Savannah, Ga., April 15, 2013 - Savannah in the 21st century is part of a dynamic global economy-but you might be surprised to learn that it always has been, from Colonial Georgia's earliest days.
How did an economic backwater like Colonial Georgia become a dynamic economic success in the transnational Atlantic world? Longtime Savannah educator, Dr. Paul Pressly, explores this question and more in his new book, On the Rim of the Caribbean: Colonial Georgia and the British Atlantic World (University of Georgia Press).
Critics are hailing Pressly's bold work as "extensively researched, impeccably written, and intellectually adventurous."
Pressly argues that Georgia in its early years was more West Indian than North American and that white Georgians followed the West Indian model of economic development, pursuing slavery, plantations, and economic gain by almost any means available. The work considers how a tiny elite of merchants led Georgia into overseas trade and how the colony came to share many of the characteristics of the Caribbean sugar islands rather than the more northern American colonies.
Savannah developed as a "Caribbean" town, with a slave market and dynamic merchant-planters who created a highly adaptive economic culture open to innovation. The colony's rapid growth holds a larger story: how a frontier where Carolinians played so large a role earned its own distinctive character after the American Revolution.
Dr. Pressly will deliver the keynote address at the Georgia Historical Society's 174th Annual Meeting at Congregation Mickve Israel on Thursday, May 2, 2013 Attendance is free and open to the public. Book sale and signing to follow.
Georgia Historical Society’s 174th Annual Meeting and Garden Party
5:00 Business Meeting (free and open to the public)
5:30 Keynote Address (free and open to the public)
6:30 Garden Party (reservations required; call 912.651.2125 ext. 119 for more information)
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Georgia Historical Society (GHS) is the premier independent statewide institution responsible for collecting, examining and teaching Georgia history. GHS houses the oldest and most distinguished collection of materials related exclusively to Georgia history in the nation.