will not only prevent our impending Ruin, but, we are fully satisfied, also will soon make this the most flourishing Colony possess'd by His Majesty in America, and Your Memories will be perpetuated to all future Ages, our latest Posterity sounding Your Praises, as their first Founders, Patrons and Guardians; but if, by denying us these Privileges, we ourselves and Families are not only ruin'd, but even our Posterity likewise ; You will always be mentioned as the Cause and Authors of all their Misfortunes and Calamities; which we hope will never happen. To the Magistrates of the Town of Savannah, in the Province of Georgia. THE HE Trustess for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America, have received by the Hands of Mr. Benjamin Ball of London, Merchant, an attested Copy of a Representation, signed by You the Magistrates, and many of the Inhabitants of Savannah, on the 9th of December last, for altering the Tenure of the Lands, and introducing Negroes into the Province, transmitted from thence by Mr. Robert Williams. The Trustees are not surprized to find unwary People drawn in by crafty Men, to join in a Design of extorting by Clamour from the Trustees an Alteration in the Fundamental Laws, framed for the Preservation of the People, from those very Designs. But the Trustees cannot but express their Astonishment, that You the Magistrates, appointed by them to be Guardians of the People, by putting those Laws in Execution, should so far forget your Duty, as to put Yourselves at the Head of this Attempt. However they direct You to give the Complainants this Answer from the Trustees, That they should deem themselves very unfit for the Trust reposed in them by His Majesty on their Behalf, if they could be prevailed upon, by such an irrational Attempt, to give up a Constitution, framed with the greatest Caution for the Preservation of Liberty and Property; and of which the Laws against the Use of Slaves, and for the Entail of Lands, are the surest Foundations. And the Trustees are the more confirmed in their opinion of the Unreasonableness of this Demand, that they have received Petitions from the Darien, and other Parts of the Province, representing the Inconvenience and Danger, which must arise to the good People of the Province from the Introduction of Negroes. And as the Trustees themselves are fully convinced, that besides the Hazard attending that Introduction, it would destroy all Industry among the white Inhabitants; and that by giving them a Power to alien their Lands, the Colony would soon be too like its Neighbours, void of white Inhabitants, filled with Blacks, and reduced to be the precarious Property of a Few, equally exposed to Domestick Treachery, and Foreign Invasion; and therefore the Trustees cannot be supposed to be in any Disposition of granting this Request; and if they have not before this signified their Dislike of it, this Delay is to be imputed to no other Motives, but the Hopes they had conceived, that Time and Experience would bring the Complainants to a better Mind: And the Trustees readily join Issue with them in their Appeal to Posterity, who shall judge between them, who were their best Friends; Those, who endeavoured to preserve for them a Property in their Lands, by tying up the Hands of their unthrifty Progenitors; or They, who wanted a Power to mortgage or alien them: Who were the best Friends to the Colony, Those who with great Labour and Cost had endeavoured to form a Colony of His Majesty's Subjects, and persecuted Protestants from other Parts of Europe, had placed them on a fruitful Soil, and strove to secure them in their Possessions, by those Arts which naturally tend to keep the Colony full of useful and industrious People, capable both to cultivate and defend it; or Those, who, to gratify the greedy and ambitious Views of a few Negroe Merchants, would put it into their Power to become sole Owners of the Province, by introducing their baneful Commodity; which, it is well known by sad Experience, has brought our Neighbour Colonies to the Brink of Ruin, by driving out their white Inhabitants, who were their Glory and Strength, to make room for Black, who are now become the Terror of their unadvised Masters. Signed by Order of the Trustees, Pat[rick] Tailfer and others, A True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia, in America (Charles Town, 1741); reprinted in Force, Tracts, etc. (Washington, 1836), I, No. iv, 37–53 passim. 43. Mr. Whitefield's Orphan-House (1739/40) BY SECRETARY COLONEL WILLIAM STEPHENS Stephens was resident secretary in Georgia for the trustees, and later president of the colony. His journal is of great value on account of its accuracy and minuteness. - Bibliography: Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, V, 392–406; C. C. Jones, Georgia, I, 400-419; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 103. — See below, No. 100, FRIDAY RIDAY [January 11]. Towards Noon arrived Mr. Whitfield, accompanied by three or four in his Travels; and it luckily happening, that Mr. Norris arrived Yesterday from the South, it was quickly seen with what Temper they met: When, to the Disappointment of some People, who are pleased best with Contention, upon Mr. Whitfield's shewing the Authority he brought with him, Mr. Norris, without the least Emotion, told him, that he should by no Means enter into any Disputes to disturb the Peace of the Church; nor had he ever wrote once to the Trustees concerning it, from the first Notice he had of what was in Agitation ; wherefore it was far from his Intention to enter into any Controversy with him; but on the contrary declared, that his Ministry at Savannah ceased from that Instant, declining to officiate at Evening Prayer this Night, but left it to Mr. Whitfield to take Possession of the Church immediately; who accordingly did so, when a greater Congregation than usual most Days were met, many (I fear) more out of Curiosity than Devotion. He delivered to me in the Afternoon a Letter from Mr. Martyn, Secretary to the Trust, dated June 1, relating to the Land appointed for his Use, and whereon to set the Orphan-House, &c. which after I had read, he also did; and I told him I would not be wanting in any Thing on my Part to promote what the Trust appointed, and to give him what Assistance I could; but as to the five hundred Acres, Mr. Habersham, without conferring with me upon it, when the General was here, applied himself to him, who approved of the Place he had made Choice of, ordered it to be run out, and then signed a Warrant, which he directed me to give the Constable, empowering him to give Possession of it to Mr. Habersham; which was done accordingly in some short Time after: And that Mr. Habersham had already began fencing and clearing upon it. After his reading the Letter from Mr. Martyn, he desired me to let him take a Copy of it; which I would not refuse him. Saturday. Mr. Whitfield lost no Time in setting forward the Work which he professed to have much at Heart, about an Orphan-House; and rode out to view the Land which Mr. Habersham had taken Care to provide against his coming, consisting of five hundred Acres, that he had taken Possession of in his own Name; where Mr. Whitfield gave such Orders and Directions as he thought proper. Sunday. Mr. Whitfield's Name, which of late had made so much. Noise in England, could not fail drawing all Sorts of People to Church, who professed Christianity, to hear what Doctrine it was that he preached : When both in the Morning and Afternoon, he made our Justification by Faith only, the Subject of his Discourse; taking those Words in St. Matthew for his Text, "What think you of Christ?" Which he pressed home with great Energy, denouncing Anathema's on all such as taught otherwise. . . Tuesday. What I thought most worth present Observation, arose from the extraordinary Preparations making to build the Orphan-House, &c. wherein Mr. Whitfield indeed shewed himself much in earnest; and it may be presumed, he expected it would be finished in few Months; in order to which, there was hardly one Sawyer of any Value in Town, but all hired, and engaged by him to go over and work, where he meant to erect that Building: Most of our Carpenters, Bricklayers, &c. were likewise engaged by him, and a great Quantity of Scantling Timber, ready sawn, was coming (as I heard) for the more Expedition, from North-Carolina. The House that Mr. Bradley had lived in, being empty, Mr. Jones complimented the first Comers with the Use of, for the present; and Mr. Whitfield chose, upon his Arrival, to carry those Friends that came with him thither also, as well as to be with them himself, leaving Mr. Norris in Possession of the Parsonage-House (which could not hold more than two or three) till he could conveniently move what he had there, and carry it with him to Frederica: But the great House not being finished within, and incommodious on many Accounts, especially by letting the Rain come through the Roof, which was flat; Mr. Whitfield agreed with David Douglass for the Use of his House (much the largest of any private Lot in Town) at the Rent of 20%. Sterling for half a Year only. . . Sunday. Mr. Whitfield did the Duties of the Day, with more than ordinary Diligence, by reading Prayers at Seven in the Morning; at Ten again, with a Sermon after it; at Three again, the same as at Ten; and a Lecture at Seven in the Evening; besides the Sacrament, which he administred to betwixt thirty and forty People after the second Morning Service: His Sermons both before Noon and after, in the same Manner as on Sunday last, were wholly on the Doctrine of Justification and Regeneration; which we hoped would ere long be followed by an Exhortation to the Practice of all Christian Duties, that so our Faith might be shewn by our Works; otherwise a dry and inactive Faith, it is to be feared, might prove a dangerous State. William Stephens, A Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia (London, 1742), II, 243-254 passim. 44. Need of Relieving Georgia (1749) BY EDMUND BURKE (1757) Burke was a well-known English orator and statesman, who later sided with the colonies in their complaints of the home government. He is responsible for the book from which this extract is taken, though it was probably prepared by an unknown hack-writer. — Bibliography: Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, V, ch. vi; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 103. A' LL these, and several other inconveniencies in the plan of the settlement, raised a general discontent in the inhabitants; they quarrelled with one another, and with their magistrates; they complained; they remonstrated; and finding no satisfaction, many of them fled out of Georgia, and dispersed themselves where they deemed the encouragement better, to all the other colonies. So that of above two thousand people, who had transported themselves from Europe, in a little time not above six or seven hundred were to be found in Georgia; so far were they from increasing. The mischief grew worse and worse every day, until the government revoked the grant to the trustees, took the province into their own hands, and annulled all the particular regulations that were made. It was then left exactly on the same footing with Carolina. Though this step has probably saved the colony from entire ruin, yet it was not perhaps so well done to neglect entirely the first views upon which it was settled. These were undoubtedly judicious; and if the methods taken to compass them were not so well directed, it was no argument against the designs themselves, but a reason for some change in the instruments designed to put them in execution. Certainly nothing wants a regulation more, than the dangerous inequality in the number of negroes and whites in such of our provinces where the former are used. South Carolina, in spite of its great wealth, is really in a more |