A work 24-plus years in the making that offers a refreshing take on Georgia’s founder had its local formal presentation on Saturday, June 29 at Savannah’s Hyatt Regency. Historian and DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond held a book signing and discussion with Q&A of his latest, “James Oglethorpe, Father of Georgia: A Founder’s Journey from Slave Trader to Abolitionist.”

The event drew dozens of attendees from the local community, including Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, State Rep. Edna Jackson, County Commissioner Tanya Milton, Savannah Chamber of Commerce CEO and President Bert Brantley, and Savannah State University Interim President Cynthia Robinson Alexander.

“James Oglethorpe, Father of Georgia” surfaces key details about the historical figure’s personal and political journey to become, in Thurmond’s view, the “Grandfather of the Abolitionist Movement.” On Saturday, Thurmond prefaced that the work comes with a caveat. “Let me just warn you that there’s no political correctness in this book,” he said, alluding to the colonial era’s prevailing outlooks on race, religion, and humanity. “This is what they were believing. Christians argued that blacks didn’t have a soul,” said Thurmond.

Oglethorpe’s evolution was, in part, catalyzed by letters written by Ayuba Suleiman Diallo and Olaudah Equiano, two formerly enslaved African men. According to Thurmond, who spent decades unravelling narratives and examining evidence, the letters were a watershed for Oglethorpe’s legacy and, ultimately, our identity as a nation.

“So, what was the big deal about these letters? What did they say?” Versions of these questions drove the discussion Saturday evening.

Thurmond said Oglethorpe “saw that the [Diallo’s] letter was not written by someone who was forlorn or seeking empathy or sympathy. Diallo was … not a person consumed by loss of agency. He was talking about his ancestors and his wife and children. And he was praising all devotion to Allah. None of that’s in the prevailing narrative. So having the letter independently translated was revelatory,” said Thurmond.

The revelation for Oglethorpe when he read the letters: Diallo’s humanity was no different from his own.

Thurmond described the book as the most important work he will ever do.

In an interview with Connect Savannah, when asked about when that realization dawned on him, Thurmond said, “Years before I ever went to a publisher, I understood the significance of the evidence, and that if I ever had a chance to share it, it would have a major impact.”

He says the true story of Oglethorpe’s legacy “was so well-hidden and so convoluted, that you had to unravel it … just like a small chain that you get in a knot and it’s almost impossible to untangle.” Among those inspired by Oglethorpe were President Abraham Lincoln, abolitionist Granville Sharp, and church reformer John Wesley.

For our present moment, Thurmond positions this book as “an antidote, a response, to the current climate of polarized public discourse,” he told Connect. To that theme, Mayor Johnson fielded an attendee’s question about what these new understandings about Oglethorpe could mean for Savannah, a city he founded.

“We were just talking about that a few minutes ago,” Mayor Johnson said. “When you know better, you do better. We learned about the story of Susie King Taylor, and you all know what we did. Because we want to expand history, I think this brings forth opportunities for us as a community to talk about this. … I’m open. I’ve got three and a half years to figure it out.”

Mayor Johnson added, “We could make it a Broadway musical, ‘Oglethorpe,’ instead of ‘Hamilton,’ starring Michael Thurmond.”

Linda Johnson, a retired state employee who now consults as CEO of The Link and Associates, shared what she took away from the discussion. “What I gleaned from it is that we have a shared history. And we must embrace each other individually and collectively so that the world can be better,” Johnson said. “He talked about Oglethorpe having flaws, you know, it’s true that nobody will be perfect. But we have this drive toward perfection. … So today for the challenges that we’re facing in the U.S. and abroad, we have to work collectively together to find common ground. To listen to each other, to respect one another. Those are the themes that I heard there: respect, communication, developing trust, reaching across the aisle, not allowing yourself to be siloed into tribes and cults of personality.”

Johnson continued, “Oglethorpe was an individual demonstrating a willingness and courage to step outside the box even though it was hard. And that’s what we’re calling on people to do today, to go for what’s right. Right is right and wrong is wrong, so call it as it is. And that’s what Oglethorpe, even back then, was doing: he was calling it out.”

This article appears in Connect Savannah I June 2024.