Colonial Georgia:
Selected Bibliography of Georgia Room Holdings

Statue of James Edward Oglethorpe

STANDARD TEXTS AND PRINCIPAL REFERENCE WORKS

"History and Archeology - Colonial Era, 1733-1775." New Georgia Encyclopedia.
Launched in 2004, the online Encyclopedia contains nearly 2,000 articles. Browse in the "Colonial Era" section, or search the entire Encyclopedia to identify relevant articles, all of which contain lists of works consulted by the authors.
Internet accessible, on/off campus. No password required.

Coleman, Kenneth. Colonial Georgia: A History. New York: Scribner, 1976.
Currently the standard history of the English colonial involvement during the Trustee period (1733-1752) and the royal government (1752-1775).
F289 .C64

Davis, Harold. The Fledgling Province: Social and Cultural Life in Colonial Georgia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1976.
How Georgians in the colonial era lived and worked and played and prayed. With an extensive "Bibliographical Essay."
F289 .D4

Jackson, Harvey, and Phinizy Spalding, eds., Forty Years of Diversity: Essays on Colonial Georgia. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1984.
Papers from a symposium on the 250th anniversary of the colonization, generally expanding the colony's history to include important groups (Native Americans, women, slaves) and individuals underrepresented in earlier scholarship.
F289 .F67 1984

Sweet, Julie Anne. "The Thirteenth Colony in Perspective: Historians' Views on Early Georgia." Georgia Historical Quarterly 85, no. 3 (2001): 435-460.
Comprehensive bibliographic essay on colonial Georgia scholarship through 2001.
F281 .G352

Wood, Betty. Slavery in Colonial Georgia, 1730-1775. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1984.
Standard work on the subject. Examines the colony's original ban, its eventual rescinding, and the experiences of black slaves as Georgia developed a slave economy.
E445 .G3 W66 1984

Georgia Historical Quarterly. Georgia Historical Society. 1917-current.
The standard periodical of Georgia historical scholarship since 1917. Contains an annual bibliography of Georgia history.
F281 .G352
Also available online since 2002 via GALILEO databases World History Collection and Academic Search Complete. (Password required for off-campus access.)

Georgia Historical Quarterly Index, 1917-1976.
Cumulative index of GHQ articles through 1976.
F281 .G352 Index

America: History & Life. This GALILEO database indexes all Georgia Historical Quarterly articles from 1975 to present, and thus helpfully supplements the print 1917-1976 index. (America: History & Life also indexes Viewpoints, the journal of the Georgia Baptist Historical Society, which contains some articles on Georgia colonial religion and life.)
GALILEO (Password required for off-campus access.)

Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians. 1994-current.
Includes occasional scholarly papers on colonial period. Columbus State University's archives has many volumes' tables of contents and many full-text articles online at http://archives.colstate.edu/GAH/GAHTOC.htm.
D1 .G63a

SELECTED PRIMARY SOURCE MATERIALS

Candler, Allen D., et al., eds. The Colonial Records of the State of Georgia. 25 volumes (v. 1-19, 21-26), Atlanta: Franklin, 1904-1916. Vols. 20, 27-32, Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1976-1989.
Transcripts of letters, reports and other documents sent to London by colonial officials, archived by the British Public Records Office. Some yet unpublished.
F281 .C7191

Index to Candler's The Colonial Records of Georgia, vols. 1-19, 21-26 [and] The Revolutionary Records of Georgia, vols. 1-3.
Typescript prepared by Works Projects Administration researchers. Savannah, 1937.
F281 .C7191 Index

Collections of the Georgia Historical Society. Savannah: The Society, 1840- 21 vols. Valuable series reprints early tracts and publications about conditions in the colony, as well as correspondence and accounts by colonial Georgians including General Oglethorpe, James Habersham, Thomas Raspberry, royal governor James Wright and others, and government proceedings.
F281 .G352h

Reese, Trevor R. The Most Delightful Country of the Universe: Promotional Literature of the Colony of Georgia 1717-1734. Savannah: Beehive Press, 1972.
The first of four compilations of selected Georgia colonial documents by the Beehive Press, all found in the Georgia Room.
F289 .M86

Wormsloe Foundation publications series.
Beginning in 1955, the Wormsloe Foundation of Savannah, in conjunction with the University of Georgia Press, began publishing essential primary and secondary works on Georgia history. Colonial-period primary works include the two-volume Journal of William Stephens, 1741-1745; Journal of the Earl of Egmont, and Abstract of the Trustees Proceedings for Establishing the Colony of Georgia, 1732-1738; and Samuel Urlspunger's Detailed Reports on the Salzburger Emigrants Who Settled in America... All titles are in the Georgia Room, and may be located by GIL search for "Wormsloe Foundation."

Bryant, Pat, and Marion R. Hemperley, eds. English Crown Grants in Georgia, 1755-1775. Atlanta: Surveyor General Dept., State of Georgia, 1972-1974.
Nine volumes of abstracts of the more than 5,000 royal land grants archived in the Georgia Office of the Surveyor General. Published between 1972 and 1974, and available in the Georgia Room under separate titles (all with titles beginning English Crown Grants...). A comprehensive 1989 index -- An Index to English Crown Grants in Georgia, 1755-1775--was subsequently published by the R.J. Taylor Jr. Foundation and is available in the Georgia Room.
F285 .I49 1989 (Index)

Colonial Records Series. Atlanta: R.J. Taylor Jr. Foundation, 1975-1983.
Four volumes of indexes and abstracts to colonial Georgia records were published from 1975 to 1983 by the Taylor Foundation, chartered in 1971 "to secure information of a genealogical nature from public and private records by way of indexing, abstracting, and historical research."
Titles: Abstracts of Georgia Colonial Conveyance Book C-1, 1750-1761 (F285 .B42); Abstracts of Georgia Colonial Book J, 1755-1762 (F289 .W25); An Index to Georgia Colonial Conveyances and Confiscated Land Records, 1750-1804 (F285 .I540); and Index to Probate Records of Colonial Georgia, 1733-1778 (F285 .I5530 1983). Note: Digital images of the colonial wills indexed in the last title are viewable online via the Georgia Archives' Virtual Vault, available via the Digital Library of Georgia gateway to colonial-era sources.

GALILEO DATABASES - DIGITAL 18TH CENTURY BOOKS

Early American Imprints, Series I database. A full-text digital library based on Charles Evans' bibliography of nearly every book, pamphlet and broadside published in America 1639 to 1800. Includes Tailfer's True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia, also Georgia laws and proclamations of the royal period, and contemporary Georgia gazetteers.
GALILEO (Password required for off-campus access.)

Early American Newspapers, 1690-1876. Digital reproductions of historic newspapers with full-text search. More than three hundred issues of the Georgia Gazette, the colony's first newspaper, from 1763 to 1781 are available. Also articles about the Georgia colony in other 18th century American papers. (For example, September 1732 New England Weekly Rehearsal article datelined "London" begins, "We are very interested here to learn the particulars of the charter for establishing the new colony in Georgia; we can only yet gather in general, that it is calculated for the relief of the unfortunate [...] that there will be attempts made for raising raw silk, vines, olives and other things which succeed very well there..."
GALILEO (Password required for off-campus access.)

Sabin Americana, 1500-1926. A full-text digital library of original published accounts by colonialists of exploration, trade, Native Americans, military actions and more. Includes the earliest accounts of Georgia colonial history by Oglethorpe, Whitefield, Stephens (William and Thomas), Martyn, Von Reck and others.
GALILEO (Password required for off-campus access.)

MISCELLANEOUS TOOLS, REFERENCE WORKS

General Index to Contents of Savannah, Georgia Newspapers, 1763-1825.
The first eleven volumes of this forty-volume index, a 1930s WPA project, cover the period 1763-1799, chiefly from the colonial Georgia Gazette.
AI3 .G264

Kilbourne, Elizabeth Evans (comp.) Savannah, Georgia, Newspaper Clippings. (Georgia Gazette) 1999-
Transcripts of local news and notices, selected and name-indexed for use mainly by geneaologists. Vols. 1-2 cover the period 1763-1775.
F294 .S2 K4 1999

SELECTED RECENT SECONDARY WORKS

Byrnside, Ronald L. Music in Eighteenth-Century Georgia. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1997.
This book seeks to relate the story of secular and sacred music in eighteenth-century Georgia. It brings together scattered pieces of information from colonial and revolutionary records, personal diaries, newspapers, and a small collection of musical documents.--Preface.
ML20O.7 .G4 B89 1997

Cutten, George Barton. The Silversmiths of Georgia; together with Watchmakers and Jewelers, 1733-1850. With: Early Silversmiths and the Silver Trade in Georgia by Katharine Gross Farnham and Callie Huger Efrid. Savannah: Oglethorpe Press, 1998.
First published in 1958, Silversmiths traces the history of silversmithing from the colonial coast inland, noting that silversmiths often worked as gunsmiths, watchmakers, and even dentists in sparsely-settled towns. Smiths are listed by locality. This new edition published together with Farnham and Efrid's 1971 Antiques Magazine article "Early Silversmiths and the Silver Trade in Georgia."--Publisher.
NK7112 .C38 1998

Gallay, Alan. The Formation of a Planter Elite: Jonathan Bryan and the Southern Colonial Frontier. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1989. Reprinted with a new preface, 2007.
Through the career of a remarkable individual - which spanned the founding of Georgia, the Revolution, and the birth of the new republic - Gallay chronicles the rise of the plantation slavery system in the colonial South.--Publisher.
F289 .B888 G35

Lambert, Frank. James Habersham: Loyalty, Politics, and Commerce in Colonial Georgia. Athens, University of Georgia Press, 2005.
Habersham's role in the struggling colony's transformation into a prosperous province unfolds against the historical backdrop of the Methodist missionary fervor, the development of transatlantic trade, the introduction of slavery, and the escalating debate over American independence--Publisher.
F289 .H14 L36 2005

Lannen, Andrew C. "Liberty and Authority in Colonial Georgia, 1717-1776." Louisiana State University, 2002.
This Ph. D. dissertation examines the entire colonial period -- Trustees and crown colony -- as a single, continuous story about the efforts of all involved - colonists, Trustees, officials, assemblies, etc. -- to balance authority with liberty. (The Georgia Room holds many copies of Ph.D. dissertations on Georgia history from other institutions.)
F289 .L263 2002a (This title is also available online through LSU's Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Library.)

Marsh, Ben. Georgia's Frontier Women: Female Fortunes in a Southern Colony. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2007.
Explores women's changing roles amid the developing demographic, economic, and social circumstances of the colony's settling.--Publisher.
HQ1438 .G4 M37 2007

Parker, Anthony W. Scottish Highlanders in Colonial Georgia: the Recruitment, Emigration, and Settlement at Darien, 1735-1748. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1997.
Narrative history of the recruitment, emigration and settlement of Highland Scots in the Georgia colony at Darien during the period 1735-1748. Discusses how the Scotsmen were sought by Oglethorpe due to their reputation as "farmer-soldiers," which recommended them as settlers who could help defend the colony against Spanish threat from Florida while working to help it develop and prosper.
F294 .D26 P37 1997

Sweet, Julie Anne. Negotiating for Georgia: British-Creek Relations in the Trustee Era, 1733-1752. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2005.
As Sweet focuses on negotiations between James Oglethorpe, the English leader, and Tomochichi, the Lower Creek representative, over issues of trade, land, and military support, she also looks at other individuals and groups who played a role in British-Creek interactions during this period: British traders; missionaries, including John Wesley and George Whitefield; the Salzburgers of Ebenezer; interpreters such as Mary Musgrove; the Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Cherokees; British colonists from South Carolina; and Spanish and French forces who vied with the Georgia settlers for land, trading rights, and Indian support.--Publisher
E99 .C9 S94 2005

GEORGIANA VERTICAL FILES

Georgia Room files of newspaper clippings and periodical articles on colonial Georgia history generally rely heavily upon "Georgia history" anecdotes and feature stories by newspaper reporters, columnists, or amateur, local historians. Stories of local interest or news are often filled out with historical "background" from the standard history text of the time the story appeared. And for each of those clipped stories that actually cites a textual reference, there are handfuls that seem to have relied on the community's favorite parlor history or local legend about colonial influence.

The vertical files, thus, will probably be of limited value to the researcher seeking authoritative information on the period. That need would likely be better served, at least where colonial Georgia is concerned, by reference to the lists of reference or secondary sources above, or the the Georgia Historical Quarterly and the other scholarly journals whose back issues can be searched via GALILEO databases.

Georgiana files can be useful, however, to the researcher seeking local details or, particularly, illustrations. Articles sometimes include maps, sketches, or portraits. Modern newspaper and magazine article photographs or drawings of colonial structures - forts, houses, churches, etc. - provide historical "snapshots" that researchers can find useful, as well.

The following files are where the researcher will find the majority of the articles pertinent to colonial Georgia history. Other files may contain some information on the colonial period - biography files of lesser-known colonial figures are one example - but the following lists indicate where a researcher is likely to find a number of articles, rather than a single reference or story.

I. General (Georgia) files

Battle of Bloody Marsh; Bicentennial, Georgia, 1734-1934; Cherokee Indians; Creek Indians; Colonial Records; Darien; Dead Towns; Ebenezer; Forts; Forts-Argyle; Forts-Augusta; Forts-Frederica; Forts-George; Forts-James; Forts-King George; Forts-St. Andrews (and Fort Prince William); Forts-Wimberley; Governors; Historic Sites; History (General); History (1500-1699); History (1700s); Indians; Midway Church and Cemetery; Plantations; Plantations-Bonaventure; Plantations-Old Town; Plantations-Wormsloe; Quakers; Revolution; Salzburgers; Effingham; Silk; Slavery; Sunbury; Wrightsboro

II. Georgia Cities and Counties files

Savannah: Bethesda Home for Boys; Historic Buildings; Historic Homes-Pirate's House; History; Squares; Trustee's Garden.

Augusta: General; Historic Buildings; History; Newspapers - Semiquincentenary Edition

III. Georgia Biography files

Mary Musgrove; James Edward Oglethorpe; Tomochichi; John Wesley; George Whitefield.

FICTION

Estill, Eugenia. The Heiress of Cranham Hall. by Meredith junior [pseud.]. New York: Broadway Publishing, c1910.
"To the memory of Sir James Oglethorpe, the Washington of Georgia,... and to his faithful wife, Elizabeth Wright Oglethorpe,...this romance is dedicated in admiration of their characters"--Author's dedication.
PS3509 .E811 H472

Oertel, Theodore E. Jack Sutherland: a Tale of Bloody Marsh. Illustrated by H.L. Hastings. New York: T.Y. Crowell, c1926.
A historical fiction of a young Englishman's life in the new Georgia colony and his part in the decisive battle which, according to the Foreword, "barred the advance of the Spanish hosts and thus saved the southern Provinces to the English-speaking world."
PS3529 .E75 J3

Mason, Francis Van Wyck. Rascal's Heaven. Garden City, NJ: Doubleday, 1964.
"For sheer excitement, let F. Van Wyck Mason take you back 230 years to the most precarious settlement in colonial America. Go back to a wilderness called Georgia, where slavery and hard liquor are prohibited...where most of the farms are swamps and all of the borders are alive with enemies. Join a lovely Bostonian driven South by scandal...an Indian chief who is actually a full-blooded Englishman...a giant Negro who claims royal blood...a colony of 'nobodies' fresh from debtors' prison...and the strange, stubborn idealist who leads them all into a New World of spies, smuggling, Indian raids, and high adventure..." --Publisher's advertisement, New York Times, May 17, 1964.
PS3525 .M412 R2

Ethridge, Willie Snow. Summer Thunder. New York: Coward-McCann, 1959.
"Heather, all fire and feminine sensibilities, did not approve of everything that the General [Oglethorpe] proposed for the already divided colonists; Bart on the the other hand, weighing matters in his man's way, usually sided with his leader. The author tells with much colorful detail how this lovers' conflict was resolved and how, at the battle of Bloody Marsh, Oglethorpe defeated the Spanish and at last put the colony on a firm foundation."--Dust jacket.
PS3509 .E841 S9

ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES

Library of Congress. Establishing the Georgia Colony, 1732-1750. [Washington, D.C.]: Library of Congress, 2000. Last updated 7/24/2003.
A chapter of the Library of Congress's American Memory/Learning Page online resource. Includes full-text, digitized versions of Georgia colonial primary source materials as they were later reprinted in Tracts and Other Papers Relating Principally to the Origin, Settlement, and Progress of the Colonies in North America from the Discovery of the Country to the Year 1776. (Washington: Peter Force, 1836). Includes an introduction tailored to meet the needs of the K-12 teachers and students, along with directions on finding other Georgia-related materials in the Library's "The Capital and the Bay" digital collection.
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/timeline/colonial/georgia/georgia.html

Image courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

 

Created by Skip Hulett