George Galphin
| George Galphin | |
|---|---|
| Born |
George Galphin 1709 Antrim, Ireland |
| Died | December 1780 (aged 70–71) Silver Bluff, South Carolina |
| Occupation | Indian trader Indian commissioner |
| Years active | 1737-1781 |
| Employer | Brown, Rae, & Co. |
| Military career | |
| Rank | Commissioner of Indian Affairs |
| Wars | American Revolution |
George Galphin (1708–1780) was an American businessman specializing in Indian Trade, an Indian Commissioner, and plantation owner who lived and conducted business in the colonies of Georgia and South Carolina, primarily around the area known today as Augusta, Georgia.
Galphin was born in Ireland in the early 18th century to Barbara and Thomas Galphin, a linen weaver by trade. Galphin came to America in 1737, arriving at the port of Charleston, South Carolina. In the 1740s, Galphin found work from Brown, Rae, and Company, a trading firm based out of Augusta.
George Galphin became a highly respected trader among the Lower Creek tribes in the Georgia and South Carolina region within a few years of arriving in America. Eventually he came to own the Silver Bluff trading post. In the 1760s he was involved in a project with fellow trader John Rae encouraging Irish immigration to the region. On the Georgia side of the Savannah River, these immigrants were encouraged to move onto a 50,000-acre (200 km2) tract of land called Queensborough.
During the American Revolution Galphin sided with the Continental Congress, serving as one of its Indian Commissioners for the South. On May 1, 1776, the Creek Nation met as a whole with Galphin, who convinced the Creeks to remain neutral in the burgeoning conflict between the British and the revolutionaries. This successfully frustrated the efforts of the British to enlist sufficient Native American support throughout the South to overpower the comparatively small colonist population.Henry Laurens credited Galphin for helping to secure both Georgia and South Carolina for the Revolution.
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