Page 40 - Pilgrims in Georgia

V Why is this important?

1. Some of the initial actions and events that lead to the securing of the Georgia Charter were

influenced by the Gospel concerns of Christian Clergyman Dr. Thomas Bray.

2. Members of The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and The Society for

Promoting Christian Knowledge promoted the quest for the Georgia Charter. Many of these

men also served on the Board of the Trust after it was granted seeking to provide for its
spiritual welfare and development. They all served voluntarily without pay and with out

remuneration of any kind. Oglethorpe being the chief volunteer.

3.
These Trustees consciously sought out and brought to the colony divers persecuted and
disenfranchised Protestants to populate it.

4. To facilitate this, the colonist were granted freedom from the imposition of a state church and

freedom of worship, "there shall be a liberty of conscience allowed in the worship of God,” and
“shall have a free exercise of their religion” unlike the adjacent southern colonies and Catholic
Florida.
5. It would be an experimental effort to improve English culture in terms of justice, equality, and

morality. Slavery was forbidden; Oglethorpe and some other of other Trustees were
abolitionists. Rum and hard liquors and were forbidden though the less potent alcoholic
beverages beer and wine were allowed. The rich English upper class could not come in or

develop large land holdings through the restriction of property ownership. All the settlers
would own and work their own land and inheritance was regulated.

6. Occupation of the land was amicably negotiated, with treaties and relationships established

with the local inhabitants (Yamacraw Indians) rather than forced or taken.