USA > Georgia > The history of Georgia, Volume I > Part 31
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Profound were the terror and consternation caused by this servile insurrection. During its short continuance more than twenty persons were murdered, and many valuable dwellings burnt to the ground. But for the timely intervention of the armed planters worshiping at Wiltown church, the destruction of life and property would have been far greater, and it is not improb- able that the uprising thus inaugurated would have become wide- spread. Advised of this unhappy transaction, General Ogle- thorpe issued a proclamation requiring the apprehension of all negroes found within the limits of the province of Georgia, offer- ing a reward for runaways, and detailing a company of rangers
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to patrol the southern frontier "and block up all passages by which they might make their escape to Florida." 1
The negro population in South Carolina at this time was esti- mated at forty thousand. The whites did not number more than five thousand. Grasping with stupid avidity at the most des- perate suggestions which promised license and booty, those slaves had, on more than one occasion, been seriously tampered with by the Spaniards. The pernicious influence exerted by such emissaries may be more easily conjectured than described. That the authorities at St. Augustine encouraged insurrection and de- sertion among the Carolina slaves, suggested a general massacre of the whites both in South Carolina and Georgia, and promised soldiers' pay and rations to all who should find their way to Florida, cannot be doubted. Negro sergeants were employed on recruiting service, with secret rendezvous in Carolina. Two Spaniards were apprehended in Georgia and committed to prison for enticing slaves from their Carolina masters. Thus did Spain grow daily more and more offensive in the development of her plans for the annoyance, disquietude, and destruction of the English colonies adjacent to her possessions in Florida. To the vigilance of Oglethorpe and the services of his scouts was Caro- lina largely indebted for the retention of her slave property, and for deliverance from the horrors of a general servile insurrection.
In making up and explaining his accounts Causton had been dilatory and perverse. During a conversation with Mr. Jones he insinuated that General Oglethorpe " very well knew what ex- traordinary occasions had created these great exceedings ; which the Trustees not approving of, he [Causton] was given up to be driven to ruin." Informed of these aspersions, the general at once came to Savannah and, sending for Causton, in the presence of Colonel Stephens and Mr. Jones reprimanded him for the freedom he had taken with his name. "If," he added, "in the course of your inquiries you find any written orders from me, you ought to produce them ; or, if you have verbal orders only, you should not scruple to charge them to my account and leave me to exonerate myself: or, if in divers cases you have no other plea than the necessity of the service, you ought to set forth what that necessity was, leaving it to the Trustees how far it may content them." Then recommending him to use
1 Historical Account of the Rise and Prog- London. MDCCLXXIX. McCall's His ress of the Colonies of South Carolina and tory of Georgia, vol. i. pp. 125, 126. Georgia, vol. ii. pp. 72-74.
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neither delays nor shifts in making up his accounts, he dismissed him.1
It was during this short visit that Oglethorpe heard for the first time a sermon from the Rev. Mr. Norris, newly arrived in Savannah. With his excellent, practical discourse, " exhorting to holiness of life as a means of forgiveness through Christ's death," he was well pleased. In his utterances this clergyman seems to have given much satisfaction to the venerable Colonel William Stephens, whose opinion was that "sublime points in divinity are ill-suited to a young colony, where the preacher's labours would be best bestowed in plainly setting forth the sad consequences of a vicious life, the amiableness of the Christian religion, with the certain rewards attending the practice of it ; and inculcating those duties to God and our neighbour which are so essential to religion, and the practice of which, we are taught to hope, through the mediation of our Saviour will be accepted, though not through any merit of our own : relying on Him in faith." 2
So occupied was Oglethorpe with the military affairs of the southern portion of the province he found it impracticable to re- turn to Savannah during the remainder of the year, as he hoped to do, that he might open a Court of Claims rendered necessary by Causton's extravagance and confusion of accounts.
As exhibiting a partial statement of the finances of the colony, and furnishing an explanation of the circumstances under which the trustees became largely in arrears in meeting the current expenses of the province, we submit the following extract from a letter penned by Oglethorpe at Frederica, dated the 20th of November, 1738, and addressed to the Right Honorable Thomas Winnington, Paymaster of the Forces : "The Parliament, to defray the charges of the improvements of the Colony of Georgia and the military defence thereof used to grant £20,000 for the year. The King ordered a regiment for the defence of the Col- ony and thereupon the Trustees were contented to abate £12,000 in their demands, and £8,000 only was granted to them. But as the Regiment did not arrive till near a year afterwards, the Trus- tees were obliged to support the military charge of the Colony during the whole time, which was very dangerous by reason of the threatened invasion of the Spaniards, of which you received so many accounts. No officer of the Trustees dared abandon
1 See Wright's Memoir of General Ogle-
thorpe, p. 206. London. 1867.
2 Journal of Proceedings in Georgia, vol. i. p. 309. London. MDCCXLII.
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TIIE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
a garrison, reduce any men, or dismiss the militia whilst the Spaniards threatened the Province and the King's troops were not arrived to relieve them. A debt of near £12,000 is con- tracted because by unforeseen accidents the regiment was delayed and the military expence was continued till their arrival, though the Parliamentary grant ceased." He then entreats Mr. Win- nington to aid the trustees in their application to Parliament for a sum sufficient to discharge the debt thus incurred ; and for the excellent reason that "if the people who furnished with neces- saries a colony then threatened with invasion, and the people who then bore arms for the defence of it (and thereby secured that important frontier till the arrival of the King's troops) should be ruined by not being paid their just demands, it would prevent hereafter any frontier colony from receiving assist- ance." 1
Private contributions in aid of the colonization had each year grown smaller. The self-sustaining abilities of the province dis- appointed expectation. Utterly unable were the trustees to de- fray the charges incident to the support of the civil and military list. The fortifications lacked cannon and munitions of war, and many of the inhabitants clamored for food. In this emergency Parliament granted £ 20,000 which enabled the common council to redeem all outstanding obligations and provide for the further and efficient administration of the trust.
The impoverished condition of the province, the scarcity of supplies, Causton's defalcation, the spasmodic and unsatisfac- tory nature of the agricultural operations near Savannah, the enervating character of the climate, the disappointments which had been experienced in the effort to compass a comfortable sup- port and accumulate wealth, the departure of not a few colonists, who, crossing the river, sought better fortunes in South Caro- lina where lands were granted in fee and the ownership of slaves was permitted by law, and the ruinous outlook, coupled with much dissatisfaction and lack of industry on the part of some of the settlers, induced the magistrates to unite with the freeholders dwelling in Savannah and its vicinity in a petition to the trustees in which, after expressing their disappointment that the hopes held ont to them in England of pleasant and profitable homes in Georgia had not been realized ; after asserting that their best exertions in tilling the soil had failed to procure sufficient provis- ions and the means requisite for purchasing clothing and medi-
1 Notes and Queries, 3d S. vol. x. p. 64.
PETITION OF MAGISTRATES AND FREEHOLDERS. 303
cines ; after declaring that, in the absence of cheap slave labor, they were unable to compete successfully with their neighbors in Carolina ; after expressing the conviction that the cultivation of silk and wine could never be made remunerative so long as white servants only were employed; after assuring the trustees that commerce languished because, not being possessed of the fee in their lands and improvements, they were incapable of offering them as security to merchants in procurement of goods as was frequently done in other English provinces; after alluding to the numbers who had left the plantation because of the preca- rious land titles existent therein, and the small accessions which had of late been made to the population of the province; and after referring to other causes which retarded the progress of the settlement, they invoked serious and immediate consideration by the trustees of the "two following chief causes of their misfor- tunes : " -
" First. The Want of a free Title or Fee Simple to our Lands, which, if granted, would both occasion great Numbers of new Settlers to come amongst us, and likewise encourage those who remain here chearfully to proceed in making further Improve- ments, as well to retrieve their sunk Fortunes, as to make Provis- ion for their Posterity.
"Second. The Want of the Use of Negroes with proper Lim- itations; which, if granted, would both induce great Numbers of White People to come here, and also render us capable to subsist ourselves by raising provisions upon our Lands until we could make some Produce fit for Export, and in some measure to bal- ance our Importation. We are very sensible of the Inconven- iences and Mischiefs that have already, and do daily arise from an unlimited Use of Negroes; but we are as sensible that these may be prevented by a due Limitation, such as so many to each White Man, and so many to such a Quantity of Land; or in any other manner which your Honours shall think most proper. By granting us, Gentlemen, these two Particulars, and such other Privileges as his Majesty's most dutiful Subjects in America enjoy, you will not only prevent our impending Ruin, but, we are fully satisfied, also will soon make this the most flourishing Colony possessed by his Majesty in America, and your Memories will be perpetuated to all future Ages, our latest Posterity sound- ing your Praises as their first Founders, Patrons and Guardians ; but if, by denying us those Privileges, we ourselves and Families are not only ruined, but even our Posterity likewise, you will
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
always be mentioned as the Cause and Authors of all their Mis- fortunes and Calamities ; which we hope will never happen." 1
This petition was dated at Savannah on the 9th of December, 1738, and was signed by one hundred and twenty-one of the male inhabitants.
The submission of this memorial coming to the knowledge of the Scotch at New Inverness, eighteen prominent members of that community, on the 3d of January, 1739, addressed the fol- lowing communication to His Excellency General Oglethorpe :
" We are informed that our Neighbours of Savannah have petitioned your Excellency for the Liberty of having Slaves. We hope, and earnestly entreat that before such Proposals are hearkened unto your Excellency will consider our Situation and of what dangerous and bad Consequence such Liberty would be to us, for many Reasons ;
"I. The Nearness of the Spaniards who have proclaimed Free- dom to all Slaves who run away from their Masters makes it impossible for us to keep them without more Labour in guard- ing them than what we would be at to do their work :
"II. We are laborious, and know that a White Man may be by the Year more usefully employed than a Negro:
"III. We are not rich, and becoming Debtors for Slaves, in case of their running away or dying, would inevitably ruin the poor Master, and he become a greater Slave to the Negro Mer- chant, than the Slave he bought could be to him :
"IV. It would oblige us to keep a Guard-duty at least as severe as when we expected a daily Invasion ; and if that was the Case, how miserable would it be to us and our Wives and Families to have an Enemy without and more dangerous ones in our Bosom !
" V. It is shocking to human Nature that any Race of Man- kind, and their Posterity should be sentenced to perpetual Slavery; nor in Justice can we think otherwise of it than that they are thrown amongst us to be our Scourge one Day or other for our Sins; and as Freedom to them must be as dear as to us, what a Scene of Horror must it bring about ! And the longer it is unexecuted, the bloody Scene must be the greater. We there- fore, for our own sakes, our Wives and Children, and our Pos- terity, beg your Consideration, and intreat that instead of intro- ducing Slaves, you'll put us in the way to get us some of our Countrymen, who with their Labour in time of Peace, and our
1 Account shewing the Progress of the Colony of Georgia in America, etc., pp. 59, 63. London. MDCCXLI.
305
LETTER OF THE SALZBURGERS.
Vigilance if we are invaded, with the Help of those, will render it a difficult thing to hurt us, or that Part of the Province we possess. We will forever pray for your Excellency, and are with all Submission,"1 etc.
True to the prejudices and the traditions of their nation, and confident in their manhood, so spake these hardy sojourners on the southern confines of the colony.
Indorsing the protest thus filed by the people of Darien, com- mending their own industry and success, and auguring well for the future, the ministers of the Ebenezer Congregation and forty- nine Salzburgers signed and forwarded to General Oglethorpe the following letter, dated the 13th of March, 1739.
" We Saltzburghers, and Inhabitants of Ebenezer that have signed this Letter, intreat humbly in our and our Brethren's names, your Excellency would be pleased to shew us the Favour of desiring the honourable Trustees for sending to Georgia another Transport of Saltzburghers to be settled at Ebenezer. We have, with one Accord, wrote a Letter to our Father in God, the Reverend Mr Senior Urlsperger, at Augspurg, and in that Letter expressly named those Saltzburghers and Austrians whom, as our Friends, Relations, and Countrymen, we wish to see settled here. We can indeed attest of them that they fear the Lord truly, love Working, and will conform themselves to our Congregation. We have given them an Account of our being well settled, and being mighty well pleased with the Climate and Condition of this Country, having here several Preferences in spiritual and temporal Circumstances for other People in Germany, which your Honour will find in the here inelosed Copy of our Letter to Mr Senior Urlsperger, if they fare as we do, having been pro- vided in the Beginning with Provisions, a little Stock for Breed, some Tools, and good Land by the Care of the honorable Trus- tees ; and if God grants his Blessing to their work, we doubt not but they will gain with us easily their Bread and Subsistence, and lead a quiet and peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty.
" Though it is here a hotter Season than our native Country is, yet not so extremely hot, as we were told on the first time of our Arrival; but since we have been now used to the Country we find it tolerable, and, for working People, very convenient ; setting themselves to work early in the Morning till Ten O'Clock ; and in the Afternoon from Three to Sun-set; and having Busi-
1 An Acccount shewing the Progress of the Colony of Georgia in America, etc., pp. 64, 65. London. MDCCXLI.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
ness at Home, we do them in our Huts and Houses in the Mid- dle of the Day till the greatest Heat is over. People in Ger- many are hindered by Frost and Snow in the Winter from doing any work in the Fields and Vineyards ; but we have this Prefer- ence to do the most and heaviest Work at such a time, prepar- ing the Ground sufficiently for planting in the Spring. We were told by several People, after our Arrival, that it proves quite im- possible and dangerous for White People to plant and manufac- ture any Rice, being a Work only for Negroes, not for European People ; but having Experience of the contrary we laugh at such a Talking, seeing that several People of us have had, in last Harvest, a greater Crop of Rice than they wanted for their own Consumption. If God is pleased to enable us by some Money for building such Mills, convenient for cleaning the Rice, as we use in Germany for making several Grains fit for eating, then the Manufacture of Rice will be an easy and profitable thing. For the present we crave your Excellency's Goodness to allow, for the Use of the whole Congregation, some Rice Sieves, of several Sorts, from Charles-Town, which cannot be had at Savannah ; We will be accountable to the Store for them.
" Of Corn, Pease, Potatoes, Pomkins, Cabbage, &c., we had such a good Quantity that many Bushels are sold, and much was spent in feeding Cows, Calves, and Hogs. If the Surveyor, ac- cording to his Order and Duty, had used Dispatch in laying out our Farms, (which we have got not sooner than last Fall) item, if not, we all were disappointed by long Sickness, and planting the yellow Pensilvania Corn; we would have been able, by the Blessing of God to spare a greater Quantity of Grain for getting Meat-Kind and Cloathes, of which we are in Want. It is true that Two-Acres of Ground for each Family's Garden are set out some time ago, but being there very few Swamps fit for planting of Rice, and some Part of them wanting a good deal of Dung, we were not able, in the Beginning, to dung it well ; therefore we could not make such a good Use of those Acres as we now have Reason to hope, by the Assistance of God, after our Planta- tions are laid out. Hence it will be that we plant the good Ground first, and improve the other Soil then when Occasion will require it, in the best manner we can. In the first Time when the Ground must be cleared from Trees, Bushes, and Roots, and fenced in carefully, we are to undergo some hard Labour, which afterwards will be the easier and more pleasing, when the hardest Trial is over, and our plantations are better regulated.
307
PROTEST OF THE SALZBURGERS.
A good deal of Time was spent in building Huts, Houses, and other necessary Buildings in Town and upon the Farms ; and since, we wanted Money for several Expences ; several Persons of us hired themselves out for some Weeks for building the Or- phan-house and its Appurtenances; item, The Reverend Mr Gronau's House, which happened to be built in the hottest Sum- mer Season ; and now some of us are employed to build the Rev- erend M' Bolzius' House ; which Buildings have taken away some time from our Work in the Ground ; but the fair Oppor- tunity of earning some Money at Home was a great Benefit to us ; this now being so, that neither the hot Summer Season nor anything else hinders us from Work in the Ground, and we wish to lead a quiet and peaceable Life at our Place.
" We humbly beseech the honourable Trustees not to allow it that any Negro might be brought to our Place or in our Neigh- bourhood, knowing by Experience that Houses and Gardens will be robbed always by them, and White People are in Danger of Life because of them, besides other great Inconveniences. Like- wise we humbly beseech you and the Trustees not to allow to any Person the Liberty of buying up Lands at our Place, by which, if granted, it would happen that by bad and turbulent Neighbours our Congregation would be spoilt and poor, harmless People troubled and oppressed : But we wish and long for such Neighbours to be settled here whose Good-name and honest Behaviour is known to us and our Favourers. The Honourable Trustees have been always Favourers and Protectors of poor and distressed People ; wherefore we bescech you and them they would be pleased to take us further under their fatherly Care, that the Remembrance of their Benevolence and Kindness to our Congregation might be conveyed to our late Posterity, and be highly praised. We put up our Prayers to God for rewarding your Excellency and the Honourable Trustees manifold for all their good Assistance and Benefits which are bestowed upon us, and beg humbly the Continuance of your and their Favour and Protection, being with the greatest Submission and Respect, your Honour's most obedient dutiful Servants,"1 etc.
It will thus be seen that the colonists were divided in senti- ment upon the question of the expediency of introducing negro slaves into the province. General Oglethorpe's views on the sub- ject are embodied in a letter to the trustees written from Savan-
1 An Account showing the Progress of the Colony of Georgia in America, etc., pp. 66-69. London. MDCCXLI.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
nah on the 12th of March, 1739. In it he states that Mr. Will- iams, to whom many of them were deeply indebted, had induced the poor people of Savannah "to sign the petition for Negroes which affirms that white men cannot work in this Province." This assertion he declares he can disprove by hundreds of wit- nesses, by all the Salzburgers, by the people of Darien, by many at Frederica and Savannah, and by all in the province who were industriously inclined. " The idle ones," he adds, "are indeed for Negroes. If the Petition is countenanced the Province is ruined. Mr. Williams and Dr. Tailfeur will buy most of the lands at Savannah with Debts due to them, and the Inhabitants must go off and be succeeded by Negroes. Yet the very Debtors have been weak enough to sign their Desire of Leave to sell." 1
In another communication 2 to the trustees, written at Frederica on the 4th of July in the same year, he protests against any material change in the existing land tenures, advising the trustees that the " Titles are at present upon a very good Footing, and that those who made most noise about their Lands were such as had taken no care to make any use of them."
Twelve days afterwards, in reporting the status of affairs to the trustees, he again refers to this subject in the following man- ner : " There is one Tailfeur, an Apothecary Surgeon who gives Physick, and one Williams, of whom I wrote to you formerly, a Merchant, who quitted planting to sell rum. To these two almost all the Town [Savannah] is in debt for Physick and Rum, and they have raised a strong spirit to desire that Lands may be alienable, and then they would take the Lands for the Debts, monopolize the Country, and settle it with Negroes. They have a vast deal of Art, and if they think they cannot carry this, they would apply for any other alteration since they hope thereby to bring confusion, and you cannot imagine how much uneasiness I have had here. I hope, therefore, you will make no altera- tions." 3
Robert Williams, to whom allusion is made, was open and vio- lent in his denunciation of the policy pursued by the trustees in regard to the tenure by which lands in the province were holden of them, and kept the public mind at Savannah in a constant ferment on this subject.+
1 Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, vol. iii. p. 70. Savannah. 1873. 2 Idem, pp. 72-79.
8 Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, vol. iii. p. 79. . Savannah. 1873.
4 Stephens' Journal of Proceedings, vol. i. pp. 8, 27, 57, 149, 289. London. MDCCXLII.
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MALCONTENTS.
Possessing some means and a valuable commercial correspond- ence, he desired to utilize them in the accumulation of wealth. Hence his anxiety to have the fee simple to lands vested in the colonists so that they might either pledge or sell them. In either event he would be able to secure his loans, and finally to become possessed of much of the landed estate.
Doctor Patrick Tailfer was scarcely less pronounced in his criticisms upon the conduct of the colony, and in his representa- tions of existing grievances. He was a thorn in the side of Gen- eral Oglethorpe, to whom, under the nom de plume of The Plain Dealer, he addressed a communication upon colonial affairs full of condemnation, complaint, and sarcasm. He was the chief of a club of malcontents whose conduct became so notorious that they were forced, in September, 1740, to quit the province and take refuge in South Carolina. When thus beyond the jurisdic- tion of the Georgia authorities, in association with Hugh Ander- son, David Douglass, and others, he published a seurrilous tract entitled " A True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Geor- gia in America," 1 which they dedicated to General Oglethorpe. In the epistle dedicatory, which may be accepted as a specimen of the entire production, the authors say : " Under the Influence of our Perpetual Dictator we have seen something like Aris- tocracy, Oligarchy, as well as the Triumvirate, Decemvirate, and Consular Authority of famous Republicks which have expired many Ages before us. What Wonder then we share the same Fate? Do their Towns and Villages exist but in Story and Rub- bish ? We are all over Ruins. Our Publick-works, Forts, Wells, Highways, Lighthouse, Store, Water Mills, &e., are dignified like theirs with the same venerable Desolation. The Log-house in- deed is like to be the last forsaken Spot of your Empire; yet even this, thro' the Death or Desertion of those who should continue to inhabit it, must suddenly decay ; the bankrupt Jailor himself shall be soon denied the Privilege of human Conversa- tion, and when this last Moment of the Spell expires, the whole shall vanish like the Illusion of some Eastern Magician.
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