On June 9, 1732, King George II of Great Britain officially signed the royal charter establishing the colony of Georgia, naming British member of Parliament James Oglethorpe as its primary trustee. Driven by a bold social vision, Oglethorpe and his fellow trustees finalized their administrative plans over the summer before setting sail across the Atlantic with the first wave of colonists in November of that year.
Oglethorpe originally envisioned the colony as a radical, enlightened experiment in social reform and human empathy. He designed Georgia as a haven for England’s “worthy poor,” particularly those suffering in debtor prisons—even though relatively few actual debtors ultimately emigrated. To protect this egalitarian vision, Oglethorpe originally banned slavery, lawyers, and hard liquor from the colony, attempting to create a unique utopian society that stood in stark contrast to the existing plantations of the American South.
Image: Statue of James Oglethorpe from Sir Mildred Pierce via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
