The Gold State: Free Georgia!

The Gold State
The Georgia Gold Rush of 1749

Discovery
The Discovery of Gold in the northern regions of the Colony of Georgia in the late 1740’s would be one of the defining moments in the history of Georgia, the American South, and the American colonies in General. Contrary to popular opinion, the Georgian goldfields were not simply spontaneously discovered. The Native population of the region long maintained that the few Gold items they did have came from the mountains in the North of the colony. It is surprising then, that it took Europeans until 1748 to discover gold in the region.

In 1748 during the waning months of the War of Jenkins Ear and the War of
Austrian Succession, Noble Jones, commander of the British forces in Augusta Georgia authorized a small force to investigate rumours of Gold in the northern mountains of the colony. The expedition left in March of 1748 and would return 8 weeks later having visited the rumoured gold fields and returned with several pounds of the valuable Gold metal.

News of the Discovery spread like wildfire throughout the colony. Upon hearing of the discovery James Ogelthorpe, the de-facto governor of Georgia ordered that Jones send an expedition to the region and secure it for the colony. This order led to the settlement of Aurelia being founded later that year and a series of negotiations beginning with South Carolina establishing the border in that region.

The 49’ers
By the year 1749, news of Georgian gold had spread throughout the American colonies and even to Britain herself. Soon thousands of colonists from the colonies and Britain began boarding ships destined for Savannah. James Ogelthorpe also ensured that London’s debtor prisons received special attention. The lure of gold proved to be an excellent motivator for the debtors who soon left en masse for the newly founded colony.

The arrival of so many colonists quickly put an immense strain on the nascent colony’s infrastructure. The cities of Savannah and Augusta both grew at exponential rates as did river traffic and traffic on the roads linking Savannah, Augusta, and Aurelia. Yet the infrastructure was not the only thing strained by the arrival of the “49’ers” relations with the local Creek and Cherokee Indians sharply deteriorated as Gold mining operations in Northern Georgia expanded. This would eventually lead to the Aurelian War of 1752.
The early phases of the Georgian gold rush also saw a major increase in other industries. The level of success of the early miners was actually quite low. Before long, the would-be gold miners were forced to be content with working the farms or “The Yellow Brick Road” linking the booming settlement of Aurelia to Augusta and by extension Savannah. This influx of labour would serve to strengthen the position of Ogelthorpe and the other trustees of the Georgia colony. Prior to the discovery of Gold, many settlers petitioned for the removal of the slavery ban in the colony. Though this petition would resurface in later years, the abundance of wealth and immigrants in the 1750’s prevented any such action from being taken.

The Aurelian War and the Seven Years War

As tensions between the gold miners of Aurelia Georgia and the local Creek and Cherokee Indians mounted, armed clashes seemed destined to follow. Armed clashes broke out in 1752 between prospectors and Indians and quickly escalated to full scale warfare. A slight depression in Gold production corresponded with the outbreak of hostilities proved to be a boon to the Colony as thousands of miners signed up for the colonial militia.

The Aurelian war lasted nearly a year and was an incredibly bloody affair, only the personal intervention of James Ogelthorpe and a handful of British regulars saved the town of Aurelia and the miners from total annihilation. Following the Aurelian war, Ogelthorpe negotiated with the various enemy chieftains and formerly secured the land around Aurelia Georgia as well as a good deal more of Northern Georgia. Ogelthorpe however, was careful not to isolate the native tribes, promising them copious amounts of land in South West Georgia in exchange for an alliance. These native allies would prove invaluable later on as tensions with the French and the Spanish continued to mount despite the end of the War of Austrian Succession.

Though an informal conflict had been raging for several years in the north, the Seven Years war officially began in 1756. Georgia would stay out of most of the conflict, however colonial militias were raised. 1761 would see Spain declare war on Great Britain and launch an attack on Georgia with the hopes of seizing the rich province. Ogelthorpe and the Georgian militia however would put up a fierce resistance forcing the Spanish to retreat from Georgia by the beginning of 1761 and invading Spanish Florida in 1762. By 1763, Ogelthorpe and the Georgian militia, with limited help from British Regulars and native allies had seized the entirety of Spanish Florida. The Treaty of Paris would cede that region to Britain in exchange for the return of British occupied Havana.

Oglethorpe would have a major influence on the formation of Florida. 1763 saw the defacto governor of Georgia order a land survey of Florida to facilitate it’s settlement. This survey would coincide with the founding of the Florida Company by George III and the dispatch of the first wave of settlers. Oglethorpe would also be a trustee of the Florida Company despite his advanced age and obligations as a trustee of the Province of Georgia. Before his death in 1765, Oglethorpe would succeed in dividing British Florida into Native and Settler zones and the beginnings of British settlement taking place. Further land deals were made with the Creek and Cherokee Indians, trading land in Florida for more land in Georgia.

The Conclusion of the Georgian Gold Rush
The Georgian Gold Rush would last until the early 1770’s and have profound effects on not only the American south, but the American colonies as a whole. Georgia itself would see it’s pre-gold rush population exponentially increased and it’s subsidiary industries such as agriculture and mining as well as its infrastructure greatly improved. The discovery of Gold in Georgia would also lead to the discovery of Gold in South and North Carolina as well as Virginia before the end of the 18th century.

The discovery of Gold in the American colonies would go a long way to increasing the region’s autonomy. Now capable of issuing gold currency, the Georgian Gold Rush in addition to the subsequent Carolinan and Virginian Gold Rushes allowed the industrial capacity of the United States to flourish unlike anything previously imagined. It also attracted thousands more immigrants from across Europe and Britain.

Yet the Gold Rushes would also have a somewhat negative effect on the colonies. British attempts to regulate and crack down on American gold mining, currency, and industry though largely ineffective would lead to increased tension between the American colonies and the United States. This tension coupled with increased taxes and the infamous Quebec Act would cause the American colonies to declare their independence from Great Britain in 1776 beginning the American Revolutionary War.

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An old TL I dug up...thoughts?
 
A cool thought, indeed. For one, it will certainly make the resulting US more interesting if the "Far South" of Georgia and Florida is not organized on pro-slavery lines. However, before the TL gets to 1776, there are a few important points to consider:

If Georgia is richer and more populous going into the 1760s and 1770s, then certainly it will play a greater role in the events and debates of those years than it did OTL, when it was a virtual non-entity. It's hard to judge without a good deal more knowledge what the effect might be, however. Note that I'm not suggesting this means the ARW won't happen, only that there's the potential for a number of small-scale butterflies which might have important effects. Most important of which might be simply the US starting out with Florida (or Georgian resentment of being deprived of it).

The fact that there's a great amount of American produced specie will have to significantly alter colonial economics. Perhaps some a boom that was not present OTL (for example, false suspiscion of gold elsewhere in BNA) will occur TTL. More significantly, if the American colonies are all of sudden producing cold hard cash, I'd guess that the British government is going to be think hard about its relationship with colonies. Perhaps it will hold of pressing for higher taxes and try to encourage the colonists to find more such resources, thus possibly avoiding the Proclamation of 1763. On the other hand, the fact that the American population might well be higher TTL (and might seem to be exploding even faster than OTL) might evoke greater fear on the part of the British that the colonies are inevitably going to outnumber them (there are a few great pamphlets to this effect in the debates surrounding whether to keep Canada or Guadaloupe and Martinique after the 7 Years War).
 
The discovery of Gold in the American colonies would go a long way to increasing the region’s autonomy. Now capable of issuing gold currency, .......

Assuming that the ARW more or less comes off on schedule, the post war period should see the avoidence of the hyper-inflation caused by the printing of worthless contenantals, which had almost no backing of any kind, be it gold or anything else
 
I agree that this is going to have to have major effects prior to any ARW. This isn't butterflies, but major direct effects.

Firstly, I can't help but see that the British government will find someway of getting it's share of the loot. This probably means that it hasn't the need to tax the rest of the Colonies to anything like the same extent. There might be increased resentment in Georgia, but much less elsewhere. Interestingly, this might lead to Georgian resentment of the other colonies.

Secondly, there is likely to be a larger British military presence in Georgia, to both protect the gold fields and maintain order.

Thirdly, a wealthier non-slave Georgia is likely to be very cultural distinct from neighbouring states.
 
A cool thought, indeed. For one, it will certainly make the resulting US more interesting if the "Far South" of Georgia and Florida is not organized on pro-slavery lines. However, before the TL gets to 1776, there are a few important points to consider:

If Georgia is richer and more populous going into the 1760s and 1770s, then certainly it will play a greater role in the events and debates of those years than it did OTL, when it was a virtual non-entity. It's hard to judge without a good deal more knowledge what the effect might be, however. Note that I'm not suggesting this means the ARW won't happen, only that there's the potential for a number of small-scale butterflies which might have important effects. Most important of which might be simply the US starting out with Florida (or Georgian resentment of being deprived of it).

The fact that there's a great amount of American produced specie will have to significantly alter colonial economics. Perhaps some a boom that was not present OTL (for example, false suspiscion of gold elsewhere in BNA) will occur TTL. More significantly, if the American colonies are all of sudden producing cold hard cash, I'd guess that the British government is going to be think hard about its relationship with colonies. Perhaps it will hold of pressing for higher taxes and try to encourage the colonists to find more such resources, thus possibly avoiding the Proclamation of 1763. On the other hand, the fact that the American population might well be higher TTL (and might seem to be exploding even faster than OTL) might evoke greater fear on the part of the British that the colonies are inevitably going to outnumber them (there are a few great pamphlets to this effect in the debates surrounding whether to keep Canada or Guadaloupe and Martinique after the 7 Years War).

I doubt the Proclaimation of 1763 could be avoided given that in this TL the 7 years war still occurred and yielded an identical result. Pontiac's rebellion still happens and the British have to find some way of dealing with the Natives in their newly conquered territories. Plus you have all the natives in Georgia who have been given land in exchange for more land around Aurelia/Augusta/Savanah.

Nonetheless...good points

I agree that this is going to have to have major effects prior to any ARW. This isn't butterflies, but major direct effects.

Firstly, I can't help but see that the British government will find someway of getting it's share of the loot. This probably means that it hasn't the need to tax the rest of the Colonies to anything like the same extent. There might be increased resentment in Georgia, but much less elsewhere. Interestingly, this might lead to Georgian resentment of the other colonies.

Secondly, there is likely to be a larger British military presence in Georgia, to both protect the gold fields and maintain order.

Thirdly, a wealthier non-slave Georgia is likely to be very cultural distinct from neighbouring states.

All good points...I'll definitely take these into account when I write up the next part...
 
When the actual Georgia Goldrush came, were there many cases of people walking away with a fortune?

Or was it more a case of thousands of hard-working prospectors just about making a living?
 
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