Biographical Memorials of James Oglethorpe / Founder of the Colony of Georgia, in North America.

by Thaddeus Mason Harris

His Regiment, 472
Company of Rangers, 30
Highlanders, 50
Armed Militia, 40
Indians, 60
——
Total 652

Ensign Stewart's command at Fort William, on the south end of Cumberland Island, consisted of sixty men. Fort William was about fifty miles south-west from Frederica.

XXVIII.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SILK CULTURE IN GEORGIA,

BY WILLIAM B. STEVENS, M.D.

One of the principal designs which influenced the settlement of Georgia, was the hope of thereby creating a silk-growing province, where that material for which England had so long been indebted to France, Italy and China, could be produced in this colonial dependency.

As early as 1609, the subject engaged the attention of the adventurers to Virginia, and in a pamphlet, called "Nova Brittannia offering most excellent fruites by planting in Virginia," published that year, the writer says "there are silkeworms, and plenty of mulberie-trees, whereby ladies, gentlewomen and little children (being set in the way to do it) may bee all imploied with pleasure, making silke comparable to that of Persia, Turkey, or any other." In 1650, Mr. Samuel Hartlib published a work entitled "Virginia Discovery of Silk Wormes, with their Benefits," in which he endeavored to show that the raising of silk was a thing very practicable in Virginia, and even asserted that as a staple, it might be made superior to tobacco, in which opinion he was confirmed by the judgment of several others. That they made some advances in this culture, is evident from the fact that the Coronation robe of Charles II., in 1660, was made of silk reeled in that colony, and even so late as 1730, three hundred pounds of the raw material were exported from Virginia. Tobacco, however, soon assumed and maintained the ascendancy, to the exclusion of this more useful and beautiful produce.

In 1703, Sir Nathaniel Johnson introduced the silk culture into South Carolina, but the astonishing success which rewarded the casual introduction of rice into the plantation about eight years before, precluded a just interest in the undertaking, and as a public and recognized commodity it soon came to naught, though several persons, more for amusement than profit, still gave their attention to it; and as late as 1755, Mrs. Pinckney, the same lady to whom the province was indebted for the first cultivation of indigo ten years before, reeled sufficient silk in the vicinity of Charleston to make three dresses, one of which was presented to the Princess Dowager of Wales, another to Lord Chesterfield, and the third, says Ramsay, who narrates the circumstance, "is now (1809) in Charleston in the possession of her daughter, Mrs. Horrey, and is remarkable for its beauty, firmness and strength."

But notwithstanding these failures and the known difficulty of introducing a new branch of agriculture into a country, as was evidenced by the compulsion which was necessary by Henry IV. to introduce it into France, against the united voices of the merchants-traders, and even in opposition to the Duke of Sully, and also the indifference manifested in England, notwithstanding the able proclamation of King James on the subject, commanding its cultivation; the Trustees for the settlement of Georgia determined to make one more effort, which, if successful, would enrich both the province and the mother country. The views which they entertained, however, of making Georgia supplant every silk-growing country, were extravagant and erroneous; they expected, in fact, to supply all Europe, and to produce an article of equal strength, beauty and value, with any made on the Continent. The Piedmontese, thought they, who pay half of their silk for the rent of the mulberry trees and the eggs of the worm, or the peasants of France, burdened with political difficulty and stinted for conveniences, could not cope with the settlers of Georgia, where the mulberry (morus alba) trees would grow in the greatest luxuriance, where timber for their fabrics was no expense, where room was abundant and the reward sure. By this transfer, in addition to a direct saving to England of over 500,000_l_. which she paid for this article to foreign countries, twenty thousand people were to find employment in rearing it in Georgia, and as many more at home in preparing it for market.

Among the first emigrants who sailed with Oglethorpe from England in November 1732, was Mr. Amatis, from Piedmont, who was engaged by the Trustees to introduce the art of silk-winding into the colony, and who for that purpose brought with him several Italians and some adequate machinery. White mulberry trees were planted in a portion of land on the eastern border of the city, called the Trustees' garden; eggs were hatched, and silk spun "as fine as any from France or Italy." They soon, however, came to a mutual rupture, and the whole process was for a time suspended by the treachery of those employed, who broke the machinery, spoiled the seed, destroyed the trees, and then escaped to Carolina. Sufficient, however, had been wrought to test its value, and they were not discouraged by this inauspicious commencement. The Trustees still adhered to their design, and the more effectually to advance it, required of every settler that there should be on his grant, ten mulberry trees to each acre.