Brief History of Savannah, Georgia

Savannah’s history begins in February 1733. General James Oglethorpe landed on a bluff high along the Savannah River. Oglethorpe named the 13th and final American colony “Georgia” after England’s King George II. Savannah became its first city.

The plan for Savannah was to offer a new start for England’s working poor and to strengthen the colonies by increasing trade. Under the original charter, individuals were free to worship as they pleased and rum, lawyers and slavery were forbidden – for a time.

Upon settling, Oglethorpe became friends with the local Yamacraw Indian chief, Tomochichi. They each pledged mutual goodwill and the Yamacraw chief granted the new arrivals permission to settle Savannah on the bluff. As a result, the town flourished without warfare or hardship that burdened many of America’s early colonies.

Savannah is known as America’s first planned city. Oglethorpe laid the city out in a series of grids that allowed for wide open streets intertwined with shady public squares and parks that served as town meeting places and centers of business. Savannah had 24 original squares; 22 squares are still in existence today.

During the American Revolution, the British took Savannah in 1778 and held it into 1782. After independence was secured, Savannah flourished. Soon, farmers discovered that the soil was rich and the climate favorable for cultivation of cotton and rice. Plantations and slavery became highly profitable systems for whites in the neighboring “Lowcountry” of South Carolina. So Georgia, the free colony, legalized slavery. The transatlantic slave trade brought many African-Americans through the port of Savannah. Many who stayed in the area formed the unique Gullah culture of the coastal communities in Georgia and South Carolina.