December 10, 1774
Dear Father, I have just arrived here in the 13 colonies. The colony that I am residing in now is the colony of Georgia, which is considered a southern colony. The other southern colonies include North and South Carolina, as well as Virginia. I live in the home of one of the many plantation owners in Savannah, who was generous enough to let me stay at his luxurious house until I have earned enough money to take a horse drawn wagon or a boat to South Carolina. I have learned that there are two sub-regions here in Georgia: the Back Country, and the Rich Coastal Plains. Fortunately I was able to find a house in the Rich Coastal Plains because the Back Country men are very poor, and are nothing compared to the Gentry. I know that in England slavery was outlawed just two years ago, but here in Georgia slavery is still allowed, although men from the Rich Coastal Plains are more likely to have slaves then Back Country men. In fact, almost every single plantation has at least a dozen slaves to as many as hundreds. I was recently told by some locals that the first people to come from Africa came as indentured servants, which means that in exchange for their transportation to the colonies, they would work for a certain amount of time without pay. As the population of indentured servants decreased every year, plantation owners started turning to slave labor to harvest cash crops. These crops include tobacco, rice, and indigo. Plantation owners came up with this great law that it is illegal to teach slaves to read or write, they did this to limit the possibility of the slaves revolting and destroying the plantations. Courtship in the colonies is very different than in England. Most young adults are married at the age of thirteen! Could you image a child being married at that young of an age? There are also a lot of arranged marriages, as in parents who will marry their son or daughter into another family for money and power. Unlike in the Anglican Church, marriage is for life. You only get to marry again