between England and the “fledgling colony,” and the development of a rice and cotton antebellum plantation economy that was based entirely on slave labor.

Today, the Mulberry Grove Foundation is working hard to preserve Mulberry Grove. The foundation is trying to acquire the property so that it can build the Eli Whitney Center, develop educational and recreational opportunities, and preserve the wetlands and wildlife habitats for generations to come.