Georgia's First Newspaper
-
A 1734 illustration of Savannah where James Oglethorpe first established the Georgia colony. Georgia's first newspaper, the Savannah Gazette, began publication there three decades later.
Courtesy of Hargrett Library, Map Collection.
-
James Johnston began publishing the Georgia Gazette, on April 4, 1763. The front page of that first issue featured news from Europe and colonial Boston.
Courtesy of Georgia Newspaper Project, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
-
A reprinting of the Stamp Act on the front page of the May 2, 1765, issue of the Georgia Gazette.
Courtesy of Georgia Newspaper Project, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
-
An indenture agreement between Georgia Gazette publisher James Johnston and Joseph Farley. Wealthier Georgia colonists often relied on labor of European indentured servants, but the practice was later abandoned in favor of cheaper African slave labor.
Courtesy of Hargrett Library, Telamon Cuyler collection, ms 1170, series 1.
Newspaper journalism in Georgia began with James Johnston’s establishment of the Georgia Gazette in Savannah in 1763. Georgia’s colonial legislature designated Johnston, an immigrant from Scotland, the Royal Printer for the colony. In addition to printing the government's laws, he used the opportunity to establish Georgia’s first newspaper. The inaugural issue of the Georgia Gazette ran on April 7, 1763, containing local and international news items, an inventory of goods shipped into Savannah, and advertisements for both fugitives from slavery and the sale of an island. Johnston took a neutral stance on the politics of the day and printed both the laws of the colonial government and news of discord among the colonists. This neutrality put him at odds with the Patriots in Georgia, and he fled the state in 1776. The British recaptured Savannah in December 1778, and Johnston returned to the city to print the Royal Georgia Gazette. On January 30, 1783, the state government allowed Johnston to continue publishing under a new title, Gazette of the State of Georgia. He and his son would continue to print newspapers until 1802, by which time the Johnstons faced competition as newspaper journalism began to proliferate across the state in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.