Podcast Summary:

New Books Network – American South

Episode Title: Karen Auman, "The Good Forest: The Salzburgers, Success, and the Plan for Georgia" (U Georgia Press, 2024)
Date: November 20, 2025
Host: Lucy Smith B. Miller
Guest: Dr. Karen Auman (Assistant Professor of History, Brigham Young University)

Episode Overview

This episode features Dr. Karen Auman discussing her new book, The Good Forest: The Salzburgers, Success, and the Plan for Georgia (University of Georgia Press, 2024). The book investigates the Salzburgers, a group of Protestant exiles recruited by the Georgia Trustees to settle in colonial Georgia. Dr. Auman challenges common historical narratives by spotlighting the Salzburgers' unique experiences, success as settlers, and significant impact on early Georgian society while exploring themes of religion, philanthropy, environment, social cohesion, and morality.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Dr. Karen Auman’s Background and Motivation

• [02:54] Dr. Auman explains her interest in German settlers in colonial America and how their stories often remain isolated from broader colonial or transatlantic narratives. She found the Salzburgers especially compelling due to the rich primary sources available—most notably an 18-volume diary collection by George Fenwick Jones.
• Quote:

  "The settlers don't fit the standard narrative of the history of Georgia... I kind of objected to the idea that Georgia only prospered because they adopted slavery."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [04:55]

2. Genealogical Approach in Research

• [05:56] Dr. Auman notes that her skills as a genealogist helped her locate vital records that might be overlooked by traditional historians, allowing for richer, more personal, and better-sourced historical narratives.
• Quote:

  "Any good historian can also be a good genealogist... we're searching and sourcing records, we think critically and carefully about them, and we build stories about people's lives."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [05:59]

3. The Book’s Title, “The Good Forest”

• [07:33] The title, suggested by Dr. Laurie Benton, carries dual meaning: referencing both the Salzburgers’ new physical and moral landscape, and how they saw their colonial journey as a kind of biblical, moral trial.
• Quote:

  "It also has all the moralistic overtones... their chief pastor, Johann Martin Bolzius, really framed their experience as being just like the Israelites in the Old Testament."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [07:54]

4. Salzburgers as Ideal Settlers: Comparison with Savannah Settlers

• [09:10] The Trustees intended Georgia as a charity colony for "worthy poor"—religious, communal, hardworking, preferably Protestant. The Salzburgers, as persecuted exiles, matched this ideal. Savannah, by contrast, was more heterogeneous, motivated by economic opportunity rather than charitable or communal ideals.
• Quote:

  "They did build a community...really cohesive and work together. And they were not rich...they were deferential to hierarchy."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [10:22]

5. Exile and Community Formation

• [12:00] Exile for religious reasons was the defining event for the Salzburgers, acting as a strong unifying force. Being forced out of Salzburg (an independent prince-archbishopric) bonded the group through trauma and shared experience.
• Quote:

  "If you could meet one of them today...being exiled from their homes for the sake of their religion was the defining moment of their lives."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [12:02]

6. Trustees’ Role and Limits of Their Control

• [14:06] While Trustees believed they exerted substantial control, the Salzburgers effectively negotiated with them, and made pragmatic adaptations—especially in land allocation, to ensure fair distribution of poor soil.
• Quote:

  "The Salzburgers kind of made those outlines on a map, but in reality they kind of worked together so that everybody had a little bit of good soil."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [16:27]

7. Protestant Philanthropy and the Network of Support

• [18:31] The SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge) and German pietists supported the Salzburgers for religious and political reasons—an ecumenical Protestant response to Catholic Counter-Reformation, solidarity among Protestant monarchs, and Christian charity.
• Quote:

  "English and German Protestants worked together...they saw helping the Salzburgers in America as part of their Christian mission to help the weak and the poor and to spread the Protestant gospel."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [21:09]

8. Environment and Adaptation

• [22:04] The Salzburgers’ Alpine origins contrasted sharply with the pine barrens and swamplands of Georgia. They adapted by changing the environment—clearing land, communal farming—but also interpreted hardships as a spiritual trial.
• Quote:

  "Everything was totally different. And I think that had a powerful impact on the Salzburgers while they tried to figure out how to make it there."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [24:42]

9. Identity, Leadership & Power Structures

• [26:30] After being exiled, Salzburgers became "stateless," accepting subjecthood to the (German-born) King George II. Trustees’ attempts at remote control led to confusion and a power vacuum. Pastor Johann Martin Bolzius naturally assumed authority—becoming both spiritual and civic leader due to his leadership and the Trustees’ absence.
• Quote:

  "They appeal everything to...Oglethorpe, the Trustees, to Franke in Germany...They don't go through any hierarchy of positions in Savannah or in Georgia."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [28:04]

10. Community Cohesion and the Role of Bolzius

• [33:25] Bolzius’s long leadership provided stability. The community was maintained through shared trauma, religion, language, and outsider status. Conflict with English-speaking settlers (the “Malcontents”), who favored slavery, enforced group cohesion.
• Quote:

  "Their poverty linked them together...they need each other. And the fact that they were a different religion and language...kept them communal too."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [34:00]

11. Moral Economy: Cattle, Lumber, Silk

• [36:10] The Trustees actively discouraged plantation agriculture/slavery and instead promoted industries like cattle farming, lumber, and silk (sericulture). These were both practical and considered "morally good," promoting communal well-being and enabling contributions from women, children, and the elderly.
• Quote:

  "Silk was widely viewed as a morally good industry because… the poor, the weak, disabled, women and children could do the work."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [38:40]

12. Neighbors and External Influences

• [42:24] The strongest influences on the Salzburgers came from their European and British supporters, less so their physical neighbors (including Native Americans or nearby malcontents). The rise of pro-slavery, English-speaking malcontents eventually upended the Trustees’ social and economic vision.
• Quote:

  "The people who had the greatest impact...were actually not their neighbors, but they were their supporters in Europe and Britain. They're the ones that kept them going, kept them spiritually and physically fed."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [42:34]

13. Decline of Ebenezer

• [45:35] The convergence of the introduction of slavery, loss of Bolzius’s leadership, and the American Revolution fractured the Salzburgers’ cohesive community, as political, economic, and social shifts undermined their communal model.
• Quote:

  "All three of them...is what ended the community, although their church is still there."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [47:38]

14. Current and Future Research

• [48:18] Dr. Auman is working on projects exploring philanthropy, empire, and early capitalism, as well as the intersection of philanthropy and Anglo-German relations in the context of 18th-century charity schools in Pennsylvania.
• Quote:

  "I've been working on a book on the intersection of philanthropy and empire and with possibly another variable in there of early capitalism."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [48:19]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On integrating genealogy and history:
  "Any good historian can also be a good genealogist... we're searching and sourcing records, we think critically and carefully about them, and we build stories about people's lives."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [05:59]

• On the Salzburgers’ sense of exile:
  "Being exiled from their homes for the sake of their religion was the defining moment of their lives."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [12:02]

• On the environment:
  "Everything was totally different. And I think that had a powerful impact on the Salzburgers while they tried to figure out how to make it there."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [24:42]

• On community divisions:
  "Nothing unifies like having a common enemy."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [35:52]

• On the intersection of morality and economy:
  "The Trustees fished around for economic ventures that could sustain the colony and also contribute to the British Empire. There's no reason to have a colony unless it can contribute to the empire, right."
  — Dr. Karen Auman [36:38]

Timestamps for Major Topics

| Timestamp | Topic | |------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:54 | Dr. Auman’s background and motivations | | 05:56 | Influence of genealogy in historical research | | 07:33 | Meaning behind the “Good Forest” title | | 09:10 | Salzburgers vs. Savannah settlers as ‘ideal’ Trustees’ colonists | | 12:00 | How exile shaped the Salzburgers’ communal identity | | 14:06 | Trustees’ role and their limited actual control | | 18:31 | The Protestant philanthropy network supporting the Salzburgers | | 22:04 | Environmental adaptation and impact on settlers | | 26:30 | Identity, subjecthood, and power/vacuum filled by Bolzius | | 33:25 | Community cohesion and the influence of Bolzius | | 36:10 | Development of moral, communal economy: cattle, lumber, silk | | 42:24 | Influences of European sponsors, Native relations, and the “Malcontents”| | 45:35 | Decline of Ebenezer: Slavery, loss of leadership, and Revolution | | 48:18 | Dr. Auman's current and future research |

Tone & Style Reflection

Dr. Auman’s language is accessible, nuanced, and engaging, blending scholarly insight with storytelling. She repeatedly stresses the complexity—socially, morally, and economically—of the Salzburgers’ story, rejecting simplistic “decline-and-fall” or “slavery = prosperity” narratives. The tone is inviting, thoughtful, and humanizes both leaders and ordinary community members.

Summary Conclusion

This episode delivers a rich, accessible discussion of the Salzburgers’ central role in early Georgia—their origins as persecuted Protestants, their adaptation to an unfamiliar environment, their creation of a tight-knit, morally-driven community, and their eventual decline amidst shifting political and economic tides. Dr. Auman provides fresh perspectives on colonial Georgia’s history, emphasizing the lasting impact of religious community, philanthropy, and leadership.

If you’re interested in colonial American history, the intersection of religion, migration, and community, or the ways in which morality shapes economies, Dr. Auman’s work and this episode provide a compelling, insightful listen.