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Royal Georgia. Beginnings of a Royal Colony. Georgia did very well as a royal colony. Georgia added a great deal to the British economy. They exported rice, indigo, deerskins, lumber, beef, and pork. Beginnings of a Royal Colony.
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Beginnings of a Royal Colony • Georgia did very well as a royal colony. • Georgia added a great deal to the British economy. • They exported rice, indigo, deerskins, lumber, beef, and pork.
Beginnings of a Royal Colony • Georgia officially became a royal colony when the Trustee period ended in 1752. • This meant that the Crown of England oversaw the control of Georgia. • Parliament had to pass a charter in order for Georgia to become an official royal colony.
Beginnings of a Royal Colony • This process began in 1752, after Parliament dismissed the trustees. • It took two years for the charter to go through Parliament. • Georgia did not get its first official governor until 1754.
Royal Governors • John Reynolds was Georgia’s first royal governor. • He governed from 1754 to 1757. • The British Parliament recalled Reynolds in 1757 and said that he was ineffective. • John Reynolds was a former naval officer and did not have the political skills to govern well.
Royal Governors • He angered his cabinet and divided the residents of Georgia. • He was not good at interacting with Native Americans. • This skill was especially important since his tenure began around the beginning of the French and Indian War. • The French and Indian War was the North American phase of a war between France and Britain to control land in the colonies, lasting from 1754 to 1763.
Royal Governors • During this time, many Native American attacks plagued Georgia settlers. • Many Georgians were unhappy with John Reynolds. • They wrote to England and asked for his removal. • Lord Halifax responded, and appointed a new royal governor.
Royal Governors • Henry Ellis governed Georgia from 1757 to 1760. • He built a solid foundation for Georgia. He had skills that Reynolds did not. • He set up a budget and regulated trade with the Native Americans. • He also built forts and tried to abolish slavery.
Royal Governors • Ellis’s most important skill involved his communication with Native American tribes. • He held on to the friendship of the Creek Nation and declared Georgia’s authority to control the Indian trade. • By 1760, an ailing Ellis left Georgia and the governor position.
Royal Governors • The next royal governor was James Wright. • James Wright was very popular and held the governor’s position for sixteen years, from 1760 to 1776. • Wright came to Georgia with his experience as attorney general of South Carolina. • That coupled with the benefit of having seasoned Georgians who served in the assembly, helped Wright develop Georgia during his term.
Royal Governors • The peace settlement of the French and Indian War made much more land available for settlement. • This increased the size of Georgia. • Georgia now had land all the way south to the St. Mary’s River, and all the way west to the Mississippi River.
Land Grants • Settlers who came to the colony by way of the Trust’s charity, were limited to fifty-acre land grants. • Those who paid their way could have up to 500 acres of land. • Those who paid their way were required to have at least one servant or family member for every fifty acres of their grant.
Land Grants • This rule helped ensure that enough men were available to defend the colony. • At that time, only men could own land, but settlers protested. • The men wanted their wives and daughters to be able to inherit their land.
Life in Colonial Georgia • Colonial Georgia was a land of farmers. • Most women worked in the home. • They prepared food, cared for clothing, and planted and harvested. • Children also contributed to the growth of the colony.
Life in Colonial Georgia • The trustees hoped families would provide both labor and stability for the new colony. • People often lived in homes made from tabby. • Tabby is a mixture of mortar and lime that was common as a building material through the colonial period in the coastal Southeast.
Life in Colonial Georgia • English, Salzburgers, Germans, Scots, Irish, and Sephardic Jews were all early settlers of Georgia. • When the slavery ban was lifted in 1750, life changed in the colony. • Many plantation owners from South Carolina moved to Georgia to expand their slave-based economy.
Life in Colonial Georgia • As a result, tens of thousands of Africans were enslaved and brought to Georgia to work on rice plantations. • The beginning of African slavery changed the economy of the region. • Plantation owners established socioeconomic structures and relationships that dominated Georgia’s economy and government.
Slavery • During the beginning of Trustee period, Georgia’s state law prohibited slavery. • However, wealthy colonists who could afford to buy enslaved people, demanded to be allowed to bring them to Georgia. • In 1750, the trustees who governed Georgia at the time lifted the ban on slavery.
Slavery • Between 1750 and 1775, the number of Africans living in slavery increased from 500 to 18,000. • These Africans had no rights. • They were not allowed to marry, or live where they wanted, or even learn to read.
Slavery • They had to work and live in the harsh conditions of the Georgia rice fields. • Rebellion against slave owners was almost impossible. • Punishment included beatings, whippings, separation from friends or family, and even death.
End of the Royal Colony • In 1776, at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, Georgia declared its independence from the British Crown along with other British colonies.
Summary • Explain the evolution of the Georgia colony from the end of the trustee colony to the start of the Revolutionary War.
