What and Where Is The Fort Frederica National Monument?
Fort Frederica National Monument preserves the relics of a town and a fort built between 1736-48 by Englishman James Oglethorpe.
Where Is the Fort Frederica National Monument Located?
Fort Frederica National Monument is located on St. Simons Island in the state of Georgia. The fort’s fundamental purpose was to protect the colony from Spanish invaders. About 630 servicemen protected the fort. The town of Frederica grew up just outside the fort. It was occupied by about 500 people and build following the stipulated Oglethorpe Plan just like other settlements in the Georgian protectorate
History of Fort Frederica
At the beginning of the 18th century, the land between Spanish colony of Florida and British colony of South Carolina was referred to as "Debatable Land." What is today’s Georgia was contested by the British and the Spanish. In 1733 James Oglethorpe established the Georgian colony as a settlement for poor debtors, and immigrants from Scotland and England. In 1736 he led a team in building Fort Frederica to defend the southern border of the new colony. The fort was named after Prince of Wales but feminized to differentiate it from Fort Frederick is the colony of South Carolina.
Oglethorpe repulsed Spanish raids on Saint Simons Island in 1742 exacting immense losses and preventing the Spanish from launching further attacks on Georgia. By 1749, the colonial government had closed down the garrison. A few years later the town of Frederica experienced an economic recession and was subsequently abandoned. In 1758 it barely survived a fire, and by a few years later it was completely deserted.
Designation as a National Monument
On May 26, 1936, the fort was declared a protected national monument. As of 1947, Ft. Frederica Association and the National Park Service supported several archaeological expeditions at the fort. Several sites were excavated and by combining their finding with several historical documents the archeologists provided an insight of the colonial history surrounding the fort.
