The End of Patriot Georgia: How British Parliamentary Politics Led to the Dissolution of the Georgia Trust
Disciplines
European History | Political History | United States History
Abstract (300 words maximum)
In 1732, James Oglethorpe was granted the charter for Georgia, the last of the thirteen original colonies, where he intended to create an idyllic society governed by a board of Trustees. Oglethorpe belonged to a political party known as the Patriot Whigs, who rallied together against Whig Prime Minister Robert Walpole, and the Georgia colony was intended to be the ideal patriot colony. Slavery, hard liquor, and extensive land ownership were all banned, hoping that these strict regulations would encourage the settlers to live virtuous, self-sufficient lives that disavowed commerce and luxury. However, by 1755, after long campaigns by colonial citizens against Trustee governance and lessening interest in the colony’s success by the Trustees, the charter was surrendered to Parliament, and Georgia officially became a Royal Colony of Great Britain. The colonists of Georgia had seemingly turned away from Oglethorpe’s “virtuous” society and slowly turned into a new-world aristocracy under the plantation elite. Why did this metropole-colony relationship between the Georgia colonists and the Trustees deteriorate during the mid-eighteenth century? Was this relationship inherently unstable or did this relationship worsen due to external forces in Great Britain and America? Most scholarship of colonial Georgia focuses on the changes within the colony politically, economically, and socially. However, this research looks at the papers, pamphlets, and speeches created by the Trustees and the residents of Georgia, analyzing the changes in policy from the British perspective whilst keeping in mind the coinciding changes occurring within Georgia. It argues that the changes in British imperial policy during and after the era of Robert Walpole impacted the eventual end of the Georgia Trust, as after the fall of Walpole, the failing Georgia colony was no longer a priority to prove patriot ideology.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
RCHSS - History & Philosophy
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Dr. Amy Dunagin
The End of Patriot Georgia: How British Parliamentary Politics Led to the Dissolution of the Georgia Trust
In 1732, James Oglethorpe was granted the charter for Georgia, the last of the thirteen original colonies, where he intended to create an idyllic society governed by a board of Trustees. Oglethorpe belonged to a political party known as the Patriot Whigs, who rallied together against Whig Prime Minister Robert Walpole, and the Georgia colony was intended to be the ideal patriot colony. Slavery, hard liquor, and extensive land ownership were all banned, hoping that these strict regulations would encourage the settlers to live virtuous, self-sufficient lives that disavowed commerce and luxury. However, by 1755, after long campaigns by colonial citizens against Trustee governance and lessening interest in the colony’s success by the Trustees, the charter was surrendered to Parliament, and Georgia officially became a Royal Colony of Great Britain. The colonists of Georgia had seemingly turned away from Oglethorpe’s “virtuous” society and slowly turned into a new-world aristocracy under the plantation elite. Why did this metropole-colony relationship between the Georgia colonists and the Trustees deteriorate during the mid-eighteenth century? Was this relationship inherently unstable or did this relationship worsen due to external forces in Great Britain and America? Most scholarship of colonial Georgia focuses on the changes within the colony politically, economically, and socially. However, this research looks at the papers, pamphlets, and speeches created by the Trustees and the residents of Georgia, analyzing the changes in policy from the British perspective whilst keeping in mind the coinciding changes occurring within Georgia. It argues that the changes in British imperial policy during and after the era of Robert Walpole impacted the eventual end of the Georgia Trust, as after the fall of Walpole, the failing Georgia colony was no longer a priority to prove patriot ideology.