Chapter 4: 1477-1752
SETTLEMENT OF THE 13TH COLONY
The Native Indians lived in the “United States” first. European explorers came
here and interacted with them. Why?
What did the Europeans want?
China was thought to be a land full of riches (spices, silk, gold, silver)
Europeans wanted a quicker route to use to sail to China
Christopher Columbus
Columbus was Italian
He sailed under the flag of Spain (it supported him)
1492: Columbus landed on an island in the Bahamas. He thought he was in
India, so he named the people he met “Indians”
Hernando De Soto (from Spain)
1540: De Soto and his men marched from Tampa, Florida into southwest Georgia
(near today’s Albany) looking for GOLD
De Soto meet Indians on his trip
His weapons, plated armor, and horses overwhelmed the Indians
Thousands of American Indians in Georgia died (disease and war)
De Soto went across Georgia into South Carolina, but never found the gold
English Settlements in the New World
England started colonies on the Atlantic coast during the 1600s.
Goals were religion or gaining wealth
England wanted raw materials (wood, cloth) from the colonies
England manufactured the goods into finished goods and sold to other
countries.
This was mercantilism.
The English began to settle Georgia
Goods were traded back and forth between England and Georgia
Tobacco, corn, yams, turkeys, peanuts, and pumpkins went to Europe
Horses, chickens, oxen, pigs and cattle came from Europe to Georgia
So there was a happy relationship between Europe and Georgia. Each was
assisting the other but the area was not settled (just used for the goods)
James Oglethorpe
James Oglethorpe was born in London from a wealthy family
He wanted to help those in jail for not paying their debts (“debtors jail”)
He wanted some land in the New World to make a colony for the jailed people
They would work and help England grow economically
• In 1732: King George II gave land (called a charter) to 21 Trustees, including
Oglethorpe, to create a colony
• Oglethorpe promised that silk, dyes, wine, spices, and semi-tropical fruit would
be sent from Georgia back to England.
The First Georgia Colonists
• Few debtors, former prisoners, or working poor ever made it to Georgia
• Georgia’s first settlers were given land, tools, and food.
• They would defend the colony from invaders
• They would grow trees that attracts silk worms
• Between 114 and 125 settlers sailed form England on the ship Ann in 1732.
• NO lawyers, slaves, Catholics or liquor was allowed on the Ann
• Ship landed near Savannah
• Oglethorpe befriended Tomochichi, Chief of the Yamacraw Indians.
• Tomochichi gave Yamacraw Bluff (overlooking the Savannah River) to
Oglethorpe. This became the first settlement of the new Georgia colony.
Savannah: Georgia’s Planned City
• Savannah was designed and built along the Savannah River to facilitate shipping.
• Today, nearly 150,000 people live in Savannah
New Colonists Arrive in Georgia
• Catholics were not allowed to settle in Georgia
• Forty original settlers died in the first year
• In 1733, 42 Jews settled in Georgia
• In 1733, a group of German Protestants from Salzburg, Germany arrived, and
settled a town called Ebenezer. Three years later they settled New Ebenezer.
• Oglethorpe and Chief Tomochichi returned from a trip to England in 1736 with
300 more settlers, Religious leaders John and Charles Wesley arrived in Georgia.
They established the Methodist church.
Georgia’s Colonists Become Discontent
• Rules did not allow rum trade, buying large tracts of land, or use of slave labor.
• South Carolina used slaves to grow rice, tobacco, and cotton on large plantations
• Farmers in Georgia wanted the same success South Carolina farmers had.
• Many colonists moved where they could 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.
War against Spain
• The War of Jenkins’s Ear: Between Great Britain and Spain in 1739.
• Oglethorpe organized an army of 2,000 men
• Planned to capture Spanish forts in St. Augustine, Florida.
• Spain forced Oglethorpe back to St. Simon’s Island.
• The Battle of Bloody Marsh: (1742)
• Spanish fled Georgia, marking the end of Spanish threats.
• Georgia’s southern border was protected.
• Oglethorpe left the Georgia colony for England in 1743 and never returned.
The Post-Oglethorpe Era Begins
• Three different men (William Stephens, Henry Parker, and Patrick Graham)
served as president of colony from the time Oglethorpe left the colony
• In 1752, the trustees returned Georgia to the authority of King Georgia II.
• Georgia’s population grew to 5,500 people
• About 2000 were slaves