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CHAPTER XII
SOCIAL CONDITIONS AT THE CLOSE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY—GEOR
GIA'S EXPANSION BI-FOCAL—MOST OF THE STATE'S WEALTH AND CUL
TURE CENTERED IN THE COAST SETTLEMENTS—How THE RICH
PLANTERS LIVED—LORDS OF THE LOWLANDS—SPLENDID ESTATES—
EXTENSIVE LIBRARIES—HANDSOME CARRIAGES—LARGE BODIES OF
RIVER BOTTOM AND SEA-!SLAND LANDS CULTIVATED BY SLAVES—UPPER
GEORGIA—THE VIRGINIANS—THE NORTH CAROLINIANS—TOBACCO
RAISING—SPORTS AND PASTIMES—LITTLE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN
THE UP-COUNTRY AND THE COAST—RIVALRY BETWEEN THE TAR HEEL
SETTLERS AND THE VIRGINIA COLONISTS GIVES RISE TO PARTY SPIRIT—
BITTER POLITICAL FEUDS—THE GEORGIA CRACKER—How THE NAME
ORIGINATED—GOVERNOR GILMER'S ACCOUNT OF UP-COUNTRY SETTLE
MENTS, ESPECIALLY OF THE NORTH CAROLINIANS AT LONG CANE—
OLD WILLS EXAMINED, SHOWING CONDITIONS OF LIFE ON THE FRON
TIER—How JUSTICE WAS ADMINISTERED—LIFE IN BURKE—WAYNES-
BORO, AN ARISTOCRATIC CENTER—LONGSTREET'S GEORGIA SCENES—
JOHNSTON !S DUKESBORO TALES—POPULATION—EXPORTS—IMPORTS—
THE BEGINNINGS OF A GREAT STATE—WITH THE ADVENT OF THE
. NINETEENTH CENTURY, A NEW PERIOD OPENS.
NOTES : OLD RUCKERSVILLE—THE MILITIA DRILL—THE OLD FIELD
SCHOOL.
To understand social conditions in Georgia at the close of the
eighteenth century, we must recognize two distinct centers of develop
ment, each of which, independent of the other, contributed its separate
life-current and sent its individual pulse-beat throbbing into the Georgia
wilderness—chiefly along the Indian trails. This bi-focal process of
expansion was due to the fact that, opening to the ingress of settlers,
there were two gateways by which immigrants could enter the state.
One of these was at the ocean front, looking across a wide waste of waters
to the Old World. The other, in what was then the far northeastern
corner of the state, guarded the mountain trails which threaded the
interlying valleys of the great Appalachians.
As we have already seen, the Georgia seaboard was settled in the
main by immigrants who came from the north of Europe. The original
colonists sailed from England. Savannah, therefore, was an English
settlement in the strictest sense of this term. Darien was settled by
Scotch Highlanders. Frederica was a military stronghold. Ebenezer
was settled by German Salzburgers. The Dorchester colonists at Mid
way came by this water route from South Carolina.
Most of Georgia's wealth and refinement at this time was concen-
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