Province of Georgia in the context of "Thirteen Colonies"

The Southern Colonies within British America consisted of the Province of Maryland, the Colony of Virginia, the Province of Carolina (in 1712 split into North and South Carolina), and the Province of Georgia. In 1763, the newly created colonies of East Florida and West Florida were added to the Southern Colonies by Great Britain until the Spanish Empire took back Florida. These colonies were the historical core of what became the Southern United States, or "Dixie". They were located south of the Middle Colonies, although Virginia and Maryland (located on the expansive Chesapeake Bay in the Upper South) were also called the Chesapeake Colonies.

The Southern Colonies were overwhelmingly rural, with large agricultural operations, which made extensive use of slavery and indentured servitude. During a period of civil unrest, Bacon's Rebellion shaped the way that servitude and slavery worked in the South. After a series of attacks on the Susquehannock, attacks that ensued after the group of natives burnt one of Bacon's farms, Bacon's arrest, along with other arrest warrants, were issued by Governor Berkely, for attacking the natives without his permission. Bacon avoided detainment, though, and then burnt Jamestown, in response to the governor previously denying him land in fear of native attacks. Bacon hadn't believed his policies were entirely conventional, saying that they didn't ensure protection to the English settlers, as well as the exclusion of Bacon from Berkeley's social clubs and friend groups. The rebellion dissolved some time in 1676, following Charles II's initial sending of troops to restore order in the colony. This rebellion influenced the view of the Africans, helping create a completely African servitude and workforce in the Chesapeake Colonies, alleviating primarily White servitude, a working class that could be repugnant at times through disobedience and mischief. This also helped racial superiority in white regions, helping the poor and wealthy white people feel almost equal. It diminished alliances between white and black people, as had happened in Bacon's Rebellion.

Portrait of Benjamin Franklin is a 1767 portrait painting by the Scottish artist David Martin of the American politician and inventor Benjamin Franklin. It was painted during his lengthy residence in London when he was acting as colonial agent for Pennsylvania, Georgia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. The work was commissioned by the Edinburgh merchant Robert Alexander, a friend of Franklin. He is shown seated next to a bust of the scientist Isaac Newton.

The painting was displayed at the Exhibition of 1767 held by the Society of Artists held at Spring Gardens. Today it is part of the collection of the White House.

Georgia (/ˈdʒɔːrdʒə/ JOR-jə) is a state in the Southeastern, South Atlantic, and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the northwest, North Carolina and South Carolina to the northeast, Atlantic Ocean to the east, Florida to the south, and Alabama to the west. Of the 50 U.S. states, Georgia is the 24th-largest by area and eighth-most populous. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, its 2024 estimated population was 11,180,878. Atlanta, a global city, is both the state's capital and its largest city. The Atlanta metropolitan area, with a population greater than 6.3 million people in 2023, is the eighth most populous metropolitan area in the United States and contains about 57% of Georgia's entire population. Other major metropolitan areas in the state include Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, and Macon.

The Province of Georgia was established in 1732, with its first settlement occurring in 1733 when Savannah was founded. By 1752, Georgia had transitioned into a British royal colony, making it the last and southernmost of the original Thirteen Colonies. Named in honor of King George II of Great Britain, the Georgia Colony extended from South Carolina down to Spanish Florida and westward to French Louisiana along the Mississippi River. On January 2, 1788, Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution.

Savannah (/səˈvænə/ sə-VAN-ə) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city was the capital of the colonial Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. A strategic port city in the American Revolution and during the American Civil War, Savannah today is an industrial center and an important Atlantic seaport. The city is the most populous in the Coastal Georgia region and the fifth-most populous in the state as a whole, with a population of 147,780 at the 2020 census and an estimated 148,808 in 2024. The Savannah metropolitan area, with about 432,000 residents in 2024, is the third-largest metro area in the state.

Savannah attracts millions of visitors each year to its cobblestone streets, parks, and notable historic buildings. These include the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low (founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA), the Georgia Historical Society (the oldest continually operating historical society in the South), the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences (one of the South's first public museums), the First African Baptist Church (one of the oldest African-American Baptist congregations in the United States), Temple Mickve Israel (the third-oldest synagogue in the U.S.), and the Central of Georgia Railway roundhouse complex (the oldest standing antebellum rail facility in the U.S. and now a museum and visitor center).

In the United States, abolitionism, the movement that sought to end slavery in the country, was active from the colonial era until the American Civil War, the end of which brought about the abolition of American slavery, except as punishment for a crime, through the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (ratified 1865).

The anti-slavery movement originated during the Age of Enlightenment, focused on ending the transatlantic slave trade. In Colonial America, a few German Quakers issued the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery, which marked the beginning of the American abolitionist movement. Before the Revolutionary War, evangelical colonists were the primary advocates for the opposition to slavery and the slave trade, doing so on the basis of humanitarian ethics. Still, others such as James Oglethorpe, the founder of the colony of Georgia, also retained political motivations for the removal of slavery. Prohibiting slavery through the 1735 Georgia Experiment in part to prevent Spanish partnership with Georgia's runaway slaves, Oglethorpe eventually revoked the act in 1750 after the Spanish's defeat in the Battle of Bloody Marsh eight years prior.

The colonial history of the United States covers the period of European colonization of North America from the early 16th century until the unifying of the Thirteen British Colonies and creation of the United States in 1776, during the Revolutionary War. In the late 16th century, England, France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic launched major colonization expeditions in North America. The death rate was very high among early settlers, and some disappeared in early attempts altogether, such as the ones in the English Lost Colony of Roanoke. Nevertheless, successful European colonies were established within several decades.

European settlers in the Thirteen Colonies came from a variety of social and religious groups, including adventurers, farmers, indentured servants, tradesmen, and a very few from the aristocracy. Settlers included the Dutch of New Netherland, the Swedes and Finns of New Sweden, the English Quakers of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English Puritans of New England, the Virginian Cavaliers, the English Catholics and Protestant Nonconformists of the Province of Maryland, the "worthy poor" of the Province of Georgia, the Germans who settled the mid-Atlantic colonies, and the Ulster Scots of the Appalachian Mountains. These groups all became part of the United States when it gained its independence in 1776. Parts of what had been New France were incorporated during the American Revolution and soon after. Parts of New Spain were incorporated in several stages, and Russian America was also incorporated into the United States at a later time. The diverse colonists from these various regions built colonies of distinctive social, religious, political, and economic style.