Georgia

Georgia was the youngest of the thirteen colonies. Founded in 1733 and still heavily dependent on British protection, Loyalism was unusually strong, especially in the backcountry. Flanked by Spanish Florida and powerful Native nations, it was nearly a miracle that Georgia joined the Revolution at all rather than remaining in the Empire. However, by the time the Declaration of Independence reached Savannah in August 1776, attitudes had shifted such that a new radical state constitution was already in the works. The war proved profoundly disruptive. Many enslaved Black Georgians fled toward freedom and left with the British in 1782. Women held families together amid backcountry violence. And Native nations faced dispossession regardless of the outcome. After the war, many Loyalists were quietly reintegrated, eventually celebrating the Fourth of July alongside the Patriots they had once opposed.