Pennsyl Dutch the chase, and at night "red wine and white wine, rum, champagne, and cider, were mingled with game, story, song, and laughter." Spottswood entered the valley near the present site of Port Republic, and on the bank of the Shenandoah River buried a bottle in which there was a paper declaring that the river and the valley belonged to the king of Great Britain. It was the purpose of Spottswood in taking possession of the valley to check the eastward movement of the French. Although the first settlers in the Shenandoah Valley were Virginians, the first settlers who came in largest numbers were the Pennsylvania Dutch and Scotch-Irish. The Pennsylvania The Dutch were not Dutch at all, but were Germans who in the vania seventeenth and eighteenth centuries emigrated to America. Some of these immigrants left the Rhine country because it was devastated by war. In 1689 the French determined to depopulate completely the Rhine valley. "The Commander," says Macaulay, "announced to nearly half a million human beings that he granted them three days of grace and that within that time they must shift for themselves. Soon the roads and fields, which then lay deep in snow, were blocked by innumerable multitudes of men, women, and children flying from their homes. The flames went up from every market-place, every parish church, every county-seat within the devoted province. The fields where the corn had been sowed were plowed up. The orchards were cut down." Many of these poor hunted creatures fled to America, where they plowed new fields and planted new orchards. A few German immigrants settled in New York in the Mohawk valley. The greater part, however, settled in Pennsylvania, whither they began to come soon after the founding of the colony. They were excellent pioneers, and the great forests of Pennsylvania fell rapidly before the heavy strokes of their axes. By 1730 they had reached the Susquehanna and had founded Harrisburg. They settled the Cumberland valley and moved on down into the Shenandoah valley. The Irish in Hand in hand with the Germans in the settlement of western ScotchPennsylvania and the Shenandoah valley went the Scotch-Irish. Ireland Scotch Irish in America These were not Irish at all but simply Scotchmen who had lived in Ireland. Most of them were Presbyterians. They had left their homes in the north of Ireland beacuse they had not been well treated by the English Government. In 1698, upon the demand of the English manufacturers, Parliament by a series of repressive acts destroyed the woolen industry of northern Ireland. As a result of this legislation, twenty thousand of the Protestant citizens of Ulster, deprived of employment, left Ireland for America. This blow to the industry of Ulster was followed in the reign of Queen Anne by laws which persecuted the Scotch-Irish on account of their religious beliefs. Hence this poor people had good reason for leaving Ireland. The Scotch-Irish began to emigrate to America in the early years of the eighteenth century, and it is probable that by 1770 half a million had settled in the colonies. They settled in all parts of British America, and there was hardly a colony upon which they did not leave their mark. But most of the Scotch-Irish settled in Pennsylvania. In 1729 the governor of this colony became alarmed lest these newcomers should make themselves the masters of his province. "It looks," said the governor, "as if all Ireland would send all its inhabitants hither, for last week not less than six ships arrived." The ScotchIrish were the best of pioneers, and they soon were out on the frontier, making settlements wherever they could find good vacant lands. They paid but little attention to the claims of the Indians, for they thought "it was against the laws of God and nature that so much good land should be idle while so many Christians wanted it to work on and to raise their bread." They pushed out in Pennsylvania in almost every direction, but during the first years of the eighteenth century they moved along for the most part with the Germans and settled in the Cumberland and Shenandoah valleys. GEORGIA A few of the Germans and Scotch-Irish found their way down the valleys to the new colony of Georgia, which in 1733 was founded on the Carolina coast. But the original settlers of The Plans of Georgia were men of pure English blood. The settlement of this colony was due to the enterprise of James Oglethorpe, who may justly be regarded as the father of modern philanthropy. OgleThe peculiar object of Oglethorpe's care was the suffering of the insolvent debtor class. The laws of England at this time bore very hard upon a man who could not pay his debts, and in the prisons of London were men whose only crime was that they could not meet their obligations. Oglethorpe proposed to take a colony of imprisoned debtors and other unfortunate people and plant it on the Atlantic coast south of Carolina. His scheme was received with favor, and a charter for the colony was granted by the king. Founding Georgia In November, 1732, Oglethorpe's colonists-114 in number The -left England, and by February of the following year they of were on the banks of the Savannah River laying the foundations of Savannah and of Georgia. The charter under which the colony was planted established a modified proprietary government. There were to be a governor and a board of trustees, but there was to be no representative assembly. Oglethorpe was the first governor of the colony as well as its personal leader. Although the colonists did not possess even the semblance of self-government, nevertheless the spirit of democracy prevailed. No one could be the owner of more than five hundred acres of land, and all the houses were built exactly alike. Even Oglethorpe himself had no better house than the others. All were required to work a certain number of hours in the day at some useful labor, a rule which Oglethorpe himself faithfully observed. Negro slavery was absolutely forbidden, and intoxicating liquors were prohibited. Indians were to be dealt with in the spirit of kindness and justice. The religious interests of the colonists were not neglected through the influence of Oglethorpe, John and Charles Wesley and George Whitfield, three of the most distinguished preachers of the time, visited the colony. a Royal Province In 1743 Oglethorpe left Georgia and never returned. The Georgia colony felt his absence keenly, for he had been its guide, defender, and support. Now that the colonists were left alone |