Now you know that James Oglethorpe was the founder of Georgia. But who gave him the authority to do such a thing? King George II was the one who gave Oglethorpe what was called the Charter of 1732. Before I say anything about this charter, I would like to explain what a charter is first. A charter is a document that is given to a person from a high authority that gives that person special privileges. In this case, the charter given to Oglethorpe stated that he is allowed to colonize Georgia for the working poor of England. Georgia's landmass was supposed to be very large at the time. The northern border would be the Savannah River. The southern border was the Ocmulgee River and the western border is what is now today's western sea border of California. The charter was given to Oglethorpe and 20 other men known as the Trustees. These men acted on the behalf of the king and governed Savannah, the new colony. However, Oglethorpe was the only one of the Trustees who has actually ever been to Georgia. The charter had also provided some laws for the people who were to live there. These laws were; no rum (alcohol), no slaves, no land ownership beyond 500 acres, males were the only ones that can inherit land, you have to grow mulberry trees so that silkworms may produce silk, you cannot sell your land for profit, men had to serve in the militia, and no lawyers. There were also other rules that worked on the trustees. The trustees were not allowed to own land and they were not allowed to earn anything from the crops or money earners. Some of the colonists did not like these laws and this group later came to be known as the malcontents. The charter had also excluded some people from entering the colony. These people were liquor dealers, blacks (slavery must not be started again), Catholics (Georgia was a Protestant settlement), debtors, and lawyers. Debtors were not allowed to come to Georgia because they weren't released form the prison. They were kept in there because the people who were supposed to receive the money did not trust the debtors to pay back what they owed. Liquor made people lazy and lawyers made people lazy in deciding how to solve their own conflicts.