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During the colony’s first 16 years, Georgia stood alone as a province where only free men could legally live and work. It wasn’t until 1749 that the trustees for Georgia permitted the legal introduction of slaves into the colony. Leaders of the time, men such as James Habersham and the evangelist George Whitefield, proposed that the colony could not prosper unless slave labor was allowed to work Georgia farms. The Trustees reluctantly agreed but reminded the Georgia leaders of how easy it would be for slaves to escape to Florida. The Trustees also suggested certain restrictive regulations for the institution of slavery in the colony. The requirements included that slave-owners should pay taxes on their slaves and the slaves should be permitted to attend church on Sunday. Further they decreed that no work was to be required of the slaves on Sunday, the Lordıs Day. These requirements were used as the laws governing slaves for six years until a new slave code was adopted when the first Colonial General Assembly met in Savannah on January 7, 1755. Of course, the first General Assembly consisted entirely of white males. No one of that period would have entertained the thought that a black woman or man would ever have a voice in deciding the laws. The men set the rules according to what would make life more prosperous and better for them. They included that all offspring of “Negroes (people of African origin), mulattoes (people of mixed white and African origin), and mestizos (mixed Indian and white origin) who were slaves at the time of the act were assigned to slavery forever.” Georgia slaves could not, without a permit, sell fish, vegetables and produce, or be employed as a carpenter, fisherman or porter.
As the colony grew, a need for skilled laborers to build more houses and buildings for businesses developed. Slave labor became central to the economy of Georgia as they became porters, domestics, joiners and coopers. This in turn forced the lawmakers to allow slaves to be trained in a skill and to use slave labor elsewhere besides in the cotton and rice fields. In January 1755, a group of Scots meeting at Darien, Georgia, adopted a resolution which, in part, declared that slavery was an “unnatural practice... founded in injustice and cruelty, and that it was highly dangerous to our liberty (as well as our lives), debasing some of our fellow men, and corrupting the virtues and morals of the rest, and was laying the basis of that liberty we contend for... upon a very wrong foundation...” In 1773, Georgia was a frontier community of around 33,000 people-18,000 white and 15,000 black, but of the 15,000 blacks, only 398 were not slaves. The free blacks could only associate with other free blacks. They were not permitted to be friends or visit with slaves. Most of these people were agricultural laborers and servants who were free men but were paid very little wages and sometimes only room and board for their work. However, records from early ship logs have shown that a few boatmen and fishermen were free black men. Despite all the social restrictions and the strong caste system in Georgia, some free black men managed to achieve fame and success. Two men, George Liele and his student Andrew Bryan, became ministers and established one of the first Black Baptist churches in the American colonies. They began a movement among African-American ministers from different religious denominations. Activity: Click here to download the PDF version of the Activity Page. Click here if you prefer a Word Document.
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