Georgia

A Black author takes a new look at Georgia's white founder and his failed attempt to ban slavery

Published

9 months ago

February 17, 2024

A Black author takes a new look at Georgia's white founder and his failed attempt to ban slavery

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Michael Thurmond thought he was reading familiar history at the burial place of Georgia’s colonial founder. Then a single sentence on a marble plaque extolling the accomplishments of James Edward Oglethorpe left him stunned speechless.

Within a lengthy tribute to the Englishman who died in 1785, the inscription read: “He was the friend of the Oppressed Negro.”

Oglethorpe led the expedition that established Georgia as the last of Britain’s 13 American colonies in February 1733. Thurmond, a history aficionado and the only Black member of a Georgia delegation visiting the founder’s tomb outside London, knew Oglethorpe had tried unsuccessfully to keep slaves out of the colony. Historians widely agreed he was concerned for the safety and self-sufficiency of white settlers rather than the suffering of enslaved Africans.

Could Georgia’s white founding father possibly have been an ally to Black people in an era when the British Empire was forcing thousands into bondage?

“It was stunning,” Thurmond recalled. ”Initially, I was consumed by disbelief. I didn’t believe it was true.”

Thurmond would grapple with questions raised by that visit for the next 27 years, compelled to take a closer look at Oglethorpe. Now he has written a provocatively titled book: “James Oglethorpe, Father Of Georgia — A Founder’s Journey From Slave Trader to Abolitionist.”

Published this month by the University of Georgia Press, Thurmond’s book makes a case that Oglethorpe evolved to revile slavery and, unlike most white Europeans of his time, saw the humanity in enslaved Africans. And while Oglethorpe’s efforts to prohibit slavery in Georgia ultimately failed, Thurmond argues he left a lasting — and largely uncredited — legacy by influencing early English abolitionists.

“He is shining a spotlight on the part of Oglethorpe’s life that most people have kind of thought was just periphery,” said Stan Deaton, senior historian for the Georgia Historical Society. “I think he’s thought deeply about this. And let’s be honest, there have not been many African-Americans who have written about colonial Georgia and particularly about Oglethorpe.”

Though this is Thurmond’s third book about Georgia history, he’s no academic. The son of a sharecropper and great-grandson of a Georgia slave, Thurmond became an attorney and has served for decades in state and local government. His 1998 election as state labor commissioner made Thurmond the first Black candidate to win statewide office in Georgia without first being appointed. He is now the elected CEO of DeKalb County, which includes portions of Atlanta.

His book traces Oglethorpe’s origins as a wealthy Englishman who held a seat in Parliament and served as deputy governor of the slave-trading Royal African Company before departing for America. Thurmond argues that seeing the cruelty of slavery firsthand changed Oglethorpe, who returned to England and shared his views with activists who would become Britain’s first abolitionists.

“What I tried to do is to follow the arc of his life, his evolution and development, and to weigh all of his achievements, failures and shortcomings,” Thurmond said. “Once you do that, you find that he had a uniquely important life. He helped breathe life into the movement that ultimately destroyed slavery.”

In its early years, Georgia stood alone as Britain’s only American colony in which slavery was illegal. The ban came as the population of enslaved Africans in colonial America was nearing 150,000. Black captives were being sold in New York and Boston, and they already outnumbered white settlers in South Carolina.

Historians have widely agreed Oglethorpe and his fellow Georgia trustees didn’t ban slavery because it was cruel to Black people. They saw slaves as a security risk with Georgia on the doorstep of Spanish Florida, which sought to free and enlist escaped slaves to help fight the British. They also feared slave labor would instill laziness among Georgia’s settlers, who were expected to tend their own modest farms.

It didn’t last. The slave ban was widely ignored when Oglethorpe left Georgia for good in 1743, and its enforcement dwindled in his absence. By the time American colonists declared independence in 1776, slavery had been legal in Georgia for 25 years. When the Civil War began nearly a century later, Georgia’s enslaved population topped 462,000, more than any U.S. state except Virginia.

“At best, you could say Oglethorpe was naive,” said Gerald Horne, a professor of history and African-American studies at the University of Houston and author of the book “The Counter-Revolution of 1776.” “Almost inevitably, like kudzu in the summer, slavery started spreading in Georgia.”

Like other historians, Horne is highly skeptical of Oglethorpe being a forefather of the abolitionist movement. He says the Georgia colony ultimately protected slavery in its sister colonies by serving as a “white equivalent of the Berlin Wall” between South Carolina and Spanish Florida.

Oglethorpe used slave labor to help build homes, streets and public squares in Savannah, the colony’s first city. Escaped slaves captured in Oglethorpe’s Georgia were returned to slaveholders. Some colonists angered by the slave ban made unproven accusations that Oglethorpe had a South Carolina plantation worked by slaves.

Thurmond’s book openly embraces such evidence that Oglethorpe’s history with slavery was at times contradictory and unflattering. That makes his case for Oglethorpe’s evolution even stronger, said James F. Brooks, a University of Georgia history professor who wrote the book’s foreward.

“He has engaged with the historiography in a way that is clearly the equivalent of a professional historian,” Brooks said. “This is good stuff. He’s read everything and thought about it. I don’t see any weakness in it.”

Thurmond’s evidence includes a letter Oglethorpe wrote in 1739 that argues opening Georgia to slavery would “occasion the misery of thousands in Africa.” Thurmond describes how Oglethorpe assisted to two formerly enslaved Black men — Ayuba Suleiman Diallo and Olaudah Equiano — whose travels to England helped stir anti-slavery sentiments among white Europeans.

Oglethorpe befriended white activists who became key figures in England’s abolitionist movement. In a 1776 letter to Granville Sharp, an attorney who fought to help former slaves retain their freedom, Oglethorpe proclaimed “Africa had produced a race of heroes” in its kings and military leaders. He also spent time with the author Hannah More, whose writings called for the abolition of slavery.

In 1787, two years after Oglethorpe’s death, Sharp and More were among the founders of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Thurmond argues Oglethorpe deserves credit as an inspiration to the budding movement.

“He founded slave-free Georgia in 1733 and, 100 years later, England abolishes slavery,” followed by the U.S. in 1865, Thurmond said. “He was a man far beyond his time.”

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Georgia

When do College Football Playoff rankings come out? Date, time for Georgia football

Published

4 hours ago

November 26, 2024

Press Room

When do College Football Playoff rankings come out? Date, time for Georgia football

The new College Football Playoff rankings will be unveiled Tuesday night.

As far as the SEC is concerned, there are some questions.

How high will Georgia football move up after two other conference teams were upset Saturday?

And how far will three-loss Alabama and Ole Miss slide? They should go from in the 12-team CFP bracket to presumably on the outside of it.

Texas, Georgia and Tennessee may be the only SEC teams in the playoff field heading into the final weekend of the regular season.

Texas and Texas A&M play Saturday for a spot in the SEC championship game against Georgia in what could be a playoff elimination game.

Can three-loss South Carolina play itself into the field by beating Clemson Saturday?

Georgia will play for the SEC’s automatic playoff spot in the SEC championship game Dec. 7 but a win against rival Georgia Tech Friday night is needed to get in the playoff if it should lose in the league title game.

College Football Playoff rankings release date

The fourth College Football Playoff rankings will be released on Tuesday Nov. 26 on ESPN’s reveal show. It is the fourth of five rankings that will be released each Tuesday before the final rankings come out.

What time is CFP rankings?

The rankings will be revealed on a show that starts at 8 p.m. Each weekly ranking will come out on Tuesday nights, but the time of the show varies depending on the day.

Georgia football CFP rankings projection

Georgia will be the second ranked SEC team after Texas. The Bulldogs will climb from No. 10 to No. 7 and in position to host a first-round game in the 12-team bracket.

How to watch College Football Playoff rankings show

The 12-team field will be released on a top 25 rankings show that will air on ESPN. It can also be streamed on ESPN+.

How many teams in College Football Playoff 2024?

The field has been expanded from four teams to 12. That just so happens to come after a controversial 2023 when unbeaten Florida State was left out of the field and 12-1 Georgia was also outside the top 4.

How does College Football Playoff format work?

The 12-team field includes five conference champions ranked highest by the committee and seven at-large selections. The four highest-ranked conference champions will be the top four seeds and receive a bye into the quarterfinals. The fifth highest-ranked conference champion will be seeded where it was ranked or No. 12 if not in the top 12.

Teams ranked in the top 4 that don’t win their conference will be seeded starting at No. 5. Teams seeded 5 through 12 will play in the first round Dec. 20 or 21 with higher seeds hosting on campus. Playoff quarterfinals and semifinals will at bowl sites and the championship game is in Atlanta on Jan. 20.

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Georgia

No. 21 Oregon women’s basketball upset by Georgia Tech in Hawaii tournament

Published

12 hours ago

November 25, 2024

Press Room

No. 21 Oregon women’s basketball upset by Georgia Tech in Hawaii tournament

The early-season undefeated run is over.

No. 21 Oregon women’s basketball was dominated on the boards in a 74-58 loss to Georgia Tech on Monday night at the North Shore Showcase tournament in Laie, Hawaii.

Oregon (6-1) was out-rebounded, 53-31, by Georgia Tech (6-0) including 23 offensive rebounds. The Ducks got a team-high 10 points from senior guard Deja Kelly, supplemented by nine from fellow senior Peyton Scott and eight from freshman forward Ehis Etute — making her season debut for the Ducks after spending time with the Luxembourg national team.

Georgia Tech was led by Ariadna Termis with 13 points, Zoesha Smith with 12, and Ines Noguero with 11.

The Ducks got off to a slow start, trailing 16-7 with their interior defense and rebounding lacking. Georgia Tech slashed through the lane and scored easy buckets in transition, amassing nine offensive rebounds in the first quarter alone.

The Yellow Jackets led, 18-11, through one quarter. Oregon had not previously trailed by more than five at any point in its first six games.

In the second quarter, Oregon got some momentum buckets from Scott and Nani Falatea to claw back into the game. A 7-0 run late in the first gave the Ducks their first lead of the night, 25-24. Georgia Tech would mount a response and carry a 29-27 lead into the half.

The likely halftime message from Oregon coach Kelly Graves? Hit the boards. Oregon was out-rebounded 32-21 in the first half by Georgia Tech and gave up 14 offensive rebounds. Neither team shot the ball particularly well, either, with Oregon shooting 31% in the half to Georgia Tech’s 29%.

Transition play highlighted a breakneck early third quarter for both teams, with Georgia Tech extending its lead to 39-33 with 4:55 left in the frame. Oregon’s size advantage was counteracted by Georgia Tech’s speed and athleticism, and Graves experimented with different lineups to try and slow the Yellow Jackets down.

Kelly took over as the third quarter progressed, hitting key jumpers and driving to the lane as Oregon cut the Georgia Tech lead to 46-43 through three.

Georgia Tech seized momentum permanently in the early fourth. A three-pointer by Noguero made it 52-43 Yellow Jackets, and Oregon threw the ball out of bounds on the ensuing inbound. Graves called timeout as the Georgia Tech bench erupted.

The Yellow Jackets scored out of the timeout to make it 54-43, and a bucket for Kara Dunn extended the advantage to 56-43 with just under eight minutes left.

Oregon struggled to keep possession of the ball, Georgia Tech hit big shots, and the lead ballooned down the stretch. A Dani Carnegie jumper made it 68-49 Yellow Jackets with 4:37 to go, and a feisty Georgia Tech team didn’t look back en route to a dominant victory.

Next game: No. 21 Oregon (6-1) vs. South Dakota State (3-2) — Hawaii North Shore Showcase

When: Tuesday, Nov. 26
Time: 4 p.m. PT
Where: George Q. Cannon Activities Center — Laie, Oahu, Hawaii
Streaming: BallerTV
Radio: Oregon Sports Network

— Ryan Clarke covers the Oregon Ducks and Big Ten Conference. Listen to the Ducks Confidential podcast or subscribe to the Ducks Roundup newsletter.

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Georgia Football Injury Report Per Kirby Smart Ahead of Georgia Tech

Published

20 hours ago

November 25, 2024

Press Room

Georgia Football Injury Report Per Kirby Smart Ahead of Georgia Tech

Head coach Kirby Smart updated the injury report ahead of the Georgia Tech game.

The Georgia Bulldogs earned another win this past weekend as they took care of business against UMass. Not only that, but Georgia also clinched a spot in the SEC Championship game after Alabama lost to Oklahoma. They will face the winner of the Texas vs Texas A&M game which takes place this week.

Before they focus on that though, Georgia has to go up against their in-state rival Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets gave the Dawgs a bit of a challenge last year, but Georgia gets them in Sanford Stadium for their final home game of the regular season. This year’s game will be played on Friday after Thanksgiving as opposed to Saturday when the game is traditionally played.

Head coach Kirby Smart met with the media on Monday to preview Georgia Tech and as always, he provided an update to the injury report. One notable player who suffered an injury against UMass was defensive lineman Christen Miller as he went down with a shoulder injury and did not return during the game. Here is what Smart had to say about his injured players:

Georgia Football Injury Report:

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