Welcome to Georgia! From blue mountains, to rolling hills and lakes, to great cities, to the golden coast, Georgia is a place of great diversity and rich history. We hope this site will be an interesting place to visit and will aid you in your research.
Indian Days
The first people to live in what is now Georgia were prehistoric Indians called Mound Builders. Before white men came to the region, the Creek Indians had settled in the south and the Cherokee in the north.
Exploration
Hernando de Soto of Spain was probably the first white man to visit the Georgia region. He crossed the area in 1540, on his way from Florida to the Mississippi River. In 1564, French settlers established a colony in Florida. This action angered King Philip II of Spain, who claimed all of what is now the southeastern United States. In 1565, he sent Pedro Menendez de Aviles to drive out the French. Menendez defeated them, and then built forts along the Atlantic coast. In 1566, Menendez built a fort on St. Catherines Island in present-day Georgia.
England also claimed the Georgia region. In 1629, the region became part of a colonial land grant made by King Charles I. The English built a fort on the Altamaha River in 1721. They abandoned the fort in 1727 because of its expense.
The Colonial Period
In 1730, a few Englishmen made plans to establish a separate colony in the region, which was to be named Georgia for King George II. The group included James Oglethorpe, who planned to send imprisoned or released debtors to the colony. But this plan was abandoned, and few debtors went to Georgia.
In 1732, King George granted a 21-year charter for the new colony to a corporation called Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America. Spain, which had claimed the area, protested to England. Nevertheless, Oglethorpe and the first band of about 120 colonists sailed from England on November 17, 1732. They arrived at Yamacraw Bluff, the site of presentday Savannah, on February 12, 1733. Tomochichi, a Creek chief whose tribe lived nearby, aided the colonists. He helped persuade other Creek tribes to allow the colonists to settle in the area. In the 21 years that the trustees controlled Georgia, more than 4,000 settlers arrived. About half came at the trustees' expense.
During this period, many English ships smuggled merchandise to Spanish colonies in the West Indies. The illegal trading, plus disagreement over the Georgia-Florida boundary, led to war between England and Spain in 1739. Oglethorpe tried to capture Florida, but failed. In 1742, his troops crushed a Spanish landing in the Battle of Bloody Marsh on St. Simons Island. This victory ended the war in America, but it continued in Europe without settling the original disputes.
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Georgia
History - Teresa Todd's exceptional site (very
comprehensive)
University
of Georgia Special Projects- Georgia History
A wealth of historic documents, letters, diaries and other
information,
including links to other sites, such as African American
history.
About
North Georgia - Great Resource!
Georgia
Department of Archives and History
Georgia
History Links
Georgia Historical Society
State
Symbols
American
Memories
- Library of Congress
Lots of great Atlanta Civil War photographs and much more
University
of Georgia Special Projects- Georgia in the Civil War
University
of Georgia Special Projects- Blacks in Georgia in the Civil War
Georgia in the Civil War
Confederate
History
of Georgia
42nd
Georgia Infantry- From a Soldier's Handbook
3rd
Georgia
Infantry
Clinch's
4th Cavalry Regiment
5th Georgia
Cavalry
Andersonville
Prison National Historic Site
Atlanta
Railroad
History - DOT
Old Photographs
Atlanta Vintage Postcards
Atlanta
Telephone History
Marietta Street Artery
Association
History
of Atlanta
The History of the
Fischer
"Flowerland" Mansion
The Story
of the Roswell Mill Workers' Deportation
Atlanta History Center
Extracts From History
- Hardscrabble Farm
Soul
of America - Atlanta Historic sites-African American
Buckhead History
Cobb Preservation Foundation
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