A History of Misbehavior

The Georgia colony in Savannah was not your ordinary settlement.

Comprised of London's "deserving poor," the colony was filled with a good share of hard-drinking, rough-hewn souls and petty criminals. Pickpockets, prostitutes, pirates, and everyday scoundrels walked the Savannah streets, where they were surrounded by dangerous swamps and skulking Spanish spies from Florida. Using colonial court records, diaries, and journal entries, A History of Misbehavior provides entertaining vignettes and fascinating episodes from Colonial Georgia.

Discover everyday life in early Savannah:

• The first courts were run by three magistrates, who indulged in their own share of bad behavior.
• The colony store inventory included a belly band for criminals, as well as deer suet and dried apples.
• A murder at nearby Fort Argyle involved a macabre beheading.
• Murderous sailors were hanged, pirate style, on River Street.

The London - Savannah connection
Savannah's love of drink has roots in London Town.

The charming Southern city was settled in the early 1700s by hard-luck Londoners during the notorious Gin Craze, depicted in William Hogarth's famous sketches. London's poor families were devastated by the alcohol that flowed as free and cheap as water. Some of the hard-drinking souls that stumbled through London's streets were the very individuals who crossed the Atlantic to settle in Savannah among the tall pines. These settlers continued their trade and close relations with London, and took up the hardscrabble customs they brought from their faraway homes.