Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

434 GEOEGIA AND GEORGIANS
they sat around the hearth at night picking the lint from the cotton seed.
Their only fruits were wild haws and grapes.''
Continuing his portrayal, Governor Gilmer adds: '' All work, little
play, no fruit, poor eating, thin clothing, open houses, hard beds and few
blankets, made children hardy or killed them. No novels, pianos, or
idlness filled the heads of the girls with vain imaginings. The singing
at the meeting houses of the primitive Baptists tempted few to attend
for the sake of the melody. The great pleasure indulged in by the young
people was dancing at night. The married women sought recreation from
their six days' work by visiting their neighbors on Sunday. The men
went to musters, shooting matches and horse races on Saturdays. House
keepers treated their friends and their own families to a pudding when
company came, and the man of the house drew forth his bottle of
whiskey. The clothing of the girls was provided by their own weaving.
Hollow trees provided cradles for their babies. The preacher and the
school-master, the first to commence the onward march of civilization,
were very slow in reaching outskirt settlements. Most who did were
drunken Irishmen or dissolute Virginians, who found the restraints of
society in the Old Country too binding for their comfort, and, there
fore, moved to the new. It appears from the records in the Court of
Ordinary of Wilkes County that five out of sixteen wills had the maker's
mark put to them instead of their signature."
Perhaps nothing will 'better serve to throw light upon social condi
tions in Upper Georgia at the close of the eighteenth century than to
examine some of the old wills. Doctor Smith has preserved a num
ber of inventories, from which we get not only an insight into the prices
paid for certain commodities at this time, but also an insight into how
these people lived on the pioneer belt. Let us look at the following list: *
One negro boy, £50; 1 bed, 7s.; 1 pail and 1 piggin, 4s.; 1 wash-tub,
2 keelers, 4s.; 1 horse, £24; 1 saddle 00; 1 razor and 2,000 acres of land
in Richmond County, £50; 1 old gray horse, 5s.
Another appraisement shows:
One sorrel mare, £6; 1 mare, £1; 1 horse, £3; 1 horse colt, £4; 6 head
cattle, £20; 1 negro boy, £20; 1 negro girl, £30; 1 axe, frying-pan and
pothook, 5s.; 1 linen wheel, 5s.; old pewter, 15s.; butter-tub, 2s.; 5 old
feather beds, £5 ,• 1 pot, 10s.
Another estate was:
Four negroes, 3 ould basins, 7 plates, 1 frying-pan, 1 piggin, 1 earthen
plate, 2 chairs, 1 table, 2 sides leather.
Another was:
Thirteen negroes, 6 horses, 7 sheep, 60 hogs, 23 cattle.
And another:
Sixty hogs, 8 sheep, 10 cattle, loom, knives and forks, flax wheel,
turkey feather bed, 9 plates.
In 1795 an inventory calls for: .
Eleven negroes, 29 hogs, 1 still, 30 poiinds pewter.
Up to this time the only well-furnished house is that of a physician
in Washington, and the only library is that of Mr. William Rogers, a
teacher. The condition of the roads and the difficulty of transportation
'' Story of Georgia and the Georgia People,'' George G. Smith, p. 136.