THE COLONIZATION OF GEORGIA (1732-1755).
115. References.
Bibliographies.--Avery, III. 438-440; Winsor, V. 392-406; Channing and
Hart, _Guide_, § 103.
Historical Maps.--No. 4, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, No. 4), MacCoun, and
school histories already cited.
General Accounts.--Avery, III. ch. xxiv.; Doyle, _Colonies_, V. ch. viii.;
G. Bancroft, II. 268-291; Greene, _Provincial America_, ch. xv.; Hildreth,
II. 362-377; Lodge, _Colonies_, ch. ix.; Winsor, V. ch. vi.; McCrady,
_South Carolina under Royal Government_, chs. xi., xii.; W. Wilson,
_American People_, II. 62-68; histories of Georgia by Jones, McCall, and
Stevens.
Special Histories.--C. Jones, _Dead Towns of Georgia_; P. A. Strobel,
_Salzburgers_; J. MacLean, _Scotch Highlanders in America_, ch. vi.; G.
White, _Historical Collections of Georgia_; lives of Oglethorpe by Bruce,
Cooper, Harris, and Wright.
Contemporary Accounts.--Oglethorpe, _Account_ (1732); Martyn, _Reasons for
Establishing Georgia_ (1733); _Account Showing Progress of Georgia_ (1741);
_Impartial Enquiry into State and Utility of Province of Georgia_ (1741);
Cadogan, _Impartial Account of Expedition against St. Augustine_ (1743);
Moore, _Voyage to Georgia_ (1744); Egmont, _Journal of Trustees for
Establishing Colony of Georgia_; Candler, _Colonial Records_.
116. Settlement of Georgia (1732-1735).
Sidenote: Unsettled territory.
The southern boundary of South Carolina was practically the Savannah River;
but the English claimed as far south as the St. John's. Just below the St.
John's, and one hundred and seventy miles south of the Savannah, lay the
old Spanish colony of St. Augustine, founded (page 34, § 12) in 1565. The
country between the Savannah and the St. John's was a part of the old
Carolina claim; but when the Carolinas became royal provinces the king
reserved this unsettled district as crown lands.
Sidenote: Formation of the Georgia Company.
James Oglethorpe had been an army officer; he was a member of parliament,
and was prominent in various efforts at domestic reform, particularly in
the improvement of the condition of debtors' prisons. Stirred by the
terrible revelations of his inquiry, he engaged other wealthy and
benevolent men with him, and formed a company (1732) for the settlement of
the reserved Carolina tract, which was to be styled Georgia, in honor of
the king, George II. The proposed colony was to serve the double purpose of
checking the threatened Spanish advance upon the southern colonies in
America, and of furnishing a home for members of the debtor class, who
would be given a chance to retrieve their fortunes by a fresh start in
life. This scheme, half philanthropic and half military, had also in view
the extension of the English fur-traffic among the Cherokees, whose trade
was now being eagerly sought by the Spanish on the south, and the French on
the west.
Sidenote: The charter.
The company was given a charter under the name of "The Trustees for
establishing the Colony of Georgia in America," its land-grant extending
from the Savannah to the Altamaha. There were twenty-one trustees, with
full powers of management; they were to appoint the governor and other
officials during the first four years,--after that the Crown was to
appoint. No member of the company was to hold any salaried colonial office.
Never was a colony founded upon motives more disinterested. It was to be,
literally, "an asylum for the oppressed." The settlers themselves were not
given any political privileges, for it was thought the trustees would be
better managers than a class of people who had not heretofore proved their
capacity for business affairs. Slavery was prohibited, because it would
interfere with free white labor, and a slave population might prove
dangerous in case of a frontier war with the Spanish. That immigration
might be encouraged, and thus that the colony might be strong from a
military point of view, it was ordered that no one should own over five
hundred acres of land. It was also ordained that all foreigners should have
equal rights with Englishmen, that there was to be complete religious
toleration except for Roman Catholics, that none but settlers of steady
habits should be admitted, that no rum should be imported, and that the
colonists were to practise military drill.
Sidenotes: Savannah founded.
Other settlements.
In November, 1732, Oglethorpe,--appointed governor and general, without
pay,--set out from England with thirty-five selected families, and in
February (1733) founded the city of Savannah, on a bluff overlooking
Savannah River, some ten miles from the sea. In May he made a firm alliance
with the neighboring Creeks, whom he treated with great consideration. The
second year (1734) there arrived a number of German Protestants, persecuted
exiles from Salzburg, who had been invited to America by the English
Society for Propagating the Gospel. The Salzburgers proved a desirable
acquisition, setting a much-needed example of industry and thrift. The
Germans settled the town of Ebenezer; in the same year Augusta was planted,
two hundred and thirty miles up the Savannah River, as a fortified trading
outpost in the Indian country; while two years later (1736), another armed
colony was sent to found Frederica, at the mouth of the Altamaha, on the
Spanish frontier.
Sidenote: The fur-trade.
Augusta, which in 1741 numbered but forty-seven permanent inhabitants, in
addition to a small garrison, was the chief seat of the Georgia and South
Carolina fur-traffic. It was the eastern key to the Creek, Chickasaw, and
Cherokee hunting-grounds. In 1741, it was estimated that about one hundred
and twenty-five white men--traders, pack-horse men, servants, and
townsmen--depended for their livelihood upon the traffic centring at the
Augusta station; another estimate, made in the same year, placed the number
of horses engaged at five hundred, and the annual value of skins at fifty
thousand pounds. The profits were great, and would have been larger but for
sharp competition in the far-away camps of the barbarians; there the
Georgians and Carolinians met Frenchmen, who had wandered from far
Louisiana by devious ways, part water, and part land, and Virginians, who
found their way to the southwest through the parallel valley system, thus
escaping the necessity of climbing the mountain wall.
117. Slow development of Georgia (1735-1755).
Sidenote: Dissatisfaction of the colonists.
The trustees perceived at last that men who had failed at home were not
likely to be successful as colonists, and they sent over a party of Scotch
Highlanders and yet more German Protestants. The colony now proved a
success. Savannah was well built, courts were established, the land-system
was well arranged, and Salzburgers, Moravians, and Highlanders soon came
out in considerable numbers (1735-1736). Yet there was no lack of
discontent. The very class for whom the colony was founded formed its most
undesirable inhabitants; hardly a regulation originally established for
their supposed benefit was to their taste, idle and worthless fellows were
numerous, and some of them, finding their complaints unheeded, fled to the
Carolinas or to join the rough borderers. Among the settlers were three
enthusiastic sectaries, Charles Wesley, secretary to Oglethorpe, his
brother John, a missionary to the Indians, and George Whitefield, who
succeeded the latter after he returned to England. Whitefield in later
years deeply stirred the American colonists, from Florida to New England,
in his efforts to arouse in them a strong religious conviction (page 190,
§ 79.)
Sidenote: Expedition against Spanish Florida.
In 1736, Oglethorpe made an expedition to the south as far as the English
claim extended, and planted several forts. At the same time he made a
treaty with the Chickasaws, and thus strengthened the southern line. Three
years later (1739), war broke out between Spain and England. Fearing that
he might not be able to withstand an attack from the Spaniards, Oglethorpe
took the offensive (1740), and marching into Florida planted himself before
St. Augustine, which had a garrison of two thousand men, well supplied with
artillery. Troops from Carolina soon came up. Sickness breaking out in the
camp, and many of the Carolinians deserting, the siege, which had been
gallantly conducted, was at last abandoned.
Sidenote: The Spaniards unsuccessfully retaliate.
Up to this time the Spaniards had been obliged to stand on the defensive;
Cuba was threatened by a large English squadron,--but the attack there
proved a failure, and opportunity was given for concentrating Spanish
troops in Florida. In 1742 a heavy assault by land and sea was made on
Frederica. By a combination of bravery and superior stratagem, Oglethorpe
succeeded in holding the place until the enemy's fleet was frightened off
by the arrival of English vessels, and Georgia was henceforth free from
Spanish invasion.
Sidenote: A change of policy.
Oglethorpe returned to England the following year (1743), never to return
to the colony. The trustees now placed the government in charge of a
president and four assistants. But after the departure of its gallant and
public-spirited founder the colony no longer flourished, and in a vain
attempt to remove causes for dissatisfaction the company made matters
worse. Slavery was introduced (1749), free traffic in rum was permitted,
and restrictions on the acquisition of land were removed. Discontent grew
apace among the original settlers, who were always hard to suit; only the
Highlanders and Germans remained satisfied.
Sidenote: A royal province.
In 1752, the charter was surrendered by the disappointed proprietors, and
Georgia became a royal province, with a government similar to that of South
Carolina. The change wrought improvement in many ways.
Sidenote: Characteristics of Georgia.
Georgia was the last of the thirteen colonies to be founded, and remained
one of the weakest until long after the Revolution. Its history is a proof
that the robust growth of a colony depends, not upon the character and aims
of its founders, but upon the slow accretion of public sentiment and public
spirit.