The Georgia Dutch

Book excerpt: This is the first comprehensive history of the German-speaking settlers who emigrated to the Georgia colony from Germany, Alsace, Switzerland, Austria, and adjacent regions. Known collectively as the Georgia Dutch, they were the colony's most enterprising early settlers, and they played a vital role in gaining Britain's toehold in a territory also coveted by Spain and France. The main body of the book is a chronological account of the Georgia Dutch from their earliest arrival in 1733 to their dispersal and absorption into what was, by 1783, an Anglo-American populace. Underscoring the harsh daily life of the common settler, George Fenwick Jones also highlights noteworthy individuals and events. He traces recurrent themes, including tensions between the realities of the settlers' lives and the aspirations and motivations of the colony's trustees and supporters; the web of relations between German- and English-speaking whites, African Americans, and Native Americans; and early signs of the genesis of a distinctly new and American sensibility. Three summary chapters conclude The Georgia Dutch. Merging new material with information from previous chapters, Jones offers the most complete depiction to date of Georgia Dutch culture and society. Included are discussions of religion; health and medicine; education; welfare and charity; industry, agriculture, trade, and commerce; Native-American affairs; slavery; domestic life and customs; the arts; and military and legal concerns. Based on twenty-five years of research with primary documents in Europe and the United States, The Georgia Dutch is a welcome reappraisal of an ethnic group whose role in colonial history has, over time, been unfairly minimized.