USA > Georgia > The history of Georgia, Volume I > Part 12
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" Whoever is a Lover of his Country will approve of a Method for the Employment of her Poor, and the Increase of hier People and her Trade. Whoever is a Lover of Mankind will join his wishes to the Success of a Design so plainly calculated for their Good: Undertaken, and conducted with so much Disinterested- ness.
" Few arguments surely are requisite to excite the Generous to exert themselves on this Occasion. To consult the Welfare of Mankind regardless of any private Views is the Perfection of Virtue ; as the Accomplishing and Consciousness of it is the Perfection of Happiness."
CHAPTER VI.
REGULATIONS ESTABLISHED BY THE TRUSTEES. - GRANTS IN TAIL MALE DETERMINED UPON. - NEGRO SLAVERY AND THE IMPORTATION OF RUM PROHIBITED.
THE trustees, meanwhile, were framing regulations for the observance of the colonists and maturing such plans as, under the provisions of the charter, appeared most conducive to the prosper- ity and permanence of the contemplated settlement. Their views are fully expressed in a publication made by them entitled " An Account showing the Progress of the Colony of Georgia in Amer- ica from its first Establishment." 1
Each male inhabitant was regarded both as a planter and as a soldier. He was therefore to be provided with arms for de- fense and with tools for the cultivation of the soil. In their use was he to be instructed. Towns, in their inception, were reck- oned as garrisons; consequently the lands allotted for tillage were to be in their immediate neighborhood, so that, in case of alarm, the inhabitants might speedily betake themselves thither for safety and mutual protection.
That the military strength of the province might be main- tained at the highest possible standard, they deemed it impor- tant to establish such tenures of land as would best conduce to that end. Each lot, therefore, was to be held as a military fief, and fifty acres were adjudged sufficient for the support of a plan- ter and his family. The number of lots ceded was to equal the number of persons capable of occupying and rendering service. Regulations were established to prevent on the one hand the ac- cumulation of lots in one ownership lest the garrison should be enfeebled, and their division on the other hand into smaller par- cels whereby they would be rendered too scanty for the procure- ment of suitable subsistence.
Grants in tail male were declared preferable to any other tenure because most likely to answer the needs of the province. Should they be made in tail general it was thought that the
1 London, MDCCXLI. pp. 71.
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REGULATIONS FRAMED BY TRUSTEES.
strength of each township might be speedily diminished, inas- much as a female heir in tail, although unmarried, might become entitled to a lot and thus withdraw from the garrison the portion of a soldier. By intermarriages, too, several lots might be merged into one ownership. If the tenant in tail general should chance to have several danghters, his lot must then be divided equally among them as coparceners.
Nor were these the only inconveniences which, in the judg- ment of the trustees, would probably arise should estates in tail general be allowed. Women being incapable of serving on juries or acting as soldiers, those duties and others, such as watching and warding, would devolve upon each adult male the oftener as the number of men in the township was lessened, and might become very burdensome. In case of attack from the Indians, French, or Spaniards, the township, under such circumstances, would be less able to offer a becoming resistance.
Nor was it deemed prudent to sanction alienations in fee ; for, a right of sale being inseparable from an estate in fee, the grantee, upon being invested with the title, might at once sell, mortgage, or alien his lands to any one he chose. The trustees refused to commit this power to the early colonists and for the following reasons : -
First. Many of the persons who were to be transported to Georgia were indigent. What they had been masters of at home they had administered so indiscreetly that it did not appear safe at the outset, and before they had by careful and industrious be- havior given some assurance that they would prove better man- agers in the future, to entrust them with the entire and unre- strained property in the lands allotted to them.
Second. They were to be sent over to inhabit, cultivate, and secure, by a personal residence, the lands granted to them in the province. This they voluntarily engaged to do; and, in the ex- pectation that they would observe this promise, they were to be maintained at the public expense during the voyage and to be at no charge for their passage. They were, moreover, to be provided with tools, arms, seeds, and other necessaries, and to be supported, at least for a season, from the general stores. Hence the public might be said to have purchased from such settlers, for a valua- ble consideration, their personal residence, and all the industry and labor they could bestow upon the cultivation of the soil assigned for their new homes.
Third. It was thought unsafe to grant estates in fee because
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
they might be the means of introducing into the colony persons opposed to the Protestant religion, the maintenance of which was regarded as all important. On the west of the province were the French, and the Spaniards to the south, - Papists all.
Fourth. The concentration of the ownership of many lots in a single individual would be a necessary consequence of a free pur- chase and sale of lands within the province, and this would con- flict with the manifest intent of the charter which forbade a grant of more than five hundred acres of land to any one person.
Besides, where the tenant in fee died without children and intestate, it might be a difficult and a tedious matter to ascertain the heir general. Meanwhile, the improvements upon the lot would decay and the land remain uncultivated.
Although these restraints upon the ownership and sale of real property were deemed wholesome in the beginning, the trustees were prepared, upon special cause shown, to modify their rules and even to grant a license for the alienation of land. We shall see, too, that when the succession of females became less dan- gerous to the province, when its population multiplied and grew confirmed in its local attachments, and when, by the arrival of the king's forces, its military capabilities were increased, the trustees consented to an enlargement of the land tenures.
In order to insure industry on the part of the settlers to be transported and furnished with homes at the expense of the trust, they were placed under covenant to clear and cultivate, within a given time, a certain portion of the lands allotted to them re- spectively, and also to plant one hundred white mulberry trees upon every ten acres which should be cleared. Should this con- tract not be observed on the part of the tenants, the trustees reserved to themselves the right of reentry on such portions of the lots as remained untilled.
Subsequently, however, when it was evident that the colonists, because of Spanish alarms, successive droughts, and other un- foreseen accidents, had been prevented from reducing into cul- tivation within the required time the specific number of acres, the trustees resolved to cancel all forfeitures.
To such persons as could carry ten men-servants with them and settle in Georgia at their own expense, if, upon inquiry, their characters were found to be above reproach, the trustees agreed to grant five hundred aeres of land in tail male, reserving to themselves for the support of the colony a yearly rent of twenty shillings sterling for every hundred acres. The payment of this
109
LAND TENURES.
rental was not to commence until ten years after the date of the grant.
Within a month after its execution the grant, or a memorial of it, was to be registered with the auditor of plantations. The grantee obligated himself, within twelve months after the date of the cession, to repair to Georgia with ten able-bodied men- servants, each being at least twenty-one years of age. He further agreed to abide in Georgia with his servants for three years, building houses and cultivating his lands. Within ten years from the date of the grant he was to clear and cultivate two hundred of the five hundred acres, and plant thereon two thousand white mulberry trees. On every hundred of the remain- ing three hundred acres, when cleared, one thousand white mul- berry trees or plants, to be furnished by the trustees, were to be set out and preserved. No alienation of the five hundred acres or of any part thereof for a term of years or otherwise could be made except by special leave of the trustees. On the determina- tion of the estate in tail male the land was to revert to the trust. These grantees were not permitted to depart from the province without license. All forfeitures for non-residence, high treason, felonies, etc., were to inure to the trustees for the benefit of the colony. If any part of the five hundred acres of land, within eighteen years from the date of the grant, should remain unculti- vated, uncleared, unplanted, and without a worm fence or paling six feet high, such portion should then revert to the trust.
Upon the expiration of the terms of service of the male ser- vants (" the same being for not less than four years ") the common council agreed, if requested by the grantee so to do, to grant to each of such servants twenty acres of land in tail male upon such rents, conditions, limitations, and covenants as might have been attached to grants to men-servants in like circum- stances. The grantees of these five-hundred-acre tracts were prohibited from hiring, keeping, lodging, or employing any negro except by special permission.
When the lands reverted to the trust on determination of the estate in tail male, the trustees covenanted to grant it again to such persons as the common council should think most advanta- geous to the colony, special regard being had for the daughters of such as had made improvements upon their lots. The widows of persons dying without male issue were, during their lives, to be entitled to the enjoyment of the mansion house and of one half of the lands improved by their husbands.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
The introduction of rum was prohibited. Trading with In- dians was forbidden, unless sanctioned by special license. The trustees also saw fit to prohibit the importation, ownership, and use of negroes within the limits of the province of Georgia. For this action on their part the following reasons were assigned : -
The intention of the charter being to provide for poor persons incapable of subsisting themselves at home, and to establish a frontier for South Carolina which, because of the small number of its white inhabitants, was much exposed to the inroads both of hostile Indians and jealous Spaniards, it was thought impos- sible that the indigent who should be sent from England, and the foreign persecuted Protestants who would enter the colony utterly without means, could either purchase negroes or support
them if they were furnished. Should the trustees undertake such a charge they would be crippled in their ability to maintain the white settlers. The prime cost of a negro was then about thirty pounds. This sni would suffice to pay the passage over of a white man, supply him with tools and other necessaries, and subsist him for a year. At the expiration of that time it was hoped that the planter's own labor would enable him to earn a livelihood. Consequently, argued the trustees, the purchase- money of every negro (deducting the cost of feeding him and his master) by being applied in that way would prevent them from sending a white man who would add to the strength of the colony, whereas the negro would only render its security the more precarious.
It was thought that the white man, in possessing a negro slave, would himself be less inclined to labor ; that much of his time would be consumed in keeping the negro at work and in guard- ing against any dangers he and his family might apprehend from the slave; and that in the event of the death or absence of the master his family would be in large degree at the mercy of the negro.1
It was also apprehended that the Spaniards at St. Augustine would be continually enticing the negroes away or inciting them to insurrections. This fear found its justification in the conduct of the Spaniards toward the negro slaves of Carolina. Although
1 It will be here remembered that the negro alluded to was the recently im- ported African, with his wild passions in large measure unsubdued, but little modi- fied by the restraints of a superior civili-
zation, and ignorant of those attachments and of that sense of mutual dependence which, at a later period, bound master and servant so closely together.
111
REASONS FOR PROHIBITING SLAVERY.
at a greater distance from St. Augustine, many of them, per- suaded by emissaries from that place, had deserted in periaguas and small boats to the Spaniards; and on more than one occa- sion large bodies of them had risen in arms, to the great alarm and loss of that province.
The trustees were under the impression that the products of Georgia would not require the intervention of negro labor. The cultivation of rice in Carolina was an unhealthy and a heavy task demanding the service of slaves, whereas the silk and other matters which would claim the attention of the Georgia colonists could be best cared for by white men and their wives and children.
It was also feared that if the persons who should go over to Georgia at their own expense were allowed the use of negroes the poor planters, who constituted the strength of the colony and who could not purchase them, would be dispirited and perhaps ruined. Under such circumstances, clamorous to have negroes furnished to them, and being refused, they would either quit the colony or grow negligent of their small plantations. Or, dis- daining to work like negroes, they would seek to hire themselves as overseers to the wealthy planters. Upon the admission of negroes these wealthy planters would be inclined to adopt the course pursued in other colonies and absent themselves from their plantations, entrusting them and their black slaves to the super- vision of paid overseers.
It was believed by the trustees that the poor planter, sent on charity, in his eagerness to own negro slaves, and the rich plan- ters too who had come at their own charge, if permitted to alien- ate lands, would mortgage their real estate to the negro merchant, or at least become his debtors in the purchase of slaves. If these claims were not met, both negroes and land might pass into the ownership of the slave dealer, -a result to be deeply de- plored and to be avoided if possible.
It was apprehended that the introduction of negro slaves into . Georgia would facilitate the desertion of the Carolina negroes through Georgia into Florida, thus defeating one of the prime intentions of the founders of the colony, which was to make it a barrier and sure defense to Carolina against the malign influ- ences and malevolent designs of the Spaniards at St. Augustine.
Influenced by these considerations the trustees made the non- introduction of negro slaves a fundamental principle in the con- stitution of the colony of Georgia. At first the prohibition was
112
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
doubtless salutary in its operation, but there soon came a time, in the development of the plantation, when its abrogation was found essential to the prosperity, nay, to the life itself, of the province.
In preparing a form of government under the provisions of the letters patent the trustees arranged for the establishment of a court for the trial of causes both civil and criminal, for the ap- pointment of magistrates, three bailiffs, a recorder, two consta- bles, and two tithing-men. Those were selected as magistrates who seemed to be most prudent and discreet ; although, where " all were upon a level at the first setting out," it appeared " im- possible to make any choice or distinction which would not create some future uneasiness among them."1
1 See an Account showing the Progress its first Establishment, pp. 5-11, 48, 49. of the Colony of Georgia in America from London. MDCCXLI.
CHAPTER VII.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST EMBARKATION. - OGLETHORPE LEADS THE COLONISTS. - DEPARTURE IN THE GALLEY ANNE. - ARRIVAL AND RECEPTION AT CHARLESTOWN, SOUTH CAROLINA. - OGLETHORPE VISITS YAMACRAW BLUFF. - HIS FIRST INTERVIEW WITH TOMO-CHI-CHI. - THIE COLONISTS LAND AT SAVANNAH.
HAVING thus digested a plan for the conduct of the proposed colony, and having secured funds sufficient to justify them in putting into practical operation their scheme for the settlement of the ceded lands, the trustees gave public notice of their readi- ness to receive and consider applications from parties who desired to emigrate to Georgia. Numerous were the responses. That they might not be deceived in the characters and antecedents of those who signified a wish to depart, a committee was appointed to visit the prisons and examine the applicants there confined. If they proved worthy of the charity, compromises were to be effected with their creditors, and consents for their discharge pro- cured. Another committee was raised to inquire into the circum- stances and qualifications of such as presented themselves at the office of the corporation. Keeping in view the benevolent objects of the association and the nature of the settlement to be com- passed, it was manifest that only fit persons ought to be selected. and that due care should be exercised in the choice of emigrants.1 As the men were to act in the double capacity of planters and soldiers, it was important not only that they should be able- bodied and reliable, but that they should, at the earliest moment,
1 It has been idly charged that in the beginning Georgia colonists were impecu- nions, depraved, lawless, and abandoncd, that the settlement at Savannah was a sort of Botany Bay, and that Yamacraw Bluff was peopled by runagates from justice. The suggestion is utterly with- out foundation. The truth is, no appli- cant was admitted to the privilege of en- rollment as an emigrant until he had been subjected to a preliminary examination and had furnished satisfactory testimony
that he was fairly entitled to the benefits of the charity.
Other American colonies were founded and angmented by individuals coming at will, without question, for personal gain, and bringing no certificate of present or past good conduct. Georgia, on the con- trary, 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.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
be instructed in the use of arms. Consequently, upon receiving the approbation of the committee, and until the arrival of the time fixed for sailing, the emigrants were drilled each day by the sergeants of the Royal Guards. Preferences were given to those who came well recommended by the ministers, church-wardens, and overseers of their respective parishes.
By the 3d of October, 1732, one hundred and fourteen indi- viduals, comprising men, women, and children, had been enrolled for the first embarkation. Three weeks afterwards they were asked whether they objected to any of the terms and condi- tions proposed by the trustees. They all responded that they were fully satisfied with them. Articles testifying their consent were thereupon signed, sealed, and filed in the office of tlie trustees.
Four of them desired that their daughters might inherit as well as their sons, and that provision should be made for the widow's dower. Yielding to their solicitation, the trustees re- solved that any person claiming the privilege might name a suc- cessor to the lands granted to him, and that in case the original grantee died without male issue such successor should hold to himself or herself and his or her male heirs forever. It was further ordained that widows should have their thirds as regu- lated by the laws of England.1
Five thousand acres of land within the limits of Georgia were granted to three of the colonists2 in trust to convey therefrom fifty acres to every male adult upon his arrival in the province, at his request, and upon condition that he would form a settle- ment thereon. Such lot was to become the property of the grantee and his heirs male.
A vessel chartered to convey the emigrants was, at the charge of the trust, comfortably fitted out for their accommodation, and 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. The liberality of the supervisors was further shown in the supply of domestic utensils. Ten tuns of Alderman Parson's best beer were put on board,3 and every provision was made for the reason- able subsistence of these industrious adventurers during their
1 Account showing the Progress of the Colony of Georgia in America, etc., pp. 11, 12. London. MDCCXLI.
2 Thomas Christie, William Calvert, and Joseph Hughes.
3 Gentleman's Magazine for 1732, p. 1029.
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OGLETHORPE LEADS TIIE COLONISTS.
carliest efforts to subdue the native wilds of the untrodden region so soon to become their permanent home.
At his own request Oglethorpe was selected to accompany the colonists and establish them in Georgia. He voluntered to bear his own expenses, and to devote liis entire time and attention to the consummation of the 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, patriot- ism, and enlarged philanthropy. Most fortunate were the trus- tees in having such a representative. To no one could the power to exercise the functions of a colonial governor have been more appropriately confided. Attentive to the voice of suffering, and ready to lend a helping hand wherever the weak and the op- pressed required the aid of the more powerful and the noble- minded for the redress of wrongs and the alleviation of present ills ; "in the prime of life, very handsome, tall, manly, digni- fied, but not austere, the beau ideal of an English gentleman, and blessed with ample means for the gratification of every rea- sonable desire ; " possessing a liberal education, a fearless soul. a determined will, a tireless energy, a practical knowledge of military affairs and of the management of expeditions, and an experience of men and climes and matters which only years. of careful observation, intelligent travel, and thoughtful study could supply, there was that about his person, character, at- tainments, and abilities which inspired confidence and rendered Mr. Oglethorpe, beyond all dispute, the man of his age and peo- ple best qualified to inaugurate and conduct to a successful issue an enterprise so entirely in unison with his own philanthropic sentiments and so important to the interests of both England and America.1
A more striking instance of self-negation, of disinterested be- nevolence, of public spirit, cannot readily be recalled ; and we cordially sympathize in the compliment paid by a contemporary who, in reviewing Oglethorpe's behavior, says : " To see a gentle- man of his rank and fortune visiting a distant and uneultivated land with no other society but the miserable whom he goes to assist, exposing himself freely to the same hardships to which they are subjected, in the prime of life, instead of pursuing his pleasures or ambition, intent on an improved and well-concerted plan from which his country must reap the profits, at his own
1 See Historical Sketch of Tomo-chi-chi, p. 16. C. C. Jones, Jr. Albany, N. Y. 1868.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
expense, and without a view or even a possibility of receiving any private advantage from it; this, too, after having done and expended for it what many generous men would think sufficient to have done, - to see this, I say, must give every one who has approved and contributed to the undertaking the highest satis- faction, must convince the world of the disinterested zeal with which the settlement is to be made, and entitle him to the truest honour he can gain, - the perpetual love and applause of man- kind." 1
Their last Sabbath in England was passed by the emigrants at Milton, on the banks of the Thames. There, in a body, they at- tended divine worship in the parish church. Fortunately their sorrows at the prospect of an early separation from home and friends were not then enhanced by any gloomy picture of the land to which they were hastening. Goldsmith had not then penned his mournful lines : -
" To distant climes, a dreary scene,
Where half the convex world iutrndes between,
Through torrid tracts with fainting steps they go,
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