[Sidenote: =Believed in simple things=]
=57. How Quakers Differed from other Colonists.= The people who formed
Penn's colony were unlike those of any of the other settlements. They
did not wear gorgeous clothes and jewelry like the Virginia cavaliers.
The men carried no swords or pistols. They were not stern like the
Puritans. Games and social pleasures were not to be seen among them as
in Dutch New Netherland.
[Sidenote: =Quakers called themselves the Society of Friends=]
These people wore clothes of the plainest cut, made from dull gray or
brown cloth. They were gentle and soft-spoken, and did not fight or
quarrel among themselves. People who did not understand or like them
called them Quakers, because some of them were so carried away at
religious meetings that they fell to quaking. They themselves took the
name of the Society of Friends. And Friends is a much better name, for
they were friends to every man.
[Sidenote: =All religions welcomed by the Friends=]
The customs of the Quakers grew out of their religious views. Above
all, they believed that every one should be free to do as his own
conscience taught him. Their religious meetings were as simple as
their own lives. They did not think it necessary to have ministers or
priests. The men sat in one part of the church, the women in another.
All was silence until some Friend felt called to speak. Some days no
one spoke, and then they all sat in silence until the meeting was over.
As a rule, not even a hymn was sung.
[Sidenote: =Opposed war and slavery=]
The Quakers have always believed that war is unnecessary and wrong,
and only a few of them have ever carried arms. Because Friends speak
only the truth, they do not take an oath. In the courts of law their
simple word is as good as an oath. They have always been quick to help
the poor and oppressed. The Quakers were the first to oppose slavery,
and they did much to end it both in this country and in the English
colonies. It is strange that these kind, gentle people should ever
have been so cruelly persecuted.
[Sidenote: =The colony prospered=]
While the Quakers were strongly religious, they also took good heed of
the things of this world. At first they cleared and planted farms in
the fertile Schuylkill and Delaware valleys. Soon groups of them took
up townships of five thousand acres each and built villages at their
centers. The swift streams which tumbled down the mountain slopes they
used to turn mills. In these they ground flour, sawed lumber, made
paper, and wove woolen cloth.
The rich land and good climate of Pennsylvania and its liberal
government attracted many people from outside. After a short time the
Quakers were outnumbered by the other settlers, and to-day the Quakers
are but a handful in that great state.
JAMES OGLETHORPE, THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA AS A HOME FOR ENGLISH DEBTORS,
AS A PLACE FOR PERSECUTED PROTESTANTS, AND AS A BARRIER AGAINST THE
SPANIARDS
[Sidenote: =Oglethorpe a soldier=]
=58. A Friend of the Unfortunate.= James Oglethorpe was an Englishman.
At an early age he went to Oxford to study, but he was drawn away from
college by the clash of arms. Oglethorpe was a soldier for many years.
Later he became a member of Parliament.
[Sidenote: =English jails and jailers=]
A friend of Oglethorpe's died in a debtor's prison, which aroused his
sympathies for the poor. He examined English jails, and found them so
dirty and dark and damp that strong-bodied men, to say nothing of women
and children, soon sickened and died in them. Besides, he found that
the jailers were often bad men, who whipped the prisoners on their
bare backs and stole their food.
The prison was a poor place for a man in debt, anyway. How could a man
pay his debts while he was shut up in prison?
[Sidenote: =King George II grants a charter=]
Oglethorpe, like many other noble men before him, thought of America
as a place of refuge for the unfortunate. King George II gave him a
charter for the land between the Savannah and the Altamaha, and made
his heart glad by declaring that all Protestants should be tolerated
there.
[Illustration: JAMES EDWARD OGLETHORPE
_From an original portrait painted by Simon Francois Ravenet, from a
mezzotint by Burford in the print room at the British Museum_]
[Sidenote: =A select body of emigrants=]
When the debtors heard the news that Oglethorpe was to plant a colony
for them there was great excitement among them. But he carefully
selected his settlers, so that no lazy man might be found among them.
Arms and tools with which to work on the farms were given to the
settlers.
[Sidenote: =At Charleston=]
When the time came, thirty families were ready to sail. Oglethorpe
carried them direct to Charleston, South Carolina. When they landed,
in 1733, the people of Charleston were only too glad to have a colony
south of them as a "buffer" against the Spaniards who occupied Florida,
and who had already attacked South Carolina.
[Sidenote: =Savannah laid out=]
Therefore, the people of Charleston, to give the new colony a good
start, presented the settlers with one hundred head of cattle, a drove
of hogs, and fifteen or twenty barrels of rice. Rejoicing in their new
supplies, the colony sailed to the Savannah River, and not far from its
mouth, on a beautiful bluff, Oglethorpe marked out the streets of the
new city. The settlers went to work with a will, cutting down trees and
making them into cabins. They soon had comfortable homes, although very
different from what they had known in England.
[Sidenote: =Italians=]
Soon other colonists came to Savannah. Among these was a company of
Italians who had come to raise the silkworm and to manufacture silk.
[Sidenote: =German Protestants=]
In the next year after Oglethorpe planted the settlement a band of
sturdy German Protestants arrived. These settlers built their homes
to the north of Savannah, and called the colony "Ebenezer," which
means "the Lord hath helped us." Between these two settlements a band
of pious Moravian immigrants founded a colony. Then followed the
settlement of Augusta, far up the Savannah River and well out among the
Indians, which served as a sort of outpost.
[Illustration: OGLETHORPE SURVEYING THE SITE OF SAVANNAH]
[Sidenote: =Highlanders=]
To these were added a colony on the Altamaha River. This colony was
settled by a company of brave Highlanders from Scotland.
[Sidenote: =The Wesleys come=]
In the meantime, Oglethorpe had gone to England, but he soon returned
with more than two hundred English and German immigrants, who came to
Georgia to better their condition. With these immigrants came John and
Charles Wesley, who were soon to awake all England with a revival of
religion.
[Illustration: OGLETHORPE'S STRONGHOLD
_Standing on a bold rocky bluff overlooking a beautiful bay, it guarded
the entrance to Frederica_]
[Sidenote: =Oglethorpe foresees war=]
While in England Oglethorpe was made a colonel. He saw that trouble
with Spain must soon come. From the beginning of the settlement of
Georgia Oglethorpe had been careful to treat the Indians well. He had
made treaties with them and had paid them for their lands. He now went
to visit the Creek and the Cherokee Indians.
[Sidenote: =Frederica fortified=]
On an island at the mouth of the Altamaha Oglethorpe planted a town to
serve as an outpost against the Spaniards. He fortified it, and made it
very strong. This town was called Frederica.
In 1742 a Spanish fleet of fifty-one vessels and five thousand men
attacked Frederica. Oglethorpe beat them off, and thereafter Georgia
was left in peace. He went back to England and became a general.
Oglethorpe lived to a good old age. He died in 1785.