Editing Joel Chandler Harris (section)

=== Savannah and the South: 1866–1876 ===

Joseph Addison Turner shut down ''The Countryman'' in May 1866. Joel Harris left the plantation with worthless [[Confederate States of America dollar|Confederate money]] and very few possessions. He lived for a period at [[The Marshall House (Savannah, Georgia)|The Marshall House]].<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/19/travel/escapes/in-savannah-ga.html?searchResultPosition=2 In Savannah, Ga.] - ''[[New York Times]]'', November 19, 2004</ref>

''[[The Macon Telegraph]]'' hired Harris as a typesetter later that year. Harris found the work unsatisfactory and himself the butt of jokes around the office, in no small part due to his red hair. Within five months, he accepted a job working for the ''New Orleans Crescent Monthly'', a literary journal. Just six months after that, homesick, he returned to Georgia, but with another opportunity at the ''Monroe Advertiser'', a weekly paper published in [[Forsyth, Georgia]].

At the ''Advertiser'' Harris found a regional audience with his column "Affairs of Georgia." Newspapers across the state reprinted his humorous paragraphs and political barbs. Harris' reputation earned him the position of associate editor at the ''[[Savannah Morning News]]'', the largest circulation newspaper in Georgia. Though he relished his position in Forsyth, Joe Harris accepted the $40-a-week job, a significant pay increase, and quickly established himself as Georgia's leading humor columnist while at the ''Morning News''.

In 1872 Harris met Mary Esther LaRose, a seventeen-year-old [[French-Canadian]] from Quebec. After a year of courtship, Harris and LaRose married in April 1873. LaRose was 18, and Harris 27 (though publicly admitting to 24). Over the next three years, the couple had two children. Their life in Savannah came to an abrupt halt, however, when they fled to Atlanta to avoid a [[yellow fever]] epidemic.<ref>[[#Brasch|Brasch]], 23–33</ref>