Resaca, Georgia

“ Most of the thirty servants who cultivated the lands of the Scotch gentlemen at Joseph’s Town died, and that plantation lapsed into neglect.
The Saltzburgers who came to Georgia under the conduct of Baron VonReck and the Rev’d Mr. Bolzius, in passing from Savannah to Old Ebenezer, were sheltered and refreshed at Abercorn. To that place their baggage was brought by water, and for some time all their supplies were delivered at that point whence they were carried, at much pains, up Ebenezer creek and through the woods. ”

“ When Georgia had begun to recover its breath, after the difficulties with the Creeks, the people had time to discover that they had a much more serious problem to deal with in the Cherokee nation, which occupied all the northwestern portion of the State. Those who mingled thrift with their benevolence, and had the courage to think about the future of the whites as well as the future of the savages, thought that both ends would be attained by making a permanent settlement for the Indians beyond the Mississippi River. ”

“ The climate is rather cold in the mountains, but warm in the plains. The country produces in abundance every kind of corn, with some rice, cotton, silk, and tobacco. Numerous flocks graze on the rich pastures. The population, according to the official returns of 1832, amounts to 46,094 males, who are Mohammedans. Kooba, the capital, and the only town of the province, contains about 650 wretched houses, built in an irregular manner.
Derbend has already been described. [DERBEND.]
All the above-mentioned provinces are governed by Russian military commanders. ”

“ 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. ”

“ What a change since Whitney first set his cotton gin to work in this state close by us! Georgia, as a vast country only partially reclaimed, yet looks to a magnificent future. In her past history the Florida wars, and the treatment of the unfortunate Cherokee Indians, who were expelled from their lands as late as 1838, show the people who descended from old Oglethorpe’s band were fierce and tyrannical, and apt at aggression, nor will slavery improve them. I do not speak of the cultivated and hospitable citizens of the large towns, but of the bulk of the slaveless whites. ”

“ Columbus, Americus, Atlanta, and Rome, as well as Savannah, are considerable shipping points, for cotton; Athens is the seat of the university of Georgia; Augusta and Columbus are manufacturing centres; Macon has three religious colleges; Darien, Brunswick, and St manufacture and export lumber. Andersonville, in Sumter county, acquired terrible celebrity during the civil war as the site of the chief military prison of the Southern Confederacy. Atlanta is by far the best example of rapid growth the State affords. ”

“ Northern senators voted in a body to do this great act of justice to Georgia, restrained by no unworthy feeling against the growth and prosperity of a slave State. And thus was carried into effect, after a delay of a quarter of a century, and after great and just complaint on the part of Georgia, the compact between that State and the United States of 1802. Georgia was paid at last for her great cession of territory, and obtained the removal of an Indian community out of her limits, and the use and dominion of all her soil for settlement and jurisdiction. ”

“ Patriotism was extending—oppression increasing, eyes opening, ears listening, minds working, hearts beating and those who were perching on the pivot of uncertainty were fast losing their balance. At length the cry of blood was heard from Lexington. The work was done. Georgia started from her lethargy like a lion roused from his lair and prepared for the conflict. Like green wood—she was slow to take fire but gave a permanent heat when ignited.
On the 2d of February 1776 Mr. Gwinnett was appointed to the Continental Congress and took his seat on the 20th of May ensuing. ”

“ Georgia has the largest area of any state east of the Mississippi River, and, in her great sweep of 59,475 square miles, from the Appalachian Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, exhibits the greatest diversity of soil, climate and physical features, all of which must be conceded to affect negro life and industry. ”

“ Their work shows intelligence and ability. Moreover, in the records of the convention there are not wanting traces of that undoubted public spirit which animated many of the supporters of reconstruction—the honest desire to repair and develop the material welfare of the state. This spirit is evident in the speeches we have cited, and in some of the resolutions.
We have stated how the campaign of 1868 resulted in giving the governorship to the Republicans and a majority of twenty-nine in the legislature to the Conservatives ”

“ The conduct and earnings of a cotton plantation fairly typical among those of large scale, may be gathered from the overseer's letters and factor's accounts relating to Retreat, which lay in Jefferson County, Georgia. This was one of several establishments founded by Alexander Telfair of Savannah and inherited by his two daughters, one of whom became the wife of W.B. Hodgson. For many years Elisha Cain was its overseer. ”

“ There are many good Buildings in the Town, several of which are Brick. There is likewise a Fort and Store-house belonging to the Trust. The People have a Minister who has a Salary from the Society for propagating the Gospel. In the Neighbourhood of the Town, there is a fine Meadow of 320 Acres ditch’d in, on which a number [96] of Cattle are fed, and good Hay is likewise made from it. At some Distance from the Town is the Camp for General Oglethorpe’s Regiment. ”

“ It is a kindred wish that every one of you may remain a citizen of Georgia. I also wish that the friends who have come from afar to be your instructors shall not take to themselves wings and fly away, but shall settle in this grand old State, and their children after them. There is no enmity between the white and colored people in this State. ”

“ After the Revolution, this tide of immigration increased very rapidly, and it was still further swelled by the profits that the Whitney gin enabled the planters of Georgia to make out of their cotton crops.
The settling of Georgia began with the charitable scheme of Oglethorpe. The making of Georgia began when the North Carolinians and Virginians began to open up the Broad River region to the north of Augusta. It was due to the desperate stand taken by these hardy pioneers that Georgia continued the struggle for American independence. ”

“ In Georgia, as in parts of Alabama, one becomes weary of tracts of poor-looking country, overgrown with sedge-grass, or covered with oaks and pines. The roads, never good, in bad weather are frightful. Never a church steeple relieves the monotony of the landscape. Occasionally there is a village, its houses appearing to be built upon props. If standing upon a ridge above the highway or railroad by which you pass, the sight of the blue sky under them gives them a singular appearance. ”

“ In ten years, from 1790 to 1800, the population in Georgia had increased more than eighty thousand. During the next ten years the increase in the population was more than ninety thousand. This increase meant a still greater demand for farm lands. Westward the Territory of Georgia extended to the Mississippi River. The agitation which began over this rich possession when the Yazoo Fraud was attempted, was kept up until 1800, when Georgia appointed four of her most prominent citizens to meet with commissioners appointed by the United States ”

“ The Tallapoosa and Coosa, head-waters of the Alabama, and the Hiawassee, one of the sources of the Tennessee, rise in the mountains of Georgia—the last, however, finding its way to the Gulf of Mexico by the Ohio and Mississippi valleys.
Georgia has about 128 miles of sea-coast, but has few good harbours, except within the rivers emptying upon it. St, Brunswick, Darien, and Savannah are the principal. The chain of islands lying off the mainland produces the celebrated Sea-island cotton, but owing to the changes brought about by the secession war it is now little cultivated. ”

“ Under this agreement, and the Indian treaty based upon it, nearly all of the lands lying between the Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers were opened up for occupation and cultivation.
All the Territory of Georgia was looked upon by the people as a public domain, belonging to the State for distribution among the citizens. The lands east of the Oconee were divided among the people under the plan known as the "Head Right System." By this system every citizen was allowed to choose, and survey to suit himself, a body of unoccupied land. ”

“ And the Georgia project, which I dared not speak of for fear it should be mere talk and nothing more, is a reality.—Yes! we are actually going! I can hardly believe that such good fortune as getting out of that wretched Clinton really awaits us. Perhaps I shall not like Augusta either; a stranger in a strange city is not usually enchanted with everything one beholds; but still—a change of scene—a new country—new people—it is worth while! Shall we really go? Will some page in this book actually record "Augusta, Georgia"? ”

“ Its surface is 58,000 square miles, and its population 340,989 inhabitants, of which nearly 150,000 are slaves; a proportion truly alarming, and which will, some day, bring Georgia into an embarrassing situation, if its government does not adopt some measure to diminish the evil. Here, as in all the slave states, the blacks are goods and chattels, which are sold like any other property, and which may be inherited; but their introduction into the state as an object of commerce is severely prohibited. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In Georgia, the mission work was receiving wonderful impetus from the Rev. A. J. P. Dodge, the benefactor of the negro work, recently come to the coast region. [13] In 1887, there were six congregations, the remnants of once flourishing missions. Mr. Dodge pushed his work out to county after county, ably seconded by the Rev. D. Watson Winn. Ruined churches were restored, and new ones built; existing schools were strengthened, and new ones founded. In many cases, they discovered old members of the Church upon whom to build the younger generation. ”

“ By the act of the 15th of March, 1758, [241] dividing Georgia into eight parishes, “the town of Hardwick and district of Ogechee on the south side of the river Great Ogechee, extending north west up the said river as far as the lower Indian trading path leading from Mount Pleasant, and southward from the town of Hardwick as far as the swamp of James Dunham, including the settlements on the north side of the north branches of the river Midway, with the islands of Ossabaw, and [227] from the head of the said Dunham’s swamp in a north west line,” were declared a parish by the name of St. Philip. ”

“ Six miles from Rincom is the oldest church in all this part of Georgia, the Ebenezer Chapel, founded by those first German settlers who sailed up the Savannah River, and in part founded the colony of Georgia. It also is a church of the swan. The forest is very dense, and Negroes with shotguns are potting at wild birds from the highway. Wayside cottages and churches seem almost overcome with the tillandsia, a subtropical mossy growth that seems to grow downward rather than upward. ”

“ 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. ”

“ On the fourteenth of December, 1860, the legislature of Georgia, probably considering that its last proposition was not fully accepted, passed a resolution directing the governor to reopen negotiations with the authorities of Florida in regard to the boundary line, and to urge its adjustment so as to protect the rights of citizenship, and the titles of lands held under grants from Georgia, and, if practicable, so as to retain and keep the fractional lots sold by Georgia within the jurisdiction of the state. ”