How to Use the Readings Inquiry Question |
Reading 2: The City Plan and How It Was Built. Having found an ideal place to settle and having established good relations with the local Indian population, Oglethorpe set upon designing the city he would call Savannah. Taking into account the Trustees desire for a city promoting equality as well as protection, Oglethorpe came up with a simple, yet sophisticated, design that reflected both egalitarian principles and classical standards of fortress construction. His basic module of design was a square-shaped unit called a "Ward." At the center of each ward was a large, open space called a "Square." The four corners of each ward contained a "Tything." A tything consisted of ten house lots each. These ten house lots were reserved for the private homes of the settlers. Each house lot measured the same, 60 feet in width and 90 feet in depth. The relationship between the position of the house lots and square insured that the residents of each ward had a natural meeting location. The squares drew both local inhabitants and visitors to the city and gave all a place to mingle. On the east and west flank of the square were positioned four larger lots called the "Trustees Lots." They were reserved for public structures, such as churches, banks, or government buildings. Little did Oglethorpe know that this design lavished more open space on Savannah than probably any town in American history. Peter Gordon, who traveled with the original settlers to Georgia along with Oglethorpe on the Anne, described the effort required and the length of time needed to construct the first four wards of James Oglethorpe's design. We arrived the 1st of February at Yamacraw Bluff, the place Mr. Oglethorpe had pitched upon for our settlement. As soon as we landed, we set about getting our tents fixed and our goods brought ashore and carried up the bluff, which is forty feet perpendicular in height. This, by reason of the loose sand and great height, would have been extremely troublesome had not Captain Scott and his party built stairs for us.In 1736, James Oglethorpe's attention was redirected to St. Simons Island, about 80 miles south of Savannah. He had found there a much stronger defensive position against possible Spanish attack from St. Augustine. On the island's western edge, he designed and built Fort Frederica. In July 1742, the anticipated Spanish attack was launched on Georgia. Spanish troops landing on St. Simons Island met Oglethorpe's defenders near Fort Frederica. The resulting Battle of Bloody Marsh, won by the British, led to the elimination of the Spanish threat from Florida. Having secured the British land claim down to the southern Georgia border, James Oglethorpe soon returned to England, satisfied that he had succeeded in creating two towns (Savannah and Augusta) based on egalitarian principles in a safe place where future immigrants could also seek a better life.
Questions for Reading 2 1. Savannah is divided into a series of design units, or modules. What term did Oglethorpe use for his basic module (unit) of planning? List the divisions within the module. 2. What did the colonists live in before they built their houses? 3. What is a palisade and why would the colonists need to build one? Can you use the reading context to figure out what a periaqua is? 4. What supplies and arms were issued to each colonial family? 5. Describe the materials the first settlers used to build their houses and fences. How did they acquire this material? 6. How did the Spanish and British colonists resolve their dispute over the boundaries of Florida? Reading 2 was compiled from Mills Lane, Savannah Revisited: History and Architecture, 4th ed. (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1994); Preston Russell and Barbara Hines, Savannah: A History of Her People Since 1733 (Savannah: Frederic C. Beil, 1993); and Phinizy Spalding and Edwin Jackson, James Edward Oglethorpe: A New Look at Georgia's Founder (Athens, Ga.: The University of Georgia Press, 1998).
¹From the diary of Peter Gordon in the collection of the University of Georgia. |