THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA, Volumes I & II

Orig. pub. Boston 1883. Reprinted 1965, 1966, 1969. Print on Demand Edition 2016. the set

This is the "classic" work on the history of Georgia through the Revolutionary War by Charles Colcock Jones Jr., one of the most versatile and prolific historical writers of all time. He was the first native-born Georgian to write a history of his state. In his U.S. IANA, Wright Howes called this a "most scholarly history of the colonial and revolutionary period of this state." The history received accolades from fellow historians for "its style and extensive use of original sources." Volume One deals with the aboriginal and colonial times while Volume Two covers the revolutionary period. Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe, a young philanthropist who was inspired to find a refuge for "unfortunate individuals, confined for debt, of respectable connections and guilty of no crime." In granting the charter for the colony in 1732, the King was motivated by the anxiety of the Carolinians to establish a buffer to the south to serve as a shield against incursions of the Spanish in Florida as well as Indian attacks. The trustees believed that the soil and climate in Georgia were favorable to the production of raw silk and success in this would save vast sums which were spent annually in the purchase of foreign silks. Due to the make up of the original settlers, the trustees also put restrictions on how land could be held, sold, or inherited and originally did not allow slavery in the colony. Volume One deals with descriptions of the Indian population, early Spanish exploration, the granting of the Royal Charter to Oglethorpe and his colonization of Savannah, early settlements including those of the Sulzburgers, the work of the Wesleys in Georgia, and the Rev. George Whitfield and his Bethesda Orphan House. Much detail is given to Oglethorpe's work between 1737 and 1748 to build Frederica, a fort and town, as well as other posts in the St. Simons Island area to protect the southern boundary against Spanish raids. Volume Two deals extensively with the Revolutionary War period: the events leading up to the war; battles in the southern part of the colonies; the siege of Savannah; and the final independence of the state. While a history of Georgia, there is much information in both volumes about South Carolina and its relationships with Georgia, particularly as the two fought together during the Revolution. Persons interested in the history of Alabama and Mississippi will find these volumes of interest as many of the early settlers in the Indian country west of the Chattahoochee River (present-day Alabama and Mississippi) migrated from Georgia. In fact, Jones called Alabama "the daughter of Mississippi and the granddaughter of Georgia."