New Georgia

“ Governor Mathews—Indians—Topography of Middle Georgia—A New Country and Its Settlers—Beaux and Belles—Early Training—Jesuit Teachers—A Mother's Influence—The Jews—Homely Sports—The Cotton Gin— Camp-Meetings.
Immediately subsequent to the Revolution, all the country northwest of the Ogeechee River, in the middle portion of the State of Georgia, was divided into two counties, Franklin and Wilkes. It was a wilderness, and contiguous to both the Creek and Cherokee Indian nations. No country in the world was more beautiful in its topography, and few more fertile in soil. ”

“ Finally the governor returned, but almost immediately resigned. In a short time the real representatives of the people took charge of affairs, and since that time the State has been in a highly prosperous condition.
"THE NEW SOUTH"
When the people of Georgia had once more gained control of their State government, the political tempest that had been raging slowly quieted down. A pot that has been boiling furiously doesn't grow cool in a moment, but it ceases almost instantly to boil; and though it may cool slowly, it cools surely. ”

“ Agriculture in Georgia was in a state of transition at the beginning of the 20th century. Owing to the abundance of land and to negro slavery, exploitative methods of cultivation were employed before the Civil War, and such methods, by which lands after being worked to exhaustion are deserted for new fields, had not yet been altogether abandoned. One reason for this was that, according to the census of 1900, 36.9% of the farms were operated by negroes, of whom 86% were tenants who desired to secure the greatest possible product without regard to the care of the soil. ”

“ Homes were growing up in Vermont. In the same manner population extended westward beyond the Alleganies, as soon as the Indian disturbances were allayed in that direction. The go-a-head principle was ever active in British America. The population of Georgia was beginning to increase greatly, and in 1763 the first newspaper of that colony was published, called the “Georgia Gazette.” A vital principle was operating also in the new province of East Florida, now that she ranked among the British possessions. ”

“ Those who dealt with him always had the worst of the bargain.
When Washington, or Walsh, began to operate in Georgia through agents, he found the way already prepared for him. The War for Independence had barely closed, when certain individuals, most of them men of some influence, began to look on our Western possessions with a greedy eye. They had an idea of securing these lands and setting up a new government,—a sort of Western empire. ”

“ About this period, the settlement of a new colony was planned in England. The tract of country lying between the rivers Savanna and Alatamaha being unoccupied by Europeans, a company was formed for the humane purpose of transplanting into this wilderness, the suffering poor of the mother country. This territory, now denominated Georgia, was granted to the company; and a corporation, consisting of twenty-one persons, was created under the name of "trustees for settling and establishing the colony of Georgia." ”

“ Such was the simple beginning of Frederica. [46] Near the town Mr. Oglethorpe fixed the only home he ever owned in the Province. In its defence were enlisted his best energies, military skill, and valor. Brave are the memories of St. Simon’s island. None prouder belong to the colonial history of Georgia.
Three days afterwards arrived from Savannah a periagua with workmen, provisions, and cannon, for the new settlement. ”

“ I have good news from Georgia, and from my new plantation in South-Carolina. Many negroes are brought under conviction. We saw great things in New-England. The flocking and power that attended the word, was like unto that seven years ago. Weak as I was, and have been, I was enabled to travel eleven hundred miles and preach daily. I am now once more going to Georgia to settle all my affairs, and shall get ready to embark as soon as I receive letters from you. My dear yoke-fellow is gone forwards. She exceedingly longs to see her old friends. But death may intervene. ”

“ That they needed all they had, for that they were becoming more and more agricultural, and progressing in civilization. One would have thought this not only a sufficient but a most satisfactory plea to a great nation by its people; but no, Georgia ceded to Congress territories for the formation of two new states, Alabama and Mississippi, and Georgia in part of payment receives the much desired lands of the Cherokees. ”

“ Georgia never possessed, as a colony or as a State, the aristocratic tendencies of its neighbor, South Carolina. The foremost men have ever been essentially of the people; her settlers largely of the Democratic masses; the names preëminent in her history are the names of industrial New England. So Democratic is and was the State of Georgia, that her most eminent son, Alexander H. Stevens, had to be weaned away reluctantly from the doctrine of which Abraham Lincoln was the personification. ”

“ The Colonization of Georgia.—The country between the Savannah River and the St. John’s River in Florida, was claimed by the English; and when the Carolinas became royal provinces, this region was reserved as crown land. It soon attracted the attention of a noble-minded Englishman, James Oglethorpe. [46] He conceived the idea that it would be an excellent place in which to establish a colony to be composed of such persons as needed a new chance in life after having been released from the then crowded debtor prisons of England. ”

“ On that map, you see Georgia facing east to the sunrise, and northward toward New England. Behind Georgia, with its back close to Mississippi, where flows the Yazoo river, is the State of Alabama, in which about half of the population is colored. Ten years ago there were 475,510 colored men there, when our entire population was not quite one million. ”

“ In the development of her industries a great future is predicted for Georgia. Indeed some of the more sanguine claim that she is already becoming a formidable rival of New England in the manufacture of cotton and woollen fabrics.
There are in the State 38 cotton factories, with 123,233 spindles and 2125 looms. There are 14 woollen factories, with 4200 spindles and 135 looms. Augusta and Columbus take the lead in the number and capacity of these works, for which certain important advantages are claimed. The water-power is so ample that the mills are run by it alone. ”

“ From contemporaneous notices we learn that New Ebenezer, within a short time after its settlement, gave manifest token of substantial growth and prosperity. The houses there erected were larger and more comfortable than those which had been built in the old town. Gardens and farms were cleared, enclosed, and brought under creditable cultivation, and the sedate, religious inhabitants enjoyed the fruits of their industry and economy. ”

“ But although the most valuable of the disputed land is included, yet there is a certain claim of Georgia, arising out of the treaty made by that State at Galphinston in November, 1785, of land to the eastward of a new temporary line from the forks of the Oconee and Oakmulgee in a southwest direction to the St. Marys River, which tract of land the Creeks in this city absolutely refuse to yield. ”

“ Our first Stage we made New Inverness, or the Darien, on the Continent near 20 miles from Frederica; which is a Settlement of Highlanders living and dressing in their own Country Fashion, very happily and contentedly. There is an Independent Company of Foot of them, consisting of 70 men who have been of good service. The Town is regularly laid out, and built of Wood mostly, divided into Streets and Squares; before the Town is the Parade, and a Fort not yet finish’d. ”

“ Multitudes of the inhabitants, unable to sustain themselves in the midst of the utter destitution which there prevailed, set out for Carolina, where they subsisted [199] upon the charity of others until the opening spring afforded an opportunity for planting crops in their new homes. Others, possessing the means of subsistence, were so oppressed by the operation of Royal proclamations and restrictions, that they abandoned the region, seeking refuge in other quarters. Sunbury suffered a material diminution of population, and never recovered from the shock then experienced. ”

“ Minerals.—The mineral resources of Georgia are as varied as its climate and soils, a total of thirty-nine different mineral products being found within its borders. The most important is stone: in 1905 the value of the granite quarried in the state was $971,207 (Georgia ranking fifth in the United States) , of the marble $774,550 (Georgia ranking third in the United States, Vermont and New York being first and second) ”

“ The Legislature of Georgia, in acknowledgment of the conspicuous gallantry of Colonel McIntosh on this occasion, voted him a sword with the words Come and take it, engraven thereon.
[209] See White’s Historical Collections of Georgia, pp. 523, 524. New York, 1855. McCall’s Georgia, vol. II, pp. 155, 161. Savannah, 1816. Moultrie’s Memoirs of the American Revolution, &c., vol. I, p. 189. New York, 1802.
[210] The inhabitants of Sunbury seem, at times, to have been considerably annoyed by the lawless conduct of the troops quartered in their midst. ”

“ Every branch of the new government was speedily organized, and the free and independent State of Georgia began its Career. *
* Between the twelfth and the twenty-fifth of July, seven thousand persons, according to British accounts, left Savannah, consisting of twelve hundred British regulars and Loyalists, five hundred women and children, three hundred Indians, and five thousand negroes. Governor Wright, and some of the civil and military officers, went to Charleston; General Clarke and part of the British regulars to New York; Colonel Brown's rangers and the Indians to St. ”

“ While North Carolina has the honor of first authorizing its delegates to concur with other Colonies in declaring independence, it was quickly followed by South Carolina and Georgia, which also gave general instructions broad enough to include such action. But the first instructions which unconditionally directed its delegates to declare for independence came from the great Commonwealth of Virginia. These were immediately followed by Rhode Island and Massachusetts, while the other Colonies, with the exception of New York, soon adopted a like course. ”

“ County Surveyor of Liberty County. Georgia.
J. Bien, Photo. Lith. N. Y.
During his tour of inspection in 1755, Governor Reynolds was so much pleased with the natural advantages of the Great Ogeechee river, that he selected a bluff upon its right bank, some fourteen miles from the sea, as a location for a new town, which, in honor of his relative the Lord High Chancellor of England, he named Hardwick.
In his letter to the Board of Trade he says: “Hardwicke has a charming situation, the winding of the river making it a peninsula; and it is the only fit place for the capital. ”

“ Norfolk, the sloop, 99. North Newport Bridge, affair at the, 186. Ogeechee Ferry, 188. Oglethorpe, James E., 12. Designates a settlement for the Saltzburgers, 13, 14. Accompanies great embarcation, 16. Visits New Ebenezer, 18. Consents to a change in the location of the town, 18. Suggests silk-culture in Georgia, 25, 26. Offers reasons for founding the Colony of Georgia, 46, 47. Provides homes for emigrants, 47. Explores the southern frontiers, 48. Accompanies Colonists to Frederica, 51, 53. Locates town and fortifications at Frederica, 51-54. Prescribes the labors of the settlers, 54. ”

“ Those who know them best have declared in a thousand ways that they never found in the red men any solid substantial, or agreeable quality. They were brave, but so is a bulldog.
There is no wonder that Georgia wanted to get rid of them as neighbors. The people showed their anxiety in this matter when, in 1802, they conveyed to the United States Government all the valuable lands that now form the States of Alabama and Mississippi; the consideration being that the General Government would secure from the Indians, and open up to settlement, the lands which they then held in the State. ”

“ I do not ask for overcentralization; but I do ask that we work in a spirit of broad and far-reaching nationalism when we work for what concerns our people as a whole. We are all Americans. Our common interests are as broad as the continent. I speak to you here in Kansas exactly as I would speak in New York or Georgia, for the most vital problems are those which affect us all alike. ”

“ As was natural, the political development of Georgia was much more rapid than its industrial progress. In January, 1783, Lyman Hall was elected governor. He was distinguished for the patriotic stand he took at the very beginning of the controversy between the Colony and the King. The Legislature met in Savannah after the evacuation of the town by the British; but it was so far from the central and upper portions of the State, and there was so much dissatisfaction among the people on this account, that in May Augusta was made the capital. In that town the General Assembly met July 8, 1783. ”

“ During the war Georgia furnished about 80,000 soldiers for the Confederate armies. She emerged from it with her industries prostrated, her treasury empty, her social and political system revolutionized, her most flourishing cities in ruins. Her great natural resources are fast advancing her to a commanding position among her sister States; and these resources are developing in the hands of a free people with greater rapidity and advantage than when half the population was enslaved. Texas possibly excepted, no southern State has a greater future than Georgia. ”