Scottish Highlanders in Colonial Georgia: The Recruitment, Emigration, and Settlement at Darien, 1735-1748 - Softcover

Parker, Anthony W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0820324566 ISBN 13: 9780820324562

Publisher: University of Georgia Press, 2002

Synopsis

Between 1735 and 1748 hundreds of young men and their families emigrated from the Scottish Highlands to the Georgia coast to settle and protect the new British colony. These men were recruited by the trustees of the colony and military governor James Oglethorpe, who wanted settlers who were accustomed to hardship, militant in nature, and willing to become frontier farmer-soldiers. In this respect, the Highlanders fit the bill perfectly through training and tradition.

Recruiting and settling the Scottish Highlanders as the first line of defense on the southern frontier in Georgia was an important decision on the part of the trustees and crucial for the survival of the colony, but this portion of Georgia's history has been sadly neglected until now. By focusing on the Scots themselves, Anthony W. Parker explains what factors motivated the Highlanders to leave their native glens of Scotland for the pine barrens of Georgia and attempts to account for the reasons their cultural distinctiveness and "old world" experience aptly prepared them to play a vital role in the survival of Georgia in this early and precarious moment in its history.

About this title

About the Author

ANTHONY W. PARKER is a lecturer in the School of American Studies and the Department of Modern History at the University of Dundee in Dundee, Scotland.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Georgia Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0820324566
• ISBN 13: 9780820324562
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200