“A New and Accurate Map of the Province of Georgia in North America.” From Universal Magazine. London: J. Hinton, 1779.

“A New and Accurate Map of the Province of Georgia in North America.” From Universal Magazine. London: J. Hinton, 1779.

Perhaps the last map printed of Georgia as a colony, this appeared in J. Hinton’s Universal Magazine, one of several gentlemen’s magazines circulating in London. During the American Revolution, Hinton’s journal included maps of all of the American provinces, a term resented by American rebels after 1776.

This attractive map presents accurate details along the coast, including the names of many creeks flowing into major rivers, but its maker did not consult the latest and best authorities in preparing this work. Specific information about the interior is lacking or inaccurate, and only a few Indian towns are noted.

Since none of Georgia’s boundaries had been surveyed by 1777, the vagueness of its borders is understandable. To the north, North Carolina is not shown as a neighboring province. To the south, the line between Florida and Georgia inaccurately follows the 31st parallel all the way to the headwaters of the St. Mary’s River, which is located too far to the west. This boundary, as defined by the British crown in 1763, ran in a straight line from the St. Mary’s headwater (marked in 1800 by Ellicott’s Mound) to the intersection of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers, which this map places north rather than south of the 31st parallel. The Chattahoochee River, a name that appeared on other maps at least 40 years earlier, is here called the Gr, presumably Great Flint River, and its course is generally north to south for its entire length, an error shared by most maps of this period.

1779