Georgia’s First Elected Governor: John Adam Treutlen and the American Revolution

BOOK REVIEW: Georgia’s First Elected Governor: John Adam Treutlen and the American Revolution by W. Wright Mitchell (Independently Published, 2026) $25.00 paperback.

The colonial and Revolutionary War histories of Georgia have received comparatively little historical attention. This is also true for many of Georgia’s Patriot and Loyalist political and military leaders. W. Wright Mitchell’s biography of Georgia’s first elected governor, John Adam Treutlen, seeks in part to change that. The volume is much more than a political biography of a governor, it offers readers a broader history of the state from its foundation through most of the American Revolution.

The book is well-organized into sixteen brief chapters. Fittingly, half of the chapters encompass a period from generally the early 1700s to 1775, with the settings spanning from Germany to England to the American colonies. Detailed here are several chapters on the founding of Georgia and John Adam Treutlen’s lineage as well as that of the many Salzbergers who became an important part of Georgia’s early settlement. The remaining chapters detail the revolutionary period from 1775 to 1782 culminating in Treutlen’s death. The book has twenty-nine pages of expansive endnotes from mostly primary sources. There are numerous illustrations in the book that serve mostly as front pieces to each chapter. Unfortunately, there is no map of colonial Georgia to trace the numerous geographic references in the text.

One of the strengths of the book is the research into early Georgia and specifically John Adam Treutlen’s origins. Born in Kürnbach, Germany in 1734, he came into the world about the same time as the colony. Right before Treutlen’s birth, James Oglethorpe and the Georgia Trustees were creating the framework for the future colony. With philanthropist Dr. Thomas Bray, Oglethorpe formed the idea of founding a debtor colony in America. Chartered in 1732, Georgia was envisioned to be quite different from other American colonies. The governing body of twenty-one trustees carefully selected settlers and allowed them up to but no more than five hundred acres of land. Although initially focused on debtors, relatively few applied. The Trustees shifted their preference to the “worthy poor.” Importantly, slavery was initially prohibited in Georgia. While the Trustees had altruistic notions of slavery they also feared the model of South Carolina and the threat of possible insurrections by enslaved people. Also restricted were rum, Catholics, and lawyers. By February 1733, the first 125 settlers arrived at Yamacaw Bluff on the south side of the Savannah River, seventeen miles inland from the coast and quickly began to build the future town of Savannah.

Advertisement

In the following years came hundreds of Protestant immigrants from Salzburg (current day Austria) who settled on the Savannah River northwest of the town. John Adam Treutlen arrived in Georgia in 1746 as an indentured servant. He was quickly singled out for special education by a Lutheran minister. In the new settlement of Ebenezer, Treutlen received an exemplary classical and religious education for the time and place.

Treutlen grew to adulthood in the milieu of Georgia’s transition away from its utopian vision. By 1750, it had begun to allow rum, lawyers, Catholics, and enslaved people. In this time, Treutlen had acquired at least twenty-three enslaved people. Now a royal colony, he was elected to the Commons House of Assembly in 1764 just as tensions with Britain began to emerge. From 1766 to 1770, Treutlen and his colleagues in the Commons were comparatively muted in their responses to the Stamp and Townsend Acts.

A second highlight of the book is the author’s portrayal of Treutelen’s rise into revolutionary politics, being elected to the first and second Georgia Provincial Congresses meeting in Savannah. By the end of 1776, he was a member of the Council of Safety and part of a small group of civilian leaders mobilizing for war but at the same time organizing a new state constitution. The 1777 Georgia Constitution “was one of the most radical republican experiments in the American colonies” (page 98). With relatively “weak” gubernatorial powers, a progressively democratic legislature, and decentralized judiciary, the new law of the land provided safeguards against a strong leader and concentrations of power in Savannah.

Treuten won the first Georgia gubernatorial election over the more well-known Button Gwinnett, who had by that time become a divisive figure particularly his conflict with Gen. Lachlan McIntosh. According to the author, Treutlen “embodied a more restrained populist option” in contrast to someone from the Savannah elite (p. 101). Leaving office in 1778, Treutlen’s involvement in military operations in and around Georgia from 1779 to 1782 is not well known or documented. In early 1778, he was colonel of the Effingham militia but found his men unwilling and “deaf to the voice of marching orders” (p.140). By late 1778, with the British army’s sights on Savannah, he had resigned his commission. During the capture of Savannah in late December 1778, he is reported to have fled to South Carolina. While in hiding his considerable property along the Savannah River was confiscated. There is some evidence that by July 1780 he may have possibly aligned himself with or swore allegiance to the Crown (p. 145). However, in 1782 he was elected to both the Georgia and South Carolina Assemblies.

Advertisement

One of the most intriguing parts of the book is the last chapter, on Treutlen’s death. The most accepted explanation is that, in the spring of 1782, he was killed by Loyalist forces under the command of Gen. Robert Cunningham in the Orangeburg District of South Carolina. Several claims made after the war document that he was assassinated as a traitor. Interestingly, the book has an addendum dated June 2026 providing additional information on his death. From a newly discovered postwar claim, Treutlen was perhaps killed in a skirmish with Loyalists. While the circumstances of his death differ, the locations noted generally correlate. Barring new discoveries, what truly happened remains open to interpretation.

Wright’s biography offers the most complete and accessible portrait of John Adam Treutlen to date, depicting him as a sober, dutiful public servant dedicated to stable governance. By skillfully piecing sparse historical sources into a clear and context-rich narrative, Wright delivers an essential read for anyone interested in early Georgia history and its foundational leaders—one that will hopefully inspire further research into the state’s role in the Revolution.

PLEASE CONSIDER PURCHASING THIS BOOK FROM AMAZON IN PAPERBACK OR KINDLE.
(As an Amazon Associate, JAR earns from qualifying purchases. This helps toward providing our content free of charge.)