A Black author takes a new look at Georgia’s white founder and his failed attempt to ban slavery

By RUSS BYNUM
Associated Press

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A Black author says Georgia’s white founding father deserves credit for inspiring the abolitionist movement that ultimately ended slavery. A new book by Michael Thurmond titled “James Oglethorpe, Father of Georgia” focuses on Oglethorpe’s failed attempt to ban slavery after starting Britain’s 13th American colony in 1733. Historians have widely dismissed Oglethorpe’s effort as a naive failure, considering that by the time of the Civil War Georgia would have more slaves than any U.S. state but Virginia. Thurmond argues Oglethorpe evolved to revile slavery and recognized the humanity in enslaved Africans. His book says that while Georgia’s early prohibition on slavery ended, Oglethorpe returned to England and inspired activists who would become Britain’s first abolitionists.