EBOOK
From Empire to Revolution
Sir James Wright and the Price of Loyalty in Georgia
Greg BrookingSeries: Early American Places(0)
About
From Empire to Revolution is the first biography devoted to an in-depth examination of the life and conflicted career of Sir James Wright (1716–1785). Greg Brooking uses Wright's life as a means to better understand the complex struggle for power in both colonial Georgia and the larger British Empire.
James Wright lived a transatlantic life, taking advantage of every imperial opportunity afforded him. He earned numerous important government posts and amassed an incredible fortune, totaling over £100,000 sterling. An England-born grandson of Sir Robert Wright, James Wright was raised in Charleston, South Carolina, following his father's appointment as the chief justice of that colony. Young James served South Carolina in a number of capacities, public and ecclesiastical, prior to his admittance to London's famed Gray's Inn to study law. Most notably, he was appointed South Carolina's attorney general and colonial agent to London prior to becoming the governor of Georgia in 1761.
Wright's long imperial career delicately balanced dual loyalties to Crown and colony and offers a new perspective on loyalism and the American Revolution. Through this lens, Greg Brooking connects several important contexts in recent early American and British scholarship, including imperial and Atlantic history, Indigenous borderlands, race and slavery, and popular politics.
James Wright lived a transatlantic life, taking advantage of every imperial opportunity afforded him. He earned numerous important government posts and amassed an incredible fortune, totaling over £100,000 sterling. An England-born grandson of Sir Robert Wright, James Wright was raised in Charleston, South Carolina, following his father's appointment as the chief justice of that colony. Young James served South Carolina in a number of capacities, public and ecclesiastical, prior to his admittance to London's famed Gray's Inn to study law. Most notably, he was appointed South Carolina's attorney general and colonial agent to London prior to becoming the governor of Georgia in 1761.
Wright's long imperial career delicately balanced dual loyalties to Crown and colony and offers a new perspective on loyalism and the American Revolution. Through this lens, Greg Brooking connects several important contexts in recent early American and British scholarship, including imperial and Atlantic history, Indigenous borderlands, race and slavery, and popular politics.
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Reviews
"In this sensitive and insightful account of the life of James Wright, governor of Georgia, Greg Brooking provides a nuanced portrait of loyalism that should be read by all students of the Revolution. Brooking shows us that neither Wright nor loyalists in other colonies based their fateful-and often painful-choice on a political ideology that differed from their radical neighbors; instead, they we
Carol Berkin
"For fifteen years, James Wright deftly governed Georgia, overseeing the colony's economic expansion and population growth. Despite frequent conflicts between Georgia's interests and British policy, Wright successfully navigated the difficult course between colonial and imperial demands until the American Revolution brought his leadership to an end. Greg Brooking makes a major contribution to the
Jim Piecuch
"Mr. Brooking's narrative brings to the fore a neglected figure from colonial America and, along the way, reminds us of the agitation in the most southern of the 13 colonies."
Stuart Ferguson
Extended Details
- SeriesEarly American Places