US_Southern_Colonies_British_Georgia-4.jpg

US Southern Colonies Province of Georgia History

Privacy Level: Open (White)
Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surname/tag: Southern_Colonies
This page has been accessed 1,391 times.

US Southern Colonies Project|US Southern Colonies Sources and Resources Directory|Province of Georgia History

See the table at US Southern Colonies Sources and Resources Directory for links to other US Southern Colonies pages relevant to Georgia, the other southern colonies (Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas), and project-wide pages, such as US Southern Colonies Reliable Sources.

Province of Georgia History
The purpose of this page is to provide background and resources relevant to colonial Georgia. It is managed by the Province of Georgia Team of the US Southern Colonies Project.

Contents

Maps

Colonial History

Georgia was the last Colony before the American Revolution. It was founded 50 years after the other twelve. Politician James Oglethorpe envisioned Georgia as a refuge for released debtors and the poor. In 1732, King George II approved the colony's charter; the state is named in that king's honor.
On February 12, 1733, Oglethorpe and more than 100 colonists unloaded their ship, the Anne, and settled in present day Savannah.

Government Structure

Georgia was different than the other colonies because it received money from Parliament to get started. It also was the only Colony to prohibit slavery and the import of alcohol. the Settlers had no control over their Government and it was entirely ruled by the Trustees. James Oglethorpe was appointed Governor of the new Colony.

Original Structure

King George II granted a charter for twenty-oneyears to a Board of Trustees for the land between Savannah and the Altamaha ricer and westward to the South Sea.
Originally, there were twenty-one trustees named in the 1732 charter for establishing the Colony of Georgia. Fifty more Trustees were added between 1732 and 1755.
The liberties of Englishmen were guaranteed to the colonies, and freedom in religion to all except Catholics.

Evolution of Government Structure

The colonists were not happy with the restrictions placed on the colony. After 12 years as governor, Oglethorpe returned to England bearing their demands. They wanted to be able to have alcohol and slaves, to participate in their own government, and demanded land reform. They were granted their requests. Alcohol was allowed into the colony mostly because it was thought that the importation of alcohol would improve trade. There was strong opposition to slavery, particularly from the religious immigrants, such as the Salzburgers, but they were in the minority. In 1749, Georgia became a slave colony.
In 1752, Georgia became a royal colony. The Trustees were unable to establish self-government and as such abandoned the idea before the twenty-one yeaar charter had expired.
Freeman were given the right to vote (unless they were Catholic) which led to the people electing an Assembly. The Governor was still appointed by the King of England. [1]

Settlers

After the original restrictions of no slavery or alcohol were released, Georgia began to grow. Although Georgia still remained the least populated of the twelve colonies because it was mostly wilderness, Savannah and surrounding areas saw tremendous growth.
Georgia was a haven for those in the English Debtors Prisons, the presecuted Salzburgers, Scottish Highlanders and even John Wesley who started Methodism.

Migrating From the Northern Colonies

  • Family Search: Georgia Immigration and Emigration
  • FamilySearch Wiki - Lower Cherokee Traders' Path An ancient Indian path that connected Catawba Indian villages in the Waxhaws (Charlotte area) in North Carolina with Cherokee Indian "Lower Towns" in South Carolina and Georgia (Tugaloo) used by whites starting in the 1740s with background history, route, map, connecting trails, and finding settler records.
  • FamilySearch Wiki - King's Highway 1664 from Boston, Massachusetts to Savannah, Georgia, background history, route, and map
  • FamilySearch Wiki - Occaneechi Path A key ancient Indian path and trunk trail that connected the Piedmont region including Chesapeake Bay (Petersburg, VA), Occaneechi Village (Clarksville, VA), the Waxhaws (Charlotte, NC), and Cherokee villages of the Carolinas and Georgia (Augusta, GA). Used by whites starting 1748. Includes background history, route, map, connecting trails, and finding settler records.

Ships

Ships List Sources

  • The Original Lists of Persons of Quality; Emigrants; Religious Exiles; Political Rebels; Serving Men Sold for a Term of Years; Apprentices; Children Stolen; Maidens Pressed; and Others Who Went from Great Britain to the American Plantations 1600-1700.
  • "The First South Carolinians" by St. Julien R. Childs, ("The South Carolina Historical Magazine", Vol. 71 (1970), pp. 101-108; Edited by Joseph I. Waring.)
  • The Shaftsbury Papers", edited by Langdon Cheves.The settlers/passengers of the three ships wrote letters to Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, the Earl of Shaftsbury, in England. He was one of the eight Lords Proprietors. John Locke, the Earl's secretary, organized and compiled papers for the Earl which are known as the "Shaftsbury Papers." The original Shaftsbury Papers are in England but copies may be found in many libraries.
  • Bermuda Historical Quarterly. Lefroy. Memorials of the Bermudas.

American Indians

Indentured Servants

Slaves

When the Georgia Trustees first envisioned their colonial experiment in the early 1730s, they sought to avoid the slave-based plantation economy that had developed in other colonies in the American South. The allure of profits from slavery, however, proved to be too powerful for white Georgia settlers to resist. By the era of the American Revolution (1775-83), African slaves constituted nearly half of Georgia's population[2]
Slave Family

Political Prisoners

Penal Transportation

Economic Resources and Information


Conflicts Within The Colony

Battle of Sullivan's Island

Research Resources

Free

Paid Research Sites

Cemeteries

Colonial Park Cemetery, Entrance


Colonial Park Cemetery, East Wall

Slave Cemeteries

Note: Slave and free African Americans are typically both buried in the cemeteries listed below as freed men continued to work in the same area.

WikiTree Resources

Existing Categories
Related Free Space Pages

Please add a short description, and separate "paragraphs" using the = keys on either side of the title as needed. See the next paragraph for an example that uses 6 = signs on either side.

Surname/Family Pages

Photos and Images

Sources for this Page

  1. The Failure of the Colony of Georgia Under the Trustees by Randall M. Miller
  2. Georgia Encyclopedia Slavery in Antebellum Georgia

Helps and Tips

Migrating Ancestor Template

Use the directions below to add a quick visual reference to your ancestors' profiles to indicate their movements, whether they migrated from other countries or between different colonies (or states). See step 9 for information about a template for ancestors who never left the city or state where they were born.

Flag of Virginia
... ... ... migrated from Virginia to Georgia.
Flag of Georgia


To add a migrating ancestor template to a profile:

  1. Click on the edit tab of this page and scroll down to the Migrating Ancestor section of the page.
  2. Left click on the left beside the double brackets, hold down the left mouse button, and highlight all of the text down to the closing brackets. This will highlight the text you want to copy.
  3. Next, right click on the highlighted text and click on "copy."
  4. Go to the target profile, use the edit tab, scroll to the place where you want to add the template and click there.
  5. Right click and select "paste." This will paste the template exactly as you see it here.
  6. To customize the template for your target profile go to Flag Images to find different flags or go directly to State Flags.
  7. Copy the file name of the flag you want to use, and paste it to the right of the = sign under origin and destination flags.
  8. You can also go to the blank template , copy and paste it to your page, and add your customized information.
  9. For ancestors who did NOT migrate, use the directions above to copy one of the variations of the Nonmigrating Ancestor template below:

The sticker for Immigrants of Province of Georgia Profiles:

Profile Sticker Code Produces
{{Migrating Ancestor | origin = South Carolina | destination = Georgia | origin-flag = US_State_Flag_Images-49.png | destination-flag = US_Southern_Colonies_British_Georgia-4.jpg }}
Flag of South Carolina
... ... ... migrated from South Carolina to Georgia.
Flag of Georgia
{{US Southern Colonist Sticker|Georgia}}
U.S. Southern Colonies Project logo
... ... ... was a Georgia colonist.




Collaboration


Comments: 14

Leave a message for others who see this profile.
There are no comments yet.
Login to post a comment.
While doing some other research, came across this reference to an epidemic in Savannah in 1733 that killed a number of the early colonists. It cites various original sources, including vital records maintained for the early Jewish community in Savannah.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4265100/

posted by Alicia Butler
Governor Allen D. Candler (1834-1910) oversaw the publication of early Georgia records, starting with the 26-volume set of "The Colonial Records of Georgia" and the three-volume set of "The Revolutionary Records of the State of Georgia", both of which can be accessed free on FamilySearch or HathiTrust. Search online via Google to find the digitized volumes.
posted by Eve (Warren) Mayes
The Digital Library of Georgia's Georgia Historic Newspapers collection has digitized extant issues of the Savannah newspaper "The Georgia Gazette" (1763-1802) - they can be searched free on the DLG GHN website at https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/
posted by Eve (Warren) Mayes
Jillaine,

Here is a great map of 1735: https://digitalarchives.columbusstate.edu/files/original/4cc606647c1b37470af3d3f074d93751.png citation: ““A Map of the County of Savannah.” Attributed to James Edward Oglethorpe. In Samuel Urlsperger, Der Ausführlicche Nachrichten . . . Halle, 1735.,” Columbus State University Archives and Special Collections , accessed August 19, 2020, http://digitalarchives.columbusstate.edu/items/show/19.

posted on US Southern Colonies British Georgia (merged) by Brenda (Breland) Breland Shaffer
Feel free to add it, Brenda.

This page should be "managed" by the Georgia Colony team.

posted on US Southern Colonies British Georgia (merged) by Jillaine Smith
I agree. This is a great space page for the Province of Georgia Team. Currently, it is listed as a Resource on the US Southern Colonies Province of Georgia Team https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:US_Southern_Colonies_Province_of_Georgia_Team
posted on US Southern Colonies British Georgia (merged) by Sandy (Craig) Patak
Do you have any information on the Salzburgers of Ebenezer here? Effingham county.
posted on US Southern Colonies British Georgia (merged) by Linda (Hunt) Purvis
Linda, have you contacted the Georgia Salzburger Society? https://govisitebenezer.com/
posted by Eve (Warren) Mayes
The vast majority of credit should go to Paula. THANKS for a beautiful page! And to Mags, Terri, and everyone who as contributed. You are all AWESOME!
posted on US Southern Colonies British Georgia (merged) by [Living Lockhart]
Image:Profile_Photo_s-268.jpg

December 8, 2014

posted on US Southern Colonies British Georgia (merged) by Paula J
Nice Nae. Seems all I can say lately is Yay and Nice!
posted on US Southern Colonies British Georgia (merged) by Mags Gaulden
Looking good, Nae! Where did you get the cool maps?
posted on US Southern Colonies British Georgia (merged) by Robin Kabrich