Oglethorpe's plan.

Settlement of Georgia.

SECTION X.

GEORGIA.

1. The right to occupy the wilderness between the Savannah and St. John rivers was so hotly disputed, for a time, by the Spaniards at St. Augustine and the South Carolinians, that war seemed inevitable.' At that time a great moral movement was in progress in England, at the head of which was General James Edward Oglethorpe, a brave soldier and member of Parliament. It was to afford relief to virtuous prisoners for debt, and other poor of the realm.

JAMES EDWARD OGLETHORPE.

2. Oglethorpe proposed to open the prison doors to all such debtors as should agree to go to America and settle there, on the southern coast. A royal charter was granted by George the Second in June, 1732, to a corporation "in trust for the poor," for twenty years; and Parliament and individuals furnished money to carry out the benevolent design.'

3. Oglethorpe was a practical philanthropist. He accompanied the first band of emigrants, as their governor. They sailed in November, 1732, for the Carolina coast; touched at Charleston; many made a brief halt at Beaufort; and by the middle of February, 1733, the whole company were seated on Yamacraw bluff, on the site of the city of Savannah, which Oglethorpe had chosen as the place for settlement. There they commenced building the capital of the future state.

1. The Savannah is the present boundary line between South Carolina and Georgia, and the St. John is a river in Northern Florida. The Spaniards instigated the Indians to depredate on the Carolina settlers, who went southward of the Savannah.

2. Individuals subscribed large sums; and within two years after the charter was issued, Parliament had appropriated $180,000 for the same purpose.

QUESTIONS.-1. What can you tell about disputes between the Spaniards and the South Carolinians? What movement took place in England, and for what purpose? 2. What did Oglethorpe propose? What was done? 3. What did Oglethorpe do? What can you tell about the first settlers in Georgia?

Oglethorpe and the Indians.

Founding of the Georgia colony.

4. Oglethorpe built a fort, mounted cannon upon it, and in May, 1733, he met fifty chiefs in council, with To-mo-chi-chi,' the principal sachem of the Creek confederacy, at their head. Satisfactory bargains were made for territory; and by a treaty concluded in June, the English obtained sovereignty over a vast domain,' which was named GEORGIA, in honor of the king. Then were laid the foundations of the commonwealth of that name.

5. We have considered the events which led to the first permanent settlements in the United States, and the formation of colonies. We will now consider the history of those colonies, until the period of the French and Indian war, when they were united in a sort of national league for common defence.

1. To-mo-chi-chi was then an aged man, and at his first interview with Oglethorpe, he presented him with a buffalo skin, ornamented with the picture of an eagle. "Here," said the chief, "is a little present; I give you a buffalo's skin, adorned on the inside with the head and feathers of an eagle, which I desire you to accept, because the eagle is an emblem of speed, and the buffalo of strength. The English are swift as the bird, and strong as the beast, since, like the former, they flew over vast seas to the uttermost parts of the earth; and, like the latter, they are so strong that nothing can withstand them. The feathers of an eagle are soft, and signify love; the buffalo's skin is warm, and signifies protection: therefore I hope the English will love and protect our little families." Alas! the wishes of the venerable To-mo-chi-chi were never realized, for the white people more often plundered and destroyed, than loved and protected the Indians. See picture on page 8.

2. The domain granted by the charter extended along the coast from the Savannah to the Alatamaha, and westward to the Pacific ocean. The trustees appointed by the crown possessed all legislative and executive power; and therefore, while one side of the seal of the new province expressed the benevolent character of the scheme, by the device of a group of toiling silkworms, and the motto, Non sibi, sed aliis; the other side, bearing, between two urns, the genius of "Georgia Augusta," with a cap of liberty on her head, a spear, and a horn of plenty, was a false emblem. There was no political liberty for the people.

QUESTIONS.-4. What did Oglethorpe do at Savannah? What can you tell about his interview with the Indians? What can you say of the founding of the Commonwealth of Georgia? 5. What have we considered in this chapter, and what shall we now consider?

CHAPTER IV.

THE COLONIES.

SECTION I.

1. THE colonial history of the United States is comprised within the period commencing when the several settlements along the Atlantic coasts became organized into political communities, and ending when representatives of these colonies met in general congress in 1774. There was an earlier union of interests and efforts. It was when the English colonies aided the mother country in a long war against the combined hostilities of the French and Indians. As the local histories of the several colonies after the commencement of that war have but little interest for the general reader, we shall trace the progress of each colony only to that period, and devote a section to the narrative of the French and Indian war.

2. We have observed that a settlement acquires the character of a colony only when it has become permanent, and the people, acknowledging allegiance to a parent state, are governed by organic laws. According to these conditions, the earliest of the twelve colonies represented in the congress of 1774,' was

VIRGINIA.

3. It was a happy day for the six hundred settlers in Virginia, when the gold-seekers disappeared,' and the enlightened George

QUESTIONS.-1. What is the period of the colonial history of the United States? What earlier union than 1774 took place? What shall we now do? 2. What is the difference between a settlement and a colony? Which was the earliest colony?

The family in Virginia.

Slaves introduced.

Constitution.

Yeardley became governor, and established a representative assembly [June 28th, 1619]—the first in all America.' And yet a prime element of happiness and prosperity was wanting. There were no white women in the colony. This want was soon supplied. During the following year [1620] not less than twelve hundred emigrants went from England to Virginia, and among them were ninety young women, "pure and uncorrupt," who were sold to the planters for wives, at the cost of their passage.' The family relation was soon established; the gentle influence of woman gave refinement to social life on the banks of the James river, and a new incentive was given to industry and thrift. During the same year [1620] a Dutch trading vessel entered the James river with negroes, and sold twenty of them to the planters at Jamestown. This was the beginning of Negro Slavery in the United States.

3

4. Emigrants now flocked to Virginia in great numbers, and settlements extended even so far as the site of Richmond. The government was remodeled. Sir Francis Wyatt, appointed governor in 1621, took with him to Virginia a written constitution, which gave the people the privilege of choosing a popular legislative assembly, while the governor and council were appointed by the Company. Trial by jury was established, and courts like those of England were organized.

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5. Serious trouble soon appeared.

Emperor Powhatan, the friend of the English,' was dead, and their enemy sat in his seat.

1. Verse 21, page 31.

2. Tobacco had already become a circulating medium, or currency, in Virginia. The price of a wife varied from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty pounds of this product, equivalent, in money value, to about $90 and $112 each. The second" cargo" were sold at a still higher price. By the king's special order, one hundred dissolute vagabonds, called "jail-birds" by the colonists, were sent over the same year, and sold as bond-servants for a specified time.

3. Most of the immigrants hitherto were possessed of the spirit of mere adventurers. They came to America to repair shattered fortunes, or to gain wealth, with the ultimate object of returning to England to enjoy it. The creation of families made the planters more attached to the soil of Virginia.

4. The different settlements were called boroughs. This assembly consisted of two burgesses or representatives from each borough, chosen by the people. This was the beginning of the Virginia House of Burgesses, which was so powerful on the side of freedom when the old war for independence broke out in 1775.

5. Verse 19, page 30.

What were

QUESTIONS.-3. What was a happy incident in the history of Virginia? wanting in the colony? How was that want supplied? What did the family relation_do? How was Negro Slavery in the United States begun? 4. What can you say of the growth of Virginia? What of a new form of government?

Indian War.

Usurpation.

House of Burgesses.

The Indians plotted the extermination of the white people. At midday, on the first of April, 1622, they fell in fury on the more remote settlements. Within an hour, three hundred and fifty men, women, and children were slain. In the space of a few days, eighty plantations were reduced to eight.' The people at Jamestown and vicinity were put on their guard by a Christian Indian, and were saved.

Within

6. A vindictive war ensued, and a terrible blow of retaliation was given by the white people. The Indians upon the James and York rivers were slaughtered by scores, or were driven far back into the wilderness. Yet a blight was upon the colony. Sickness and famine followed close upon the massacre. three months, the colony of four thousand souls was reduced to twenty-five hundred; and at the beginning of 1624, of the nine thousand persons who had been sent to Virginia from England, only eighteen hundred remained.

7. By an act of high-handed usurpation, King James dissolved the London Company in 1623, and, seizing their possessions, made Virginia a royal province. Yeardley' was appointed governor, with twelve councilors; but the king wisely abstained from interfering with the House of Burgesses, for the people regarded their constitutional privileges as their rights.

8. James was succeeded by his son Charles, in 1625. He was a weak and selfish man. He favored the Virginians, because he wished to share in the profits of projected commercial speculations in their tobacco. The people accepted his favors, but went steadily on in the practice of self-government, with a determination to be free. They boldly deposed an obnoxious governor,

1. The leader of this massacre was Opechancanough, a younger brother of Powhatan, and his successor as emperor. He was wily and very treacherous. Only a few days before the massacre, he declared that "soorer the skies would fall than his friendship with the English should be dissolved." Even on the day of the massacre, the Indians entered the houses of the planters with usual tokens of friendship.

2. Verse 3, page 50.

S. In June, 1628, the king, in a letter to the governor and council, asked them to convene an assembly to consider his proposal to contract for the whole crop of tobacco. He thus tacitly acknowledged the legality of the republican assembly of Virginia, hitherto not sanctioned, but only permitted.

QUESTIONS.-5. What can you tell about troubles on the death of Powhatan? What did the Indians do? What dreadful calamity befell the colony? 6. What can you tell about retaliation? How did the colony suffer from sickness? 7. What did the king do to the London Company? How did it affect Virginia? 8. Who succeeded King James? What did he do? and for what purpose? How did the people show their independence?