After Georgia became a Slaveholding Colony, we are led to believe the practice of slaves leaving their masters, which existed in South Carolina, became frequent in Georgia. But we have no definite information on this subject until about the commencement of the Revolutionary War (1775), when the Council of Safety for that colony sent to Congress a communication setting forth, that a large force of Continental troops was necessary to prevent their slaves from deserting their masters.[4] It was about the first communication sent to Congress after it met, in 1776, and shows that her people then sought to make the nation bear the burthens of their slavery, by furnishing a military force sufficient to hold her bondmen in fear; and if she adheres to that policy now, it merely illustrates the consistency of her people in relying upon the freemen of the North to uphold her system of oppression.
1776.
General Lee, commanding the military forces in that colony, called the particular attention of Congress to the fact, that slaves belonging to the planters, fled from servitude and sought freedom among the “Exiles of Florida.”
There also yet remained in Georgia many descendants of those who, at the establishment of that colony and since that time, had opposed the institution of Slavery. These people desired to testify their abhorrence of human servitude. They assembled in large numbers, in the district of Darien, and publicly resolved as follows: “To show the world that we are not influenced by any contracted or interested motives, but by a general philanthropy for all mankind, of whatever climate, language or complexion, we hereby declare our disapprobation and abhorrence of slavery in America.” The public avowal of these doctrines, naturally encouraged slaves to seek their freedom by such means as they possessed. One day’s travel would place some of them among friends, and in the enjoyment of liberty; and they were sure to be kindly received and respectfully treated, soon as they could reach their brethren in Florida. Of course many availed themselves of this opportunity to escape from service.
The Exiles remained in the undisturbed enjoyment of liberty during the war of the Revolution. The Creeks were a powerful and warlike people, whose friendship was courted during the sanguinary struggle that secured our National Independence. During those turbulent times it would not have been prudent for a master to pursue his slave through the Creek country, or to have brought him back to Georgia if once arrested.
The Exiles being thus free from annoyance, cultivated the friendship of their savage neighbors; rendered themselves useful to the Indians, both as laborers and in council. They also manifested much judgment in the selection of their lands for cultivation—locating their principal settlements on the rich bottoms lying along the Appalachicola and the Suwanee Rivers. Here they opened plantations, and many of them became wealthy in flocks and herds.
1783.
Immediately after the close of the war, the authorities of Georgia are said to have entered into a treaty with the Creek Indians, at Augusta, in which it is alleged that the Creeks agreed to grant to that State a large tract of land, and to restore such slaves as were then resident among the Creeks. But we find no copy of this treaty in print, or in manuscript. As early as 1789, only six years after it was said to have been negotiated, Hugh Knox, Secretary of War, in a communication to Congress, declared that no copy of this treaty was then in the possession of Congress; and it has not been since reprinted. Indeed, it is believed never to have been printed.
1785.
The difficulty between Georgia and the Creeks becoming more serious, the aid of the Continental Congress was invoked, for the purpose of securing that State in the enjoyment of what her people declared to be their rights. Congress appointed three commissioners to examine the existing causes of difficulty, and if possible to negotiate a treaty with the Creeks that should secure justice to all the people of the United States.