Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 229
resolutions of the Governor and Council. The late happy, but now
wretched, inhabitants, eighteen thousand in number, were appalled by
the magnitude of the calamity which thus suddenly burst upon them.
No language can describe their woes: turned out of their dwellings,
bereft of their stock, stripped of their entire possessions, the bright
hopes of the future blasted in a single hour, the labor of years wrested
from them by a single effort, and torn from each and every association
which binds the heart to its native fields, they were declared prisoners,
though guiltless of any crime, and were destined to expatriation only
because English blood flowed not in their veins and English speech did
not dwell upon their lips. To make it impossible for them to remain,
their houses were burnt down, their fields laid waste, their improve
ments destroyed—everything in one general conflagration.
"Forced to embark at the point of the bayonet, crowded into small
vessels, provided with neither comfort nor necessaries, broken up as a
community into many fragments—wives separated from husbands—
children from parents—brothers from sisters—they were stored on •
board like a cargo of slaves, and guarded like the felons of a convict
ship. Thus they were hurried away and scattered like leaves by the
ruthless winds of autumn, from Massachusetts to Georgia, among those
who hated their religion, detested their country, derided their manners,
and mocked at their language. This was English policy, outraging
English humanity. It was an act, blending fraud, robbery, arson,
slavery and death, such as history can scarcely equal. English philan
thropy planted Georgia; English inhumanity uprooted the Acadians.
How can we reconcile the two? The one was prompted by the mild
spirit of peace; the other by the stern councils of war. It was a detach
ment of this persecuted people whose arrival in Savannah recalled Gov
ernor Reynolds from Augusta to the seat of government.
"But what could the Governor do with 'such a body of strangers? It
was one of the express conditions upon which Georgia was settled, that
no Papist should be permitted in it; yet here were four hundred in one
body, set down in its midst. It was also of the greatest importance to
break up French influence on the frontier, but now nearly half a thou
sand French were consigned to the weakest and most exposed of all the
thirteen colonies. On account of the lateness of the season and the desti
tute condition of the exiles, they were distributed in small parties
through the province, and maintained at the public expense until spring,
when, by leave of the Governor, they built themselves a number of rude
boats, and in March most of them left for South Carolina, two hun
dred embarking at one time, in ten boats, indulging the hope that they
might thus work their way back to their native and beloved Acadie."
But Governor Reynolds proved a disappointment. Though not a bad
man, he possessed a positive genius for making trouble. His manner was
abrupt, harsh, and dictatorial. It implied a condescension on his part in
having taken the governorship. He complained of an inadequate salary,
wholly out of keeping with his official position and disproportioned to his
needs. This was the burden of more than one letter addressed to the
board of trade.
But complaints received in England from aggrieved inhabitants told
a different tale. He had not been in Georgia six months before frictional