Another Colonial Abolitionist

Earlier this year, I wrote of John Laurens and his efforts to speak out against slavery. Tamera Kraft wrote about abolition in early America, and then Roseanna White shared how Georgia was first seen as opportunity to show charity to London's poor. While researching on the roots of slavery in our country for my new release, The Rebel Bride (a Civil War story, part of Daughters of the Mayflower), I discovered murmurs that the South, despite stereotypes to the contrary, was actually at one time opposed to slavery, while it was New England merchants and ship owners who saw the trade as most lucrative. (I think my personal writing brand should be, "Exploring the Contradictions of History" ...)

Statue of Oglethorpe in Augusta, Georgia

Further digging revealed that James Edward Oglethorpe, founder and trustee of the colony of Georgia, not only envisioned using the land and its resources to extend help to the less fortunate in England, while encouraging industry and trade (a somewhat brilliant idea, even if it failed in execution), but was stridently antislavery in the process. It's remarkable that together with the other Georgia Trustees he managed, at least at first, to ban slavery in the colony--and to promote fair trade with the native peoples.

Shortly after his departure for England, however, in 1744, the other trustees caved to demands to legalize slavery. Oglethorpe remained outspoken against slavery for the rest of his life, and also argued on behalf of the colonies during the American Revolution.

~*~*~*~

For more reading:

• James Edward Oglethorpe at the Oglethorpe University site
• James Oglethorpe at Wikipedia
• Slavery in Colonial Georgia
• Why Georgia Was Founded as an Antislavery Territory

Colonial Log Cabins in the South

Nancy Hart Cabin w saddle notching

In my upcoming novella, Across Three Autumns, part of the Backcountry Brides Collection releasing through Barbour in May (Backcountry Brides on Amazon), my heroine and her family live in a log cabin in Middle Georgia’s c. 1779 frontier. Due to frequent Indian attacks, Jenny White’s father Asa forted their house, constructing a rude stockade around the cabin and outbuildings. Since Jenny—the oldest of four—is unusually tall and strong like Nancy Hart, the Revolutionary War heroine who inspired her character, she helps with the heavier work and can defend from the lookouts with the family’s Brown Bess musket.

Nancy Hart cabin reconstruction

Since I wasn’t describing the more formal homes I’m familiar with, I needed a better grasp on what her home would have looked like.

• Georgia woods used for log cabin construction included hardwoods, poplar, pine and cyprus, with cyprus more common in South Georgia. Settlers from Georgia’s Piedmont up to the Appalachians mostly used pine. Sometimes a settler might use poplar, which is lighter and easier to square, for the main beams, and pine for the rest of the house. 

  

  Elijah Clark cabin double pen reconstruction

• Size of the cabin could range from 15x12 to 30x18, single or double pen.
• Settlers might choose to make their homes hewn and squared on all sides or only on the inside, leaving the rounded logs visible from the outside. Men used broad axes to “skelp” logs and a crosscut saw to notch the ends.
• When notching, a settler could choose between several styles: saddle, half dove tail, and full dove tail. The saddle notch was mostly used by Cherokee and Creek Indians, while European settlers favored the other styles because they locked the logs more firmly in place.
  
  
  
• Cabin floors were often swept dirt or sand. If a constructed floor existed, it was customarily made of hewn and hand-split planks which were pegged to the floor joist, if hand-made nails were not available. The roof was applied of hand-cut wood shakes (oak, chestnut) and the chimney of stone. If stone was not available or the structure was more temporary, the chimney might be constructed of small logs fronted with mud (or “clay and stake”). In cold weather, animal skins or wooden shutters on wooden or leather hinges covered the windows.

Don’t you love the log cabin pictured on the front of Backcountry Brides? I admit, I’ve always had a penchant for these rustic homes. I love touring them, but I’m afraid living in one would require a LOT of adjustment!

~Denise Weimer (http://deniseweimerbooks.webs.com)

Georgia's Rev War Villain

By Denise Weimer

http://deniseweimerbooks.webs.com

 

 We’ve all seen movies depicting the French and Indian War and the Revolution in America that make us wonder if Hollywood isn’t sensationalizing the violence. When researching the Revolution in the Southern theatre for my novella, Across Three Autumns, which will release in May 2018 as part of Barbour’s BackcountryBrides collection, I found that not only would the Colonial backcountry be the last place we’d want to live, but the heroes and the villains are often hard to tell apart. Case in point: Thomas Brown.

The son of a Yorkshire shipping company owner, Brown settled Brownsborough northeast of Augusta, Georgia, with plans to become a gentleman farmer. But by September 1780 he’s a lieutenant colonel commanding British loyalists who attempt to hold Augusta against militia Colonel Elijah Clarke. Wounded in both thighs, Brown refuses to give up under siege. Upon learning 500 British from South Carolina march to his aid, he (or another lieutenant colonel) orders thirteen prisoners hanged from the porch of the Mackay Trading Post. One biography specifies he requested them hung from the stairway banister so he could watch them die from his bed. The other prisoners are turned over to Indian allies to be tortured. 

Tarleton. No portrait available for Brown.

The siege of Augusta incident sparked a reputation for Thomas Brown almost equal to that of Banastre Tarleton in South Carolina (the controversial inspiration for William Tavington in “The Patriot”).

But let’s rewind to August 2, 1775. Thomas Brown has attended a Sons of Liberty meeting, where he’s refused to sign their Continental Association document. He’s followed home by an angry mob, tied to a tree, partially scalped (and not by Indians), tarred and feathered. A blow to his head fractures his skull and leaves him with lifelong headaches and a dependency on laudanum. A fire lit under his feet claims two of his toes and leaves him with the lifelong nickname “Burntfoot Brown.”

A revenge-bent Brown wants to rally Loyalists in South Carolina, but the governor advises him to wait on the arrival of British troops. Under threat of arrest, Brown flees to Florida, where he plies Governor Patrick Tonyn with his master plan to harass Georgia and South Carolina militia with a company of rangers supported by Indians. He’s commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Florida Rangers in 1776 and proceeds to bring havoc to the backcountry throughout the war.

Who’s the true hero here? The ones who with the courage and resourcefulness of God not only survive the “Hornet’s Nest,” like Jenny White, my heroine in Across Three Autumns … but to find love and offer compassion in the midst of it.

When we examine our villains, we often discover that a villainous act created them. What about you? Do you know of a local Rev War example where one side created its own enemy? Or have you written such a villain into a story? How can a defining moment of trauma bring realism and complexity to a character?

Georgia's Two Federal Roads

by Denise Weimer

Portion of Federal Road in AL

Old road beds have always fascinated me. Sometimes modern roads pave over them. Sometimes the merest trace of a narrow lane under arching trees seems to wander off to nowhere. Don’t you want to follow?

Traveling around my home state as a young person, I noticed numerous historical markers mentioning “The Old Federal Road.” Turns out, there were actually two such roads in Georgia. Around the time the century turned from eighteenth to nineteenth, the U.S. government used treaties with Creek and Cherokee Indians to widen existing trails to Tennessee and Alabama. One followed the Lower Creek Trading Path, and the other followed the Cherokee Trading Path.

Lower Creek Path:

High Shoals, Georgia

Prior to 1806, travelers fed down the Upper Road from the Carolinas to 1797 Ft. Wilkinson, situated on the Indian Boundary where the Creeks were supplied under the 1790 Treaty of New York, near current day Milledgeville. They continued through Athens, Watkinsville and High Shoals (near my current home!) on a postal trail used to carry mail from Washington City. This path continued to Fort Stoddert north of Mobile, Alabama, and on to New Orleans.

Lower Creek Trading Path Old Federal Road Map

On April 12, 1806, at the request of President Jefferson, Congress appropriated $6400 to clear the brush to a width of four feet, remove fallen trees, and construct five-foot log causeways over bogs and creeks. The government hoped this 1,152 mile route would prove more efficient than using the Natchez Trace (being 320 miles less and gaining ten days), but the many water ways dissecting the Georgia route eventually meant mail carriers found the Natchez route more efficient.

Creek Indians provided houses of entertainment along the southern Old Federal Road where stagecoaches stopped and relay riders changed. These cropped up every sixteen miles or so – considered an average day of foot traffic.

In 1811, the government rerouted and widened the road to eight to sixteen feet in preparation for war with Great Britain. The route headed southwest from Ft. Wilkinson, entering the lands of the Lower Creeks at present day Macon and crossing the Chattahoochee River nine miles south of Columbus.

The 1813 Creek Indian War led to the removal of the local Indians westward.

My next post will discuss the Old Federal Road on The Cherokee Trading Path. I’d like to research other early American routes. Does one of those pass near your home?