Georgia Petitions to Legalize Slavery
Georgia was unique among the American colonies because it explicitly banned slavery. However, as economic pressures grew and settlers clamored for labor to work the colony’s fields, the Georgia Assembly sought to change this policy enacting laws without the King’s Assent.
This effort included petitions to the trustees and, later, direct appeals to the British government aimed at reversing the original ban on slavery and allowing the importation and use of enslaved Africans for labor. The settlers argued that enslaved labor was necessary to develop a profitable agricultural economy, particularly for rice and indigo cultivation, which required intensive manual labor.