The area that was to become Liberty County was originally occupied by the
Guale Indians. In the early 16th century, the Spanish placed a Catholic mission called
Santa Catalina de Guale on today's
St. Catherine's Island to minister to the Guale. During the 18th century, the Guale became part of the
Muscogee confederation. In 1733, Gen.
James Oglethorpe negotiated with the local Muskogean Indian tribes for this land that became part of the new
colony of Georgia. Settlement of the area by European settlers was sparse until 1752. In that year, a group of
Congregationalists from
Dorchester, South Carolina petitioned the royal government of Georgia for grants of land in an area known as the
Midway District, located between the Ogeechee and South Newport Rivers. The land was granted to them, and they moved as a community with their families and Negro slaves into the area. They immediately began clearing the swamps and marshes and establishing rice fields. On March 15, 1758, the royal government of Georgia created Saint John's Parish, which included this area between the Ogeechee River and South Newport River. The town of
Sunbury was established on June 19, 1758, on the Medway River and quickly became the 2nd busiest port in Georgia, behind
Savannah. The Congregationalists who settled the Midway District were able to establish a flourishing rice culture with the use of Negro slaves to tend to the rice fields. These Congregationalists were 2nd and 3rd generations of people born in
British America and had become more independent-minded and distinct in their political views from the other citizens of the colony. In 1774, they were among the first in the colony of Georgia to join the movement for the repeal of the
Intolerable Acts. In 1775, unable to persuade the rest of the colony of Georgia to join with the other 12 colonies to send a representative to the
2nd Continental Congress, they sent their own representative from Saint John's Parish, Dr.
Lyman Hall. The royal government of Georgia came to an end in January 1776 when the patriotic Georgia
Council of Safety arrested the governor,
James Wright and took over the government of the colony. The new government, composed of many of the leading citizens of Saint John's parish, organized a convention and established the first
Constitution for the State of Georgia. On February 5, 1777, under the new constitution, the parishes of Saint John's, Saint Andrew's and Saint James' were consolidated and named Liberty County to honor the efforts of the citizens of Saint John's parish in pursuing the American ideal of
liberty.
Sunbury was first designated the county seat in 1784. In 1797, the seat was transferred to
Riceboro, and in 1837 it was transferred again to Hinesville.
1922 lynching On July 1, 1922, James Harvey and Joe Jordan, two African American men, were
lynched by a mob of about 50 people in Liberty County during an escort by police from
Jesup, Georgia to a jail in
Savannah, Georgia. The event drew condemnation from both the local black community and from several prominent white citizens, with the preacher at Midway Methodist Church denouncing the acts and publishing a widely circulated letter condemning the
Wayne County officials of being complicit in the murders. The incident prompted an investigation by the
NAACP, and in total, 22 men were indicted, with four being
convicted. ==Geography==