Edward Telfair (1735 – September 17, 1807) was a Scottish-born American

Founding Father The following list of national founding figures is a record, by country, of people who were credited with establishing a state. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e. ...

, politician and slave trader who served as the

governor of Georgia The governor of Georgia is the head of government of Georgia and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor also has a duty to enforce state laws, the power to either veto or approve bills passed by the Georgia Legis ...

from 1786 to 1787 and again from 1790 to 1793. He was a member of the

Continental Congress The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. ...

and one of the signers of the

Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 Colonies of the United States of America that served as its first frame of government. It was approved after much debate (between July 1776 and November 1777) by ...

Early life

Telfair was born in 1735 at Toron Head, his family's ancestral estate in western Scotland. He graduated from the Kirkcudbright Grammar School before acquiring commercial training. He immigrated to

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in 1758 as an agent of a commission house, settling in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

. Telfair subsequently moved to

Halifax, North Carolina Halifax is a town in Halifax County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 234 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Halifax County. It is known as "The Birthplace of Freedom" for being the location for the April 12, 1776, adopt ...

, and finally to

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...

, where he established his own commission house. He arrived in Georgia in 1766, joining his brother, William, who had emigrated earlier. Together with Basil Cowper, Telfair built the commission house, and it was an overnight success. Telfair married 16-year-old Sarah Gibbons in 1774 at her mother's

Sharon Plantation Sharon Plantation was a plantation originally founded in colonial Savannah, Province of Georgia. It covered around , on land bounded by Old Louisville Road and the Ogeechee Canal slave owner The following is a list of slave owners, for which there is a consensus of historical evidence of slave ownership, in alphabetical order by last name. A * Adelicia Acklen (1817–1887), at one time the wealthiest woman in Tennessee, she inh ...

and a consultant on issues related to slavery. His mercantile firm dealt in slaves, among other things, and contemporary correspondence of his included discussions of such topics as: the management of slaves; the purchase and sale of slaves;

runaway slaves In the United States, fugitive slaves or runaway slaves were terms used in the 18th and 19th century to describe people who fled slavery. The term also refers to the federal Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. Such people are also called free ...

; the mortality rate of slaves born on

plantations A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...

; the difficulty of selling closely related slaves; and the relations between

whites White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as ...

and

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom ...

Revolutionary period

Telfair was a member of a Committee of Safety (1775–1776) and was a delegate to the Georgia

Provincial Congress The Provincial Congresses were extra-legal legislative bodies established in ten of the Thirteen Colonies early in the American Revolution. Some were referred to as congresses while others used different terms for a similar type body. These bodies ...

meeting at Savannah in 1776. He was also a member of the Georgia

Committee of Intelligence A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them mor ...

in 1776. Telfair was elected to the Continental Congress for 1778, 1780, 1781, and 1782. He was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation. In 1783, during the Cherokee–American wars, Telfair was commissioned to treat with the

Chickamauga Cherokee The Chickamauga Cherokee refers to a group that separated from the greater body of the Cherokee during the American Revolutionary War. The majority of the Cherokee people wished to make peace with the Americans near the end of 1776, following se ...

Indians. Telfair was the designated agent (on behalf of Georgia) in talks aimed at settling the northern boundary dispute with

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

in February 1783. The land in question was generally regarded as Creek land, so the Cherokees readily signed the treaty. The Creeks refused. Although the citizens of Franklin County begged him to retaliate, Secretary of War

Henry Knox Henry Knox (July 25, 1750 – October 25, 1806), a Founding Father of the United States, was a senior general of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, serving as chief of artillery in most of Washington's campaigns. Following th ...

instructed Governor Telfair not to retaliate against the Creek Indians. He served three terms as governor of Georgia. During his second term as governor, he illegally granted thousands of acres of land to speculators as part of the

Yazoo land scandal The Yazoo land scandal, Yazoo fraud, Yazoo land fraud, or Yazoo land controversy was a massive real-estate fraud perpetrated, in the mid-1790s, by Georgia governor George Mathews and the Georgia General Assembly. Georgia politicians sold large ...

. Telfair was one of only 12 men who received electoral votes during the first election for

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

and

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

of the United States, receiving the vote of one unrecorded elector from his home state of Georgia.

Death and legacy

Telfair died in Savannah in 1807, interred initially in the family vault at Sharon Plantation. Later in the 19th century, his remains were moved to

Bonaventure Cemetery Bonaventure Cemetery is a rural cemetery located on a scenic bluff of the Wilmington River, east of Savannah, Georgia. The cemetery became famous when it was featured in the 1994 novel ''Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'' by John Berendt, ...

in Savannah. Three months after Telfair died, Georgia named Telfair County after the former governor. Later in the 19th century, Savannah's St. James Square was renamed Telfair Square to honor the family. Telfair Academy

One of Telfair's sons,

Thomas Telfair Thomas Telfair (March 2, 1780 – February 18, 1818) was a United States representative from Georgia. Born in Savannah, the third of four sons of Governor Edward Telfair, he graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1805. He went on to study ...

, represented Georgia in the U.S. Congress. The eldest of the Telfair daughters,

Mary Telfair Mary Telfair (January 28, 1791 – June 2, 1875)Mary Telfair
–

, outlived her siblings and became the benefactor of the first public art museum in the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

, now a complex of three buildings called the

Telfair Museums Telfair Museums, in the historic district of Savannah, Georgia, was the first public art museum in the Southern United States. Founded through the bequest of Mary Telfair (1791–1875), a prominent local citizen, and operated by the Georgia Histo ...

. After her death in 1875, her will also provided for the founding of the Telfair Hospital for Females. Today it is known as Mary Telfair Women's Hospital.History of St. Joseph's/Candler
at hospital website.

References

External links

Edward Telfair
in the ''

New Georgia Encyclopedia The ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'' (NGE) is a web-based encyclopedia containing over 2,000 articles about the state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is a program of Georgia Humanities (GH), in partnership with the University of Georgia Press, t ...

'' *
Ga. Governor Edward Telfair
at

National Governors Association The National Governors Association (NGA) is an American political organization founded in 1908. The association's members are the governors of the 55 states, territories and commonwealths. Members come to the association from across the politica ...

site * {{DEFAULTSORT:Telfair, Edward 1735 births 1807 deaths British emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies American Protestants Continental Congressmen from Georgia (U.S. state) 18th-century American politicians Signers of the Articles of Confederation Governors of Georgia (U.S. state) Burials in Georgia (U.S. state) Candidates in the 1789 United States presidential election Georgia (U.S. state) Democratic-Republicans Independent state governors of the United States Democratic-Republican Party state governors of the United States Georgia (U.S. state) Independents American slave owners American slave traders Politicians from Savannah, Georgia

Early life

Revolutionary period

Death and legacy

See also

References

External links