The History of Savannah
Savannah, Georgia is a town on the state's northeastern coast. It was originally founded in 1733 by James Oglethorpe. It was the first city in the state of Georgia, named after King George II of England. Georgia was originally supposed to be a colony for debtors to come and get out of the overflowing English prisons, but it was too expensive for prisoners to travel over.
Many colonists applied for they voyage over, but only people with important trades were accepted. The original one hundred fourteen settlers had to promise to do four things: plant mulberry trees to help the production of silk, not own, produce, or trade alcohol, not sell land, and fight to protect the land. There were a few more rules, too. These include not being Catholic, not being a lawyer, and not owning slaves. In colonial Savannah, there were trustees that were supposed to report everything that happened to the king and return to England for a replacement after a year. James Oglethorpe was the first of these trustees. Once Savannah was established, more immigrants came over. One group of these such immigrants were the Salzburgers, German protestants that had come for a fresh start and religious freedom. They started a city near Savannah called Ebenezer. Another group of immigrants were the Highland Scots. They were sent from Scotland as a forty person militia from Scotland. They |
were supposed to help England protect themselves from Spanish invasions. There was also a group of people who disagreed with all of the trustees' rules. They were called the Malcontents. They felt that the trustees' rules limited their economic growth since they weren't allowed to have slaves. They had seen South Carolina and how its farmers were thriving in tobacco and cotton production because of their slaves. They eventually convinced the trustees to allow slaves by leading a revolt to allow slavery. |