OurCoast.com :: Savannah City Guide

Savannah, set apart by attitude, style, and hundreds of marshy miles, has always been unique. A major seaport from the start, she has never been truly isolated, instead both welcoming and enduring a remarkable assortment of citizens of the world.

The famous English colonists were not the first settlers. Roots of early inhabitants can be traced back to 3500 BC when the Biblo inhabited this area. Much later, a few years before James Oglethorpe arrived, the Yamacraws under their Mico, Tomochichi, settled on the high bluff over the river. These native Americans lived from the land and the marsh, as did their ancestors. Oyster roast festivals today often take place adjacent ancient piles of bleached shell remnants from earlier feasts.

Savannah's history as it is told and celebrated today started in the early 1700's. On April 21, 1732, King George II granted the charter for Georgia to a group of Trustees, with the idea to help the worthy poor, strengthen the colonies, and increase trade and navigation, or in other words, develop new sources for England's wealth. King George's decision was further influenced by religious groups hoping to create a religious haven for all - excluding Catholics.

At the same time, Georgia was expected to protect Carolina from Spanish Florida. This early military connection has continued unbroken for over 250 years.

In November of 1732, the smallish, 200-ton galley ship Anne sailed abroad with 114 colonists and James Oglethorpe on board. On February 12, 1733, Oglethorpe and his pioneers arrived at Yamacraw - soon thereafter called Savannah - and were cordially and ceremoniously greeted by Tomochichi, his Yamacraws, and John and Mary Musgrove, Indian traders. The Musgroves greatly assisted Oglethorpe in his early relations with the Indians.

Pleading his personal friendship and that of his immediate tribe, Tomochichi cheerfully granted the colonists permission to settle undisturbed on the spot selected by Oglethorpe for the town Savannah. As a by-product of the firm friendship which developed between these two aristocrats of such diverse cultures, Savannah flourished unhindered by the terror and warfare which clouded the beginnings of so many of America's early colonies.

Oglethorpe laid out the town according to a plan which he designed earlier in England. Savannah thus became one of the first planned cities in the nation.

The plan became famous and made Savannah famous. It foresaw wards around central squares, trust lots on the east and west sides of the squares for public buildings and churches, and tithing lots for the colonists' private homes on the north and south sides of the squares. The first church built on such a trust lot on a square was Christ Episcopal (then Anglican) Church, celebrated since 1733 as the "Mother Church of Georgia."

Part of the Trustees' plan for making Georgia a garden colony, dedicated to the production of silk, wine and other items desired in the British Empire, was the Trustee's Garden, located on the northeast edge of town. It was one of the first agricultural experimental gardens in the country. The climate ruined these ambitious plans and the garden was eventually converted to a residential area, which itself was the object of Savannah's first large-scale restoration project many years later.

--Sojourn in Savannah

Creating a paradise on earth (or not?).
A brief history of Savannah, Georgia 1733-1776

pre-1732 | 1733-1776 | 1776-1800 | 1800-1850 | 1850-1865 | 1865-1900 | 1900-1955