The New Georgia Encyclopedia is supported by funding from A More Perfect Union, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Sheftall Sheftall was the eldest son of Mordecai Sheftall, a successful Savannah merchant, shipper, and statesman. In 1777, during the Revolutionary War, Mordecai became a colonel, and he named Sheftall as his assistant. The following year both men were taken as prisoners by the British and held in the Caribbean for two years before being released.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Georgia Photo File.
Congregation Mickve Israel in Savannah is the oldest Jewish congregation in the South and the third oldest in the United States. The congregation was founded during the establishment of the colony in 1733, and the current temple building was completed in 1878.
Photograph by Mark KortumÂ
Charles Bird King's portrait of William McIntosh (ca. 1825). In 1825 McIntosh negotiated and signed the Treaty of Indian Springs, signing away all Creek lands in Georgia and thereby defying most of the reforms that he had encouraged and the laws that he had helped write.
Image from Archives and Rare Books Library, University of Cincinnati Libraries, McKenney and Hall: History of the Indian Tribes Collection.
A Lower Creek Indian chief, William McIntosh was born to a Scottish father and Creek mother and was fluent in the culture and language of both Creek and white societies. He supported the United States in its efforts to obtain Creek land, and his role in the 1825 Treaty of Indian Springs was considered a betrayal by Creeks.
Image from Alabama Department of Archives and History
The McIntosh Inn, built in 1823 at Indian Springs in Butts County by Creek leader William McIntosh, thrived as a popular resort until the 1930s. In 1825 McIntosh signed the Treaty of Indian Springs with the U.S. government at the hotel; he was murdered three months later by angry Creeks who considered the agreement a betrayal.
Photograph by Melinda Smith Mullikin, New Georgia Encyclopedia
The marker reads: "Here on February 12, 1825, William McIntosh, a friendly chief of the Creek Indians, signed the Treaty by which all lands west of the Flint River were ceded to the State of Georgia. For this, he was murdered by a band of Creeks who were opposed to the treaty. This tablet is placed by The Piedmont Continental Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution A.D. 1911."
Photograph by Melinda Smith Mullikin, New Georgia Encyclopedia
This tree-lined drive marks the entrance to Beaulieu Plantation, the estate of William Stephens, who came to Savannah in 1737 to serve as secretary of Trustee Georgia. Beaulieu was one of the leading river plantations, and Stephens experimented with grape and cotton cultivation.
Photograph by Carol Ebel
One face of the 1733 seal of the Georgia Trustees features two figures resting upon urns. They represent the Savannah and Altamaha rivers, which formed the northwestern and southeastern boundaries of the province. The genius of the colony is seated beside a cornucopia, with a cap of liberty on her head and a spear in one hand. The abbreviated Latin phrase Colonia Georgia Aug means "May the colony of Georgia prosper."
Courtesy of Georgia Historical Society.
Lutheran minister Johann Martin Boltzius, along with religious refugees from Salzburger, founded the settlement of Ebenezer near Savannah in the early 1730s as a religious utopia. Boltzius hoped to create a successful economic system that was not dependent upon slavery.
This sketch of the early Ebenezer settlement was drawn in 1736 by Philip Georg Friedrich von Reck. That same year the Salzburger settlement moved to a location closer to the Savannah River, where conditions were better for farming.
Print from Von Reck Archive, Royal Library of Denmark, Copenhagen
An engraving of Anglican minister George Whitefield, created in 1774, depicts him preaching at a church in New York. A popular figure of the eighteenth-century Great Awakening in America, Whitefield founded the Bethesda orphanage near Savannah in 1740.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Benjamin Hawkins, a North Carolina native, served as the "Principal Temporary Agent for Indian Affairs South of the Ohio River" from 1796 until his death in 1816. Hawkins established the Creek Agency Reserve along the Flint River in present-day Crawford County, Georgia, where he lived with his wife and children. A skilled and fair diplomat, Hawkins encouraged Indians in his jurisdiction to adopt the U.S. government's "plan for civilization" as their best option for survival.
Indian Superintendent Benjamin Hawkins personally selected the location of Fort Benjamin Hawkins, which was built to protect settlers from the Creeks. Despite Hawkins's fear that the Creeks would attack the settlement, no problems arose during the fifteen years that the fort was used as an outpost. Fort Hawkins was later used as a supply hub during the War of 1812.
Courtesy of Middle Georgia Archives, Washington Memorial Library.
Olaudah Equiano published one of the earliest known slave narratives, The Interesting Narrative, in London in 1789. The work chronicles his years of enslavement, which he spent sailing trade ships both at sea and along the Savannah River. Equiano purchased his freedom in 1766 and traveled widely thereafter.
From The Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, by O. Equiano
The water tower at Old Town Plantation is located approximately eight miles southeast of Louisville in Jefferson County. The plantation was established as a trading post around 1770 by Georgia Galphin, an Indian commissioner, on the site of an ancient Creek town.
Courtesy of Forrest Shropshire
As a young girl, Elizabeth Lichtenstein Johnston first lived with her parents along the Little Ogeechee River in Georgia. In 1774, after the death of her mother, she was sent to Savannah, where she lived through the Revolutionary War. Johnston later wrote about her experiences during the war, including the 1779 siege on Savannah, in her memoir Recollections of a Georgia Loyalist.
Elizabeth Lichtenstein Johnston's memoir of the American Revolution, which she experienced as a young girl in Savannah, was published in 1901. The book, entitled Recollections of a Georgia Loyalist, provides one of the most detailed accounts available of a southern woman's experience during the war.
The Creek Indians meet with James Oglethorpe. By the time Oglethorpe and his Georgia colonists arrived in 1733, relations between the Creeks and the English were already well established and centered mainly on trade.
A map of Georgia, circa 1745, shows the territory inhabited by the Yamacraw Indians, a group formed in 1728 by disaffected Creek and Yamasee Indians. The Yamacraws, led by Tomochichi, established their first community on the bluffs of the Savannah River. After the arrival of James Oglethorpe in 1733, the group agreed to move north to accomodate Oglethorpe's plans to build an outpost, which later became the city of Savannah.
From History of Georgia, by C. Howell
Button Gwinnett served in Georgia's colonial legislature, in the Second Continental Congress, and as president of Georgia's Revolutionary Council of Safety. He was one of three Georgia signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Button Gwinnett's signature is said to be one of the rarest and most valuable of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The signature is housed at the Georgia Archives in Morrow.
Image from Wikimedia
James Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia, was a forward-thinking visionary who demonstrated great skill as a social reformer and military leader. This portrait is a copy of Oglethorpe University's oval portrait of Oglethorpe, which was painted in 1744. The portrait was discovered in England by Thornwell Jacobs and brought back to Atlanta to hang in the president's office at Oglethorpe University.
Courtesy of Georgia Info, Digital Library of Georgia.
James Oglethorpe, a leader in the British movement to found a new colony in America, set sail for the new world on November 17, 1732, accompanied by Georgia's first settlers.
James Oglethorpe, along with a twenty-one-member Board of Trustees, founded the colony of Georgia in 1733 and directed its development for nearly a decade. Although the board appointed Anglican clergy to the new colony, Oglethorpe welcomed settlers of a variety of religious persuasions.
Courtesy of Oglethorpe University
James Oglethorpe defended the new colony of Georgia militarily, holding the titles of general and commander in chief.
Courtesy of Georgia Info, Digital Library of Georgia.
Georgians have honored founder James Oglethorpe by naming a county, two cities, a university, and numerous schools, streets, parks, and businesses for him.
Courtesy of Georgia Historical Society, Georgia Historical Society collection of portraits, #GHS 1361-AF-327.
The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp featuring Georgia founder James Oglethorpe for the state's bicentennial anniversary in 1933.
Courtesy of Smithsonian National Postal Museum
The original caption of this print by Paul Fourdrinier reads: "A View of Savannah as it stood on the 29th of March 1734. To the Hon[orable] Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America. This View of the Town of Savannah is humbly dedicated by their Honours Obliged and most Obedient Servant, Peter Gordon."
Yuchi Indians, depicted in traditional hunting clothing, also carry items acquired through trade with the English, notably the central figure's blanket and rifle.
Illustration by Philip Georg Friedrich von Reck
Peter Tondee and his business partner built a silk filature on Reynolds Square in 1759. The building served multiple public functions before it was destroyed by fire in 1839.
Courtesy of Carl Solana Weeks
Peter Tondee's Long Room, which stood at the northwest corner of Broughton and Whitaker streets in Savannah, became center stage for the political drama that brought a fledgling province into the ranks of the war for American liberty, and it served for several years during and after the Revolution as the seat of government for the new state.
Courtesy of Walter Wright and David A. Hammond
As a principal mediator between the native Creek (Muscogee) and English settlers during the first years of Georgia's settlement, Tomochichi (left) contributed to the establishment of peaceful relations between the two groups. His nephew, Toonahowi, is seated on the right in this engraving, circa 1734-35, by John Faber Jr.
A large granite boulder with a decorative copper plate was installed in Savannah's Wright Square, southeast of the original grave marker, on April 21, 1899. The plate is inscribed to "the mico of the Yamacraws, the companion of Oglethorpe, and the ally of the colony of Georgia."
Image from Brent Moore
Mary Musgrove (pictured with her third husband, the Reverend Thomas Bosomworth) served as a cultural liaison between colonial Georgia and her Native American community in the mid-eighteenth century. She took advantage of her biculturalism to protect Creek interests, maintain peace on the frontier, and expand her business as a trader.
This copy of a Creek "hieroglyphick painting" was made in the 1770s by Bernard Romans. Romans was a British surveyor and engineer who worked in Florida during the 1770s. He made many notes on the Creeks.
Archibald Bulloch was a Revolutionary soldier, a leader of Georgia's Liberty Party, and the state's first chief executive and commander in chief. Bulloch County in southeast Georgia was named for him upon its creation in 1796.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Georgia Photo File.
Architect William Jay built this villa on Orleans Square in Savannah in 1819 for Archibald Bulloch. The house was razed in 1916, and the Savannah Municipal Auditorium was constructed on the site. In turn, the Savannah Civic Center was built on the site, replacing the auditorium, in the 1970s.
Courtesy of Georgia Historical Society, Foltz Photography Studio (Savannah, Ga.), photographs, 1899-1960, #GHS 1360-08-08-01.
Before his governorship of Georgia in 1785, Savannahian Samuel Elbert served as commander of both Georgia's militia and Continental Line during the Revolutionary War.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Georgia Photo File.
Lachlan McIntosh distinguished himself in a career that evolved over three critical eras in the state's early history, from the colonial period to the Revolutionary War to statehood.
James Wright replaced Henry Ellis as royal governor of Georgia in 1760 and proved to be an efficient and popular administrator. During his tenure in office (1760-76) Georgia enjoyed a period of remarkable growth.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Georgia Photo File.
Elijah Clarke was among the few heroes of the Revolutionary War from Georgia. Even though he was wounded several times, Clarke led several successful frontier guerrilla campaigns against British soldiers and American Loyalists during the war. Clarke County is named for him.
The front page of one of John Zubly's sermons.
James Habersham (ca. 1712-75) arrived in colonial Georgia from England in 1738. Habersham was prominent in the economic and political life of colonial Georgia.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Georgia Photo File.
Joseph Habersham became a zealous revolutionary in 1774 and was appointed to the Confederation Congress in the 1780s.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Georgia Photo File.
The Butlers of South Carolina and Philadelphia owned extensive rice and cotton plantations on the Sea Islands of Georgia.
Grandson and namesake of Pierce Butler, Pierce Mease Butler inherited part of his grandfather's massive fortune and holdings on the Georgia Sea Islands.
An English actress, Kemble married Pierce Mease Butler and was upset to learn of the family's slave labor operations. She eventually published an account of her impressions of slavery, after divorcing Butler and losing custody of their two children.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Georgia Photo File.
