Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 437
Tales," from the cultured pen of Richard Malcolm Johnston. Both of
these writers have embalmed for us many rare phases of life in Georgia
during this remote period. It was an era of transition, an era of great
hardships and perils, an era in which good and bad were strangely
blended; and at some of its inconsistencies we cannot suppress a smile.
For example, whisky drinking was universal. Every one drank. In
fact, the nearest approach to temperance at this -time was drinking in
moderation. It was not in the least inconsistent for a church member
either to distil corn whisky or to make peach brandy, if he produced a
good article. Says Doctor Smith: '' One of the best men in Georgia, an
enthusiastic and liberal Methodist, who, because he thought slavery was
wrong freed all his slaves, but left his still to his son, who like himself
was a Methodist class-leader."
Georgia's population, at the close of the eighteenth century, as indi
cated by the Federal census of 1800, was 163,000 inhabitants, showing
an increase of 100 per cent in ten years. There were no large towns in
the state. Savannah, the chief center of population, numbered 5,000 in
habitants; and was practically the only seaport. Neither Brunswick
nor St. Marys possessed much importance as ports of entry; while Sun-
bury—once a rival of Savannah—was fast, disappearing from the map.
Georgia's principal exports, most of which passed through the port of
Savannah, were lumber, rice, indigo, corn, cotton, sago, naval stores,
deer-skins, snake root, myrtle and live-stock. These were valued in
round numbers at $1,750,000. Her imports were relatively of much
less importance, consisting of produce from the "West Indies, dry-goods,
wines, ciders and teas. These were consumed largely by the wealthy
classes who lived in the tide-water region; and only a very small per
centage of what was imported reached the upcountry where conditions
of pioneer life prevailed. But the state's population was steadily in
creasing. Streams of immigrants from the two Carolinas and from the
border counties of Virginia began rapidly to pour into the state as new
counties were opened for settlement, contributing fresh elements of
strength to Georgia's population.
Up to this point, we have discussed at some length the beginnings of
a great state, dealing largely with fundamental things upon which the
future growth of the commonwealth was to rest. We have shown how
Georgia entered the Federal Union, how a state constitution was framed
under which Georgia was to live contented for sixty-three years; how
a great university was planted from whose fountain springs her intel
lectual life was to be nourished; how a monstrous fraud was exposed
and repudiated; how a great religious awakening shook her virgin
solitudes, re-enforcing the moral weapons with which she was to fight
the forces of evil; and now, having completed this task, we find ourselves
at the portals of a new century, into whose unexplored depths fresh,
paths invite us.
HISTORIC OLD RTJCKERSVILLE : A' BUBAL OOMMTJNITY OF THE ANTE-BELLUM
SOUTH.—On the banks of the Savannah Kiver, in the good old County of Elbert,.
famous in ante-bellum days for its rich tobacco plantations and for its fine old
colonial mansions, owned by wealthy settlers from Virginia, there flourished before