The Savannah River Intelligentsia
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THE SAVANNAH RIVER INTELLIGENTSIA: 1734-1780 This article was first titled "The 'Dutch' ships exacerbated by removal of the settle- Intelligentsia of the Savannah River," ment, Boltzius was forced to take on so many meaning the "German-speaking Intelligent- secular duties that he became a reluctant sia," but the title appeared redundant after it Renaissance Man.5 First, as ruler of his little was observed that only German-speaking theocracy, he had to learn the English law of inhabitants of Georgia actually fulfilled Web- the land, which he appears to have done ster's definition of the intelligentsia as "intel- quickly and thoroughly. Next he had to read lectuals considered as a group or class, espe- technical manuals, mostly in English, on cially, as a cultural, social, or political élite."1 agriculture, silk raising, mill building, medical There were, of course, some quite intelli- practice, and other skills in order to transmit gent men in Savannah, such as Col. William this knowledge to his parishioners.6 Stephens, the secretary of the Trustees of the In addition to keeping a very informative colony of Georgia, and James Habersham, journal throughout most of his thirty-year schoolmaster turned merchant turned Presi- ministry, Boltzius also maintained an active dent of the Council. These men, however, correspondence with his German and Eng- were pragmatic empire builders who wrote lish benefactors, which revealed good insights clearly and effectively without flights of fancy into the social and economic situation in his or classical allusions, and neither appeared new home.7Johann Tobler, of whom we shall interested in knowledge for knowledge's hear more, wrote of Boltzius: 2 sake. Oglethorpe, who had enjoyed a good I have carried on for some years an edifying corres- 3 classical education, was merely a visitor to pondence with this gentleman, in which I have Georgia, not an inhabitant.4 One might wish encountered only that which is necessary for to add John Wesley and George Whitefield to Christianity. He is a man who is very useful to this country, the list of Savanah-River intellectuals because and, although he makes no distant journeys into it, of their voluminous publications, but neither he nevertheless, from time to time sends out edify- man settled in Georgia and the writings of ing books, which are very helpful to one's growth in both were mostly functional, being theologi- humanity.8 cal, inspirational, and promotional. Boltzius had an unusual ability to organize Perhaps the six leading members of the his thoughts, as can be seen in his brilliant Savannah River intelligentsia, in order of letter to George Whitefield arguing against their arrival, were: Johann Martin Boltzius the importation of slaves.9 (1734), Christian Gottlieb Prieber (1735), As an accomplished musician who could Johann Tobler (1737), Johann Joachim Züb- write notes and had founded a Collegium lin, later Zubly (1744), Johann Wilhelm Ger- Musicum (music club) at Halle,10 Boltzius hard de Brahm (1751), and Johann Christoph worked hard to improve his parishioners' Bornemann (1752). choral singing. He was aided in this task when BOLTZIUS the new physician, Ernst Thilo, arrived with his good voice and thorough mastery of poly- Johann Martin Boltzius, a teacher at the phonic singing. Boltzius keenly wished to Orphanage School at Halle, was chosen have an organ, as Tobler did up the river at along with his colleague Christian Israel New Windsor,11 but this wish was never ful- Gronau to minister to a group of Protestant filled. When Captain Krauss, an artilleryman exiles from Salzburg who settled in Georgia in who had brought the third Swabian transport 1734. After two years in an unfavorable loca- to Georgia in 1752, was about to return to tion, the Salzburgers moved their town of Europe, some Salzburgers collected money Ebenezer to the Red Bluff on the Savannah for him to buy an organ there, but nothing River just above Purysburg, the new Swiss set- came of this; and Boltzius was left with only tlement in South Caroina. Because of hard- -30- his choir. While visiting Ebenezer in 1774, the secret journal, on the other hand, was kept in Lutheran patriarch Heinrich Melchior French. Prieber petitioned the Trustees to Mühlenberg greatly admired the skill of the send him to Georgia in 1735 and they choir, which he attributed to Boltzius.12 agreed;19 but, instead of waiting, he made his This music was, of course, not made for way to South Carolina as a British officer. aesthetic or secular pleasure, but only for After taking out a grant for land in Purysburg, glorifying God in heaven: one contrite which he never developed, he sold his woman confessed to having used her God- belongings and set out in Indian costume for given voice to sing worldly songs. Little boys the Cherokee country in order to organize the who wished tojoin the choir had to promise to Noble Savages into a commonwealth, to be bring not only their mouth but also a devout called the Kingdom of Paradise, a communis- heart.13 (Imagine the amazement I felt when, tic state which would resist the British by play- while driving near Metter, Georgia, some sixty ing the Spanish and French against them. miles from Ebenezer in October 1990 and Hearing of Prieber's seditious actions, the listening to a radio concert by a children's authorities in South Carolina sent an envoy to gospel choir, I heard the director remind the ask the Cherokees to extradite him, but his children that they should sing not only with hosts would not surrender their honored their mouths but also with their hearts! Could guest and tribal member. Foiled in this this precept have been handed down so attempt, the British bribed some Creek Indi- long?) When Habersham offered Boltzius ans to capture him on one of his diplomatic twenty-four arias by Handel, he accepted missions to the French and Spaniards, which them even though they were secular, aware they did. Prieber was incarcerated in thejail at that he could convert them to religious Paro- Frederica, where visitors were astounded by dien, by which he meant contrafacts.14 his education and mastery of languages. Even Boltzius appears to have had little regard Oglethorpe was impressed by his involuntary for the visual arts, which were scarcely better guest, being surprised to find a man "who in than graven images in his eyes. He made his dress a perfect Indian, a man of politeness exception, however, for religious art; and he and gentility, who spoke Latin, French, Span- distributed to the children little scenes of the ish, and German fluently, and English brok- life of Jesus that had been engraved and enly."20 The French soldier Antoine Bonne- donated by Martin Engelbrecht of Augs- foy, who had been a prisoner of Prieber's burg.15 Behind the Communion table he Indian hosts, also attested that Prieber's mounted a large picture of the Last Supper French was fluent.21 donated by the court chaplain Friedrich Being polylingual, Prieber soon mastered Michael Ziegenhagen.16 Cherokee, and it was surely he who translated the Lord's Prayer into that language for PRIEBER Ulrich Driessler, the Lutheran minister at By slightly stretching the meaning of Frederica. Ludowick Grant, an Indian trader, "Savannah River" in our tide, we can include said of Prieber: the Saxon visionary, Christian Gottlieb Being a great Scholar he soon made himself master Prieber (also written Priber and Pryber), who of their Tongue, and by his insinuating manner came to America in 1735 to save the Red Man Indeavoured to gain their hearts, he trimmed his from European encroachment." Because he hair in the Indian manner & painted as they did, dwelled seven years among the Cherokees, he going generally naked except for a shirt and a 22 must have spent some of his time on the Flap." headwaters of the Savannah River, and thus It is regrettable that Prieber's book did not he belongs on our list. survive, for it may well have been a trail Like the other germanophone intellectuals blazer. To judge by what Bonnefoy, Ogle- of Georgia, Prieber, a doctor of laws, had thorpe, and others said of this backwoods enjoyed a good Latin training, his doctoral philosopher, he may well have preceded thesis having been in that language.18 His Rousseau, his junior by some years, with his -31- ideas on the Noble Savage, the natural rights subjects such as agriculture, commerce, for- of man, the inequality of men, and the social eign news and the public's craving for moral- contract. Verner W. Crane recognizes him as izing and edifying reading matter. Because of "a spiritual descendant of Plato of the Repub- his first success, Tobler also published an lic, of Sir Thomas More, of Campanella, and a almanac in Philadelphia, which gave him a precursor of Rousseau."23 The similarity far larger market.28 Because his calculations between Prieber's and Rousseau's ideas can were fixed to the year 1800, almanacs using be explained by the fact that they were follow- his calculations continued to be published, ing a common sociophilosophical tradition.24 often under his name, in various colonies Prieber, a contemporary of Montesquieu, long after his death in 1765.29 reached America before Rousseau wrote any Of interest to South Carolina historians is a of his socio-philosophical works. description of South Carolina that Tobler During Prieber's trial, Oglethorpe sent a published in a Swiss almanac in 1753.30 long letter, dated April 22,1743, to the Duke of Although he was obviously writing to encour- Newcastle, Secretary of State, summarizing age immigration to South Carolina, he the proceedings.25 Most of the letter consists avoided the exaggerations perpetrated by of a paraphrase of Prieber's journal, written in Jean-Pierre Puny and other promoters.