A Black author takes a new look at Georgia's white founder and his failed attempt to ban slavery
Michael Thurmond thought he was reading familiar history at the burial place of Georgia's colonial founder. Then a single sentence on a marble plaque extolling the accomplishments of James Edward Oglethorpe left him stunned speechless.
Within a lengthy tribute to the Englishman who died in 1785, the inscription read: "He was the friend of the Oppressed Negro.”
Oglethorpe led the expedition that established Georgia as the last of 's 13 American colonies in February 1733. Thurmond, a history aficionado and the only member of a Georgia delegation visiting the founder's tomb outside , knew Oglethorpe had tried unsuccessfully to keep slaves out of the colony. Historians widely agreed he was concerned for the safety and
