Georgia's early years

DeSoto in Georgia

In 1540, Hernando deSoto led 600 Spanish soldiers, businessmen, entrepreneurs, and priests on a journey through Georgia and the southeast. The group was searching for gold and other means of wealth which they could claim for themselves and fellow Spaniards. Along the journey de Soto often took shelter with Native Americans. At the area of present-day Carter's Lake he visited a capital city of the Moundbuilders. The visit ended in a violent clash with the Indians. In Cartersville (History of Cartersville, Ga.), de Soto visited the former settlement along the Etowah River, Etowah Indian Mounds. From there the Spaniard traveled down river to Ulibahali(some sources say Chiaha), an Indian village at the site of present day Rome, Georgia. Here deSoto arrested the town leaders, took hostages and slaves, and ransacked the granaries in August or September leaving nothing for the approaching winter. He left the state traveling west along the Coosa river. Franciscan priests established missions under Spanish control at Jekyll and St. Simon's islands in 1566.

By 1650, the Cherokee Nation had successfully migrated southward, occupying more than 40,000 square miles in the southern Appalachian Mountains. After initial encounters the Cherokee and Creek lived peacefully as neighbors until the late 1700's when a great war occurred, culminating in a confrontation in present-day Cherokee County. This encounter resulted in the retreat of the Creek Nation to land south of the Chattahoochee River.

Around 1670, as South Carolina became more populated the Franciscan settlement in Georgia posed a threat. English settlers in Charleston saw these missions as intrusions and petitioned the crown for relief. By 1686 the Spanish retreated to south of St. Mary's river which forms the eastern border of present day Georgia and Florida. Over the next 35 years Spain, France and England all laid claim to Georgia.

James Oglethorpe, Sir John Perceval, Earl of Egmont and 19 associates petitioned George II for a royal charter to establish a colony southwest of Carolina on July 30, 1730. The purpose of the colony was to:

• Establish a buffer zone between Spanish Florida and South Carolina;
• Provide economic opportunities for the English poor and;
• Provide a refuge for European Protestants.

Oglethorpe founded Savannah on February 1, 1733 with 116 colonists.

The idea of a new colony was inspired by Oglethorpe's work as Chairman of a parliamentary committee investigating English jails but the response was so great that it was necessary to screen applicants and released debtors were eliminated.

Georgia did not prosper under Oglethorpe and the Trustees.

The Trustees decided to surrender the charter in 1751 when Parliament rejected their annual request for a subsidy and signed the deed of surrender on June 23, 1752. They continued as a defacto government until relieved by a royal governor on October 31 1754.

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The Cherokee Indians is a Numerous & Warlike Nation & as they are in Unity & Alliance with the Subjects of the King of Great Britain, they serve as a powerful Barrier to Carolina & Georgia in the present War against France & Spain, The Emperor of the Cherokees & the King of the Catawagas renew'd their League of Friendship with Gov. Glenn at Charles Town in South Carolina in May, 1745.

North Georgia before the Revolution

In north Georgia the Cherokee reigned in their "Enchanted Land," which stretched from the Chattahoochee on the south (after the battle of Taliwa, 1755) to the Ohio River and beyond and from the Mississippi in the West to Appalachian Mountains in the East. South of the Chattahoochee River the Creek controlled the land. White hunters had begun to encroach on the Cherokee Hunting Grounds and "countrymen," settlers who lived with their Cherokee spouses, were widely accepted. There were very few settlers north or west of the present Wilkes County line. Some of the places that did have white settlers in North Georgia were in the area near Chattanooga (History of Chattanooga), in the northwest corner of the state, Talking Rock, and Hog Mountain, (present-day north Gwinnett County). Slaves who escaped were accepted into Cherokee culture as equals.

Other Links of interest:
deSoto Falls
Supposedly, one of Hernando deSoto's men left a breastplate in the area, discovered in the 1880's
Colonial Georgia
Lt. Col. Samuel Taylor's in-depth look at the entire state before the Revolution.
American Revolution in Georgia
Randy Golden's orginal series on the Revolutionary War and Georgia
Georgia and the American Revolution
Randy Golden's updated and expanded series on the Revolutionary War in Georgia




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