Oglethorpe, Philanthropist
In England there dwelled a man named James Edward Oglethorpe, son of Sir
Theophilus Oglethorpe of Godalming in Surrey. Though entered at Oxford, he
soon left his books for the army and was present at the siege and taking
of Belgrade in 1717. Peace descending, the young man returned to England,
and on the death of his elder brother came into the estate, and was
presently made Member of Parliament for Haslemere in Surrey.
His character was a firm and generous one; his bent, markedly
humane. "Strong benevolence of soul," Pope says he had. His century, too,
was becoming humane, was inquiring into ancient wrongs. There arose, among
other things, a belated notion of prison reform. The English Parliament
undertook an investigation, and Oglethorpe was of those named to examine
conditions and to make a report. He came into contact with the
incarcerated -- not alone with the law-breaker, hardened or yet to be
hardened, but with the wrongfully imprisoned and with the debtor. The
misery of the debtor seems to have struck with insistent hand upon his
heart's door. The parliamentary inquiry was doubtless productive of some
good, albeit evidently not of great good. But though the inquiry was over,
Oglethorpe's concern was not over. It brooded, and, in the inner clear
light where ideas grow, eventually brought forth results.
Numbers of debtors lay in crowded and noisome English prisons, there
often from no true fault at all, at times even because of a virtuous
action, oftenest from mere misfortune. If they might but start again, in a
new land, free from entanglements! Others, too, were in prison, whose
crimes were negligible, mere mistaken moves with no evil will behind them
-- or, if not so negligible, then happening often through that misery and
ignorance for which the whole world was at fault. There was also the broad
and well-filled prison of poverty, and many of the prisoners there needed
only a better start. James Edward Oglethorpe conceived another settlement
in America, and for colonists he would have all these down-trodden and
oppressed. He would gather, if he might, only those who when helped would
help themselves -- who when given opportunity would rise out of old slough
and briar. He was personally open to the appeal of still another class of
unfortunate men. He had seen upon the Continent the distress of the poor
and humble Protestants in Catholic countries. Folk of this kind -- from
France, from Germany -- had been going in a thin stream for years to the
New World. But by his plan more might be enabled to escape petty tyranny
or persecution. He had influence, and his scheme appealed to the humane
thought of his day -- appealed, too, to the political thought. In America
there was that debatable and unoccupied land south of Charles Town in
South Carolina. It would be very good to settle it, and none had taken up
the idea with seriousness since Azilia had failed. Such a colony as was
now contemplated would dispose of Spanish claims, serve as a buffer colony
between Florida and South Carolina, and establish another place of trade.
The upshot was that the Crown granted to Oglethorpe and twenty associates
the unsettled land between the Savannah and the Altamaha, with a westward
depth that was left quite indefinite. This territory, which was now
severed from Carolina, was named Georgia after his Majesty King George II,
and Oglethorpe and a number of prominent men became the trustees of the
new colony. They were to act as such for twenty-one years, at the end of
which time Georgia should pass under the direct government of the Crown.
Parliament gave to the starting of things ten thousand pounds, and wealthy
philanthropic individuals followed suit with considerable donations. The
trustees assembled, organized, set to work. A philanthropic body, they
drew from the like minded far and near. Various agencies worked toward
getting together and sifting the colonists for Georgia. Men visited the
prisons for debtors and others. They did not choose at random, but when
they found the truly unfortunate and undepraved in prison they drew them
forth, compounded with their creditors, set the prisoners free, and
enrolled them among the emigrants. Likewise they drew together those who,
from sheer poverty, welcomed this opportunity. And they began a
correspondence with distressed Protestants on the Continent. They also
devised and used all manner of safeguards against imposition and the
inclusion of any who would be wholly burdens, moral or physical. So it
happened that, though misfortune had laid on almost all a heavy hand, the
early colonists to Georgia were by no means undesirable flotsam and
jetsam. The plans for the colony, the hopes for its well-being, wear a
tranquil and fair countenance.
Oglethorpe himself would go with the first colonists. His ship was
the Anne of two hundred tons burden -- the last English colonizing ship
with which this narrative has to do -- and to her weathered sails there
still clings a fascination. On board the Anne, beside the crew and master,
are Oglethorpe himself and more than a hundred and twenty Georgia
settlers, men, women, and children. The Anne shook forth her sails in
mid-November, 1732, upon the old West Indies sea road, and after two
months of prosperous faring, came to anchor in Charles Town harbor.
South Carolina, approving this Georgia settlement which was to open
the country southward and be a wall against Spain, received the colonists
with hospitality. Oglethorpe and the weary colonists rested from long
travel, then hoisted sail again and proceeded on their way to Port Royal,
and southward yet to the mouth of the Savannah. Here there was further
tarrying while Oglethorpe and picked men went in a small boat up the river
to choose the site where they should build their town.
Here, upon the lower reaches, there lay a fair plateau, a mile long,
rising forty feet above the stream. Near by stood a village of
well-inclined Indians -- the Yamacraws. Ships might float upon the river,
close beneath the tree-crowned bluff. It was springtime now and beautiful
in the southern land -- the sky azure, the air delicate, the earth garbed
in flowers. Little wonder then that Oglethorpe chose Yamacraw Bluff for
his town.
A trader from Carolina was found here, and the trader's wife, a
half-breed, Mary Musgrove by name, did the English good service. She made
her Indian kindred friends with the newcomers. From the first Oglethorpe
dealt wisely with the red men. In return for many coveted goods, he
procured within the year a formal cession of the land between the two
rivers and the islands off the coast. He swore friendship and promised to
treat the Indians justly, and he kept his oath. The site chosen, he now
returned to the Anne and presently brought his colonists up the river to
that fair place. As soon as they landed, these first Georgians began
immediately to build a town which they named Savannah.
Ere long other emigrants arrived. In 1734 came seventy-eight German
Protestants from Salzburg, with Baron von Reck and two pastors for
leaders. The next year saw fifty-seven others added to these. Then came
Moravians with their pastor. All these strong, industrious, religious folk
made settlements upon the river above Savannah. Italians came, Piedmontese
sent by the trustees to teach the coveted silk-culture. Oglethorpe, when
he sailed to England in 1734, took with him Tomochi-chi, chief of the
Yamacraws, and other Indians. English interest in Georgia increased.
Parliament gave more money -- 26,000 pounds. Oglethorpe and the trustees
gathered more colonists. The Spanish cloud seemed to be rolling up in the
south, and it was desirable to have in Georgia a number of men who were by
inheritance used to war. Scotch Highlanders -- there would be the right
folk! No sooner said than gathered. Something under two hundred,
courageous and hardy, were enrolled from the Highlands. The majority were
men, but there were fifty women and children with them. All went to
Georgia, where they settled to the south of Savannah, on the Altamaha,
near the island of St. Simon. Other Highlanders followed. They had a fort
and a town which they named New Inverness, and the region that they
peopled they called Darien.
Oglethorpe himself left England late in 1735, with two ships, the
Symond and the London Merchant, and several hundred colonists aboard. Of
these folk doubtless a number were of the type the whole enterprise had
been planned to benefit. Others were Protestants from the Continent. Yet
others -- notably Sir Francis Bathurst and his family -- went at their own
charges. After Oglethorpe himself, most remarkable perhaps of those going
to Georgia were the brothers John and Charles Wesley. Not precisely
colonists are the Wesleys, but prospectors for the souls of the colonists,
and the souls of the Indians -- Yamacraws, Uchees, and Creeks.
They all landed at Savannah, and now planned to make a settlement
south of their capital city, by the mouth of Altamaha. Oglethorpe chose
St. Simon's Island, and here they built, and called their town Frederica.
| Each Freeholder had 60 Feet in Front by 90
Feet in depth upon the high Street for House and Garden; but
those which fronted the River had but 30 in Front, by 60 Feet
in depth. Each Family had a Bower of Palmetto Leaves finished
upon the back Street in their own Lands. The side toward the
front Street was set out for their Houses. These Palmetto
Bowers were very convenient shelters, being tight in the
hardest Rains; they were about 20 Feet long and 14 Feet wide,
and in regular Rows looked very pretty, the Palmetto Leaves
lying smooth and handsome, and of a good Colour. The whole
appeared something like a Camp; for the Bowers looked like
Tents, only being larger and covered with Palmetto Leaves.
Moore's Voyage to Georgia. |
Their life sounds idyllic, but it will not always be so. Thunders
will arise; serpents be found in Eden. But here now we leave them --
in infant Savannah -- in the Salzburgers' village of Ebenezer and in
the Moravian village nearby -- in Darien of the Highlanders -- and
in Frederica, where until houses are built they will live in
palmetto bowers.
Virginia, Maryland, the two Carolinas, Georgia -- the southern sweep
of England-in-America -- are colonized. They have communication with
one another and with middle and northern England-in-America. They
also have communication with the motherland over the sea. The
greetings of kindred and the fruits of labor travel to and fro: over
the salt, tumbling waves. But also go mutual criticism and
complaint. "Each man," says Goethe, "is led and misled after a
fashion peculiar to himself." So with those mass persons called
countries. Tension would come about, tension would relax, tension
would return and increase between Mother England and Daughter
America. In all these colonies, in the year with which this
narrative closes, there were living children and young persons who
would see the cord between broken, would hear read the Declaration
of Independence. So -- but the true bond could never be broken, for
mother and daughter after all are one.
Back to: Virginia and the Southern Colonies
