USA > Georgia > The history of Georgia: containing brief sketches of the most remarkable events, up to the present day, Vol. I > Part 15
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INSTORY OF GEORGIA, 1751.
the colonists in the management of the worms, and winding of the silk. The filature was fur- nished with basins, reels, and other machine- ry, for preparing and winding, and some fine specimens were sent over to England, which were examined by proper judges, and said to be equal to any that had ever been made in Europe. It had escaped the observation of the trustees how- ever, that agriculture and commerce, which go hand in hand in the prosperity of a new country, should always precede manufactures. Eighteen years had now passed off, and the colony had not in any one year furnished a sufficient supply of subsistence for its own consumption, and com- merce had barely appeared in the bud : num- bers had left the country in disgust, and located themselves in Carolina: the white servants fled from their masters, and took shelter in that colo- ny, where they were aided in secreting and con- cealing themselves; so that in fact, the country was dwindling into insignificance: the farms which had been cultivated were going to ru- in, and in every respect, the country was rapid- ly degenerating. While in this feeble condition, their western neighbors, the Cherokees, shewed an unfriendly disposition towards them, and in the spring of this year, several outrages had been committed upon Indian traders. During the pre- ceding winter, a number of quaker families had formed a settlement west of Augusta, on a bo- dy of land, which had formerly been owned by
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240
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1751.
a tribe of Indians called the Savannahs, who had been compelled to abandon their towns and set- tlements, in consequence of a war between them and the Uchee tribe, who claimed the land ad- joining them to the southward. When these fam- ilies first arrived in the country, they had formed a kind of encampment, at a place after- wards called the Quaker-springs, seven miles from Augusta, and were impressed with a belief, from their own pacific temper, that they would have no difficulty in living on terms of friend- ship with the neighboring Indians : they had cleared some land, and made some progress in agriculture, before the Indians became hostile, but on the first appearance of the hatchet and scalping knife, they were alarmed, and at the sound of the war-whoop, fled and abandoned the country. The fortifications at Augusta had tumbled into ruins, and the people were greatly and very justly alarmed, at the hostile appearances which the state of affairs presented : every man was engaged at this important season of the year in making preparations for the support of his fa- mily, and while thus necessarily employed, they were kept in a constant state of alarm.
About the middle of May, an express brough: intelligence from Patrick Graham, of August .. · stating that James Maxwell, with a number of traders had just arrived from the Cherokee nation. from whence they had Aled with the greatest precis- itation, to save their lives; that two traders had
241
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1751.
been murdered, and that they had been robbed of all their goods: that the inhabitants had fled from their plantations, and taken refuge in a church for mutual defence : that the number of women and children, crowded in such close quar- ters without subsistence, presented a most distres- sing scene. Detachments of mounted militia had been sent in different directions, but no traces of the enemy, had yet been discovered near Augus- ta. Another letter was received from James Fra- ser, which enclosed the copy of Maxwell's affi- davit, of the facts relating to the hostile temper. of the Indians: on a particular examination of this paper, some of the council were doubtful whether a trick had not been practised by some of the traders, to bring on a war with the Indians, by which means they would be screened from the payment of their debts; or that the whole story was untrue, and had been fabricated to answer their pecuniary purposes, as they were generally men of bad character, and had involved them- selves in debts which they were unable to pay : that those idle abandoned spendthrifts, who had lost their credit, and had nothing more to lose, would perhaps, be most secure in the midst of confusion and war: but in either event, it was considered prudent, to put the country in a state of defence. Accordingly the magazine was ex- amined, officers were appointed, and ordered to muster and discipline the militia : a troop of horse was ordered to be raised, composed of such inhab-
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 175%.
itants as were possessed' of three hundred acres of land. Noble Jones was appointed colonel, and his son, Noble W. Jones, who had been a cadet in Oglethorpe's regiment, was appointed to com- mand the dragoons. Bourquin and Francis, were appointed captains of the infantry, and an express was sent to captain Mackintosh, at Darien, and to the officers at St. Simon's and Cumberland, warning them of the danger which threatened the province. The governor of South Carolina had also put the frontiers of that province in a state of defence : detachments of twenty-five men, were ordered to strengthen the posts on the frontier, and ammunition was sent to fort Moore, nearly opposite to Augusta, and to other garrisons where it was required. It appeared, eventually, that some of the young warriors of the Cherokee na. tion, had behaved insultingly to some of the tra- ders, because they were not sufficiently supplied with ammunition; but the chiefs of the nation disapproved of the conduct of these young men, and were disposed to cultivate a peaceable and friendly intercourse: however, on the traders returning to the nation, with only small supplies of ammunition, they were all immediately seiz- ed by the Cherokees, who demanded the reasons why they had not been supplied with the quanti- ty which they required ; observing that their nation had been threatened with hostility. by the Notteweges tribe, who were supported by . the French, and that the destruction of their
243
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1751.
people would be the consequence of the traders with-holding articles so absolutely necessary for their defence. The traders proposed if liberated to go immediately to Augusta, and bring them a plentiful supply ; the Indians consented that two only should be released on condition that they would return in thirty days, but that the others should be detained as hostages for a fulfilment of · this stipulation, and that their lives should pay
the forfeit. The traders finding no better con- ditions could be obtained, were compelled to ac- cede to them, and James Beamor and Richard Smith set out for Augusta. On their arrival they made oath to the facts before stated, and their joint-affidavit was sent by an express to the go- vernor of Carolina, whose particular business and interest it was to notice and take care of the Che- rokce Indian trade, as the people concerned in it were inhabitants, and under the particular govern- ment of that province .. Suspicions were still en- tertained that the Cherokees had been bought over by the French, and that their real design was against Georgia and Carolina.
A circumstance occurred soon after which gave additional weight to these conjectures. Two Eu- chee Indians came to Savannah and informed pre- sident Parker, that some time before, a party of Cherokees and Notteweges, surprised their camp when the men were hunting, and carried off their women and children ; that on their return to the camp they pursued their enemies, overtook then
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1751.
on the third day, killed and wounded several, scalped four, and retook their women and chil. dren. They requested a supply of ammunition which was given to them : they offered to show the president the scalps as trophies of their vic- tory, but he declined seeing them, as he wished as much as possible to discountenance barbarity, and avoid every appearance of taking any share or in- terest in a quarrel between two tribes, who were considered equally in amity with the provinces. The next day he was informed that a body of In- dians consisting of Cherokees and Notteweges, about seventy in number, had lately spoken to a white man, forty miles below Augusta, and en- quired particularly after the Euchces, threatening vengeance for their murdered friends. The president advised this party to notify to their tribe the danger with which they were threaten- cd, and if they wanted assistance, to apply to the lower Crceks, who would furnish them with a sufficient number of warriors, to defend them against their enemics. About sun-set the same evening, the report of forty or fifty guns was heard a few miles above Savannah : a party of discovery was despatched under the command of captain N. W. Jones, who returned about two in the morning, and reported that he had found a . number of Euchees dancing round a fire, at Mrs. Bosomworth's Cow-pen plantation, performing the funeral ceremonies at the burial of one of
245
HISTORY OF GEORGIA. 1751.
their chiefs, in conformity with the custom of their country.
Apprehensive of danger, the utmost vigilance was observed in all parts of the province : every thing that gave intimations of alarm, was magni- fied in a few hours into the horrors of war. In the midst of these apprehensions, between twelve and one o'clock at night the report of several guns was heard at Yamacraw-bluff, on the edge of the town. .. The militia were at their posts im- mediately and prepared for action. The visiting rounds of the guard reported that three men, a woman and a boy, of the Euchee tribe, were en- camped on the bluff. Colonel Jones, Mr. Haber. sham, and a party of discovery went to the place and found a Creek Indian named Ben, shot through the body and stabbed in the breast with a knife ; they met the other men near the camp, who reported that a party of the Cherokee and Nottewege Indians, had attacked them when asleep ; that they had jumped to their guns, and had fired on them, and that they believed only Ben was wounded : he was carried to town and died about day-light. The camp was examined in the morning, and one of the attacking party was traced some distance by the blood which had issued from his wound. Captain Harris with a party of men and two Indians, went in search of him, and in a few hours found him in a thick swamp, and though badly wounded, he made an effort to stab Kenith Bailie with a long French
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246
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1751.
knife : the two Creeks were very anxious to kill and scalp the wounded prisoner, but the president informed them that it was the peremptory order of his king, never to kill a prisoner, and that the principles of the christian religion enjoined this rule, upon all white people who were believers : the Indians were not satisfied, but the president persisted in his determination. The Indian was attended by a physician and soon recovered : he said that the Cherokees, to which nation he be- longed, were not disposed to go to war with the white people, and that their only intention was to take revenge of the Euchees for the blood of their brethren. Isaac Young reported to the president that an Indian woman, entirely naked, went to his plantation, near the place were the wounded Indian was found, and begged a negro woman for a piece of cloth to cover her; when the negro informed him of the circumstance, he pursued and overtook the woman, and upon his inquiring her business there, she said she was a Chickesaw and had been taken prisoner by the Cherokees, from whom she had escaped the night before : she enquired whether the Euchees had got the wounded Cherokee and whether he was living, and expressed great pleasure and gratification when she heard that the wound was not mortal, and that he was under the care of the white neo- ple : she said there were four Cherokees and six Notteweges in the party. Young told her that she must go with him to town, to which she pre-
247
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1751-1752.
tended to consent, but said she had a child in the swamp which she desired his permission to bring out, and then she would go with him : he accom- panied her to the swamp, but she gave him the slip and escaped. Colonel Jones and captain Harris were sent with a party of men in pursuit of the Cherokee and Nottewege party, and desired to have a friendly conference with them ; but they did not overtake them.
The trustees finding that the province did not flourish under their patronage, and tired out with the complaints against the system of government which they had established, with the intention of making the idle and dissipated, industrious and. sober; and persecuted with the murmurs of the people, for whose benefit they had devoted so much time, and spent so much money; on the 20th of June, 1752, resigned their charter, and the province was formed into a royal govern- ment.
In the course of this year, a considerable emi- gration of inhabitants arrived from Dorchester, in South-Carolina, who settled at Medway : they applied to and obtained from government, a grant for thirty-one thousand nine hundred and fifty acres ot land, lying south of Ogeeche river. These peo- ple were characterised by the same independent principles, and the same regard to the institutions of religion, which have distinguished the inhabi- tants of New England, from whom they were descendants. The reverend Joseph Lord, the min-
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1752-54-
ister who accompanied the original emigrants from New England to Carolina, was succeeded by the reverend Hugh Fisher, who died in 173.1. Mr. Fisher was succeeded by the reverend John Osgood, who after a pious life and useful minis- try, died in 1773 : he was minister of that con- gregation near forty years; and was the father and friend, as well as the shepherd of his flock. On the 2nd of February 1696, the Lord's-supper had, for the first time, been administered in the colony of South-Carolina, to this congregation, by Mr. Lord.
The colony of Georgia remained in an un- protected condition, for a considerable time after the trustees resigned their charter, hoping and despairing alternately as to the form of govern- ment under which they were to be placed : the king finally determined on a plan, and on the Ist of October, 1754, appointed John Reynolds, then an officer in the navy, governor of Georgia ; and legislative powers similar to those of the other royal governments in America, were authorised.
Though the people were now favored with the same liberties and mode of government enjoyed by their neighbors under the royal care, yet se- veral years elapsed before the value of land was known, or that spirit of industry prevailed, which afterwards diffused its happy influence over the country. The impolitic result of treaties of al- liance offensive and defensive with Indian tribes. now began to be unfolded : the flames of war
249
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1735.
which had blazed forth between the Cherokees and Creeks, was likely to involve the remnant of Georgia in the common calamity : each of those nations claimed the assistance of the province, as allies under the articles of treaty, in arms and am- munition; and the Creeks urged their claim for the assistance of men. The president and coun- cil, previous to the arrival of governor Reynolds, were obliged to plead poverty, alledging to the ambassadors of both nations, the apprehensions they were under of a degree of hostility, against which they were unable to defend themselves. The Chickesaw tribe had passed through the Creek nation, and murdered some of the Chero- kees; the latter in return pursued their enemies, and mistaking them for the Creek tribe, revenged the blood of their brethren upon the innocent. Malatche pursued a party of Cherokees. and mur- dered several of them near the gates of Charleston; and five Indian traders had also been murdered and robbed by the different tribes. Governor Glen of Carolina, sent a special message to Ma- latche, and requested a conference with him in Charleston ; he returned for answer that he was willing to meet him, but as the path had not been open or safe for some time, he could not enter the settlement with his chiefs, without a military es- cort : upon which the governor sent fifty horse- men, who met him at the confines of his territo- ries, and conveyed Malatche and one hundred of
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1755.
his head-men to Charleston : a new treaty was framed, accompanied by the usual preliminaries of presents, and the Indians returned home well satisfied.
But few important transactions appear to have been recorded under the government of Mr. Reynolds : the laws which prevailed in the oth- er colonies, governed here. In 1755, the king granted letters patent for establishing courts of record by the name of the General Courts of the Province of Georgia: Noble Jones and Jonathan Bryan, esquires, were appointed justices during the king's pleasure. These courts were compe- tent to the trial of all treasons, felonies, and other criminal offences, committed within the province ; they were to be held at Savannah, on the second Thursdays in January, April, July and October, every year : the letters also granted to the jus- tices of this general court, full power to hold any pleas, in any manner of causes, suits and actions, as well criminal as civil, real, personal, and mix- ed, where the sum demanded should exceed forty shillings sterling, excepting only where the title of any freehold should come in question ; and au- thorised them to bring causes to a final determi- nation and execution, as fully and amply as might be done by the courts of king's-bench, common pleas, and exchequer in England.
The following table will give some idea of the progress of the colony for a few succeeding years.
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1755-57.
251 .
Exports in 1750
$ 8,897
76
ditto
1751
16,816
4.0
ditto
1752
21,494
04
ditto
1753
28,429
32
ditto
1754
42,211 08
ditto
1756
74,485
44
The exports in silk from 1750 to 1754 inclu- sively, amounted to eight thousand eight hundred and eighty dollars. In the year 1757, one thou- sand and fifty pounds of raw silk, were received at the filature in Savannah. In 1758, the silk- house was consumed by fire, with a quantity of silk and seven thousand and forty pounds of co- coons or silk balls. In 1759, the colony exported upwards of ten thousand weight of raw silk, which sold two or three shillings per pound higher in London, than that of any other country. The cul- tivation of rice had begun to produce disease, and the high pine-barren was resorted to for the res- toration and preservation of health : some of the people in the country imagined that the residence near the causeways, in consequence of vegetable putrefaction, occasioned bilious fevers and other diseases. Since Mr. Boltzias had become a rice planter, he had buried four children out of five, in seven years, but the health of the negroes had not been much impaired by this species of culti- vation.
On the 16th of February, 1757, Henry Ellis, a fellow of the royal society, was appointed to suc-
252
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1757.
ceed Reynolds in the government. The rich swamps on the sides of the rivers lay uncultivat- ed, and the planters had not yet found their way into the interior of the country, where the lands not only exceeded those in the maritime parts in fertility for every thing else but rice, but where the climate was more healthy and pleasant. But few of the Georgians had any negroes to assist them in the cultivation of the rice swamps, so that in 1756, the whole exports of the country were only two thousand nine hundred and ninety- six barrels of rice, nine thousand three hundred and ninety-five pounds of indigo, and two hun- dred and sixty-eight pounds of raw silk, which together with skins, furs, lumber and provisions, amounted only to sixteen thousand seven hun- dred and seventy-six pounds sterling. Georgia continued to be an asylum for insolvent and em- barassed debtors for Carolina and the other co. lonies, which, added to the indolence that had pre- viously prevailed, kept the colony sunk in insig- nificance and contempt.
The extreme heat of the summer in Savannah, as represented by governor Ellis, in a letter which was published, perhaps tended to deter many Europeans from settling so far south in North America. He says, that on the 7th of July, while writing in his piazza which was open at both ends, the mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer stood at 102. in the shade : twice had it risen to that height during the summer, several times to
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HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1757. .
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100, and for many days together to 98°, and in the night did not sink below 89°: he thought it highly probable that the inhabitants of Savannah breathed a hotter air than any other people upon earth. The town being situated on a sandy emi- nence, the reflection from the dry sand, when there was little or no agitation in the air, greatly increased the heat : by walking an hundred yards from his house upon the sand, under his umbrel- la, with the thermometer suspended by a thread as high as his face, the mercury rose to 105°. The same thermometer he had with him in the equatorial parts of Africa and the West India islands, yet by his journals he found it had never risen so high in those places, and that its general station had been between 79 and 86° : he acknow !- edges, however, that he felt those degrees of heat in a moist air, more oppressive than at Savan- nah, when the thermometer stood at 81º in his cellar, at 102° in the story above it, and in the up- per story of his house at 1050. On the 10th of December, the mercury was up at 86°, and on the eleventh down as low as 38°, on the same instru- ment. Such sudden and extreme changes, espe- cially when they happen frequently, must violently rack the human constitution ; yet he asserts that few people died at Savannah out of the ordinary course, though many were working in the open air, exposed to the sun during this extreme heat. As governor Ellis was a man of sense and erudi- tion, and no doubt made his observations with
254
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1757.
accuracy, I shall not presume to call in question the facts which he relates, but I feel bound to as- sert, under the authority of the oldest inhabitants now living in Savannah, that there have been but few instances in which the mercury has risen above 96°, and none in which it has risen above 100° in the shade, within the last thirty years. The trade winds prevail on the sea coast of Georgia, with great uniformity in the summer, particularly on the southern part of it; and it is not unworthy of remark, that I resided at Point- Peter near the mouth of St. Mary's river, eighteen months, and the garrison consisted of near one hundred troops, and that I do not recollect after the first fortnight, to have seen three men in bed with the fever, and that only one died during that period, and his disease was a consumption. Indeed the sea shore is healthy, except in the vicinity of stagnant fresh water, and would be very pleasant if the in- habitants were not annoyed by sand-flies and musketoes ; the former are most troublesome in the spring and autumnal months, and in cloudy and damp mornings and evening's : they are un- able to endure much heat or cold, and disappear on the approach of either. The musketoes are most troublesome during the heat of summer, particularly at night. I have annexed these re- marks, because governor Ellis asserts that the maritime parts of Georgia are the most unhealthy and unpleasant.
In 1758, the lands which had been acquired!
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255
HISTORY OF GEORGIA, 1758.
from the Indians, and laid off into districts, were formed into eight parishes-Christ Church, St. Matthew's, St. George's, St. Paul's, St. Philip's, St. John's, St. Andrew's, and St. James's. After the rice swamps were opened and cultivated in Medway settlement, in the parish of St. John's, it was soon ascertained that a residence. on the sea-shore proved more healthy than on the inland swamps, particularly during the summer and au- tumnal months. Mark Carr owned a tract of land which was high, sandy and dry, situated on Med- way river ; this he laid off into a town, dividing it into lots, streets, lanes, and commons : propo- sals were made to him to make a deed of trust for this tract of land, to which he consented, and accordingly executed a deed on the 19th of June 1758, to James Maxwell, Kenith Baillie, John Elliot, Gray Elliot, and John Stevens, who were appointed trustees. This town is bounded on the east by Medway river and St. Catharine's sound, which communicates with the ses, and on the other side by pine lands, which are generally lower than that on which the town was laid off, and a rising neck of land communicating with the country to the west : the town was called Sun- bury, the etymology of which is probably, the residence of the sun, from the entire exposure of this place to his beams while he is above the horizon. Soon after its settlement and organ- ization as a town, it rose into considerable com- mercial importance : emigrants came from differ-
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