Free previewStop 6 of Savannah Walking Tour: City Hall to Forsyth Park
The General Still Watching for Spain
You're standing in Chippewa Square, halfway down Bull Street. Look at the bronze figure on the tall pedestal in the middle. That's James Oglethorpe, the man who founded Georgia, in full uniform with his sword drawn. Notice which way he's facing: south. He isn't looking at the city he planned. He's watching for the enemy.
Oglethorpe was a British army officer and member of Parliament. In 1729 he chaired a committee investigating Britain's debtors' prisons, and out of that work came an idea: a new colony where the poor could start again. That was the sales pitch. The other half of it was military. Georgia would be a buffer, a wall of settlers between the rich plantations of the Carolinas and the Spanish in Florida.
So when Oglethorpe sailed here in 1732, he came as a soldier as much as a reformer.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 6 of Savannah Walking Tour: City Hall to Forsyth Park (3 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
