Read Ebook: Georgia: Its History Condition and Resources by Drake Samuel Adams

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 31 lines and 11627 words, and 1 pages

Transcriber's Note:

Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including some inconsistent hyphenation. Some changes have been made. They are listed at the end of the text.

GEORGIA:

ITS HISTORY, CONDITION, AND RESOURCES

BY SAMUEL A. DRAKE

NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1879

GEORGIA.

Georgia, one of the thirteen original States of the American Union, has Tennessee and North Carolina on the N., South Carolina and the Atlantic Ocean on the E., Florida S., and Alabama W. The Savannah river separates the State on the E. from South Carolina; the St. Mary's, on the S., divides it in part from Florida; the Chattahoochee, on the W., flows between Georgia and Alabama for nearly half its course. Georgia lies between 30? 21? 39? and 35? N. lat., and between 81? and 85? 53? 38? W. long. It is 320 miles long from N. to S., and 256 miles in its greatest breadth from E. to W., with an area of 58,000 square miles.

The Savannah is formed of two small streams which rise near the North Carolina line, and unite on the boundary between S. Carolina and Georgia in Hart county. Flowing thence in a nearly S.S.E. direction for 450 miles, it enters the Atlantic near 32? N. lat. The Savannah is navigable from November to June. Ships ascend it 18 miles to the city of Savannah, steamboats to Augusta, 230 miles, and by means of a canal around the falls there, constructed in 1845, light draught vessels navigate it 150 miles higher. This canal, 9 miles long, furnishes the water-power of Augusta. The river is here about 300 yards wide. From Augusta the traveller descends the Savannah through the cotton-fields of the table-lands, and the long reaches of semi-tropical vegetation dominated by groves of live oak, to the rich rice plantations of the seaboard.

The Chattahoochee is one of the largest and most interesting rivers of Georgia. It rises on the declivity of the Blue Ridge, in Habersham county, in the N.E. of the State, pursues a devious S.W. course through the gold region of upper Georgia until it reaches West Point, on the Alabama frontier. It then flows nearly south to the Florida State line, where it is joined by the Flint, when the two streams flow on through Florida to the Gulf under the name of the Appalachicola. Large steamboats ascend the Chattahoochee in the season of navigation to Columbus, 350 miles from the Gulf. The whole estimated length of the river is 550 miles. The falls at Columbus create a valuable water-power, constituting that city one of the three important manufacturing centres of the State. Just above Columbus the Chattahoochee is broken in picturesque rapids, overlooked by a rocky cliff called the "Lover's Leap," which is the subject of an interesting legend. Besides Columbus, the towns of West Point and Fort Gaines are the most important on the Chattahoochee in Georgia; Appalachicola at its embouchure on the Gulf is its shipping and distributing port, but is decreasing in importance since the railway system of the State has assumed a large share of the traffic once confined to the navigable streams.

The Oconee and Ocmulgee rise near each other, in the N. of the State, flow through its centre to within 100 miles of the sea, when their united streams pass on S. E. to the Atlantic under the name of the Altamaha. Milledgeville, the former capital of Georgia, is on the Oconee, and Macon on the Ocmulgee. Darien on the Altamaha is reached by vessels drawing 11 to 14 feet of water. The Ogeechee, rising also in the north, is about 200 miles long. It drains the country between the Savannah and Altamaha, entering the Atlantic a few miles south of the Savannah. The Ogeechee is navigable for light vessels 30 or 40 miles, and for keel-boats to Louisville. The Santilla and St. Mary's drain the south-eastern counties, and are each navigable 30 or 40 miles for sloops. The Flint, Ockloconee, and Suwanee drain the south-western counties; the Flint is navigable to Albany, 250 miles from the Gulf, for steamboats. The Tallapoosa and Coosa, head-waters of the Alabama, and the Hiawassee, one of the sources of the Tennessee, rise in the mountains of Georgia--the last, however, finding its way to the Gulf of Mexico by the Ohio and Mississippi valleys.

Georgia has about 128 miles of sea-coast, but has few good harbors, except within the rivers emptying upon it. St. Mary's, Brunswick, Darien, and Savannah are the principal. The chain of islands lying off the mainland produces the celebrated Sea-island cotton, but owing to the changes brought about by the secession war it is now little cultivated. These islands are flat, and generally little elevated above the sea. Cumberland island, one of the most attractive, is nearly 30 miles long. It is covered with magnificent forests of oak, and its shores are skirted with palms, palmettos, and tropical shrubbery. Other islands from S. to N. are Jykill, St. Simon's, Sapello, St. Catharine's, Ossabaw, and Cabbage. The Sea Islands, with the main shore, constitute a coast of 480 miles. St. Andrew's, St. Simon's, Altamaha, Doboy, Sapello, St. Catharine's, and Ossabaw are the principal sounds.

There is in Georgia as great diversity of soil as of climate. Beginning with the Sea Islands, which are composed of a sandy alluvium, intermixed with decomposed coral, we pass from the rich alluvions near the coast, in which the great rice plantations are, to the thinner soil of the Pine Belt, sometimes inaptly denominated Pine Barrens. These are at present valuable for their timber and naval stores, but are susceptible of cultivation. The middle region consists of a red loam, once productive, but from long cultivation impoverished. With the aid of fertilizers it produces cotton, tobacco, and the cereals. We now reach the so-called Cherokee country of the north, containing lands among the most fertile in the State, lands which, notwithstanding their tillage from an unknown period by the aboriginal inhabitants, grow wheat, corn, Irish potatoes, peas, beans, etc., abundantly. Cotton may also be successfully cultivated, but with less advantage than in other districts of the State. This fibre is chiefly produced along the fertile bottom lands or contiguous uplands of the rivers. The same lands yield rice, Indian corn, and sugar. Middle and southwest Georgia are the most productive cotton areas. In the south-west the soil, though light and sandy, produces cotton. In southern Georgia there are millions of acres of magnificent yellow pine forests of great value for house or ship-building, and in these forests turpentine plantations have been opened. The live-oak, also valuable for ship-building purposes, abounds in the south-east of the State. The swamps afford cedar and cypress, the central region oak and hickory. Walnut, chestnut, ash, gum, magnolia, poplar, sycamore, beech, elm, maple, fir, and spruce trees are found in different localities; but in the older settled districts the original forests have disappeared.

It is frequently said that there is nothing grown in any of the States except Florida that Georgia cannot profitably produce. A few of the tropical fruits of Florida cannot be raised in Georgia, but all those of the temperate zone succeed well. Tobacco may be grown in any part of the State, although it is not extensively cultivated for export. Cotton is the great crop of Georgia. She ranks third among the eight cotton States, having exported or consumed in her own manufactures, for the year ending September, 1878, 604,676 bales, worth at the point of export ,000,000. Of this crop 3,608 bales is classed as Sea-island. Her crop for 1877 was 491,800 bales. The counties of Burke, Dougherty, Lee, Monroe, Stewart, Sumter, and Washington yield 25 per cent. of the whole product of the State.

The emancipation of the slaves in the Southern States has naturally produced great and important changes in the labor system of that section. The planter must now purchase the labor he formerly owned. The black is free to dispose of his labor to the best advantage. The contracts for labor are of three kinds,--for money wages by the month or year, for a share of the crop, or for specific rent in money or products. The first has been practised to a limited extent by the best and most prosperous planters. The share system has been the one generally adopted, because the blacks greatly affected quasi-proprietorship of the soil, and because the owners were inexperienced in the management of free labor, and not inclined to come personally in contact with it. The share varies in different localities, but usually one-third to half the crop goes to the laborers, the landlords furnishing the necessary tools. The readjustment of labor in the South is watched with the keenest interest in other sections of the Union as one of the difficult problems growing out of the suddenly changed relation between white and black; and though some traces of his original servitude remain a cause of irritation between North and South, the agreement between the enfranchised black and his late master is likely to be harmonious, where each is so dependent on the other as is the case in the cotton-growing States of the Union.

The rice crop of Georgia in 1870 was 22,277,380 ?; tobacco, 288,596 ?; molasses, 553,192 gals.; wine, 21,927 gals.; sugar, 644 hhds; sweet potatoes, 2,621,562 bush.; Irish potatoes, 197,101 bush.; butter, 4,499,572 ?; honey, 610,877 ?; wool, 846,947 ?, increased in 1878 to about 1,000,000 ?. The latest official census shows that 6,831,856 acres, valued at ,559,468, are improved in farms; value of farm implements and machinery, ,614,701; estimated value of all farm products, ,390,228; estimated value of manufactured products, ,196,115. The total valuation of the State in 1870 was 8,169,207, against 5,895,237, in 1860. The decrease is owing to the emancipation of the slaves; but the State is steadily gaining ground in increased acreage cultivated, increased number and value of manufactories, and increased productive capacity everywhere.

There are in the State 38 cotton factories, with 123,233 spindles and 2,125 looms. There are 14 woollen factories, with 4,200 spindles and 135 looms. Augusta and Columbus take the lead in the number and capacity of these works, for which certain important advantages are claimed. The water-power is so ample that the mills are run by it alone. The streams do not freeze in winter. The cotton and wool are grown at the factory door, saving to the mill-owner the cost of transporting his raw material from a great distance. Labor is cheaper. Finally, the State, in order to encourage the investment of foreign capital in manufactures, has by law exempted such capital from taxation for ten years. The product of the Georgia mills finds a ready market in the Southern and Western States. It is asserted on good authority that during the years 1875, 1876, and 1877--years of unparalleled depression to the manufacturing interests of the United States--the mills of Georgia, especially those of Augusta and Columbus, were never idle, and paid a handsome return on their invested capital. Besides the 52 factories which convert so large a share of her raw product into cloths, there are 1,375 grain mills, having 1,453 run of stones for corn and 556 for wheat. There are 734 saw-mills, 77 wagon and carriage factories, 6 iron furnaces, 7 iron foundries, 11 lime-kilns, 4 potteries, 68 tanneries, 6 turpentine distilleries, 2 rolling mills, 5 paper-mills, 12 furniture manufactories, 3 rice-mills, &c. The manufacture of rope, bagging, twine, tobacco, ice, sashes and blinds, agricultural implements, boilers and machinery, fertilizers, &c., is carried on more or less extensively. Besides Augusta and Columbus, the largest manufacturing city of the State, there are cotton factories at Athens, Macon, West Point, Decatur, and Atlanta. The latter city also has large iron works. Thomasville, Dalton, Albany, Marietta, and Rome are also manufacturing points.

Atlanta is situated on the great iron highways from Boston, New York, and Philadelphia to Mobile and New Orleans, and from Chicago to Florida. The Western and Atlantic connects Atlanta and the Georgia system with the Tennessee lines at Chattanooga . Several great battles were fought for the possession of this railway during the secession war. The Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line extends to Charlotte, N. C. . The Georgia railway connects Atlanta with Augusta , with lateral lines from Carnak to Warrenton , Union Point to Athens , and Barnet to Washington ; it also works the Macon and Augusta line from Carnak to Augusta . The Atlanta and West Point unites those places. The Alabama and Chattanooga crosses the N. W. corner of the State. The Cherokee extends from Cartersville on the Western and Atlantic to Rockmart . The Columbus and Atlanta, projected between Columbus and Rome, the Memphis branch , and Savannah, Griffin, and N. Alabama, from Griffin to Newman, to be extended to Guntersville, Ala., are in progress. The Georgia Southern extends from Dalton to the Ala. State line ; North-Eastern from Athens to Lulah ; Ocmulgee and Horse Creek ; Rome Railroad, Rome to Kingston .

With 116 emigrants Oglethorpe sailed from England in November, 1732, arriving in the Savannah in February. He landed at the present site of Savannah, where he was soon after hospitably received by delegates from the Lower Creeks, who consented that the English might peaceably inhabit among them. The next year a small number of Bavarians came over, and were settled in what is now Effingham county. Oglethorpe also established settlements at Darien, at Augusta, and on St. Simon's Island. In 1736 the colony received considerable accessions of emigrants, with whom came John and Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism. In 1738 the Rev. George Whitefield visited Georgia, founding the orphan-house at Bethesda, near Savannah, from funds chiefly collected on his tour in the northern colonies.

Anticipating invasion by the Spaniards of Florida, who claimed Georgia, Oglethorpe, on the renewal of war between England and Spain, led an expedition to St. Augustine, Florida, which he besieged without success at the head of 2,000 men. The Spaniards retaliated by landing in 1742 a small force on St. Simon's island, from which they were expelled by Oglethorpe. They then abandoned further attempts. Slavery was introduced into Georgia about 1750. In 1752 the trustees surrendered their privileges to the crown. A royal governor and council were appointed to administer, in conjunction with delegates of the people, the government of the province. During the French and Indian wars the remote settlements suffered somewhat from incursions of the Cherokees. The treaties of 1763 with France and Spain extended the boundaries of Georgia to the Mississippi on the W., and to St. Mary's on the S. After this the colony flourished greatly until the breaking out of war with England, at which time the colony was estimated to have a population of about 70,000 souls. In 1775 Sir James Wright, the crown governor, left the province. Delegates were sent to represent Georgia in the continental congress who signed the Declaration of Independence. In 1778 a British land and naval force occupied Savannah and Augusta, but were subsequently compelled to abandon the latter place. In September of the same year a combined American and French force, under Lincoln and D'Estaing, unsuccessfully attempted the recovery of Savannah, losing nearly 1,000 men in an assault. Augusta was reoccupied by the conquerors. Charleston being surrendered by General Lincoln in 1780, the patriots of South Carolina and Georgia were only able to maintain a partisan warfare, until the advance of General Greene from the north, at the head of considerable forces, resulted in the expulsion of the royal troops from those provinces. Georgia at the conclusion of peace ratified the several Acts constituting her one of the United States of America. She framed her first constitution in 1777, a second in 1789, and a third in 1798.

Georgia formally seceded from the Union in January, 1861. The Government forts and arsenals were seized. The first military operations were on the coast. In April, 1862, Fort Pulaski, one of the defences of Savannah, was recaptured by the Federal forces under Com. Du Pont. St. Mary's, Brunswick, Darien, and St. Simon's island were also occupied.

In the beginning of 1863 the Federal forces were in possession of middle and west Tennessee. In September they occupied Chattanooga in strong force, the Confederates falling back by the Western and Atlantic Railway to Lafayette, Ga. A further advance by General Rosecrans, the Federal commander, brought on the severely contested battle of Chickamauga, on the creek of that name . The Federals retreated to Chattanooga, which was soon threatened by the Confederates under Bragg. In November the Union army under General Grant drove Bragg from all his positions. In the spring of 1864 the Southern army was at Dalton, Ga., on the railway to Atlanta, which it covered. In May, General Sherman moved forward against this force a numerous and well-appointed Union army. Severe battles took place at Resaca, Kingston, and Allatoona Pass. A series of strategical movements, signalized by frequent bloody conflicts between the rival armies, resulted in the possession of Atlanta by the Union forces, September 2. From this point Sherman began in November his memorable march across Georgia to the sea. On December 10th he arrived in the neighborhood of Savannah, captured Fort M'Allister by assault, and occupied the city on the 21st. A cavalry force under General Wilson entered Georgia from Alabama in April, 1865, capturing Columbus, West Point, and Macon, and making Davis, the Confederate States president, prisoner. In June, 1865, a provisional governor was appointed for the State by the president of the United States. A convention assembled in October at Milledgeville, which repealed the ordinance of secession, abolished slavery, and declared the war debt void. A new constitution was framed and ratified in 1868, and Rufus B. Bullock inaugurated as governor. The restoration of civil government under the new forms was not effected in Georgia without complications which retarded its re-establishment on a solid foundation, but the amendments to the national constitution were at length adopted, and her senators and representatives were admitted to seats in Congress in December, 1870. During the war Georgia furnished about 80,000 soldiers for the Confederate armies. She emerged from it with her industries prostrated, her treasury empty, her social and political system revolutionized, her most flourishing cities in ruins. Her great natural resources are fast advancing her to a commanding position among her sister States; and these resources are developing in the hands of a free people with greater rapidity and advantage than when half the population was enslaved. Texas possibly excepted, no Southern State has a greater future than Georgia.

Transcriber's notes:

On page 23, the spelling "Kenesaw" is used. This appears to be the original spelling of "Kennesaw," and has been retained.

The following is a list of changes made to the original. The first line is the original line, the second the corrected one.

Page 15:

Chattahoochee, Chattooga, Clarke, Cherokee, Clay, Clayton, Chattahoochee, Chattooga, Cherokee, Clarke, Clay, Clayton,

Page 23:

county now embraced in Georgia was inhabited country now embraced in Georgia was inhabited

Page 25:

Georgia, founding the orphan-house at Bethseda, Georgia, founding the orphan-house at Bethesda,

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet