APPENDIX (D.)
STATISTICS OF THE GEORGIA SEABOARD.
The notes here following are derived from a volume entitled
"White's Statistics of Georgia," a large octavo of seven hundred
pages, compiled and published in the State. A special section
of the book is devoted to the condition of the trade of each
county, while a comparison is also attempted to be given, from
the personal observation of the compiler, of the comparative
social, moral, and religious properties of the people. Thus, so
far as the plan has been thoroughly executed, an estimate is presented,
not only of the ordinary commercial demand of the citizens,
but, so to speak, of the state of their intellectual and moral
market.
The counties referred to by Mr. Gregg are in the second tier from the sea in South Carolina. I shall give statistics from Mr. White, and other authorities named in the note,[1] with regard to all the second tier counties of Georgia. What of good soil to be brought into cultivation, without a heavy expenditure at starting, there was originally in these counties begun to be first occupied by whites about 1740. It was not till nearly twenty years after this that slavery obtained the slightest footing in them, and it was not till about thirty years ago that they had begun to seriously deteriorate in production. There is yet some rich land upon the alluvial bottoms of the numerous rivers, which, rising above, pass through these counties toward the ocean; and here many wealthy planters still remain, owning a large number of slaves, and there has been recently a considerable increase of
- ↑ The population, following Mr. White, is given in round numbers, from the State Census of 1845; average personal estate, per family of citizens, reckoned from an official return, published in the "Soil of the South" (Columbus, Georgia, 1852, p. 210), the amount given for each county being divided by one-fifth the number of its population (for families). Observations on education and the character of the people, from "White's Statistics of Georgia" (generally in quotations). School, library, and church statistics, in figures from official United States Census, 1850.
