Every museum we walk through gives us more than one look at the history of an area; this is true at Fort King George State Historic Site. We’ll take a closer look at the building of the fort and the peoples who wanted control of coastal Georgia: the Creek tribes, the Spanish, the French, and the British.
Then we’ll look at the medical care and clothing during the 1800s. Finally we’ll look at the growth of the sawmills here a century after the fort was disbanded. We’ll go to the fort itself (reconstructed) in the next post.
Here’s a look at the fort.
Here are the details of the fort:
Spanish colonization – another look
As early as 1672, the Spanish started their colonization in the Southeast when they began building their headquarters in St. Augustine, Florida. (We visited this fort in part 5 of our saga of the truck(s) post in 2018 if you want to take a look).
One of the greatest achievements of the Spanish in the Southeast was the development of their religious mission system in Florida and coastal areas.
All of Europe was intent on making colonies all over the world. The colonial economic system was based on the concept of mercantilism — the belief that the world had a finite amount of wealth. The nation that controlled the most wealth held the greatest power.
Wealth came not only from gold and silver, but also from controlling more of the world’s resources and manufacturing. European rulers wanted to tap more resources of precious metals, as well as find and develop more natural resources (raw materials) to manufacture into commercial products. A central tenant of the system was a positive balance of trade where exports far exceed imports.
The purpose of the Spanish in the Southeast seems to be military and religious posts for soldiers and missions and the open shipping lanes. They never showed more than a mild interest in cash crops or the fur trade, even though they did try to slow down the French and British in these endeavors.
French colonization
In the 1680s, France started expanding its empire southward down the Mississippi River. This whole area was known as La Louisiane. The first settlement was Biloxi established in 1699, followed by Mobile in 1702 (the capital until 1720 when Biloxi became the capital). In 1723, New Orleans became the capital. As La Louisiane spread further into the Southeast, South Carolinians grew increasingly anxious that the French and Spanish might ally to encircle and destroy their colony. Carolina traded in deer hides with the Creek tribes, and the French building forts in this area threatened the trade relations between the British and the Creek tribes.
In 1717, sixteen years before the colony of Georgia was established, Sir Robert Montgomery proposed a plan to have a buffer between Spanish Florida, La Louisiane, and British South Carolina. His idea was to have a colony of systematic plantations controlled by landed gentry who would supervise indentured servants recruited from Britain’s poorer classes. Once these workers had fulfilled their service, they could receive land titles themselves. He also saw these settlers as “citizen soldiers.”
The nation that controlled the Altamaha and its tributaries also controlled the surrounding lands and its resources. During the Colonial Period, rivers were key to building commerce and trade—and were the basis of an empire.
British colonization
Fort King George was the initial attempt of South Carolina imperialists to expand settlement within the colony to the Altamaha River. The failure of this venture in 1727 paved the way for establishing Georgia later in 1733.
the struggle for furs
Unable to find gold, early French and English explores turned their focus on the lucrative fur trade with Native Americans. They competed to gain alliances and trade relations with powerful hunting tribes, such as the Creek Indians.
Buckskins were an important part of southern economies. Because coins were in short supply, furs were used as a form of currency. This is how we got the term “buck” when referring to a dollar bill!
Since the Altamaha River was crucial for transporting these skins, whoever controlled the river had great access to trade with the Creek Indians to the west who were renowned as the greatest deer hunters in the Southeast.
rice – another way to make money
As we’ll see in future posts, growing rice in the coastal Southeast was a major crop here for many years. Its cultivation was grueling, and it was made possible only through the hard work of African slaves.
Growing rice required flood plains. The Altamaha Delta was ideal because of the tidal shifts that produced appropriate flood stages for planting, tilling, irrigation, and harvesting of the rice. These large tidal fields were clear-cut by slaves, who then dug a system of canals and flood dikes.
Rice was planted in the spring. Each day the incoming tides would irrigate the rice fields. When the waters receded, the fields would be tilled and aerated to promote growth. In the fall the rice was ready to be harvested.
We’ll learn more about the rice crop when we next visit a plantation where it was grown.
medical care
In the 1700s, physicians treated symptoms rather than diseases. They believed that sickness came from the same general problem — an imbalance among the bodily fluids. This theory dates all the way back to ancient Greece in the 5th century B.C.
illnesses
common remedies
By the 1700s, perceptions changed, and most all physicians administered bleeding when necessary.
To blister the skin, a caustic source was heated and applied much like a poultice. These sources came from flax seed, pine resin, and the mash of the Spanish Fly (known as a blistering beetle). Blistering irons were also used to raise blisters.
I wonder what would happen if these 3 remedies didn’t work for the patient.
early medicines
Medicines used on the southern frontier came from medicinal plants and chemicals common during the 1700s, plants that grew locally or products that could be imported.
A more potent connection was made from mixing it with an alcoholic substance (such as wine, rum, or laudanum) and letting it sit for several weeks. These were called tinctures. To improve its taste, honey, sugar, or citric juices could be added.
Finally, bitter medicines could be rolled into a pill made from flour and water, wax, or animal lard. Once in a pill, the bitter medicine couldn’t be tasted, and the pill would dissolve in the stomach along with the medicine.
clothing
Just like the differences in medical practices, the clothing of this time period was different from what we know.
The clothes in the picture with the trunk had different colors, suggesting that they were finely made articles of clothing that were probably worn on Sunday or special occasions. Buttonholes are “whipped” with silk thread. The buttons are made of pewter or “white metal.”
“Turnovers” were simple removable shirt collars that protected against dirt. A clean one was worn every day.
The hand-sewn example to the right of the sign is of Belgian linen and is “1/2 worn.” (I don’t know what this means, but I have seen sleeves that can be removed from a shirt so they can be washed. Perhaps that’s our answer.)
So what are “straight last” shoes? I looked it up. A “last” is the form on which a shoe is constructed. Its shape determines the shape of the shoe and the height of the heel, as well as the curvature of the shoe.
A “straight last” shoe shape is symmetrical relative to a line drawn on the bottom of the shoe from the middle of the heel to the middle of the toe.
The “curved last” shape shoe tends to be lighter and less supportive while straight-lasted shoes are heavier and provide more support under the arch. It has a curve to the shape of the shoe like ours are.
Today athletic shoes built on a straight last are most often designed as motion control shoes, with motion control elements added.
Now we know!
Less expensive “middle class” wigs were often made of other natural fibers like this one that made from flax and died with maple bark.
Stronger, thicker wood would have decreased space and added weight to the trunk. Locking methods varied during this time period.
growth of the local town
As we’ve already learned, when the Scots returned from their successful invasion of Florida in 1743, they rapidly changed the area known as Darien. With constant threats of invasion ended, more people came from Scotland and Darien grew. The soldiers turned to cattle raising, indigo (a natural dye from some plants), and rice planting. They cut and sawed timber and developed large prosperous plantations. Cotton was important after Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793.
sawmills and schooners
Here’s a model of the tidal-powered sawmill.
Much of the squared trunks were shipped as timber, while the rest were sawn into lumber. Timber schooners carried Georgia yellow pine from Darien to other parts of the U.S., the West Indies, and Europe.
more info about sawmills in this area
For nearly 2 centuries, sawmilling happened here on the Altamaha River.
This was the first commercial manufacture of lumber in Coastal Georgia. In the later part of the 1700s, a large water mill was built and used here with power from the impounded tidal water in a basin.
In 1819, the shift from tidal-powered mills to steam-powered mills brought the Industrial Revolution to Georgia. The steam engine’s efficiency and the thirst for profit eventually depleted local forests.
In 1818, the Darien Eastern Steam Sawmill was built here using a design by a London engineer. The mill had 5 gang saws and was in almost constant use until about 1905. It was then dismantled because of lack of large timber. A circular sawmill, built alongside the same basin, took its place until the end of the sawmill era in Darien when the Savannah Lumber Company closed in 1923.
Many of the former sawmill workers became shrimpers, and shrimping is still a primary industry of Darien.
detailed description of this 22 acres of land
Locals stated that during the boom years, a person could walk across the timber rafts floating along Darien’s waterways without ever getting their feet wet. These timber laborers-mariners, stevedores, log scalers, teamsters, brokers, timber raftsmen, and others brought Darien head-on into the Industrial Revolution.
The Lower Bluff Mill used a circular bandsaw similar to the one in the right side of the previous picture. A conveyor belt ran along the path that we will take to the fort.
We’ve learned so much about the land and its peoples! Ready to go to the fort now?
