Georgia Natural Wonder #106 - Savannah – Chatham County - Colonial (Part 2). 1,142

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Georgia Natural Wonder  #106 - Savannah  – Chatham County - Colonial (Part 2)

Chatham County is the northernmost of Georgia's six coastal counties on the Atlantic Ocean. One of the original counties of Georgia, Chatham County was created February 5, 1777, and is named after William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. Pitt is best known as the wartime political leader of Britain in the Seven Years' War, especially for his single-minded devotion to victory over France, a victory which ultimately solidified Britain's dominance over world affairs. He is also known for his popular appeal, his opposition to corruption in government, his support for the colonial position in the run-up to the American War of Independence, his advocacy of British greatness, expansionism and colonialism, and his antagonism toward Britain's chief enemies and rivals for colonial power, Spain and France.His statesmanship was based on a clear, consistent, and distinct appreciation of the value of the Empire. Much of his power came from his brilliant oratory and was based not on his family connections but on the extraordinary parliamentary skills by which he dominated the House of Commons. He displayed a commanding manner, brilliant rhetoric, and sharp debating skills that cleverly utilized broad literary and historical knowledge.


1st Earl of Chatham, portrait and sculpture.


He collapsed in Parliament and died few days later.

Geography

Chatham County was formed out of Christ Church Parish and St. Phillip Parish. It is the fifth oldest county in Georgia and is the home of Savannah, which serves as the county seat. Other incorporated towns include Bloomingdale, Garden City, Pooler, Port Wentworth, Thunderbolt, Tybee Island, and Vernonburg.



In addition to Tybee Island, the islands of Little Tybee, Wassaw, and Little Wassaw fall within Chatham's borders. It is bounded on the northeast by the Savannah River, and in the southwest bounded by the Ogeechee River. Chatham County is bordered by Effingham County, Bryan County, and the state of South Carolina. On the coast, Chatham County shares St. Catherines Sound with Liberty County.



The bulk of Chatham County, an area with a northern border in a line from Bloomingdale to Tybee Island, is located in the Ogeechee Coastal sub-basin of the Ogeechee River basin. The portion of the county north of that line is located in the Lower Savannah River sub-basin of the Savannah River basin, while the very southern fringes of the Chatham County are located in the Lower Ogeechee River sub-basin of the Ogeechee River basin.

History

Each year Savannah attracts millions of visitors to its cobblestone streets, parks, and notable historic buildings: the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low (founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA), the Georgia Historical Society (the oldest continually operating historical society in the South), the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences (one of the South's first public museums), the First African Baptist Church (one of the oldest African-American Baptist congregations in the United States), Temple Mickve Israel (the third-oldest synagogue in America), and the Central of Georgia Railway roundhouse complex (the oldest standing antebellum rail facility in America).



Savannah's downtown area, which includes the Savannah Historic District, the Savannah Victorian Historic District, and 22 parklike squares, is one of the largest National Historic Landmark Districts in the United States (designated by the U.S. government in 1966). Downtown Savannah largely retains the original town plan prescribed by founder James Oglethorpe (a design now known as the Oglethorpe Plan).



Native settlers

The Yamacraws, a Native American tribe, were the first known people to settle in and around Savannah. In the 18th century, under their leader Tomochichi, they met the newly arriving European settlers. In 1540, the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto was probably the first European to explore what is today Georgia. The French made a brief appearance at this time, but were quickly expelled by Spanish forces from Florida. In 1566, the Spanish established a fort on St. Catherines Island, south of present-day Savannah, the first of a series of fortified positions along the coast. This region was known to the Spanish as Guale.


Tomochichi and son.

In 1663, England reasserted an earlier claim to the area when Charles II granted rights in greater Carolina to the eight “lords proprietor." In 1670, the new owners established a settlement at Charles Town in present-day South Carolina. Ten years later, they managed to dislodge the Spanish from St. Catherines Island. Although the Spanish power center had retreated into Florida, a bloody contest with the English continued for decades.


King George II.

In 1732, George II granted the lands between the Savannah and Altamaha rivers to General James Oglethorpe and a group of other trustees; in gratitude, the trustees named the colony after the king. In recent years, proprietary colonies had been largely unsuccessful, which led to a modified form of proprietorship. Under this arrangement, the trustees were not permitted to make a profit from the venture and the charter was to be returned to the Crown after 21 years.


General Oglethorpe.

Oglethorpe and the Georgia Trustees originally conceived Savannah, and the new colony, as a philanthropic endeavor. It was the Trustees' intention to provide a refuge for English debtors who could establish the basis for an agrarian class of small, yeoman farmers working in concert with a business and mercantile class in Savannah, thus providing a commercial outpost to the neighboring colony of South Carolina.


Jail or Georgia? What's it gonna be?

Motivation for the new venture included the Crown’s desire to maintain a buffer between South Carolina, one of the most prosperous English colonies, and the Spanish to the south and French Louisiana. The trustees, for their part, hoped to found a colony that would provide a second chance for debtors, and sought to promote hard work by outlawing slavery and liquor.


Come on, the ship to Georgia is waiting.

To support stability in the colony, the purchase or sale of land was prohibited - land speculators had caused problems in other areas and were not welcome in Georgia. The trustees also hoped that Georgia could be a source of silk and in the early years required the settlers to plant mulberry trees. However, the silk worms never thrived.


Silk worms didn't work in Savannah or Canton.

Arrival of the British

In November 1732 the ship Anne sailed from Britain carrying 114 colonists, including General James Oglethorpe. The first English colonists faced a wilderness plagued by insects, heat, and disease. Of the original 144 colonists, nearly one in three died.


Anne.

On February 12, 1733, after a brief stay at Charles Town, South Carolina, Oglethorpe and his settlers landed at Yamacraw Bluff and, in an example of some of the earliest "Southern hospitality", were greeted by Tomochici, the Yamacraws, and John and Mary Musgrove, Indian traders. (Mary Musgrove often served as an interpreter.)



The city of Savannah was founded on that date, along with the Province of Georgia. Because of the friendship between Oglethorpe and Tomochici, Savannah was able to flourish unhindered by the warfare that marked the beginnings of many early American colonies. Soon after settlement, James Oglethorpe took Tomochichi on a visit to Charles Town, SC with him; his positive reception there helped lead Oglethorpe to make the decision to take Tomochichi and a group of Yamacraws to England the following year.


Bustin a move for James, who only wanted to shake hands.

In 1733 an agreement was reached between the Lower Creek Indians and the Georgia colonists, containing “Articles of Friendship and Commerce between the Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America and the Chief Men of the nation of the Lower Creeks.” This was the first Treaty of Savannah; there would be another one later in the colonial period. In Savannah's formative years, and through most of Georgia's period as a proprietary colony, there was a ban on slavery. This ban was lifted in 1750. There were additional prohibitions in the new colony on "spirituous liquors" (until 1742), and Catholics were forbidden to live in the colony until the territorial and commercial disputes in the region between England and Spain were settled in 1748. There were no lawyers until 1755.



The early history of Savannah is remarkable for the sheer diversity of its people. Religious observance played an important role in the early life of Savannah. In addition to its founding English settlers, Jews arrived from the Sephardi community in London in the summer of 1733, the largest such group to enter a colony up to that time. They later founded the Congregation Mickve Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in the South.


Temple today.

Colonial and Revolutionary Eras

Savannah was, by design, the first step in the creation of Georgia. After establishing cordial relations with Chief Tomochichi of the resident Yamacraw Indians, and Indian trader and liaison Mary Musgrove, Oglethorpe began to carry out his concept for the layout of Savannah. Oglethorpe and Savannah's coplanner, William Bull of South Carolina, laid out a town loosely based on the London town model but featuring wards built around central squares, with trust lots on the east and west sides of the squares for public buildings and churches, and tything lots for the settlers' homes on the north and south sides of the squares.Savannah is one of the outstanding examples of eighteenth-century town planning in North America.


View of Savannah, 1734.

When Savannah was first designed, by Oglethorpe, Jones, Bull, and Castell, it consisted of square shaped units called "wards". In the middle of each ward contained a "tything", which consisted of 10 houses on each lot that was reserved for the private homes of the settlers. Every lot was 60 ft. by 90 ft. Ten men in each tything were ready to bear arms at all times. Squares served as assembly points and drilling spaces for militiamen. In case of an attack, farm animals and colonists could take refuge in the squares. East and west of the squares(wards) were Trust Lots (reserved for public structures, for example-churches, banks, or government buildings).


1818 Savannah.

Original design

Savannah's physical layout was the subject of an elaborate plan by the Georgia colony's founders. Oglethorpe's Savannah Plan consisted of a six interconnected wards built around central squares, with trust lots on the east and west sides of the squares for public buildings and churches, and tithing lots for the colonists' private homes on the north and south sites. The wards were 675 feet on each side, excluding the surrounding streets. After Oglethorpe's return to England in 1743, the city continued to follow the general pattern established by the Oglethorpe Plan until the 1850s, when a more conventional grid was adopted.



The city of Savannah was very different from previous colonial towns. Its organization reflected many new European ideas about cities and buildings. Great European cities such as Paris, France, were also designed during this time using the same ideas. Savannah was built using connected neighborhood, square, ward, garden lot was of equal size. They were also arranged in a repeating pattern. This pattern allowed the distribution of land to new settlers to be fair. Commons surrounded the city. Commons are public lands owned by the city. The commons allowed the city to expand later. Savannah was founded so that the poor people and people in debt could get a fresh start,and Georgia was right above Spain Florida so Georgia protected the other colonies. 



In the spring of 1734 came Evangelical Lutherans from Salzburg, known as Salzburgers, who settled on the Savannah River at a town they named Ebenezer. Discussed in GNW #51.


Lutherans coming off boat and 100 years ago at church still standing today.

One of the first squares in Savannah, Wright Square was the hanging square. Permanent gallows once stood where tourists now tread. Gallows upon which swift “justice” was served to those so condemned. But justice didn’t always favor the innocent…nor did it favor the fairer sex. For it was with Irish immigrant Alice Riley that the first woman in Georgia was executed in 1735. Ms. Riley, like the majority of poor immigrants at the time, was an indentured servant—paying back through labor, the price of her passage to the new world. William Wise, the man to whom she was contracted, was a wealthy but particularly cruel bloke. He beat and abused Alice daily until she could take it no more. One night while giving the less than charming fellow a bath, Alice and a fellow servant held the old chap’s head beneath the water, drowning him. The servants fled but were quickly captured, convicted and sentenced to death. After watching her accomplice drop through the gallows, his neck snapping and body writhing, Alice began begging for mercy, claiming she was with child. The local physician verified her claim and Alice was allowed to live—for eight more months. She was held in the city jail until the time in which she delivered old William Wise’s son, then she was dragged back out of the jail, up the gallows and was hung by the neck until dead. Witnesses have claimed to have seen a woman in Wright Square, dressed in rags and wondering about looking for her lost baby. It is believed to be the spirit of Alice Riley. Unfortunately, Alice's search is in vain. Shortly after she was executed the infant died as well. Poor Alice will forever roam Wright Square looking for her lost baby.



Scottish Highlanders and German Moravians came in 1736, followed by Dutch, Welsh, and Irish settlers. John Wesley and Charles Wesley conducted Anglican services at the Christ Church.John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley sailed from England for Georgia, Charles to serve as secretary to James Oglethorpe, while John was to be a minister to the Georgia colonists. John Wesley’s time in Georgia was an unhappy one, as he wished to be a missionary to the Indians, plus he fell in love with a young woman who chose to marry another man.John Wesley and his brother Charles departed Georgia permanently in 1737. John’s stay in Georgia had been an unhappy one, but he would later experience a spiritual rebirth and found the Methodist movement.



In January of 1737, George Whitefield sailed from England to replace John Wesley as minister to the Georgia colonists. He would not be officially approved by the trustees until May 10, but was so eager to begin his duties that he sailed months earlier, arriving in Georgia May 7. Traveling with Whitefield was James Habersham, who would become one of colonial Georgia’s leading citizens. Whitefield arrived and soon after founded Bethesda, colonial America's first orphanage. Whitfield discussed in GNW #97 (Part 2).


Touchdown George!

Growth of the Colony

Prior to arriving in America, Oglethorpe developed an elaborate plan for the growth of towns and regions within the framework of a sustainable agrarian economy and the challenges presented by an often hostile frontier. Features of the plan, now known as the Oglethorpe Plan, especially as it relates to town planning, have been preserved in Savannah, as well as in Darien, Georgia and at Fort Frederica National Monument.


Fort Frederica.

The orderly, Neo-classical design of Savannah's central city was connected to the exterior by three main roads: the Savannah-Augusta to the north, the Savannah-Dublin Road to the west and the King's Road, which connected Savannah to the English military settlements of Fort Argyle, Fort Barrington and Fort Frederica to the south. Spur roads were located off the King's Road as well, and connected plantations such as Wormsloe GNW #39, home of Noble Jones, to the expanding and increasingly urban market in Savannah.


Wormsloe.

Although religious toleration was beginning to emerge as a value during the Enlightenment, it was the pragmatic need to attract settlers that led to broad religious freedoms. South Carolina wanted German Lutherans, Scottish Presbyterians, Moravians, French Huguenots and Jews as a counter to the French and Spanish Catholic absolutist presence to the south, which was perceived as a threat to their English freedoms.



After Georgia became a royal colony (1754), there were so many dissenters (Protestants of minority, non-Anglican denominations) that the establishment of the Church of England was successfully resisted until 1752. These dissenting churches were the mainstay of the American Revolutionary movement that culminated in the War for Independence from Britain. Through the patriotic and anti-authoritarian sermons of their ministers, these churches fostered and organized rebellion. Whereas the Anglican Church tended to preach stability and loyalty to the Crown, Protestant sects preached heavily from the Old Testament, with its emphasis on freedom and equality of all men before God, and the moral responsibility to rebel against tyrants. Over the next century and a half, Savannah welcomed other non-English and non-Protestant immigrants: Irish Catholics, French Catholics and Huguenots, Greek Orthodox, and others.



Solomon's Lodge was founded in 1733/4 by James Oglethorpe, and it is considered to be the oldest continuously operating English constituted Masonic Lodge in the western hemisphere. Originally called simply the Lodge of Savannah, it was officially renamed Solomon's Lodge in 1776.



The Privy Council approved the establishment charter on June 9, 1732, and for the next two decades the council of trustees governed the province, with the aid of annual subsidies from Parliament. From 1732 until 1758, the minor civil divisions were districts and towns. Among those to voice displeasure with the policies of General James Oglethorpe and the Georgia Trustees during the early years of Georgia's settlement, the Malcontents issued the most vehement complaints. In particular, the Malcontents objected to the Trustees' limits on landownership and prohibitions on slavery and rum.

In 1740, James Oglethorpe led an invasion force of Georgia and South Carolina settlers, and some Indians, to attempt to capture Spanish St. Augustine. They captured one fort, then tried to lay siege to St. Augustine before being attacked at Fort Mose, where he lost a significant number of his men.


We covered all these Jenkins Ear battles in earlier GNW post.

He subsequently returned to St. Simons Island. In 1742, the major Georgia-related event of the war with Spain occurred on July 7 - the Battle of Bloody Marsh - where James Oglethorpe and a group of men, largely Scot Highlanders, repulsed an attempted invasion of St. Simons Island by Spanish forces from St. Augustine. In 1743, another attempt to capture Spanish St. Augustine failed, then later in the year another Spanish attempt to invade St. Simons Island was repulsed. For his efforts in defending Georgia, James Oglethorpe was promoted to brigadier general. On July 23, 1743 James Oglethorpe left Georgia. He had borrowed heavily against his family estate to help fund the new colony, and needed to see to his finances at home. He may not have realized it at the time, but he would not return to the colony he founded and supported in it’s first decade of existence.


James!

The colony of Georgia struggled 1746, to find a viable, money making crop over the next few years, and gradually declined under the leadership of the Trustees. James Habersham established Georgia’s first commercial house, for the purpose of shipping raw materials to England. in 1751, the first silk house in America opened in Savannah. The Georgia Trustees appointed a committee to prepare the surrender of the Georgia charter to the British government. The first muster of the Georgia colonial militia was called.


Habersham's House is now known as Pink House.

After many difficulties and the departure of Oglethorpe, the trustees proved unable to manage the proprietary colony, and on June 23, 1752, they submitted a deed of reconveyance to the crown, one year before the expiration of the charter. On January 7, 1755, Georgia officially ceased to be a proprietary colony and became a crown colony. In 1758, without Indian permission, the Province of Georgia was divided into eight parishes by the Act of the Assembly of Georgia on March 15. The Town and District of Savannah was named Christ Church Parish.



British colony

The great experiment came to an end after Savannah and the rest of Georgia became a Royal Colony in 1754. Entrepreneurs and slaves were brought into the struggling colony, and Savannah was made the colonial capital of Georgia. The low marshes were converted into wild rice fields and tended by skilled slaves imported from West Africa (where these strains of rice had been grown by European colonists, who brought rice from its native Southeast Asia. However, attempts to establish a rice industry in Africa failed). The combination of English agricultural technology, and African labor, proved to be of great benefit for the city.



Initially, Creek groups gradually ceded lands to European settlers. In 1763 the Creeks agreed to the first of several large land cessions. This first agreement gave Georgia the land between the Savannah and Ogeechee rivers, south of Augusta, along with coastal land between the Altamaha and St. Marys rivers. An additional two million acres of land between the Ogeechee and Altamaha rivers and the headwaters of the Oconee and Savannah rivers was ceded to Georgia by the Creeks and Cherokees in 1773.



Additional fortune came to the city in 1763 following the Treaty of Paris, which opened the interior of North America to British economic interests.



This was an important milestone in the development of Savannah, as it marks the beginning of economic ties to the interior. Trade, particularly the trade of deerskins, flourished along the upper Savannah River where skins were sent to Augusta and finally through Savannah for export to Europe. The establishment of a trading network on the Savannah River also curtailed Charleston's monopoly on the South Atlantic deerskin trade. Between 1764 and 1773 Savannah exported hides from 500,000 deer (2 million pounds), which established the city as a significant commercial port on the South Atlantic coast.


Colonial hunters.

In 1766 a British official charged with administering the Stamp Act arrived in Georgia. He was escorted under armed guard to the governor’s house, but he left after two weeks. Georgia was the only colony in which any revenue was collected from the Stamp Act, when merchants agreed to pay the tax because the Savannah harbor was clogged with more than sixty ships. Royal governor James Wright wrote a letter to the British Board of Trade regarding the difficulties involved with the Stamp Act.



Though the Stamp Act had been repealed in 1767, the British still needed revenue to pay off their war debt and to provide for the defense of the colonies. Thus the Townshend Acts - a series of taxes on items such as glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea - were approved by Parliament. Georgians began taking notable sides in the conflict with the British government. Those opposed to the policies of the British were called Whigs, or Patriots. Those who supported the British were called Tories, or Loyalists.



In 1772, trouble continued to develop between those opposed to the policies of Great Britain (Patriots) and those still loyal to it (Loyalists). This was particularly apparent in this year, as the Commons House of Assembly elected radical patriot Noble Wymberly Jones speaker three times, only to have the election rejected by acting governor James Habersham. Finally, the House switched to Archibald Bulloch as speaker, but refused to expunge from the record the fact that Jones had been elected three times, so Habersham dissolved the assembly.



In 1774, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia; Georgians were still very divided in their Patriot/Loyalist feelings, and faced danger from Indian attacks on its border, so the need for British soldiers was still considerable. Thus, Georgia was the only one of the thirteen colonies to not send delegates. The Congress voted to adopt a boycott of all trade with Great Britain. Before adjourning, they agreed to reconvene if necessary.



Savannah citizens played prominent roles in the cause of American independence, although Georgia, as a general rule, was somewhat slower than the other British colonies to embrace the Revolutionary fervor sweeping the rest of the Atlantic seaboard. The Liberty Boys, a group of Savannah men prominent in the independence movement, met periodically at Peter Tondee's Tavern, at the corner of Broughton and Whitaker streets. Royal governor James Wright prohibited any unlawful assembly to oppose British policy. Despite this prohibition a group of Georgia Patriots assembled at Tondee’s Tavern in Savannah five days later and adopted a series of eight resolutions opposing British policies.





Patriot delegates attended Georgia’s first provincial congress to discuss options for opposing the Intolerable Acts passed by Parliament the previous year. They urged the Commons House of Assembly (also in session) to adopt strong resolutions. Noble Wimberly Jones, Archibald Bulloch, and John Houstoun were elected as delegates to attend the Second Continental Congress.


Houstoun.

In April the Battles of Lexington and Concord took place in Massachusetts. When news of the battles reached Georgia in May, patriot celebrations broke out and the royal powder magazine was raided; 600 pounds of gunpowder was seized. In June Georgia sent 63 barrels of rice and £122 for the relief of Boston after British reprisals following the Battles of Lexington and Concord.


Powder Magazine Savannah.

Opposition to royal rule continued to build in June. Georgia Patriots spiked cannon in Savannah to prevent them from being fired for the king’s birthday. A Liberty Pole and Liberty Tree were erected in Savannah, where more than 300 Patriots had gathered. Finally they voted to join the other twelve colonies in a boycott of British goods and to set up a Council of Safety in Savannah to enforce the boycott. Some Loyalists received some rough treatment from the Patriots.


Liberty Pole.

In July a second Georgia provincial congress met in Savannah. Archibald Bulloch was elected president and George Walton as secretary. Lyman Hall and John J. Zubly were added as delegates to the Second Continental Congress. The congress sent a letter to royal governor James Wright stating that Georgia would not be the weak link among American colonies in opposition to British policies.In September Georgia’s delegation sat with the Second Continental Congress. Among other actions taken, the Congress sent a petition - called the Olive Branch Petition - to the king asking for redress of their grievances. The king refused to accept it and declared the colonies in rebellion. Parliament passed the Prohibitory Bill, which prohibited all British trade with the thirteen American colonies in rebellion.



OK OK Savannah history and we ain't even got to the Revolutionary War yet. This may take a while. I am ending this part two and we will take a deep dive on the Revolutionary War later this week. Two of the deadliest battles of the Revolutionary War took place right here near Savannah.

Today's GNW gal is a colonial baby-doll.