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Oglethorpe a soldier

58. A Friend of the Unfortunate. James Oglethorpe was an Englishman. At an early age he went to Oxford to study, but he was drawn away from college by the clash of arms. Oglethorpe was a soldier for many years. Later he became a member of Parliament.

English jails and jailers

A friend of Oglethorpe's died in a debtor's prison, which aroused his sympathies for the poor. He examined English jails, and found them so dirty and dark and damp that strong-bodied men, to say nothing of women and children, soon sickened and died in them. Besides, he found that the jailers were often bad men, who whipped the prisoners on their bare backs and stole their food.

JAMES EDWARD OGLETHORPE

From an original portrait painted by Simon Francois Ravenet, from a mezzotint by Burford in the print room at the British Museum

The prison was a poor place for a man in debt, anyway. How could a man pay his debts while he was shut up in prison?

King George II grants a charter

Oglethorpe, like many other noble men before him, thought of America as a place of refuge for the unfortunate. King George II gave him a charter for the land between the Savannah and the Altamaha, and made his heart glad by declaring that all Protestants should be tolerated there.

A select body of emigrants

When the debtors heard the news that Oglethorpe was to plant a colony for them there was great excitement among them. But he carefully selected his settlers, so that no lazy man might be found among them. Arms and tools with which to work on the farms were given to the settlers.

At Charleston

When the time came, thirty families were ready to sail. Oglethorpe carried them direct to Charleston, South Carolina. When they landed, in 1733, the people of Charleston were only too glad to have a colony south of them as a "buffer" against the Spaniards who occupied Florida, and who had already attacked South Carolina.

Savannah laid out

Therefore, the people of Charleston, to give the new colony a good start, presented the settlers with one hundred head of cattle, a drove of hogs, and fifteen or twenty barrels of rice. Rejoicing in their new supplies, the colony sailed to the Savannah River, and not far from its mouth, on a beautiful bluff, Oglethorpe marked out the streets of the new city. The settlers went to work with a will, cutting down trees and making them into cabins. They soon had comfortable homes, although very different from what they had known in England.

Italians

Soon other colonists came to Savannah. Among these was a company of Italians who had come to raise the silkworm and to manufacture silk.

OGLETHORPE SURVEYING THE SITE OF SAVANNAH

German Protestants

In the next year after Oglethorpe planted the settlement a band of sturdy German Protestants arrived. These settlers built their homes to the north of Savannah, and called the colony "Ebenezer," which means "the Lord hath helped us." Between these two settlements a band of pious Moravian immigrants founded a colony. Then followed the settlement of Augusta, far up the Savannah River and well out among the Indians, which served as a sort of outpost.

Highlanders

To these were added a colony on the Altamaha River. This colony was settled by a company of brave Highlanders from Scotland.

OGLETHORPE'S STRONGHOLD

Standing on a bold rocky bluff overlooking a beautiful bay, it guarded the entrance to Frederica

The Wesleys come

In the meantime, Oglethorpe had gone to England, but he soon returned with more than two hundred English and German immigrants, who came to Georgia to better their condition. With these immigrants came John and Charles Wesley, who were soon to awake all England with a revival of religion.

Oglethorpe foresees war

While in England Oglethorpe was made a colonel. He saw that trouble with Spain must soon come. From the beginning of the settlement of Georgia Oglethorpe had been careful to treat the Indians well. He had made treaties with them and had paid them for their lands. He now went to visit the Creek and the Cherokee Indians.

Frederica fortified

On an island at the mouth of the Altamaha Oglethorpe planted a town to serve as an outpost against the Spaniards. He fortified it, and made it very strong. This town was called Frederica.

In 1742 a Spanish fleet of fifty-one vessels and five thousand men attacked Frederica. Oglethorpe beat them off, and thereafter Georgia was left in peace. He went back to England and became a general. Oglethorpe lived to a good old age. He died in 1785.