Propagation of Christian Knowledge' expressed to the Trustees
a desire 'that the persecuted Salzburgers should have an
asylum provided for them in Georgia.' ... These Germans
belonged to the Archbishopric of Salzburg, then the most
eastern district of Bavaria; but now forming a detached
district in upper Austria, and called Salzburg from the broad
valley of the Salzer, which is made by the approximating of
the Norric and Rhetian Alps. Their ancestors, the Vallenges of
Piedmont, had been compelled by the barbarities of the Dukes
of Savoy, to find a shelter from the storms of persecution in
the Alpine passes and vales of Salzburg and the Tyrol, before
the Reformation; and frequently since had they been hunted out
by the hirelings and soldiery of the Church of Rome. ...
{1425}
The quietness which they had enjoyed for nearly half a century
was now rudely broken in upon by Leopold, Count of Firmian and
Archbishop of Salzburg, who determined to reduce them to the
Papal faith and power. He began in the year 1729, and, ere he
ended in 1732, not far from 30,000 had been driven from their
homes, to seek among the Protestant States of Europe that
charity and peace which were denied them in the glens and
fastnesses of their native Alps. More than two-thirds settled
in the Prussian States; the rest spread themselves over
England, Holland, and other Protestant countries. Thrilling is
the story of their exile. The march of these Salzburgers
constitutes an epoch in the history of Germany. ... The
sympathies of Reformed Christendom were awakened on their
behalf, and the most hospitable entertainment and assistance
were everywhere given them." Forty-two families, numbering 78
persons, accepted an invitation to settle in Georgia,
receiving allotments of land and provisions until they could
gather a harvest. They arrived at Savannah in March, 1734, and
were settled at a spot which they selected for themselves,
about thirty miles in the interior. "Oglethorpe marked out for
them a town; ordered workmen to assist in building houses; and
soon the whole body of Germans went up to their new home at
Ebenezer."
_W. B. Stevens,
History of Georgia,
book 2, chapter 2 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_F. Shoberl,
Persecutions of Popery,
chapter 9 (volume 2)._
_E. B. Speirs,
The Salzburgers
(English History Review, October, 1890)._
GEORGIA: A. D. 1735-1749.
The Slavery question.
Original exclusion and subsequent admission of negro slaves.
Among the fundamental regulations of the Trustees was one
prohibiting negro slavery in the colony. "It was policy and
not philanthropy which prohibited slavery; for, though one of
the Trustees, in a sermon to recommend charity, declared, 'Let
avarice defend it as it will, there is an honest reluctance in
humanity against buying and selling, and regarding those of
our own species as our wealth and possessions'; and though
Oglethorpe himself, speaking of slavery as against 'the gospel
as well as the fundamental law of England', asserted, 'we
refused, as Trustees, to make a law permitting such a horrid
crime'; yet in the official publications of that body its
inhibition is based only on political and prudential, and not
on humane and liberal grounds; and even Oglethorpe owned a
plantation and negroes near Parachucla in South Carolina,
about forty miles above Savannah. ... Their [the Trustees']
design was to provide for poor but honest persons, to erect a
barrier between South Carolina and the Spanish settlements,
and to establish a wine and silk-growing colony. It was
thought by the Trustees that neither of these designs could be
secured if slavery was introduced. ... But while the Trustees
disallowed negroes, they instituted a system of white slavery
which was fraught with evil to the servants and to the colony.
These were white servants, consisting of Welch, English, or
German, males and females--families and individuals--who were
indented to individuals or the Trustees, for a period of from
four to fourteen years. ... On arriving in Georgia, their
service was sold for the term of indenture, or apportioned to
the inhabitants by the magistrates, as their necessities
required. ... Two years had not elapsed since the landing of
Oglethorpe before many complaints originated from this cause;
and in the summer of 1735 a petition, signed by seventeen
freeholders, setting forth the unprofitableness of white
servants, and the necessity for negroes, was carried by Mr.
Hugh Sterling to the Trustees, who, however, resented the
appeal as an insult to their honour. ... The plan for
substituting white for black labour failed through the
sparseness of the supply and the refractoriness of the
servants. As a consequence of the inability of the settlers to
procure adequate help, the lands granted them remained
uncleared, and even those which the temporary industry of the
first occupants prepared remained uncultivated. ... There
accumulated on the Trustees' hands a body of idle, clamourous,
mischief-making men, who employed their time in declaiming
against the very government whose charity both fed and clothed
them. ... For nearly fifteen years from 1735, the date of the
first petition for negroes, and the date of their express law
against their importation, the Trustees refused to listen to
any similar representations, except to condemn them," and they
were supported by the Salzburgers and the Highlanders, both of
whom opposed the introduction of negro slaves. But finally, in
1749, the firmness of the Trustees gave way and they yielded
to the clamor of the discontented colony. The importation of
black slaves was permitted, under certain regulations intended
to diminish the evils of the institution. "The change in the
tenure of grants, and the permission to hold slaves, had an
immediate effect on the prosperity of the colony."
_W. B. Stevens,
History of Georgia,
book 2, chapter 9 (volume 1)._
GEORGIA: A. D. 1738-1743.
War with the Spaniards of Florida.
Discontents in the colony.
"The assiento enjoyed under the treaty of Utrecht by the
English South Sea Company, the privilege, that is, of
transporting to the Spanish colonies a certain number of
slaves annually, ... was made a cover for an extensive
smuggling trade on the part of the English, into which private
merchants also entered. ... To guard against these systematic
infractions of their laws, the Spaniards maintained a numerous
fleet of vessels in the preventive service, known as 'guarda
costas,' by which some severities were occasionally exercised
on suspected or detected smugglers. These severities, grossly
exaggerated, and resounded throughout the British dominions,
served to revive in England and the colonies a hatred of the
Spaniards, which, since the time of Philip II., had never
wholly died out. Such was the temper and position of the two
nations when the colonization of Georgia was begun, of which
one avowed object was to erect a barrier against the
Spaniards, among whom the runaway slaves of South Carolina
were accustomed to find shelter, receiving in Florida an
assignment of lands, and being armed and organized into
companies, as a means of strengthening that feeble colony. A
message sent to St. Augustine to demand the surrender of the
South Carolina runaways met with a point blank refusal, and
the feeling against the Spaniards ran very high in
consequence. ... Oglethorpe ... returned from his second visit
to England [Sept. 1738], with a newly-enlisted regiment of
soldiers, and the appointment, also, of military commander for
Georgia and the Carolinas, with orders 'to give no offense,
but to repel force by force.' Both in Spain and England the
administrators of the government were anxious for peace. ...
The ferocious clamors of the merchants and the mob ...
absolutely forced Walpole into a war.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1739-1741.--THE WAR OF JENKINS' EAR.
{1426}
Travelling 300 miles through the forests, Oglethorpe held at
Coweta, on the Chattahoochee, just below the present site of
Columbus, a new treaty with the Creeks, by which they
confirmed their former cessions, acknowledged themselves
subject to the King of Great Britain, and promised to exclude
from their territories all but English settlers. After
finishing the treaty, Oglethorpe returned through the woods by
way of Augusta to Savannah, where he found orders from England
to make an attack on Florida. He called at once on South
Carolina and the Creeks for aid, and in the mean time made an
expedition, in which he captured the Fort of Picolata, over
against St. Augustine, thus securing the navigation of the St.
John's, and cutting off the Spaniards from their forts at St.
Mark's and Pensacola. South Carolina entered very eagerly into
the enterprise. Money was voted; a regiment, 500 strong, was
enlisted, partly in North Carolina and Virginia. This addition
raised Oglethorpe's force to 1,200 men. The Indians that
joined him were as many more. Having marched into Florida, he
took a small fort or two, and, assisted by several ships of
war, laid siege to St. Augustine. But the garrison was 1,000
strong, besides militia. The fortifications proved more
formidable than had been expected. A considerable loss was
experienced by a sortie from the town, falling heavily on the
Highland Rangers. Presently the Indians deserted, followed by
part of the Carolina regiment, and Oglethorpe was obliged to
give over the enterprise. ... From the time of this repulse,
the good feeling of the Carolinians toward Oglethorpe came to
an end. Many of the disappointed Georgia emigrants had removed
to Charleston, and many calumnies against Oglethorpe were
propagated, and embodied in a pamphlet published there. The
Moravians also left Georgia, unwilling to violate their
consciences by bearing arms. Most unfortunately for the new
colony, the Spanish war withdrew the Highlanders and others of
the best settlers from their farms to convert them into
soldiers."
_R. Hildreth,
History of the United States,
chapter 25 (volume 2)._
"After the late incursion into Florida, the General kept
possession of a southern region which the Spaniards had
claimed as their own; and, as they had taken encouragement
from the successful defence of St. Augustine, and the
well-known dissensions on the English side, it was to be
expected that they would embrace the earliest opportunity of
taking their revenge. ... The storm, which had been so long
anticipated, burst upon the colony in the year 1742. The
Spaniards had ... fitted out, at Havana, a fleet said to
consist of 56 sail and 7,000 or 8,000 men. The force was
probably not quite so great; if it was, it did not all reach
its destination," being dispersed by a storm, "so that only a
part of the whole number succeeded in reaching St. Augustine.
The force was there placed under the command of Don Manuel de
Monteano, the Governor of that place. ... The fleet made its
appearance on the coast of Georgia on the 21st of June"; but
all its attempts, first to take possession of the Island of
Amelia, and afterwards to reduce the forts at Frederica, were
defeated by the vigor and skill of General Oglethorpe. After
losing heavily in a fight called the Battle of the Bloody
Marsh, the Spaniards retreated about the middle of July. The
following year they prepared another attempt; but Oglethorpe
anticipated it by a second demonstration on his own part
against St. Augustine, which had no other result than to
disconcert the plans of the enemy.
_W. B. O. Peabody,
Life of Oglethorpe
(Library of American Biographies, 2d series, volume 2),
chapters 11-12._
"While Oglethorpe was engaged in repelling the Spaniards, the
trustees of Georgia had been fiercely assailed by their
discontented colonists. They sent Thomas Stevens to England
with a petition containing many charges of mismanagement,
extravagance, and peculation, to which the trustees put in an
answer. After a thorough examination of documents and
witnesses in committee of the whole, and hearing counsel, the
House of Commons resolved that 'the petition of Thomas Stevens
contains false, scandalous, and malicious charges'; in
consequence of which Stevens, the next day, was brought to the
bar, and reprimanded on his knees. ... Oglethorpe himself had
been a special mark of the malice and obloquy of the
discontented settlers. ... Presently his lieutenant colonel, a
man who owed everything to Oglethorpe's favor, re-echoing the
slanders of the colonists, lodged formal charges against him.
Oglethorpe proceeded to England to vindicate his character,
and the accuser, convicted by a court of inquiry of falsehood,
was disgraced and deprived of his commission. Appointed a
major general, ordered to join the army assembled to oppose
the landing of the Pretender, marrying also about this time,
Oglethorpe did not again return to Georgia. The former scheme
of administration having given rise to innumerable complaints,
the government of that colony was intrusted to a president and
four counselors."
_R. Hildreth,
History of the United States,
chapter. 25 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_C. C. Jones,
History of Georgia,
chapters 17-22 (volume 1)._
GEORGIA: A. D. 1743-1764.
Surrender to the Crown.
Government as a royal province.
"On Oglethorpe's departure [1743], William Stephens, the
secretary, was made President, and continued in office until
1751, when he was succeeded by Henry Parker. The colony, when
Stephens came into office, comprised about 1,500 persons. It
was almost at a stand-still. The brilliant prospects of the
early days were dissipated, and immigration had ceased, thanks
to the narrow policy and feeble government of the Trustees. An
Indian rising, in 1749, headed by Mary Musgrove, Oglethorpe's
Indian interpreter, and her husband, one Bosomworth, who laid
claim to the whole country, came near causing the destruction
of the colony, and was only repressed by much negotiation and
lavish bribes. The colony, thus feeble and threatened,
struggled on, until it was relieved from danger from the
Indians and from the restrictive laws, and encouraged by the
appointment of Parker, and the establishment of a
representative government. This produced a turn in the affairs
of Georgia. Trade revived, immigration was renewed, and
everything began to wear again a more hopeful look. Just at
this time, however, the original trust was on the point of
expiring by limitation.
{1427}
There was a party in the colony who desired a renewal of the
charter; but the Trustees felt that their scheme had failed in
every way, except perhaps as a defence to South Carolina, and
when the limit of the charter was reached, they turned the
colony over to the Crown. ... A form of government was
established similar to those of the other royal provinces, and
Captain John Reynolds was sent out as the first Governor." The
administration of Reynolds produced wide discontent, and in
1757 he was recalled, being "succeeded by Henry Ellis as
Lieutenant-governor. The change proved fortunate, and brought
rest to the colony. Ellis ruled peaceably and with general
respect for more than two years, and was then promoted to the
governorship of Nova Scotia. In the same year his successor
arrived at Savannah, in the person of James Wright, who
continued to govern the province until it was severed from
England by the Revolution. The feebleness of Georgia had
prevented her taking part in the union of the colonies, and
she was not represented in the Congress at Albany. Georgia
also escaped the ravages of the French war, partly by her
distant situation, and partly by the prudence of Governor
Ellis; and the conclusion of that war gave Florida to England,
and relieved the colony from the continual menace of Spanish
aggression. A great Congress of southern Governors and Indian
chiefs followed, in which Wright, more active than his
predecessor, took a prominent part. Under his energetic and
firm rule, the colony began to prosper greatly, and trade
increased rapidly; but the Governor gained at the same time so
much influence, and was a man of so much address, that he not
only held the colony down at the time of the Stamp Act, but
seriously hampered its action in the years which led to
revolution."
_H. C. Lodge,
Short History of the English Colonies in America,
chapter 9._
GEORGIA: A. D. 1760-1775.
Opening events of the Revolution.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1760-1775, to 1775.
GEORGIA: A. D. 1775-1777.
The end of royal government.
Constitutional organization of the state."
The news of the battle of Lexington reached Savannah on the
night of the 10th of May, 1775, and produced intense
excitement among all classes. On the night of the 11th, Noble
Wimberly Jones, Joseph Habersham, Edward Telfair, and a few
others, impressed with the necessity of securing all military
stores, and preserving them for colonial use, took from the
King's magazine, in Savannah, about 500 pounds of powder. ...
Tradition asserts that part of this powder was sent to Boston,
and used by the militia at the battle of Bunker Hill. ... The
activity of the Liberty party, and its rapid increase, ...
gave Governor Wright just cause for alarm; and he wrote to
General Gage, expressing his amazement that these southern
provinces should be left in the situation they are, and the
Governors and King's officers, and friends of Government,
naked and exposed to the resentment of an enraged people.' ...
The assistance so earnestly solicited in these letters would
have been promptly rendered, but that they never reached their
destination. The Committee of Safety at Charleston withdrew them
from their envelopes, as they passed through the port, and
substituted others, stating that Georgia was quiet, and there
existed no need either of troops or vessels." The position of
Governor Wright soon became one of complete powerlessness and
he begged to be recalled. In January, 1776, however, he was
placed under arrest, by order of the Council of Safety, and
gave his parole not to leave town, nor communicate with the
men-of-war which had just arrived at Tybee; notwithstanding
which he made his escape to one of the King's ships on the
11th of February. "The first effective organization of the
friends of liberty in the province took place among the
deputies from several parishes, who met in Savannah, on the
18th January, 1775, and formed what has been called 'A
Provincial Congress.' Guided by the action of the other
colonies, a 'Council of Safety' was created, on the 22d June,
1775, to whom was confided the general direction of the
measures proper to be pursued in carrying out resistance to
the tyrannical designs of the King and Parliament. William
Ewen was the first President of this Council of Safety, and
Seth John Cuthbert was the Secretary. On the 4th July, the
Provincial Congress (now properly called such, as every parish
and district was represented) met in Savannah, and elected as
its presiding officer Archibald Bulloch. This Congress
conferred upon the 'Council of Safety,' 'full power upon every
emergency during the recess of Congress.'" Soon finding the
need of a more definite order of government, the Provincial
Congress, on the 15th of April, 1776, adopted provisionally,
for six months, a series of "Rules and Regulations," under
which Archibald Bulloch was elected President and
Commander-in-chief of Georgia, and John Glen, Chief Justice.
After the Declaration of Independence, steps were taken toward
the settling of the government of the state on a permanent
basis. On the proclamation of President Bulloch a convention
was elected which met in Savannah in October, and which framed
a constitution that was ratified on the 5th of February, 1777.
_W. B. Stevens,
History of Georgia,
book 4, chapter 2,
and book 5, chapter 1 (volume 2)._
GEORGIA: A. D. 1776-1778.
The war in the North.
The Articles of Confederation.
The alliance with France.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A.D. 1776, to 1778.
GEORGIA: A. D. 1778-1779.
Savannah taken and the state subjugated by the British.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778-1779.
GEORGIA: A. D. 1779.
Unsuccessful attack on Savannah by the French and Americans.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1779 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).
GEORGIA: A. D. 1780.
Successes of the British arms in South Carolina.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1780 (FEBRUARY-AUGUST).
GEORGIA: A. D. 1780-1783.
Greene's campaign in the South.
Lafayette and Washington in Virginia.
Siege of Yorktown and surrender of Cornwallis.
Peace.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A. D. 1780, to 1783.
GEORGIA: A. D. 1787-1788.
The formation and adoption of the Federal Constitution.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1787, and 1787-1789.
GEORGIA: A. D. 1802.
Cession of Western land claims to the United States.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781-1786
and MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1798-1804.
GEORGIA: A. D. 1813-1814.
The Creek War.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1813-1814 (AUGUST-APRIL).
GEORGIA: A. D. 1816-1818.
The First Seminole War.
See FLORIDA: A. D. 1816-1818.
{1428}
GEORGIA: A. D. 1861 (January).
Secession from the Union.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
GEORGIA: A. D. 1861 (October-December).
Savannah threatened.
The Union forces in possession of the mouth of the river.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER: SOUTH CAROLINA-GEORGIA).
GEORGIA: A. D. 1862 (February-April).
Reduction of Fort Pulaski and sealing up of the port of
Savannah by the National Forces.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (FEBRUARY-APRIL: GEORGIA-FLORIDA).
GEORGIA: A. D. 1864 (May-September).
Sherman's campaign against Atlanta.
The capture of the city.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (MAY: GEORGIA),
and (MAY-SEPTEMBER: GEORGIA).
GEORGIA: A. D. 1864 (September-October).
Military occupation of Atlanta.
Removal of the inhabitants.
Hood's Raid to Sherman's rear.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1864 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER: GEORGIA).
GEORGIA: A. D. 1864 (November-December).
Destruction of Atlanta.
Sherman's March to the Sea.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1864 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER: GEORGIA).
GEORGIA: A. D. 1865 (March-May).
Wilson's Raid.
Capture of Jefferson Davis.
End of the Rebellion.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (APRIL-MAY).
GEORGIA: A. D. 1865-1868.
Reconstruction.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1865 (MAY-JULY), and after, to 1868-1870.
----------GEORGIA: End----------
GEOUGEN, The.
See TURKS: SIXTH CENTURY.
GEPIDÆ, The.
See GOTHS: ORIGIN OF;
HUNS; LOMBARDS: EARLY HISTORY;
and AVARS.
GERALDINES, The.
The Geraldines of Irish history were descendants of Maurice
and William Fitzgerald, two of the first among the
Anglo-Norman adventurers to engage in the conquest of
Ireland, A. D. 1169-1170. Their mother was a Welsh princess,
named Nest, or Nesta, who is said to have been the mistress
of Henry I. of England, and afterwards to have married the
Norman baron, Gerald Fitz Walter, who became the father of
the Fitzgeralds. "Maurice Fitzgerald, the eldest of the
brothers, became the ancestor both of the Earls of Kildare
and Desmond; William, the younger, obtained an immense grant
of land in Kerry from the McCarthys, indeed as time went on
the lordship of the Desmond Fitzgeralds grew larger and
larger, until it covered nearly as much ground as many a
small European kingdom. Nor was this all. The White Knight,
the Knight of Glyn, and the Knight of Kerry were all three
Fitzgeralds, all descended from the same root, and all owned
large tracts of country. The position of the Geraldines of
Kildare was even more important, on account of their close
proximity to Dublin. In later times their great keep at
Maynooth dominated the whole Pale, while their followers
swarmed everywhere, each man with a 'G' embroidered upon his
breast in token of his allegiance. By the beginning of the
16th century their power had reached to, perhaps, the highest
point ever attained in these islands by any subject. Whoever
might be called the Viceroy in Ireland it was the Earl of
Kildare who practically governed the country."
_Hon. E. Lawless,
The Story of Ireland,
chapter 14._
See, also,
IRELAND: A. D. 1515;
and for some account of the subsequent rebellion and fall
of the Geraldines, see
IRELAND: A. D. 1535-1553.
GERALDINES, League of the.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1559-1603.
GERBA, OR JERBA, The disaster at. (1560).
See BARBARY STATES: A. D. 1543-1560.
GEREFA.