May 19, 2012

Unit 11 – Georgia

Unit Eleven – Georgia and the Germans, Irish, and French

PENN'S settlement at Philadelphia was made in 1681 and this was seventy-four years after the settlement of Jamestown. In seventy-four years, which is less than a long lifetime, all the colonies were begun except one.

After the settlement of Pennsylvania 51 years passed before another colony was begun because the borders of Carolina reached to the Spanish territory in Florida and the borders of New England touched the French territory in Canada, so there appeared to be no room for any more colonies.

Eventually it was suggested to General Oglethorpe that a slice might be taken off the south side of South Carolina, and a new colony be wedged in between Carolina and the Spanish colony in Florida.

Georgia General Oglethorpe was a very benevolent man, and wanted the best for his people, but he sometimes bit off more than he could chew when taking on projects.

When he came up with the idea of the Georgia colony he was not thinking that it should be made to profit those who live there (nor himself) but instead should be a sanctuary for persecuted Protestants from other countries. He gave the colony a motto in Latin which meant "Not for ourselves, but for others".

He also expected to make Georgia a military barrier against the encroachments of the Spaniards from Florida, who laid claim to all of South Carolina. Besides this, he proposed to raise silkworms in Georgia, so that the English would not need to pay money to the Italians for their silk. He also resolved to keep out all slaves, and to forbid the bringing in of rum, that the people might not be idle or intemperate. Much money was raised by people to help with his proposed good work. Parliament also voted a donation to Georgia.

In 1732 Oglethorpe took out his first company of a hundred and sixteen people, and began the town of Savannah in 1733. Others were added, among whom were a regiment of Scotch Highlanders, some Hebrews, and some persecuted Germans. Oglethorpe bore hardship with the rest, and by brilliant management defeated the Spaniards when they attacked his colony.

Georgia But the people of the new colony of Georgia started to became dissatisfied because they were not allowed any hand in making their own laws and they were not permitted to own more than fifty acres of land unless they brought with them white servants. Even if they did get the opportunity to own enough land to farm on, they were not allowed to sell it or divide it up among their children when they passed.

The landowner’s oldest son took when he died and if there was no son to inherit it, it was given back to the colony to be given to someone else!

It was thought that by this means the evils of wealth and poverty would be prevented. But, like all such attempts, this proved a failure, because the people felt that such laws interfered with their just liberties, and took away all inducements to the improvement of their property.

In addition, this was the ways of old, the ways of feudalism that took hold in the Middle Ages. By this time the colonists of American came to expect more from their governments and they would not stand for it.

The complaints of the settlers became very bitter, and many of them left the colony. In 1752, twenty years after the beginning of the settlement, the trustees of the colony surrendered the government to the king. After that, Georgia was not different from the other colonies and the hard working families could own as much land as they could afford and then sell or lease that land as they saw fit. Slaves were bought and soon the rice and indigo plantations, like those of South Carolina, were established and working.

The Germans that came to Georgia were not by any means the first of these industrious people in the colonies. There were many little sects in Germany that suffered much persecution and the people were happy to have a chance to leave their old country and help form a new one.

Pennsylvania was an attractive colony for many Germans because some of these sects were opposed to war and in Penn's colony military service was not required because the Quakers were also opposed to war.

The tide of German immigration became greater and greater after this and thousands of Germans came to Pennsylvania to escape the miseries brought on them by persecution and the wars which desolated their country.

Georgia In three years, during the reign of Queen Anne, there came to England thirteen thousand poor people from the part of Germany called the Palatinate. These people were called Palatines and they were seeking to be sent to America.

Some of these were dispatched to Virginia, some to the Carolinas, and some to Maryland. About four thousand were sent to New York to make tar and resin. But they were treated so badly that seventeen hundred of the four thousand died at sea or soon after landing. The rest were settled on the Hudson River, where the descendants of some of them are today.

Eventually some of them went to the wilderness farther west. They were badly treated in New York and only allowed ten acres of land apiece. Three hundred of them, hearing that Germans were well received in Pennsylvania, made a bold push through the backwoods of New York, down the rivers that flowed into Pennsylvania. From that time Germans avoided New York, and flooded more than ever into Pennsylvania.

The Irish that came before the Revolution were mostly Presbyterians in belief and they had been persecuted in order to force them into the Church of England. Some of them came to New England about 1718 introducing to the colonies the spinning of flax and the planting of potatoes. Although they went to all the colonies, the greatest tide of Irish immigration poured into Pennsylvania. Five thousand Irish grants arrived in the city of Philadelphia in the year 1729. Many of them were bold and enterprising pioneers which helped in opening the way into unknown regions and showed great courage in fighting with the Indians.

Pennsylvania filled up quickly and when the later Indian wars wasted its frontiers, many of the German and Irish settlers moved southward into the mountain valleys of Virginia.

Then, following the lines of open prairies and Indian trails, this stream of people went onward into the Carolinas. The Irish, and their children born in America, pushed southward until they had filled whole counties in North and South Carolina. They also pushed over the Alleghenies into the Western country.

The Huguenots, or French Protestants, were unhappy with the civil wars and persecutions of the time, also came to the colonies in large numbers. They settled in almost every colony, but more largely in South Carolina than elsewhere.

Still, at this time the English were by far the most numerous of the colonial settlers.