View the original document from The Capital and the Bay. Use your browser's Back Button to return to this point.

HAVING thus brought this Historical Narrative within the Compass proposed, and endeavoured to dispose the Material in as distinct a Method and Series as the necessary Conciseness would allow: We readily admit that the Design is far from being compleat. To have acquainted the World with all the Hardships and Oppressions which have been exercised in the Colony of Georgia, must have required both a larger Volume than we were capable of publishing, and more Time than we could bestow: We therefore satisfy ourselves, that we have, with Care and Sincerity, executed so much of the Design, as may pave the Way to any others who can descend more minutely to Particulars; and those who are best acquainted with the Affairs of that Colony, will be most capable of judging how tenderly we have touch'd both Persons and Things.

IT only remains, that we in a few Paragraphs endeavour to exhibit to the View of the Reader, the REAL Causes of the Ruin and Desolation of the Colony; and those briefly are the following.

• 1. The Representing the Climate, Soil, &c. of Georgia in false and too flattering Colours; at least, the not contradicting those Accounts when publickly printed and dispers'd, and satisfying the World in a true and genuine Description thereof.
• 2. The Restricting the Tenure of Lands from a Fee simple to Tail-Male, cutting off Daughters and all other Relations.
• 3. The Restraining the Proprietor from selling, disposing of, or leasing any Possession.
• 4. The Restricting too much the Extent of Possessions; it being impossible that fifty Acres of good Land, much less Pine Barren, could maintain a white Family.
• 5. The Laying the Planter under a Variety of Restraints in clearing, fencing, planting, &c. which was impossible to be complied with.
• 6. The Exacting a much higher Quit-Rent than the richest Grounds in North-America can bear.
• 7. But chiefly the Denying the Use of Negroes, and persisting in such Denial after, by repeated Applications, we had humbly remonstrated the Impossibility of making Improvements to any Advantage with white Servants.
• 8. The Denying us the, Privilege of being judged by the Laws of our Mother Country; and subjecting the Lives and Fortunes of all People in the Colony, to one Person or Set of Men, who assumed the Privilege, under the Name of a Court of Chancery, of Acting according to their own Will and Fancy.
• 9. General Oglethorpe's taking upon him to nominate Magistrates, appoint Justices of the Peace, and to do many other such Things, without ever exhibiting to the People any legal Commission or Authority for so doing.
• 10. The Neglecting the proper Means for Encouraging the Silk and Wine-Manufactures; and disposing of the liberal Sums contributed by the Publick, and by private Persons, in such Ways and Channels as have been of little or no Service to the Colony.
• 11. The Misapplying or Keeping up Sums of Money which have been appointed for particular Uses, such as Building a Church, &c. several Hundreds of Pounds Sterling (as we are inform'd) having been lodged in Mr. Oglethorpe's Hands for some Years by past, for that Purpose, and not one Stone of it yet laid.
• 12. The Assigning certain fix'd Tracts of Land to those who came to settle in the Colony, without any regard to the Quality of the Ground, Occupation, Judgment, Ability or Inclination of the Settler, &c. &c. &c.

By these and many other such Hardships, the poor Inhabitants of Georgia are scatter'd over the Face of the Earth; her Plantation a Wild; her Towns a Desert; her Villages in Rubbish; her Improvements a By-Word, and her Liberties a Jest: An Object of Pity to Friends, and of Insult, Contempt and Ridicule to Enemies.
top of page

View the original document from The Capital and the Bay. Use your browser's Back Button to return to this point.