From Royalty to · pounds, 10 shillings. In the South, workers might ticularly tobacco. iving: ead, ound 3 pence (pennies). If meat was added, it was just under a shilling (12 pennies)

From Royalty toIndependenceFrom Royalty toIndependence

132 Georgia and the American Experience

Chapter PreviewChapter Preview

1752–1783

Georgia character word: LibertyTerms: apprentice, Puritans,proprietary colony, royal colony,parish, French and Indian War,palisades, cracker, independence,Tories, Patriots, boycott, Proc-lamation of 1763, Sugar Act,Stamp Act, Liberty Boys, Towns-hend Acts, Quartering Act,Second Continental Congress,Declaration of Independence,ratify, Articles of Confederation,siege, Treaty of Paris (1783)People: John Reynolds, GeorgeWashington, Henry Ellis, JamesWright, Noble Wimberly Jones,Lyman Hall, George Walton,Button Gwinnett, Thomas Paine,John Treutlen, Elijah Clarke,Austin DabneyPlaces: Midway, Sunbury, OhioValley, Lexington, Concord,Kettle Creek, Yorktown

Section 1 The Colonial PeriodSection 2 Georgia Becomes a

Royal ColonySection 3 The Call for

IndependenceSection 4 The Revolutionary

War Period

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Chapter 5: From Royalty to Independence 133

he period after Georgia returned its charter andbecame a British royal colony until the end of theAmerican Revolution was a time of unrest andturmoil in Georgia and in the other colonies. As you

read more, it is important to remember that in 1763, whenthe trouble really started, Georgia was only 30 years old.Virginia and Massachusetts and other colonies had beencolonies for 100 to 150 years. That is quite a difference in bothexperience and outlook.

Below: This painting by JohnTrumball is of the signing ofthe Declaration of Indepen-dence in what is now Indepen-dence Hall in Philadelphia.The painting includes por-traits of 42 of the 56 signersand 5 other patriots. It canbe seen in the rotunda of theU.S. Capitol Building.

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pSigns of theTimesSigns of theTimes1752-17831752-1783

Population: About 10,000 by 1759 in

Georgia, including approximately 3,600 slavesLife Expectancy: 37, if a child lived past 5

Wages: Plantation owners could make over

1,000 pounds a year. A skilled craftsman might

earn about 85 pounds a year. The average laborer

made 30 pounds; a journeyman (a skilled artisan

who worked in various shops) made 40 to 45

pounds. The annual pay for a ship’s boy was 2

pounds, 10 shillings. In the South, workers might

be paid in farm goods, particularly tobacco.

Cost of Living: A supper of bread,cheese, and beer cost around 3 pence(pennies). If meat was added, it was justunder a shilling (12 pennies). A day’s worthof coal cost 1 pence. A yard of good clothcost about 12 shillings. Knit stockings were2 shillings. In the South, a good flintlockmusket cost less than 1 pound. For 16shillings, one could buy a new saddle, adictionary, a table or a chair, or a nice wintercoat. For 200 pounds, one could purchase orbuild a nice home.

Art/Architecture: ImportantAmerican painters of the period were BenjaminWest, John Singleton Copley, and CharlesWilson Peale. Homes became more ornate. Thekitchen was often in a separate building, as wasthe “necessary house.” Farmhouses had 3-4small bedrooms downstairs, a combined familyroom-kitchen, and two small bedrooms upstairsor up the ladder to a loft area.

Literature: Books that were popular

for adults to read to their children included

Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels, and

Aesop’s Fables. Phillis Wheatley, a gifted

black poet from Boston, had a book of her

poems published in 1773.

Music: Revolutionary War favorites included

“Johnny Had Gone for a Soldier,” “The Foggy,

Foggy Dew,” “All the Pretty Little Horses,” “The

Rebels,” and “God Save the King.” British

soldiers sang “The Yankeys Return from Camp”

to make fun of the colonists. Today it is known

as “Yankee Doodle.”

Leisure Time: Horse racing was popularthroughout the colonies. Popular games in citiesincluded tennis, badminton, whist (a card game),cricket, and backgammon, checks (checkers),dominoes, jacks, marbles, spinning tops. Youngpeople enjoyed fishing, kite flying, hopscotch,berry picking, tag, and blind man’s bluff.

134 Chapter 5: From Royalty to Independence

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Science/Inventions: Benjamin Franklinperformed his now-famous kite experiment in 1752.Franklin also designed Philadelphia’s first streetlights and invented bifocal glasses. In 1753, blackinventor Benjamin Banneker built a wooden clockthat kept time for fifty years. John Hobday invented athreshing machine in 1772 and was awarded a goldmedal by the “Virginia Society for the Promotion ofUsefull Knowledge.”

Education: King’s College (Columbia

University) was founded in New York City in 1754.

Harvard Medical School opened in 1782.

Fashion: Wealthy colonial womenadopted the fashion of the “Tower.” Hairwas piled over crinoline pads until therewere lots of curls. It was greased, pow-dered white, and decked with jewels,ribbons, vegetables, fruits, flowers, or lace.It literally took hours to complete the hairstyle, but it might last for 3 weeks.

Fads: “Bosom bottles” were worn for the

first time in 1765. These small ribbon-deco-

rated glasses became the first live “corsages.”

Figure 12 Timeline: 1750 – 1800

1752Georgia

became aroyal colony

1754Reynolds

became firstroyal governor

1757Ellis named governor

1760Wright appointed governor

1763The Georgia Gazettewas the firstnewspaper in the state

1765Liberty Boys held firstmeeting in Savannah

1775Georgia’s Provincial Congress met

1777First Georgia state constitution adopted

John Treutlen became governor

1778British captured Savannah

1779Battle of Kettle Creek, siege of Savannah

1783Treaty of Paris ended Revolutionary War

1776Declaration of Independence

1775Revolutionary War began

1754French and Indian

War began

1757First street lights

appeared in Philadelphia

1763French andIndian War

ended

1767Mason-Dixon line established

1770Boston Massacre

1773Boston Tea Party

1774First Continental Congress

1750 1760 1770 1780 1790 1800

Signs of the Times 135

Map 22The British Coloniesin AmericaMap Skill: Name the NewEngland Colonies, the MiddleColonies, and the SouthernColonies.

The Colonial PeriodMuch of the period from the mid-1700s until the outbreak of the Revolu-tionary War was overshadowed by the political events that led to the breakbetween Great Britain and its colonies. But the concerns of most of the peoplein the thirteen colonies centered on the problems of everyday living.

The Colonial EconomyGreat Britain’s thirteen colonies could be divided into three groups. Al-

though those within each group worked together, there was little coopera-tion and few similarities between the three sectionseven in terms of their economies. The New EnglandColonies were located in cold, rugged terrain withrocky soil. The people there made their living build-ing ships, fishing, and whaling. They also engagedin buying, selling, and shipping goods, particularlyfine, handcrafted furniture, to Great Britain and theother colonies.

The Middle Colonies had a milder climate and arich soil for farming fruits and vegetables eventhough the farms were relatively small. Wheat wasespecially important in Pennsylvania and New York,leading to their nickname of the “breadbasket colo-nies.” The Middle Colonies also prided themselveson the number of their industry including manu-facturing, mining, textiles, and shipbuilding.

The third group of colonies—the Southern Colo-nies—includes the area where you live today. Herethe climate was even milder, and the soil was rich.There were many large plantations. Farmers grewtobacco, indigo, silk, and rice. Forest products werea large part of the southern economy. Casks andbarrels for shipping goods and naval stores were pro-duced from the vast longleaf pine forests.

Transportation and CommunicationTransportation continued to be a problem. Colonists on foot or horse-

back still followed Indian paths, while boats delivered passengers and tradegoods from port to port. Stagecoaches offered quick transportation amongthe colonies. That is, if you call the week it took to travel the ninety milesbetween New York and Philadelphia quick.

By the mid-1700s, most cities had cobblestone streets. Citizens, however,walked at their peril because some streets were used as garbage dumps. While

As you read, look for:• the economy of the Britishcolonies,• transportation, communica-tion, and education in theBritish colonies,• the culture of the Britishcolonies, and• vocabulary terms: appren-tice and Puritans.

Section PreviewSection PreviewSection1Section1

GEORGIA

SOUTH CAROLINA

NORTH CAROLINA

VIRGINIA

MARYLAND

DELAWARE

PENNSYLVANIA NEW JERSEY

NEW YORK

CONNECTICUTRHODE ISLAND

NEWHAMPSHIRE

Claimed byN.H andN.Y.

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New Englandcolonies

Middle colonies

Southern colonies

Legal limit ofsettlement (1763)

Claimed by New Hampshireand New York

Above: This David Wrightpainting depicts a commonactivity during colonial days.This turkey hunter wassuccessful in providing foodfor his family.

watching where they stepped, thecity dwellers also had to stay out ofthe way of wandering hogs and theoccasional chicken.

Written communication wasequally limited right before theRevolutionary War. People in the cit-ies relied on newspapers for informa-tion. Those in rural areas had to wait

for their newspapers, often as long as several weeks or months. Trading postswere sources of information, and bulletins and announcements were placedat the posts and in whatever local shops there were. In Savannah, theriverfront was also a source of information as ships came into port from GreatBritain or from other colonies and shared the latest news. It was still news tothe Southern Colonies even though much of the information was weeks oldwhen it finally arrived at the Savannah port.

EducationFor most children, schooling was something that occurred between daily

chores. Seasonal agricultural needs took precedence. In the early days, mostschooling took place either in the home or in the church. Boys were taughtpractical skills, such as farming or horseshoeing. If they lived in or near

Section 1: The Colonial Period 137

?Naval stores—tar, pitch,rosin, and turpentine—wereused to preserve the wood

and ropes on ships.

Did You Know?Did You Know?

Top: “Old field schools” werebuilt in an old worn-out fieldthat was good for nothingelse. The one-room buildingswere poorly heated and let inlittle light. Above: Punish-ment in colonial schools couldbe very harsh. Students couldbe caned for not knowingtheir lessons.

cities, they might be sent away toapprentice in a trade; that is, tolearn a particular skill from a mastercraftsman. Girls learned homemak-ing skills, either to use in their ownhomes or working for others as“hired” hands.

When public schools first beganin the New England Colonies, onlyboys attended. They studied the“3 Rs”: reading, ‘writing, and ‘rith-metic. The alphabet included manyreligious and secular jingles to teachreading, religion, and communityvalues. For example:

“A — Adam — In Adam’s Fall, Wesinned all.”“B — Bible — Thy Life to Mend, ThisBook Attend.”

In some towns, both boys andgirls could attend a “dame school,”where a woman who was knowl-edgeable in the “3 Rs” opened herhome as a school. Students carvedtheir writing pens from goose quillsand used ink made from boiled bark.Many boys continued on to Latin

grammar schools to prepare for college. Colleges such as Yale, Harvard, Brown,Dartmouth, Princeton, and William and Mary opened in the colonies.

In the Middle Colonies, education was intended to prepare boys for a tradeor skill. Most schools were run by different religious denominations. For thosewho could not afford to put their children in private schools, elementary schoolwas considered adequate. There was very limited secondary level schooling.

Discipline in these early schools was very rigid. In many of the colonies,students were caned (whipped witha thick rod) if they could not showthat they knew their lessons. Likemany other things in their lives,going to school was not somethingto be treated lightly.

In the South, boys from wealthyfamilies either had a tutor (a privateteacher) or were sent overseas to beeducated in Great Britain or France.“Old field schools” also became


?Did You Know?Did You Know?

Education for wealthy youngsouthern men included Latin,

Greek, Hebrew, reading,writing, arithmetic, plane

geometry, Italian bookkeep-ing, and navigation.

Above: Midway Church wasbuilt by the Puritans whosettled in the Midway area inthe 1750s. This building wascompleted in 1792.

more common as small planters and farmers put up a one-room building inan abandoned tobacco shed. The schools charged a small fee, and studentsattended when they were not needed on the farms. Only the most basic edu-cation was provided. In some communities, parents banded together to paysomeone, almost always a man, to teach the basics to their children.

ReligionDepending on the colony, church was gener-

ally both a place of worship and the center of com-munity activity. In the stricter New EnglandColonies, church services often lasted three hoursin the morning and three hours in the afternoon.The Puritans were especially demanding of theirfollowers. Puritans were a group of people whohad broken away from the Church of England be-cause of religious differences. Those who did notobserve the Puritan beliefs to the letter often re-ceived punishment ranging from caning to ban-ishment from the area. For the Puritans, learningto read was extremely important in order to readthe Scriptures. Although Puritanism eventuallydied out, many of the basic Puritan values, suchas their work ethic and their strong determinationin the face of challenges and adversity, became apart of early American culture.

In the Southern Colonies, although church at-tendance was expected, services tended to havemore singing and shorter sermons. After-churchsocials were times for women to visit and chatwhile girls played hopscotch and boys playedhoop ring or flew kites.

Georgia was a haven for such varied religiousgroups as the Moravians and the Jews. But the An-glican Church, or Church of England, was the ma-jor denomination. In fact, in 1758, it was madethe official church of the colony of Georgia.

During the late colonial period, religion re-mained an important part of colonists’ lives. Newdenominations appeared, and people slowly be-came more tolerant of the beliefs of others. Toensure there were enough ministers to serve the needs of the colonists,churches started colleges. The Baptists founded Brown University; the Pres-byterians founded Princeton; the Congregationalists began Dartmouth; theAnglicans founded Columbia. Another consequence of the changes in reli-gion during this period was that the colonists learned that they had more incommon with each other than they had thought. Those commonalitieswould be important when it came time for action later.


Top: The Thornton House atStone Mountain Park is typicalof the home of an upper-classfamily in the late 1700s.Above: This is the dining roomat Thornton House.

Leisure TimeEven recreation differed among

the three regions. In the New En-gland and the Middle colonies, mostof the recreation centered aroundwork and included such activities asbarn raisings, quilting bees, and cornhuskings. As they were in otheraspects of their lives, the Puritansremained quite strict. People intheir colonies were not allowed togamble, dance, play cards, or wearfrilly clothes. In the early colonialperiod, punishment for engaging insuch activities had included publicwhippings, having one’s legs locked

in stocks, and being dunked into a pond or river while sitting in what wascalled the dunking chair. Later, strictness lessened considerably. One of themost popular leisure-time activities became horse racing. Balls and dinnerparties were also popular activities.

In the Southern Colonies, fox hunting, horse races, and week-long par-ties with friends and relatives were a welcome change from the drudgery andisolation of farming or running a plantation. Food was always central to anylarge social gathering. Tables were laden with roasted pigs, pheasant, chicken,


Below: Weddings weremajor events in the SouthernColonies. Dancing wasan important part of thefestivities, which often lasteduntil the early hours of themorning.

venison, wild turkeys, oysters, andfish. Vegetables included steamedpumpkin pudding, squash, corn,and succotash. Desserts includedsuch treats as shoofly pie (a spice piewith molasses), slump (a fruit cob-bler), and sweetmeats (candied nuts,fruits, or flowers).

For young people, games includedjump rope, hoops, tennis, Londonbridge, hopscotch, leap frog, andother outdoor activities. Card games,if parents approved, were popular, aswere yo-yo’s and puzzles. Story tell-ing was a great pastime.

Romance and MarriageRomance during the late colonial

period had a very different meaningthan romance today. Girls could be“promised” in marriage as early astheir birth, and they could be mar-ried by 14 or 15. A young man hadto get permission from the father tocall on a young woman. Courtships,such as they were, took place atdances, church, or carefully supervised home visits. Weddings were a timefor great joy and celebration. Most ceremonies took place at 11:00 a.m. toallow a full day afterward for toasting, feasting, and entertainment.

For the wealthy families, marriage was primarily a business arrangement.For example, a father with a shipping company might marry his daughterto the son of another shipper. The two fathers could then merge their com-panies to form a larger business. Two plantations might be joined when theowners’ children married. If the marriage resulted in a love relationship, somuch the better. But love was not considered essential.

For less well-to-do families, marriage plans were much easier, and love oftenplayed a vital role in choosing a spouse. A social-class marriage was consid-ered to be a lasting partnership. Divorce was a shocking rarity.

In these relationships, each spouse had a clearly defined role. Since womencould not own property, their role was to provide a smoothly run home andwell-behaved children. Many wives kept the family books, planned socialgatherings, oversaw household servants, and taught their daughters the skillsand arts needed for their future homemaking roles. Husbands were expectedto be the providers and to be gallant and polite.

If her husband died, the surviving wife was expected to remarry after anappropriate mourning period of one or two months. Since half of all wivesdied in childbirth, men often had four or five wives.

It’s Your TurnIt’s Your Turn

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1. In what way were theeconomies of thecolonies alike during thisperiod?

2. In what ways did theSouthern Colonies differeconomically from theNew England and Middlecolonies?

3. What role did religionplay in education duringthe colonial period?

4. What was the biggestdifference in the leisure-time activities of youngpeople in the colonialperiod and today?



Since wedding guestsoften came from far away,wedding activities could

last for weeks.

Section2Section2Georgia Becomes aRoyal ColonyIn 1752, Georgia ceased to be a proprietary colony and became a royal colony.A proprietary colony was one that was governed by a board of trustees. Aroyal colony was one directly governed by the king.

During the two years before the first royal governor was appointed, someof the people who had left Georgia while it was a proprietary colony beganto return. In 1752, Puritans fromSouth Carolina bought 32,000 acresof land at Midway in present-dayLiberty County. They moved there,bringing their slaves with them.Soon they began growing rice andindigo. A port was built nearby atSunbury so the planters could shiptheir crops.

Georgia’s First RoyalGovernor and First Government

On October 1, 1754, Georgians cheered when John Reynolds, their firstroyal governor, arrived. Because the trustees had believed that the first Geor-gia settlers were not able to govern themselves, they had not given them theright to vote, hold elections, or collect taxes. Reynolds, a navy captain, in-troduced the idea of self-government. Unlike the trustees, Governor Reynoldswanted the colonists to help run the government.

A bicameral, or two-chamber, legislature was set up to represent the eightparishes of the colony. A parish was both a church and a British governmentdistrict. The lower house of the legislature was called the Commons Houseof Assembly; the upper house was called the Governor’s Council. In order tovote, a settler had to own at least 50 acres of land. Those wishing to becomea member of the Assembly, however, had to own at least 500 acres of land.Members of the Assembly could write and vote on bills before they becamelaws. The king of England appointed the members of the Governor’s Coun-cil. The men selected were wealthy, influential landowners. They were toadvise the governor, approve land grants, make laws, and, sometimes, act asjudges in legal cases.

Governor Reynolds also set up a court system. When the colonists haddifferences with each other, they went before the Court of Conscience, overwhich presided a local justice of the peace. Cases that could not be settled inthe Court of Conscience could be carried to the Governor’s Council.

It was during this period that the French and Indian War began in a dis-pute over land in North America.

As you read, look for:• Georgia’s royal governors,• how the French and IndianWar affected Georgia,• the government and economyof colonial Georgia, and• vocabulary terms: propri-etary colony, royal colony,parish, French and Indian War,palisades, cracker, andindependence.

Section PreviewSection Preview

Top: The front of Georgia’scolonial seal showed thecolony giving the king silkspun in the colony. Above:The back had the coat ofarms of the king.



By 1750, there were lessthan 80,000 Europeans in

the entire land area ofCanada, compared with 1.5

million settlers in the thirteenBritish colonies.

Map 23North America,1754

Map Skill: Which countryclaimed the land along theMississippi River?

The First Real World WarIn 1754, three countries had settlements

in North America. The Spanish had settle-ments in Florida and Mexico. The Frenchcontrolled a vast area from Louisiana northto the Great Lakes, plus part of Canada. Toprotect their interests, the French had builtforts, settlements, trading posts, and mis-sions throughout the area, anchored by thecities of New Orleans and Detroit. The Brit-ish had thirteen colonies along the Atlan-tic coast.

The French and Indian War was the re-sult of disputes between France and GreatBritain that had been going on for almostsixty-five years. The causes of the nine-yearwar that began in 1754 were greed and fear.The greed was a hope to capture the mostland in the New World and control the trea-sures of the territory. The fear was that onecountry would gain more power than theother. With the exception of population dif-ferences in America, France and Great Brit-ain were well matched. The British navywas the most powerful in the world, butFrance had the stronger army. Great Britainhad a strong alliance with the six tribes ofthe Iroquois Confederacy, but the Frenchwere trading partners with many of the western tribes. The French had moreexperienced military leadership and, unlike the British colonists, the Frenchsettlers did not argue among themselves.

The Rivalry IntensifiesThe tension between the two countries increased because both claimed

the area of the Ohio River Valley. This frontier region was a huge area of about200,000 square miles, which was about the size of France. British traders hadformed profitable agreements with many tribes that had formerly traded onlywith the French.

At the same time, Virginia colonists were ready to move beyond the Al-legheny Mountains into the Ohio River Valley. A group of businessmen hadreceived a land grant of 500,000 acres in 1749, but the French continued tobuild forts throughout the area. This angered the Virginians.

In 1753, Virginia’s governor sent a young George Washington to warnthe French that the Ohio River Valley did not belong to them and to stopbuilding forts there. Those demands were ignored, and Governor Dinwiddiewarned his colony’s government that the “Welfare of all the Colonies onthe Continent were in grave danger from the French and Indian alliances.”

Section 2: Georgia Becomes a Royal Colony 143

Dinwiddie got the support he wanted. The fol-lowing year, he again sent Washington to theFrench with a message. This time, however,Washington did not go alone.

War EruptsWashington, a 22-year-old land surveyor and

captain, led 150 Virginia militia troops to FortDuquesne near the modern city of Pittsburgh.Washington’s men set up a crude, round stock-ade of wooden stakes, which they named FortNecessity. After a scout reported about 30French soldiers in a nearby camp, Washington’smen attacked, killing 10 and forcing the rest tosurrender. As expected, the French attacked FortNecessity a short time later. On July 3, 1754, se-verely outnumbered and having lost about one-third of his troops, Washington had no choicebut to surrender to the French. The war hadbegun. It soon spread to Europe.

The first few years of the war in America con-sisted of a series of disappointing losses for theBritish and their colonies under the leadershipof Major General Edward Braddock. The 60-year-old Braddock was a well-respected soldier,

but he knew nothing about fighting the Indians. When he arrived, he de-cided to go to Fort Duquesne first in an attempt to defeat the French quickly.George Washington went with him as an aide. The colorful red uniforms ofthe British and the smart blue coats of the Virginia militia made good tar-gets as the soldiers marched in long, straight lines through the forest. TheFrench and the Indians hid among the trees. When the Indians screamedout their war cries, Washington wrote that the British lines broke and sol-diers “ran as sheep pursued by dogs.”

When the battle ended, General Braddock was dead and about two-thirdsof his men were either killed or wounded. Although they were soundly de-feated, Washington showed himself to be a brave military leader who hadlearned from Braddock’s mistakes. He was made commander of a small Vir-ginia force that now had to protect the colony along a 300-mile front.

As the war progressed, Great Britain continued to suffer losses both in thecolonies and on the continent ofEurope. In 1757, William Pitt was putin charge of the war effort. He usedthe strength of the British navy andwas able to capture the key FrenchCanadian cities of Quebec andMontreal. A year later, Washingtonagain led troops to Fort Duquesne;

Above: In 1754, a youngGeorge Washington was sentto tell the French to stay outof the Ohio River Valley.Opposite page: BritishGeneral Braddock was killedduring a battle near FortDuquesne in 1755.

144 Chapter 5: From Royalty to Independence?Did You Know?Did You Know?

A 21-year-old Daniel Booneserved as a teamster

with Braddock’s forces.

this time he was victorious. Thefrontier was made safe and cameunder British control.

Georgia’s Role in the WarGeorgia did not take part in the

war, but it was helped by the war.The Treaty of Paris of 1763, whichformally ended the war, setGeorgia’s western boundary at theMississippi River. A few monthslater, King George III issued theProclamation of 1763. This proc-lamation moved the state’s south-ern boundary to the St. Marys River.The Proclamation also forbade thecolonists to settle west of the Appa-lachian Mountains. At the sametime, the Cherokee and the Creekgave up all lands between theOgeechee and Savannah rivers north to Augusta, which was Georgia’s secondoldest city. They also gave up the coastal land south of the Altamaha River.

Figure 13Results of the French and Indian War

• The British gained control of Canada, which today continues to be afriend and trading partner of the United States.

• The western frontier—the Ohio River Valley and all lands east of theMississippi River—was opened to Virginia and the other colonies.

• Great Britain obtained Florida from Spain, which had been an ally of theFrench during the war.

• For its help, France gave the Louisiana Territory to Spain.

• After 150 years of colonization, France lost all of its land in the area.

• Perhaps most importantly, the French and Indian War led to the Ameri-can Revolution as Great Britain found itself left with a huge war debt.


When the land came under Georgia’scontrol, settlers began to migrate to thecolony. The new boundaries were impor-tant to Georgia’s growth. Not only did theyprovide water access for future shipping,but they also provided good farmland anddense forests with timber and naval storesresources.

Georgia’s First AssemblyGeorgia’s new government met for the

first time in 1755 in Savannah, the colony’scapital and largest city. The delegates reor-ganized the state militia and passed bills soroads could be built and repaired. The co-lonial assembly also drew up codes that re-stricted the rights of slaves.

For a while, Governor Reynolds and thecolonial assembly worked well together.However, during one legislative session,members of the Governor’s Council couldnot agree on how much was needed to im-prove the military defenses of the colony.Governor Reynolds became so angry attheir failure to agree that he stopped themeeting and sent the legislators home.

During the months that followed,Reynolds tried to govern Georgia by him-

self, leaving the colonists angry. There were arguments between those whothought he should leave and those who wanted him to remain. Many Geor-gians did not like having their right to self-government taken away and wroteto King George to complain. However, when Reynolds recommended mov-ing Savannah to the Ogeechee River (close to today’s Richmond Hill in BryanCounty), we can guess that most of his limited support evaporated. Finally,after two years, the group who wanted self-government won. Georgia’s firstroyal governor was replaced.

Governor Henry EllisIn February 1757, the king chose Captain Henry Ellis as the next royal

governor. Governor Ellis was a naturalist and a scientist who had led voy-ages to many different parts of the world. According to reports, he walkedthe streets of Savannah checking a thermometer that hung around his neckand making notes of its readings. Ellis believed that Savannah was one ofthe hottest places in the world, and he often carried an umbrella to protecthimself from the sun.

Ellis learned quickly from Reynolds’s mistakes. During his three years asgovernor, Ellis brought together people of many different political groups.

Map 24North America,1763

Map Skill: What happenedto France’s territory in NorthAmerica as a result of the war?


Below: James Wright followedHenry Ellis as royal governor ofGeorgia. He served in thatposition until 1776.

He sought the advice of the gover-nor of the neighboring colony ofSouth Carolina. He also dependedon well-known and wealthy citizensto lead the colony.

While Ellis was governor, newcolonists came to Georgia fromSouth Carolina and the West Indies.

Many of these new settlers brought slaves with them, and the governorgranted the newcomers large amounts of land. By 1759, the population ofthe colony had grown to about 10,000, including 3,600 slaves.

Not all Georgians wanted slaves in the colony. The Highland Scots at Darienand the Salzburgers at New Ebenezer believed that hard work by the whitesettlers would result in the same economic growth as a system of slave labor.

Ellis was a popular governor, under whose direction the colony madeeconomic gains. There were more and profitable farms. There were moremerchants with a greater variety of items to sell. As a result, the colonistscould buy the things they could not grow or manufacture, such as cloth,sugar, farming tools, and seeds for planting.

In 1759, Governor Ellis became ill, perhaps from heat-related problems,and asked to return to Great Britain. However, he was re-assigned to NovaScotia as its royal governor in 1761.

A Savannah square was named for this “ac-tive, sensible, and honest man.” Today thereis discussion of whether to restore the squareto its original appearance or to build a replicaof the City Market, which once stood there.

Governor James WrightAfter Henry Ellis left, the Honorable James

Wright became governor. Wright was born inCharleston but educated in Great Britain. Hehad arrived in Georgia on October 11, 1760,to serve as lieutenant governor. Before com-ing to Georgia, he had been attorney generalof South Carolina for twenty-one years. He wasloyal to the king, but he also wanted the colo-nies to do well. He believed that Georgia wouldcontinue to grow if large farms were even big-ger, if trading expanded, and if the westernlands of the colony were opened to settlers.Wright agreed with the self-government pro-gram Governor Reynolds had started, and thecolonists were pleased with him at first.

During his early years as governor, Wrightcompleted the defenses around Savannah.Savannah was surrounded with palisades


?Did You Know?Did You Know?Governor Ellis wrote several

books and pamphlets,including one entitled “Heatof the Weather in Georgia.”

Above: Indigo was one ofGeorgia’s main crops beforethe American Revolution. Theplant was used to create ablue dye.

(fences made of sharpened stakes), and the area forts weremade stronger. The town of Sunbury grew and became thecolony’s official port of entry for ships arriving from othercountries and colonies. Both houses of the colonial assemblyworked together to promote Georgia’s economic growth. Farm-ers were allowed to borrow more money, so they bought moreland. The amount of owned land grew from 1 million acres to7 million acres.

Rice and indigo became profitable crops. Enough silk wasbeing produced so that, by 1767, almost a ton of it was ex-ported to Great Britain each year. There were more schools,and more and more people were reading. Many books weresold, and, in 1763, the colony’s first newspaper, The GeorgiaGazette, was started. Many of the small frame houses were takendown. In their place, two-story houses were built of wood ortabby (a mixture of lime, crushed shells, sand, and water).

There was, however, another side to Georgia during theseearly years. Many mothers died in childbirth. School wasmostly for children in the upper economic class. Also a groupof what plantation owners called “undesirable people” movedfrom Virginia and the Carolinas to settle in the middle andwestern parts of the colony. These people became known ascrackers. The term may have come from the cracking soundsof whips used on oxen or horses as these new settlers went tomarket to sell their goods. It may have come from the crack-

ing of corn as they prepared corn meal. Some say the term came from a Scot-tish word that mean “boasters.” No matter how it started, the term was meantas an insult for the lower classes. The crackers were thought of as people whodid not obey the law and were not welcome in the colony.

During this time, other issues also grabbed Governor Wright’s attention.There was no plan for defending the colony even after the forts had beenstrengthened. Also, a growing number of Georgians who were not wealthybegan to ask for a greater voice in government. They were not alone. Shortly,their voices joined with others as the colonies began trying to gain inde-pendence (political or economic freedom) from Great Britain.



t1. What were the results of the French and Indian War?2. How did Georgia gain as a result of the French and Indian War?3. When did Georgia’s first legislature meet?4. Who was Georgia’s second governor? In your opinion, did he

like his job? Defend your response.5. What did Governor Wright succeed in doing that Governors Ellis

and Reynolds had failed to accomplish?

The Call forIndependence

Discontent in the ColoniesDuring the fifteen years before the American Revolution, many colonists

began to tire of British rule and resent its policies. Although Great Britainhad been victorious in the French and Indian War, the war had cost a greatdeal of money. Great Britain also had to pay soldiers to protect the coloniesfrom any other aggressors. To the British, it seemed only logical to levy (im-pose) additional taxes on the colonies to cover these expenses.

When the American colonists complained about the unfairness of the newtaxes, Great Britain passed some strict laws and started enforcing some oldlaws. The Navigation Acts, passed inthe 1660s, said the colonies could onlyship their goods on British vessels. Thiswas not a problem for Georgia. Mostof its trade was still with Great Britain,and British ships often sailed to andfrom Georgia. But those colonies thattraded with several countries were nolonger allowed to do so.

In 1764, Great Britain’s increasedtax on wine and imported goodsreceived very little opposition in Geor-gia. Most of the money Georgianeeded for its government was pro-vided by Parliament, so the colonypaid little tax to Great Britain. This wasnot true in the older colonies, andthose colonies became very angryabout the new tax. However, Georgiabecame more concerned when theSugar Act was passed placing a tax onsugar and molasses imported from theWest Indies. Georgia did a great deal oftrading with sugar-producing coun-tries such as Jamaica and Barbados.

In 1765, Parliament passed theStamp Act in an attempt to raisemoney to pay for the French and IndianWar. This act placed a tax on newspa-pers, legal documents, and licenses.

As you read, look for:• the reasons why the colonistsbecame unhappy with GreatBritain,• how Georgians felt about theBritish taxes,• the first Provincial Congress,• vocabulary terms: Tories,Patriots, boycott, Proclamationof 1763, Sugar Act, Stamp Act,Liberty Boys, Townshend Acts,and Quartering Act.

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As Georgia grew in population, the other colonies were growing infrustration. As you begin reading about the Revolutionary period, keepin mind the cast of characters. The 1.6 million people who lived in thecolonies in the 1760s could be divided into many distinctive groups.

• The Tories (also called Loyalists, British Royalists, or “King’s friends”)were those who were loyal to the king of England, George III.

• The Patriots (also referred to as Whigs, Liberty Boys, Colonials,Sons and Daughters of Liberty) were those citizens ready to cut tieswith Great Britain.

• Quakers, Mennonites, and Moravians (who left Georgia) were paci-fists who did not believe in fighting and had religious objections to war.

• Redcoats and Lobsterbacks (so called because of their red uniforms)were British soldiers, some of whom were forced to fight against thePatriot colonists.

• The Council of Safety was set up by the Patriots in Georgia in 1775when the Provincial Congress voted to join the other colonies in a boy-cott of trade with Great Britain. (A boycott is a protest in which peoplerefuse to buy certain items until specific conditions are met.) The Councilwas to enforce the trade boycott. All of the colonies had similar groups.

• Finally, there were the fence sitters who, out of fear of choosingthe losing side, would not commit to being Tory or Patriot or pacifist.

Figure 14 The Cast of Characters

Section 3: The Call for Independence 149

SSSSSS

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Throughout the colonies, the reaction to theStamp Act was swift and sometimes violent.

A Stamp Act Congress met in Boston, Mas-sachusetts, to speak against British taxes. TheGeorgia colonial assembly was not in sessionat the time, so it did not send a representativeto the Stamp Act Congress. Nevertheless, onthe day before it went into effect, a few Geor-gia citizens showed their dislike of the StampAct by burning an effigy (a likeness) of thestamp master in the streets of Savannah.

On November 6, a group of Georgianscame together to oppose the Stamp Act. Theycalled themselves the Liberty Boys. OlderGeorgians called them the “Liberty Brawlers”because they met in local taverns. Tondee’sTavern in Savannah was a favorite meetingspot. The Liberty Boys were part of a largergroup, the Sons of Liberty, whose daring actscame to represent the spirit of the Revolution.

Although the taxes did not bother the av-erage Georgian very much, the colony felt their effect. Georgia wasthe only colony that ever sold the stamps. Only a few were sold, butGeorgia’s neighbors in South Carolina, who were more directly af-fected, spoke out with anger against it. Also, Georgia’s only newspa-per, The Georgia Gazette, had to stop printing until the Stamp Act wasrepealed a year later.

Georgians Begin to ReactDuring the next four years, many Georgians talked openly about

their dislike of the strict new British laws. Between 1768 and 1772,members of the Georgia colonial assembly spoke against theTownshend Acts of 1767, which placed import taxes on tea, paper,glass, and coloring for paints.Later, without the approvalof the governor, the assem-bly elected Noble Wimberly

Jones as its speaker. Jones, a Patriot,was a second-generation colonistfrom Savannah. Unlike his fatherwho was a Tory (as were many first-generation colonists), Jones was anoutspoken leader of the discontentedGeorgians.

Governor Wright became upsetwith the growing discontent andparticularly with the idea of having

Did You Know?Did You Know?Above: Noble Wimberly Joneswas a member of the colonialassembly. In 1768 and1769, he was elected as itsspeaker.

This cartoon, created by Benjamin Franklin, is widelyconsidered to be the first American political cartoon. It

was published in Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette.


?In some Savannah hotels,guests walked from their

rooms through the windowsand out onto the verandah.Since doors in hotels weretaxed, hotels built morewindows than doors and

allowed guests to use thewindows as passageways.

as the speaker of the assembly someone whose ideaswere not the same as those of the king. Wright triedto end the protests by doing away with the assembly.However, the people were not so easily silenced.

Protests IncreaseProtests against British taxes soon were more open

in the other twelve colonies. The slogan “No taxationwithout representation” became a pre-Revolution warcry. Because the Townshend Acts had placed a tax oncoloring for paints, the people stopped painting theirhomes. Because of the tax on tea, they quit drinkingtea and turned to coffee. By 1770, the British Parlia-ment had repealed the Townshend Acts, except for thetax on tea.

On a cold day in March 1770, some people in Bos-ton threw snowballs at British soldiers and called themnames. The soldiers fired into the crowd, killing fivecivilians, including a freed slave named CrispusAttucks. Unfortunately for the British, engraver PaulRevere made a copper etching of theevent, which was reproduced again andagain. As you can see, it shows a very dif-ferent picture than what actually hap-pened. But it was this view of a line ofBritish soldiers calmly firing into themidst of innocent Boston citizens thathelped ignite the cry for war.

In 1773, the East India Company hadlarge amounts of tea it could not sell andwas on the verge of bankruptcy. Parlia-ment passed the Tea Act of 1773, whichallowed the company to ship tea directlyto the colonies. It could then sell the teafor less than colonial merchants could.The colonists looked on the law as a trickto get them to buy the tea and pay a lowertax. In December of that year, to protest the law, a group of Patriots (includingSamuel Adams and Paul Revere) dressed as Mohawk Indians, boarded threeBritish ships anchored in Boston harbor, and dumped 342 chests of tea intoBoston bay. This action is remembered as “the Boston Tea Party.”

The Intolerable ActsTo punish the colonists of Massachusetts for the actions of the Patriots,

Parliament enacted four laws, which because of their harshness becameknown as the Intolerable Acts. Under one of the laws, the British closed theport of Boston until the citizens of Massachusetts paid for the tea. Under

Top: This is the etching of theBoston Massacre created byPaul Revere. Prints of theetching were distributed allover Boston. Above: Patriotsat the Boston Tea Party tookmatters into their own handswhen protesting the Tea Act.

Section 3: The Call for Independence 151

Above: Owned by PeterTondee, Tondee’s Tavern wasa favorite meeting place ofthe Liberty Boys. The firstliberty pole in Georgia waserected in front of the tavern.

another, Massachusetts colonists could not have a town meeting withoutthe agreement of their governor, who was also the commander of the Brit-ish troops. The operation of the court system was changed so that any Brit-ish officials who committed capital crimes would be tried in Great Britainrather than by a colonial court. As a final punishment, Parliament passedthe Quartering Act. Under this act, the citizens of all colonies had to houseand feed British soldiers at their own expense.

Although the laws were aimed at Massachusetts, representatives of all thecolonies except Georgia gathered in Philadelphiato protest them. On September 5, 1774, the del-egates organized a Continental Congress. At thisCongress, there were two major groups. One groupwanted to pull away from Great Britain and seekindependence. The other wanted to make changesbut still remain under British rule. The colonistsmay not have been sure which group was right,but they agreed on one thing. Something had tobe done, and it had to be done soon!

The Continental Congress agreed to stop alltrade with Great Britain and urged each colony toset up committees of safety. These committees wouldenforce the boycott. Because its actions would havebeen called treason by the Crown, the Congresscarried on its work in secret.

A Colony DividedAnti-British sentiment was growing in Georgia,

but the people still seemed to care more aboutwhich parish would have the most power in the

Georgia assembly. Because the colony still depended on Great Britain, theassembly chose not to send a delegate to the Continental Congress. How-ever, in August 1774, a group of Georgians met to discuss their reaction tothe Intolerable Acts. After talking for a long time, they decided to send aresolution to Parliament demanding that citizens of the thirteen colonieshave the same rights as British citizens living in Great Britain. They insistedthat the Intolerable Acts did notagree with the “Rights and Privilegesof an Englishman.”

The assembly also decided to havea meeting in Georgia to talk about thegrowing unhappiness over their tieswith Great Britain. This meeting,called the Provincial Congress, was heldin Savannah in January 1775. Lessthan one-half of Georgia’s parisheswere represented, and the meetingended without much being done.


t1. What items were taxed

under the Stamp Act?2. Who were the Liberty

Boys?3. What was the colonists’

slogan about Britishtaxes?


Section4The RevolutionaryWar PeriodIt took a long time for news to get around the colonies, so it was May beforeword reached Georgia of the battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachu-setts on April 19, 1775. Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson described those battles as“Here once the embattled farmers stood/And fired the shot heard round theworld.” The battles marked the beginning of the Revolutionary War and forcedGeorgians to take a stand. In just a few days, a group of radicals broke into theroyal arms storehouse in Savannah and stole 600 pounds of gunpowder.

Other protests followed quickly. Gunpowder used to fire cannon saluteson the king’s birthday was tampered with and would not explode. A libertypole was put up outside Tondee’s Tavern. Tories were openly harassed. Gunswere stolen from public warehouses, and no one paid any attention to whatthe governor said.

In September 1775, Georgia’s Joseph Habersham and Captain OliverBowen captured a British schooner carrying gunpowder. Georgia kept 9,000pounds and sent 5,000 pounds to thenewly formed Continental Army.

Preparing for WarThree weeks after the battles at

Lexington and Concord, the SecondContinental Congress opened inPhiladelphia. One of the early decisionsmade by the Congress was to send apetition to King George III, asking himto not take further unfriendly stepsagainst the colonies. The king refusedthe petition. At the same time, the Con-gress also called for the creation of aContinental Army, which was to be ledby George Washington of Virginia.

Georgia was absent for the first fewdays, but on May 13, 1775, Lyman Hallof Midway arrived in an unofficial ca-pacity. The other colonies were furiouswith Georgia because it did not seemvery supportive. Some members of theCongress even called for punishing theyoungest colony.

Very shortly, however, Georgia was ready to act. In July 1775, a secondProvincial Congress was held at Tondee’s Tavern in Savannah. Unlike the

As you read, look for:• the steps taken by Georgiaand Georgians before theAmerican Revolution,• the Declaration of Indepen-dence,• the new governmentestablished by Georgia,• Georgia’s role in theAmerican Revolution, and• vocabulary terms: SecondContinental Congress,Declaration of Independence,ratify, Articles of Confederation,siege, and Treaty of Paris(1783).

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About one-third of the colonists remained loyal to Great Britain, andmany of those lived in Georgia. Their reasons for staying loyal to GreatBritain were as varied as the people themselves.

• Some believed that since the British king was still paying money tosupport the colonies, he had the right to rule them.

• Some believed that the British had founded the colonies and hadthe right to govern them.

• Many colonists still had family or relatives in Great Britain, and theydid not want to put them in danger or to cause them to lose the “perks”of royal approval. Some colonists even split their families by sendingsome members of the family back to Great Britain.

• Some colonists feared that life under the control of rich Patriotswould be even harder than life under the control of the British.

• Finally, some colonists were simply afraid of the well-organized, well-equipped British soldiers.

Figure 15 The Tories

Section 4: The Revolutionary War Period 153

First Provincial Congress, this group was prepared to take positive steps. Inaddition to Lyman Hall, four others, all from Savannah, were chosen to goPhiladelphia. In the group were Archibald Bulloch, John Houstoun, NobleWimberly Jones, and Reverend John Zubly. The delegates were given nospecific instructions to relay to the Continental Congress. Instead, they wereasked to vote as they thought best for the common good of all Georgians.Finally, Georgia was ready to join ranks with the other colonies.

Earlier, shortly after the first shots had been fired at the battles of Lex-ington and Concord, a Council of Safety had met and prepared to form anew government. To show they meant what they said, the group officiallywithdrew from Great Britain. In so doing, the Patriots left Governor Wrightwithout power. Wright was arrested in mid-January of 1776 by the LibertyBoys when he asked the Council of Safety to allow British vessels to pur-chase supplies from the colony. A month later, Wright escaped and fled toa waiting British warship, leavingthe Council of Safety to govern thecolony. In the following April, theGeorgia Provincial Congress issueda series of guidelines, called “Rulesand Regulations,” which were to beused in governing Georgia until amore permanent document couldbe drawn up.

Top: One of the first battles ofthe Revolutionary War wasfought at Concord, Massachu-setts in April 1775. Above:Lyman Hall was declared an“enemy of the crown” aftersigning the Declaration ofIndependence.

154 Chapter 5: From Royalty to Independence ?Did You Know?Did You Know?

Patriots in Massachusettswere called “minutemen”

because they could be readyto fight in a minute.

Top: George Walton, signer ofthe Declaration of Indepen-dence. Above: John Treutlen,Georgia’s first governor.

The Declaration of IndependenceIn January 1776, Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common

Sense appeared. In it, Paine urged the colonists to separatefrom Great Britain in language all people could understand.The pamphlet was a sensation and sold 120,000 copies inless than three months. By the end of the year, it had sold500,000 copies. Paine quickly followed Common Sense witha series of pamphlets. In The Crisis, Paine wrote, “These arethe times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and thesunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the serviceof their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the loveand thanks of man and woman.” Paine had a great deal ofinfluence on the actions of the Second Continental Con-gress. John Adams said, “Without the pen of Paine, thesword of Washington would have been wielded in vain.”

On July 4, 1776, over a year after the battles of Lexing-ton and Concord, the Second Continental Congressapproved the Declaration of Independence. When it wasofficially signed on August 2, 1776, the names of threeGeorgians—Lyman Hall, George Walton, and ButtonGwinnett—appeared on the left side of the document, rightbelow the signature of John Hancock. But it was over amonth before Georgians found out how their representa-tives had voted or even what the Declaration said.

The 1,458-word document, written primarily byThomas Jefferson, can be divided into three parts. ThePreamble, or introduction, stated how the colonists feltabout democracy. The second part, or body, listed twenty-seven grievances (complaints) against King George III andhis government that led the colonists to seek indepen-dence from Great Britain. The third part, the conclusion,declared the colonies to be an independent nation for allfuture times.

The Declaration meant that the colonies we were onenation, still not in total agreement, but one nation never-theless. When the Declaration of Independence was readin Georgia, it produced great excitement, although somecolonists decided to return to Great Britain. Finally, Geor-gians began to prepare for war. They sent food and ammu-nition to the Continental Army and began to strengthenthe home militia.

Political Changes in GeorgiaGeorgia joined the other colonies in celebrating the decision to become

independent of Great Britain. The former colonies were tired of being gov-erned and living under laws made by Great Britain, which they believed wasboth out of touch and too far away to understand their needs. The new goal


for each colony was statehood. Eachnew state was to develop its ownmethod of governance and pass lawsthat met its needs.

Work was begun on a state con-stitution to replace the earlier “Rulesand Regulations.” Writing the newconstitution was not easy. Some citi-zens wanted a government like theone already in place, with most ofthe power in the hands of a fewwealthy landowners and merchants.The Whigs, a more extreme group,wanted to give all the people ofGeorgia a chance to govern them-

selves. The Whigs won, and Geor-gia decided on a governmentthat would be based on the sepa-ration of powers and the rights ofcitizens to agree with how theywere governed.

By May 1777, Georgia adop-ted its first state constitution at aconstitutional convention heldin Savannah. The parish systemwas done away with, and eightcounties were formed. Burke,Camden, Chatham, Effingham,Glynn, Richmond, and Wilkeswere named for British subjectswho had been in favor of theRevolution; Liberty County wasnamed in honor of American

independence. Liberty is the character word for this chapter. What were theliberties that the young colonies wanted to secure for themselves?

However well meaning the lawmakers were in developing the 1777 con-stitution, there were problems. Rather than a bicameral legislature, the con-stitution of 1777 provided for a unicameral, or one-house, legislature. Thissingle legislative body had very broad powers, including the ability to makeappointments for the judicial branch (the courts) and the executive branch(the governor).

Stung by the loyalty of former governors to the king, the members of theconstitutional convention wanted to limit severely the influence and powerof the governor. They proposed a one-year term for the governor. The gover-nor was to be selected by the legislature rather than voted on by the people.The actual power, therefore, was in the hands of twelve lawmakers from thelegislature who served as an executive council. The executive council could

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History by the NumbersHistory by the Numbers

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The Dunlap BroadsideThe Dunlap Broadside


On the night of July 4, 1776, John Dunlap printed an unknown numberof copies of the Declaration of Independence. Each document, called abroadside, was about 14 inches by 18 inches. Only 25 of those copiesare known to exist.

On July 19, 1776, the Continental Congress ordered another printer,Timothy Matlack, to engross (print in final, legal form) the Declarationof Independence. Members of Congress who were present in Philadel-phia signed the engrossed copy on August 2, 1776. Other members ofCongress signed later. The signed, engrossed copy of the Declarationof Independence, which is 241/2

inches by 291/2 inches, is on per-manent exhibit at the NationalArchives in Washington, D.C.

In 1989, a man bought apainting at a flea market for $4.Hidden in the painting’s framewas an original Dunlap broadsideof the Declaration of Indepen-dence. It was the 25th knowncopy of the document. It recentlysold for $8.14 million, the high-est price ever paid for an objectsold at an Internet auction.

Map 25Georgia’s FirstCounties

Map Skill: In which countyis Savannah located?

accept or reject any proposals initiated by the governor. Theconstitutional convention selected John Treutlen, a Salzburger,as the first state governor over Button Gwinnett. It also adopteda new state seal.

Although the constitution of 1777 was changed in 1789, thisfirst endeavor in providing for state’s rights was an importantstep in Georgia’s development.

On July 4, 1778, Georgians ratified (approved) the Articlesof Confederation, which was the first constitution of theUnited States of America. The Articles did not go into effectuntil January 1781, when Virginia and Maryland ratified it.

The Revolutionary War in GeorgiaDuring 1777 and 1778, Georgian members of the Conti-

nental Army made several unsuccessful attempts to captureBritish-held St. Augustine and parts of east Florida. Little otherfighting took place in Georgia. In December 1778, however,British troops attacked and took control of Savannah. Soonthere were reports of looting, burnings, and even murders atthe hands of British troops as they tried to force Tories to put down their

arms or flee the area. A month later,the British took the port of Sunbury.Before long, Augusta was under firefrom British guns.

In all three cases, the poorlyarmed and understaffed Georgiamilitia could do little to stop theBritish. Georgia was once again un-der British military rule, and Gover-nor Wright returned to Georgia totake charge of the government.

The Battle of Kettle CreekMorale throughout the colonies

was at an all-time low. Finally, in Feb-ruary 1779, Georgia had a victory. Arebel militia group led by ColonelElijah Clarke (after whom ClarkeCounty is named) defeated a force ofmore than 800 British troops at theBattle of Kettle Creek, about eightmiles from Washington, Georgia.

The Battle of Kettle Creek was mi-nor when compared to those foughtin other parts of the country. It was,however, important to Georgia. Themilitia was able to take badly needed


Cherokee Lands

Creek Lands

Wilkes

Richmond

Burke

Effington

Liberty

Chatham

Glynn

Camden

• Augusta

•Savannah


?George Walton, at age

twenty-six, was the youngestsigner of the Declaration of

Independence. An autographof Button Gwinnett (below) isone of the most sought-aftercollector’s autographs in theworld. Today, it is valued at

over $250,000.

Below: This French map,drawn in 1779, illustrates theFrench plans for the siege ofSavannah. This battle markedthe first time that Americanand French troops foughttogether. One of the heroesof the siege was SergeantWilliam Jasper.

weapons and horses from the Britishsoldiers, and the spirits of the Geor-gia militia were lifted by their victory.

The Siege of SavannahIn early September 1779, twenty-

two French ships and 4,000 soldiersunder the command of CharlesHenri Comte d’Estaing arrived offTybee Island. Those troops joinedabout 15,000 Americans under thecommand of General Benjamin Lincoln. The combined armies laid siege toSavannah. A siege occurs when forces try to capture a fortified fort or townby surrounding it and preventing any supplies from reaching it.

Finally, at daybreak on October 9, the American and French troops attackedBritish positions. The attack, which lasted only 45 minutes, failed. By thetime it was over, more than 1,000 men with the American forces (821 ofwhom were French) and 40 British lay dead. Over 600 men were wounded.One of America’s best foreign patriots, Polish Count Casimir Pulaski, hadgiven his life for a country not his own. And, Savannah was set to remain inBritish hands for the next 31/2 years.



The colonists who haduniforms in the new

Continental Army wore bluebecause indigo, grown in theSouthern Colonies, was the

only color available.

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★American SpotlightAmerican Spotlight

The Revolutionary War produceda number of heroes and heroines. Oneof those was a woman who was Georgia’s mostfamous war heroine.

Around 1771, Benjamin and Nancy Hart and their eightchildren settled twelve miles outside of what we now callElberton. Several legends surround Nancy Hart. Probablythe most repeated one concerns Colonel John Dooley, aneighbor of the Harts who was killed by Tories. A few daysafter Dooley’s murder, five of those Tories stopped byNancy’s home and demanded that she cook dinner for them.As the men talked, Nancy overheard them bragging aboutthe murder.

Thinking quickly, Nancy brought out a jug of whiskey andoffered it to the men. As they drank, they did not noticeNancy motioning to her daughters to go to the woods andsound the alarm for help. Enjoying their drink and food, they

Nancy HartNancy Hart

also did not realize that Nancy wasquietly taking their rifles as sheserved them.

When Nancy pulled the thirdrifle away, one of the men finallynoticed. As the men rushed her.Nancy calmly pulled the trigger

and killed one of them. She grabbed asecond rifle and held the other soldiers at gunpoint untilhelp arrived. Some reports say she may have killed two ofthe soldiers; in any event, the rest were soon put on trialand hanged.

We may never know if the stories of Nancy Hart’s cour-age are true. However, the legend of Nancy Hart remainsas an example of the revolutionary spirit of Georgia. HartCounty and its county seat, Hartwell, located in northeastGeorgia, are named for her. Hart is the only county in Geor-gia named for a woman.


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¢Spotlight on the EconomySpotlight on the Economy

Financing the AmericanRevolution

Financing the AmericanRevolution

How did the newly formedUnited States of America man-age to find the funds to pay forits war against Great Britain?

In 1775, as the ContinentalCongress began making plans forwar, it decided to print and issuepaper money called “Continen-tals” to pay for war materials,supplies, and soldiers’ salaries.But by 1778, the nation faced se-rious economic problems. TheContinentals were worthless be-cause there was nothing (gold orsilver) to back them up. To com-plicate the economic situation,each state began to print its ownpaper money. By 1780, the newnation had printed over $241 mil-lion Continentals, and the indi-vidual states had issued almost $210 million of their ownpaper notes. Congress realized that the Continentals wereof little value and tried to take them out of circulation. Italso began to collect taxes to help pay off some of its loans.

Loans and gifts from foreign countries helped the UnitedStates obtain the weapons, ammunition, and supplies itneeded. Most of the loans were arranged by Robert Mor-ris, a delegate to the Continental Congress who becamespecial commissioner of finance in 1776. In 1781, Morrisdeveloped a plan for a national bank, the Bank of NorthAmerica, to stabilize the economy and establish the creditof the new nation with the nations of Europe.

But Robert Morris was not alone in finding funds for thenew nation. He was greatly helped by Haym Salomon.Salomon was a wealthy, successful businessman describedas a “Broker to the Office of Finance,” which meant that

he helped the new governmentobtain loans from European na-tions, banks, and merchants.Because he was a trusted busi-nessman, European bankerswould loan money to Salomonwhen they had refused to loanit to Congress. Both Morris andSalomon gave their own per-sonal fortunes to support theRevolution.

Under the new Bank of NorthAmerica, there was some rela-tionship between the country’ssupply of gold and silver and itspaper notes. As head of the Bankof North America, Morris issuedtreasury notes, called “Morrisnotes,” that could be redeemedfor hard currency. Congress also

began to issue a new type of paper note that paid interestand that could be turned in for hard currency after a five-yearperiod. The new government used the paper notes, the in-terest notes, and the treasury notes to pay for its revolution.

After the war, Alexander Hamilton became the financialplanner for the new government. The new nation had accu-mulated almost $78 million in debts from the war, and itneeded about $4 million to operate its new government.However, the country’s income was very limited. The UnitedStates earned about $4.4 million in tariffs (taxes) on goodsand about $19,000 from other sources for a total federalincome of $4,418,000. The young nation began its life undera system of deficit spending, owing and spending morethan was available. It is a system we understand well to-day. In 2001, for example, the federal government cost $1.8trillion to operate.

Above: Pennsylvanian Robert Morris


Georgia was left in the hands of two governments, one royal and one rebel.Each government tried to take charge of the state, but neither was very ef-fective. Some Georgians openly supported the king, while others just asopenly supported the cause of independence. The major battles of the warwere over, but guerrilla warfare—both political and military—continued inthe backcountry of Georgia.

The Battle of YorktownIn June 1781, Georgia’s militia was again under the command of Colonel

Clarke. With the help of Continental troops, Clarke took Augusta from theBritish. General George Washington, the commander of the ContinentalArmy, was helped by French forces when he faced British General LordCornwallis in October 1781, at the Battle of Yorktown, Virginia. The Ameri-can forces won that battle, forcing Cornwallis to surrender.

Cornwallis did not know that British ships carrying 6,000 men were ontheir way to help him. They arrived just six days after his surrender. Had theFrench not delayed the landing of the British ships, the results of the Ameri-can Revolution might have been very different. By the spring of 1782, Brit-ish forces in Georgia believed they could not defeat the Americans. They leftSavannah, ending 31/2 years of occupation.

The Treaty of Paris was signed by Great Britain, France, and the UnitedStates in September 1783. Independence was finally a reality. There were onlyeleven battles and skirmishes on Georgia’s soil. However, Georgians could

Below: In October 1781,combined American andFrench forces trapped theBritish army at Yorktown,Virginia. British GeneralCornwallis surrendered onOctober 18, 1781.


be proud of their part in the Revolutionary Waras the work of building a new country began.

Blacks in the AmericanRevolution

One of the men who followed Colonel Clarkeat Kettle Creek was a Revolutionary War heronamed Austin Dabney. Dabney was a freebornmulatto, a child of mixed parentage. He arrivedin Georgia just before the war with a man namedRichard Aycock. Aycock, a white North Carolin-ian, was not known for his bravery. Instead ofjoining the Georgia militia himself, Aycock pro-posed that Austin Dabney take his place. Aftermuch discussion, some of which centered onwhether he was freeborn or a slave, Dabney wasaccepted. He proved to be a good soldier at KettleCreek and was wounded in action. A familynamed Harris cared for him while his woundshealed.

After the Revolutionary War, veterans weregiven plots of land as part payment for their mili-

tary service. Many did not want Dabney to get his veteran’s share of land.However, Governor George Gilmer and some members of the Georgia legis-lature praised Dabney as a patriot. After months of debate, Dabney receiveda valuable piece of land in Madison County. When he moved to his newhome, he took the Harris family with him. Together, they made the prop-erty profitable. Austin Dabney died in 1834, fifty-five years after the Battleof Kettle Creek.

Dabney was just one of the many people of color who fought in the Revo-lutionary War. As early as the battles of Lexington and Concord, blacks tookup arms against Great Britain in search of freedom. Thousands of slavescrossed over to British lines working as soldiers, boat pilots, cooks, musicians,and in many other jobs. The British both actively recruited blacks to serve assoldiers and captured slaves for useby the British Army. In November1775, the British governor of Virginiaoffered freedom to all slaves willingto bear arms against the rebellingcolonists. His proclamation ledAmerican leaders to accept blacksinto the Continental Army, promis-ing that they would receive freedomat the end of their enlistment. Thegovernment also made provisionsto pay slave owners for all slavesfreed in such a way. While there are


Above: During the heroicfighting at the Battle of KettleCreek, Austin Dabney was hitby a rifle ball that passedthrough his thigh. Dabney iscredited with saving the life ofElijah Clarke by giving thecolonel a horse after his hadbeen shot out from under him.


?During the Revolutionary War,

almost as many colonistsfought on the British side asfought on the American side.Out of 282,000 men in thethirteen colonies, GeorgeWashington never had an

army numbering over 25,000.

no exact figures on the participation of blacks in the Continental Army, ithas been estimated that about 5,000 served.

Although many blacks distinguished themselves in the Revolutionary War,support for their enlistment in the army varied. Southern states did not wantto use slaves or freedmen as soldiers because the idea of recruiting and arm-ing slaves raised fears of slave revolts.

General George Washington, himself a fourth-generation slave owner,questioned the wisdom of using black troops, but most of the former colo-nies began to enlist both slaves and free blacks in the armies. Georgia andSouth Carolina were the only two states to refuse to legalize slave enlistmentsin their militias.

Antislavery sentiment mounted after the war; in most states, public opin-ion turned strongly against slavery. In many states, blacks were given boththeir freedom and land at the end of the war. In the South, however, thedecline of such staple crops as tobacco, indigo, and rice made the farmersreluctant to free their black slaves.

Looking Back at theRevolutionary War

When fighting broke out at Lexington andConcord, the British had a number of advan-tages in the coming military conflict. They hada strong central government, while the thir-teen colonies were separate governments withno real central power. The British had a well-equipped, professional army; the colonies hadeager citizen-volunteers with little training,discipline, and equipment and with limitedexperience. Fortunately, many experiencedEuropean soldiers seeking adventure came tojoin America’s cause. The British had theworld’s most powerful navy; the colonies hadonly merchant ships. The Americans did com-mission four battle ships in 1775 and autho-rized private ships to attack the British Navyand keep any profits they made. The Britishwere well financed by their government; thecolonies had no major sources of revenue fortheir new government. Perhaps the most im-portant British advantage was the divided loy-alties of the colonists. Almost one-third of thecolonists were neutral, and a large number,almost 20 percent of the population, remainedloyal to Great Britain.

Despite the British military might, the colo-nists had four advantages that could not beovercome. First, they were fighting on their

Below: In 1775, GeneralGeorge Washington, leader ofthe Continental Army,recommended that blacksnot be permitted to serve inthe Continental Army.


home soil. They were fighting not only for their belief in freedom but alsofor their own homes and farms and villages. Second, the British were fight-ing very far from home and had to deal with long and dangerous supplylines. Third, the colonies had no central area that could be captured to de-clare victory. Fighting was spread out among all thirteen colonies, along theGulf of Mexico, the western frontier, and even north of the Great Lakes inCanada. Fourth, the battles were fought over the rugged terrain of forestsand swamps familiar to the colonists and not the open, flat battlefields thatthe British were accustomed to using.

While everything seemed to favor the British over the colonists, theAmericans won their Revolutionary War to become a new and independentnation.

With Thanks to SpainSpain is an often forgotten ally in the American Revolution. Spain and France

had been at war with Great Britain for almost one hundred years before theAmerican Revolution. Spain was angry and embarrassed when it lost Floridaand other territories at the end of the French and Indian War. It wanted re-venge. Also, King Carlos III of Spain had become impressed with the colonials.Although he did not totally approve of the “idea of colonials seeking inde-pendence” since he himself had a number of colonies, he did want to help.

For over five years, Spain sent a great deal of money and supplies to sup-port the colonists. The funds came from people living in what is now Texas,New Mexico, California, and Mexico. Men from Spanish possessions in theregion fought with the colonists. Spain also provided invaluable informa-tion from a very effective spy network. Although Spain was not in a positionto open defy Great Britain, it did a great deal behind the scenes.

Pedro Pablo of Bolea was the Spanish ambassador in France and met withBenjamin Franklin and others traveling to Europe to help break the British

By the Side of the RoadBy the Side of the RoadOther than guerilla warfare and fighting betweenTories and Patriots, there were few major Revolu-tionary War battles in Georgia. The British-con-trolled areas of north and east Florida weresandwiched between forces at St. Augustine anda small fort, Fort Tonyn, in what is now CamdenCounty. When you travel in southeast Georgia,check out the area around Point Peter close tothe Georgia-Florida boundary.

Above: King Carlos III ofSpain supported the coloniesin their war for independence.He secretly shipped arms,munitions, cattle, uniforms,medicine, blankets, andmoney to the Americancolonies.


• In the years before the Revolutionary War, everyday life in the thir-teen colonies remained difficult.

• Georgia became a royal colony in 1752 and as such was governeddirectly by the British king.

• Georgia continued to prosper, and many people who had left the colonywhen it was under the rule of the trustees returned to the royal colony.

• A new group of settlers from South Carolina and the West Indies boughtland and moved to Midway, bringing slaves with them.

• Governor John Reynolds was the first royal governor. He was followedas governor by Henry Ellis and James Wright.

• Georgia gained land at the end of the French and Indian War. Its south-ern boundary was set at the St. Marys River, and the Indians gave uplands north and east of the Ogeechee and Savannah rivers northwardto Augusta and south of the Altamaha River.

• A series of laws imposed by the British on the colonies increasedresentment against British rule.

• In 1775, the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired duringthe Battles of Lexington and Concord.

• In July 1776, Georgia joined the other twelve colonies in declaringindependence from Great Britain.

• Georgia was occupied by British forces for most of the war.

• Several battles were fought on Georgia soil, including the Battle ofKettle Creek.

• The final battle of the Revolutionary War took place at Yorktown,Virginia.

• The official end of the war came with the signing of the Treaty of Parisof 1783.

• People of color, including Austin Dabney, fought in the ContinentalArmy.

Chapter SummaryChapter Summary


t

1. Name the Georgiasigners of the Declarationof Independence.

2. What was the purpose ofthe second part of theDeclaration of Indepen-dence?

3. For whom were theoriginal parishes ofGeorgia renamed ascounties?

4. What was our country’sfirst constitution called?

naval blockade. Bernardo de Galvez, the Spanish governor of Louisiana, pro-vided military assistance against Great Britain in Florida, Louisiana, alongthe Gulf of Mexico, and in the Mississippi River Valley. He also helped thecolonists move men, arms, and supplies through the Gulf of Mexico and onthe Mississippi River while resisting British attempts to blockade the river.

A Final NoteThe men who signed the Declaration of Independence showed extreme

courage and took great risks. Had the colonists lost the war, each man whosigned the document could have been shot for treason. Would you have beenwilling to risk your life and all that you owned for your belief in freedom?

Above: Bernardo de Galvez,the Spanish governor ofLouisiana, helped the Ameri-can cause through diplomatic,financial and military exploitsagainst Great Britain in theMississippi River Valley, theGulf Coast, Louisiana, and inthe Gulf of Mexico.


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Reviewing People,Places, and Terms

Explain why each of the following people appears in achapter on the Revolutionary War.

1. Elijah Clarke

2. Henry Ellis

3. Button Gwinnett

4. James Wright

5. Lyman Hall

6. John Treutlen

Understanding the Facts

1. Why did the South, unlike the other regions,have so many large plantations?

2. What was the difference between a royal colonyand a proprietary colony?

3. What were the two chambers of Georgia’s firstlegislature?

4. What areas of North America did Great Britaingain as a result of the French and Indian War?

5. In what city did Georgia’s first legislature meet?

6. What was Georgia’s first newspaper?

7. Name the six groups that existed in the coloniesin the pre-Revolutionary War period.

8. What two things did the First ContinentalCongress agree to do?

9. What were the “Rules and Regulations” setforth by the Georgia Provincial Congress?

10. What advantages did the British have in theRevolutionary War and what advantages did thecolonists enjoy?

DevelopingCritical Thinking

1. If you had lived in Georgia in 1772, would youhave been a Patriot or a Tory? Why?

2. What does the slogan “No taxation withoutrepresentation” mean? Can you think of someinstances in the 1900s where this may havealso been used?

3. Why do you think so few battles were fought onGeorgia soil?

4. Suppose the British ships had broken throughthe French lines before Cornwallis surrenderedat Yorktown. What might have happened andhow would it have affected you today?

Checking It Out

1. Use your research skills to find out the roleplayed by the French in America’s war forindependence. While gathering information,examine the role played by George Washington’sgood friend, the Marquis de Lafayette.

2. Use your research ability and find out whyGeorgia granted several hundred acres of land toMordecai Sheftall for his sacrifices on behalf ofindependence. Sheftall, whose father was one ofthe original settlers of the Georgia colony, was aleader of Georgia’s Jewish community.

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1. Persuasive writing is meant to convince readersto think or act in a certain way. Try your hand atpersuasive writing. Write a pamphlet for yourcommunity calling for support of any schoolprogram or activity that you think should beexpanded or for any new program that should bedeveloped.

2. Imagine that you are a newspaper writer incolonial and Revolutionary times. Write twonewspaper articles. Write one for a colonialaudience in Georgia describing the signing ofthe Declaration of Independence; write the otherfor a London newspaper describing the sameevent from a different perspective.

3. A precis is a concise summary of essentialpoints. Read the Declaration of Independenceand write a precis of the document usinglanguage more understandable to today’steenagers. Use standard English and punctua-tion and avoid slang.

Exploring Technology

1. All of the young nation’s soldiers were not men,and a list of Revolutionary heroines does notstop at Nancy Hart. Use your favorite searchengine to find out about Deborah Sampson, thewoman who disguised herself as a man andserved under General Washington for threeyears. Share your findings with your classmates.

2. Many of the heroes of America’s revolution wereabout your age. One young man of 14 joined theprivateer Royal Louis to fight the British. Useyour favorite search engine to find out about thesuccesses and bravery of this young lad, JamesForten, a free black who became one ofPhiladelphia’s most successful and influentialcitizens after the war.

3. Use your favorite search engine to solve this“history mystery.” Who actually designed theAmerican flag that is so associated with thename Betsy Ross? Share your findings with yourclassmates.

4. Research the Mennonites and Quakers. See ifyou can determine why they refused to fight. Doyou agree or disagree with their beliefs? Explain.

Applying your Skills

1. Which members of Georgia’s delegation to theSecond Continental Congress have countiesnamed after them? Using a blank map on whichthe counties of Georgia are outlined, shadeeach of these counties. Then label the countyseats. Which Georgia counties are named afterGeorgia’s early governors? Label them on yourmap.

2. All five of Georgia’s delegates to the SecondContinental Congress either lived or worked inSavannah. On a modern-day map of the easternUnited States, trace a land route from Savannahto Philadelphia and determine the number ofmiles. Also research the land routes that wereavailable to the delegates at the time theCongress met.

Photo Question

Name this river which became the southern border ofGeorgia after the French and Indian War.

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Documents

From Royalty to · pounds, 10 shillings. In the South, workers might ticularly tobacco. iving: ead, ound 3 pence (pennies). If meat was added, it was just under a shilling (12 pennies)