George Walton was born about 1749 in Cumberland County, Virginia, into a family of modest means. Orphaned while still young, he was apprenticed to a carpenter. Unlike many signers of the Declaration, he did not begin life with inherited wealth, a great plantation, or elite schooling. Walton’s apprenticeship required manual labor and obedience, but he pursued education independently. Tradition holds that his master discouraged reading, prompting the young Walton to study whenever possible. Whether every detail of that story is exact, his later career clearly demonstrates determined self-education. He learned to write, read law, and develop the rhetorical skills necessary for public life. As a young man Walton moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he studied law under Henry Young. Savannah was a small but growing colonial capital whose courts and merchant community offered ambitious newcomers opportunity. Walton was admitted to the bar in 1774 and quickly entered political debate. He married Dorothy Camber and established a household. Legal practice and Patriot activism allowed him to overcome some of the disadvantages of his origin, though Georgia’s economy and his later property interests were tied to slavery. Before becoming a signer, governor, and judge, Walton had been shaped by orphanhood, craft apprenticeship, self-directed learning, migration, legal mentorship, marriage, and the fluid society of a young colony. His rise was unusually rapid and sometimes accompanied by rivalry and controversy. The confidence that enabled him to challenge established leaders grew from having constructed his own professional identity rather than inheriting one. His biography illustrates both the social mobility opened by the Revolution and the persistence of the slaveholding order into which successful newcomers entered.