The Salzburger Saga: Religious Exiles and Other Germans Along the Savannah

In 1731, the archbishop of Salzburg expelled twenty thousand Protestants who refused to abjure their religion. Three hundred of these emigrants accepted the invitation of the Georgia Trustees to settle in their new colony. The first Salzburger transport arrived in 1734 and was followed during the next seven years by three more. The Salzburgers names their colony Ebenezer. Based mainly on detailed journals and letters written by the Salzburgers’ pastor, Johann Martin Boltzius, this work describes the expulsion of the Salzburger emigrants, their journey to Georgia, the hardships they endured, and their eventual success in cattle raising, agriculture, lumbering, and silk culture and also includes details of the Swiss, Palatines, and Wurttembergers who joined them. Appended is a composite list of Ebenezer’s inhabitants in High German forms to facilitate genealogical research in European archives and correct errors in the version published by the Ebenezer Church.