History of slavery in Georgia
European slavery was specifically focused racism and the concept of racial inferiority, something that had not been documented in Native American societies prior to contact.
Founded in the 1730s, Georgia's powerful backers did not object to slavery as an institution, but their business model was to rely on labor from Britain (primarily England's poor) and they were also concerned with security, given the closeness of then Spanish Florida, and Spain's regular offers to enemy-slaves to revolt or escape.
On board his ship, the Halifax, he carried hundreds of enslaved Africans to Jamaica and Antigua, before returning to Bristol[11] Ellis’ involvement went further than trading human cargo.
He came to Savannah as a 24 year old expert in sericulture, employed by King George II on a significant wage, to help establish silk production in the area.
‘RUN away on Saturday Night, about Nine o’Clock, March 7, 1767, a (-) Man, named JOSEPH ROBINSON, bought of Governor Ellis in Georgia in the Year 1760, well known in the Parish of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, about 5 Feet 5 Inches high, his Hair cut short, is well made, had on when he went away a light-coloured mixed Cloth Coat and Waistcoat, an under red Waistcoat, black Worsted Breeches, Silver Buckles in his Shoes, and a Silver Stock Buckle, speaks good English, and can write.
If he should offer himself as a Servant, it is hoped no Gentleman will receive or employ him, he being the Property of Pickering Robinson, late of Devonshire Square, and now living in Paternoster Row, SpitalFields.
Masters and Commanders of Ships are desired not to take him on board.’ [15] Georgia figures significantly in the history of American slavery because of Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin in 1793.
Slave markets existed in several Georgia cities and towns, including Albany,[16] Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Macon, Milledgeville, and above all, in Savannah.
Some time ago, I attended on the city's confines an extraordinarily large auction of slaves, including a gang of sixty-one from a plantation in southwestern Georgia.
"[19] At the beginning of the American Civil War, active traders in Atlanta included Robert M. Clarke, Solomon Cohen, Crawford, Frazer & Co., Fields and Gresham, W. H. Henderson, Inman, Cole & Co., Zachariah A.
Samuel Oakes, the father of a Charleston slave trader named Ziba B. Oakes, was implicated in illegally importing slaves to Georgia in 1844, which resulted in a newspaper notice about the case from Savannah mayor William Thorne Williams that concluded, "The laws of our State are severe, inflicting heavy fines and Penitentiary confinement on such as shall be convicted of these offences Our own safety requires us to be vigilant in preventing the outcasts and convicted felons of other communities from being brought into ours.
There are two large houses there, with piazzas in front to expose the 'chattels' to the public during the day, and yards in rear of them where they are penned up at night like sheep, so close that they can hardly breathe, with bull-dogs on the outside as sentinels.
[25] Such campsites were apparently typical to the transportation of slaves by overland coffle, as a letter written from Georgia in 1833 described, "During this and other days I have passed by many negro traders, who were crossing to Alabama.
15, distributing some 400,000 acres (1,600 km2) of confiscated land along the Atlantic coast from Charleston, South Carolina, to the St. Johns River in Florida to the slaves freed by the Union Army.
Slavery had been theoretically abolished by President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, which proclaimed that only slaves located in territories that were in rebellion from the United States were free.
In November 2021, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia announced an indictment of 24 people following Operation Blooming Onion and alleged a variety of crimes including forced labor, money laundering and mail fraud.
