USA > Georgia > Chatham County > Savannah > History of Savannah, Ga.; from its settlement to the close of the eighteenth century > Part 14
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464
HISTORY OF SAVANNAH.
two vessels on their way to Savannah were seized before clearing Charles- ton bar, and with their cargoes were destroyed. Six months later the excitement ceased when it was learned that the objectionable act had been repealed. Up to that time all the supplies of silks, linens, woolens, shoes, stockings, nails, hinges, and tools of every sort came from Eng- land. Rice, indigo, corn, peas, a small quantity of wheat and rye, pitch, turpentine, shingles and staves were the chief products. Considerable attention was paid to stock raising, and Governor Wright hoped to make some slight essay at raising hemp the next year. In 1768 the filature sent to London 1,048 pounds of raw silk, " equal in goodness to that manufactured in Piedmont." Import duties were not acceptable, and on September 16, 1769, Savannah's merchants met at Alexander Creigh- ton's house and adopted a resolution to the effect that any person, or persons, whatsoever importing any of the articles subject to the new rate of duties, after having it in their power to prevent it, ought not only to be treated with contempt, but deemed as an enemy to their country. Pretty much the same relation existed between patriotism and the pocket-book that is declared to exist now. Almost to a man the im- porters were against any interruption of business, while the consumers were for resistance. Affairs ran on in an unsatisfactory way until the breaking out of the Revolution. The town grew, but there was a feel- ing of uneasiness. In 1773 the exports were valued at $379,422, very nearly double the value of the exports ten years before. A bill passed by the General Assembly early in 1774 indicates that the trade of the city was enlarging, for it explains that " whereas the increase of trade and quantity of produce brought for sale to the several ports of this province requires a regulation in the rates of wharfage and storage, and the number of vessels resorting to the said ports, and in particular to the port of Savannah, makes it necessary to have some person appointed to overlook and regulate such vessels while in the said port."
By this act owners and lessees of wharfs were allowed to charge and demand certain fees which were then fixed. On rice the wharfage charge was one penny per half barrel. On rosin, turpentine, tar and beef the charge was one penny per barrel. Mahogany and logwood were im- ported largely, and staves, rice, turpentine, rosin and hides were exported.
Throwing ballast or rubbish in the river was forbidden and made
1
Thomas Ballantine
465
COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.
punishable by a fine not exceeding £100 a short time before the out- break of the Revolution. The long war for independence blighted com- merce. A part of the time the English had possession of the city and trade was practically at a stand still. Almost in the very middle of the war South Carolina offered to annex Georgia. An inducement held out to Savannah was that the country along the river above the city would be cleared and settled, and an amazing increase of produce and river navigation would follow and would center here. On the other hand if Georgia persisted in remaining in a state of separation from Carolina a town would rise on the north side of the river and would draw not only the business on its own side of the stream, but would in time draw the greater part of the trade on the south side of the river, in which event there could be but one result, the commercial ruin of Savannah. The proposition was declined, the town of prophecy never rose, and Savan- nah, far from being ruined, is to-day a more important port than Caro- lina's metropolis. .
Peace brought back a revival of trade and a new era of commercial prosperity began. The recovery of lost commerce, however, was slow. Practically, there was little capital. Private fortunes had shrunk during the seven years of hostilities. Five years after the war, in 1786, the ex- ports were only $321,377, which was $58,000 less than the value of the . exports in 1773, two years before the war started. A little cotton had been planted every year, and in 1788 Thomas Miller, who probably knew of Charleston's trade in the article, grew some and bought more and made a shipment to England. There are still living some old citizens who knew " Cotton Tom" Miller, as he was familiarly styled. Miller has been given, erroneously, the credit of having exported the first bale of cotton from Savannah. This is a mistake which has long been accepted as a part of true history. As heretofore mentioned, Mr. James Haber- sham had exported eight bales twenty-four years before Miller shipped his first bale abroad. It is true that Miller developed the trade. Ark- wright's improvements in cotton spinning machinery were revolutioniz- ing that industry.
Another interesting and important event, linking Savannah more closely to the history of the cotton trade, was the invention of the cotton- gin by Eli Whitney, in 1793. This Yankee school-teacher set up his first
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466
HISTORY OF SAVANNAH.
machine on his aunt's place, General Nathanael Green's plantation near Purysburgh, a few miles up the river. The young New Englander's in- vention was as great a factor in the development of cotton raising as Ark- wright's inventions were in its manufacture. Whitney is still remembered, too. For a long time after those days, communication between Savan- nah and the North was by sailing vessels, and there are old citizens who when young men were fellow-travellers by sea with the inventor, then well advanced in years, however.
The gin acted as a great stimulus to cotton planting. This machine did away with the tedious and unsatisfactory hand method. Almost im- mediately the acreage in cotton was increased largely by the planters, who now saw in the culture of the plant a profitable crop. Charleston had early taken hold of cotton culture and was shipping it in considerable quantities to England before Miller became an exporter. His foreign trade did not grow rapidly at the start. In fact Savannah handled very little cotton until after Whitney constructed the gin. And indeed, al- though Charleston did pride herself on being the largest cotton port, it is certain that previous to 1794, the year after the gin proved a success, the annual amount of cotton produced in North America was comparatively inconsiderable. This is true even in the face of the declaration contained in the pamphlet entitled " A State of the Province of Georgia attested upon oath in the Court of Savannah," published in 1740, and in which it was averred of cotton that "large quantities have been raised, and it is much planted ; but the cotton which in some parts is perennial, dies here in the winter; which, nevertheless, the annual is not inferior to in good- ness, but requires more trouble in cleansing from the seed."
Two important facts connecting this city with the history of cotton have already been mentioned. There is still another. Savannah has not only the credit of having exported the first bag of cotton ever sent from America and of the invention of the gin, but it was near here that the first Sea Island cotton ever raised in this country was grown. The seed of the Sea Island was originally obtained from the Bahama Islands about 1785. It was known in the West Indies as the " Anguilla cotton." The first experiments with its culture on the American continent were made by Josiah Tattnall and Nicholas Turnbull, on Skidaway Island Subse- quently James Spaulding and Alexander Bisset planted the long staple on St. Simon's Island, and Richard Leake planted some on Jekyl Island.
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467
COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.
The establishing of a cotton trade was the keystone of Savannah's com- mercial prosperity. Even for several years after the culture of the crop became general in the country around this city, Charleston continued to overshadow her efforts at advancement. The older city by her enterprise and greater wealth controlled a large portion of the valuable Sea Island cotton trade and all of Florida's business. More than this, Charleston became a closer competitor, as she penetrated through the inland route to the rice fields in the very neighborhood of Savannah, and secured a part of that crop. Toward the close of the century this city became a heavy importer of wines and rum. Through the merchants here, the wealthy planters along the coast and inland and a great many of the Car- olina planters obtained from Europe the choicest vintages. Madeira was the favorite, and many and many a hogshead of it was brought here. By no means is it to be inferred that anything like all of it was sent out of the city. There were famous cellars in Savannah even then, nearly a century ago now, and there is wine down in some of them to-day that was brought over in the last century.
· By the fire of 1796 the city, which was then flourishing, received a set back from which recovery was slow. Notwithstanding this the year 1800 found Oglethorpe's colony grown into a town of over seven thou- sand population, of whom not over five hundred were blacks. That year the exports were valued at over two million dollars.
Statistics of the port's commerce for the succeeding twenty-five years are difficult to collate. Everywhere though on the records there is abundant evidence that business steadily increased. There were periods of unusual activity and years of depression, as during the second war with Great Britain. Cotton and rice were the leading articles of export. Sugar, molasses, salt and wines were imported largely. From 1812 to 1815 the city's commerce shrank woefully. By 1818 the exports ex- ceeded $14,000,000 in value, a remarkable expansion of six hundred per cent.
Steam first became a factor in Savannah's commerce about 1817. In that year there was a Savannah steamboat company, but there is very little written history of the corporation during the first few years of its existence. Within two or three years there was a steamboat plying regularly between Charleston and Savannah. Then it ran farther down
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468
HISTORY OF SAVANNAH.
the coast, and as the years went by the number of steam vessels coming here increased steadily. One of the early lines was from Savannah to Augusta, but in this instance the steamboat was used for towing flats and barges between the two cities. Between 1840 and 1860 a large part of the commerce was carried by steam vessels running regularly to North- ern and European ports.
The year 1819 is a red letter one in the world's commercial calendar, for it was in that year that steam navigation of the ocean was proved to be possible. Savannah furnished that proof, for she sent the first steam- ship across the Atlantic. Among this city's chiefest honors is that of having been the pioneer in steam navigation of the ocean. In 1818, Messrs. Dunning, Scarborough, Sturges, Burroughs, Henry, McKenna and other leading business men here, at the suggestion of Captain Moses Rogers, had constructed in the North a combination steam and sailing vessel to ply between Savannah and Liverpool. The contract called for a vessel of 300 tons burden. When completed she was a full rigged clipper ship, fitted with engines and sidewheels. These wheels were made of wrought iron, were not covered and were so constructed that they could be folded over on the ship's deck. The supposition was that when the vessel had a good wind she would not need steam and a der- rick was arranged to lift the wheels out of the water and take them in when not in use. The vessel was christened the Savannah. She sailed from this port May 20, 1819, bound for Liverpool. Pitch pine was used for fuel. As the supply was not inexhaustible it was husbanded. The wheels were used eighteen days out of twenty-two on the eastern voy- age. The sails were used on eight days. Steam vessels were rare in those days. The English did not know what to make of the vessel when she approached their coast with wheels revolving rapidly and her canvas set.
When the Savannah arrived off Cape Clear she was signalled to Liverpool as a vessel on fire and a cutter was sent from Cork to assist her. The people crowded the Mersey's banks filled with "surprise and admiration when she entered the harbor of Liverpool under bare poles, belching forth smoke and fire, yet uninjured." The Savannah remained at Liverpool about a month and was visited by thousands of the curious. Captain Rogers was at liberty to sell his vessel, but he secured no offer which he would accept. From Liverpool he took his vessel to St.
469
4
COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.
Petersburg, where the Savannah attracted the attention of the Czar. On November 20, she steamed up the Savannah River, after a passage of twenty-five days, on nineteen of which she had used steam. She had ex- .perienced not a little rough weather, but she rode all of it out safely with- out an accident.
This first ocean steamer did not pay and the Savannah company sold her to New York parties, who took out her steam engine and made a packet vessel of her. She foundered off Long Island in a heavy storm a few years later. The Savannah's log-book and the cylinder from her engine are on exhibition in London.
At the close of the second decade of this century Savannah was on the threshold of an immense trade. Her commerce had grown rapidly, her merchants were prosperous, many of them were wealthy for those days, and the city began to show the effect of the general prosperity. Her citizens who had laid up fortunes lived royally and entertained handsomely. On the sideboard were the finest wines, and the stranger who came properly vouched for, was apt to be as mellow as the vintages before he departed. Luxury is prima facie evidence of easy circum- stances. It was about this time that the people first knew the luxury- ice. Charleston had a large ice-house, and in 1818 the company estab- lished a branch here. In 1819 a company was organized to bring Northern ice to this port. An old advertisement in a paper of 1819 mentions that ice is highly desirable for cooling water, milk and wine. A decanter especially designed for the use of ice is advertised and recom- mended. At retail the ice was to be supplied for 64 cents a pound. Regular patrons could get special rates, but the price was so high that it is safe to say the traffic was not large for years afterwards.
The year 1820 was a sad one. Early in the first month a disastrous fire destroyed $4,000,000 of property. This was a most serious blow. But it was not the only one nor was it the worst. Sporadic cases of yellow fever had appeared from year to year, and in May, 1820, there was a case. Not until September, however, did the plague become alarming. Sailors from a vessel just arrived from the West Indies introduced a few cases into the city, which had a population of 7,500. Of these 6,000 fled. Although there were less than 250 deaths during September and Octo- ber, and the first week in November, when the disease was checked, busi-
470
HISTORY OF SAVANNAH.
ness, which had been paralyzed, was slow in recovering. The next year the exports fell off to $6,032,862, not one-half so much as they had been three years before. In 1818 the imports were valued at $2,976,257 and in 1821 at only $865, 146. Not until six years after the visitations of fire and fever did commerce begin to attain its former proportions. In 1825 the cotton shipments coastwise and foreign amounted to 137,895 bags. The next year the shipments jumped to 190,578 bags. A quar- ter of a century later the exports scarcely exceeded in value those of 1818. It is doubtful if the city has ever had an era when her future looked brighter than in those two years (1818 and 1819), which saw the theater, the Independent Presbyterian Church, and the world's first ocean steamship, the Savannah, completed. When Savannah rounded her first century she was a thriving little city, after many mishaps once more en- joying a good measure of prosperity. Cotton and rice continued to be the chief articles of commerce. Cotton lead and was easily "king." The planters were the wealthy and aristocratic class, outnumbering the merchants. And this condition prevailed up to the war. During the quarter of a century between the port's entry on its second century and the great civil conflict Savannah's commerce flourished. It grew slowly, to be sure, but steadily. There were bad years and good years, just as in the history of every city. As a rule the dull years were more than offset by the seasons when crops, shipments and prices were fair and good. In 1841 the cotton shipments dropped off largely, but there was a heavy lumber trade. The next year there was a large cotton trade and the lumber shipments fell off. In 1845 the exports went away ahead of any previous year, with the cotton shipments coastwise and foreign amounting to 304,544 bags. About this time the lumber trade was a very valuable part of the commerce and in 1847 it threatened to displace rice and take second place itself. The commercial prosperity of the decade between 1850 and 1860, the last one prior to the war, was marred in one year, 1854, by another epidemic and by a violent storm. The latter caused almost a total ruin to the rice crop and the fever unsettled every line of trade. Not until the following year did the statistics show how business had been affected. Then it was seen that the rice shipmenst had shrunk almost entirely away and the lumber trade had dwindled fifty per cent. This bad year was quickly recovered from and not even
47I
COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.
the re-appearance of the plague two years later hurt the commerce materially. The year 1858 was a poor year but the succeeding one was especially prosperous, 469,053 bales of cotton alone, being exported. Uneasiness as to the political future had its effect on the business of Sa- vannah. Gathering clouds threatened a coming storm. He was obtuse indeed, who saw not that the commercial and financial pulse of the coun - try was keenly susceptible to the tension to which it was subjected. Even a four months' presidential canvass in these piping times of peace unsettles trade for upwards of a twelvemonth. What wonder then that in 1860 and the few years immediately preceding, Savannah's commerce did not take the leaps forward it had done in former years !
The opening of the Central Railroad to Macon in 1843 had been fol- lowed by the development of the country along its line. New trade came to Savannah, and with the building of the railway, which is now known as the Savannah, Florida and Western, another large territory was put within easy communication. Again when the city was on the eve of what seemed to be a magnificent future, fate stretched out her hand and stayed the increased prosperity which was ready to pour itself over the State's metropolis.
The following table gives the exports, foreign and coastwise con- solidated, of cotton, rice and lumber for a period of twenty years prior to the war :
YEAR
COTTON, BAGS.
RICE, TIERCES.
LUMBER, FFET.
1839
199,176
21,321
.. .
1840
284,249
24.392
...
1841
147,280
23,587
14,295.200
1842
222.254
22,064
8,490,400
1843
280,826
26,281
7,529,550
1844
244,575
28 543
5,923.251
1845
304,544
29,217
8,270,582
1846
1 86,306
32,147
18.585.644
1847
234,151
31,739
54,731,385
CASKS.
1854
317,471
30.748
49.855.700
1855
388,375
8,220
25.500,000
1856
393.092
29,907
34,887,500
1857
327.658
27,536
44.743,070
1858
292,829
31.345
28,365.656
1859
469,053
38,130
38,928,084
1860
FOR'GN ONLY 314.084
FOR'GN TIER. 6,790
FOREIGN.
20,723,350
472
HISTORY OF SAVANNAH.
Four years of war came and once more business was practically sus- pended.
In 1861, 1862, 1863 and 1864 the port was blockaded, consequently there were no exports or imports during these years excepting what was run through the blockade, of which no account can be given. In 1865, exports (the property of the Confederate States and of the citizens of Sa- vannah) were carried on exclusively by the officers and men of the United States government in its ships. Late in December, 1864, Sherman seized all the cotton and numerous other articles. The cotton he shipped to New York, where it brought a high price. Commerce, which had been practically suspended for four years, now began to be resumed. Sherman had destroyed the railroads, and the State had been reduced from wealth to poverty. Men whose private fortunes had been swept away went to work to build up anew. The younger men too entered business for themselves, thus setting the precedent which has given Savannah to-day probably the youngest set of successful business men to be found in any city. The high prices obtained for cotton led the "planters to increase their acreage, and the receipts here jumped up to over half a million bales in 1867, and to three quarters of a mil- lion.in 1870. Since that year the receipts have reached 900,000 bales, and the day is not far distant when they will turn the one million point.
The opening of the Alabama Midland through a rich cotton belt in Alabama is bringing the products of that section here. The com- pressing of cotton has been an important business for years. Six powerful hydraulic presses handled 6,900 bales a day in the busiest sea- sons.
Up to 1882 New Orleans was the only port which received more cot- ton than Savannah. Since that year Galveston has held second place. This year Bay street's merchants are resolved to send Savannali's re- ceipts to the million bales mark. The heaviest receipts on any one day were 15,000 bales in October, 1889.
The exports of cotton since the war have been :
473
COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.
FOREIGN.
COASTWISE.
YEAR.
UP- LAND.
SEA ISLAND.
UP- I.AND.
SEA ISLAND.
1865
60,144
3.891
159,298
3.648
1866
101.737
8.137
140,396
6 700
1 867
286.671
6.467
234,434
5,195
1868
164,674
3,329
184,690
3,298
1869
260,366
6,488
197,033
7.696
1870
478,941
2,568
248,326
4,424
1871
289,000
1,061
151,335
4,306
1872
373.793
2,395
224,048
5,307
1873
373.730
2,165
234,299
5,341
1874
426,090
3,472
222,073
4.480
1875
420,881
2,354
190,023
5,821
1876
368,844
1,374
165,900
5.516
1877
298,546
1,219
186,284
5,001
1878
348,596
2,939
261,742
8,430
1879
458,208
1,784
234,474
7,019
1880
423,896
796
305.059
10,480
1881
498,551
5,836
381,911
8,003
1882
336,648
2,137
394.833
15.404
1883
418,385
613
394,658
11,442
1 884
358,150
1,649
296,345
7,606
1885
389,290
1,568
317,874
17,515
1886
400,437
1,483
383,316
21.307
1 887
485,999
1,744
289,828
26,195
1888
384,440
1.386
478,935
22,647
1889
320,343
3.536
476,803
25,846
An important line of trade with a unique history, is the naval stores business. Naval stores in the commercial world, means spirits of turpen- tine and rosin, the product of the pine tree. Up to 1870 Georgia's forests were a mine of undeveloped natural wealth, as rich as a Comstock lode. And the former were above ground in plain view and known to hun- dreds of thousands. In 1883 the president of the Board of Trade wrote : " Twelve years ago a barrel of rosin or spirits of turpentine was scarcely known in this market, while to-day Savannah is known as the largest naval stores market in the world, our receipts for the past fiscal year be- ing 133, 139 barrels of spirits and 564,026 barrels of rosin, the aggregate value of which is about $4,000,000, ranking second to cotton in value."
A North Carolina farmer or two were the pioneers in developing the naval stores trade of Georgia. Their own State was exhausted and they sought new fields. Georgia offered them the richest pine forests on this continent. From those forests, men who came to Savannah fifteen and twenty years ago with a few hundred dollars capital have made hand-
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474
HISTORY OF SAVANNAH.
some fortunes, and retired from business. The history of commerce offers few cases which can parallel that of the naval stores industry for quick money making. Savannah is likely to continue to be the chief naval stores port of the world for several years to come. The time must come, however, when the vast forests will be worked out.
In the year which ended March 31, 1888, the receipts of turpentine were in round numbers 170,000 barrels. During the year which closed March 31, 1889, the receipts fell off about 10,000 barrels, but that was due to the voluntary shortening of the crop by the manufacturers who hoped to realize good prices thereby, and they succeeded.
Here is a table showing the growth of the trade for fifteen years, back of which the business was comparatively small :
YEAR.
SPT'S TURPENTINE.
ROSIN.
1874-75
9.555
41,707
1876
15.521
59.792.
1877
19,984
98,888
1878
31,138
177,104
1879
34.368
177,447
1880
46.321
231,421
1881
54.703
282.386
1882.
77,059
309.834
1883.
116,127
444,873
1884
121,000
486,961
1885
111,447
452,370
1886
127.785
476,508
1887
164.199
609,025
1888
162,237
639.933
188g.
173.863
610,302
.
The history of the rice and lumber trades has been sketched in connec- tion with the growth of the port's general commerce. As already men- tioned, rice was the principal article of export in the middle of the last cen- tury, 2,996 barrels being shipped in 1753, and 7,500 barrels in 1763. Lum- ber did not become an important article of export until 1841. Since that date, however, this trade has been most important. The Vale Royal lum- ber manufacturing mills west of the city have a history running back half a century. The rice mills are but little younger than the culture of the cereal.
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