Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

The University of Georgia

January 3

1739 In light of the Malcontents' efforts to get the Trustees to allow slavery in Georgia, Scots Highlanders in Darien sent a petition to the Trustees to continue the prohibition. [See "In Their Own Words . . ." below]

1766 The first (and only) British representative to administer the Stamp Act in Georgia arrived by ship at Tybee. The Stamp Act required that colonists pay a tax on a wide variety of legal, business, and personal items. Every piece of paper with printing on it--including all business and legal documents, contracts, bills of sale, licenses, and newspapers--was subject to the tax. The "stamp" was not like a postage stamp but rather was an embosssed or printed design applied to the page or document to show that the tax had been paid. Tax agents were supplied with supplies of blank paper on which the the revenue stamp had been embossed or printed. For documents already printed, the agent had an embosser to apply to the document once the tax was paid.

1765 British Embossed Revenue Stamp

1765 British Revenue Printed Stamp

Opposition to the Stamp Act in the American colonies was immediate. Fearing for the safety of the British tax agent, royal governor James Wright sent an armed party to have him escorted to the governor's house in Savannah. After two weeks, the official left Georgia without having done his job. And though Parliament would shortly repeal the Stamp Act in March 1766, Georgia would have the unhappy distinction of being the only American colony in which revenue was collected under the act. On Dec. 5, 1765, when the stamped paper first arrived in Georgia, Savannah's port was clogged with over 60 ships. To load and unload cargoes, ship captains and merchants needed official bills of lading--documents subject to the Stamp Act. To reopen the port, Savannah merchants agreed to pay the tax so the ships could be unloaded. Though this was the only case where Georgians paid the stamp tax, the action resulted in other American colonies condemning Georgia -- and a call by some for boycotting "that infamous colony."

1861 Under orders by Gov. Joseph E. Brown, Col. A.R. Lawton and Maj. Charles Olmstead led a force of 134 members of Savannah volunteer militia units to take Fort Pulaski on Cockspur Island, which was located a mile upstream from the mouth of the Savannah River. The capture was accomplished without gunfire, as the fort was only defended by a U.S. artillery sergeant and a caretaker. Still, Georgia's action in seizing a federal fort generated considerable attention across the South because Georgia was still in the Union.

1863 In what is apparently the first recorded baseball score in Georgia, in a game played in Savannah by Union troops occupying Fort Pulaski, the 48th New York defeated the 47th New York by a score of 20-7.

1947 Fifth district congresswoman Helen Douglas Mankin, ended her first and only term in Congress. Mankin is often credited as being the first woman elected to Congress from Georgia. [See Oct. 1 entry for 1940 entry to see why technically, this distinction belongs to Florence Gibbs.] Following the resignation of Atlanta Robert Ramspeck on Dec. 31, 1945, Mankin had been elected in a special election to fill his remaining term. In 1946, she unsuccessfully campaigned for reelection. Mankin was born Sept. 11, 1894 in Atlanta and died in College Park, Ga. after an accident on July 25, 1956.

1955 Iris Faircloth Blitch was sworn into office as representative of Georgia's 8th congressional district. She was the first woman from Georgia to win a regularly scheduled election and to serve a full term in Congress, where she served in the U.S. House from 1955 to 1963. Blitch was born in Vidalia, Ga. on April 25, 1912.

1973 Andrew Young was sworn into office as Georgia's first black congressman since 1871. Young represented Georgia's 5th congressional district until 1977, when he was appointed as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

1981 Fourteen year old Lubie Geter disappeared; his strangled body was found a month later. He was the latest victim in the Atlanta Child Murders case.

2004 In Boise, Idaho, there was snow on the ground, with the temperature at a frosty 20° F. It was so cold that the football field's field was blue--literally. But Georgia Tech was hot. Playing on blue artificial turf in the Humanitarian Bowl, the Yellow Jackets overwhelmed Tulsa by a score of 52-10. Tech running back P.J. Daniels scored four touchdowns, while running for 307 yards before being pulled out of the game by coach Chan Gailey. Before the game was over, every member of the Tech squad had some playing time.

2010 Playing in Tampa, Florida, the Atlanta Falcons finished the season with a 20-10 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to give the team a 9-7 season, with wins in the last three games. Although missing the playoffs, the victory marked a significant achievement. For the first time in the history of the team, the Atlanta Falcons had back-to-back winning seasons.

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1739 From Darien, a group of Scots Highlanders wrote the Trustees asking that the ban on slavery in Georgia be continued:

"It is shocking to human Nature, that any Race of Mankind and their Posterity, should be sentenced to perpetual Slavery. . . . And as Freedom to them must be as dear as to us, what a Scene of Horror must it bring about! . . . We therefore, for our own sakes, our wives and Children, and our Posterity, beg your Consideration, and interest, that instead of introducing Slaves, you'll put us in the way to get us some of our Countrymen, who with their Labour in time of Peace, and our Vigilance, if we are invaded, with the Help of those, will render it a difficult Thing to hurt us, or that Part of the Province we possess. . . ."

Source: Spencer B. King, Jr., Georgia Voices: A Documentary History to 1872 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1974 reprint of 1966 original volume), pp. 177-178.

1740 At New Ebenezer, most of Georgia's Salzburger colonists only spoke German. However, minister John Martin Boltzius recognized the importance of his fellow Salzburgers learning English. Consequently, he had his indentured servant, a young Englishman named Henry Bishop, serve as schoolmaster to the Salzburger children. As indicated by his journal, Boltzius also hoped to begin a class of English instruction for the adults:

"The English youth, Bishop, who has been engaged as English schoolmaster, performs his duty loyally, to be sure, and is becoming ever more skillful in drilling the children in speaking English; but he is much too lax with discipline, and the children do not yet have the fear of him that is necessary. Therefore we must lend him a hand to improve the order in his classes. We would also undertake such practice with the adults if only they had enough time. I shall ask whether some of them wish it and would like to gather for a few hours, say in the evening, in which case I shall try to see whether it will be possible to teach them enough to understand and speak a little. In time this language may become indispensable because we must often deal with Englishmen."

Source: George Fenwick Jones and Don Savelle (trans. and ed.), Detailed Reports on the Salzburger emigrants Who Settled in America . . . Edited by Samuel Urlsperger, Vol. 7, 1740 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1983), pp. 12-13.