Savannah in the Time of Peter Tondee: The Road to Revolution in Colonial Georgia
Carl Weeks has taken the life of an important but elusive man and turned it into a neat study of colonial Savannah. More importantly, he has opened the door for readers to see what it was like to be one of the colony's "middling sort." We have seen Georgia through the eyes of Oglethorpe, Egmont, Whitefield, and Stephens it is about time we see what it was like for regular folks.
An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia
Women's Life and Work in the Southern Colonies
Out of a wealth of documentation, and often from the words of the people themselves, Spruill's account brings these women's lives out of the shadows--opening a usable past that was not there before.
Myths and Realities: Societies of the Colonial South
“Few historians have mastered so well the art of writing social and cultural history. Expert use of quotations, a supple style, deft summaries, and above all an understanding of the colonial South make this an interesting and significant book.”
The women of colonial Georgia varied widely in age. Mary Smithy came across the ocean in 1736 with her parents at the age of six months. Agnes Loop and Joanna Humble were in their eighties when they arrived.
The first years in colonial Georgia provided little in the way of education for women. Finally, in about 1784, women were permitted simple-subject instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Ironically, Georgia later was the first to offer college degrees to women with the establishing of Wesleyan Female College in 1836.
One of early colonial Georgia's policies was women could not inherit or be granted land. As time went by, this policy was not as greatly enforced, and it was revoked in 1750.
Penelope Fitzwalter came to Georgia with her first husband, John Wright, and their two children on the Ann. John owned a public house, and Penelope inherited it when he died in 1737. She continued to run it with her second husband, Joseph Fitzwalter, a wharf manager. After Joseph died in October 1742, Penelope took over his position in order to support herself and her family. Lightning struck Penelope's home in 1743, killing her daughter. In 1758, she had to sell her property partly due to the warf manager position being extinct. Later that year, she was granted a Savannah lot with additional garden and farm lots. Unfortunately, she had to sell her 5 acre garden lot just a couple of years later. Penelope died 15 August 1767 after a life of repeated tragedies, but she managed to hang on to some of her land until the end.
Ann Moodie and her husband, Robert, came to Georgia in 1764. He died eighteen months later, and Ann was left alone with six children. She was granted 200 acres of land at Beaver Dam in St. Mathew parish.
In December 1771, Hannah Bradwell was granted 500 acres in St. Andrew parish. A short time later, she received an additional 300 acres. In her will dated 22 July 1775, she gave her son, Thomas, both tracts of land.
Mary Musgrove Matthews Bosomworth became one of Georgia's largest women landowners when she was granted St. Catherine's Island. This six thousand two hundred acres was the largest single grant to a woman in the colonial period.
On 7 December 1758, Elizabeth Elliott, daughter of South Carolina planter William Elliott, married William Butler. Mr. Butler had died by 1763, and Elizabeth held three thousand three hundred fifty acres of land. She made many improvements, and by 1772 she had over 10,000 acres of land. Some was granted to her, some she purchased. Elizabeth was obviously an ambitious and successful landowner.
Some women received grants jointly with relatives or associates. Elizabeth Miers and her sister, Hannah Unseld, received a 100 acre grant two miles from Ebenezer as heirs of their father, John Miers. Mary Day and her brother, Josiah Day, received 500 acres in St. Paul for their father's estate.
All in all, contributions to the new colony were many by the women. The household chores alone were strenuous. Furthermore, their ambition and drive to make a life for themselves outside that household allowed them an ever-increasing role in Georgia's social and economic life.
