Colonial Georgia
Although Georgia was the last of the thirteen British colonies, and as a result, had the shortest colonial history, the colonial period in Georgia had lasting impacts on the state. This guide serves as a jumping off point for research into colonial Georgia, offering basic background information, as well as entry points to both primary and secondary sources.
Early Spanish Attempts to Colonize Georgia
The earliest European settlers in the region that would become Georgia, were the Spanish. Spanish explorers generally approached Georgia by sea, coming from Puerto Rico, Mexico, or St. Augustine, Florida.
The first and only attempt by the Spanish to establish a settlement in Georgia took place in 1525-1526, when Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon, a wealthy sugar planter from Hispaniola, lead 600 colonists on an expedition through South Carolina and Georgia. First making landfall in South Carolina, the colonists traveled overland into Georgia, following the trails of local Native American tribes. The group reached the coast of Georgia in 1526. At an unknown location in coastal Georgia, Ayllon set up a colony called San Miguel de Gualdape, which survived just 6 weeks before political in-fighting and an uprising among the African slaves the colonists had brought with them, ended the experiment. Ayllon died during this time, and only 150 survivors of the original 600 colonists returned to Hispaniola.
The next Spaniard to attempt a large scale exploration of the Georgia region was Hernando de Soto, in 1540. De Soto and around 600 Spanish soldiers marched overland, through Florida, and into Georgia, in search of riches. The group is thought to have crossed the Savnnah River somewhere near present day Augusta, GA, before continuing into South Carolina North Carolina, and Tennessee, dropping back into Georgia on their return trip. Although the De Soto expedition didn't result in any permanent European settlements, it had a lasting impact on the region. Spanish chroniclers recorded some of the only written information regarding the network of Native American chiefdoms in the Georgia region, and the soldiers themselves exposed the Native American populations they interacted with in these regions to European diseases, leading to later epidemics and population loss.
British Colonial Georgia
Georgia was the last of the thirteen British colonies to be founded, in 1732. The first settlement in the colony was Savannah, in 1733. James Oglethorpe, a British military leader, planned the new colony as one for debtors from London's prisons, but ultimately, no debtors were among the early settlers. Rather than a debtor's colony, Georgia was founded largely as a military zone to protect the colony of South Carolina from the Spanish in Florida.
The colony of Georgia was unique in that it was the only colony founded and ruled by a Board of Trustees, based in London, and was the only British colony in which slavery, rum, lawyers, and Catholics were initially explicitly banned. Slavery was later legalized in 1751, during a weakening of Trustee rule. The Trustee system ended in 1752, and the colony was ruled instead by royally appointed governors from 1752-1776.
Georgia in the American Revolutionary War
During the American Revolutionary War, Georgians were often not directly involved in the politics of war time action of the revolution, given that the colony of Georgia had the smallest population, and was the most rural, of the thirteen colonies. Many Georgians sympathized with British rule, as colonists had largely prospered under the system already in place, and due to the protection offered by British troops against attacks by the local Native American population.
Despite Georgia's being somewhat on the sidelines during the war, the colony (and later the state) was well represented in political efforts for American independence, with three Georgians signing the Declaration of Independence in 1776--Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, and George Walton-- and two more signing the U.S. Constitution in 1788-- Abraham Baldwin and William Few Jr.
James Oglethorpe, meeting with Creek Indians, from the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries.
Land deed with maps, tracking sale of land from 1776-1830. From the Reese Library Special Collections and Institutional Archives.
Plan for the City of Savannah, from the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries.