J_ obacco's colonial beginnings 



After Oglethorpe and his associates laid the ground- 

 work for settling Georgia through the establishment of 

 Savannah in 1733, other colonial outposts popped up 

 all over the territory during the 18th century. 



Agriculture was the prime source of income for the 

 Georgia colonists. At first there was little emphasis on 

 tobacco because other Southern markets had already 

 been glutted with the product. Instead, the farmers of 

 Georgia concentrated during the early and middle parts 

 of the 18th century on silk, wine, cotton, hemp, flax, 

 potash, medicinal plants, dyestuffs and tropical fruits 

 and nuts. Later, before the American Revolution, there 

 was an even greater emphasis on rice and indigo. 



lantations take ttie reins 



Oglethorpe and the other creators of the Georgia 

 colony had originally designed an ideal, though in- 

 feasible, agricultural system that relied on subsidies 

 and, in many instances, outright charity to the colonists. 

 The landowners to the north, South Carolina plantation 

 owners interested in Georgia's fertile soils, were pres- 

 suring for adoption of a plantation system with Negro 

 slavery. One historian described the pre-plantation 

 system well when he expounded: 



The initial settlement of Georgia, essentially a 

 philanthropic enterprise, was the most elaho- 



14 



