The Scots in Early Georgia

[KFCarter]

Thanks a lot, Carter, for this terrific thread.

Anyone who hasn't visited the old fort south of Savannah should do so--great history lesson.

And--just let me say--we might want to keep nort Georgia off the radar. It's so far superior to Atlanta and its environs (where I live) that we don't want word to get out. People might start coming there and spoil our playground.

Good point, re North Georgia. The coast down here is littered with forts, Fort Pulaski out Tybee way, Old Fort Jackson, Fort Frederica... recently redone Battlefield Park in Savannah which is on the site of Savannah's revolutionary war battle and features a reconstruction of the British redoubt... goes on and on.

Hope you can make our Highland Games on May 9... they're on a beautiful and historic site as well... Bethesda Home for Boys. And stay tuned to this thread... I'm asking some of my friends at the Georgia Historical Society to mine some more interesting Scots-related tidbits for us.

[wyldathart]

Thanks a lot, Carter, for this terrific thread.

Anyone who hasn't visited the old fort south of Savannah should do so--great history lesson.

And--just let me say--we might want to keep nort Georgia off the radar. It's so far superior to Atlanta and its environs (where I live) that we don't want word to get out. People might start coming there and spoil our playground.

I agree, I would love to move back to North GA. I think I was happiest there. If your outdoorsman like me then it's a great place to live. Lots of outdoors stuff to do, plus there is a highland gathering in Blairesville too.

[KFCarter]

I agree, I would love to move back to North GA. I think I was happiest there. If your outdoorsman like me then it's a great place to live. Lots of outdoors stuff to do, plus there is a highland gathering in Blairesville too.

I have a daughter (and three granddaughters!) who live in Rome and a sister who has land in Asheville NC and plans to relocate soon. I'm looking forward to spending more time up that way. But the coast has its charms, too, so I'm hoping to get the best of both.

When does the Blairesville gathering take place?

[wyldathart]

The Blairsville gathering happens on June 13 and 14, thats a Saturday and Sunday

[KFCarter]

I thought the following excerpt from a Wikipedia article about early Georgian, Lachlan MacIntosh would be of interest since many of us will be visiting the Bethesda Home for Boys soon... it's the site of Savannah's Highland Games and is referred to in this article as Bethesda Orphanage (btw, founded in 1740 and has been a home for boys continuously since):

"...McIntosh was born near Raits, Badenoch, Scotland. McIntosh’s father, John Mohr McIntosh, moved the family to Georgia in 1736 with a group of Scottish settlers founding the town of New Inverness (now Darien, Georgia). Georgia was a highly militarized colony and clashes with neighboring Spanish Florida and its fortress city of St. Augustine were common. In one of these clashes in 1740, Lachlan’s father was captured by the Spanish and held prisoner for two years. The elder McIntosh was eventually released, but his health had deteriorated during his captivity and he died a few years later. McIntosh was sent to the Bethesda Orphanage in Savannah under the care of famous evangelist George Whitefield.

He spent two years at the orphanage before traveling to Fort Frederica to serve as a military cadet. During this time, the Jacobite Rebellion broke out in Scotland. Lachlan and his brother William planned to travel to Scotland and join the rebellion, but General James Oglethorpe, who had become a friend and mentor to the young McIntosh, convinced them to remain in Georgia. Lachlan's brother William has sometimes been confused with another William McIntosh of the Creek Nation, who is actually Lachlan and William McIntosh's cousin. The half Creek, half white leader William MacIntosh was the son of Capt. William MacIntosh, a Tory in the Rev. War., who was the son of Capt. John MacIntosh. This John MacIntosh, along with his brother Roderick, had come with John Mohr MacIntosh from Scotland.

Confusion about the names stems from the fact that on the ship "The Prince of Wales" there had been at least five males named John MacIntosh in one form or another. In 1748, McIntosh moved to Charleston, South Carolina, and took a position as a clerk for Henry Laurens, a wealthy merchant, who would become a lifelong friend and mentor. In 1756 he married Sarah Threadcraft. He soon returned to Georgia where he studied surveying and acquired land in the Altamaha River delta and became a prosperous rice planter."

Later, I'll post some notes on Chief William MacIntosh (referred to above). He was a Chief in the Southern Creek nation and his is a fascinating story.

The entire entry can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lachlan_McIntosh

[KFCarter]

Another interested wikipedia link that relates to Georgia Scots is the one on the Scot and Indian Trade. Scots had a unique relationship to Native American tribes that resulted in strong trade ties, intermarriages, and more than one chiefship of and Indian tribe held by a Scotsman.

The link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Indian_trade

[KFCarter]

The Blairsville gathering happens on June 13 and 14, thats a Saturday and Sunday

I'm thinking about trying to make it up there. Have you been before?

[mischieftech]

I was at the Scottish Heritage Day out at Darien recently. My pipe major informed me about the general history of the place, but that article is great info. I thoroughly enjoyed being there, watching the reenactment (although after seeing gettysburg reinacted as a child.. few can ever compare.) They even asked the two from my pipe band to perform during the battle. Really added to it.

[KFCarter]

I was at the Scottish Heritage Day out at Darien recently. My pipe major informed me about the general history of the place, but that article is great info. I thoroughly enjoyed being there, watching the reenactment (although after seeing gettysburg reinacted as a child.. few can ever compare.) They even asked the two from my pipe band to perform during the battle. Really added to it.

I've always wanted to check that out, but have had a conflict every time. Maybe next year.
The Gettysburg reenactment must have been amazing.

[macwilkin]

I would recommend the following titles:

Lachlan McGillivray, Indian trader : the shaping of the southern colonial frontier by Edward Cashin. (Athens : University of Georgia Press, c1992)

Lachlan McIntosh and the politics of Revolutionary Georgia by Harvey Jackson. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2003)

For more general information about Native-American relations with the Scots, Colin Calloway has a delightful new book entitled White People, Indians, and Highlanders Tribal People and Colonial Encounters in Scotland and America:

http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/genera...=9780195340129

I highly recommend it; It's one of my favourite books.

Fernec Szasz's Scots in the North American West 1790-1917 from University of Oklahoma also contains some more general discussion of the Scots relationship with Native Americans and their participation in the Fur Trade.

Matt Newsome has a nice article about Sir Alexander Cuming and the Cherokee on his web site:

http://www.albanach.org/cuming.html

Apologies for "assigning reading" (it's what history instructors do after all), but I had to get some sources in besides Wikipedia.

Great thread, btw!

Regards,

Todd