A Georgia Revival, part 1

Seeds contain the full potential of a tree. While it is the fruit we most easily see, understanding the tree requires us to go all the way back and examine the seeds that got it started. My new home is the beautiful state of Georgia. I love everything about Georgia - the landscape, the people, the culture. However, when outsiders think of Georgia they tend to remember some of the "fruit" of how its history intersected with African slavery and Jim Crow. I contend that the best way to understand our state is to look at the seeds that resulted in it's birth.

Those seeds begin with a single person - James Edward Oglethorpe (1696-1785). The Oglethorpe family, including the father and three brothers, were all active in government, serving as Members of Parliament. In 1728 a friend of James was sent to debtors prison where he died of smallpox. This tragedy led James to launch an investigation of the prison system in England, including the possibility of being imprisoned solely for indebtedness. Oglethorpe became the recognized leader in prison reform and a leading humanitarian in England. However, he became even more concerned with the high level of poverty in his nation. By 1732, James and a group of friends devised a plan to establish a colony in the New World aimed at giving "the worthy poor" and opportunity to start over. King George II was persuaded to establish the thirteenth American Colony, named Georgia. Oglethorpe and 21 others were given Trusteeship of the new colony.

The first paragraph of the June 9, 1732 Charter, read, "Whereas we are credibly informed, that many of our poor subjects are, through misfortunes and want of employment, reduced to great necessity, insomuch as by their labor they are not able to provide a maintenance for themselves and families. . . . And whereas we think it highly becoming our crown and royal dignity, to protect all our loving subjects, be they ever so distant from us; to extend our fatherly compassion even to the meanest and most unfortunate of our people, and to relieve the wants of our above mentioned poor subjects; and that it will be highly conducive for accomplishing those ends, that a regular colony of the said poor people be settled and established. . . ." With the Charter freshly signed by King George, 114 colonists sailed from England to the South Carolina colony, and on February 12, 1733, settled on the banks of the Savannah River.

While it is true that the South Carolina colony had lost a significant number of colonists to recent Indian wars, and that there was a need to establish a cushion between them and the Spaniards in St. Augustine, Florida, the primary motivation for establishing the new colony was compassion for the poor. General Oglethorpe and the Trustees had a very clear sense of how to give the poor a fresh start. Every colonist was given a plot of land and required to farm the land for themselves. Large landowners were not allowed to be a part of the colony. Slavery was outlawed since all the colonists were expected to do their own work. In fact, the Charter declared "that all and every person or persons, who shall at any time hereafter inhabit or reside within our said province, shall be, and are hereby declared to be free." The original emancipation proclamation for Georgians.

Compassion and a fresh start for the "worthy poor" and freedom are the seeds of our great state. A Georgia Revival would acknowledge our beneficent beginnings and advocate for more of the same in our future. Those seeds are still a part of who are, and who we can still be.