Oglethorpe

1
Oglethorpe
And
Tomochichi
2
James Edward Oglethorpe was born and raised in
Goldaming, Surrey, England in 1696.
3
In 1722, after being released from prison for
killing a man in a brawl, Oglethorpe was elected
to Parliament.
Oglethorpe served on a committee investigating
conditions in Englands prisons.
4
Many people incarcerated in the prisons had
committed no crime they were jailed because they
could not pay their debts. Conditions were
terrible many died from disease.
5
After a friend died of smallpox contracted in
debtors prison, Oglethorpe and a group of twenty
other men proposed the colony of Georgia. The
colony would act as a buffer between the British
colony of South Carolina and the Spanish in
Florida. The new colony would also provide
opportunities for debtors to make a fresh start.
6
In February, 1733, after crossing the Atlantic
Ocean on the Anne, Oglethorpe and 116 colonists
founded Savannah.
7
Oglethorpe quickly established friendly relations
with the Yamacraw Indians. Their mico, or chief,
was Tomochichi.
8
Tomochichi presented Oglethorpe with a buffalo
robe, symbolic of the relationship he hoped for
with the British.
9
Oglethorpe went about planning and building the
city of Savannah. Peter Gordon drew this picture
of the new settlement for the trustees in 1734.
10
The colonists learned much from their new
friends, the Yamacraw, such as
11
hunting and preparing native animals for food
12
boatbuilding
13
and they also learned about unusual customs.
14
Eventually, Tomochichi traveled to England with
Oglethorpe, where he was presented to the
trustees of the Georgia colony.
15
When he died, Tomochichi was buried in one of
Savannahs squares.
16
This is a very old photograph showing another
view of Tomochichis burial mound.
17
Tomochichis burial mound was destroyed in 1883
to make room for the William Washington Gordon
monument. This boulder, with a plaque honoring
Tomochichi, was placed in 1899.
18
In 1739, Oglethorpe traveled to Coweta to meet
with the leaders of the Creek Indians. A treaty
formalized their withdrawal of land claims along
Georgias coast.
19

• What was unusual about Oglethorpes relationship
  with Tomochichi?
• How has Native American culture affected place
  names in Georgia and the nation?