{{Short description|British colony in North America (1732–1776)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2012}} {{Use American English|date=February 2023}} {{Infobox country |conventional_long_name = Province of Georgia |common_name = Georgia Colony |era = Colonial Era |status = Colony of Great Britain |government_type = Proprietary colony<br>(1732–1755)<br>Crown colony<br>(1755–1782) |event_start = |year_start = 1732 |event_end = |year_end = 1776 |date_end = |s1 = State of Georgia |image_coat = |image_map = gacolony.png |image_map_caption = Map of the Province of Georgia, 1732–1782 |capital = Savannah |official_languages = English |languages_type = Minority languages |languages = Mikasuki, Cherokee, Muscogee, Shawnee, Yuchi |religion = Church of England (Anglicanism) |currency = Georgia pound |title_leader = King |leader1 = George II |year_leader1 = 1732–1760 |leader2 = George III |year_leader2 = 1760–1777 |legislature = Commons House of Assembly (lower)<br>General Assembly (upper) |title_representative = Governor |representative1 = James Oglethorpe (first) |year_representative1 = 1732–1743 |representative2 = James Wright (last) |year_representative2 = 1760–1782 |today = United States * Alabama * Georgia * Mississippi |demonym=|area_km2=|area_rank=|GDP_PPP=|GDP_PPP_year=|HDI=|HDI_year=|image_flag=Colonial-Red-Ensign.svg}}
The '''Province of Georgia'''<ref name="Avalon2008">{{cite web|title=Charter of Georgia: 1732|website=Avalon Law|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ga01.asp|publisher=Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School|access-date=23 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081022115324/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ga01.asp|archive-date=October 22, 2008 |date=2008|quote=All which lands, countries, territories and premises, hereby granted or mentioned, and intended to be granted, we do by these presents, make, erect and create one independent and separate province, by the name of Georgia, by which name we will, the same henceforth be called.}}</ref> (also '''Georgia Colony''') was one of the Southern Colonies in colonial-era British America. Founded as a British proprietary colony in 1732, in 1751 it became a royal colony. In 1775 it was the last of the Thirteen Colonies to support the American Revolution.
The original land grant of the Province of Georgia included a narrow strip of land that extended west to the Pacific Ocean.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ga01.asp | title=Charter of Georgia : 1732 | website=avalon.law.yale.edu | date=December 18, 1998 | publisher=Lillian Goldman Law Library | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081022115324/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ga01.asp|archive-date=October 22, 2008 | quote = ...[from] the Savannah [to] the Alatamaha ''[sic]'', and westerly from the heads of the said rivers respectively, in direct lines to the south seas. }}</ref>
The colony's corporate charter<ref>{{cite web|title=Royal Charter of the Colony of Georgia|url=http://cdm.georgiaarchives.org:2011/cdm/ref/collection/adhoc/id/411|website=Trustees, Colony of Georgia, RG 49-2-18|publisher=Georgia Archives|access-date=18 May 2016}}</ref> was granted to General James Oglethorpe on April 21, 1732, by George II, for whom the colony was named. The charter was finalized by the King's privy council on June 9, 1732.<ref>Evarts Boutell Greene, ''Provincial America, 1690-1740'' (1905) [http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/ebook/p/2005/dins_doc/www.dinsdoc.com/greene-3-15.htm ch 15 online pp 249-269 covers 1732 to 1763.]</ref>
The English colony of Georgia was planned as a utopian society with an integrated physical, economic and social design influenced by the ideals of James Harrington. Oglethorpe envisioned a colony which would serve as a haven for English subjects who had been imprisoned for debt and "the worthy poor." General Oglethorpe imposed laws that many colonists disagreed with, such as the banning of alcoholic beverages.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Sweet|first1=Julie Anne|title=That Cursed Evil Rum": The Trustees' Prohibition Policy in Colonial Georgia|journal=Georgia Historical Quarterly|date=2010|volume=94|issue=1|pages=1–29|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=49757073&site=eds-live&scope=site|access-date=14 February 2018}}</ref> He disagreed with slavery and thought a system of smallholdings more appropriate than the large plantations common in the colonies just to the north. However, land grants were not as large as most colonists would have preferred.{{fact|date=October 2024}}
Another reason for the founding of the colony was as a buffer state and a "garrison province" which would defend the southern British colonies from Spanish Florida. Oglethorpe imagined a province populated by "sturdy farmers" who could guard the border; because of this, the colony's charter prohibited slavery.<ref name="Avalon2008"/> The ban on slavery was lifted by 1751 and the colony became a royal colony by 1752, <ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/royal-georgia-1752-1776 |title=Royal Georgia, 1752-1776 |website=New Georgia Encyclopedia |language=en |access-date=2018-07-24}}</ref> taking over from the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America.
==Foundation== {{main|Trustee Georgia}}
{{Historical populations |type= USA |1740|2021 |1750|15,200 |1760|19,578 |1770|33,375 |1780|66,071 |footnote=Source: 1740–1760;<ref>{{cite book|first=Thomas L.|last=Purvis|editor-first=Richard|editor-last=Balkin|title=Colonial America to 1763|year=1999|place=New York|publisher=Facts on File|isbn=978-0816025275|pages=[https://archive.org/details/colonialamericat00purv_0/page/128 128–129]|url=https://archive.org/details/colonialamericat00purv_0/page/128}}</ref> 1770–1780<ref name="Colonial and Pre-Federal Statistics">{{cite web|title=Colonial and Pre-Federal Statistics|publisher=United States Census Bureau|page=1168|url=https://www2.census.gov/prod2/statcomp/documents/CT1970p2-13.pdf}}</ref> }}
Although many believe that the colony was formed for the imprisoned, the colony was actually formed as a place of no slavery. Oglethorpe did have the vision to make it a place for debtors, but it transformed into a royal colony. The following is an historical accounting of these first English settlers sent to Georgia:
<blockquote>A committee was appointed to visit the jails and obtain the discharge of such poor prisoners as were worthy, carefully investigating ''character, circumstances and antecedents''.<ref name="Cooper">{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sV8TAAAAYAAJ|title=James Oglethorpe: The Founder of Georgia|first=Harriet Cornelia|last=Cooper|date=January 1, 1904|publisher=D. Appleton|via=Google Books}}</ref>{{rp|16}}
Thirty-five families, numbering one hundred and twenty persons, were selected.<ref name=" Cooper"/>{{rp|21}}
On the 16th of November, 1732, the emigrants embarked at Gravesend on the ship Anne ... arriving January 13th [1733] in the harbor of Charleston, S. C. ... They set sail the day following ... into Port Royal, some eighty miles southward, to be conveyed in small vessels to the river Savannah.<ref name=" Cooper"/>{{rp|21}}</blockquote>
thumb|left|400px Oglethorpe continued up the river to scout a location suitable for settlement. On February 12, 1733, Oglethorpe led the settlers to their arrival at Yamacraw Bluff, in what is now the city of Savannah, and established a camp with the help of a local elderly Creek chief, Tomochichi. A Yamacraw Indian village had occupied the site, but Oglethorpe arranged for the Indians to move. The day is still celebrated as Georgia Day.
The original charter specified the colony as being between the Savannah and Altamaha Rivers, up to their headwaters (the headwaters of the Altamaha are on the Ocmulgee River), and then extending westward "to the south seas." The area within the charter had previously been part of the original grant of the Province of Carolina, which was closely linked to Georgia.<ref name="Avalon2008"/>
==Development of the colony== thumb|upright=1.15|Savannah colony, 18th century The Privy Council approved the establishment charter on June 9, 1732, and for the next two decades the council of trustees governed the province, with the aid of annual subsidies from Parliament. However, after many difficulties and the departure of Oglethorpe, the trustees proved unable to manage the proprietary colony, and on June 23, 1752, they submitted a deed of reconveyance to the crown, one year before the expiration of the charter. On January 2, 1755, Georgia officially ceased to be a proprietary colony and became a royal colony.
From 1732 until 1758, the minor civil divisions were districts and towns. In 1758, without Indian permission, the Province of Georgia was divided into eight parishes by the Act of the Assembly of Georgia on March 15. The Town and District of Savannah was named Christ Church Parish.<ref name="parishmap">[https://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/maps/article/historical/map-of-georgias-colonial-parishes 1773 Map of Georgia's Colonial Parishes]</ref> The District of Abercorn and Goshen, plus the District of Ebenezer, was named the Parish of St. Matthew.<ref name="parishmap"/> The District of Halifax was named the Parish of St. George.<ref name="parishmap"/> The District of Augusta was named the Parish of St. Paul.<ref name="parishmap"/> The Town of Hardwick and the District of Ogeechee, including the island of Ossabaw, was named the Parish of St. Philip.<ref name="parishmap"/> From Sunbury in the District of Midway and Newport to the south branch of Newport, including the islands of St. Catherine and Bermuda, was named the Parish of St. John.<ref name="parishmap"/> The Town and District of Darien, to the Altamaha River, including the islands of Sapelo and Eastwood and the sea islands north of Egg Island, was named the Parish of St. Andrew.<ref name="parishmap"/> The Town and District of Frederica, including the islands of Great and Little St. Simons, along with the adjacent islands, was named the Parish of St. James.<ref name="parishmap"/>
Following Britain's victory in the French and Indian War, King George III issued the Proclamation of 1763. One of its provisions was to extend Georgia's southern boundary from the Altamaha River to the St. Marys River. Two years later, on March 25, 1765, Governor James Wright approved an act of the General Assembly creating four new parishes{{spaced ndash}}St. David, St. Patrick, St. Thomas, and St. Mary{{spaced ndash}}<ref name="parishmap"/> in the recently acquired land, and it further assigned Jekyll Island to St. James Parish.<ref>{{Cite web|title = GeorgiaInfo|url = http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/|website = georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu|access-date = 2016-02-16}}</ref>
The Georgia colony had had a sluggish beginning. James Oglethorpe did not allow liquor, and colonists who came at the trustees' expense were not allowed to own more than {{convert|50|acre|km2}} of land for their farm in addition to a 60 foot by 90 foot plot in town. Those who paid their own way could bring ten indentured servants and would receive 500 acres of land. Additional land could neither be acquired nor sold.<ref>{{cite web |last= Force |first= Peter| title= Tracts and other papers relating principally to the origin, settlement, and progress of the colonies in North America from the discovery of the country to the year 1776. | publisher = American Memory | url = http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/lhbcb:@field(DOCID+@lit(lhbcb7018adiv36))| format = Web | access-date = 28 September 2013 }}</ref> Discontent grew in the colony because of these restrictions, and Oglethorpe lifted them.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Lannen|first1=Andrew C.|title=Liberty and Slavery in Colonial America: The Case of Georgia, 1732-1770|journal=Historian|date=2017|volume=79|issue=1|pages=32–55|doi=10.1111/hisn.12420|s2cid=151454311}}</ref> With slavery, liquor, and land acquisition the colony developed much faster. Slavery had been permitted from 1749.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofuniteds01elsouoft|title=History of the United States of America|first1=Henry W. (Henry William)|last1=Elson|first2=Charles Henry|last2=Hart|date=April 25, 1905|publisher=New York, Pub. for the Review of reviews company by the Macmillan company; London, Macmillan & co., ltd.|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> There was some internal opposition to slavery, particularly from Scottish settlers,<ref>Wikisource: Petition against the Introduction of Slavery</ref> but by the time of the War of Independence, Georgia was much like the other Southern colonies.
==The War of Jenkins' Ear== {{main|War of Jenkins' Ear}}
In the 1742 invasion of Georgia, Spanish forces based in Spanish Florida attempted to seize and occupy disputed territory held by the British colony of Georgia. The campaign was part of a larger conflict which became known as the War of Jenkins' Ear. Local British forces under the command of the Governor James Oglethorpe rallied and defeated the Spaniards at the Battle of Bloody Marsh and the Battle of Gully Hole Creek, forcing them to withdraw. Britain's ownership of Georgia was formally recognized by Spain in the subsequent Treaty of Madrid.{{Sfn|Gaudi|2021}}
==Revolutionary War period and beyond== {{main|Georgia in the American Revolution}}
During the American Revolution Georgia's population was at first divided about exactly how to respond to revolutionary activities and heightened tensions in other provinces. After violence broke out in Massachusetts in 1775, radical Patriots stormed the royal magazine at Savannah and carried off its ammunition, took control of the provincial government, and drove many Loyalists out of the province. In 1776 a provincial congress had declared independence and created a constitution for the new state. Georgia also served as the staging ground for several important raids into British-controlled Florida.<ref name="Revolutionary">{{cite web|url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2709|title=Revolutionary War in Georgia|publisher=Georgia Encyclopedia|access-date=29 July 2018|archive-date=September 19, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919032502/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2709|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In 1777 the original eight counties of the state of Georgia were created. Prior to that Georgia had been divided into local government units called parishes. Settlement had been limited to the near vicinity of the Savannah River; the western area of the new state remained under the control of the Creek Indian Confederation.<ref>{{Cite web|title = GeorgiaInfo|url = https://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/history/article/revolution-early-republic-1776-1800/a-brief-history-of-georgia-counties |access-date = 2018-07-29}}</ref>
James Wright, the last Royal Governor of the Province of Georgia, dismissed the royal assembly in 1775. He was briefly a prisoner of the revolutionaries before escaping to a British warship in February 1776. During the American Revolutionary War Wright was the only royal governor to regain control of part of his colony after British forces captured Savannah on December 29, 1778. British and Loyalist forces restored large areas of Georgia to colonial rule, especially along the coast, while Patriots continued to maintain an independent governor, congress, and militia in other areas. In 1779 the British repelled an attack of militia, Continental Army, and French military and naval forces on Savannah. The 1781 siege of Augusta, by militia and Continental forces, restored it to Patriot control. When the war was lost for Britain, Wright and British forces evacuated Savannah on July 11, 1782. After that the Province of Georgia ceased to exist as a British colony.<ref name="Revolutionary"/>
The new state of Georgia was a member of the Second Continental Congress, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the tenth state to ratify the Articles of Confederation on July 24, 1778,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/articles.html |title=The Articles of Confederation: Primary Documents of American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress) |publisher=Loc.gov |date=July 10, 2014 |access-date=July 27, 2014}}</ref> and the fourth state to be admitted to the Union under the U.S. Constitution, on January 2, 1788.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.usconstitution.net/ratifications.html|title=Ratification Dates and Votes – The U.S. Constitution Online|work=USConstitution.net|access-date=29 July 2018}}</ref>
On April 24, 1802, Georgia ceded to the U.S. Congress parts of its western lands, that it had claims for going back to when it was a province (colony). These lands were incorporated into the Mississippi Territory and later (with other adjoining lands) became the states of Alabama and Mississippi.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=002/llsl002.db&recNum=340|title=A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875|website=memory.loc.gov}}</ref>
==See also== {{History of Georgia (U.S. state)}} * Georgia Experiment * Georgia cracker * History of Georgia (U.S. state) * List of colonial governors of Georgia * Oglethorpe Plan * Siege of Savannah
== References == {{Reflist}}
==Further reading==
* Cashin, Edward J. ''Guardians of the valley: Chickasaws in colonial South Carolina and Georgia'' (U of South Carolina Press, 2009) [https://books.google.com/books?id=jGaPjjw5sIIC&dq=Georgia&pg=PP11 online].
* {{cite book | author=Coleman, Kenneth | title=Colonial Georgia: A History | publisher=Scribner | year=1976 | isbn=0-684-14555-3}} * {{cite book |last=Gaudi |first=Robert |title=The War of Jenkins' Ear: The Forgotten Struggle for North and South America: 1739–1742 |publisher=Pegasus Books |year=2021 |isbn=978-1643138190}}
* Greene, Evarts Boutell. ''Provincial America, 1690-1740'' (1905) [http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/ebook/p/2005/dins_doc/www.dinsdoc.com/greene-3-15.htm ch 15 online pp 249-269 covers 1732 to 1763.]
* Harrold, Frances. "Colonial Siblings: Georgia's Relationship with South Carolina During the Pre-Revolutionary Period." ''Georgia Historical Quarterly'' 73.4 (1989): 707-744. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40582058 online]
* Hillman, Arye L. "Philanthropy as politics: The precolonial Georgia project for a new start in life for England's poor." ''European Journal of Political Economy'' (2023): 102429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2023.102429
* {{cite book | author=Hawke, David F. | title=The Colonial Experience | publisher=Bobbs-Merrill Company | year=1966 | isbn=0-02-351830-8 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/colonialexperien0000hawk }}
* Jennison, Watson W. ''Cultivating Race: The Expansion of Slavery in Georgia, 1750-1860'' (University Press of Kentucky, 2012) [https://books.google.com/books?id=O-M3fb6aebMC&dq=Georgia&pg=PP2 online]
* McIlvenna, Noeleen. '' The short life of free Georgia: Class and slavery in the colonial south'' (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2015). [https://books.google.com/books?id=EVu0CAAAQBAJ&dq=Georgia&pg=PP1 online]
* {{cite book|last1=Reese|first1=Trevor Richard|title=Colonial Georgia : a study in British imperial policy in the eighteenth century|date=1963|publisher=University of Georgia Press|location=Athens|isbn=9780820335537|url=http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/ugapressbks/do-pdf:ugp9780820335537|access-date=20 February 2018 }}
* Russell, David Lee. ''Oglethorpe and Colonial Georgia: A History, 1733-1783'' (McFarland, 2006) [https://books.google.com/books?id=iojIM25o6wkC&dq=Georgia&pg=PR9 online].
* Sullivan, Buddy. ''Georgia: A state history'' (Arcadia Publishing, 2010) [https://books.google.com/books?id=x2Uf7BKEwMQC&dq=Georgia&pg=PA6 online].
* Wax, Darold D. " 'New Negroes Are Always in Demand': The Slave Trade in Eighteenth-Century Georgia." '' Georgia Historical Quarterly'' 68.2 (1984): 193-220. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40581222 online]
==External links== {{wikisource|Charter of Georgia}} * [https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/colonial/georgia/georgia.html LOC: Establishing the Georgia Colony 1732–1750] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080914041926/http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/gahist.htm Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia: Georgia History] * [http://fax.libs.uga.edu/egmont/ Sir John Percival papers] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303173857/http://fax.libs.uga.edu/egmont/ |date=March 3, 2016 }}, also called: The Egmont Papers, 1732–1745. University of Georgia Hargrett Library. * [http://fax.libs.uga.edu/DA501xE31m/ Diary of Viscount Percival] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303230326/http://fax.libs.uga.edu/DA501xE31m/ |date=March 3, 2016 }} afterwards first Earl of Egmont. University of Georgia Hargrett Library. * [http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ga01.asp Charter of Georgia] from the Avalon Project * [http://cdm.georgiaarchives.org:2011/cdm/ref/collection/adhoc/id/411 Royal Charter for the Colony of Georgia, 09 June 1732] from the collection of the Georgia Archives. * [http://vault.georgiaarchives.org/cdm/ref/collection/adhoc/id/535 Original Grantees of the Colony of Georgia, 21 December 1733] from the collection of the Georgia Archives. * [http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/history/article/georgia-as-an-english-colony-1732-1775/1758-act-dividing-georgia-into-parishes 1758 Act Dividing Georgia into Parishes] * [http://cdm.georgiaarchives.org:2011/cdm/landingpage/collection/cwb Colonial Will Books, 1754-1779 from the Georgia Archives]
{{Thirteen Colonies}} {{British overseas territories}} {{Portal bar|British Empire|Georgia (U.S. state)|Monarchy|North America}}<!-- EDITORS NOTE: Please do not add "Portal:United States" as it would be historically inaccurate. Thank you. -->
{{Authority control}} {{coord|32|4|51|N|81|5|28|W|type:adm2nd_region:US-GA|display=title}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Georgia, Province of}} Province of Georgia Category:Thirteen Colonies Category:Province of Georgia Category:Colonial United States (British) Category:Former British colonies and protectorates in the Americas Category:1732 establishments in the British Empire Category:1776 disestablishments in the British Empire Category:States and territories disestablished in 1776