Saint Simons Island was not always the tranquil and beautiful place it is today. Since it had long been their home, the mainly peaceful Native Americans were suspicious and at times unfriendly due to religious conversion efforts by the Spanish in neighbouring Florida. The island first came to the attention of the English settlers farther north in the early 1700s. They decided to create a settlement and erect a fort to assert their sovereignty over what eventually became Georgia.

In 1736 the founder of Savannah, General James Oglethorpe with 44 men and 72 women and children founded a village which he named “Frederica” after the (then) Prince of Wales. Within a few years it had some 500 inhabitants, including soldiers, tradesmen and professionals. They fought frequent skirmishes with Spanish troops from Saint Augustine, but in 1742 Oglethorpe’s 630 troops defeated once and for all a 3,000-man Spanish invading force at nearby “Bloody Marsh”. With that threat ended and a peace treaty negotiated, the regiment disbanded and Frederica gradually declined: it was abandoned in 1758 after a fire. Today the National Park Service operates it as an archeological site, where you can view some artifacts and the few parts of buildings and foundations that remain.

Saint Simons was not prominent during the War of Independence (the American Revolution), but the few people who eked out a living there were occasionally attacked by pirates.

For a time rice was the prominent crop, but eventually the soil and climate were found to be ideal for growing cotton, and with the invention of the cotton gin 14 plantations, worked by an estimated 1,000 slaves, were soon established and thriving along the Georgia coast. It is believed that slaves were treated more humanely here than elsewhere in the State. It is estimated that by 1861 there were more than 450,000 slaves in the entire State: for general information about Georgia’s slavery, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1019 . Until the “War Between the States” (the Civil War) long-fibre Sea Island cotton, grown in Retreat Plantation and others was in demand around the world. This all came to an end when the war ended, since Union forces had burned most of the crops and buildings on the island. From then on those who returned only grew garden crops and engaged in fishing.

The lighthouse, built on the site of a British fort that was destroyed by the Spanish in 1742, was blown up by Confederate troops in 1862. Work began on the present one ten years later, and today its electric light still can be seen 18 miles (30 km) out to sea.

Another site of historical interest is Gascoigne Bluff, named after the captain of a British ship that landed there with settlers in 1736. Its Live Oaks, still numerous and impressive today, were used in ship-building, including the USS Constitution, affectionately known as “Old Ironsides” because cannon balls bounced off its sturdy oak sides.

The island is of great religious interest too, because the Wesley brothers, considered the founders of Methodism, preached at Frederica. There are several memorials to their labours, as well as the present Christ Church (Episcopalian/Anglican) built in 1884, and a nearby Methodist church. The predecessor of the first church was built there in 1820, only to be destroyed by Union forces during the Civil War.