a thousand families came into the state in that wave
that originated in Pennsylvania, bringing with them their cattle, horses
and hogs. Lands were allotted to them in the western woods, which soon
became the most popular part of the province, the up-country population
being overwhelmingly Scotch-Irish. They brought with them and retained,
in an eminent degree, the virtues of industry and economy, so peculiarly
necessary in a new country. To them the state is indebted for much of
its early literature. The settlers in the western part of the colony,
long without the aid of laws, were forced to band themselves together
for mutual protection. The royal governor, Montague, in 1764, sent an
army against them, and with great difficulty a civil war was averted.
The division thus created reappeared in 1775, on the breaking out of the
Revolution. The state suffered greatly from the ravages of Cornwallis,
who rode roughly over it, although her sons toiled heroically in defence
of their firesides. The little bands in the east gathered around the
standard of Marion, and in the north and west around those of Sumter and
Pickens. They kept alive the flame of liberty in the swamps, and when
the country appeared to be subdued, it burst forth in electric flashes
striking and withering the hand of the oppressor. Through the veins of
most of the patriots flowed Scotch-Irish blood; and to the hands of one
of this class, John Rutledge, the destinies of the state were committed.

Georgia was sparsely settled at the time of the Revolution. In 1753 its
population was less than twenty-four hundred. Emigration from the
Carolinas set in towards North Georgia, bringing many Scotch-Irish
families. The movement towards the mountain and Piedmont regions of the
southeast began about 1773. In that year, Governor Wright purchased from
the Indians that portion of middle Georgia lying between the Oconee and
the Savannah. The inducements he then offered proved very attractive to
the enterprising sons of Virginia and the Carolinas, who lived in the
highlands of those states. These people who settled in Georgia have thus
been described by Governor Gilmer: "The pretty girls were dressed in
striped and checked cotton cloth, spun and woven with their own hands,
and their sweethearts in sumach and walnut-dyed stuff, made by their
mothers. Courting was done when riding to meeting on Sunday, and walking
to the spring when there. Newly married couples went to see the o