This history of the American Revolution in Georgia offers a thorough examination of how landownership issues complicated and challenged colonists loyalties. Despite underdevelopment and isolation, eighteenth-century Georgia was an alluring place, for it promised settlers of all social classes the prospect of affordable land--and the status that went with ownership.

Then came the Revolution and its many threats to the orderly systems by which property was acquired and protected. As rebel and royal leaders vied for the support of Georgia s citizens, says Leslie Hall, allegiance became a...