Left to right, Paul Pressly, PhD, 2025 recipient of the John Macpherson Berrien Award; Captain Lux Laksham, President of the Savannah Rotary Club; and Stan Deaton, PhD., the Dr. Elaine B. Andrews Distinguished Historian and Senior Historian at the Georgia Historical Society, following the presentation of the award to Dr. Pressly.

In November 2024, Paul Pressly was a featured guest on Dr. Stan Deaton’s podcast, “Off the Deaton Path,” discussing his book, A Southern Underground Railroad: Black Georgians and the Promise of Spanish Florida and Indian Country. To hear their conversation, visit the podcast website here.

Savannah, GA, March 26, 2025—Noted historian, educator, and community leader Paul M. Pressly, PhD, is the recipient of the 2025 John Macpherson Berrien Award, presented by the Georgia Historical Society for lifetime achievement in and service to Georgia history. This year marks the 25^th anniversary of the annual award.

Pressly received the award at a March 24 midday meeting of the Rotary Club of Savannah where he is a member. GHS President and CEO W. Todd Groce, PhD, presented the award.

“Dr. Paul Pressly is well known to this club and to the Savannah community,” Groce said. “His scholarship has been universally recognized by the history profession as significant and cutting edge, profoundly changing the way we understand slavery, race relations, and coastal Georgia and its relationship to the Atlantic world. As we celebrate the first quarter-century of this award, I can think of no one more deserving than Paul Pressly to receive it.”

“It’s an honor to be recognized with this award,” Pressly said in a question-and-answer session conducted by Stan Deaton, PhD, the Dr. Elaine B. Andrews Distinguished Historian and Senior Historian at GHS following the presentation. “I have been privileged to see the work of Todd Groce and the Georgia Historical Society over the past decades, and to be recognized by this organization is extremely gratifying.”

Pressly was the director of the Ossabaw Island Education Alliance from 2005–2017 and now serves as Director Emeritus. His mission includes telling the story of the African Americans on the island. He also provides leadership on special projects related to the future use of Ossabaw Island and on collaboration with K-12 and university institutions to provide educational programming.

Prior to serving with the alliance, Pressly was Headmaster of Savannah Country Day School from 1983 until 2004. He earned a BA in History from Princeton University, an MA in Public Administration from Harvard University, and a PhD in History from Oxford University.

He is the author of On the Rim of the Caribbean: Colonial Georgia and the British Atlantic World (2013) and A Southern Underground Railroad: Black Georgians and the Promise of Spanish Florida and Indian Country (2024). He also is coeditor of two books, African American Life in the Georgia Lowcountry: The Atlantic World and the Gullah Geechee (2010) and Coastal Nature, Coastal Culture: Environmental Histories of the Georgia Coast (2018). All are published by University of Georgia Press.

As headmaster, he published articles in the Georgia Historical Quarterly but in retirement, he was able to focus on historical subjects more deeply. “After I retired, I was involved in planning a symposium on African-American life in the Georgia Lowcountry. That led to my first book.”

His interest in researching little-known aspects of African-American life in the Georgia Lowcountry is a common thread running through his work. Conducting this type of sometimes overlooked scholarship is important, he said.

His recent book, A Southern Underground Railroad, tells the story of how enslaved men and women found freedom and human dignity outside the expanding boundaries of the United States, crossing the borders that separated the Lowcountry from the British and Spanish in coastal Florida and from the Seminole and Creek people in the vast interior of the Southeast in the early years of the American republic.

“Why is this important? It shows the importance of Black resistance at every stage of the way,” he said. “African Americans of the past were not a passive people. They were willing to resist, and did.”

It is these types of contributions as an historian and educator that led to the award, Groce said. “This award is named in memory of the Georgia Historical Society’s founding president and Attorney General under President Andrew Jackson, John Macpherson Berrien, to recognize a lifetime of achievement in the field of history.

“Paul Pressly has made a significant contribution in fulfilling the GHS mission to collect and teach Georgia and American history.”

Left to right, W. Todd Groce, PhD, President and CEO of the Georgia Historical Society, with Paul Pressly, PhD, the recipient of the 2025 John Macpherson Berrien Award and his wife, Jane Pressly.

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ABOUT THE GEORGIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The Georgia Historical Society (GHS) is the premier independent statewide institution responsible for collecting, examining, and teaching Georgia and American history. GHS houses the oldest and most distinguished collection of materials related exclusively to Georgia history in the nation.
To learn more, visit georgiahistory.com.