In a message dated 99-08-10 22:57:21 EDT, you write: << My understanding is that Georgia was largely settled by convicts or those in the prisons in England. They may have been imprisoned for minor crimes (ie, stealing a loaf of bread) or something less then a misdemeanor today. Anyway, the English wanted to get rid of their prison population so they released many of them if they agreed to go to their colonies. >> Some persons were sent that were prisoners but not the majority. Many came from SC/NC and VA. The Colonial and Revolutionary Periods In 1732, the British philanthropists James Oglethorpe and John Percival (1683-1748) secured a royal charter to establish a colony in the area, providing for a board of trustees to govern it. The early settlers included many English debtors, but also Scots, Germans, Swiss, and some German Jews. Oglethorpe arrived with the first group and founded Savannah in 1733. The British desired a buffer between South Carolina and the Spanish in Florida and the French in Louisiana. Georgia served this purpose well. It did not begin to prosper economically, however, until the charter expired in 1753, and economic growth became pronounced after the appointment of James Wright (1716-85) as royal governor in 1760. Relations between the colonists and the Indians were generally friendly, and slavery was prohibited until 1749. Although loyalty to the British crown was strong in Georgia, the colony joined the American Revolution and sent representatives to the Second Continental Congress. The British seized Savannah in 1778, but guerrilla fighters prevented them from gaining control of the interior, and they evacuated the state in 1782. Disputes with the Federal Government After the Revolution, Georgia supported a strong central government and was one of three states to ratify the Constitution unanimously. This popular support, however, did not prevent conflict with the new national government. Georgia claimed virtually all of what is now Mississippi and much of Alabama, and granted this territory to private land companies. These grants (the Yazoo Land Frauds) were declared invalid in 1800 by the U.S. Congress. Georgia agreed in 1802 to cede these lands to the U.S. and received a federal commitment to remove the Indians to the West. After a series of constitutional squabbles involving the state, the president of the U.S., and the U.S. Supreme Court, by 1838 the Creeks and Cherokees were largely removed from Georgia, thus opening up vast new cotton lands that were quickly settled by whites. Hope this helps in everyone's research. Margie