Name: ______Academic: 1 2 3 4

1. Number the paragraphs. 2. Review/define key vocabulary. 3. Copy questions onto back of article. 4. Highlight answers in text.

Colonial America: Georgia: James Oglethorpe's Ideals

The colony of Georgia was founded in 1733. Earlier, James Oglethorpe, a member of the British Parliament, and several of his colleagues came up with an idea. They wanted to create a colony where people in debtors’ prison could have a new start. (In England at that time, people who couldn’t pay what they owed were put into prison. Some worked for years to try to pay off their debts.)

The British government granted Oglethorpe a charter for the colony in 1732. It was a grant to land south of the Carolinas and north of Florida. The British government thought it would provide a buffer between the English and the hostile Spanish colonies in Florida.

In 1733, a group of 116 men and women traveled from Britain to Georgia. They were not the debtors Oglethorpe had originally intended to bring to the New World. Instead, they were from many different backgrounds. They landed in what would become Savannah, Georgia.

They were not the first settlers in the area. Over the years, other people had moved to the area, including Puritans, Quakers, and German immigrants. The people were allowed to worship as they wished, so early Georgia did offer a certain amount of religious freedom to the colonists.

Oglethorpe and his trustees had been granted a charter to run the colony for 21 years. He created several laws for orderly rule. He settled the people on 50-acre farms. He outlawed slavery and liquor. The early settlers rebelled against the rules. Some wanted to own their own land. Others wanted to have slaves to work the land.

In 1739, the Georgians became involved in border battles with the Spanish colonists of Florida. These went on for several years. By 1750, it was clear the colony was not doing well economically. So, in 1752, Georgia came under control of the English king. Slavery was instituted, which proved to be a controversial issue. It was just one issue on which the colonists disagreed. In the north and south, on the coast and in the backcountry, Georgians held different opinions of their English rulers, and their colony’s future.

MLA Citation:

"Colonial America: Georgia: James Oglethorpe's Ideals." Colonial America and the Revolutionary War. 2009: 83-84. SIRS Discoverer. Web. 24 Aug. 2015.