THE ENGLISH COLONIZATION OF GEORGIA.
1733-1752.
BY CHARLES C. JONES, JR., LL. D.
ACTING under the orders of Admiral Coligny, Captain Ribault, before
selecting a location for his fort and planting his Huguenot colony
near the mouth of Port Royal, traversed what is now known as the
Georgia coast, observed its harbors, and named several of the principal
rivers emptying into the Atlantic Ocean.[837] “It was a fayre coast,
stretchyng of a great length, couered with an infinite number of high
and fayre trees.” The waters “were boyling and roaring, through the
multitude of all kind of fish.” The inhabitants were “all naked and
of a goodly stature, mightie, and as well shapen and proportioned
of body as any people in ye world; very gentle, courteous, and of
a good nature.” Lovingly entertained were these strangers by the
natives, and they were, in the delightful spring-time, charmed with
all they beheld. As they viewed the country they pronounced it the
“fairest, fruitfullest, and pleasantest of all the world, abounding in
hony, venison, wilde foule, forests, woods of all sorts, Palm-trees,
Cypresse, and Cedars, Bayes ye highest and greatest; with also the
fayrest vines in all the world, with grapes according, which, without
natural art and without man’s helpe or trimming, will grow to toppes of
Okes and other trees that be of a wonderfull greatness and height. And
the sight of the faire medowes is a pleasure not able to be expressed
with tongue: full of Hernes, Curlues, Bitters, Mallards, Egrepths,
Wood-cocks, and all other kinds of small birds; with Harts, Hindes,
Buckes, wilde Swine, and all other kindes of wilde beastes, as we
perceiued well, both by their footing there, and also afterwardes in
other places by their crie and roaring in the night.... Also there
be Conies and Hares, Silk Wormes in merueilous number, a great deale
fairer and better than be our silk wormes. To be short, it is a thing
vnspeakable to consider the thinges that bee scene there and shal be
founde more and more in this incomperable lande, which, neuer yet
broken with plough yrons, bringeth forth al things according to his
first nature wherewith the eternall God indued it.”
Enraptured with the delights of climate, forests, and waters, and
transferring to this new domain names consecrated by pleasant
associations at home, Captain Ribault called the River St. Mary the
_Seine_, the Satilla the _Somme_, the Alatamaha the _Loire_, the
Newport the _Charante_, the Great Ogeechee the _Garonne_, and the
Savannah the _Gironde_. Two years afterward, when René de Laudonnière
visited Ribault’s fort, he found it deserted. The stone pillar
inscribed with the arms of France, which he had erected to mark the
farthest confines of Charles IX.’s dominion in the Land of Flowers, was
garlanded with wreaths. Offerings of maize and fruits lay at its base;
and the natives, regarding the structure with awe and veneration, had
elevated it into the dignity of a god.
As yet no permanent lodgment had been effected in the territory
subsequently known as Georgia. The first Europeans who are known to
have traversed it were Hernando de Soto and his companions, whose
story has been told elsewhere.[838] The earliest grant of the lower
part of the territory claimed by England under the discovery of Cabot,
was made by His Majesty King Charles I., in the fifth year of his
reign, to Sir Robert Heath, his attorney-general. In that patent it
is called _Carolina Florida_, and the designated limits extended from
the river Matheo in the thirtieth degree, to the river Passa Magna in
the thirty-sixth degree of north latitude. There is good reason for
the belief that actual possession was taken under this concession, and
that, in the effort to colonize, considerable sums were expended by
the proprietor and by those claiming under him. Whether this grant was
subsequently surrendered, or whether it was vacated and declared null
for _non user_ or other cause, we are not definitely informed. Certain
it is that King Charles II., in the exercise of his royal pleasure,
issued to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina two grants of the same
territory with some slight modifications of boundaries. The latter of
these grants, bearing date the 30th of June in the seventeenth year
of his reign, conveys to the Lords Proprietors that portion of the
New World lying between the thirty-sixth and the twenty-ninth degrees
of north latitude. While the English were engaged in peopling a part
of the coast embraced within these specified limits, the Spaniards
contented themselves with confirming their settlements at St. Augustine
and a few adjacent points.
Although in 1670 England and Spain entered into stipulations for
composing their differences in America,—stipulations which have since
been known as the _American Treaty_,—the precise line of separation
between Carolina and Florida was not defined. Between these powers
disputes touching this boundary were not infrequent. In view of this
unsettled condition of affairs, and in order to assert a positive claim
to, and retain possession of, the debatable ground which neither party
was willing either to relinquish or clearly to point out, the English
established and maintained a small military post on the south end of
Cumberland Island, where the river St. Mary empties its waters into the
Atlantic.
Apprehending that either the French or Spanish forces would take
possession of the Alatamaha River, King George I. ordered General
Nicholson, then governor of Carolina, with a company of one hundred
men, to secure that river, as being within the bounds of South
Carolina; and, at some suitable point, to erect a fort with an eye to
the protection of His Majesty’s possessions in that quarter and the
control of the navigation of that stream. That fort was placed near the
confluence of the Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers, and was named Fort George.
Although by the treaty of Seville commissioners were appointed to
determine the northern boundary line of Florida, which should form the
southern limit of South Carolina, no definite conclusion was reached,
and the question remained open and a cause of quarrel until the peace
of 1763, when Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain.
In recalling the instances of temporary occupancy, by Europeans, of
limited portions of the territory at a later period conveyed to the
trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia, we should not omit
an allusion to the mining operations conducted by the Spaniards at an
early epoch among the auriferous mountains of upper Georgia. Influenced
by the representations made by the returned soldiers of De Soto’s
expedition of the quantity of gold, silver, and pearls in the province
of Cosa, Luis de Velasco dispatched his general, Tristan de Luna, to
open communication with Cosa by the way of Pensacola Bay. Three hundred
Spanish soldiers, equipped with mining tools, penetrated beyond the
valley of the Coosa and passed the summer of 1560 in northern Georgia
and the adjacent region. Juan Pardo was subsequently sent by Aviles,
the first governor of Florida, to establish a fort at the foot of the
mountains northwest of St. Augustine and in the province of the chief
Coabá. It would seem, therefore, that the Spaniards at this early
period were acquainted with, and endeavored to avail themselves of, the
gold deposits in Cherokee Georgia.
By the German traveller Johannes Lederer[839] are we advised that these
peoples in 1669 and 1670 were still working gold and silver mines in
the Appalachian mountains; and Mr. James Moore assures us that twenty
years afterward these mining operations were not wholly discontinued.
Thus, long before the advent of the English colonists, had the
Spaniards sojourned, in earnest quest for precious metals, among the
valleys and mountains of the Cherokees. Thus are we enabled to account
for those traces of ancient mining observed and wondered at by the
early settlers of upper Georgia,—operations of no mean significance,
conducted by skilled hands and with metallic tools,—which can properly
be referred neither to the Red Race nor to the followers of De Soto.
In June, 1717, Sir Robert Mountgomery secured from the Palatine and
Lords Proprietors of the Province of Carolina a grant and release
of all lands lying between the rivers Alatamaha and Savannah, with
permission to form settlements south of the former stream. This
territory was to be erected into a distinct province, “with proper
jurisdictions, privileges, prerogatives, and franchises, independent
of and in no manner subject to the laws of South Carolina.” It was
to be holden of the Lords Proprietors by Sir Robert, his heirs and
assigns forever, under the name and title of the Margravate of Azilia.
A yearly quit rent of a penny per acre for all lands “occupied,
taken up, or run out,” was to be paid. Such payment, however, was
not to begin until three years after the arrival of the first ships
transporting colonists. In addition, Sir Robert covenanted to render
to the Lords Proprietors one fourth part of all the gold, silver, and
royal minerals which might be found within the limits of the ceded
lands. Courts of justice were to be organized, and such laws enacted
by the freemen of the Margravate as might conduce to the general good
and in no wise conflict with the statutes and customs of England. The
navigation of the rivers was to be free to all the inhabitants of the
colonies of North and South Carolina. A duty similar to that sanctioned
in South Carolina was to be laid on skins, and this revenue was to be
appropriated to the maintenance of clergy. In consideration of this
cession, Sir Robert engaged to transport at his own cost a considerable
number of families, and all necessaries requisite for the support and
comfort of settlers within the specified limits. It was understood that
if settlements were not formed within three years from the date of the
grant, it should become void.
In glowing terms did Sir Robert unfold the attractions of his future
Eden “in the most delightful country of the Universe,” and boldly
proclaim “that Paradise with all her virgin beauties may be modestly
supposed at most but equal to its native excellencies.” After
commending in the highest terms the woods and meadows, mines and
odoriferous plants, soil and climate, fruits and game, streams and
hills, flowers and agricultural capabilities, he exhibited an elaborate
plan of the Margravate, in which he did not propose to satisfy
himself “with building here and there a fort,—the fatal practice of
America,—but so to dispose the habitations and divisions of the land
that not alone our houses, but whatever we possess, will be inclosed by
_military lines_ impregnable against the _savages_, and which will make
our whole plantation one continued fortress.”
Despite all efforts to induce immigration into this favored region, at
the expiration of the three years allowed by the concession Sir Robert
found himself without colonists. His grant expired and became void by
the terms of its own limitations. His Azilia remained unpeopled save
by the red men of the forest. His scheme proved utterly Utopian. It
was reserved for Oglethorpe and his companions to wrest from primeval
solitude and to vitalize with the energies of civilization the lands
lying between the Savannah and the Alatamaha.
Persuaded of their inability to afford suitable protection to the
colony of South Carolina, and moved by the wide-spread dissatisfaction
existing in that province, the Lords Proprietors, with the exception
of Lord Carteret, taking advantage of the provisions of an act of
Parliament, on the 25th of July in the third year of the reign of His
Majesty King George II., and in consideration of the sum of £22,500,
surrendered to the Crown not only their rights and interest in the
government of Carolina, but also their ownership of the soil. The
outstanding eighth interest owned by Lord Carteret, Baron of Hawnes,
was by him, on the 28th of February, 1732, conveyed to the “Trustees
for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America.”
The scheme which culminated in planting a colony on the right bank
of the Savannah River at Yamacraw Bluff originated with James Edward
Oglethorpe, a member of the English House of Commons, and “a gentleman
of unblemished character, brave, generous, and humane.” He was the
third son of Sir Theophilus, and the family of Oglethorpe was ancient
and of high repute.[840] Although at an early age a matriculate of
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, he soon quitted the benches of that
venerable institution of learning for an active military life. With
him a love of arms was an inheritance, for his father attained the
rank of major-general in the British service, and held the office
of first equerry to James II., who intrusted him with an important
command in the army assembled to oppose the Prince of Orange. Entering
the English army as an ensign in 1710, young Oglethorpe continued
in service until peace was proclaimed in 1713. The following year
he became captain-lieutenant of the first troop of the Queen’s
Life-Guards. Preferring active employment abroad to an idle life at
home, he soon repaired to the continent that he might perfect himself
in the art of war under the famous Prince Eugene of Savoy, who, upon
the recommendation of John, Duke of Argyle, gave him an appointment
upon his staff, at first as secretary and afterward as aid-de-camp.
It was a brave school, and his alertness, fidelity, and fearlessness
secured for him the good-will, the confidence, and the commendation of
his illustrious commander. Upon the conclusion of the peace of 1718
Oglethorpe returned to England, versed in the principles of military
science, accustomed to command, inured to the shock of arms, instructed
in the orders of battle, the management of sieges and the conduct
of campaigns, and possessing a reputation for manhood, executive
ability, and warlike knowledge not often acquired by one of his years.
His brother Theophilus dying, he succeeded to the family estate at
Westbrook, and in October, 1732, was elected a member for Haslemere
in the county of Surrey. This venerable borough and market-town he
continued to represent, through various changes of administration, for
two-and-thirty years.
[Illustration: OGLETHORPE.
(See a Note on the Portraits of Oglethorpe on a later page.)]
While he was chairman of the committee raised by the House of Commons
to visit the prisons, examine into the condition of the inmates, and
suggest measures of reform, the idea had occurred to Oglethorpe,—whose
“strong benevolence of soul” has been eulogized by Pope,—that not a
few of these unfortunate individuals confined for debt, of respectable
connections, guilty of no crime, and the victims of a legal thraldom
most vile and afflictive, might be greatly benefited by compromising
the claims for the non-payment of which they were suffering the penalty
of hopeless incarceration, upon the condition that when liberated they
would become colonists in America. Thus would opportunity be afforded
them of retrieving their fortunes; thus would England be relieved of
the shame and the expense of their imprisonment, and thus would her
dominion in the New World be enlarged and confirmed. Not the depraved,
not felons who awaited the approach of darker days when graver
sentences were to be endured, not the dishonest who hoped by submitting
to temporary imprisonment to exhaust the patience of creditors and
emerge with fraudulently acquired gains still concealed, but the
honestly unfortunate were to be the beneficiaries of this benevolent
and patriotic scheme. Those also in the United Kingdom who through want
of occupation and lack of means were most exposed to the penalties
of poverty, were to be influenced in behalf of the contemplated
colonization. It was believed that others, energetic, ambitious of
preferment, and possessing some means, could be enlisted in aid of
the enterprise. The anxiety of the Carolinians for the establishment
of a plantation to the South which would serve as a shield against
the incursions of the Spaniards, the attacks of the Indians, and the
depredations of fugitive slaves was great. This scheme of colonization
soon embraced within its benevolent designs not only the unfortunate
of Great Britain, but also the oppressed and persecuted Protestants
of Europe. Charity for, and the relief of, human distress were to
be inscribed upon the foundations of the dwellings which Oglethorpe
proposed to erect amid the Southern forests. Their walls were to be
advanced bulwarks for the protection of the Carolina plantations,
and their aspiring roofs were to proclaim the honor and the dominion
of the British nation. In the whole affair there lingered no hope of
personal gain, no ambition of a sordid character, no secret reservation
of private benefit. The entire project was open, disinterested,
charitable, loyal, and patriotic. Such was its distinguishing
peculiarity. Thus was it recognized by all; and Robert Southey did but
echo the general sentiment when he affirmed that no colony was ever
projected or established upon principles more honorable to its founders.
As the accomplishment of his purpose demanded a larger expenditure
than his means justified, and as the administration of the affairs
of the plantation would involve “a broader basis of managing power”
than a single individual could well maintain, Oglethorpe sought and
secured the co-operation of wealthy and influential personages in the
development of his beneficent enterprise.
That proper authority, ample cession, and royal sanction might be
obtained, in association with Lord Percival and other noblemen and
gentlemen of repute he addressed a memorial to the Privy Council, in
which, among other things, it was stated that the cities of London and
Westminster, and the adjacent region, abounded with indigent persons
so reduced in circumstances as to become burdensome to the public, who
would willingly seek a livelihood in any of His Majesty’s plantations
in America if they were provided with transportation and the means
of settling there. In behalf of themselves and their associates the
petitioners engaged, without pecuniary recompense, to take charge
of the colonization, and to erect the plantation into a proprietary
government, if the Crown would be pleased to grant them lands lying
south of the Savannah River, empower them to receive and administer
all contributions and benefactions which they might influence in
encouragement of so good a design, and clothe them with authority
suitable for the enforcement of law and order within the limits of
the province. After the customary reference, this petition met with a
favorable report, and by His Majesty’s direction a charter was prepared
which received the royal sanction on the 9th of June, 1732.
By this charter, Lord John, Viscount Percival, Edward Digby, George
Carpenter, James Oglethorpe, George Heathcote, Thomas Tower, Robert
Moor, Robert Hucks, Roger Holland, William Sloper, Francis Eyles, John
Laroche, James Vernon, William Beletha, John Burton, Richard Bundy,
Arthur Beaford, Samuel Smith, Adam Anderson, and Thomas Coram and their
successors were constituted a body politic and corporate by the name
of “The Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America.”
Ample were the powers with which this corporation was vested. Seven
eighths “of all those lands lying and being in that part of South
Carolina in America which lies from the most northern part of a stream
or river there commonly called the Savannah, all along the sea-coast
to the southward unto the most southern stream of a certain other
great water or river called the Alatamaha, and westerly from the heads
of the said rivers respectively in direct lines to the South Seas,”
were conveyed to the trustees for the purposes of the plantation. The
province was named Georgia, and was declared separate and distinct from
South Carolina. To all, save Papists, was accorded a free exercise of
religious thought and worship. For a period of twenty-one years were
these corporators and their successors authorized to administer the
affairs of the province. At the expiration of that time it was provided
that such form of government would then be adopted, and such laws
promulgated for the regulation of the colony and the observance of its
inhabitants, as the Crown should ordain. Thereafter the governor of the
province and all its officers, civil and military, were to be nominated
and commissioned by the home government.
[Illustration: MAP OF SOUTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA, 1773.
[Fac-simile of a map in _Some Account of the Design of the Trustees
for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America_, 1733, in Harvard
College Library [Tract vol. 536]. This tract is appended to Smith’s
Sermon (1733). This map also appeared the same year in _Reasonsf for
Establishing the Colony of Georgia_, etc. Cf. also the “New Map of
Georgia” in the French version of Martyn’s tracts published in the
_Recueil de Voyages au Nord_, Amsterdam, 1737; Harvard College Library,
shelf-no. 3621. 9, vol. ix.—ED.]]
In July, 1732, the corporators convened, accepted the charter, and
perfected an organization in accordance with its provisions.[841]
Commissions were issued to leading citizens and charitable corporations
empowering them to solicit contributions in aid of the trust.
Generously did the Trustees subscribe. To prevent any misappropriation
of funds, an account was opened with the Bank of England. There a
register was kept of the names of all benefactors and of the amounts of
their several donations. Liberal responses were received in furtherance
of the charitable scheme both from individuals and from corporations;
and, as an honorable indorsement of the project and its managers,
Parliament gave the sum of £10,000. Tracts commending the colonization
to the favorable notice of the public were prepared,—notably by
Oglethorpe, and by Benjamin Martyn, secretary to the Trustees,—and
widely circulated.
In framing regulations for the observance of the colonists, and in
maturing plans most conducive to the prosperity and permanence of the
contemplated settlement, the trustees regarded each male inhabitant
both as a planter and as a soldier. Hence, provision was made for
supplying him with arms and with agricultural tools. Towns, in
their inception, were reckoned as garrisons. Consequently the lands
allotted for tillage were to be in their immediate neighborhood,
so that in seasons of alarm the inhabitants might speedily betake
themselves thither for safety and mutual protection. Fifty acres were
adjudged sufficient for the support of a planter and his family.
Grants in tail-male were declared preferable to any other tenure. The
introduction and use of spirituous liquors were forbidden. Unless
sanctioned by special license, traffic with the natives was prohibited.
The trustees saw fit also to forbid the importation, ownership, and use
of negro slaves within the limits of the province of Georgia. Provision
was made for the cultivation of the mulberry tree and the breeding of
silk-worms.
Keeping in view the benevolent objects of the association and the
character of the settlement to be formed, it was manifest that only fit
persons should be selected for colonization, and that due care should
be exercised in the choice of emigrants. Preference was accordingly
given to applicants who came well recommended by the ministers,
church-wardens, and overseers of their respective parishes. That the
Trustees might not be deceived in the characters and antecedents of
those who signified a desire to avail themselves of the benefits of the
charity, a committee was appointed to visit the prisons and examine the
applicants there confined. If they were found to be worthy, compromises
were effected with their creditors and consents procured for their
discharge. Another committee sat at the office of the corporation to
inquire into the circumstances and qualifications of such as there
presented themselves. It has been idly charged that in the beginning
Georgia colonists were impecunious, lawless, depraved, and abandoned;
that the settlement at Savannah was a sort of Botany Bay, and that
Yamacraw Bluff was peopled by runagates from justice. The suggestion is
without foundation. The truth is that no applicant was admitted to the
privilege of enrolment as an emigrant until he had been subjected to a
preliminary examination, and had furnished satisfactory evidence that
he was fairly entitled to the benefits of the charity. Other American
colonies were founded and augmented by individuals coming at will,
without question for personal gain, and furnishing no certificate of
either past or present good conduct. Georgia, on the contrary, exhibits
the spectacle, at once unique and admirable, of permitting no one to
enter her borders who was not, by competent authority, adjudged worthy
the rights of citizenship. Even those colonists who proposed to come at
their own charge, and who brought servants with them, were required,
as a condition precedent to their embarkation, to prove that they had
obtained permission from the committee selected by the Trustees to pass
upon the qualification of applicants. Upon receiving the approbation
of the committee, and until the time fixed for sailing, adult male
emigrants passing under the bounty of the Trust were drilled each day
by the sergeants of the Royal Guards.
By the 3d of October, 1732, one hundred and fourteen
individuals—comprising men, women, and children—had been enrolled for
the first embarkation. The “Anne,” a galley of some two hundred tons
burden, commanded by Captain Thomas, was chartered to convey them to
Georgia. She was furnished not only with necessaries for the voyage,
but also with arms, agricultural implements, tools, munitions, and
stores for the use and support of the colonists after their arrival
in America. At his own request, Oglethorpe was selected to conduct
the colonists and establish them in Georgia. He volunteered to bear
his own expenses, and to devote his entire time and attention to the
consummation of the important enterprise. Himself the originator and
the most zealous advocate of the scheme,—this offer on his part placed
the seal of consecration upon his self-denial, patriotism, and enlarged
philanthropy. Most fortunate were the Trustees in securing the services
of such a representative. To no one could the power to exercise the
functions of a colonial governor have been more appropriately confided.
On the 17th of November, 1732, the “Anne” departed from England, having
on board about one hundred and thirty persons. Thirty-five families
were represented. Among them were carpenters, brick-layers, farmers,
and mechanics, all able-bodied and of good repute. Shaping her course
for the island of Madeira, the vessel there touched and took on board
five tuns of wine. After a protracted voyage the “Anne” dropped anchor
off Charlestown bar on the 13th of January, 1733. Two delicate children
had died at sea. With this exception, no sorrow darkened the passage,
and the colonists were well and happy.
[Illustration: EARLY SAVANNAH.
This print, published in London, 1741, is called “A View of the Town of
Savannah in the Colony of Georgia, in South Carolina, humbly inscribed
to his Excellency General Oglethorpe.” References: _A._ Part of an
island called Hutchinson’s Island. _B._ The stairs and landing-place
from the river to the town. _C._ A crane and bell to draw up any goods
from boats and to land them. _D._ A tent pitched near the landing for
General Oglethorpe. _E._ A guard-house with a battery of cannon lying
before it. _F._ The parsonage house. _G._ A plot of ground to build a
church. _H._ A fort or lookout to the woodside. _I._ The House for all
stores. _K._ The court house and chapel. _L._ The mill-house for the
public. _M._ A house for all strangers to reside in. _N._ The common
bake-house. _O._ A draw-well for water. _P._ The wood covering the back
and sides of the town with several vistas cut into it.
It is reproduced in Jones’s _History of Georgia_, i. 121; and a small
cut of it is given in Gay’s _Popular History of the United States_,
iii. 140, and in Cassell’s _United States_, i. 487. There is also a
print (15-3/4 × 21-3/4 inches) dedicated to the Trustees by Peter
Gordon, which is inscribed “A view of Savanah [_sic_] as it stood the
29th of March, 1734. P. Gordon, inv., P. Fourdrinier, sculp,” of which
there is a copy in the Boston Public Library [B. H. 6270, 52, no. 38].
Impressions may also be found in the British Museum, in the Mayor’s
office in Savannah, and in the library of Dr. C. C. Jones, Jr., in
Augusta, Ga.]
Oglethorpe was warmly welcomed and hospitably entreated by the governor
and council of South Carolina. The King’s pilot was detailed to conduct
the “Anne” into Port Royal harbor. Thence the colonists were conveyed
in small craft to Beaufort-town, where they landed and refreshed
themselves; while their leader, accompanied by Colonel William Bull,
proceeded to the Savannah River and made choice of a spot for the
settlement. Ascending that stream as far as Yamacraw Bluff, and
deeming it an eligible situation, he went on shore and marked out the
site of a town which, from the river flowing by, he named Savannah.
This bluff, rising some forty feet above the level of the river, and
presenting a bold frontage on the water of nearly a mile,—quite ample
for the riparian uses of a settlement of considerable magnitude,—was
the first high ground abutting upon the stream encountered by him in
its ascent. To the south a high and dry plain, overshadowed by pines
interspersed with live-oaks and magnolias, stretched away for a mile
or more. On the east and west were small creeks and swamps affording
convenient drainage for the intermediate territory. The river in front
was capable of floating ships of ordinary tonnage, and they could lie
so near the shore that their cargoes might with facility be discharged.
Northwardly, in the direction of Carolina, lay the rich delta of the
river, with its islands and lowlands crowned with a dense growth of
cypress, sweet-gum, tupelo, and other trees, many of them vine-covered
and draped in long gray moss swaying gracefully in the ambient air.
The yellow jessamine was already mingling its delicious perfume with
the breath of the pine, and the forest was vocal with the voices of
singing birds. Everything in this semi-tropical region was quickening
into life and beauty under the influences of returning spring. In its
primeval repose it seemed a goodly land. The temperate rays of the
sun gave no token of the heat of summer. There was no promise of the
tornado and the thunder-storm in the gentle winds. In the balmy air
lurked no suspicion of malarial fevers. Its proximity to the mouth of
the river rendered this spot suitable alike for commercial purposes and
for maintaining easy communication with the Carolina settlements.
Near by was an Indian village peopled by the Yamacraws, whose chief, or
mico, was the venerable Tomo-chi-chi. Having, through the intervention
of Mary Musgrove,—a half-breed, and the wife of a Carolina trader who
had there established a post,—persuaded the natives of the friendly
intentions of the English and secured from them an informal cession
of the desired lands, Oglethorpe returned to Beaufort. Thence, on the
30th of January, 1733, the colonists, conveyed in a sloop of seventy
tons and in five periaguas, set sail for Yamacraw Bluff, where, on
the afternoon of the second day afterward, they arrived in safety
and passed their first night upon the soil of Georgia. The ocean had
been crossed, and the germ of a new colony was planted in America.
Sharing the privations and the labors of his companions, Oglethorpe
was present planning, supervising, and encouraging. In marking out the
squares, lots, and streets of Savannah, he was materially assisted
by Colonel William Bull. Early and acceptable aid was extended by
the authorities of Carolina, and this was generously supplemented by
private benefactions. Well knowing that the planting of this colony
would essentially promote the security of Carolina, shielding that
province from the direct assaults and machinations of the Spaniards in
Florida, preventing the ready escape of fugitive slaves, guarding her
southern borders from the incursions of Indians, increasing commercial
relations, and enhancing the value of lands, the South Carolinians
were eager to further the prosperity of Georgia. Sensible of the
courtesies and assistance extended, Oglethorpe repaired at an early
day to Charlestown to return thanks in behalf of the colony and to
interest the public still more in the development of the plantation.
In this mission he was eminently successful. He was cheered also by
congratulations and proffers of aid from other American colonies.
In nothing were the prudence, wisdom, skill, and ability of the founder
of the colony of Georgia more conspicuous than in his conduct toward
and treatment of the Indians. The ascendency he acquired over them,
the respect they entertained for him, and the manly, generous, and
just policy he ever maintained in his intercourse with the native
tribes of the region are remarkable. Their favor at the outset was
essential to the repose of the settlement; their friendship, necessary
to its existence. As claimants of the soil by virtue of prior
occupancy, it was important that the title they asserted to these their
hunting grounds should at an early moment be peaceably and formally
extinguished. Ascertaining from Tomo-chi-chi the names and abodes of
the most influential chiefs dwelling within the territory ceded by the
charter, Oglethorpe enlisted the good offices of this mico in calling
a convention of them at Savannah. In May, 1733, the Indians assembled,
and on the 21st of that month a treaty was solemnized, by which the
Creeks ceded to the Trustees all lands lying between the Savannah
and the Alatamaha rivers, from the ocean to the head of tide-water.
In this cession were also embraced the islands on the coast from
Tybee to St. Simon inclusive, with the exception of Ossabau, Sapelo,
and St. Catharine, which were reserved for the purposes of hunting,
fishing, and bathing. A tract of land between Pipe-maker’s Bluffs
and Pally-Chuckola Creek was also retained as a place of encampment
whenever it should please the natives to visit their white friends
at Savannah. Stipulations were entered into regulating the price of
goods, the value of peltry, and the privileges of traders. It was
further agreed that criminal offences should be tried and punished in
accordance with the laws of England. In due course the provisions of
this treaty were formally ratified by the Trustees.
Thus happily, in the very infancy of the colony, was the title of the
Aborigines to the lands south of the Savannah amicably extinguished.
This treaty compassed the pacification of the Lower Creeks, the
Uchees, the Yamacraws, and of other tribes constituting the Muskhogee
confederacy.
[Illustration: TOMO-CHI-CHI MICO.
[This head is taken from a German print, engraved at Augsburg,
purporting to follow an original issued in London. The full print also
represents Tooanahowi, his brother’s son, a lad, holding an eagle as
he stands beside his uncle. The entire print on a smaller scale is
reproduced in Jones’s _History of Georgia_; in Gay’s _Popular History
of the United States_, iii. 147; and in Dr. Eggleston’s papers on “Life
in the English Colonies” in the _Century Magazine_.—ED.]]
Nor did the influences of this convocation rest with them only. They
were recognized by the Upper Creeks; and at a later date similar
stipulations were sanctioned by the Cherokees. For years were they
preserved inviolate; and the colony of Georgia, thus protected,
extended its settlements up the Savannah River and along the coast,
experiencing neither opposition nor molestation, but receiving on
every hand valuable assurance of the good-will of the children of
the forest. Probably the early history of no plantation in America
affords so few instances of hostility on the part of the natives,
or so many acts of kindness extended by the red men. Potent was the
influence of Tomo-chi-chi in consummating this primal treaty of amity
and commerce. Had this chief, turning a deaf ear to the advances of
Oglethorpe, refused his friendship, denied his request, and, inclining
his authority to hostile account, instigated a combined and determined
opposition on the part of the Yamacraws, the Uchees, and the Lower
Creeks, the perpetuation of this English settlement would have been
either most seriously imperilled or abruptly terminated amid smoke and
carnage. When therefore we recur to the memories of this period, and
as often as the leading events in the early history of the colony of
Georgia are narrated, so often should the favors experienced at the
hands of this mico be gratefully acknowledged. If Oglethorpe’s proudest
claim to the honor and respect of succeeding generations rests upon the
fact that he was the founder of the colony of Georgia, let it not be
forgotten that in the hour of supreme doubt and danger the right arm
of this son of the forest, his active intervention, and his unswerving
friendship were among the surest guarantees of the safety and the very
existence of that province. Tomo-chi-chi will be remembered as the firm
ally of the white man, the guide and protector of the colonist, the
constant companion and faithful confederate of Oglethorpe.
Accessions occurred as rapidly as the means of the Trust would allow.
Among some of the early comers were Italians from Piedmont, who were
engaged to develop the silk industry, from the pursuit of which
considerable gain was anticipated. As the immigrants multiplied, and
the defences at Savannah were strengthened, Fort Argyle was built on
the Great Ogeechee River, the villages of Highgate and Hampstead were
laid out, Thunderbolt and Skidoway Island were occupied, Joseph’s Town
and Abercorn were peopled, and plantations formed on Augustine Creek,
on the Little Ogeechee, and as far south as the Great Ogeechee River.
On the 7th of July, 1733, occurred a general allotment of town lots,
garden lots, and farms among the inhabitants of Savannah; and this was
confirmed by deed executed on the 21st of the following December. The
town lot contained sixty feet in front and ninety feet in depth; the
garden lot embraced five acres. Forty-four acres and one hundred and
forty-one poles constituted the farm; so that the grant aggregated
fifty acres,—thus conforming to the instructions of the Trustees, and
furnishing land sufficient for the support of the colonist who came at
the charge of the Trust and brought no servants. The conveyance was
in tail-male. Of the moneys realized from the sale of lands in the
island of St. Christopher, the sum of £10,000 was, in pursuance of a
resolution of the House of Commons, paid over to the “Trustees for
establishing the Colony of Georgia in America,” to be by them applied
“towards defraying the charges of carrying over and settling foreign
and other Protestants in said colony.” This timely relief enabled the
Trustees to accomplish a purpose from the execution of which they had
been prevented by a want of funds. In the administration of the Trust
preference had been accorded to English Protestants seeking homes in
the New World. Now, however, they were justified in enlarging the scope
of their charity, because the resolution in obedience to which this
liberal benefaction was made, contemplated in terms the colonization of
foreign Protestants.
[Illustration: COUNTY OF SAVANNAH.
This is a portion of a map in the Urlsperger Tracts, the whole of which
is reproduced in Jones’s _History of Georgia_, i. 148.]
As the first fruits of this expanded charity, on _Reminiscere
Sunday_, according to the Lutheran Calendar, in March, 1734, the ship
“Purisburg” entered the Savannah River having on board seventy-eight
Salzburgers under the conduct of Baron von Reck, and accompanied by
their spiritual advisers the Rev. John Martin Bolzius and the Rev.
Israel Christian Gronau. They came from the town of Berchtolsgaden
and its vicinity, had taken the oath of loyalty to the British Crown,
and were conveyed at the charge of the Trust. “Lying in fine and calm
weather under the Shore of our beloved _Georgia_, where we heard the
Birds sing melodiously, every Body in the Ship was joyful,”—so wrote
the Rev. Mr. Bolzius, the faithful attendant and religious teacher
of this Protestant band. He tells us that when the ship arrived at
the wharf, “almost all the inhabitants of the Town of Savannah were
gather’d together; they fired off some Cannons and cried Huzzah!...
Some of us were immediately fetch’d on shore in a Boat, and carried
about the City, into the woods, and the new Garden belonging to the
Trustees. In the mean time a very good Dinner was prepared for us.” The
inhabitants “shewing them a great deal of kindness, and the Country
pleasing them,” the new-comers “were full of Joy and praised God for
it.”
By the 7th of April all these Salzburgers had been conducted to
the spot designated as their future home. Although sterile and
unattractive, and situated in the midst of a pine barren, to these
peoples, tired of the sea and weary of persecutions, the locality
appeared blessed, redolent of sweet hope, teeming with bright promise,
and offering charming repose. The little town which they built in what
is now Effingham County, they called Ebenezer. Early in the following
year this settlement was reinforced by fifty-seven Salzburgers sent
over by the Trustees in the ship “Prince of Wales.” Accessions occurred
from time to time; and thus was introduced into the colony a population
inured to labor, sober, of strong religious convictions, conservative
in thought and conduct, obedient to rulers, and characterized by
intelligent industry. Disappointed in their anticipations with regard
to the fertility of the soil and the convenience of their location,
these peoples, with the consent of Oglethorpe, in a few years abandoned
their abodes and formed a new settlement on the Savannah River near the
confluence of Ebenezer Creek with that stream.
And now the Moravians, accompanied by the Rev. Gottlieb Spangenberg,
sought freedom of religious thought and worship in the province of
Georgia. To them were assigned lands along the line of the Savannah
River between the Salzburgers and the town of Savannah. With the
Salzburgers they associated on terms of the closest friendship. In
subduing the forests, in erecting comfortable dwellings, and in
cultivating the soil, they exhibited a most commendable zeal.
[Illustration: COAST SETTLEMENTS BEFORE 1743.
[This is the map given by Robert Wright in his _Memoir of General
James Oglethorpe_, London, 1867. There is a similar map in Harris’s
_Oglethorpe._ Cf. Gay’s _Popular History of the United States_, iii.
156.—ED.]]
Encouraged by the development of the plantation, desiring a personal
conference with the Trustees, and rightly judging that the advantage
and security of the province would be materially promoted by taking
with him to England some of the most intelligent of his Indian
neighbors, that they might by personal observation acquire a definite
conception of the greatness and the resources of the British empire,
and, moved by the kindnesses and attentions which he was quite sure
would be extended to them on every hand, imbibe memories that would
tend to cement the alliances and perpetuate the amicable relations
which had been so auspiciously inaugurated,—Oglethorpe, in March,
1734, persuaded Tomo-chi-chi with a selected retinue to accompany him
to London. The reception accorded to these Indians in the English
capital and its environs was cordial and appropriate. This visit of
Tomo-chi-chi and his companions, and the interest awakened by their
presence in London, materially assisted Oglethorpe and the Trustees
in enlisting the renewed and earnest sympathies of the public, not
only in behalf of the colonists, but also in aid of the education
and religious instruction of the natives. Widely disseminated among
the Indian nations was the knowledge of this sojourn of the mico of
the Yamacraws and his companions in the home of the white man. The
novel and beautiful presents which the Indians brought back with them
afforded ocular proof of the liberality of the English, and produced a
profound impression upon the natives, who, grateful for the kindness
shown to members of their race, were encouraged in the perpetuation of
the amicable relations existing between themselves and the colonists.
Through the influence of Oglethorpe the regulations of the Trustees
prohibiting the importation and sale of rum, brandy, and other
distilled liquors within the limits of Georgia, and forbidding the
introduction and use of negro slaves in the province, received the
sanction of Parliament. Commenting upon this legislation, Edmund
Burke remarked that while these restrictions were designed to bring
about wholesome results, they were promulgated without a sufficient
appreciation of the nature of the country and the disposition of the
people to be affected by them. Long and earnestly did many of the
colonists petition for the removal of these prohibitions, which placed
the province at a disadvantage when its privileges were contrasted
with those of sister plantations, and beyond doubt, so far at least
as the employment of slave-labor was concerned, retarded its material
development.
The peopling and fortification of the southern confines of Georgia
engaged the earnest thought of the Trustees. The Spaniards regarded
with a jealous eye the confirmation of this new English colony upon
the borders of Florida. Moved by urgent memorials on the subject,
Parliament granted £26,000 for “the settling, fortifying, and
defending” Georgia. Their treasury being thus replenished, and anxious
to enlist colonists of acknowledged strength and valor, the Trustees,
through Lieutenant Hugh Mackay, recruited among the Highlands of
Scotland one hundred and thirty men, with fifty women and children.
They were all of excellent character, and were carefully selected for
their military qualities. Accompanied by a clergyman of their own
choice,—the Rev. John McLeod, of the Isle of Skye,—this hardy company
was conveyed to Georgia and assigned to the left bank of the Alatamaha,
about sixteen miles above the island of St. Simon. Here these
Highlanders landed, erected a fort, mounted four pieces of cannon,
built a guard-house, a store, and a chapel, and constructed huts for
temporary accommodation preparatory to putting up more substantial
structures. To their little town they gave the name of New Inverness,
and the district which they were to hold and cultivate they called
Darien. These Scots were brave and hardy; just the men to occupy this
advanced post. In their plaids, and with their broadswords, targets,
and fire-arms, they presented a most manly appearance. Previous to
their departure from Savannah in periaguas, some Carolinians endeavored
to dissuade them from going to the south by telling them that the
Spaniards from the houses in their fort would shoot them upon the
spot selected by the Trustees for their abode. Nothing daunted, these
doughty countrymen of Bruce and Wallace responded, “Why, then, we
will beat them out of their fort, and shall have houses ready built
to live in.” This valiant spirit found subsequent expression in the
efficient military service rendered by these Highlanders during the
wars between the colonists and the Spaniards, and by their descendants
in the American Revolution. Augmented at intervals by fresh arrivals
from Scotland, this settlement, although placed in a malarial region,
steadily increased in wealth and influence.
At an early date a road was constructed to connect New Inverness with
Savannah.
On the morning of Feb. 5, 1736, the “Symond” and the “London Merchant,”
with the first of the flood, passed over the bar and came to anchor
within Tybee Roads. On board were two hundred and two persons conveyed
on the Trust’s account. Among them were English people, German
Lutherans under the conduct of Baron von Reck and Captain Hermsdorf,
and twenty-five Moravians with their bishop the Rev. David Nitschman.
Oglethorpe was present, accompanied by the brothers John and Charles
Wesley, the Rev. Mr. Ingham, and by Charles Delamotte, the son of
a London merchant and a friend of the Wesleys. Coming at their own
charge were Sir Francis Bathurst, with family and servants, and some
relatives of planters already settled in the province. Ample stores of
provisions, small arms, cannon, ammunition, and tools were transported
in these vessels. The declared object of this large accession of
colonists was the population of the southern confines of the province
and the building of a military town on the island of St. Simon, to be
called Frederica.
It was not until the 2d of March that the fleet of periaguas and boats,
with the newly arrived on board, set out from Tybee Roads for the mouth
of the Alatamaha. The voyage to the southward was accomplished in five
days. So diligently did the colonists labor, and so materially were
they assisted by workmen drawn from other parts of the province and
from Carolina, that by the 23d of the month Frederica had been laid
out, a battery of cannon commanding the river had been mounted, and a
fort almost completed. Its ditches had been dug, although not to the
required depth or width, and a rampart raised and covered with sod. A
storehouse, having a front of sixty feet, and designed to be three
stories in height, was finished as to its cellar and first story. The
main street which “went from the Front into the Country was 25 yards
wide. Each Freeholder had 60 Feet in Front by 90 Feet in depth upon the
high Street for their House and Garden; but those which fronted the
River had but 30 Feet 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 towards 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 instead of Canvas. There were 3 large Tents, two
belonging to Mr. Oglethorpe and one to Mr. Horton, pitched upon the
Parade near the River.” Such is the description of Frederica in its
infancy as furnished by Mr. Moore, whose _Voyage to Georgia_ is perhaps
the most interesting and valuable tract we possess descriptive of the
colonization of the southern portion of Georgia. That there might be
no confusion in their labors, Oglethorpe divided the colonists into
working parties. To some was assigned the duty of cutting forks,
poles, and laths for building the bowers; others set them up; others
still gathered palmetto leaves; while “a fourth gang,” under the
superintendence of a Jew workman, bred in Brazil and skilled in the
matter, thatched the roofs “nimbly and in a neat manner.”
Men accustomed to agriculture instructed the colonists in hoeing and
preparing the soil. Potatoes, Indian corn, flax, hemp-seed, barley,
turnips, lucern-grass, pumpkins, and water-melons were planted. Labor
was common, and inured to the general benefit of the community. As it
was rather too late in the season to till the ground fully and sow a
crop to yield sufficient to subsist the settlement for the current
year, many of the men were put upon pay and set to work upon the
fortifications and the public buildings.
Frederica, situated on the west side of St. Simon’s Island, on a bold
bluff confronting a bay formed by one of the mouths of the Alatamaha
River, was planned as a military town, and constructed with a view
to breasting the shock of hostile assaults. Its houses were to be
substantially built, not of wood as in Savannah, but of tabby. At an
early period its streets by their names proclaimed the presence of
men-at-arms, while its esplanade and parade-ground characterized it
as a permanent camp.[842] Including the camp on the north, the parade
on the east, and a small wood on the south which was to serve as a
blind in the event of an attack from ships coming up the river, the
settlement was about a mile and a half in circumference.
[Illustration
NOTE.—The map opposite, showing the coast from St. Augustine to
Charlestown (S. C.), is copied from one in vol. v. of the _Urlsperger
Tracts_. There is another plan of St. Simon’s Island in W. B. Stevens’s
_Georgia_. i. 186.]
The town proper was to be protected by embankment and ditch, and
places for two gates, called respectively the Town and Water posts,
were indicated. The citadel was to be made of tabby, and formidably
armed. In front, a water battery, mounting several eighteen-pounder
guns, was designed to command the river. It was contemplated to guard
the town on the land side by a formidable intrenchment, the exterior
ditch of which could be filled with water. As Savannah was intended
as the commercial metropolis of the province, so was Frederica to
constitute its southern outpost and strong defence. It soon became the
Thermopylæ of the southern Anglo-American Colonies, the headquarters of
Oglethorpe’s regiment, the depot of military supplies for the dependent
forts built at the south, and the strong rallying point for British
colonization in the direction of Florida. In the history of the colony
there is no brighter chapter, and in the eventful life of Oglethorpe
no more illustrious epoch, than that which commemorates the protracted
and successful struggle with the Spaniards for the retention of the
charming island of St. Simon. In 1737 Oglethorpe kissed His Majesty’s
hand on receiving his commission as colonel. He was also appointed
general and commander-in-chief of all His Majesty’s forces in South
Carolina and Georgia, that he might the more readily wield the military
power of the two provinces in their common defence.
The finances of the Trust were now in a depressed condition, and the
General was compelled to draw largely upon his private fortune and to
pledge his individual credit in conducting the operations necessary
for the security of the southern frontier, and in provisioning the
settlers. Matters were further complicated by the defalcation of Thomas
Causton, the first Magistrate of Savannah and Keeper of the public
stores. Silk culture, from which so much was anticipated, proved a
positive expense. There was no profit in the vine. Enfeebled by the
hot suns of summer, and afflicted with fevers and fluxes engendered by
malarial exhalations from the marish grounds, many of the inhabitants
lost heart and cried aloud for the introduction of African slavery.
Disappointed in their plans for the religious instruction of the
colonists and the conversion of the natives, the brothers John and
Charles Wesley had quitted the province. In the consummation of
his benevolent and educational scheme, the Rev. George Whitefield
was compelled to rely upon foreign aid. With the exception of the
Highlanders at Darien, the Salzburgers at Ebenezer, and the Indian
traders at Augusta, Georgia could not boast that her inhabitants were
either contented or prosperous. There was general clamor for fee-simple
title to lands, and permission to buy slaves was constantly urged.
The disaffected hesitated not to malign the authorities, to disquiet
the settlers, and to exaggerate the unpleasantness of the situation.
Fortunately the Indian nations remained peaceful; and in general
convention held at Coweta-town in August, 1739, in the presence of
Oglethorpe, they renewed their fealty to the King of Great Britain, and
in terms most explicit confirmed their previous grants of territory.
[Illustration: [Fac-simile of a plan of St. Augustine in Roberts’s
_Account of Florida_, London, 1763.—ED.]]
And now the Spanish war-cloud which had so long threatened the southern
confines of the province, seemed about to descend in wrath and power.
Acting under the discretionary powers confided to him, General
Oglethorpe resolved to anticipate the event by an invasion of Florida
and the reduction of St. Augustine,—the stronghold of Spanish dominion
in that province.
[Illustration: COAST OF FLORIDA.
Fac-simile of the plan in _An Impartial Account of the late Expedition
against St. Augustine under General Oglethorpe_. London, 1742.]
[Illustration: HARBOR AND TOWN OF ST. AUGUSTINE.
[Fac-simile of part of the map in _An Impartial Account of the late
Expedition against St. Augustine under General Oglethorpe, occasioned
by the suppression of the Report of the General Assembly of South
Carolina, with an exact plan of St. Augustine and the adjacent coast of
Florida, showing the disposition of our Forces_. London, 1742.—ED.]]
Collecting his regiment, summoning to his assistance forces from South
Carolina, and calling in his Indian allies, in May, 1740, with a mixed
army of rather more than two thousand men, he moved upon the capital
of Florida. In this expedition Sir Yelverton Peyton, with the British
vessels of war,—the “Flamborough,” the “Phœnix,” the “Squirrel,” the
“Tartar,” the “Spence,” and the “Wolf,”—was to participate. The castle
of St. Augustine consisted of a fort built of soft stone. Its curtain
was sixty yards in length, its parapet nine feet thick, and its rampart
twenty feet high, “casemated underneath for lodgings, and arched over
and newly made bombproof.” Its armament consisted of fifty cannon,
sixteen of brass, and among them some twenty-four pounders. For some
time had the garrison been working upon a covered way, but this was
still in an unfinished condition. The town was protected by a line of
intrenchments, with ten salient angles, in each of which field-pieces
were mounted. In January, 1740, the Spanish forces in Florida,
exclusive of Indians and one company of militia, were estimated at
nine hundred and sixty-five men of all arms. As foreshadowed in his
dispatch of the 27th of March, 1740, it was the intention of General
Oglethorpe to advance directly upon St. Augustine, and attack by sea
and land the town and the island in its front. Both, he believed, could
be taken “sword in hand.” Conceiving that the castle would be too small
to afford convenient shelter for the two thousand one hundred men,
women, and children of the town, he regarded the capitulation of the
fortress as not improbable. Should it refuse to surrender, he proposed
to shower upon it “Granado-shells from the Coehorns and Mortars,”
and other projectiles. If it should not yield under the bombardment,
he was resolved to open trenches and reduce it by a regular siege.
The result was a disastrous failure. This miscarriage may be fairly
attributed,—first, to the delay in inaugurating the movement, caused
mainly, if not entirely, by the tardiness on the part of the South
Carolina authorities in contributing the troops, munitions, and
provisions for which requisition had been made; in the second place, to
the reinforcement of men and supplies from Havana introduced into St.
Augustine just before the English expedition set out, thereby repairing
the inequality previously existing between the opposing forces; again,
to the injudicious movements against Forts Francis de Papa and Diego,
which put the Spaniards upon the alert, encouraged concentration on
their part, and foreshadowed an immediate demonstration in force
against their stronghold; and to the inability on the part of the
fleet to participate in the assault previously planned, and which was
to have been vigorously undertaken so soon as General Oglethorpe with
his land forces came into position before the walls of St. Augustine.
Finally, the subsequent surprise and destruction of Colonel Palmer’s
command, thereby enabling the enemy to communicate with and draw
supplies from the interior; the lack of heavy ordnance with which to
reduce the castle from the batteries planted on Anastasia island;
the impossibility of bringing up the larger war vessels that they
might participate in the bombardment; the inefficiency of Colonel
Vanderdussen’s command; the impatience and disappointment of the Indian
allies, who anticipated early capture and liberal spoils; as well
as hot suns, heavy dews, a debilitating climate, sickness among the
troops, and the arrival of men, munitions of war, and provisions from
Havana through the Matanzas River,—all conspired to render futile
whatever hopes at the outset had been entertained for a successful
prosecution of the siege.
Although this attempt—so formidable in its character when we consider
the limited resources at command, and so full of daring when we
contemplate the circumstances under which it was prosecuted—resulted
in disappointment, its effects were not without decided advantage to
Georgia and her sister colonies. For two years the Spaniards remained
on the defensive. During that time General Oglethorpe enjoyed an
opportunity for strengthening his fortifications and increasing his
army; so that when the counter blow was delivered by his adversary, he
was the better prepared not only to parry it, but also to punish the
uplifted arm.
During the preceding seven years, which constituted the entire life
of the colony, Oglethorpe had enjoyed no respite from his labors.
Personally directing all movements; supervising the location and
providing for the comfort, safety, and good order of the colonists
as they arrived from time to time; reconciling their differences,
encouraging and directing their labors; propitiating the aborigines,
influencing necessary supplies, inaugurating suitable defences, and
enforcing the regulations of the Trustees,—he had passed constantly
from point to point, finding no rest. Upon his shoulders, as the
Trustees’ representative and as a _de facto_ colonial governor, did
the administration of the affairs of the province rest. Now in tent
at Savannah; now in open boat reconnoitring the coast, now upon the
southern islands, his only shelter the wide-spreading live-oak,
designating sites for forts and lookouts, and with his own hands
planning military works and laying out villages; again journeying
frequently along the Savannah, the Great Ogeechee, the Alatamaha, the
St. John, and far off into the heart of the Indian country; often
inspecting his advanced posts; undertaking voyages to Charlestown and
to England in behalf of the Trust, and engaged in severe contests
with the Spaniards,—his life had been one of incessant activity and
solicitude. But for his energy, intelligence, watchfulness, valor,
and self-sacrifice, the important enterprise must have languished. As
we look back upon this period of trial, uncertainty, and poverty, our
admiration for his achievements increases the more closely we scan his
limited resources and opportunities, the more thoroughly we appreciate
the difficulties he was called upon to surmount.
There was a lull in the storm; but the skies were still overcast. In
the distance were heard ominous mutterings portending the advent of
another and a darker tempest. Anxious but calm, Oglethorpe scanned
the adverse skies and prepared to breast their fury. In alluding to
the expected invasion from St. Augustine, he thus writes to the Duke
of Newcastle: “If our men-of-war will not keep them from coming in by
sea, and we have no succor, but decrease daily by different accidents,
all we can do will be to die bravely in His Majesty’s service.... I
have often desired assistance of the men-of-war, and continue to do
so. I go on in fortifying this town [Frederica], making magazines, and
doing everything I can to defend the province vigorously; and I hope my
endeavors will be approved of by His Majesty, since the whole end of my
life is to do the duty of a faithful subject and grateful servant.”
Late in June, 1742, a Spanish fleet of fifty-one sail, with nearly five
thousand troops on board, under the command of Don Manuel de Monteano,
governor of St. Augustine, bore down upon the Georgia coast with a view
to the capture of the island of St. Simon and the destruction of the
English plantation south of the Savannah. To resist this formidable
descent, General Oglethorpe could oppose only a few small forts, about
six hundred and fifty men, a guard schooner, and some armed sloops.
With a bravery and dash almost beyond comprehension, by strategy most
admirable, Oglethorpe by a masterly disposition of the troops at
command, coupled with the timidity of the invaders and the dissensions
which arose in their ranks, before the middle of July put the entire
Spanish army and navy to flight. This “deliverance of Georgia,” said
Whitefield, “is such as cannot be paralleled but by some instances out
of the Old Testament.” The defeat of so formidable an expedition by
such a handful of men was a matter of astonishment to all. The memory
of this defence of St. Simon’s Island and the southern frontier is one
of the proudest in the annals of Georgia. Never again did the Spaniards
attempt to put in execution their oft-repeated threat to extirpate all
the English plantations south of Port-Royal Sound. Sullenly and with
jealous eye did they watch the development of Georgia, until twenty-one
years afterwards all disputes were ended by the cession of Florida
to the Crown of Great Britain. Upon the confirmation of the Peace of
Aix-la-Chapelle most of the English troops were withdrawn from the
island of St. Simon, and its fortifications soon began to fall into
decay.
Georgia at this time consisted of only two counties, Savannah and
Frederica. In April, 1741, Colonel William Stephens, who for several
years had been acting in the colony as secretary to the Trustees,
was by them appointed president of the county of Savannah. In the
administration of public affairs he was aided by four assistants. As
General Oglethorpe, who was charged with the direction and management
of the entire province, spent most of his time at Frederica, the
designation of a presiding officer for that division of Georgia was
regarded as superfluous. Bailiffs were constituted, whose duty it
was, under the immediate supervision of the General, to attend to
the concerns of that county. At Augusta, Captain Richard Kent acted
as “conservator to keep the peace in that town and in the precincts
thereof.” Upon the return of General Oglethorpe to England, in order to
provide for the government of the entire colony the Trustees decided
that the president and assistants who had been appointed for the county
of Savannah should be proclaimed president and assistants for the
whole province, and that the bailiffs at Frederica should be considered
simply as local magistrates. They further advised that the salary of
the recorder at Frederica be raised, and that he correspond regularly
with the president and assistants in Savannah, transmitting to them
from time to time the proceedings of the town court, and rendering an
account of such transactions and occurrences in the southern part of
the province as it might be necessary for them to know. Thus, upon
the departure of General Oglethorpe, the honest-minded and venerable
Colonel William Stephens succeeded to the office of colonial governor.
It was during his administration that the Trustees, influenced by
repeated petitions and anxious to promote the prosperity of the
province, removed the restrictions hitherto existing with regard
to the introduction, use, and ownership of negro slaves, and the
importation of rum and other distilled liquors. They also permitted
existing tenures of land “to be enlarged and extended to an absolute
inheritance.”
In bringing about the abrogation of the regulation which forbade the
ownership or employment of negro slaves in Georgia, no two gentlemen
were more influential than the Rev. George Whitefield and the Hon.
James Habersham. The former boldly asserted that the transportation of
the African from his home of barbarism to a Christian land, where he
would be humanely treated and required to perform his share of toil
common to the lot of humanity, was advantageous; while the latter
affirmed that the colony could not prosper without the intervention
of slave-labor. Georgia now enjoyed like privileges with those
accorded to the sister American provinces. Lands could now be held in
fee-simple, and the power of alienation was unrestricted. The ownership
and employment of negro slaves were free to all, and the New England
manufacturer could here find an open market for his rum.
The Trustees had up to this point seriously misinterpreted the
capabilities of the climate and soil of Georgia. Although substantial
encouragement had been afforded to Mr. Amatis, to Jacques Camuse,
to the Salzburgers at Ebenezer, and to others; although copper
basins and reeling-machines had been supplied and a filature
erected; although silk-worm eggs were procured and mulberry trees
multiplied,—silk-culture in Georgia yielded only a harvest of
disappointment. The vine also languished. Olive trees from Venice,
barilla seeds from Spain, the kali from Egypt, and other exotics
obtained at much expense, after a short season withered and died in the
public garden. Hemp and flax, from the cultivation of which such rich
yields were anticipated, never warranted the charter of a single vessel
for their transportation, and indigo did not then commend itself to
public favor. Exportations of lumber were infrequent. Cotton was then
little more than a garden plant, and white laborers could not compete
successfully with Carolina negroes in the production of rice. Up to
this point the battle had been with Nature for life and subsistence.
Upon the stores of the Trust did many long rely for food and clothing.
Of trade there was little, and that was confined to the procurement
of necessaries. With the exception of occasional shipments of copper
money for circulation among the inhabitants, sola bills constituted the
chief currency of the province. Now, however, all restrictions removed,
Georgia entered upon a career of comparative prosperity.
[Illustration: WHITEFIELD.
This cut (see also the _Memorial History of Boston_, ii. 238) follows a
painting in Memorial Hall, Cambridge, Mass. The portraits of Whitefield
are numerous. J. C. Smith (_British Mezzotint Portraits_, i. 442, 443;
iii. 601, 692, 939; iv. 1545) enumerates various ones in that style,
giving a photo-reproduction of one. The Lives of him usually give
likenesses.]
On the 8th of April, 1751, Mr. Henry Parker was appointed president of
the colony in the room of Colonel Stephens, who retired upon a pension
of £80. During his administration the first Provincial Assembly of
Georgia convened at Savannah. It was composed of sixteen delegates,
and was presided over by Francis Harris. As the privilege of enacting
laws was by the terms of the charter vested exclusively in the
Trustees, this assembly could not legislate. Its powers were limited
to discussing and suggesting such measures as its members might deem
conducive to the welfare of particular communities and important for
the general good of the province.
The “Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America”
resolved to surrender their charter and relieve themselves from the
further execution of a trust which had grown quite beyond their
management. For twenty years they had supported its provisions with
an earnest solicitude, a philanthropic zeal, a disinterested purpose,
and a loyal devotion worthy of every commendation. They had seen a
feeble plantation upon Yamacraw Bluff expand year by year, until it
now assumed the proportions of a permanent colony and disclosed the
potentialities of a future nation. The English drum-beat on the banks
of the Savannah is answered by the Highland bagpipe on the Alatamaha,
and the protecting guns of Frederica are supplemented by the sentinel
field-pieces at Augusta. At every stage of progress and in every act,
whether trivial or important, these Trustees, capable and worthy,
evinced a clear conception of duty, a patience of labor, a singleness
of purpose, an unselfish dedication of time and energy, and a rigid
adherence to all that was pure, elevated, and humanizing, which become
quite conspicuous when their proceedings are minutely and intelligently
scanned. That they erred in their judgment in regard to the best method
of utilizing many of these marish lands, smitten by sun and storms
and pregnant with fevers and fluxes, may not now be doubted; that the
theory upon which they administered the trust was in some respects
narrow and retarding in its influences, is equally certain; that they
were unfortunate in the selection of some of their agents excites no
surprise,—but that they were upright, conscientious, observant, and
most anxious to promote the best interests of the colony, as they
comprehended them, will be freely admitted.
The surrender of the charter was formally concluded on the 23d of June,
1752; and Georgia, no longer the ward of the Trustees, passed into
the hands of the Crown. Until clothed with the attributes of State
sovereignty by the successful issue of the American Revolution, she was
recognized as one of the daughters of England under the special charge
of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations. By the terms of
the surrender, her integrity as an independent province, separate from
South Carolina, was fully assured, and all grants of land, hitherto
made to the inhabitants, were recognized and respected.
Upon the death of Mr. Parker, Patrick Graham succeeded to the
presidency of Georgia. Until a plan for establishing a civil government
could be perfected, all officers, both civil and military, holding
appointments from the Trustees, were continued in their respective
places of trust, with such emoluments, salaries, and fees as were
incident thereto. The population of the colony now consisted of two
thousand three hundred and eighty-one whites, and one thousand and
sixty-six negro slaves. This estimate did not include His Majesty’s
troops and boatmen, or a congregation of two hundred and eighty whites,
with negro slaves aggregating five hundred and thirty-six, coming
from South Carolina and partially settled in the Midway District, or
Butler’s Colony with sixty slaves.
The plan suggested by the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations
for the establishment of a civil government in Georgia contemplated the
appointment of a governor, by commission under the Great Seal, with
the title of _Captain-General and Governor-in-chief of His Majesty’s
Province of Georgia, and Vice-Admiral of the same_. He was to be
addressed as _Your Excellency_, and was, within the colony, to be
respected as the immediate and highest representative of His Majesty.
His functions, as well as those of the two Houses of the Assembly, were
well defined.[843]
The plan thus submitted for the government of the Province of Georgia
received royal sanction; and His Majesty, upon the nomination of the
Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, was pleased, on the
6th of August, 1754, to appoint Captain John Reynolds governor of the
Province of Georgia; William Clifton, Esq., attorney-general; James
Habersham, Esq., secretary and register; Alexander Kellet, Esq.,
provost-marshal; William Russel, Esq., naval officer; Henry Yonge and
William De Brahm joint surveyors; Sir Patrick Houstoun, Bart., register
of grants and receiver of quit rents; and Patrick Graham, Sir Patrick
Houstoun, James Habersham, Alexander Kellet, William Clifton, Noble
Jones, Pickering Robinson, Francis Harris, Jonathan Bryan, William
Russell, and Clement Martin members of Council.
When during the same year (1754) the other English colonies sent
delegates to represent them at the Congress of Albany, in order to
draft a plan of union against the French, Georgia filled so narrow a
space in the regard of the other colonies that her failure to join in
the proposed league was hardly remarked.
Only three Royal Governors did Georgia have. The terms of service
of Captain Reynolds and of Henry Ellis were short. Assuming the
reins of government in 1760, the third and last Royal Governor, Sir
James Wright, encountered the storms of the Revolution, and in a
brave adherence to the cause of his royal master suffered arrest,
mortification, and loss. It was his lot to preside at an epoch full of
doubt and trouble. During his administration the political ties which
united Georgia to the mother country were violently sundered, and a
union of American colonies was formed, which in after years developed
into the great Republic. The rapid development of Georgia under the
conduct of these royal governors will be admitted when it is remembered
that in 1754 her exports did not amount to £30,000 a year; while,
at the opening of the Revolutionary War, they did not fall short of
£200,000 sterling.
CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION.
GEORGIA was named in honor of the reigning king of England, George II.,
who graciously sanctioned a charter, liberal in its provisions, and who
granted to the Trustees a territory, extensive and valuable, for the
plantation.
In a report submitted to Congress by the Hon. Charles Lee,
attorney-general of the United States (Philadelphia, 1796), will be
found a valuable collection of charters, treaties, and documents
explanatory of the original cession to the “Trustees for establishing
the Colony of Georgia in America,” and of the modifications and
enlargements to which the same was later subjected. The territory
which, in 1733, became the Province of Georgia at an earlier day
formed a part of ancient Florida, which stretched in the Spanish
conception from the Gulf of Mexico to the far north and westward to the
Mississippi and indefinitely beyond.
It has fallen to the lot of another writer in the present work to
mention the authorities on the primitive peoples of this region; and
by still another an enumeration is made of the archæological traces of
their life.[844]
* * * * *
The project of Sir Robert Mountgomery for planting a colony in the
territory subsequently ceded to the Georgia Trustees is fully unfolded
in his _Discourse concerning the design’d Establishment of a New
Colony to the South of Carolina in the most delightful Country of
the Universe_, London, 1717.[845] Accompanying this _Discourse_ is
an engraved “plan representing the Form of Settling the Districts
or County Divisions in the Margravate of Azilia.”[846] Although
extensively advertised, this scheme failed to attract the favor of the
public, and ended in disappointment.
The true story of the mission of Sir Alexander Cuming, of
Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to establish a trade with the Cherokees, and
confirm them in their friendship with and allegiance to the British
crown, has been well told by Samuel G. Drake in his _Early History of
Georgia, embracing the Embassy of Sir Alexander Cuming to the Country
of the Cherokees in the year 1730_, Boston, 1872. A reproduction of
the rare print giving the portraits of the Indians who accompanied
Sir Alexander on his return to London might have been advantageously
employed in lending additional attraction to this publication.[847]
[Illustration: HANDWRITING OF OGLETHORPE.]
Of the memoirs of Oglethorpe,—whose life Dr. Johnson desired to
write, and whom Edmund Burke regarded as the most extraordinary
person of whom he had read, because he founded a province and lived
to see it severed from the empire which created it and erected into
an independent State,—those best known are _A Sketch of the Life of
General James Oglethorpe, presented to the Georgia Historical Society
by Thomas Spalding, Esq., resident member of the same_, printed in
1840; _Biographical Memorials of James Oglethorpe, Founder of the
Colony of Georgia in North America, by Thaddeus Mason Harris, D. D._,
Boston, 1841;[848] _Life of James Oglethorpe, the Founder of Georgia,
by William B. O. Peabody_, constituting a part of volume ii. of the
second series of _The Library of American Biography, conducted by Jared
Sparks_, Boston, 1847, and based mainly upon Dr. Harris’ work; and _A
Memoir of General James Oglethorpe, one of the earliest Reformers of
Prison Discipline in England and the Founder of Georgia in America, by
Robert Wright_, London, 1867. The advantages enjoyed by Mr. Wright were
exceptionally good, and until the appearance of his memoir that by Dr.
Harris was justly regarded as the best.[849]
That the public might be advised of the benevolent character and scope
of the undertaking, and might be made acquainted with the designs of
the Trustees with regard to the proposed colonization of Georgia, two
tracts were published with their sanction: one of them, prepared by
Oglethorpe, entitled _A New and Accurate Account of the Provinces of
South Carolina and Georgia, with many curious and useful Observations
on the Trade, Navigation, and Plantations of Great Britain compared
with her most powerful Maritime Neighbors in ancient and modern Times_,
printed in London in 1732;[850] and the other, written by Benjamin
Martyn, Secretary of the Board, entitled _Reasons for establishing
the Colony of Georgia with regard to the Trade of Great Britain,
the Increase of our People, and the Employment and Support it will
afford to great numbers of our own Poor as well as Foreign persecuted
Protestants, with some account of the Country and the Designs of the
Trustees_, London, 1733.[851] Well considered and widely circulated,
these tracts were productive of results most beneficial to the
Trust.[852]
The development of the province down to 1741 is described and the
regulations promulgated by the Trustees for the conduct of the
plantation and for the observance of its inhabitants are preserved in
_An Account shewing the Progress of the Colony of Georgia in America
from its First Establishment_, London, 1741. This publication was by
authority, and must be accepted as of the highest importance.[853]
Of like interest and value are _An Impartial Enquiry into the State
and Utility of the Province of Georgia_, London, 1741,—appearing
anonymously,[854] but with the sanction of the Trustees, and intended
to correct certain mischievous reports circulated with regard to the
health of the plantation, the fertility of the soil, the value of the
products, and the disabilities under which Georgia labored because of
restricted land tenures, and by reason of the regulations prohibiting
the introduction and use of spirituous liquors and negro slaves; and
_A State of the Province of Georgia attested upon Oath in the Court
of Savannah, November 10, 1740_, London, 1742,—in which the superior
advantages of Georgia, her resources and capabilities, are favorably
considered and proclaimed.
The history of the Salzburgers in Georgia may be learned from _An
Extract of the Journals of Mr. Commissary Von Reck, who conducted the
First Transport of Salzburgers to Georgia; and of the Reverend Mr.
Bolzius, one of their Ministers, giving an Account of their Voyage to
and happy Settlement in the Province, published by the Directors of
the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge_, London, 1734;[855]
from _Neuste und richtigste Nachricht von der Landschaft Georgia
in dem Engelländischen America, etc., von J. M. R._, Göttingen,
1746;[856] from _De Præstantia Coloniæ Georgico-Anglicanæ præ
Coloniis aliis_,[857] et seq., by Joannes Augustus Urlspergerus;
from the _Urlsperger Tracts_, which present with wonderful fidelity
and minuteness of details all events connected with the Salzburger
settlements in America;[858] and from the _Salzburgers and their
Descendants, being the history of a Colony of German Lutheran
Protestants who emigrated to Georgia in 1734, and settled at Ebenezer,
twenty-five miles above the City of Savannah, by P. A. Strobel_,
Baltimore, 1855.[859]
To the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ and to the _London Magazine_ must
recourse be had for valuable letters and contemporaneous documents
descriptive of the colonization of Georgia and the development of the
plantation.
There is in Section xxi. of Chapter iii. of the second volume of
_Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, or a Complete Collection
of Voyages and Travels_, etc., by John Harris (London, 1748), a
“History of the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Colony of
Georgia.” It is prefaced by an excellent map of the province, and is
fortified by illustrative documents. In its twenty-five quarto pages
are embraced all the noted incidents connected with the early life
of the colony and the successful efforts of General Oglethorpe in
defending the southern frontier of Georgia against the assaults of the
Spaniards. The value of this contribution cannot well be overestimated.
Another work of genuine merit, acquainting us specially with the
condition of Savannah and the adjacent region, with the settlement of
Frederica, and with those preliminary negotiations which resulted in a
postponement of impending hostilities between Georgia and Florida, is
_A Voyage to Georgia begun in the year 1735_, etc., by Francis Moore,
London, 1744.[860]
A most detailed statement of the affairs and events of the province
will be found in the three octavo volumes constituting the diary
of Colonel William Stephens, for some time resident Secretary
in Georgia of the Trustees, and, upon the departure of General
Oglethorpe, advanced to the responsible position of President of the
colony,—entitled _A Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia beginning
October 20th, 1737_, which was printed in London in 1742.[861] Of
this work but a limited edition was published by the Trustees, and a
complete copy is very difficult to find. While its pages are cumbered
with many trivial matters, this rare _Journal_ is remarkable for
accuracy of statement and minuteness of details. Its author was at
the time far advanced in years, and his narrative is not infrequently
colored by his peculiar religious and political notions. He was a firm
friend of the colony, an honest servant of the Trust, and in all things
most obedient and loyal to his king. Retired upon a pension of £80, he
spent his last years on his plantation, near the mouth of Vernon River,
which he called Bewlie [Beaulieu] because of a fancied resemblance to
the manor of the Duke of Montague in the New Forest. There, about the
middle of August, 1753, he died.
In the Executive Department of the State of Georgia may be seen the
original MS. folio volume containing _A general account of all monies
and effects received and expended by the Trustees for establishing the
Colony of Georgia in America_ (June 9, 1732-June 9, 1752), the names
of the benefactors, and the sums contributed and the articles given by
them in aid of the Trust. This carefully written and unique volume,
the entries, charges, and discharges of which are certified by Harman
Verelst,—accountant to the Trustees,—exhibits a complete statement
of the finances of the Trust from its inception to the time of the
surrender of the charter.[862]
The fullest reports of the demonstration of General Oglethorpe against
St. Augustine are contained in _An Impartial Account of the Expedition
against St. Augustine under General Oglethorpe, occasioned by the
suppression of the Report made by a Committee of the General Assembly
in South Carolina, transmitted under the great seal of that Province
to their Agent in England in order to be printed: with an exact Plan
of the Town, Castle, and Harbour of St. Augustine and the adjacent
Coast of Florida; shewing the Disposition of our Forces on that
Enterprize_, London, 1741;[863] in _The Report of the Committee of
both Houses of Assembly of the Province of South Carolina appointed to
enquire into the causes of the Disappointment of success in the late
Expedition against St. Augustine under command of General Oglethorpe,
published by the order of both Houses_, Charlestown, S. C., and London,
1743;[864] and in _The Spanish Hireling detected, being a Refutation
of the Several Calumnies and Falsehoods in a late Pamphlet entitul’d
An Impartial Account of the Late Expedition against St. Augustine
under General Oglethorpe, by George Cadogan, Lieutenant in General
Oglethorpe’s Regiment_, etc., London, 1743.[865] Grievous was the
disappointment at the failure of the expedition; unjust and harsh
were the criticisms upon its leader. “One man there is, my Lords,”
said the Duke of Argyle in the British House of Peers, “whose natural
generosity, contempt of danger, and regard for the public prompted him
to obviate the designs of the Spaniards and to attack them in their own
territories: a man whom by long acquaintance I can confidently affirm
to have been equal to his undertaking, and to have learned the art of
war by a regular education, who yet miscarried in the design only for
want of supplies necessary to success.”[866]
Of his successful repulse of the Spanish attack upon the island of
St. Simon, the most spirited narratives are furnished in General
Oglethorpe’s official report of the 30th of July, 1742, printed in
the 3d volume of the _Collections of the Georgia Historical Society_;
in the letter of John Smith (who, on board the war vessel “Success,”
participated in the naval engagement), written from Charlestown,
South Carolina, on the 14th of July, 1742, and printed in the _Daily
Advertiser_; and in a communication on file in the Public Record Office
in London among the Shaftesbury Papers.[867]
That harmony did not always obtain among the Georgia colonists,
and that disagreements between the governing and the governed were
sometimes most pronounced, must be admitted. While the Trustees
endeavored to promote the development of the plantation and to
assure the public of the progress of the province, malcontents there
were, who thwarted their plans, questioned the expediency of their
regulations, and openly declared that their misrule and the partiality
of the Trust’s servants were the prolific causes of disquietude and
disaster. That General Oglethorpe may, at times, have been dictatorial
in his administration of affairs is quite probable; and yet it must
be admitted that, amid the dangers which environed and the disturbing
influences which beset the development of the province, an iron will
and a strong arm were indispensable for its guidance and protection.
The publication, in the interest of the Trust, of the two pamphlets
to which we have alluded, one entitled _An Impartial Inquiry into the
State and Utility of the Province of Georgia_, London, 1741,[868] and
the other, _A State of the Province of Georgia attested upon Oath in
the Court of Savannah, November 10, 1740_, London, 1742,[869]—both
exhibiting favorable views of the condition of the colony and
circulated in furtherance of the scheme of colonization,—so irritated
these malcontents that they indulged in several rejoinders, among which
will be remembered _A Brief Account of the Causes that have retarded
the Progress of the Colony of Georgia in America, attested upon oath:
being a proper Contrast to A State of the Province of Georgia attested
upon oath and some other misrepresentations on the same subject_,
London, 1743.[870] The magistrates, both at Savannah and Frederica,
were therein declared to be oppressors of the inhabitants. General
Oglethorpe was accused of tyranny and partiality. It will be observed
that most of the supporting affidavits were verified outside the limits
of Georgia. A desire to sell forbidden articles, and to ply trades for
which special licenses had been issued to others; opposition to the
regulation which prohibited the owners of cattle and hogs from allowing
them to run at large on the common and in the streets of Frederica;
alleged misfeasance in the conduct of bailiffs and magistrates in the
discharge of their duties; the unprofitableness of labor, overbearing
acts committed by those in authority, and similar matters, formed
the burthen of these sworn complaints. While they tended to distract
the public mind and to annoy those upon whose shoulders rested the
provincial government, they fortunately failed in producing any serious
impression either within the colony or in the mother country.
Another Jacobinical tract was that prepared and published at the
instigation of Dr. Patrick Tailfer,—a thorn in the side of General
Oglethorpe, to whom, under the signature of “The Plain Dealer,” he
addressed a communication upon colonial affairs full of complaint,
condemnation, and sarcasm. He was the chief of a club of malcontents
in Savannah, whose conduct became so notorious that they were forced,
in September, 1740, to quit the province and seek refuge in South
Carolina. When thus beyond the jurisdiction of Georgia, in association
with Hugh Anderson, David Douglass, and others, he caused to be printed
a scurrilous tract entitled _A True and Historical Narrative of the
Colony of Georgia in America from the first Settlement thereof until
the present period_, etc., Charles-Town, South Carolina, 1741.[871]
The epistle dedicatory is addressed to General Oglethorpe, and is full
of venom. Craving rum, negro slaves, and fee-simple titles to land,
such disaffected colonists hesitated not to malign the authorities,
disquiet the settlers, and belie the true condition of affairs. Georgia
was then in an embarrassed and impoverished situation. Her population
was increasing but slowly. Labor was scarcely remunerative. Onerous
were some of the regulations of the Trustees, and the Spanish war cloud
was darkening the southern confines of the province. The impression,
however, which Dr. Tailfer and his associates sought to convey of
the status of the colony was exaggerated, spiteful, and without
warrant.[872]
The visit of Tomo-chi-chi and his retinue to England is described
in contemporaneous numbers of the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ and of the
_London Magazine_. It was also commemorated in what is now rarely seen,
_Georgia a Poem_; _Tomo-cha-chi, an Ode_; _A copy of verses on Mr.
Oglethorpe’s second voyage to Georgia_, “_Facies non omnibus una, nec
diversa tamen_,” London, 1736. Twenty-two years afterwards appeared
_Tombo-chi-qui or The American Savage, a Dramatic Entertainment
in Three Acts_, London, 1758. Although printed anonymously, it is
generally attributed to Cleland. The poet Freneau, at a later date,
composed an ode to _The Dying Indian Tomo-chequi_. In the _Gentleman’s
Magazine_, vol. x. p. 129, is an interesting letter describing the last
moments and sepulture of this noted Mico. In his _Historical Sketch of
Tomo-chi-chi, Mico of the Yamacraws_, Albany, 1868, the author of these
notes endeavored to present all that is known of this distinguished
chief, to whose friendship and aid the Colony of Georgia was indebted
in a remarkable degree.
It was the custom of the Trustees to assemble annually and listen to
a sermon delivered in commendation of the benevolent scheme in which
they were engaged. Some of these discourses possess historical value,
although most of them are simply moral essays.[873]
In December, 1837, the General Assembly of Georgia empowered the
governor of the State to select a competent person to procure from
the government offices in London copies of all records and documents
respecting the settlement and illustrating the colonial life of
Georgia. The Rev. Charles Wallace Howard was entrusted with the
execution of this mission. He returned with copies of documents filling
twenty-two folio volumes. Fifteen of these were made from the originals
on file in the office of the Board of Trade, six from those in the
State Paper Office, and the remaining volume consisted of copies of
important documents included in the king’s library.[874] These MS.
volumes are preserved in the state library at Atlanta. While they
embrace many of the communications, regulations, reports, treaties,
and documents illustrative of the colonial life of Georgia, they do
not exhaust the treasures of the Public Record Office and the British
Museum.
In private hands in England are several original MS. volumes, connected
with the colonization of Georgia and detailing the acts and resolutions
of the Trustees. Prominent among them are two quarto volumes, closely
written in the neat, small, round hand of John Percival, the first Earl
of Egmont and the first president of the Board of Trustees, containing
the original manuscript records of the meetings of the Trustees for
establishing the Colony of Georgia in America from June 14th, 1738, to
the 24th of May, 1744.[875] They contain also an index of proceedings,
June, 1737, to June, 1738, together with some memoranda relating to
the proceedings of 1745-46. It is probable that there were antecedent
volumes, but they are not now known.
In the Department of State, and in the Executive Department of Georgia,
are some documents of great historical interest connected with the
English colonization of Georgia. The _Historical Collections_ of the
Georgia Historical Society,[876] in four volumes, contain reprints
of many of the early tracts already referred to, and other papers
illustrative of Georgia history.[877]
In the library of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, there
is a folio MS. in excellent preservation, entitled _History of the
three Provinces, South Carolina, Georgia, and East Florida_, by John
Gerard William de Brahm, surveyor-general of the southern provinces
of North America, then under the dominion of Great Britain, and
illustrated by over twenty maps and plans. The portion relating to
Georgia was, in 1849, edited and printed with extreme accuracy and
typographical elegance by Mr. George Wymberley-Jones, of Savannah.
The edition was limited to forty-nine copies. Six of the eight
maps appertaining to Georgia were engraved.[878] This publication
constitutes the second of Mr. Jones’ “Wormsloe quartos,”[879] and is
justly esteemed not only for its typography and rarity, but also for
its historical value. To the engineering skill of Captain de Brahm was
Georgia indebted for many important surveys and military defenses.
Through his instrumentality were large accessions made to the German
population between Savannah and New Ebenezer.
Of the legislative acts passed by the general assemblies of Georgia
during the continuance of the royal government, many are retained in
the digests of Robert and George Watkins (Philadelphia, 1800), and
of Marbury and Crawford. Aware of the fact that numerous omissions
existed, Mr. George Wymberley-Jones De Renne caused diligent search
to be made in the Public Record Office in London for all acts
originating in Georgia which, having received royal sanction, were
there filed. Exact copies of them were then obtained; but Mr. De
Renne’s death occurred before he had compassed his purpose of printing
the transcripts. His widow, Mrs. Mary De Renne, carried out his design
and committed the editing of them to Charles C. Jones, Jr., LL. D.
The result was a superb quarto, entitled _Acts passed by the General
Assembly of the Colony of Georgia, 1755 to 1774, now first printed_.
_Wormsloe._ 1881. The edition was limited to forty-nine copies. In
this volume appears no act which had hitherto found its way into type.
During the period covered by this legislation, James Johnston was the
public printer in Savannah. By him were many of the acts, passed by the
various assemblies, first printed,—sometimes simply as broadsides, and
again in thin quarto pamphlets. William Ewen, who, at a later date, was
president of the Council of Safety, carefully preserved these printed
acts, and caused them to be bound in a volume which lies before us.
The MS. index is in his handwriting. It is the only complete copy of
these colonial laws, printed contemporaneously with their passage,
of which we have any knowledge. James Johnston was also the editor
and printer of the _Georgia Gazette_, the only newspaper published
in Georgia prior to and during the Revolution. In the office of the
Secretary of State in Atlanta are preserved the engrossed original acts
passed by the colonial General Assemblies of Georgia. The sanction of
the home government was requisite to impart vitality to such acts. As
soon, therefore, as they had received the approval of the Governor in
Council, the seal of the colony was attached to duplicate originals.
One was lodged with the proper officer in Savannah, and the other was
forwarded for the consideration of the Lords Commissioners for Trade
and Plantations. When by them approved, this duplicate original,
properly indorsed, was filed in London. Detaching the colonial seal
seems to have been the final attestation of royal sanction. Of the
action of the home government the colonial authorities were notified in
due course.
* * * * *
With regard to the sojourn of Rev. John Wesley in Georgia, of
his designs and anticipations in visiting the colony, and of the
disappointments there experienced, we have perhaps the fullest
memoranda in a little undated volume entitled _An extract of the
Rev. Mr. John Wesley’s Journal from his embarking for Georgia to his
return to London_, Bristol; printed by S. and F. Farley. It gives his
own interpretation of the events, trials, and disappointments which
induced him so speedily to abandon a field of labor in which he had
anticipated much pleasure and success.[880] In a tract published in
London in 1741, called _An Account of money received and disbursed
for the Orphan House in Georgia_, the Rev. George Whitefield submits a
full exhibit of all expenditures made up to that time in the erection
and support of that institution. To it is prefixed a plan of the
building.[881] His efforts to convert it into a college are unfolded
in _A Letter to his Excellency Governor Wright_, printed in London,
1768. Appended to this is the correspondence which passed between him
and the Archbishop of Canterbury. This tract is illustrated by plans
and elevations of the present and intended structures, and by a plat of
the Orphan House lands. There are sermons of this eloquent divine in
aid of this charity, and journals of journeys and voyages undertaken
while employed in soliciting subscriptions. His friend and companion,
the Hon. James Habersham, has left valuable letters explanatory of the
scope and administration of this eleemosynary project. William Bartram,
who visited Bethesda in 1765, wrote a pleasant description of it.[882]
Among the histories of Georgia we may mention:—
_An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies of
South Carolina and Georgia_, London, 1779,[883] in two volumes, octavo.
Although published anonymously, these volumes are known to have been
written by the Rev. Alexander Hewitt,[884] a Presbyterian clergyman and
a resident of Charlestown, South Carolina, who returned to England when
he perceived that an open rupture between the Crown and the thirteen
American Colonies was imminent. While in this work the colonial history
of Georgia is given at some length, the attention of the author was
mainly occupied with the establishment and growth of the Province of
Carolina. His labors ended with the dawn of the Revolution.
To _A View of the Constitution of the British Colonies in North
America and the West Indies at the time the Civil War broke out on the
Continent of America_, by Anthony Stokes, his Majesty’s Chief Justice
in Georgia, London, 1783, we must refer for the most intelligent
history of the civil and judicial conduct of affairs in Georgia during
the continuance of the royal government.
Soon after the formation of the general government Mr. Edward
Langworthy—at first a pupil and then a teacher at Whitefield’s Orphan
House, afterwards an enthusiastic “Liberty Boy,” Secretary of the
Provincial Congress of Georgia, and one of the early representatives
from that State in the Confederated Congress—conceived the design
of writing a history of Georgia. Of fair attainments, and personally
acquainted with the leading men and transactions of the period, he
was well qualified for the task, and addressed himself with energy
to the collection of materials requisite for the undertaking. From a
published prospectus of the work, printed in the _Georgia Gazette_, we
are led to believe that this history was actually written. Suitable
encouragement not having been extended, the contemplated publication
was never made. Mr. Langworthy died at Elkton, in Maryland, early in
the present century, and all efforts to recover both his manuscripts
and the supporting documents which he had amassed have thus far failed.
From the press of Seymour and Williams, of Savannah, was issued,
in 1811, the first volume of Major Hugh McCall’s _History of
Georgia_,[885] and this was followed, in 1816, by the second
volume published by William Thorne Williams. Oppressed by physical
infirmities, and a martyr to the effects of exposures and dangers
experienced while an officer in the army of the Revolution; now
confined to his couch, again a helpless cripple moving only in an
easy-chair upon wheels; dependent for a livelihood upon the slender
salary paid to him as city jailer of Savannah; often interrupted in his
labors, and then, during intervals of pain, writing with his portfolio
resting upon his knees; without the preliminary education requisite
for the scholarly accomplishment of such a serious undertaking, and
yet fired with patriotic zeal, and anxious to wrest from impending
oblivion the fading traditions of the State he loved so well, and whose
independence he had imperilled everything to secure,—Major McCall,
in the end, compassed a narrative which is highly prized, and which,
in its recital of events connected with the Revolutionary period and
the part borne by Georgians in that memorable struggle, is invaluable.
He borrowed largely from Mr. Hewitt in depicting the colonial life of
Georgia.[886]
As early as March, 1841, the Georgia Historical Society invited Dr.
William Bacon Stevens to undertake, under its auspices, the preparation
of a new and complete _History of Georgia_. Liberal aid was extended to
him in his labor, and of its two octavo volumes, one was published in
1847 and the other in 1859.[887] This author brings his history down to
the adoption of the constitution of 1798.
In 1849 the Rev. George White published in Savannah his _Statistics of
the State of Georgia_, and this was followed, six years afterwards,
by his more comprehensive and valuable work entitled the _Historical
Collections of Georgia_, illustrated with nearly one hundred
engravings, and published by Pudney and Russell, of New York. In
this volume a vast mass of statistical, documentary, and traditional
information is presented; and for his industry the author is entitled
to much commendation.
_The History of Georgia_, by T. S. Arthur and W. H. Carpenter,
published in Philadelphia in 1854, and constituting one of Lippincott’s
cabinet histories, is a meagre compendium of some of the leading
events in the life of the Colony and State, and does not claim special
attention.
In his _History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and
Mississippi_ (Charleston, S. C., 1851) Colonel Albert James Pickett
furnishes abundant and interesting material illustrative of the
aboriginal epoch; and, in a manner both intelligent and attractive,
traces the colonization of the territory indicated down to the year
1820.[888]
The present writer has already printed [1883] the first two volumes of
_History of Georgia_; and his preface unfolds his purpose to tell the
story from the earliest times down to a period within the memory of the
living. The two volumes thus far issued embrace the aboriginal epoch, a
narrative of discovery and early exploration, schemes of colonization,
the settlement under Oglethorpe, and the life of the province under
the guidance of the Trustees, under the control of the President and
Assistants, under the supervision of royal governors, and during the
Revolutionary War. They conclude with the erection of Georgia into
an independent State. All available sources of information have been
utilized. The two concluding volumes, which will deal with Georgia as a
Commonwealth, are in course of preparation.
We refrain from an enumeration of gazetteers, historical essays, and
publications, partial in their character, which relate to events
subsequent to what may be properly termed the period of colonization.
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