Biographical Memorials of James Oglethorpe - Thaddeus Mason Harris
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Five thousand three hundred and seven pounds of cocoons, and three
hundred and thirty-two pounds of raw silk were produced in 1761.
Governor Wright, under date 13th of July, says, "The greatest
appearance that ever they had here was destroyed in two nights' time,
by excessive hard and unseasonable frosts, and there is likewise a
degeneracy in the seed, as Mr. Ottolenghe tells me." These frosts
occurred on the 5th and 6th of April. Parliament, this year, made
a grant of 1000_l_. towards defraying the expenditure for the silk
culture, and it was annually renewed until about 1766. By means of
this gratuity, Mr. Ottolenghe was enabled to give a high price to the
rearers of cocoons, and thus sustain the encouragement so judiciously
commenced.
In 1762, fifteen thousand one hundred and one pounds of cocoons were
delivered at the filature, and one thousand and forty-eight pounds of
raw silk reeled, which Mr. O. declared to be the finest and best silk
ever produced in Georgia.
The year 1763 showed an increase of cocoons but a decrease of silk,
there being fifteen thousand four hundred and eighty-six pounds of the
former, and only nine hundred and fifty-three pounds of the latter.
The occasion of this disparity was a season of cold, rainy weather,
towards the close of April, by which the later cocoons were injured
and rendered almost useless.
There were delivered at the filature, in 1764, fifteen thousand two
hundred and twelve pounds of cocoons, notwithstanding the season was
so unfavorable, that Governor Wright mentions the case of one man who
expected to make from five to seven hundred pounds, who only succeeded
in raising one hundred pounds of cocoons. Eight thousand six hundred
and ninety-five pounds were sent by the Saltzburgers, and the whole
amount yielded eight hundred and ninety-eight pounds of raw silk.
In addition to the grant of Parliament, a Society, instituted in
London, for the encouragement of arts, manufactures and commerce,
offered certain premiums for the advantage of the British American
dominions, among which were:
"For every pound of cocoons produced in the province of Georgia
and South Carolina, in the year 1764, of a hardy, weighty and good
substance, wherein only one worm has spun, 3_d_.; for every pound of
cocoons produced in the same year, of a weaker, lighter, spotted or
bruised quality, 2_d_.; for dupions, 1_d_." These premiums were to be
paid under the direction of Mr. O., with proper vouchers that the same
were raised in either of the provinces specified.
It was agitated in 1765, to reduce the price of cocoons from 3_s_. to
1_s_. 6_d_. per pound, a measure which produced much dissatisfaction
and as a consequence there was a considerable falling off in the
amount of balls and silk, only twelve thousand five hundred and
fourteen pounds of the former, and seven hundred and twelve pounds of
the latter, together with seven hundred and twenty pounds of filosele
being produced. To prevent the depression consequent on this
reduction, Governor Wright suggested, that instead of so much per
pound, as formerly, that the ten largest quantities should receive the
highest, 50_l_., the next greatest parcel 45_l_., and so on, gradually
decreasing with the decrease in weight, until you reached the lowest
quantity, to which 10_l_. would be awarded; thus, while the expense
would be greatly lessened to the Trustees, the stimulus of reward
would be sufficiently sustained. This advice was not adopted, though
owing to the urgent remonstrances of those best acquainted with the
business, the reduction in the bounty was only 9_d_. instead of 1_s_.
6_d_. On the 25th April, 1765, the following order was published in
the "Georgia Gazette:"
"Notice is hereby given to all whom it may concern, that, by
direction of the Right Honorable the Lords Commissioners of Trade and
Plantations, the price usually paid for cocoons is now reduced, and
that no more than 2_s_. 3_d_. per pound will be paid for cocoons
raised in this province, and delivered at the public filature this
season.
"By order of His Excellency the Governor.
"GEO. BAILLIE, _Commissary_"
This bounty was still further reduced in 1766, when by order of the
Board of Trade, only 1_s_. 1_d_. was paid per pound. The dependence of
this culture on the weather, was signally instanced this year, from
the fact that though many who had hitherto raised cocoons, abandoned
it at the reduction of the bounty, yet such a large crop had never
been produced before; over twenty thousand three hundred and eighty
pounds of cocoons being delivered at the filature, which, however,
only produced one thousand eighty-nine pounds of raw silk, and eight
hundred and fifty pounds of filosele. This amount of reeled silk was
not at all proportionate to the weight of the cones, resulting, as Mr.
Ottolenghe said in a letter to Governor Wright, October 2, 1766, "to
the badness of the seed, and consequent inferiority of the worms."
In 1760, the cocoons weighed only seven thousand nine hundred and
eighty-three pounds, and yet eight hundred and thirty-nine pounds of
raw silk were spun; at which rate, the product this year should have
been about two thousand pounds.
On the 26th of June, Henry Kennan made proposals to the Board of
Trade, for carrying on the filature; but they were of a nature not at
all advantageous to the culture, and Governor Wright, in his reply, on
the 21st of October, disapproved of the plan, and exposed the fallacy
of his scheme, which was in consequence abandoned.
In 1767, ten thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight pounds of balls
were raised, and six hundred and seventy-one pounds nine ounces of raw
silk spun; the decrease of cocoons being caused, first, by withdrawing
of the Purysburgh cocoons, which last year amounted to five thousand
five hundred and fifty-one pounds; and second, by the reduction of
bounty, so that while last year the cocoons were delivered in by two
hundred and sixty-four different persons, only one hundred and sixty
individuals were this year devoted to the culture. The silk, however,
was of a better quality, and sustained its high reputation in the
London market.
In 1768, another plan was proposed, by Mr. Delamar, "in order the
more effectually to establish the growth of raw silk in America." His
proposal was, to pay a bounty of 20_s_. per pound on every pound of
good, clear raw silk imported from any of his Majesty's dominions in
America, to be paid on the price such silk might sell for at public
sale in London; at the expiration of ten years, ten per cent. bounty
was to be allowed; the ensuing five years at five per cent., after
which time the bounty was to cease. This was the general feature of
his plan; it was not, however, adopted, though in many respects its
provisions were highly judicious and appropriate.
But this branch of industry and commerce was fast waning before the
increasing culture of more sure and lucrative products, and only one
hundred and thirty-seven different persons brought cocoons to the
filature this year. Governor Wright, in his official letter to the
Earl of Hillsborough, July 1, 1768, says, "I am persuaded that few, or
none but the very poorer sort of people, will continue to go upon
that article. Several substantial persons, who did mean to make it
an object when the price was higher, have, to my knowledge, given
it over. The reason, my Lord, is evident; for people who have their
fortune to raise or make, will always turn themselves in such a way,
and to the raising and making of such commodities, as they think will
answer best; and it is very clear to me, that those who have negroes,
may employ themselves and negroes to better advantage, &c., than by
raising cocoons at 1_s_. 6_d_. per pound, although that is, as I have
said, 7, 8, or 9_d_. more than they are intrinsically worth."
Cluny, in his "American Traveller," printed in London, 1769, says,
"The climate of Georgia has been found to agree in every respect with
the silk worm." Experience, however, proved that the climate was
not sufficiently equable to secure permanent and continued success.
Governor Wright, in the letter quoted above, says, "the variable and
uncertain weather in spring, makes it precarious," and facts amply
confirm this statement. Only five hundred and forty-one pounds of raw
silk were made this year, a smaller amount, with one exception, than
had been produced for ten years. In 1769, the quantity was still more
decreased, both from the reluctance of the people to raise worms, and
the unfavorable weather in spring. Governor Wright, on the 20th of
June, 1769, says, "We had a most extraordinary prospect, till the
middle of April, when I thought every thing safe, yet we had very cold
rains on the 17th and 18th, which were succeeded by hard black frost
on the 19th and 20th, and destroyed a great part of the worms, and
will reduce the silk very much."
The silk business was now on the irretrievable decline, though it
still maintained a nominal existence, and received the encouragement
of Parliament. The special bounty which had hitherto been paid on
cocoons, over and above their merchantable value, was suspended, and
by a statute of 9 Geo. III., c. 38, a premium of twenty-five per cent.
from the 1st of January, 1770, to the 1st of January, 1777,--of twenty
per cent, from the 1st of January, 1777, to the 1st of January,
1784,--and of fifteen per cent. from the 1st of January, 1784, to the
1st of January 1791, on the ad valorem value of all silk produced in
America and imported into Great Britain in vessels regularly navigated
by law, was substituted in its place.
The inhabitants of Ebenezer resumed the culture, which with them had
long been dormant, and its revival at that time was principally owing
to the influence of a very worthy man and magistrate, Mr. Wertsch,
who, sanguine himself of ultimate success, had imparted to the Germans
a portion of his own enthusiasm.
In 1770, they shipped two hundred and ninety-one pounds of raw silk,
the result of their own industry, and as the filature at Savannah
was discontinued in 1771, the Earl of Hillsborough, ever anxious to
advance the produce, warmly commended the zeal of the Saltzburgers,
and directed President Habersham to distribute "the basins and reels
that were left in the public filature, to such persons as Mr. Wertsch
shall recommend to be proper objects of that bounty;" and in the same
letter he promised that he would endeavor to procure for them, this
year, "a small sum from Parliament, to be laid out in purchase of
utensils for the assistance of the poor sort of people in your
province." This promise he redeemed.
So popular had the silk business become at Ebenezer, that Mr.
Habersham, in a letter dated the 30th of March, 1772, says, "some
persons in almost every family there, understand its process from the
beginning to the end." In 1771, the Germans sent four hundred and
thirty-eight pounds of raw silk to England, and in 1772, four hundred
and eighty-five pounds, all of their own raising. They made their own
reels, which were so much esteemed that one was sent to England as a
model, and another taken to the East Indies by Pickering Robinson.
The operations at Savannah were now totally discontinued, though Mr.
Ottolenghe still styled himself "Superintendent of the Silk Culture
in Georgia," and in consideration of his long and faithful service in
that office, received an annuity of 100_l_.
In a message of Sir James Wright, to the Commons House of Assembly,
19th of January, 1774, he says, "The filature buildings seem to be
going to decay and ruin; may it not, therefore, be expedient to
consider what other service or use they may be put to?" and the
Assembly answered, "We shall not fail to consider how it may be
expedient to apply the filature to some public use;" and henceforth
it was used as an assembly or ball-room, a place where societies held
their meetings, and where divine service was occasionally conducted:
more recently, it was converted into a dwelling-house, and was thus
appropriated at the time of its destruction by fire, on the afternoon
of March 25, 1839.
Thus ended the grand project for raising silk in the Province of
Georgia; for though some few individuals, together with the people of
Ebenezer, continued to raise small quantities, yet, as a branch of
general culture, it has never been resuscitated. The last parcel
brought to Savannah was in 1790, when over two hundred pounds were
purchased for exportation, at from 8_s_. to 26_s_. per pound.
On reviewing the causes which led to the suspension of this business,
after so many exertions and such vast expense, which, it must be
remembered, the profits of the culture never reimbursed, we find,
first, the unfriendliness of the climate, which, notwithstanding its
boasted excellence, interfered materially with its success. Governor
Wright, frequently speaks of its deleterious influence, and the
fluctuations in the various seasons, evidenced, to demonstration,
that the interior was better adapted to the agricultural part of the
business, than the exposed and variable sea-board. Mr. Habersham, in
a letter to the Earl of Hillsborough, dated "Savannah, 24th of April,
1772," thus expresses himself on this point. "Upwards of twenty years
ago, if my memory does not fail me, Samuel Lloyd, Esq., of London, who
was one of the late trustees for establishing this colony, and was
fourteen years in Italy, and very largely concerned in the silk
business, wrote to me, that the best silk was produced at a distance
from the sea-coast, owing, I suppose, to the richness of the soil,
which made the mulberry leaf more glutinous, nutritive and healthy to
the silk-worm; also, to their not being obnoxious to musquetoes and
sand-flies, and probably, likewise, to the weather being more equal
and less liable to sudden transition from heat to cold: and on a
conversation this day with Mr. Barnard, of Augusta, he assures me,
that from two years experience in raising cocoons there, he lost none
from sickness, which frequently destroys two-thirds of the worms
here;" and he further says, that Mr. Ottolenghe told him that the silk
reeled from the Augusta cocoons "made the strongest and most wiry
thread of any raised in these parts."
Second, the expensiveness of living, and the dearness of labor, which
was as high as 1_s_. 8_d_. to 2_s_. per day, whereas 2_d_. or 3_d_.
was the usual price paid the peasant in silk-growing countries.
Governor Wright, in a letter to the Earl of Hillsborough, frankly
told him that, "till these provinces become more populous, and labor
cheaper, I apprehend, silk will not be a commodity, or an article, of
any considerable amount."
Third, the great reduction of the bounty, which, being the stimulus to
exertion, ceased to operate as an incentive, when from 3_s_. 3_d_.
it fell to 1_s_. 3_d_., and finally to a mere premium on the general
quantity imported. The poor could not subsist on these prices, and
the rich could employ their lands to much better advantage than in
cultivating an article which would not repay the expenses of labor:
and lastly, the increasing attention, bestowed on rice and cotton,
sealed the fate of the silk culture, and the planters soon learned to
consider the latter of no importance in comparison, with the large
and lucrative crops yielded by these more staple commodities. Other
reasons might be mentioned, but these sufficiently account for its
decline there, and its total neglect even to the present day. During
the morus multicaulis epidemic, which spread over our country in 1838,
Savannah, it is true, did not escape, and for a time the fever raged,
with much violence, but the febrile action soon subsided, leaving
no permanent benefit and only a few fields of waving foliage, as a
deciduous memento of this frenzied excitement.
That silk can be produced in Georgia equal to any in the world, does
not admit of a doubt, but whether it will ever be resumed, and when,
is among the unknown events of the future.