Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

February 1

1733 After spending the previous night at a temporary encampment on Trench's Island off the South Carolina coast, James Oglethorpe and the first Georgia colonists boarded a sloop and five smaller boats. The small flotilla then proceeded down the inland waterway to the mouth of the Savannah River. [See map] Waiting for an incoming tide, they rode the tide upriver for about twelve miles to Yamacraw Bluff -- the site on the south bank that Oglethorpe had selected on his advance visit a week earlier. On that visit, Capt. Francis Scott and a small force of rangers had accompanied Oglethorpe and had stayed behind to build a stairway up the forty-foot high sandy embankment. Now, as the colonists finally arrived, Scott and his men fired a musket salute from the bluff. Those with weapons in the boats below returned the salute. Landing on the river bank, Georgia's first colonists eagerly climbed the stairs to view their new home. Arriving at the top, they saw a clear area along the edge of the bluff backed by a forest of tall pine trees.

After looking around, the men began unloading what they would need to spend their first night. The Trustees had purchased four large tents, so these and bedding were carried to the top of the bluff. As the colonists began setting up their communal tents, Oglethorpe set up a small personal tent.

Within an hour of their arrival, a group of Yamacraw Indians -- including chief Tomochichi and his wife Senauki -- walked down from their nearby village upriver to greet the colonists. With them was John Musgrove, who with wife Mary operated a trading post near the Yamacraw village. The Indians were dressed in their finest outfits, and one among them danced around with a huge feather fan that had rattles and bells. For over fifteen minutes, this Yamacraw danced performing "Antick Postures" and waving his fan over Oglethorpe and touching him on all sides. After the dance, Oglethorpe invited the Indians into his tent. With Musgrove translating, they exchanged pleasantries for another fifteen minutes. Afterwards, the Yamacraws returned to their village, and the colonists continued work on setting up their tents. That night, all apparently went well for the colonists -- except for one who sneaked off to the Musgroves' trading post and had too much to drink and had to be forcibly carried back to the camp.

[Note: Today, we celebrate Feb. 12, 1733 as the anniversary of the founding of Georgia. However, all letters, diaries, and records of the time indicate that the colonists arrived on Feb. 1, 1732/33. Feb. 1 (Old Style) represents the same date as Feb. 12, 1733 (New Style). For an explanation, click here.]

1740 James Oglethorpe, leading a combined Georgia - South Carolina offensive against Spanish forces in St. Augustine, wrote William Stephens that his forces had control of the St. Johns River and were within 25 miles of St. Augustine.

1788 The Georgia legislature awarded Augusta inventor William Longstreet and his associate Isaac Brigs a patent for a steam engine. In 1807, their engine was used to power a boat on a five-mile journey against the current on the Savannah River. Unfortunately, only days before, Robert Fulton had successfully sailed his new steamboat -- the Clermont -- from New York City up the Hudson River to Albany.

1834 Black religious leader, educator, and politician Henry McNeal Turner was born in Newberry, South Carolina. Born to free parents, he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in his teens and was ordained to preach at age 19. In the 1850s, Turner held numerous revivals for blacks in southern states before moving to St. Louis and joining the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church. He attended Trinity College (1860-62) and was assigned to a Washington D.C. congregation. In 1863, Turner became the first African-American chaplain in U.S. history when he volunteered to become chaplain of the First Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops.At the end of the Civil War, he became a Freedman's Bureau agent in Georgia -- but he resigned after a year and began trying to build the AME church in Georgia. In 1867, Turner became involved in attempting to organize black voters for the National Republican Party. Four million copies of a pamphlet he wrote were distributed across the South. Later that year, Turner was selected as a member of Georgia's constitutional convention. In 1868, he was elected to Georgia state house of representatives, and reelected in 1870. In 1880, Turner became an AME bishop, with responsibility for Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. He also became chancellor of Morris Brown College in Atlanta. From the 1870s to the early 1900s, Turner became an advocate for black immigration to Africa and for expansion of the AME church there. He died May 8, 1915 in Windsor, Ontario.

1861 A special convention in Texas voted to secede, subject to ratification in a popular election to be held on Feb. 23. Texas' secession would mean that seven adjacent states from South Carolina to the eastern boundary of New Mexico now formed over 2,000 miles of contiguous territory governed by states that had withdrawn from the Union. Whatever other southern states did, there was now the potential for a viable southern confederacy, and delegates from seceded states readed to assemble in Montgomery, Ala. to form a new government.

1871 Jefferson Franklin Long of Macon became the first black congressman in U.S. history to officially address fellow legislators in the chambers of the U.S. House of Representatives. Long spoke in opposition to repealing federal legislation prohibiting former Confederate officials and military officers from holding public office.

1956 In Savannah, WSAV-TV (channel 3) began broadcasting as an NBC affiliate.

1956 In the Georgia Senate, S.B. 98 (which would change Georgia's state flag) had its third reading. The floor was then open to debate. Ernest Vandiver, then President of the Senate, would later recall that all comments during floor debate were about the historical relevance of the Confederate battle flag, with no remarks linking the bill to the Brown v. Board of Education decisions. After a brief debate, the full Senate approved S.B. 98 by a vote of 41-3. The bill was then sent to the House of Representatives.

1965 Participating in a civil rights demonstration in Selma, Ala., Martin Luther King Jr and a number of fellow protesters were arrested by city police.

1983 Lockheed-Georgia received a $258 million contract from the Air Force to continue the wing modification of the giant C-5A Galaxy aircraft.

Georgia cities and towns first incorporated by acts approved by the governor on this day:

1850 Cartersville (then Cass now Bartow County)

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1733 Peter Gordon recorded the arrival of Georgia's first colonists at Yamacraw Bluff:

". . .[W]e sailed from Jones's Island, with a fair wind and arrived the same day at Yamacra Bluff in Georgia, the place which Mr. Oglethorp hade pitched upon for our intended setlement. As soon as we came near the Bluff, we were saluted by Captain Scott and his party, with their small arms, which we returned. And as soon as we landed, we sett emediately about getting our tents fixed, and our goods brought ashore, and carryed up the Bluff, which is fourty foot perpendicular in height above the water mark. This by reason of the loos sand, and great height, would have been extreamely troublesome hade not Captain Scott and his party built stairs for us before our arrivall, which we found of very great use to us in bringing up our goods. About an hour after our landing, the Indians came with their King, Queen, and Mr. Musgrave, the Indian trader and interpreter, along with him to pay their complements to Mr. Oglethorp, and to welcome us to Yamacraw. The manner of their approach was thus, at a little distance they saluted us with a voly of their small arms, which was returned by our guard and thane [then] the King, Queen, and Chiefs and other Indians advanced and before them, walked one of their generalls, with his head adorned with white feathers, with ratles in his hand (something like our casternutts) to which he danced, observing just time, singing and throwing his body into a thousand different and antike postures. In this manner they advanced to pay their obedience to Mr. Oglethorp, who stood at a small distance from his tent, to receive them. And thane conducted them into his tent, seating Tomo Chachi upon his right hand and Mr. Musgrave, the interpreter, standing between them. They continued on conference about a quarter of an hour, and thane, returned to their town, which was about a quarter of a mile, distant from the place where we pitched owr camp, in the same order as they came. . . ."

Source: [no author or editor cited], Our First Visit in America: Early Reports from the Colony of Georgia, 1732-1740 (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1974), pp. 12-13.

1766 Resistance to the Stamp Act in Georgia was now reaching the potential for violence, as royal governor James Wright wrote the British Board of Trade:

"Since my last to your Lordships on the 22d of Janry. Some Incendiaries were Sent here from Charles Town of South Carolina, full Fraught with Sedition, and have been about the Country and Inflamed the People to Such a degree, that they were assembling together in all Parts of the Province, & to the Number of about 600 were to have come here yesterday, all armed, and as I have been Informed were to have Surrounded my House & Endeavoured to extort a Promise from me, that no [stamped] Papers should be issued till His Majesties Pleasure is known on the Petitions Sent from the Colonies. And if I did not Immediately Comply, they were to Size upon & destroy the Papers & Commit many acts of Violence against the Persons & Property of those Gentn. who have declared themselves Friends to Government. On this last alarm I thought it advisable to Remove the Papers to a Place of greater Security, and accordingly ordered them to be Carried to Fort George on Cockspur Island, where they are Protected by a Captain 2 Subalterns & 50 Private Men of the Rangers. But I have the Satisfaction to Inform your Lordships that I have been happy Enough with the assistance of Some well disposed Gentn. to get a great Many of them dispersed who were actually on their way down here, but many of them are Still under arms, and within 7 miles of the Town & the Issues of this matter is yet uncertain. My Task is rendered much more difficult by the Carolinians going the Lengths they have done, & Still do, & Spiriting up the People here to follow their Example. . . . I Still hope there is a Possibility of bringing the People to Reason. But Really my Lords Such of His Majesties Servants in America as are firm in their Opposition to the Present Seditious Spirit, to Call it no Worse, have a very Uncomfortable time of it. . . ."

Source: Kenneth Coleman and Milton Ready (eds.), Colonial Records of the State of Georgia, Vol. 28, Part II (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1979), pp. 135-136.

January / February / March / April / May / June / July / August / September / October / November / December

© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

If you have a date related to Georgia history or people that ought to be included, or if know of entries that should be corrected, send a note to Ed Jackson or Charles Pou.

Go to Yahoo/The History Channel This Day in History page for Feb. 1

Go to Georgia History page

Go to GeorgiaInfo table of contents