Savannah Takes its Seat in History as a Place of Law

November 23, 2023

South Magazine,

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Well over two hundred years ago, when James Oglethorpe founded Savannah, the capital of his newly chartered colony of Georgia, he harbored utopian ideals for the city. His visionary plan included a city built around four squares and four strict prohibitions: no rum, no slavery, no lawyers, and no Papists.

Oglethorpe’s vision for an idyllic society, however, did not withstand the test of time. Banning rum, perhaps the most doomed policy of all, only made Savannah’s early residents thirst for it more. At a time when the city was just taking its initial steps, the prohibition on alcohol became increasingly impractical.

The ban on slavery, a noble but premature move, conflicted with neighboring South Carolina, where slavery was still legally practiced, and nearby Charleston was thriving. In the pursuit of wealth and prosperity, many Savannahians swiftly disregarded Oglethorpe’s decree, and soon enough, plantation owners were sipping Chatham Artillery Punch on their porches while benefiting from the labor of enslaved individuals.

Oglethorpe’s ban on Catholics appears curious, especially considering Savannah’s general tolerance toward various religious beliefs. However, Georgia was originally conceived as a buffer zone between the Carolinas and Spanish Florida, and the suspicion was not based on Catholicism itself but the fear that Catholics might be acting as Spanish spies. This, too, was a law that would be relaxed shortly after the colony’s founding.

The prohibition on lawyers, the fourth and final of Oglethorpe’s restrictions, was perhaps the least likely to succeed. It’s quite possible that an aspiring lawyer promptly filed a lawsuit, highlighting the irony of needing a lawyer to defend an anti-lawyer law. Ultimately, Oglethorpe’s ban on lawyers, like his other utopian ideals, was short-lived.

Today, the legal profession thrives in Savannah, a stark contrast to Oglethorpe’s original vision. Despite his well-intentioned, idealistic goals, the city has evolved into a bustling hub of legal activity, with lawyers playing an essential role in its growth and development. Oglethorpe’s ban on lawyers, just like the bans on rum, slavery, and Catholicism, stands as a historical curiosity, a reminder of the evolving nature of societies and their legal systems. Meet some of the lawyers that thriving in Savannah today bringing integrity to the field of law and landing on South magazine’s Greatest Lawyers 2023-24. ➸

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