Conceived in Liberty Volume 2 - Ludwig von Mises Institute

would shut off an expected flow of settlers, the "sinews, wealth, and strength
of an infant colony." Moreover, the grants were unfair to the people of Georgia,
to the settlers who bore the "brunt and fatigue of settling a new colony."
The Crown, however, proved reluctant to dispossess the grantees and this
despite the fact that the peace treaty had granted the trans-Altamaha region to
Georgia.
In 1765, Georgia decided in eminently fair fashion to confer land grants
only to the extent that the land was cleared and settled, and the Crown finally
approved a similar provision. As it turned out, the meager demand for this
land during the remainder of the colonial era made the entire problem academic.
Despite its recent rapid growth, Georgia still remained the smallest and
weakest English colony; its crippling heritage under trusteeship had not been
fully overcome. But now it was set for further rapid expansion, especially as
the Creek Indians were rewarded for their faithful alliance with the English
against the dangerous Cherokees—by being forced to leave their lands in eastern
Georgia.
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