Frederica

The first British settlers landed at Frederica on February 18, 1736, forty years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and established a town on the southern frontier of the English colonies on land contested by Spain. Situated on the Island of St. Simons in the middle of an Indian field, Frederica was led by James Oglethorpe, respectfully known as "General." Fearing invasion by land or by water, the settlers built a fort on the riverbank and enclosed the town with a palisaded wall and moat. When the war with Spain ended in 1748, the town began to decline, and the settlement that was once one of Georgia's finest survives today only in ruins and eroded earthworks.

Georgia · United States