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Empire and Order on the Colonial Frontiers of Georgia and New South Wales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Lisa Ford
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Extract

In 1767, settlers on the western frontier of Georgia in North America sent a dire petition to their governor begging for protection. They claimed that local Creek Indians had stolen their horses and planned imminently to destroy their livestock and to kill their families. Before the governor could respond, the settlers crossed the Indian boundary to loot and burn a Creek village. In doing so they galvanized the imperial legal order into action – not against Creek horse thieves but against settler vigilantes on Creek land. At the urging of London officials, the governor of Georgia had the settlers arrested and charged, first with a felony, and when that failed, with ‘abuse and misdemeanour at common law against government’. However, Georgia's jurors refused to hold them accountable on either charge.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , November 2006 , pp. 95 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 2006

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