USA > Georgia > The history of Georgia, Volume I > Part 43
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Finally, purchases from negro-traders were openly concluded in Savannah. "Some seizures," says Captain McCall,1 " were made by those who opposed the principle, but as a majority of the Magistrates favored the introduction of slaves into the Prov- ince, legal decisions were suspended from time to time, and a strong disposition was evidenced by the courts to evade the op- eration of the law. So great was the majority on that side of the question that anarchy and confusion were likely to be kin- dled into civil war. Several negro servants had been purchased for the Orphau House, and Mr. Habersham declared that the institution could not be supported without them. The servants sent over from England by Mr. Whitefield, after a few months, refused to yield to the menial duties assigned to them. Many ran away, and were supported and secreted in Carolina by their countrymen until an opportunity offered to escape further north, where they were seeured against a compliance with the condi- tions of their indentures. The few who remained were too old, too young, or too much afflicted with disease to render services equal to a compensation for their clothing and subsistence. Those who had fled soon found that they could procure land in the other colonies on easy terms, and engage in employments less degrading and more advantageous."
Thomas Stephens, son of President Stephens, who had been sent as special agent of the land-owners in Savannah to secure a redress of grievances from the Crown, and obtain a repeal of
1 History of Georgia, vol. i. p. 206. Savannah. 1811.
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PARTIAL EMPLOYMENT OF SLAVES.
the law prohibiting the introduction of negro slaves, had signally failed in accomplishing his mission.1
These violations and evasions of the regulations in regard to the employment of negroes within the colony having been brought to the notice of the trustees, the common council sharply repri- manded the president and assistants, and ordered them at once to put an end to these encroachments. In their response those gentlemen expressed a fear that the trustees had been misin- formed in regard to their conduct. They confidently asserted that the board had always discouraged the use of black slaves in the province, and had charged those to whom lands were granted not to attempt the introduction or use of negroes.2 It is more than hinted, however, that while the president and his assistants were indulging in these protestations to the trustees they stimu- lated popular clamor and secretly connived at the accession of negroes. They were charged by Mr. Dobell with duplicity and dissimulation, and Colonel Alexander Heron boldly averred : "It is well known to every one in the Colony that Negroes have been in and about Savannah for these several years past : that the magistrates knew and winked at it, and that their constant toast is ' the one thing needful,' by which is meant Negroes."
Those who supported the plans of the trustees in this regard were denounced, " and the leading men both of New Inverness and Ebenezer were traduced, threatened, and persecuted " for their opposition to the introduction of negro slavery. Such was
1 See Stevens' History of Georgia, vol. i. pp. 300-305. New York. MDCCCXLVII.
2 On the 2d of October, 1747, Presi- dent Stephens and his assistants wrote as follows to the trustces : " We are afraid from what you have wrote in relation to Negroes that the Honorabie Trustees have been misinformed as to our conduct relating thereto, for we can with great assurance assert that this Board has al- ways acted an uniform part in discour- aging the use of Negroes in this Colony well knowing it to be disagreeable to the Trust as well as contrary to an Act ex- isting for Prohibition of them, and al- ways give it in charge to those whom we have put in possession of lands not to at- tempt the introduction or use of Negroes, but notwithstanding our great Caution some people from Carolina soon after
their settling Lands on the Little Ogechec found means of bringing and employing a few negroes on the said Lands some time before it was discovered to us. Upon which discovery they thought it high time to withdraw them for fear of their being seized, and soon after withdrew themselves and families ont of the Colony, which appears to us at present to be the Resolution of divers others, particularly the whole Inhabitants of Augusta who have had Negroes among them for many years past and now declare that if they cannot obtain that Liberty they will remove to the Carolina side where they can carry on their Trade and Plantations with the same advantage as where they now are, and several others of late, tind- ing us strennous in endeavoring to see the Trustees' orders fulfilled, express themselves in the same strain."
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
the excitement on this subject that the opponents of the scheme for the employment of African labor shrunk from further contest with its advocates. The magistrates were intimidated ; and even good Mr. Bolzius, who, with his followers, had always protested against the admission of negro slaves, wrote to the trustees on the 3d of May, 1748: " Things being now in such a melancholy state, I must humbly beseech your Honors not to regard any more our or our friends' petitions against Negroes."
No two individuals were so instrumental in prevailing upon the trustees to relax this prohibition as the Rev. Mr. Whitefield and the Honorable James Habersham. The former boldly as- serted that the transportation of the African from his home of barbarism to a Christian land, where he would be humanely treated and be required to perform his share of toil common to the lot of humanity, was advantageous, while the latter affirmed that the colony could not prosper without the intervention of slave labor.
On the 10th of January, 1749, the president and assistants and a considerable number of the inhabitants of Georgia forwarded to the trustees a petition, to which the town seal was affixed, suggesting certain restrictions and regulations under which they prayed that negro slaves might be admitted into the colony. This petition having been read and considered by the trustees, it was resolved to memorialize his majesty in council for a repeal of the act prohibiting the importation and use of black slaves within the province of Georgia. A committee, of which the Earl of Shaftesbury was appointed chairman, was raised to prepare an act repealing the former act on this subject.
Persuaded that the time had now come when their consent must perforce be given to the introduction of slave labor, and desirous of guarding its employment by wholesome and humane regulations, the trustees authorized the following communication :
" GEORGIA OFFICE, July 7th, 1749.
"SIR AND GENTLEMEN, - I acquainted you in my Letter dated May 19th last that the Trustees had resolved to petition his Majesty that the Act for rendering the Colony of Georgia more defencible by prohibiting the Importation and Use of black Slaves or Negroes into the same might be repeal'd, and to prepare a Law by which Negroes may be admitted under several Restric- tions and Regulations. They have this now under their Consid- eration, and as you took into Consultation with you upon this Affair several of the principal People of the Colony when you
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CONCESSION BY THE TRUSTEES.
propos'd the Regulations which occurr'd to you, you must assem- ble such again that they may see the Regulations upon which the Trustees think proper to form the Act, which do not differ widely from those which you transmitted, but there are some ad- ditional Ones which the Trustees look on as absolutely necessary.
" In the first place they can never lose sight of the Colony being a Frontier, of the Danger which must attend too great a Disproportion of Blacks and White Men, and the Facility with which the Negroes may make their Escape from Georgia to Au- gustine. They have resolv'd therefore that every Man who shall have four Male Negroes above the age of 14 shall be obliged to have and constantly keep one indented White Male Servant aged between 20 and 55. If he shall have eight Male Negroes he shall constantly keep two indented White Male Servants of the aforesaid age, and for every four Negroes upwards he shall keep one additional White Male Servant of the aforesaid age, -his Sons not to be reckon'd among such White Servants. If any Person having such Numbers of Negroes as aforesaid shall refuse or neglect to provide such Male Servants in proportion within twelve Calendar Months, he shall forfeit for every Negro above the Number for which he has White Male Servants so aged, the sum of £10 Sterls, and the further sum of £5 Sterls each Month after, during which he retains such Negro.
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"No Artificer shall be suffer'd to take any Negro as an Ap- prentice, nor shall any Planter lend or let out a Negro or Negroes to another Planter, to be employ'd otherwise than in manuring and cultivating the Plantations in the Country.
" Proprietors of Negroes shall not be permitted to exercise an unlimited Power over them.
" All Negroes imported into or born in the Province of Georgia shall be register'd; and no Sale of Negroes from one man to an- other shall be valid unless register'd. Inquisitions shall be made once in every year, or oftener if need be, into the Registers by Juries in the several Districts, who shall immediately afterwards make their Report to the Magistrates.
" As other Provinces have greatly suffer'd by permitting Ships with Negroes to send them on shore when ill of contagious Dis- tempers (as particularly South Carolina has often by the Yellow Fever) proper places must be appointed for such Ships as bring Negroes to Georgia to cast anchor at, in order to their being visited, and to perform such Quarentain as shall be order'd by the President and Assistants, and no Ships must be suffer'd to come
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TIIE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
nearer than those Places before they are visited by proper Offi- cers and a Certificate of Health is obtain'd. And in case of any contagious Distempers on board, proper places must be appointed at a Distance from the Towns for Lazarettos where the whole Crew of the Ship and the Negroes may be lodg'd and supplied with Refreshments and assisted towards their Recovery. You must acquaint the Trustees by the first Opportunity with the Names and Descriptions of the proper Places for the Ships to stop at, and likewise where to perform a Quarentain if there are contagious Distempers on board, that those Places may be spec- ified in the Act.
" No Master shall oblige or even suffer his Negro or Negroes to work on the Lord's Day, but he shall permit or oblige them to attend at some time in that Day for Instruction in the Christian Religion, which the Protestant Ministers of the Gospel must be oblig'd to give them. The Minister or Ministers shall on all oc- casions inculcate in the Negroes the natural Obligations to a married state where there are Female Slaves cohabiting with them, and an absolute Forbearance of blaspheming the Name of God by profane Cursing or Swearing. No Inter Marriages be- tween White People and Negroes shall be deem'd lawful Mar- riages : and if any White Man shall be convicted of lying with a Female Negro or any White Woman of lying with a Male Negro He or She shall on such Conviction be . . . and the Negro shall receive a Corporal Punishment.
" As the Culture of Silk is the great object of the Trustees, and they are determin'd to make it, as far as lyes in their Power, the object of all the People in Georgia by never ratifying any Grants in which the Conditions for planting, fencing, and keep- ing up the proper Number of Mulberry Trees are not inserted, and by insisting on the forfeiture of all Grants where those Con- ditions are not perform'd, they have resolv'd that every Man who shall have four Male Negroes, shall be oblig'd to have, for every such four, che Female Negro instructed in the Art of wind- ing Silk. The Conditions, as mentioned in my other Letter are that 1000 Mulberry Trees shall be planted on every hundred Acres, the same proportion to be observ'd in less Grants ; and that for the Preservation of the Trees against Cattle, the Planter shall fence in his Mulberry Trees or plant them in Places already fenc'd.
" As there are several Publick Works which are absolutely necessary, such as maintaining the Light-house, providing for the
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425
NEGRO SLAVERY ALLOWED.
Pilot and Pilot Boat, the Repairs of the Church, the Wharf, and the Prison, and building Lazarettos, and other publick Services such as the Support of the Minister when other Supports shall fail, and several Officers of Civil Government, as Constables, Tythingmen &c. and as some Funds will be requisite for these, the Trustees think nothing can be more reasonable than a Duty upon Negroes at Importation, and an annual Tax Pr Head upon the Possession of them, which Tax and Duty must be paid, for the use of the Trust, into the hands of proper persons appointed by the Trustees. It will therefore be requisite for you in your Consultation to consider what Duty and Tax may, in your opin- ion, be proper for the aforesaid Services, and other necessary public Uses of the Colony, and transmit your opinion hereon under the Seal as before, by the first opportunity.
" I am, Sir, and Gentlemen " Your very humble Servt " BENJ. MARTYN, Sectary.
" To W" STEPHENS Esq" President and the Assistants.
" By the Charles-Town Galley, - Capt. Bogg."
A convention was called in due course, and Major Horton, the military chief of the colony, presided over its deliberations. A conclusion was specdily reached. The suggestions of the trus- tees were substantially adopted ; and on the 26th of October, 1749, a representation was signed by twenty-seven persons of the highest respectability in the province, requesting that slavery be at once allowed under the limitations mentioned. This docu- ment,2 properly attested, was forwarded by the earliest opportu- nity to the trustees who, with a few trifling modifications and additions, approved its provisions. Among the latter were enact- ments that a penalty of £10 should be paid by every master
1 P. R. O., Georgia, B. T., vol. x.
2 Presiding over this convention and signing this document were the last pub- lie aets performed by Major Horton. A few days afterwards he was seized with a malignant fever which soon terminated his useful life. In a letter to General Oglethorpe Mr. Habersham pays this merited compliment : " Major Horton's unwearied and generous exertions in the service of this Colony have perhaps con- tributed not a little to abridge the num- ber of his days. By particular desire he
came to Savannah to meet the President, Assistants, and other representatives to consult on an affair of the greatest im- portance to the Colony. His conduct and opinions gave renewed specimens of his wisdom and prudence. Your Excel- leney knew him well, therefore it would be vain in me to attempt a description of his merits. Envy itself is obliged to con- fess that he shined in war and in peace, in public and in private stations." See McCall's History of Georgia, vol. i. p. 210. Savannah. 1811.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
who either forced or permitted his negro slave to work on the Lord's day, and that if the owner omitted to compel his slave to attend at some time on Sunday for instruction in the Christian religion he should be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, on conviction, should be find not less than £5 for each offense.
Thus did the trustees abandon one of their most cherished theories, and thus did Georgia, after a struggle of sixteen years, acquire the right, long enjoyed by her sister English colonies in America, of owning and using negro slaves.
When General Oglethorpe's regiment was disbanded at Fred- erica on the 29tli of May, 1749, one company was retained for the defense of the province. Such of the soldiers, mustered out of service, as desired to remain enjoyed the lands allotted to them in fulfillment of a promise made by the trustees at the time of their enlistment. Others, who preferred to go to England, were transported in boats to Charlestown whence passages were pro- vided for them at the charge of the general government.
Returning in these boats came Captain Daniel Demetree and a small detachment of ten or twelve men. They landed at Caus- ton's Bluff, where the captain mentioned to some of the inhab- itants that he was on his way to Frederica. He further stated that he was about to assume command at that point. As he failed to report to the president and his assistants, and disclosed to them neither his orders nor his intentions, they were at a loss to understand his extraordinary conduct, and ordered Captain Noble Jones to wait upon him and demand both an explanation of and an apology for this discourtesy. Captain Demetree's reply to Captain Jones was that he was acting under instructions from his grace the Duke of Bedford, communicated with the con- sent of the trustees, and that he was to receive his orders from and to report only to the governor of South Carolina. He re- luctantly appeared before the council in answer to their summons. Mortified at this contemptuous treatment, Governor Stephens addressed a communication to the trustees in which he intimated that Governor Glen's influence had been improperly exerted withi the duke, that to all appearances it was contemplated either to lower the dignity of Georgia or to place that province under the control of Carolina, and that the small party which Captain Demetree had brought with him would be of little use to the province if placed under his control, and of none at all if subject to the orders of the governor of South Carolina. Colonel Ste- phens probably did not know the fact at the time, but so it was,
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CASE OF CAPTAIN DEMETREE.
that the expediency of subordinating Georgia to Carolina was in certain quarters seriously discussed. Some went so far as to pro- pose that the former province should be merged in the latter. The trustees protested at the suggestion, however, claimed their vested rights, and so put the hint to flight. President Stephens conjectured that Governor Glen was using his influence to bring Georgia into contempt, and was seeking to gratify a private pique because of a misunderstanding which had arisen in consequence of his interference with the Indian trade at Augusta.
Persevering in his determination to preserve his official dig- nity and maintain the colonial sovereignty of Georgia, President Stephens directed the troops and citizens at Frederica to seize the boats which Demetree had in charge, to hold them as the property of Oglethorpe's regiment, and, until further orders, to take no notice of the captain either in a civil or military capac- ity. A copy of this letter of instructions to the authorities at Frederica and a statement of Demetree's conduct were forwarded to Governor Glen. While it is true that his reception was not such as his rank in the army merited, or such as, under ordinary circumstances, he was warranted in expecting from the Georgia authorities, his lack of courtesy had been so notorious that the president and assistants, to preserve their self-respect, maintain the dignity of the colonial government, and bring that officer to terms, found it necessary to adopt this course. Taking coun- sel of his better judgment, and acknowledging the error he had committed, Captain Demetree soon made ample apology to the colonial council. This done, he was permitted to assume com- mand of the military force stationed at Frederica.1
Another regulation of the trustees, to which they tenaciously clung, was now abrogated. By a vote of the House of Commons they were directed to repeal the act which prohibited the intro- duction of rum 2 and other distilled liquors. Certain sumptuary laws, also, forbidding the use of gold and silver in apparel, fur- niture, and equipage, had become wholly obsolete. Such legis- lation, well meant, perhaps, was entirely unnecessary, for the poverty of the colonists did not allow of personal display or domestic extravagance.
1 Sce McCall's History of Georgia, vol. i. p. 211. Savannah. 1811.
2 President Stephens, in writing to the trustees, expressed the opinion that less rum was consumed in the colony after its nse was permitted than when it was obtained and drunk clandestinely. He
further stated that "a beverage com- pounded of one part of rum, three parts of water, and a little brown sugar, was very fit to be taken at meals,"and that it was, " during the warm season, far more wholesome than malt liquors."
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
We have had occasion from time to time to note the petitions of the colonists, and the disappointments experienced by them in their efforts to secure from the trustees an enlargement of the tenure by which lands were holden. We have also consid- ered the reasons advanced by them in justification of their determination to grant only qualified estates. As the province grew older and stronger, as its liability to destruction by the Spaniards on the one hand and the Indians on the other ap- peared less imminent, and as the disadvantages under which its citizens labored when contrasted with the privileges enjoyed by peoples of neighboring English plantations became more appar- ent, the trustees concluded to modify their regulation on the subject, and finally gave publicity to the following resolution in regard to the tenure of lands in Georgia : -
" GEORGIA OFFICE, WESTMINSTER, " May 25th, 1750.
" Whereas the Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America thought it necessary in the first establishment of that Colony to restrain the Grants they made of Lots of Land to limited Tenures only, in order thereby to prevent many abuses which at that time might probably have defeated the good ends proposed by that establishment, and during the late War it might have been of dangerous consequence to have alter'd the Tenures ; but as a general peace and tranquillity happily prevail, the said Trustees are of opinion that the intended enlargement of the Tenures may now be safely made, and have come to the following resolution, viz :
" That the Tenures of all Grants of Land whatsoever already made to any person within the Province of Georgia be enlarged and extended to an absolute Inheritance, and that all future Grants of Land shall be of an absolute Inheritance to the Grantees, their Heirs and Assigns."
Thus had the trustees been compelled, by force of circum- stances to abrogate, one after another, several fundamental reg- ulations which they at first promulgated for the government of the colony. All restrictions, formerly imposed in obedience to their peculiar views, were now removed. Lands were held in fee simple, and the power of alienation was unrestricted. The ownership and employment of negro slaves were free to all, and the New England manufacturer here found an open market for his rum.
The trustees also misinterpreted the capabilities of the cli-
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SOLA BILLS.
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mate and soil of Georgia. Although substantial encouragement had been afforded to Mr. Amatis, to Jacques Camuse, to the Salzburgers at Ebenezer, to Mr. Pickering Robinson, to Mr. Habersham, and to Mr. Lloyd ; although copper basins and reeling-machines had been supplied and a Filature erected; al- though silk-worm eggs were procured and mulberry-trees mul- tiplied, silk culture in Georgia yielded only a harvest of disap- pointment. The vine too languished. The olive-trees from Venice, the barilla seeds from Spain, the kali from Egypt, and other exotics, obtained at much expense, after a short season withered and died in the public garden. The hemp and flax, from the cultivation of which such rich yields were anticipated, never warranted the charter of a single vessel for their trans- portation, and indigo did not commend itself to general favor. Exportations of lumber were infrequent. Cotton was then little more than a garden plant, and white labor had been unable to compete successfully with Carolina negroes in the production of rice. Up to this point the battle had been with nature for life and subsistence; and upon the stores of the trust did many long rely for food and clothing. Of trade there was little, and that was confined to necessaries. With the exception of occa- sional shipments of copper money for circulation among the in- habitants, sola bills1 constituted the currency of the province. These were issued by the trustees and placed in the hands of their Georgia agents to be by them paid out as occasion re- quired. They were redeemable in England, and, when not spe- cially indorsed, passed current as any Bank of England notes. When presented for payment and redeemed they were canceled in the presence of one common-council man and two trustees. A careful record was preserved of all bills issued and redeemed.
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