Slike strani
PDF
ePub

CHAPTER V.

INTERIOR COLONIZATION OF THE COUNTRY.

AFTER the short account we have given of the first planting of the thirteen original provinces, by successive arrivals of colonists from Europe, on the seacoast and the banks of the larger streams, we proceed to say something of the progress of colonization in the interior of the country. A hundred and twenty-five years, it will be observed, elapsed between the foundation of the first and the last of these provinces; also, that, with the exception of New-York and Delaware, which received their first European inhabitants from Holland and Sweden, they were all originally English; but that, eventually, these two were likewise included in English patents, and their Dutch and Swedish inhabitants merged among the English.

now the state of that name, together with the days of fine packets, or of large and the territories since comprised in the well-appointed merchant vessels, the voyStates of Arkansas and Missouri, and an ages had to be made in small and crowded almost indefinite tract lying westward of ships. The inconveniences, to say nothing these last two, was purchased by the Uni- of the sickness that attended them, were ted States for fifteen millions of dollars. but ill calculated to nerve the heart for And in 1821, the Spanish colony of Flori- coming trials; and as the colonists apda, comprising the peninsula which used proached the coast, the boundless and solto be called East Florida, and a narrow emn forests that stretched before them, strip of land on the Gulf of Mexico, called the strangeness of every object that filled West Florida, was purchased by the same the scene, the absence of all tillage and government for five millions of dollars. cultivation, and of a village or house to Both purchases now form, of course, part give them shelter, and the uncouth and of the great North American Republic. even frightful aspect of the savage inhabitants, must have damped the boldest spirits. In the case of Plymouth and some others, the settlers arrived during winter, when all nature wore her gloomiest attire. The rudest hovels were the only abodes that could be immediately prepared for their reception, and for weeks together there might only be a few days of such weather as would permit their proceeding with the operations required for their comfort. Not only conveniences and luxuries, such as the poorest in the mother-country enjoyed, but even the necessaries of life, were often wanting. Years had to be passed before any considerable part of the forest could be cleared, comfortable dwellings erected, and pleasant gardens planted. Meanwhile, disease and death would enter every family; dear friends and companions in the toils and cares of the enterprise would be borne, one after another, to the grave. To these causes of depression there were often added the horrors of savage warfare, by which some of the colonies were repeatedly decimated, and during which the poor settler, for weeks and months together, could not know, on retiring to rest, whether he should not be awakened by the heart-quailing war-whoop of the savages around his house, or by finding the house itself in flames. Ah, what pen can describe the horror that fell upon many a family, in almost all the colonies, not once, but often, when aroused by false or real alarms! Who can depict the scenes in which a father, before he received the fatal blow himself, was compelled to see his wife and children fall by the tomahawk before his eyes, or be dragged into a captivity worse than death? With such depressing circumstances to try the hearts of the colonists-circumstances that can be fully understood by those only who have passed through them, or who have heard them related with the minute fidelity of an eyewitness-who can wonder that the colonists advanced but slowly?

All these colonies were of slow growth, ten, and even twenty years being required, in several instances, before they could be regarded as permanently established. That of Virginia, the earliest, was more than once on the point of being broken up. Indeed, we may well be surprised that, when the colonists that survived the ravages of disease and attacks from the Indians were still farther reduced in their number by the return of a part of them to England, the remainder did not become disheartened and abandon the country in despair. The Plymouth colonists lost, upon the very spot where they settled, half their number within six months after their arrival; and terrible, indeed, must have been the sorrows of the dreary winter of 1620-21, as endured by those desolate yet persevering exiles. But they had a firm faith in God's goodness; they looked to the future; they felt that they had a great and a glorious task to accomplish, and that, although they themselves might perish in attempting it, Still, as I have said, they gradually gainyet their children would enjoy the prom-ed strength. At the Revolution in England of 1688, that is, eighty-one years after the first settlement of Virginia, and sixty-eight after that of Plymouth, the population of the colonies, then twelve in number, was

ised land.

Stout hearts were required for such enterprises. Few of the colonists were wealthy persons, and as those were not

estimated at about two hundred thousand, | provinces that reach thus far, and their which might be distributed thus: Massa- whole population was confined to the strip chusetts, including Plymouth and Maine, of land interposed between those mountmay have had forty-four thousand; New-ains and the Atlantic Ocean. It is true, Hampshire and Rhode Island, including that immediately after the treaty of Paris, Providence, six thousand each; Connecti- in 1763, by which England acquired the cut, from seventeen to twenty thousand; Canadas and the Valley of the Mississippimaking up seventy-five thousand for all excepting Louisiana, which remained with New-England: New-York, not less than France, or, rather, was temporarily ceded twenty thousand; New-Jersey, ten thou- to Spain—a few adventurers began to pass sand; Pennsylvania and Delaware, twelve beyond the mountains, and this emigration thousand; Maryland, twenty-five thou- westward continued during the war of the sand; Virginia, fifty thousand; and the Revolution. But when peace came, in two Carolinas, which then included Geor- 1783, I much doubt if there were twengia, probably not fewer than eight thou- ty thousand Anglo-Americans in Westsand souls. ern Pennsylvania, Western Virginia, KenAfter having confined their settlements tucky, and Tennessee. These were but the for many years within a short distance, advanced posts of the immense host about comparatively speaking, from the coast, to follow, and, for many years after the the colonists began to penetrate the inland peace, the colonization of the interior was forests, and to settle at different points in slower than might be supposed. The popthe interior of the country, in proportion ulation of the thirteen provinces at the as they considered themselves strong commencement of the Revolution is not enough to occupy them safely. Where positively known, but it certainly did not hostility on the part of the Aborigines was exceed three millions and a half, slaves indreaded, these settlers kept together as cluded. No doubt the population of the much as possible, and established them- seaboard increased with considerable raselves in villages. This was particularly pidity, and Vermont was not long in bethe case in New-England, where, from the ing added to the original thirteen states, soil being less favourable to agriculture, making fourteen in all upon the Atlancolonization naturally assumed the com- tic slope. They amount now to fifteen, pact form required for the pursuits of trade Maine, which was long a sort of province and the useful arts, as well as for mutual to Massachusetts, having become a sepassistance when exposed to attack. As arate state in 1820. After the establishthe New-England colonists had all along ment of Independence, danger from the devoted themselves much to the fisheries Aborigines ceased to be apprehended and other branches of commerce, their set-throughout the whole country situated betlements were for a long time to be found chiefly on the coast, and at points affording convenient harbours. But it was much otherwise in the South. In Virginia, in particular, the colonists were induced to settle along the banks of rivers to very considerable distances, their main occupation being the planting of tobacco and trading to some extent with the Indians. But it was far otherwise in the great reIn the Carolinas, again, most hands being gion to the west of the Appalachian range. employed in the manufacture of tar, tur-There, many of the Indian tribes occupied pentine, and rosin, or in the cultivation of rice, indigo, and, eventually, of cotton, the colonial settlements took a considerable range whenever there was peace with the Indians in their vicinity. Where there was little or no commerce, and agricultural pursuits of different kinds were the chief occupation of the people, there could be few towns of much importance; and so much does this hold at the present day, that there is not a city of twenty-five thousand inhabitants in all the five South-violence. ern Atlantic States, with the exception of Baltimore, in Maryland, and Charleston, in South Carolina.

Even at the commencement of the war of the Revolution, in 1775, the colonies had scarcely penetrated to the Alleghany or Appalachian Mountains in any of the

[ocr errors]

tween the Alleghany Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. The remains of the numerous tribes, its former inhabitants, had, with some exceptions in New-England, New-York, and the Carolinas, retired to the West, and there they either existed apart, or had become merged in other and kindred tribes.

the country in all their pristine force, and were the more to be dreaded by settlers from the Eastern States, inasmuch as they were supposed to be greatly under the influence of the British government in Canada, and as unkindly feelings long subsisted between the Americans and their English neighbours, each charging the other, probably not without justice, with exciting the Indians, by means of their respective agents and hunters, to commit acts of

Excepting in some parts of Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Tennessee, there was little security for American settlers in the West from 1783 until 1795. The first emigrants to Ohio suffered greatly from the Indians; two armies sent against them, in the western part of that state, under Generals Harmer and St. Clair,

were defeated and shockingly cut to pieces; and not until they had received a dreadful defeat from General Wayne, on the River Miami-of-the-lake,* was there anything like permanent peace established. But, as a prelude to the war between the United States and Great Britain, which commenced in 1812 and ended in 1815, the Indian tribes again became troublesome, particularly in Indiana and in the southeastern part of the Valley of the Mississippi, forming now the State of Alabama. The Creeks, a powerful tribe of the Muskhogee race, then occupied that country, and it was not until defeated in many battles and skirmishes that they were reduced to peace. In point of fact, perfect security from Indian hostilities has prevailed throughout the West only since 1815; since that there have been the insignificant war with Black Hawk, a Sioux chief, which took place a few years ago, and the still more recent war with the Seminoles in Florida-exceptions not worth special notice, as they in nowise affected the country at large.

was laborious and tedious beyond conception.

Far different are the circumstances of those colonists now! The mountains, at various points, are traversed by substantial highways; and, still farther to augment the facilities for intercourse with the vast Western Valley, canals and railroads are in progress. It is accessible, also, from the south, by vessels from the Gulf of Mexico, as well as from the north by the lakes, on whose waters from fifty to a hundred steamboats now pursue their foaming way.* As for the navigable streams of the Valley itself, besides boats of all kinds of ordinary construction, nearly, if not quite, four hundred steamboats ply upon their waters. And now, instead of being a boundless forest uninhabited by civilized men, as it was sixty years ago, the West contains no fewer than eleven regularly-constituted states, and two territories which will soon be admitted as states into the Union, the population having, meanwhile, advanced from ten or twenty thousand Anglo-American inhabitants to above six millions.†

It is now (1844) about sixty years since the tide of emigration from the Atlantic Generally speaking, the various sections States set fairly into the Valley of the of the Valley of the Mississippi may be said Mississippi, and though no great influx to have been colonized from the parts of took place in any one year during the first the Atlantic coast which correspond with thirty-five of that period, it has wonder-them as nearly as possible in point of latifully increased during the last twenty-five. tude. This is easily accounted for: emiWhen this emigration westward first com-grants from the East to the West naturally menced, all the necessaries that the emi- wish to keep as much as they can within grants required to take with them from the the climate which birth and early life have East had to be carried on horseback, no

enabled to drag the boat along. It is an expedient resorted to more by way of change than anything else. Sometimes it is possible, at certain stages of the rivers, to go along for miles in this way. Even to this day the greater portion of the banks of the rivers of the West are covered with almost uninterrupted forests.

roads for wheeled carriages having been the Mississippi, Ohio, or any other river in that reopened through the mountains. On arri-gion, when the water is very high. It is this: inving at the last ridge overlooking the stead of keeping in the middle of the stream, the boat is made to go along close to one of the banks, plains to the west, a boundless forest lay and the men who guide it, by catching hold of the stretched out before those pioneers of civ-boughs of the trees which overhang the water, are ilization, like an ocean of living green. Into the depths of that forest they had to plunge. Often long years of toil and suffering rolled away before they could establish themselves in comfortable abodes. The climate and the diseases peculiar to the different localities were unknown. Hence, fevers of a stubborn type cut many of them off. They were but partially acquainted with the mighty rivers of that vast region, beyond knowing that their common outlet was in the possession of foreigners, who imposed vexatious regulations upon their infant trade. navigation of those rivers could be carried on only in flat-bottomed boats, keels, and barges. To descend them was not unattended with danger, but to ascend by means of sweeps and oars, by poling, warping, bush-whacking, and so forth,

The

* Or the River Miami which flows into Lake Erie, and so called to distinguish it from the Miami that falls into the Ohio.

The word bush-whacking is of Western origin, and signifies a peculiar mode of propelling a boat up

*There are more than sixty on Lake Erie alone. It may be worth while to give the names of these states and territories, their extent in English square miles, and their population according to the census of 1840. They are as follows:

Illinois

STATES.

Sq. miles. Pop. in 1840. 40,260 1,519,467

Ohio
Indiana

36,500

685,868

Michigan

59,700

212,267

57,900

476,183

Kentucky

40,500

779,828

Tennessee

40,200

829,210

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

rendered familiar and agreeable, though a guished that race, admirably fit a man for regard to their health may compel some of the labour and isolation necessarily to be them to seek a change by passing to the endured before he can be a successful south or north of their original latitude. colonist. Now, New-England, together The New-England tide of emigration, in its with the States of New-York, New-Jersey, westward course, penetrated and settled Delaware, and Pennsylvania, with the exthe northern and western parts of the State ception of Dutch and Swedish elements, of New-York, and advancing still farther in which were too inconsiderable to affect the the direction of the setting sun, entered the general result, were all colonized by peonorthern parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illi-ple of Anglo-Saxon origin. And assuredly nois, extended over the whole of Michigan, they have displayed qualities fitting them and is now stretching into the Territory for their task such as the world has never of Wisconsin. That from the southern witnessed before. No sooner have the counties of New-York, from New-Jersey, and Eastern Pennsylvania, first occupied Western Pennsylvania, and then extended into the central districts of Ohio and Indiana. The Maryland and Virginia column colonized Western Virginia and Kentucky, and then dispersed itself over the southern parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois; while that from North Carolina, after having colonized Tennessee, is reaching into Missouri and Iowa. The South Carolina column, mingling with that of Georgia, after having covered Alabama and a great part of the State of Mississippi, is now extending itself into Arkansas.

relations between the colonies and the Aborigines permitted it to be done with safety (and sometimes even before), than we find individuals and families ready to penetrate the wilderness, there to choose, each for himself or themselves, some fertile spot for a permanent settlement. If friends could be found to accompany him and settle near him, so much the better; but if not, the bold emigrant would venture alone far into the trackless forest, and surmount every obstacle single-handed, like a fisherman committing himself to the deep and passing the livelong day at a distance from the shore. Such was the experience This account of the progress of coloni- of many of the first colonists of New-Engzation westward, as a general statement, is land; such that of the earliest settlers in remarkably correct, and it furnishes a bet-New-York, New-Jersey, Delaware, and ter key to the political, moral, and religious | Pennsylvania; such in our own day has character of the West, than any other that been the case with many of the living occould be given. The West, in fact, may be regarded as the counterpart of the East, after allowing for the exaggeration, if I may so speak, which a life in the wilderness tends to communicate for a time to manners and character, and even to religion, but which disappears as the population increases, and the country acquires the stamp of an older civilization. Stragglers may, indeed, be found in all parts of the West, from almost all parts of the East; and many emigrants from Europe, too, Germans especially, enter by NewOrleans, and from that city find their way by steamboats into Indiana, Illinois, Mis-him a cottage and a few acres. souri, Wisconsin, and Iowa. But all these form exceptions that hardly invalidate the general statement.

CHAPTER VI.

cupants of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa; and thus is colonization advancing in all those states and territories at the present moment.

Living on the lands which they cultivate, the agricultural inhabitants of the NewEngland and Middle States are very much dispersed; the country, far and wide, is dotted over with the dwellings of the landholders and those who assist them in the cultivation of the soil. For almost every landowner tills his property himself, assisted by his sons, by young men hired for that purpose, or by tenants who rent from

Field

work in all those states is performed by men alone; a woman is never seen handling the plough, the hoe, the axe, the sickle, or the scythe, unless in the case of foreign emigrants who have not yet adopted American usages in this respect.

Now it is in this isolated and independent mode of life that our men best fitted to PECULIAR QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ANGLO- penetrate and settle in the wilderness are SAXON RACE FOR THE WORK OF COLONIZA-trained; and from this what may be em

TION.

APART altogether from considerations of a moral and religious character, and the influence of external circumstances, we may remark, that the Anglo-Saxon race possesses qualities peculiarly adapted for successful colonization. The characteristic perseverance, the spirit of personal freedom and independence, that have ever distin

phatically called our frontier race has sprung, and is recruited from time to time.

Take the following case as an illustration of the process that is continually going on in the frontier settlements. A man removes to the West, he purchases a piece of ground, builds a house, and devotes himself to the clearing and tillage of his forest acres. Ere long he has rescued a

to the merchant, who has opened his store at some village among the trees, perhaps some miles off, and there laying out the little money they may have left. With economy and health, they gradually become prosperous. The primitive log-house gives place to a far better mansion, constructed of hewn logs, or of boards, or of brick or stone. Extensive and well-fenced fields spread around, ample barns stored with grain, stalls filled with horses and cattle, flocks of sheep, and herds of hogs, all

Their children grow up, perhaps to pursue the same course, or, as their inclinations may lead, to choose some other occupation, or to enter one of the learned professions.

farm from the wilderness, and has reared a family upon it. He then divides his land among his sons, if there be enough for a farm to each of them; if not, each receives money enough to buy one as he comes of age. Some may settle on lands bestowed on them by their father; others, preferring a change, may dispose of their portion and proceed, most commonly unmarried, to "the new country," as it is called, that is, to those parts of the West where the public lands are not yet sold. There he chooses out as much as he can convenient-attest the increasing wealth of the owners. ly pay for, receiving a title to it from the District Land Office, and proceeds to make for himself a home. This is likely to be in the spring. Having selected a spot for his dwelling, generally near some fountain, or where water may be had by digging a This sketch will give the reader some well, he goes round and makes the acquaint- idea of the mode in which colonization: ance of his neighbours, residing within advances among the Anglo-Saxon race of the distance, it may be, of several miles. the Middle and New-England States of A time is fixed for building him a house, America. Less Anglo-Saxon in their oriupon which those neighbours come and gin, and having institutions and customs render him such efficient help, that in a modified by slavery, the Southern States single day he will find a log-house con- exhibit colonization advancing in a very structed, and perhaps covered with clap-different style. When an emigrant from boards, and having apertures cut out for those states removes to the "Far West," the doors, windows, and chimney. He he takes with him his wagons, his cattle, makes his floor at once of rough boards his little ones, and a troop of slaves, so as riven from the abundant timber of the sur-to resemble Abraham when he moved from rounding forest, constructs his doors, and place to place in Canaan. When he seterects a chimney. Occupying himself, tles in the forest he clears and cultivateswhile interrupted in out-door work by the ground with the labour of his slaves. rainy weather, in completing his house, he Everything goes on heavily. Slaves are finds it in a few weeks tolerably comfort- too stupid and improvident to make good able, and during fair weather he clears the colonists. The country, under these disunderwood from some ten or fifteen acres, advantages, never assumes the garden-likekills the large trees by notching them appearance that it already wears in the round so as to arrest the rise of the sap, New-England and Middle States, and which and plants the ground with Indian corn, or is to be seen in the northern parts of the maize, as it is called in Europe. He can great Central Valley. Slavery, in fact, easily make, buy, or hire a plough, a har- seems to blight whatever it touches.. row, and a hoe or two. If he finds time, he surrounds his field with a fence, At length, after prolonging his stay until his crop is beyond the risk of serious injury from squirrels and birds, or from the growth of weeds, he shuts up his house, commits it to the care of some neighbour, living perhaps one or two miles distant, and returns to his paternal home, which may be from one to three hundred miles distant from his new settlement. There he stays until the month of September, then marries, and with his young wife, a wagon and pair of horses to carry their effects, a few cattle or sheep, or none, according to circumstances, sets out to settle for life in the wilderness. On arriving at his farm, he sows wheat or rye among his standing Indian corn, then gathers in this last, and prepares for the winter. His wife shares all the cares incident to this humble beginning. Accustomed to every kind of house-pursuits of a farmer. hold work, she strives by the diligence of her fingers to avoid the necessity of going

Next to the Anglo-Saxon race from the British shores, the Scotch make the best settlers in the great American forests. The Irish are not so good; they know not how to use the plough, or how to manage the horse and the ox, having had but little experience of either in their native land. None can handle the spade better, nor are they wanting in industry. But when they first arrive they are irresolute, dread the forest, and hang too much about the large towns, looking around for such work as their previous mode of life has not disqualified them for. Such of them as have been bred to mechanical trades might find sufficient employment if they would let ardent spirits alone, but good colonists for the forests they will never be. Their children may do better in that career. The few Welsh to be found in America are much better fitted than the Irish for the life and

The perseverance and frugality of the German, joined to other good qualities

« PrejšnjaNaprej »