Georgia

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

Published

11 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

What Georgia-based productions are up for Golden Globe awards?

Published

7 hours ago

January 5, 2025

Press Room

What Georgia-based productions are up for Golden Globe awards?

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – The Golden Gloves aired Sunday night, and Georgia’s status as a film and TV production hub is bearing fruit on the big stage.

The Peach State was represented on both the film and TV sides of the awards, through both native actors and productions filmed in Georgia.

Gabriel LaBelle was nominated for Best Performance in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for his performance in Saturday Night, a film about the first ever episode of Saturday Night Live. The movie was shot in both Atlanta and Fayetteville. LaBelle lost to Sebastian Stan for his role in A Different Man.

Kathryn Hahn was nominated for Best Performance in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy for her performance in Agatha All Along. The Disney+ series was partially shot at Trilith Studios in Atlanta. Hahn lost to Jean Smart for her role in Hacks.

Actor Donald Glover, who grew in Stone Mountain, was nominated for Best Actor – Television Series Drama for his role in Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Glover lost to Hiroyuki Sanada for his role in Shōgun.

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Georgia

Report: Georgia QB Jaden Rashada to enter transfer portal

Published

15 hours ago

January 5, 2025

Press Room

Report: Georgia QB Jaden Rashada to enter transfer portal

Jaden Rashada spent the 2024 season at Georgia. (Photo by John Adams/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Jaden Rashada’s college career will continue at another school.

The former Florida signee and Arizona State quarterback is entering the transfer portal, according to ESPN. Rashada spent the 2024 season at Georgia and did not play in a game.

Rashada was a four-star recruit and the No. 11 pro-style QB in the high school class of 2023. He initially committed to Miami, but flipped that verbal commitment to Florida. After signing with Florida, Rashada asked for his release from the Gators — more on that in a bit — and signed with Arizona State in February of 2023.

The California native appeared in three games for the Sun Devils in 2023 and transferred again at the end of the season. He ended up at Georgia with an apparent eye on competing for the starting job in 2025 and beyond with Carson Beck entrenched as the starter. Gunner Stockton served as the Bulldogs’ No. 2 QB in 2024 and started the team’s Sugar Bowl loss to Notre Dame on Jan. 2.

Not long after he transferred to Georgia in early 2024, Rashada filed a lawsuit against Florida coach Billy Napier and a booster over an NIL deal that never came together. Rashada said that he was promised a name, image and likeness deal north of $10 million as part of his commitment to Florida.

The lack of that NIL deal was the reason Rashada transferred from the Gators. He left after he didn’t receive his first payment and his recruitment to the school is now the subject of an NCAA investigation.

In three games with the Sun Devils a season ago, Rashada was 44-of-82 passing for 485 yards, four TDs and three interceptions. ASU was 3-9 a season ago before posting one of the biggest turnarounds in college football in 2024. Former Michigan State QB Sam Leavitt emerged as the starter as the Sun Devils won the Big 12 and made it to the College Football Playoff before losing 39-31 in double-overtime to Texas in the Peach Bowl on Jan. 1.

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Georgia

Georgia hopes the scars of a difficult 2024 season make them better in 2025: ‘Remember this feeling’

Published

22 hours ago

January 5, 2025

Press Room

Georgia hopes the scars of a difficult 2024 season make them better in 2025: ‘Remember this feeling’

NEW ORLEANS — The normally stoic Smael Mondon finally displayed some emotion. After four years, multiple injuries and pouring everything he could into the Georgia program, Mondon finally showed how he was feeling as he embraced Glenn Schumann in the locker room.

The ups and downs that followed a difficult 2024 season, not just for Mondon but many on the Georgia roster, culminated in a 23-10 defeat to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff. Instead of cheers, there were tears for Georgia. Not just from a distraught Mondon, but the likes of Oscar Delp, Dylan Fairchild and others.

“Definitely not what you want in the end. That’s for certain,” sophomore linebacker CJ Allen told DawgNation after the game. “The things we’ve been through, the things this team’s been through, the stuff we overcame, we overcame a lot. I’m very super proud of this team. We overcame a lot. Just thinking about that, you know what I’m saying, to be proud of ourselves for that, the things we overcame this season.”

For the first time since the 2018 season, Georgia’s season ended with a loss. That ironically came in the Sugar Bowl, against Texas. The Longhorns were still in the Big 12 at that point time.

Players like Mondon and Chaz Chambliss had yet to sign with Georgia. Those seniors ended up becoming the winningest senior class in program history, going 53-5. They went 25-0 at home, winning two SEC championships and two national championships.

The Bulldogs were unable to get a third national title. Too many injuries. Too difficult a schedule. Not enough talent and not enough bounces of the football went their way this season.

Some may see this season as a failure. Those people obviously didn’t see the inside of the Georgia locker room following the loss to Notre Dame.

To see everything that this team went through and call them anything but successful would be insulting.

“Played the hardest schedule in the country. We’re SEC champions. Can’t take that away from us,” Delp said. “That’s just how it is. It’s going to be like that next year, too. It’s not like that one year. That’s how it’s going to be. Deal with it. We got to work in the offseason, get better, compete. A lot of crazy things happened this season. We can’t control anything. You got to do what you do.”

Georgia went on the road to Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss. It beat the Longhorns twice, as well as playoff participant Tennessee as well. It won an SEC championship with its starting quarterback exiting the game on the last play of the first half.

There were dismissals, arrests, suspensions and a number of self-inflicted incidents that kept this team from being one of the final four remaining. This team was far from perfect.

But in some ways, the beautiful mess that was the 2024 Georgia football season puts this team’s accomplishments in better perspective.

There was no Brock Bowers or Jalen Carter on this team. Sure there were talented players, such as Butkus Award winner Jalon Walker or two-time All-American Tate Ratledge, but there wasn’t a single player that elevated everyone else.

It was a band of brothers, coming together and fighting all the way to the end. Georgia had incredible comebacks against the likes of Texas and Georgia Tech. Even against Notre Dame when the Bulldogs gave up a 98-yard kickoff return to open the second half, they never rolled over. They continued to battle and were a redzone touchdown away from cutting the deficit to 6.

Georgia couldn’t make the plays when needed. But this team never stopped trying to make them.

“It’s going to teach us just to keep going,” freshman linebacker Chris Cole said.

Next year’s team is will look different. Given the rapid roster movements that occurs on college rosters now, many of the players in that locker room will play elsewhere. Some in the NFL, others at other schools.

The roster will flip, as the Bulldogs are likely to see double-digit players leave via the transfer portal and the NFL draft. Such is life when you’re as talented as Georgia was, even in what was admittedly a down season.

Still, it’s hard not to come away with how this Georgia team fought, all the way until the end.

“What they went through this year and what they played and how they played, the resiliency, the injuries that we’ve had, and to win an SEC championship — which I have so much respect for our conference,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “To win some of the comeback games they won and never quit, even in this game, never quit, that’s the attitude you’ve got to have to get better as a football program.”

Smart has been honest about this team. It was not his most talented. The ninth-year head coach has said as much. There were moments of frustration this season, some were due to forces out of Georgia’s control.

He knows the Georgia program has to get better. Smart has shown he’s the coach capable of doing so, as the Georgia program seemed a lot farther away from championships than it did the last time it saw its season end with a loss in New Orleans.

And he knows that the scars formed during this season will help make future Georgia teams better.

“Remember the taste in your mouth, you never want that feeling again,” Allen said. “When you’re a winner, you hate losing more than you like winning. So just taking that into consideration with the offseason program and just knowing what we have to do and the feeling that we have now, not want to fight that again. So just working hard in the summer and spring and so on.”