Below Charleston in South Carolina, below Cape Fear, below Port Royal, a
great river called the Savannah poured into the sea. Below the Savannah,
past the Ogeechee, sailing south between the sandy islands and the main,
ships came to the mouth of the river Altamaha. Thus far was Carolina.
But below Altamaha the coast and the country inland became debatable,
probably Florida and Spanish, liable at any rate to be claimed as such,
and certainly open to attack from Spanish St. Augustine.
Here lay a stretch of seacoast and country within hailing distance of
semi-tropical lands. It was low and sandy, with innumerable slow-flowing
watercourses, creeks, and inlets from the sea. The back country, running
up to hills and even mountains stuffed with ores, was not known--though
indeed Spanish adventurers had wandered there and mined for gold. But
the lowlands were warm and dense with trees and wild life. The Huguenot
Ribault, making report of this region years and years before, called it
"a fayre coast stretching of a great length, covered with an infinite
number of high and fayre trees," and he described the land as the
"fairest, fruitfullest, and pleasantest of all the world, abounding in
hony, venison, wilde fowle, forests, woods of all sorts, Palm-trees,
Cypresse and Cedars, Bayes ye highest and greatest; with also the
fayrest vines in all the world.... And the sight of the faire medows
is a pleasure not able to be expressed with tongue; full of Hernes,
Curlues, Bitters, Mallards, Egrepths, Woodcocks, and all other kind
of small birds; with Harts, Hindes, Buckes, wilde Swine, and all other
kindes of wilde beastes, as we perceived well, both by their footing
there and... their crie and roaring in the night."* This is the country
of the liveoak and the magnolia, the gray, swinging moss and the yellow
jessamine, the chameleon and the mockingbird.
* Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History of America", vol.
V, p. 357.
The Savannah and Altamaha rivers and the wide and deep lands between
fell in that grant of Charles II's to the eight Lords Proprietors of
Carolina--Albemarle, Clarendon, and the rest. But this region remained
as yet unpeopled save by copper-hued folk. True, after the "American
Treaty" of 1670 between England and Spain, the English built a small
fort upon Cumberland Island, south of the Altamaha, and presently
another Fort George--to the northwest of the first, at the confluence of
the rivers Oconee and Oemulgee. There were, however, no true colonists
between the Savannah and the Altamaha.
In the year 1717--the year after Spotswood's Expedition--the Carolina
Proprietaries granted to one Sir Robert Mountgomery all the land
between the rivers Savannah and Altamaha, "with proper jurisdictions,
privileges, prerogatives, and franchises." The arrangement was feudal
enough. The new province was to be called the Margravate of Azilia.
Mountgomery, as Margrave, was to render to the Lords of Carolina an
annual quitrent and one-fourth part of all gold and silver found in
Azilia. He must govern in accordance with the laws of England, must
uphold the established religion of England, and provide by taxation for
the maintenance of the clergy. In three years' time the new Margrave
must colonize his Margravate, and if he failed to do so, all his rights
would disappear and Azilia would again dissolve into Carolina.
This was what happened. For whatever reason, Mountgomery could not
obtain his colonists. Azilia remained a paper land. The years went
by. The country, unsettled yet, lapsed into the Carolina from which so
tentatively it had been parted. Over its spaces the Indian still roved,
the tall forests still lifted their green crowns, and no axe was heard
nor any English voice.
In the decade that followed, the Lords Proprietors of Carolina ceased
to be Lords Proprietors. Their government had been, save at exceptional
moments, confused, oppressive, now absent-minded, and now mistaken and
arbitrary. They had meant very well, but their knowledge was not exact,
and now virtual revolution in South Carolina assisted their demise.
After lengthy negotiations, at last, in 1729, all except Lord Granville
surrendered to the Crown, for a considerable sum, their rights and
interests. Carolina, South and North, thereupon became royal colonies.
In England there dwelled a man named James Edward Oglethorpe, son of Sir
Theophilus Oglethorpe of Godalming in Surrey. Though entered at Oxford,
he soon left his books for the army and was present at the siege and
taking of Belgrade in 1717. Peace descending, the young man returned to
England, and on the death of his elder brother came into the estate, and
was presently made Member of Parliament for Haslemere in Surrey.
His character was a firm and generous one; his bent, markedly humane.
"Strong benevolence of soul," Pope says he had. His century, too, was
becoming humane, was inquiring into ancient wrongs. There arose, among
other things, a belated notion of prison reform. The English Parliament
undertook an investigation, and Oglethorpe was of those named to
examine conditions and to make a report. He came into contact with the
incarcerated--not alone with the law-breaker, hardened or yet to be
hardened, but with the wrongfully imprisoned and with the debtor. The
misery of the debtor seems to have struck with insistent hand upon his
heart's door. The parliamentary inquiry was doubtless productive of some
good, albeit evidently not of great good. But though the inquiry was
over, Oglethorpe's concern was not over. It brooded, and, in the inner
clear light where ideas grow, eventually brought forth results.
Numbers of debtors lay in crowded and noisome English prisons, there
often from no true fault at all, at times even because of a virtuous
action, oftenest from mere misfortune. If they might but start again, in
a new land, free from entanglements! Others, too, were in prison, whose
crimes were negligible, mere mistaken moves with no evil will behind
them--or, if not so negligible, then happening often through that misery
and ignorance for which the whole world was at fault. There was also the
broad and well-filled prison of poverty, and many of the prisoners there
needed only a better start. James Edward Oglethorpe conceived another
settlement in America, and for colonists he would have all these
down-trodden and oppressed. He would gather, if he might, only those who
when helped would help themselves--who when given opportunity would rise
out of old slough and briar. He was personally open to the appeal of
still another class of unfortunate men. He had seen upon the Continent
the distress of the poor and humble Protestants in Catholic countries.
Folk of this kind--from France, from Germany--had been going in a thin
stream for years to the New World. But by his plan more might be enabled
to escape petty tyranny or persecution. He had influence, and his
scheme appealed to the humane thought of his day--appealed, too, to the
political thought. In America there was that debatable and unoccupied
land south of Charles Town in South Carolina. It would be very good to
settle it, and none had taken up the idea with seriousness since Azilia
had failed. Such a colony as was now contemplated would dispose of
Spanish claims, serve as a buffer colony between Florida and South
Carolina, and establish another place of trade. The upshot was that the
Crown granted to Oglethorpe and twenty associates the unsettled land
between the Savannah and the Altamaha, with a westward depth that
was left quite indefinite. This territory, which was now severed from
Carolina, was named Georgia after his Majesty King George II, and
Oglethorpe and a number of prominent men became the trustees of the new
colony. They were to act as such for twenty-one years, at the end of
which time Georgia should pass under the direct government of the Crown.
Parliament gave to the starting of things ten thousand pounds, and
wealthy philanthropic individuals followed suit with considerable
donations. The trustees assembled, organized, set to work. A
philanthropic body, they drew from the like minded far and near. Various
agencies worked toward getting together and sifting the colonists for
Georgia. Men visited the prisons for debtors and others. They did
not choose at random, but when they found the truly unfortunate and
undepraved in prison they drew them forth, compounded with their
creditors, set the prisoners free, and enrolled them among the
emigrants. Likewise they drew together those who, from sheer poverty,
welcomed this opportunity. And they began a correspondence with
distressed Protestants on the Continent. They also devised and used all
manner of safeguards against imposition and the inclusion of any who
would be wholly burdens, moral or physical. So it happened that, though
misfortune had laid on almost all a heavy hand, the early colonists to
Georgia were by no means undesirable flotsam and jetsam. The plans
for the colony, the hopes for its well-being, wear a tranquil and fair
countenance.
Oglethorpe himself would go with the first colonists. His ship was the
Anne of two hundred tons burden--the last English colonizing ship with
which this narrative has to do--and to her weathered sails there still
clings a fascination. On board the Anne, beside the crew and master, are
Oglethorpe himself and more than a hundred and twenty Georgia
settlers, men, women, and children. The Anne shook forth her sails in
mid-November, 1732, upon the old West Indies sea road, and after two
months of prosperous faring, came to anchor in Charles Town harbor.
South Carolina, approving this Georgia settlement which was to open the
country southward and be a wall against Spain, received the colonists
with hospitality. Oglethorpe and the weary colonists rested from long
travel, then hoisted sail again and proceeded on their way to Port
Royal, and southward yet to the mouth of the Savannah. Here there was
further tarrying while Oglethorpe and picked men went in a small boat up
the river to choose the site where they should build their town.
Here, upon the lower reaches, there lay a fair plateau, a mile
long, rising forty feet above the stream. Near by stood a village of
well-inclined Indians--the Yamacraws. Ships might float upon the
river, close beneath the tree-crowned bluff. It was springtime now and
beautiful in the southern land--the sky azure, the air delicate, the
earth garbed in flowers. Little wonder then that Oglethorpe chose
Yamacraw Bluff for his town.
A trader from Carolina was found here, and the trader's wife, a
half-breed, Mary Musgrove by name, did the English good service. She
made her Indian kindred friends with the newcomers. From the first
Oglethorpe dealt wisely with the red men. In return for many coveted
goods, he procured within the year a formal cession of the land between
the two rivers and the islands off the coast. He swore friendship and
promised to treat the Indians justly, and he kept his oath. The site
chosen, he now returned to the Anne and presently brought his colonists
up the river to that fair place. As soon as they landed, these first
Georgians began immediately to build a town which they named Savannah.
Ere long other emigrants arrived. In 1734 came seventy-eight German
Protestants from Salzburg, with Baron von Reck and two pastors for
leaders. The next year saw fifty-seven others added to these. Then came
Moravians with their pastor. All these strong, industrious, religious
folk made settlements upon the river above Savannah. Italians came,
Piedmontese sent by the trustees to teach the coveted silk-culture.
Oglethorpe, when he sailed to England in 1734, took with him
Tomochi-chi, chief of the Yamacraws, and other Indians. English interest
in Georgia increased. Parliament gave more money--26,000 pounds.
Oglethorpe and the trustees gathered more colonists. The Spanish cloud
seemed to be rolling up in the south, and it was desirable to have in
Georgia a number of men who were by inheritance used to war. Scotch
Highlanders--there would be the right folk! No sooner said than
gathered. Something under two hundred, courageous and hardy, were
enrolled from the Highlands. The majority were men, but there were fifty
women and children with them. All went to Georgia, where they settled
to the south of Savannah, on the Altamaha, near the island of St. Simon.
Other Highlanders followed. They had a fort and a town which they named
New Inverness, and the region that they peopled they called Darien.
Oglethorpe himself left England late in 1735, with two ships, the Symond
and the London Merchant, and several hundred colonists aboard. Of these
folk doubtless a number were of the type the whole enterprise had been
planned to benefit. Others were Protestants from the Continent. Yet
others--notably Sir Francis Bathurst and his family--went at their own
charges. After Oglethorpe himself, most remarkable perhaps of those
going to Georgia were the brothers John and Charles Wesley. Not
precisely colonists are the Wesleys, but prospectors for the souls of
the colonists, and the souls of the Indians--Yamacraws, Uchees, and
Creeks.
They all landed at Savannah, and now planned to make a settlement south
of their capital city, by the mouth of Altamaha. Oglethorpe chose St.
Simon's Island, and here they built, and called their town Frederica.
"Each Freeholder had 60 Feet in Front by 90 Feet in depth upon the high
Street for House and Garden; but those which fronted the River had but
30 in Front, by 60 Feet in depth. Each Family had a Bower of Palmetto
Leaves finished upon the back Street in their own Lands. The side toward
the front Street was set out for their Houses. These Palmetto Bowers
were very convenient shelters, being tight in the hardest Rains; they
were about 20 Feet long and 14 Feet wide, and in regular Rows looked
very pretty, the Palmetto Leaves lying smooth and handsome, and of a
good Colour. The whole appeared something like a Camp; for the Bowers
looked like Tents, only being larger and covered with Palmetto Leaves."*
* Moore's "Voyage to Georgia". Quoted in Winsor's "Narrative
and Critical History of America", vol. V, p. 378.
Their life sounds idyllic, but it will not always be so. Thunders will
arise; serpents be found in Eden. But here now we leave them--in infant
Savannah--in the Salzburgers' village of Ebenezer and in the Moravian
village nearby--in Darien of the Highlanders--and in Frederica, where
until houses are built they will live in palmetto bowers.
Virginia, Maryland, the two Carolinas, Georgia--the southern sweep of
England-in-America--are colonized. They have communication with one
another and with middle and northern England-in-America. They also have
communication with the motherland over the sea. The greetings of kindred
and the fruits of labor travel to and fro: over the salt, tumbling
waves. But also go mutual criticism and complaint. "Each man," says
Goethe, "is led and misled after a fashion peculiar to himself." So with
those mass persons called countries. Tension would come about, tension
would relax, tension would return and increase between Mother England
and Daughter America. In all these colonies, in the year with which this
narrative closes, there were living children and young persons who
would see the cord between broken, would hear read the Declaration of
Independence. So--but the true bond could never be broken, for mother
and daughter after all are one.
THE NAVIGATION LAWS
Three acts of Parliament--the Navigation Act of 1660, the Staple Act
of 1663, and the Act of 1673 imposing Plantation Duties--laid the
foundation of the old colonial system of Great Britain. Contrary to
the somewhat passionate contentions of older historians, they were not
designed in any tyrannical spirit, though they embodied a theory of
colonization and trade which has long since been discarded. In the
seventeenth century colonies were regarded as plantations existing
solely for the benefit of the mother country. Therefore their trade and
industry must be regulated so as to contribute most to the sea power,
the commerce, and the industry of the home country which gave them
protection. Sir Josiah Child was only expressing a commonplace
observation of the mercantilists when he wrote "That all colonies or
plantations do endamage their Mother-Kingdoms, whereof the trades of
such Plantations are not confined by severe Laws, and good execution of
those Laws, to the Mother-Kingdom."
The Navigation Act of 1660, following the policy laid down in the
statute of 1651 enacted under the Commonwealth, was a direct blow aimed
at the Dutch, who were fast monopolizing the carrying trade. It forbade
any goods to be imported into or exported from His Majesty's plantations
except in English, Irish, or colonial vessels of which the master
and three fourths of the crew must be English; and it forbade the
importation into England of any goods produced in the plantations unless
carried in English bottoms. Contemporary Englishmen hailed this act
as the Magna Charta of the Sea. There was no attempt to disguise its
purpose. "The Bent and Design," wrote Charles Davenant, "was to make
those colonies as much dependant as possible upon their Mother-Country,"
by preventing them from trading independently and so diverting their
wealth. The effect would be to give English, Irish, and colonial
shipping a monopoly of the carrying trade within the Empire. The act
also aided English merchants by the requirement that goods of foreign
origin should be imported directly from the place of production; and
that certain enumerated commodities of the plantations should be carried
only to English ports. These enumerated commodities were products of the
southern and semitropical plantations: "Sugars, Tobacco, Cotton-wool,
Indicoes, Ginger, Fustick or other dyeing wood."
To benefit British merchants still more directly by making England the
staple not only of plantation products but also of all commodities of
all countries, the Act of 1663 was passed by Parliament. "No Commoditie
of the Growth Production or Manufacture of Europe shall be imported into
any Land Island Plantation Colony Territory or Place to His Majestie
belonging... but what shall be bona fide and without fraude laden and
shipped in England Wales [and] the Towne of Berwicke upon Tweede and
in English built Shipping." The preamble to this famous act breathed no
hostile intent. The design was to maintain "a greater correspondence and
kindnesse" between the plantations and the mother country; to encourage
shipping; to render navigation cheaper and safer; to make "this Kingdome
a Staple not only of the Commodities of those Plantations but also
of the Commodities of other Countries and places for the supplying
of them--" it "being the usage of other nations to keepe their
[Plantations] Trade to themselves."
The Act of 1673 was passed to meet certain difficulties which arose
in the administration of the Act of 1660. The earlier act permitted
colonial vessels to carry enumerated commodities from the place of
production to another plantation without paying duties. Under cover of
this provision, it was assumed that enumerated commodities, after being
taken to a plantation, could then be sent directly to continental ports
free of duty. The new act provided that, before vessels left a colonial
port, bonds should be given that the enumerated commodities would be
carried only to England. If bonds were not given and the commodities
were taken to another colonial port, plantation duties were collected
according to a prescribed schedule.
These acts were not rigorously enforced until after the passage of the
administrative act of 1696 and the establishment of admiralty courts.
Even then it does not appear that they bore heavily on the colonies,
or occasioned serious protest. The trade acts of 1764 and 1765 are
described in "The Eve of the Revolution".--EDITOR.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The literature of the Colonial South is like the leaves of Vallombrosa
for multitude. Here may be indicated some volumes useful in any general
survey.
VIRGINIA
Hakluyt's "Principal Voyages." 12 vols. (Hakluyt Society. Extra Series,
1905-1907.) "The Prose Epic of the modern English nation."
"Purchas, His Pilgrims." 20 vols. (Hakluyt Society, Extra Series,
1905-1907.)
Hening's "Statutes at Large," published in 1823, is an eminently
valuable collection of the laws of colonial Virginia, beginning with the
Assembly of 1619. Hening's own quotation from Priestley, "The Laws of
a country are necessarily connected with everything belonging to the
people of it: so that a thorough knowledge of them and of their progress
would inform us of everything that was most useful to be known,"
indicates the range and weight of his thirteen volumes.
William Stith's "The History of the Discovery and First Settlement of
Virginia" (1747) gives some valuable documents and a picture of the
first years at Jamestown.
Alexander Brown's "Genesis of the United States", 2 vols. (1890), is
a very valuable work, giving historical manuscripts and tracts. Less
valuable is his "First Republic in America" (1898), in which the author
attempts to weave his material into a historical narrative.
Philip A. Bruce's "Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth
Century", 2 vols. (1896), is a highly interesting and exhaustive survey.
The same author has written "Social Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth
Century" (1907) and "Institutional History of Virginia in the
Seventeenth Century", 2 vols. (1910).
John Fiske's "Virginia and Her Neighbors," 2 vols. (1897), and John E.
Cooke's Virginia (American Commonwealth Series, 1883) are written in
lighter vein than the foregoing histories and possess much literary
distinction.
On Captain John Smith there are writings innumerable. Some writers give
credence to Smith's own narratives, while others do not. John Fiske
accepts the narratives as history, and Edward Arber, who has edited
them (2 vols., 1884), holds that the "General History" (1624) is more
reliable than the "True Relation" (1608). On the other side, as doubters
of Smith's credibility, are ranged such weighty authorities as Charles
Deane, Henry Adams, and Alexander Brown.
Thomas J. Wertenbaker's "Virginia under the Stuarts" (1914) is a
painstaking effort to set forth the political history of the colony in
the light of recent historical investigation, but the book is devoid of
literary attractiveness.
MARYLAND
"The Archives of Maryland", 37 vols. (1883-) contain the official
documents of the province. John L. Bozman's "History of Maryland", 2
vols. (1837), contains much valuable material for the years 1634-1658.
J. T. Scharf's "History of Maryland", 3 vols. (1879), is a solid piece
of work; but the reader will turn by preference to the more readable
books by John Fiske, "Virginia and Her Neighbors", and William H.
Browne, "Maryland, The History of a Palatinate" ("American Commonwealth
Series," 1884). Browne has also written "George and Cecilius Calvert"
(1890).
THE CAROLINAS
"The Colonial Records of North Carolina", 10 vols. (1886-1890), are a
mine of information about both North and South Carolina.
Francis L. Hawks's "History of North Carolina", 2 vols. (1857-8),
remains the most substantial work on the colony to the year 1729.
Samuel A. Ashe's "History of North Carolina" (1908) carries the
political history down to 1783.
Edward McCrady's "History of South Carolina under the Proprietary
Government" (1897) and "South Carolina under the Royal Government"
(1899) have superseded the older histories by Ramsay and Hewitt.
GEORGIA
The best histories of Georgia are those by William B. Stevens, 2 vols.
(1847, 1859), and Charles C. Jones, 2 vols. (1883). Robert Wright's
"Memoir of General James Oglethorpe" (1867) is still the best life of
the founder of Georgia.
In the "American Nation Series" and in Winsor's "Narrative and Critical
History of America", the reader will find accounts of the Southern
colonies written by specialists and accompanied by much critical
apparatus. Further lists will be found appended to the articles on the
several States in "The Encyclopaedia Britannica", 11th edition.
End of Project Gutenberg's Pioneers of the Old South, by Mary Johnston