USA Georgia - The History : USA  

USA Georgia - The History - Travel guide

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USA Georgia - The History

The History

Although never formally designated as such by the British, Savannah was the center of colonial government in Georgia for half a century.

Georgia, the last of the 13 British colonies established on the Atlantic seaboard, was founded by James Edward Oglethorpe with 114 original settlers on February 12, 1733, at the present site of the city of Savannah.

As more people settled in the colony of Georgia, the Spanish in the Florida area became increasingly uneasy at the growing British presence. On July 7, 1742, Oglethorpe, then "General and Commander in Chief of the Forces of South Carolina and Georgia", defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Bloody Marsh on St. Simons Island, removing the Spanish threat to Georgia. In 1743 General Oglethorpe sailed for England never to return to Georgia.

With the arrival of more colonists, settlements developed along the coast and up the rivers. In 1758 the province of Georgia was divided into eight parishes, with four new parishes added in 1765. When Georgia’s independence from British rule was declared in January of 1776, an Executive Council was elected, and the revolutionary state government made Savannah its capital. The Legislature met there in 1777 and in 1778.

Upon the fall of Augusta in 1779, the government was located temporarily at Head’s Fort in Wilkes County from February 1780, to July 1781. Government officials returned to Augusta in 1782, only to move to Savannah, which the British had evacuated. The legislators paused en route for several days to conduct business at Ebenezer, a small German settlement.

During the Revolutionary War, many Georgians still felt loyalty to England. Therefore, the war was fought not only between American and British forces, but also between citizens who became revolutionaries, the Whigs, and those still swearing allegiance to the king, the Tories. Between 1783 and 1785, the Georgia Assembly rotated between Savannah and Augusta, and the governor divided his official residence between the two cities.

The first permanent Capitol to be built was completed in Louisville in 1796. Although there is no existing drawing of the building, it is known that it was a two-story brick structure of the 18th century Georgia architecture. Later, after the transfer of the capital, the building was used as a county courthouse and finally was destroyed.

The desire for land, and later gold, created a swift expansion beyond the old frontier, carrying with it increased trade along rivers and migration of people along new roads into the wilderness. The primary basis for this new growth and economic expansion was the production of cotton thorough a slave labor system.

In 1860 the national debate over the extension of slavery into new territories reached a crescendo. Following the election of Abraham Lincoln as president, a special state convention voted on January 19, 1861, to secede from the Union. Secession is only considered to be the most important legislation passed in Milledgeville. Only a few months later Georgia formally joined the Confederate States of America.

During the Civil War (1861-1865), Georgia lost nearly 120,000 men and boys in battle as well as much of the state’s material wealth. The rebuilding of the state afterwards was a slow and painful process. There were political conflicts between the newly enfranchised black citizens who, for the first time, were allowed to hold seats in the Legislature, and the prewar social structure, which sought to minimize the changes it had to accept in its traditional way of life.

Georgia became the 4th State to unite under America on January 2, 1788 (the fourth of the original 13 colonies).