USA > Georgia > The story of Georgia and the Georgia people, 1732 to 1860 > Part 19
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This provision for relief was renewed during the incum- bency of Governor Early, as we have seen, and the act was vetoed by him. The Legislature was very indignant, and the act was passed over the veto, and the people were so resentful that the governor was not reelected.
It was during this period in 1809 that the first bank in Georgia was chartered. It was to be known as the Planters Bank, and was to be located in Savannah, with branches in all the principal towns. The list of commissioners and the places where subscriptions of stock were to be received give us an insight into the important places then in the
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State. They were Savannah, Augusta, Columbia Court- house, Washington, Warrenton, Louisville, Milledgeville, and Hartford (now Hawkinsville).
The plan was a wide, sweeping one. The bank and its branches aimed to reach all sections of the State and em- brace a great number of stockholders. No one could hold over fifty shares of stock, and when three hundred thou- sand dollars in gold and silver was in hand the bank was to begin its work. The scheme was not successful and the bank did not open then, and a new charter was granted in 1810 for one of the same name. At the same time that this new charter was granted the Bank of Augusta, with three hundred thousand dollars capital, was also chartered, and these banks went into operation. The United States Bank had several branches established in the State at this time.
The first manufactory in Georgia was chartered in 1810 and was to be located in Wilkes county. It was to make woolen and cotton goods. The factory was located some twelve miles from Washington and went into operation, but was not successful.
Stage lines were now chartered and established between Augusta and Savannah, and Augusta and Washington in Wilkes. They were to run stages at least once a week. There were of course no railways, nor for thirty years after this, and the first steamboat during this period made its trial trip from New York to Albany; there was as yet none in Georgia.
The people went to market on horseback and sent their produce, when it was shipped by water, on flatboats. The rivers, and even the larger creeks, were utilized as far as possible, and efforts were made by public labor and by the organization of navigation companies to keep them open.
These first years of the century were days of wild trad- ing. Soldiers' warrants, plots and grants of new lands, ancient headrights, confiscated property, all were in the
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market; and now the eagerness to make money rapidly led to the chartering of lotteries. They had been forbidden by the colonial laws of thirty years before, but were now allowed and encouraged. Christ Church, in Savannah, was to be built by a lottery. The Midway graveyard in Liberty county, near the Congregational church, was to be enclosed by the proceeds of a lottery. Schools in the counties of Washington and Columbia were to be helped by a lottery. The poor of Chatham, the court-house in Savannah and the university all had lotteries for their benefit .*
Joseph Rice, of Savannah, had more jewelry and watches than he could easily sell, and he was permitted to get rid of his goods by a lottery, and was to pay for the privilege ten per cent. royalty to the State. Rivers were to be made navigable and the expense met by a lottery, and a lottery seems to have been the source of supply for all needs.
Josiah Tattnall, Sr., had stood bravely by the king and had been exiled and his property taken. After thirty years his son Josiah was governor, and the Legislature did itself honor when it pardoned the old Loyalist ; and when Josiah Tattnall, Jr., affixed his signature of approval to an act pardoning Josiah Tattnall, Sr., he said, "With lively im- pressions of gratitude I affix my signature to this act."
In those days couples were divorced, murderers were par- doned and natural children made legitimate by the Leg- islature.
Negro slaves were manumitted by authority of the Legislature, and there were not a few who were made free persons of color by a special act.
The salaries of the governor and of State-house officers were: $2,000 for the governor, $500 each for two secreta- ries, $200 for secretary of state, $200 for surveyor-general, $ 1,400 for judge of superior court, and $1,200 for treas- urer. The attorney-general and solicitors received $150
* See Clayton's Compilation.
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each, the comptroller $600, the clerk of the house $300. The poll-tax was 31 1/2 cents per poll.
A tobacco warehouse was established on the Tugalo, at the mouth of the Seneca, from which it is evident that tobacco was a staple in Franklin at that time. Lincoln, Elbert and Wilkes were the great tobacco-raising counties, and while the change from tobacco to cotton was going on, the Virginia weed still held the highest place, and hogs- heads were rolled to the warehouses, inspected and shipped thence to Liverpool and London, and goods were imported direct from England. Thos. Grant and his father, Daniel, who were merchandizing in Wilkes, bought all their goods from England for several years after the century began.
The cotton machines were now erected in all the coun- ties, and the culture of indigo and tobacco was giving way to cotton. The sea island planter still used the old roller- gin and raised his long-staple cotton, which he ginned with it; but what was known as green seed, petit gulf cotton or short-staple was making its way into the up-country as far as the upper part of Elbert, where tobacco was still the staple.
The domestic slave-trade was never regarded with favor in Georgia, and severe laws were passed to restrict it, but the demand for labor to cultivate the cotton farms, and the depressed condition of things in eastern Virginia and Mary- land, led to its permanent establishment, and troops of ne- groes were brought from Virginia and Maryland to Geor- gia. There were now two decidedly different classes of negroes in Georgia, the pure African, or his immediate descendant, and the Anglo-African from Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland. The blood of the same race be- longed to both, but the Virginia negro was removed at least four generations from his African ancestor, and change of climate and of food had greatly improved him in physical and mental features. He was more docile, more intelli-
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gent, but perhaps less faithful and more artful than the re- cent comer. His lips were not so thick, his size was greater, and he was less of an animal in his looks and ways. The pure African on the coast was but little changed from the slave of negro-land or Guinea. He had better food and better government than he had in Africa, but at this time was, while less savage and more tractable, much like in other respects his ancestor across the seas.
The white people of Georgia in the early part of the century presented different features, and these were found in different sections of the State. There were at this time only two cities of moderate size, and so the population was almost exclusively rural.
As the reader has seen, much the larger part of the early comers had been Virginians and North Carolinians, and were a homogeneous body, but those who came from over the sea, and their descendants, were from different peoples and still preserved their original features. The English people who came from 1732 to 1750 belonged to the middle and lower classes of Englishmen. There were few of the gentry and still fewer of the peasantry among them. They were generally those sterling middle-class people who have done so much for England. Very few of them had become farmers; they had either become planters or found a place in the city. The Germans, both the Salzburghers and the later comers, had almost universally continued on the farm, and while they were now distributed largely over southern Georgia, they were still in all their features the same people who had settled at Ebenezer.
The Scotch had among the immigrants to Georgia chiefs of clans and lairds, who were as proud of their Celtic blood and of their Tarleton as "The McIntosh" had been in the Highlands; but the most of the Scotch people, although belonging to the famous clans, were poor peasants, living
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at first in a very narrow way, and in the beginning of the century were in the main stockmen.
The near seventy years since the coast had been settled had done much to bring about great changes in social con- ditions there. The estates had become very large and the oneness of conditions had unified society, and whether the low-country rice or sea-island cotton-planters descended from the English, the Scotch or the Huguenots, they had much the same features and formed a society of their own. They were isolated, each man in his own barony, where he was a feudal lord who rarely left his own broad domain and lived among his slaves.
These wealthy, cultured and exclusive people were only a limited number of the white people on the coast. Away from the coast, toward the interior, there were many poor and ignorant people, as well as many thrifty, unpretending, self- supporting and independent farmers who lived on wide stretches of pine land. These people, called crackers by their wealthier neighbors, were descendants in many cases of the indentured servants who had been brought from the various countries across the sea; in others they were the de- scendants of the thriftless, perhaps profligate, members of good families, or adventurers from the Carolinas or Vir- ginia. They went where land was cheap and where the people lived plainly, and where they could procure a living with but little work.
The overseers have been sometimes confounded with this class, and in Mr. Wirt's "Life of Patrick Henry" the Vir- ginia overseer is written down as a poor specimen of his race, but this was not the case on the coast. It required a man of real parts to manage a great rice plantation, and a good overseer was likely to become in time a wealthy planter.
At this time many of the descendants of the best people 16
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who came in the early days of the colony were managing plantations for their more fortunate neighbors, who sprung originally from the same class to which they belonged, but who had made or inherited fortunes.
I have already given some insight into the life of the. piny woods farmer of the better class in my sketch of Lib- erty county. There were in the first days of the century three distinct classes on the coast who were as distinct in. Georgia as the gentry, the yeomanry and the peasantry in England. In the up-country above Burke county there was no such decided distinction in classes. Very many of the people of Wilkes and Greene and Hancock, occupying the same social position, sprang from entirely different stems. Men who had names in the English peerage, or those whose ancestors were Welsh squires and Scotch. lairds, were side by side with descendants of Scotch-Irish yeomen, whose almost penniless fathers came from the humblest homes in Ireland to Pennsylvania, and thence. down to North Carolina, and had made fortunes by their energy and thrift.
These were side by side with the descendants of the Re- demptioners who began their American life in the tobacco, plantations of Virginia. There were a great many Georgians. who belonged by family connection to the old English aris- tocracy. Their ancestors had come to Virginia before the seventeenth century. They came to Georgia poor men, and became leading people; and they were not distin- guished from the English yeomanry who had also lived in. Virginia, and had now removed to Georgia. There was in Virginia and lower South Carolina a very high estimate put upon family distinctions, and the same feeling was found in lower Georgia-especially in Savannah and on the coast; but in upper Georgia there was a strong feeling against this spirit. Family pride was ridiculed and denounced. Popular politicians claimed kinship with the common people.
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Milledge, Clarke, Irwin, Jackson, the favorites in political circles, were men who made no claim to ancient or aristo- ratic lineage, and were loud in their denunciations of such laims. This want of family pride had its origin largely in he principles of the new movement in France and the hos- ility to the English, which was at its height at this time.
In all the up-country these old family distinctions were ost sight of-at least by the men; and while in the up- ountry, as in the low-country, there was the "cracker " of he humblest type, as a general thing, where land was so asily secured, the poor man became a landholder, and the riftless and indolent moved with the ever-advancing line estward. At the time of which we write Georgia society ad taken its permanent shape; and there was but little hange in it for some time, until the coming in of trading ews and the Irish and the springing up of populations in e manufacturing villages.
While it is true the constant advance of the settlements to the Indian country brought about a great diversity of cial conditions long after this period, and there was luch simplicity in life and many hardships, there was in le old counties a great increase in comfort. Burke, Jeffer- sn, Wilkes, and Elbert were now from thirty to forty years d, and convenient to markets, and the comforts of a set- tod state of things were enjoyed by the people, while the dunties west of the Oconee were just being settled and vre having to encounter the usual difficulties of the fron- tr. From the elegant homes of the people on the coast, ad in the cities, there was a constant grade to the one- romed log cabin of the new settler in Morgan or Wilkin- sh. There were, indeed, almost all kinds of social life in o. Corgia at this time; but the different kinds became more pinly brought out before the end of the next decade.
There can be no denial of the fact that for the first og twenty years of the century there was the same indorse-
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ment of dueling that was found in the more Norther States and in England, and no man dared in those days refuse a challenge; but in 1805 the Georgia Legislatu went so far as to forbid the duelist from ever holdir public office. Although there was a law against it, it mu be admitted that public sentiment in some cases still uphe that cowardly and disgraceful method of settling person quarrels; but the disapproval set upon it by the Legislatu has become more and more a sentiment, until at the prese time the duelist is regarded with decided disfavor.
The county towns of Eatonton, Hartford, Warrento Lexington, Athens, Madison, Milledgeville and Elbert were alle incorporated, and academies were established each of them.
There was a literary and Thespian society organized Augusta with the following members: Robert McR. Richard Wilde, Dan MacMurphey, Samuel Hale, Abraha A. A. Leggett, Henry L. McRae, John W. Shinhols Zach Rossell, James Wilde, Daniel Savage, Willough Barton, Albert Brux, Thos. J. Wray, John R. Barnes. T. society was organized in 1808. Among the names of t. incorporators is one who won a world-wide distinction at man of letters. This was Richard Henry Wilde. His lit: poem, " My Life is Like the Summer Rose," has taken place beside the choicest gems of lyric poetry, while 3 discovery of the lost portraits of Tasso and his life of Italian poet have given him a lasting fame among menf letters. He was of Irish lineage. His father was an Im merchant who by the perfidy of an American partner vs robbed of all he had. His mother a woman of sterlg worth, who, when her husband sank under his losses, ope:d a millinery shop in the young city of Augusta and s- ported her family. Richard Henry was her oldest $1. He labored hard in the counting-room to aid his mothe n her efforts to support the younger children, studied lv,
a th
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as elected to Congress when only twenty-seven years old, nd held his place there until 1835. He then retired from ublic life, and spent some time in Europe in literary labors, nd on returning to America entered again on the practice f his profession in New Orleans, where he died. He was a han of rare gifts and of very finished culture. There was literary society of some note in Petersburg, of which overnor Bibb, afterward of Alabama, and the father of unius Hillyer and Dr. S. G. Hillyer were members.
These middle Georgia towns which had now sprung up ere all laid out on the same plan-a plan like that of the Id Virginia county sites. A square was chosen. In the enter was the court-house, generally a plain square box- ouse, with a court-room up-stairs and offices down-stairs. 'n one corner was the village tavern, and around the square he village stores. These country stores aimed to furnish verything the people needed. They sold dry-goods, gro- eries, hardware, drugs, saddlery, and in all of them here were bars from which whisky was retailed. The ounty towns were generally small. The county doctor, a ew lawyers, the teacher and the court officers generally hade up the families in them. The farmers lived on the arms, and the planters at this period were few, and those ew lived on their plantations. The country people came great numbers to the county towns on court days and he days of the general muster.
There was a superior court twice in the year, and an in- erior court which met every month. On court days there as a large attendance of the people, especially when the uperior court was in session. At that time the whole ounty was represented, and those who had business in own, as well as those who had business in court, went to own then, and the crowd was increased by those who had o business at all. . The most of the people came on horse- ack. The lawyers from all the country round came in
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gigs and sulkies. If it was a time of political excitement, a political speech was sandwiched between the morning and afternoon sessions of the court. The ginger-cake wagon- with its keg of persimmon beer was always on hand, and the motherly dame who sold a cake for a thrip and threw in the beer was always present. On Tuesday of the first week of the court was horse-swapping day. Whisky flowed freely, and nearly everybody took a dram. Fisticuffs were the result, and they were common. The village was crowded with people for a week, court then adjourned, and all be- came quiet again.
The militia laws were very carefully drawn and the theory of a citizens' army very beautiful. All able-bodied men between eighteen and forty-five were to be enrolled. They were to be placed in districts, battalions, brigades and divisions. They were to be officered by major-generals, brigadier-generals, colonels, majors and captains. Four times a year the captain drilled his company, twice a year there was a battalion drill, and once a year a general mus- ter. The offices held by the staff were very honorable dis- tinctions. The major-general was elected by the Legis- lature, and the position was highly valued.
For years after the Revolution there was an earnest and persistent effort made to carry out the scheme of training the militia, but at last it was abandoned because of its thorough inefficiency.
In the first days of the century the militia muster was a very imposing affair. The people came from all the dis- tricts in the county. The major-general, attended by his staff, with glittering epaulets and flowery plumes, mounted a magnificent charger. He wore his brilliant uniform and cocked hat, and his staff was elegantly equipped. He wa: the center of attraction. The brigadiers and colonels and majors were in full force, all uniformed and mounted. The captains, however, were as a general thing in citizen'
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clothes, with perhaps a feather in their hats. The rank and file were armed with old Kentucky rifles, single-barreled shotguns, sticks and cornstalks. A pretense of drilling and reviewing was made, and after a day of absurdity the mustering militia was discharged until another twelve- month had gone.
There were a few volunteer companies which kept up an organization, the Chatham artillery, the Liberty troop, and perhaps a company in Augusta.
After the muster was over there was generally a time of wild revelry; corn whisky and peach brandy flowed freely, and "Ransy Sniffle" managed to bring "Bill Stallings and Bob Durham" together in the ring. As a general thing there was no more serious casualty resulting from these combats than a bitten ear or a gouged eye. Stabbing was not common, and shooting was almost unknown. No man carried a pistol in those days, and the old-time dirk was re- garded as a cowardly weapon.
The sturdy old farmers looked on these muster days with great abhorrence, and looked upon town-people gen- erally as objects of pity. Even the preachers had little hope for the towns.
There was no church in Waynesboro, Washington, War- renton, Sandersville or Eatonton for years, and then the services held were by no means frequent.
There were made during this time quite a number of new counties-Tattnall, Clarke, Baldwin, Wilkinson, Wayne, Putnam, Morgan, Jones, Randolph (or Jasper), Pulaski, Laurens, and Twiggs.
These counties, which will be glanced at separately, di- vide themselves into groups, where each county has much the same features.
Clarke, Baldwin, Putnam, Morgan, Jones, Jasper, or, as it was then called, Randolph, form one group known as middle Georgia, or oak and hickory counties.
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Wilkinson, Twiggs, Pulaski and Laurens form a second group partly oak and hickory lands, partly pine lands, and Wayne, Telfair and Tattnall exclusively pine woods.
The middle Georgia counties were rapidly peopled, and those who study the names of the first settlers will recog- nize many of them as Georgians from the eastern counties, though some were Virginians and North Carolinans. The lands were distributed by lottery, and many who drew lots of two hundred and two and one-half acres removed at once to them and began to open farms. The first comers, as in the older counties, were generally poor; they had no ne- groes, or a very few, and in all new Georgia the wealth of the country for the first twenty years was largely in horses, cattle and hogs. While there were the discomforts re- sulting from settlement in a new country, these settlers had few severe hardships.
There was for the first twenty years little mental cultiva- tion; very few people had any books. Many of the wills during this period were signed with a mark, and few women could write their names.
In many respects the section which was first called Bald- win presented the same features; and the study of the indi- vidual counties will bring out the differences between them. They were all rapidly settled, and by a good class of set- tlers. It will perhaps be a matter of some surprise that the people of these new counties were less cultivated than those of Wilkes, Hancock or Greene, from which so many of them came; but the surprise will cease when it is remem- bered that these people came to manhood during the Rev- olution and the Oconee War, and men of excellent families and of good means had no opportunities for an education, and could barely read and hardly write their names. The features of social life were the same as has been pictured in the early days of Wilkes and Greene. The second group of counties, Wilkinson, Laurens and Pulaski, were partly
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oak and hickory, but mainly piny woods counties, and were peopled by different classes of people, according to the character of the land.
To these mixed counties two very different classes of people came. To the land on creeks and rivers men of large means came to open plantations. They bought a large area of the best cotton land and settled a score or more of negroes to cultivate it. They then bought a great body of pine land near by, so that their holdings were very exten- sive. Men like General Blackshear and Governor Troup had establishments like that of an English baron, while the men who lived in the pine woods were such as are por- trayed elsewhere.
These two classes of people had little to do with each other. They were on the same juries, and sometimes judges of the same court, but there was no social inter- mingling. It was the same condition of things that ob- tained on the coast thirty years before.
In the rich lands of Twiggs, Pulaski, Laurens and Wil- kinson there were the same general features that were to be found in the older counties. This was the case in the years following this period ; but before 1812 in these counties the forest in many places was unbroken. The cabins were few and far between, and the settler, who thirty years after had an elegant dwelling filled with guests, was now living in a log cabin and carefully seeing after his cows on the ranch and preparing his low grounds to make corn. There was little cotton made by rich or poor; there were few comforts, and there was no luxury.
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