On 18 January Georgia’s Committee of Safety ordered the arrest of Governor James Wright and other crown representatives. Joseph Habersham placed Wright under house arrest and accepted his promise not to contact the British squadron. Wright escaped on 9 February, reached a loyalist plantation, and was carried to HMS Scarborough. Meanwhile the provincial assembly chose delegates to the Second Continental Congress and began raising regiments for the Continental Army. Georgia’s adherence to the Continental Association barred trade with Britain, frustrating attempts to obtain rice through negotiation. Barclay’s decision on 29 February to move against merchant vessels therefore followed a transition from commercial bargaining to an openly revolutionary political crisis.
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Wright’s escape turned a purchase mission into open conflict
Georgia’s Committee of Safety confined the royal governor, but his escape to HMS Scarborough exposed a political break that made peaceful provisioning increasingly unlikely.