The Province of Georgia (also Georgia Colony) is one of the Southern colonies in British America.

It is the last of the thirteen original colonies established by Great Britain in what later becomes the United States.

In the original grant, a narrow strip of the province extends to the Mississippi River.

The colony's corporate charter is granted to General James Oglethorpe on April 21, 1732, by George II, for whom the colony ias named.

The charter is finalized by the King's privy council on June 9, 1732.

Oglethorpe envisions a colony that will serve as a haven for debtors.

An earlier grant to three Montgormery brothers had been forfeited when they failed to establish a permanent colony, largely as a result of disease in the marshy area they had chosen to develop.

General Oglethorpe makes very strict laws that many colonists disagree with, such as being alcohol-free.

Oglethorpe envisions the province as a location for the resettlement of English debtors and "the worthy poor".

Another motivation for the founding of the colony is as a "buffer state" (border), or "garrison province" that will defend the southern part of the British colonies from Spanish Florida.

Oglethorpe imagines a province populated by "sturdy farmers" that can guard the border; because of this, the colony's charter prohibits slavery.