raharris1973
Well-known member
1) What if the Spanish crush the British at the Battles of Gully Hole & Bloody Marsh in 1742, during the War of Jenkin's Ear? Do they occupy Savannah and the merely decade old Georgia colony? Does the mixed Spanish forces of Spaniards and free blacks have the resources and momentum to press on to invade South Carolina and damage that colony, possibly seizing or burning Charleston and/or igniting a slave revolt or an epidemic of runaways in that colony? Does the War of Jenkin's Ear, or the War it flowed into (War of Austrian Succession/King George's War - finally settled at Aix-La-Chappelle, 1748), end with permanent Spanish territorial gains north of Florida, or the restoration of the territorial status quo antebellum, or even somehow a British/colonial comeback and seizure of Florida?
2) What if the Georgia Trustees split, Oglethorpe quit, and Georgia legalized slavery 15 years earlier than OTL (1735 instead of 1750)?
In OTL, after Oglethorpe's successful defense of Georgia from the Spanish at Bloody Marsh in 1742 and the end of the war, the security rationale for banning slavery in the border colony diminished. Colonists clamored to get on the plantation bandwagon like their South Carolina neighbors. By later in the 1740s, Oglethorpe got into financial and payment disputes with other Georgia trustees and quit, going back to England permanently. His departure weakened the Trustees permanent and cleared the way for the legalization of slavery in 1750. However, from virtually the beginning of the Georgia colony in 1732, a 'malcontent' faction led by a Mr. Talifer had advocated for legalizing slavery. If Trustee infighting and personal furstrations got bad enough, Oglethorpe could have left or sought a better military opportunity elsewhere, opening the way for a mid 1730s legalization of slavery. This would likely have led to rapid imports of slaves and growth of plantations, including land purchases by South Carolina landowners.
How would five years of fast growth of this sort affect the Georgia colony by the time of the War of Jenkin's Ear (1739) and its campaigns in Florida (1740) and Georgia (1742)?
On the one hand, Georgia would be more populous (both black and white - slaves imported and whites interested in being planters, overseers, land agents, etc.) and wealthier, with a labor force that could be put to work to set up more roads, harbors, and fortifications. This could possibly make the repulse of the 1742 Spanish invasion even more resounding, or give the Georgian/Carolinian invasion of St. Augustine, Florida in 1740 the boost it needs to win.
On the other hand, newly established plantations could have a large slave population not entirely broken down into their role or settled into family ties, with multiple escapees learning the colony's terrain and successfully making it to Spain's Fort Mose in Florida, capable of serving as well-informed scouts for later Spanish invaders going the opposite direction, with a significant enslaved population southwest of the Savannah river on plantations (who were not present in OTL) with many willing to rise in revolt or sabotage on the approach of Spanish armies.
2) What if the Georgia Trustees split, Oglethorpe quit, and Georgia legalized slavery 15 years earlier than OTL (1735 instead of 1750)?
In OTL, after Oglethorpe's successful defense of Georgia from the Spanish at Bloody Marsh in 1742 and the end of the war, the security rationale for banning slavery in the border colony diminished. Colonists clamored to get on the plantation bandwagon like their South Carolina neighbors. By later in the 1740s, Oglethorpe got into financial and payment disputes with other Georgia trustees and quit, going back to England permanently. His departure weakened the Trustees permanent and cleared the way for the legalization of slavery in 1750. However, from virtually the beginning of the Georgia colony in 1732, a 'malcontent' faction led by a Mr. Talifer had advocated for legalizing slavery. If Trustee infighting and personal furstrations got bad enough, Oglethorpe could have left or sought a better military opportunity elsewhere, opening the way for a mid 1730s legalization of slavery. This would likely have led to rapid imports of slaves and growth of plantations, including land purchases by South Carolina landowners.
How would five years of fast growth of this sort affect the Georgia colony by the time of the War of Jenkin's Ear (1739) and its campaigns in Florida (1740) and Georgia (1742)?
On the one hand, Georgia would be more populous (both black and white - slaves imported and whites interested in being planters, overseers, land agents, etc.) and wealthier, with a labor force that could be put to work to set up more roads, harbors, and fortifications. This could possibly make the repulse of the 1742 Spanish invasion even more resounding, or give the Georgian/Carolinian invasion of St. Augustine, Florida in 1740 the boost it needs to win.
On the other hand, newly established plantations could have a large slave population not entirely broken down into their role or settled into family ties, with multiple escapees learning the colony's terrain and successfully making it to Spain's Fort Mose in Florida, capable of serving as well-informed scouts for later Spanish invaders going the opposite direction, with a significant enslaved population southwest of the Savannah river on plantations (who were not present in OTL) with many willing to rise in revolt or sabotage on the approach of Spanish armies.