Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
Camden County, Georgia
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
===Early American era=== Largely due to security issues arising from proximity to powerful Indian groups and British Florida, Georgia was the last colony to join in the [[American Revolutionary War|War for Independence]] in 1775. In the [[Constitution of Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia Constitution of 1777]] St. Thomas and St. Marys Parishes were formed into Camden County, named for [[Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden|Charles Pratt]], 1st [[Earl Camden]] in England, a supporter of American independence. Originally Camden County was larger and also included parts of present-day [[Ware County, Georgia|Ware]], [[Brantley County, Georgia|Brantley]], and [[Charlton County, Georgia|Charlton]] Counties, which were re-designated in the nineteenth century. Also under the 1777 state constitution, Glynn County and Camden County had limited and restricted representation in the new patriotic Georgia government due to their extreme "state of alarm" throughout the war.<ref>Revolutionary Records of Georgia. Volume 1. page 285.</ref> Between 1776 and 1778 Camden County saw the construction of numerous forts, three failed American campaigns against the British at St. Augustine, and numerous depredations by raiders of various allegiance. One of the most notorious of these raiders was [[Daniel McGirt]]h.<ref>Martha Condray Searcy. ''The Georgia-Florida Contest in the American Revolution. ''University of Alabama Press, 1985. See also, Wilbur H. Siebert, "Privateering in Florida Waters and Northwards in the American Revolution". ''Florida Historical Quarterly XXII. 1943. 62-73. ''</ref> A significant loyalist faction existed in Camden County, headed by the brothers of [[James Wright (governor)|Royal Governor James Wright]], Charles and German Wright. They built a fort on the St. Marys River in 1775 to protect their lands and chattel during the war after repeated attacks by patriot banditti. Wright's Fort became a rendezvous for a group of loyalists called the "Florida Rangers". Two skirmishes were fought by Loyalist and Continental forces over Wright's Fort, and both times American troops failed to rout the Loyalists from the area. Finally, retreating British soldiers burned it down in 1778. The Americans rebuilt it when they invaded East Florida, and then burned it down to prevent it falling into enemy hands. The archaeological site was rediscovered in 1975.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://shapiro.anthro.uga.edu/Lamar/images/PDFs/publication_62.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=July 22, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612161945/http://shapiro.anthro.uga.edu/Lamar/images/PDFs/publication_62.pdf |archive-date=June 12, 2010 }}</ref> The primary economic enterprise of the county was rice planting, particularly along the Satilla River. [[Sea Island Cotton|Sea Island cotton]] was grown on Cumberland Island, and short-staple cotton was grown on the mainland along with sugar cane. Various forest products including [[turpentine]] and timber were produced, mainly for consumption in the naval industry and the West Indies.<ref name=":1"/> Camden County also served as a hub of backcountry trade with American settlers and various Indian groups, and as a shipyard and shipping center centered around the town of St. Marys. The land in Camden County was owned by fewer than 300 people throughout the colonial and antebellum eras. Most of the white population worked in trades or as tenant farmers, while nearly all black residents were slaves. Until the 1840s (and increasingly strict black codes), Camden County had a small population of free black workers, mainly involved in day labor or maritime industry. Camden County was the site of many trading posts with the Native Americans, who by the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries consisted mainly of people of the [[Creek Nation]]. From America's earliest years and even after Indian Removal in the 1830s, the county was a site of significant conflict between settlers and Indians, leading to a small series of local Indian wars, and displacement of both Indian and local American refugees. An important step towards establishing boundaries in the Early Federal period came with the [[Treaty of Colerain]] which was signed on June 29, 1796, on the St. Marys between United States agents and the Creeks. Many men from Camden County volunteered to fight under [[John Houstoun McIntosh]], a wealthy landowner in the region, during the [[Patriot War (Florida)|Patriot War in Florida]] in 1811. These men would go on to help capture the town of [[Fernandina Beach, Florida|Fernandina, Florida]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Patrick |first1=Rembert |title=Florida Fiasco: Rampant Rebels on the Georgia-Florida Border 1810-1815 |date=1954 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |location=Athens, GA |page=57}}</ref> On January 15, 1815, British troops led by [[Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet|Sir George Cockburn]] landed on Cumberland Island. Their goal was to attack the fort at [[Battle of Point Peter|Point Peter]]. They quickly overwhelmed the small American forced and took Ft. Point Peter easily. After the skirmish, British soldiers occupied the county through February. They raided the town of St. Marys, as well as many plantations and smaller settlements. Although New Orleans was the last major battle of the war, the skirmish at Point Peter happened even later, almost a month after the [[Treaty of Ghent]] had been signed. The British occupation of Camden County led to the liberation of an estimated 1,485 slaves from Georgia and Florida.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.forgotteninvasion.com/index.html |title=Forgotten Invasion |access-date=July 21, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121210030533/http://www.forgotteninvasion.com/index.html |archive-date=December 10, 2012 }}</ref> Camden County was on an international border until the [[Adams–Onís Treaty]] of 1819 between the United States and [[Spain]], making the Florida provinces American territory.
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
Camden County, Georgia
(section)
Add topic