Savannah

Savannah, Georgia, was founded in 1733 on a high bluff in the wilderness, twenty miles from the mouth of the river of the same name. The brainstorm of British General James Edward Oglethorpe, the thirteenth colony was meant to act as a buffer between the threatening Spanish in Florida to the south and the prosperous, rice- and indigo-producing Carolina plantations to the north. As one of England’s most ardent advocates for prison reform, Oglethorpe also planned for Georgia to serve as a debtor’s colony, having witnessed the injustices of low wages and unemployment that led many citizens to jail, where they could not rise above their debts or poverty. He fought successfully in Parliament for the passage of the Prison Reform Act of 1729, resulting in the release of thousands of debtors from jail. The following year he formed the Georgia Society with the ultimate goal of providing a new colony with a workforce of one hundred of those released prisoners.