colonization of georgia. essential questions what were the reasons for georgia’s settlement? who...
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Colonization of Georgia
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS• What were the reasons for Georgia’s
settlement?• Who contributed to the establishment
of the Georgia colony?• Who were the malcontents and what
affect did they have on the Georgia colony?
STANDARDS
SS8H2 The student will analyze the colonial period of Georgia’s history.
• a. Explain the importance of James Oglethorpe, the Charter of 1732, reasons for settlement (charity, economics, and defense), Tomochichi, Mary Musgrove, and the city of Savannah.
• b. Evaluate the Trustee Period of Georgia’s colonial history, emphasizing the role of the Salzburgers, Highland Scots, malcontents, and the Spanish threat from Florida.
• c. Explain the development of Georgia as a royal colony with regard to land ownership, slavery, government, and the impact of the royal governors.
• The English established colonies on North America’s Atlantic coast throughout the 1600s. The goals of the colonists varied, from religious mission, gaining wealth to bettering their lives.
Great Britain wanted raw materials from the New World’s colonies, which it would manufacture into finished goods and sell to other countries. This was mercantilism.
By 1686, as the English colonies reached as far south as South Carolina, the Spanish retreated from Guale to St. Augustine, Florida. Great Britain wanted a “buffer” colony to protect the English colonists from Spanish Florida.
The English Influence in the Georgia Colony
• The French began colonizing the Gulf coast and parts of Alabama. England began worrying about the French and Spanish threats to its colonial claims.
Who Was James Oglethorpe?• Born in London in 1696• Member of an Influential Family• Well Educated• Wealthy• Cared Greatly for People in Trouble• Tried to Find Ways to Help Them • Member of Parliament’s House of Commons
Why did Oglethorpe want to form a new colony?
• James Edward Oglethorpe and 20 other influential men in Great Britain made a plan to create a new colony for the working poor. They envisioned a colony for people who faced jail time for bad debts.
silk, dyes, wine, spices, and semi-tropical fruit
What products did James Oglethorpe promise to send back to England?
Why Was Georgia
Created?
DefenseEconomics
Charity
Religion = Unofficial Reason
CHARTER OF 1732
• WHO: King George II, James Oglethorpe, 20 trustees, total of 115 colonists
• WHAT: Document to start a colony in Georgia• WHEN: 1732• WHERE: All land between Altamaha and Savannah
Rivers to the south seas, Town of Savannah on Yamacraw Bluff
• WHY: 1) protection from Spanish, French, and Native Americans, 2) provide resources for Britain, 3) populate the colony with “worthy poor”
In 1732, King George II created a charter
allowing 21 Trustees, including Oglethorpe,
to create a Georgia colony and oversee it
for 21 years.
King George II
Who was Georgia named
after?
It included the land between the Savannah and Altamaha rivers and extended west to the Pacific Ocean.
Georgia’s Charter
6,000 Words
Many Limits
...document establishing Georgia as a colony
Trustees Could Not...
Be Given Money for their Work
Own Land
HoldPoliticalOffice
WHOCOULD NOT
BECOME COLONISTS?
The Colony Belonged to the Crown!!!!
The First Georgia Colonists
Debtors & Prisoners
The First Georgia Colonists
•Carefully Investigated• Promised 50 acres of land, tools, and enough food for 1 year• If they could pay their own way, received 500 acres of land and permission to take 10 indentured servants.
In Exchange.... They Agreed to...
Defend the New Colony
Land Could Not Be Sold
Farm the Land
Grow Mulberry Trees on Portion of Land
Obey all regulations established by the trustees.
Between 114 and 125 settlers sailed from England on the ship Ann in 1732.
TomochichiOglethorpe befriended Tomochichi, chief of the Yamacraw Indians.
Yamacraw Bluff• Tomochichi led the settlers to Yamacraw Bluff
overlooking the Savannah River. This became the first settlement of the new Georgia colony.
Who was Mary Musgrove?• Daughter of a white trader and an
Indian woman from a powerful family of the Creek nation.
• Served as an interpreter between James Oglethorpe and the Native Americans.
• She and her first husband, John Musgrove, established fur trade with the Creeks.
• Instrumental in the peaceful founding of Savannah.
New Colonists Arrive in Georgia
Forty original settlers died in the first year.
In 1733, 42 Jews were allowed to settle in Georgia, including a much-needed doctor.
City of Savannah
•Yamacraw Bluff became Savannah.
•Oglethorpe designed the city.
•Built using connected neighborhoods and squares
•Each lot was of equal size.
•The lots were arranged in a repeating pattern.
Soon, other colonists start coming
too…
The SalzburgersA group of German protestants were forced to leave Salzburg, which was controlled by the Catholics. They settled in a town called Ebenezer (Rock of Help), about 25 miles from Savannah.
Why did the Salzburgers move from their original location?
They worked hard, spoke a different language, and stayed to themselves. Three years later, they moved to Red Bluff and settled a new town called New Ebenezer (along the Savannah River) because the land at Ebenezer was marshy with poor soil for crops. They opposed slavery in the colony.
SALZBURGERS
Whatever you forget about the Salzburgers between now and the CRCT, at least remember this…
The Salzburgers were Protestant Christians who were kicked out of Catholic controlled Germany and wanted religious freedom in Georgia.
Highland Scots
• Recruited by Oglethorpe to provide defense for Georgia.
• Very capable soldiers
• Built a fort at Darien –Fort King George
HIGHLAND SCOTS key points• Came to Georgia in 1736 from Scotland• Built the town / fort of Darien south of Savannah
along the Altamaha River• Protected the Georgia colony from Spanish Florida –
helped Oglethorpe push the Spanish out of Georgia in the Battle of Bloody Marsh
• Changed from farming to cattle raising and harvesting timber
• Opposed slavery in the colony
In 1721, the English established Fort King George at the mouth of the Altamaha River, near today’s Darien. The fort was a “warning point” for invaders from Spanish Florida. The fort was abandoned after six years.
HIGHLAND SCOTS SUMMARY
Whatever you forget about the Highland Scots between now and the CRCT, at least remember this…
The Highland Scots were soldiers who colonized Georgia by creating the town of Darien and helped defend the colony from the Spanish during the Battle of Bloody Marsh.
More Settlers...• Oglethorpe and Chief
Tomochichi returned from a trip to England in 1736 with 300 more settlers. Religious leaders John and Charles Wesley also arrived in Georgia.
War of Jenkin’s EarThe War of Jenkin’s Ear broke out between Great Britain and Spain in 1739.Several years earlier, Spanish sailors were said to have cut off the ear of Robert Jenkins, a British seaman, to serve as a warning to British ship captains smuggling goods off the Florida coast.
Oglethorpe welcomed the war! He wanted to invade Florida.
Oglethorpe organized an army of about 2,000 men with plans to capture Spanish forts in Florida.
Spain’s well-organized militia met Oglethorpe and his men in a surprise attack and forced the Georgians, South Carolinians, and their Indian allies to retreat to St. Simon’s Island.
The Battle of Bloody Marsh• Assisted by the Highland Scots, Oglethorpe was able
to defeat the Spanish.
• They waited in the dense woods along the marshes of St. Simon’s Island and took the Spanish by surprise.
• Georgia’s southern border was protected.
Georgia’s Colonists Become Discontent
South Carolina used slave labor to successfully grow rice, tobacco, and cotton on large plantations.
Farmers in Georgia wanted the same “success” that South Carolina farmers had.
Regulations enforced by Oglethorpe did not allow:
rum trade
buying large tracts of land
use of slave labor
MalcontentsThose who complained about the policies of the Trustees. Arrived without assistance and did not have the same loyalty to the colony's founders.
Could afford to purchase slaves and vast tracts of land and felt the policies of the Trustees prevented them from realizing their economic potential.
Why was the vision of the trustees for
Georgia never fulfilled?
Dissension caused many Georgians to move to
places where they could basically live as they
wished.
By 1742, Georgians were allowed to buy and sell rum.
Slavery was introduced in 1750.
The colony named for King George II was
changing.
Oglethorpe left the Georgia colony for
England in 1743 and never returned.
The Post-Oglethorpe
Era Begins
Three different men served as president of the Georgia colony from the time Oglethorpe left the colony until 1754:
William Stephens
Henry Parker
Patrick Graham
In 1752, one year before the initial 21-year charter
was to expire, the trustees returned
Georgia to the authority of King
George II. It became a royal
colony.
Trustee Colony1732 - 1752
Board of Trustees Ruled Colony
Land Ownership Restricted to 50 acres, plus a town lot
for colonists on charity
No Established Church (Freedom of Religion Except
for Catholics)
Slavery Prohibited
Royal Colony1752 - 1776
King Ruled Colony
Limits on Land Ownership Removed. Colonists could buy
and sell land; women could inherit land; plantations began
to grow rice, cotton, and tobacco
Anglican Church (Church of England)
Slavery Allowed
Who became the first royal governor of Georgia?
John Reynolds
• Introduced the idea of self-government
• Bicameral legislature was set up
• Set up a court system
• French and Indian War began while he was governor
• Became unpopular because he tried to run Georgia by himself
• Suggested moving Savannah
• recalled at the end of 1756
2nd Royal Governor =Henry Ellis• established a sound foundation for
government • Set up a budget and regulated trade with
the Indians• The colony made economic gains under
him• He helped improve the relationship of the
colony with the Creek Indians
3rd Royal Governor = James Wright• efficient administrator • Most popular governor• Georgia grew in development• The end of the French and Indian War gave
Georgia more land under his leadership• Was governor for 16 years
Colonial Leaders of Georgia
Trustee Period
James Oglethorpe 1733-1743 Resident
Trustee
William Stephens 1743-1751 President
Henry Parker 1751-1752 President
Patrick Graham 1752-1754 President
Royal Period
John Reynolds 1754-1757 Royal Governor
Henry Ellis 1757-1760 Royal Governor
James Wright 1760-1776 Royal Governor
What was Georgia’s 1st Government like?
Idea of self-governmentBicameral(two houses: Common House of Assembly & Governor’s Council representing 8 parishes both church and British government district)Court SystemWhite landowners could vote
• In its first 20 years as a colony, Georgia’s population grew to 5,500 people, of which one-third were slaves. Protestants from Europe found safe haven in Georgia.
• Treaties with Native Americans and victory over the Spanish settlers in Florida provided security to the Georgia colonists.
Early Georgia Colony Accomplishments• The Bethesda Orphans Home was established in Ebenezer.
• The orphanage later became Bethesda House School, where many of Georgia’s early leaders were educated.
• The Methodist Church was founded by John and Charles Wesley.
• The first Sunday School in America is established by the Wesley brothers.
• A successful court system was established and maintained.
• Women were able to inherit property.