USA > Georgia > The history of Georgia, Volume I > Part 42
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56
410
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
home our sincere and very fervent wishes for the accomplishment of so useful, so beneficent, and so laudable an undertaking.
" By order of the Upper House,
" JAMES HABERSHAM, President. " By order of the Commons House,
" Alex : WYLLY, Speaker."
On the same day his excellency Governor Wright was pleased to return the following answer : --
" GENTLEMEN,
" I am so perfectly sensible of the very great advantage which will result to the Province in general from the establishment of a Seminary for Learning here, that it gives me the greatest pleasure to find so laudable an undertaking proposed by the Rev. Mr. Whitefield. The friendly and zealous disposition of that gentleman to promote the prosperity of this Province has been often experienced, and you may rest assured that I shall transmit your address home with my best endeavours for the success of the great point in view.
" 20th December, 1764.
JAMES WRIGHT."
Having thus secured unqualified approval by the Georgia au- thorities of his design to convert the orphan house1 into a col- lege, Mr. Whitefield went to England that he might, by personal influence, obtain from the Crown the necessary sanction and assistance. The address of the Georgia Houses of Assembly was laid before the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations. That the matter might be brought directly to the notice of his majesty, Mr. Whitefield prepared and delivered into the hands
1 William Bartram, who visited this in- stitution on the 25th of September, 1765, describes the orphan house as a "neat brick Building well finished and painted both within and without : its dimensions 60 x 40 with cellaring all the way through, two stories high, with good garrets and a turret, and bell on the top. Piazzas ten fect wide project on every side, and form a pleasant walk both winter and summer round the house. The inside apartments are well divided. On the ground floor a passage runs from end to end, at the ex- tremities of which a stair case of red bay, not unlike mahogany, leads to the upper story. On one side of this passage are three rooms, a parlour, chappel, and library. On the other side a long dining
room and parlour. The upper story cor- responds with the lower, and the garrets are also conveniently divided. This cele- brated building stands on an acre and a half, well fenced : one side of which fronts a salt water creek which is dry when the tide is out, but flows cight feet high when the tide rises. On the oppo- site side is a garden handsomely laid out and planted with oranges, pomegranates, figs, peaches, and other fruit trees, and at a small distance the school-house, stables, and other ontbuildings are regu- larly disposed. To all this Mr. White- field has added a plantation well stocked with negroes for the use of a College." Gentleman's Magazine for 1767, p. 168.
1
411
SCHEME OF MR. WHITEFIELD.
of the clerk of the Privy Council another memorial in which he prayed for a charter upon the plan of the college of New Jersey, and expressed his readiness "to give up his present trust and make a free gift of all lands, negroes, goods, and chattels which he now stands possessed of in the Province of Georgia, for the present founding and towards the future support of a College to be called by the name of Bethesda College in the Province of Georgia."
By the Lord President of the Privy Council this memorial was referred to his grace the Archbishop of Canterbury. A corre- spondence ensued during the course of which, in response to an inquiry from his grace respecting the present endowment and future pecuniary expectations of the proposed institution, Mr. Whitefield writes : " Upon a moderate computation I believe its present annual income is between four and five hundred pounds sterling. The house is surrounded with eighteen hundred acres of land. . . . The number of negroes, young and old, employed on various parts of these lands in sawing timber, raising rice for exportation, and corn with all other kinds of provision for the family, is about thirty. Besides these the College will be im- mediately possessed of two thousand acres of land near Ala- tamaha which were granted me by the Governor and Council when I was last at Georgia, and a thousand acres more, left, as I am informed, by the late Reverend and worthy Mr. Zub- berbuler. So that, by laying out only a thousand pounds in purchasing an additional number of negroes, and allowing an- other thousand for repairing the house and building the two in- tended wings, the present annual income may very easily and speedily be augmented to a thousand pounds per annum. Out of this standing fund may be paid the salaries of the Master, pro- fessors, tutors, etc., and also small exhibitions be allowed for some orphan or other poor students who may have their tutorage and room-rent gratis, and act as servitors to those who enter common- ers. What these salaries and exhibitions ought to be may, at a proper season, be submitted to your Grace's future consideration. At present I would only further propose that the negroe children belonging to the College shall be instructed in their intervals of labor by one of the poorest students, as is done now by one of the scholars in the present Orphan House. And I do not see why an additional provision may not likewise be made for educating and maintaining a number of Indian children, which I imagine may easily be procured from the Creeks, Choctaws, Cherokees,
-
:
412
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
and other neighbouring nations. Hence the whole will be a free gift to the Colony of Georgia : - a complex extensive charity bc established ; and at the same time not a single person obliged by any publick act of assembly to pay an involuntary forced tax to- · wards the support of a seminary from which many of the more distant and poorer Colonists' children cannot possibly receive any immediate advantage, and yet the whole Colony, by the Chris- tian and liberal education of a great number of its individuals, be universally benefitted."
The presidency of the institution Mr. Whitefield did not crave for himself. His shoulders he did not regard as suited to the support of such an academical burthen. His capacity he pro- nounced too limited for such a scholastic trust. To be a presby- ter at large was his mission. His earnest wish was to obtain a college charter " upon a broad bottom," to provide proper mas- ters to instruct and prepare for literary honors many youths who in Georgia and the adjacent provinces were desirous of supe- rior educational advantages, to inaugurate a liberal trust which would endure long after he was gathered to his fathers, and to know that his beloved Bethesda would not only be continued as a house of mercy for poor orphans, but would also be confirmed to the latest posterity " as a seat and nursery of sound learning and religious education." 1
Pleasing as were these anticipations, they were never realized. Pending these efforts for the consummation of this cherished scheme, Mr. Whitefield again visited Georgia ; and, writing from Bethesda in January, 1770, declares that everything there ex- ceeded his most sanguine expectations. Two wings had been added to the orphan house for the accommodation of students, and Governor Wright had in person laid the foundation of the college.
As indicating the respect entertained for Mr. Whitefield by the colonial authorities, and their deep interest in his labors, we reproduce the following from the " Georgia Gazette : " "Sa- vannah, January 31, 1770. Last Sunday his Excellency, the Governor, Council, and Assembly having been invited by the Rev. Mr. Whitefield, attended at divine service in the chapel of the Orphan-house Academy where prayers were read by the Rev. Mr. Ellington, and a very suitable sermon was preached by the Rev. Mr. Whitefield from Zachariah iv. 10, ' For who has despised
1 A Letter to his Excellency, Governor Wright, etc., etc., pp. 1-30. London. MDCCLXVIII.
413
DESTRUCTION OF THE ORPHAN HOUSE.
the day of small things?' to the great satisfaction of the auditory ; in which he took occasion to mention the many discouragements he met with, well known to many there, in carrying on the in- stitution for upwards of thirty years past, and the present prom- ising prospect of its future and more extensive usefulness. After divine service the Company were very politely entertained with a handsome and plentiful dinner, and were greatly pleased to see the useful improvements made in the house, the two addi- tional wings for apartments for students, one hundred and fifty feet each in length, and other lesser buildings in so much for- wardness ; and the whole executed with taste and in so masterly a manner ; and being sensible of the truly generous and disinter- ested benefactions derived to the Province through his means, they expressed their gratitude in the most respectful terms."
Before leaving for the Northern provinces Mr. Whitefield eon- versed fully with Governor Wright in regard to the provisions of an act for the establishment of the intended Orphan House Col- lege, for which application was to be made at the next session of the General Assembly, and arranged for the completion of the structures in process of erection at Bethesda.
Early on the morning of the 30th of September, 1770, he whose voice had so long and so eloquently filled the land died of an acute attack of astlima in the village of Newburyport, Massachu- setts. Shortly afterwards the buildings at Bethesda were con- sumed by fire. So rapid was the conflagration that but little of the furniture and only a few of the books were saved. "Happy was it," exclaims Captain McCall,1 " for the zealous founder of this institution that he did not survive the ruins of a fabric on which his heart was fixed, and to the completion of which he had devoted so much time and labor." Profound was the impression produced in Savannah by the intelligence of his death. Church and state honse were draped in black, and the governor and eoun- cil arrayed themselves in the habiliments of mourning. Funeral discourses were pronounced and the entire population bemoaned his loss.
In his will appears the following devise : "In respect to my American concerns, which I have engaged in simply and solely for His great name's sake, I leave that building commonly called the Orphan House, at Bethesda, in the Province of Georgia, to- gether with all the other buildings lately erected thereon, and likewise all other buildings, lands, negroes, books, furniture, and
1 History of Georgia, vol. i. p. 162. Savannah. 1811.
414
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
every other thing whatsoever which I now stand possessed of ill the Province of Georgia aforesaid, to that elect Lady, that Mother in Israel, that Mirror of true and undefiled religion, the Right Honorable Selina, Countess Dowager of Huntingdon : desiring that as soon as may be after my decease, the plan of the intended Orphan-House Bethesda College may be prosecuted : if not prac- ticable or eligible, to pursue the present plan of the Orphan- House Academy on its old foundation and usual channel; but if her Ladyship should be called to enter her glorious rest before my decease, I bequeath all the buildings, lands, negroes, and everything before mentioned which I now stand possessed of in the Province of Georgia aforesaid, to my dear fellow-traveller and faithful, invariable friend, the Honorable James Habersham, President of His Majesty's honorable Council; and should he survive her Ladyship I earnestly recommend him as the most proper person to succeed her Ladyship, or to act for her during her Ladyship's life time in the Orphan-House Academy."
In pursuance of this devise Lady Huntingdon sent over a housekeeper to manage the domestic affairs of the institution, continued the Rev. Mr. Crosse as teacher, and constituted Mr. Percy president and general manager. Her plans, however, were violently frustrated by the fire to which reference has already been made.
With her private means she erected new buildings sufficient to accommodate the few pupils in attendance upon the school. Moribund was the condition of the institution during her life, and still more unsatisfactory its administration under the Board of Trustees appointed by the state when Georgia exercised do- minion over this property. Another devastating fire occurred, which converted into ashes the greater portion of the main struc- ture; and a hurricane, uplifting the tides, desolated the rice-fields. The trustees were powerless to make the needed repairs, and the legislature, by an act assented to on the 22d day of December, 1808,1 directed the sale of the estate and provided for the dis- tribution of its proceeds among certain eleemosynary institutions in the city of Savannah.
In 1854 the Board of Managers of the Union Society pur- chased a part of the original Bethesda tract, and upon the very spot formerly occupied by Whitefield's orphan house erected buildings for the accommodation and instruction of the boys committed to their charitable care. Thus happily is the phil-
1 Clayton's Digest, p. 403.
415
PERPETUATION OF THE CHARITY.
anthropic scheme of the most noted of English pulpit orators, who " loved to range in the American woods," who was never happier than when " holding a levee of wounded souls," and whose generous arms were ever open to succor the poor and the orphan, perpetuated in the living present.
1
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE COLONY UNDER PRESIDENT STEPHENS. - PRACTICAL EVASION OF THE REGULATION PROHIBITING THE INTRODUCTION OF NEGRO SLAVES. - THE PRESIDENT, ASSISTANTS, AND PEOPLE REPEAT THEIR PRAYER FOR THE AL- LOWANCE OF SLAVERY. - RESPONSE OF THE TRUSTEES. - SLAVERY PER- MITTED. - PROPOSITION TO SUBORDINATE GEORGIA TO SOUTH CAROLINA. - CASE OF CAPTAIN DEMETREE. - ABROGATION OF THE ACT FORBIDDING THE IMPORTATION AND MANUFACTURE OF RUM AND OTHER DISTILLED LIQUORS. - LAND TENURES ENLARGED. - SOLA BILLS. - FIDELITY OF THE TRUSTEES. - COMMERCIAL HOUSE OF HARRIS & HABERSHAM.
DEEMING it conducive to the convenience of the inhabitants and promotive of good government, the trustees, on the 15th of April, 1741, divided the province of Georgia into two counties, - Savannah and Frederica. The former included all settlements upon the Savannah River and upon both banks of the Great Ogeechee River, and such additional territory south of the latter stream as should be designated when a proper map of the coun- try could be prepared. Within the latter were embraced Darien, Frederica, and the entire region lying south of the Alatamaha River. Over each a president and four assistants were to bear rule, constituting a civil and judicial tribunal for the administra- tion of affairs and the adjudication of all controversies. For the county of Savannah Colonel William Stephens was selected as president, with a salary of £80 per annum, and Henry Parker, Thomas Jones, John Fallowfield, and Samuel Marcer were named as his assistants. No nominations were made for Frederica, al- though General Oglethorpe was requested to suggest a suitable president. The local bailiffs there remained in charge. So long as General Oglethorpe continued to reside in Georgia all disa- greements between the counties and their respective officials could be readily settled, because he exercised a controlling in- fluence throughout the entire province.
In anticipation of his return to England, and to avoid the erec- tion of separate governments, the trustees, on the 18th of April, 1743, abrogated so much of the constitution as provided for the appointment of a board for Frederica, and empowered the presi-
417
PRESIDENT WILLIAM STEPHENS.
dent and assistants at Savannah to administer the civil affairs of the whole colony. Thus, upon the departure of General Ogle- thorpe, Colonel Stephens became president of Georgia. He was the son of Sir William Stephens, Baronet, Lieutenant-Governor of the Isle of Wight. For many years had he been a member of Parliament. Because of his friendship for Oglethorpe was he induced, in 1737, to accept the position of secretary in Georgia to the trustees. In discharging the duties appertaining to this office he exercised a general supervision over colonial affairs, ad- vised the trustees of all noteworthy occurrences, assisted General Oglethorpe, and acted as counselor to the magistrates. His loy- alty to the trustees and his prompt obedience to all their com- mands were conspicuous. His interest in everything appertain- ing to the good order and prosperity of the plantation was pronounced. A zealous member of the Established Church, he declined to sympathize with the peculiar doctrines advanced by the Wesleys and by Whitefield. So pleased were the common council with his fidelity that in 1741 he was advanced to the presidency of Savannah County ; and, two years afterwards, was made president of the colony. Although his experience, attain- ments, good judgment, and probity of character admirably fitted him for the execution of the important trust, so advanced was he in years, and so great were his physical infirmities, that he was incapable of dispatching, with becoming rapidity, the public business. As the years rolled on he himself became quite sensi- ble of his feebleness, and in 1750 consented that his assistants should, in the main, proceed without him. Henry Parker was on the 19th of March in that year appointed vice-president, and attended to the duties of president, although Colonel Stephens continued to hold the office until April or May of the following year, when he resigned and was succeeded by Mr. Parker. He then carried into effect his intention of retiring into the country where he would " be at liberty to mind the more weighty things of a future state, not doubting but the Trustees would enable him to end his few remaining days without care and anxiety." In this expectation he was not disappointed, for the common coun- cil, "in consideration of his great age and infirmities, and his past services," granted him a comfortable annuity.
The evening of his days was peacefully spent at his plantation near Savannalı, which he named Bewlie 1 because of a fancied
1 This plantation consisted of five hun- Its grant to Mr. Stephens was confirmed dred acres at the mouth of Vernon River. by General Oglethorpe on the 19th of 27
418
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
resemblance which it bore to the manor of his grace the Duke of Montague in the New Forest : a locality in after years rendered memorable by the debarkation of Count d'Estaing on the 12th of September, 1779, and by the erection of formidable batteries for the protection of this water approach to the city of Savannah during the war between the States. Here he lingered until about the middle of August, 1753, when, at the tea table, having just tasted the proffered cup, he remarked with great composure, " I have done eating and drinking in this world." Conducted to his bedroom, he lay upon his couch, unable either to speak or to receive nourishment, until the next day, when this venerable ser- vant of the trust and firm friend of the colony rested from his labors and entered into peace.1
During the early part of President Stephens' administration Georgia did not prosper. The trustees still enforced their regu- lations regarding land tenures, slaves, and rum. Failing to ap- preciate the true difficulties of the situation, they sacrificed the material interests of the plantation to their notions of policy and propriety. The present was utterly unsatisfactory, and the fu- ture appeared devoid of hope. The acres planted in mulberries were so neglected that they scarcely evinced any token of their former cultivation. Offered bounties failed to stimulate the pro- duction of silk, and of vines there were none. Rice was planted only in small quantities ; cotton was a curiosity ; indigo seldom seen ; and the corn crop was insufficient for home consumption. The malaria of the swamps poisoned the white laborer, and the hot sun robbed him of all energy. As a general rule the articled servants, upon the expiration of their terms, deserted the colony, and none appeared to supply their places. Immigration had al- most ceased. Money was scarce and labor high. Farms were neglected and the inhabitants were dejected. The only commer-
April, 1738. Of this place Mr. Ste- close by, which parts the Isle of Wight phens, ou the 21st of March, 1739, writes from the main Land, and makes a beau- tiful Prospect; from all which Tradition tells us it took its Name and was antient- ly called Beaulieu, though now vulglarly Bewlie ; only by leaving out the a in the first Syllable, and the u in the end of the last." 21 Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia, etc., vol. ii. pp. 166, 318, 319. London. 1742. as follows: "I was now called upon to give the Place a Name ; and thereupon naturally revolving in my Thoughts di- vers Places in my native Country, to try if I could find any that had a Resem- blance to this, I fancied that Bewlie, a Manor of his Grace the Duke of Mon- tague in the New Forest, was not unlike it much as to its Situation ; and being on 1 The Castle-Builders, or the Ilistory of William Stephens, p. 128. London. MDCCLIX. the Skirts of that Forest, had Plenty of largo Timber growing everywhere near ; moreover a fine Arm of the Sea running
-
419
LETTER OF MR. HABERSHAM.
cial house in Savannah of any repute was that of Harris & Habersham, and its shipments at first were chiefly confined to deer-skins, lumber, cattle, hogs, and poultry.
At the request of the Rev. Mr. Bolzius, Mr. James Haber- sham, who then possessed and exerted a decided political, moral, and commercial influence in the colony, prepared a letter in which he carefully reviewed the condition of the province, com- mented upon the chimerical plans of the trustees, and suggested wise changes in their policy. Contrary to his expectations, this communication found its way into the hands of the common council. When he ascertained this fact Mr. Habersham feared that all hope of favor and countenance from that honorable body was at an end, and that, taking umbrage at the views he had expressed and the strictures in which he had indulged, the trus- tees would be disposed to visit upon him their displeasure. On the contrary, his forcible presentation of the case and his cogent reasoning attracted their particular notice, and gave rise to de- liberate discussion. Instead of incurring their wrath, he was, to his surprise, appointed by them as an assistant in Savannah, in the place of Samuel Marcer who had proved faithless to his trust.
Although frequently memorialized on the subject, the trustees uniformly refused to sanction the introduction of negro slavery into the province.1 They could not be persuaded to allow the Georgia colonists even to hire negroes owned in Carolina. The impolicy of an adherence to this course of administration had long been apparent to many. It was now more evident than ever that if the employment of the African laborer was not per-
1 As late as March 17, 1748, the fol- lowing minute appears in the Journal of the Trustees : "That after so many dec- larations that the introduction and use of Negroes in the Colony is not only incon- sistent with the intention of his Majesty's Charter, but also directly contrary to an express Act approved by his Majesty in Council in the year 1735, for the year 1735, for prohibiting the Importation and Use of Negroes, declaring the meaning and intention of the said Charter ; the Trustees are surpris'd any expectations of them can yet remain at Savannah and in other parts of the Colony, and there- fore it must be, and is upon that founda- tion a resolution of the Trustees never to permit the introduction of Negroes into
the Colony of Georgia, as the Danger which must arise from them in a Fron- tier Town is so evident, and as the People who continue to clamour for Negroes de- clare that the Colony can never succeed without the use of them, it is evident they don't intend by their own Industry to contribute to its success, and must there- fore rather hinder than promote it, the Trustees therefore require it may be sig- nitied to all the Inhabitants of the Colony that if any of them persist in declaring they cannot succeed without Negroes, it would be of service to the Colony as well as themselves for them to retire into any other Province, where they will be freely allow'd the use of Negroes."
-------------------------
420
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
mitted the development of the province would be fatally ob- structed. The colonists determined, therefore, to disregard the injunctions of the trustees. The terms for which European servants had been engaged had generally expired, and there was no way of remedying this deficiency in labor except by hiring negro slaves from their masters in South Carolina, with the pro- viso that if any attempt was made on the part of the Georgia authorities to enforce the regulations of the trustees the owner of the slave should be promptly notified so that he might come forward and claim his property. Finding that this evasion of the law succeeded, the colonists went one step further and hired negro slaves for a hundred years, or during life, paying in ad- vance the full value of the slaves; the former owners covenant- ing to intervene and claim them in case such action was rendered necessary by any proceedings on the part of the Georgia authori- ties.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.