One of the most fascinating books I’ve read recently was Karen Auman’s The Good Forest: The Salzburgers, Success, and the Plan for Georgia. I chose this book as the first to spotlight on the blog for a few reasons: it’s a recent publication, and it’s about the colony/state that I live and teach in! As a non-native of Georgia, I’m always interested in learning more about the history of that state, and Auman’s book gave a great look at an often-overlooked group of people who colonized Georgia–the Salzburgers.
The Salzburgers were a group of Protestants from what is now Germany, who experienced substantial religious persecution. They moved around Europe, and a small group of Salzburgers eventually made their way to the new colony of Georgia, which was created as an experimental colony especially for those whom founder James Oglethorpe identified as the “worthy poor.” Oglethorpe and other initial trustees of Georgia envisioned their colony as a place where those who were down-on-their-luck through no fault of their own could be given a second chance to once again be productive members of society. This would include debtors (maybe you owed money because you lost your job due to illness or injury, or maybe your family lost their home because of the death of your father and husband, the main provider for you), and it also included refugees fleeing religious persecution, like the Salzburgers. We tend to talk about British colonists, but the Georgia Trustees spent a lot of time and money on the Salzburgers, arguing that they were actually better examples of the hardworking, “worthy poor” than most of their British peers! Their hard work and economic success were also held up as evidence for why Georgia did not need slaves, and why the institution of slavery would actually be harmful to the Georgia moral and social experiment.
Auman traces the communities (like Ebenezer, GA) built by these German colonists, their connections back to Europe (including the many religious aid societies that funded their colonial towns!), and their tensions with British Georgians, who often resented the financial aid and praise the Salzburgers received from Georgia Trustees and other groups in England. Her book is a fascinating look at a minority group of colonists in Georgia and the ways that they interacted with Georgia leadership and the ideals of Georgia’s founding while also creating their own communities and identities as German Georgians.