Fort Frederica National Monument

On Monday, I visited Castillo de San Marcos National Monument learning a bit about the Spanish history in Florida. The next day found me up the coast at Fort Frederica National Monument along the south Georgia coast. This fort was built by the British in response to Spanish incursions into territory Britain had claimed (Spain also claimed it, so someone was going to lose).

Very little remains of this fort, unlike the Castillo de San Marcos. At its peak, over 1,000 people lived in the fort. This was a huge fort – really a small town – with a smaller inner fort. The outer fort housed a full community with a grid of roads and permanent houses, along with normal support businesses (baker, blacksmith, etc). By 1755, much of the community had been abandoned and a fire in 1758 pretty much finished the town. In subsequent years, nature scrubbed the land of most indicators that a town ever existed, until archaeologists in the 20th century started working on the site.

In my blog on San Marcos, I mentioned the British expedition in 1740 to drive the Spanish out of northern Florida. It failed, securing Florida for Spain, at least for a while. Two years later, the Spanish returned the favor, launching an attack on Fort Frederica and surrounding British settlements. This time, it was the British who prevailed, sending the Spanish back to Florida and securing Georgia for England.

A major player in both of these military expeditions was James Oglethorpe. He led the failed British attack in Florida and founded the settlement at Fort Frederica, acting as leader. This position made sense as it was he who petitioned King George II for a grant of land below the Carolinas. He envisioned this as a place for the poor of England to make a fresh start. It was an idealistic vision, and he came along with the first shiploads of people and supplies to help establish the colony. Look around Georgia today and you will find many places named for Oglethorpe.

But something I did not know until my visit was that amongst the colonists at Fort Frederica were John and Charles Wesley. If the names sound familiar, odds are you know of a Wesleyan university somewhere, named after John. He is regarded as the founder of the Methodist church, and spent many years in Georgia, most at Fort Frederica along with his brother. Who would have thought!!

There isn’t much to actually see here – a couple of barely standing ruins and several excavated foundations. As with Catillo de San Marcos, it is the history lessons that this place offers, and the chance to stand on the sites where world-changing history was ultimately made.

Steve