Henry Newman's Salzburger Letterbooks by George Fenwick Jones; Henry NewmanReview by: H. George AndersonThe South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. 68, No. 4 (Oct., 1967), pp. 258-260Published by: South Carolina Historical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27566848 .

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258 SOUTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL MAGAZINE

Robert Johnson, Proprietary ?r Royal Governor of South Carolina.

By Richard P. Sherman. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1966. Pp. xii, 203. Illustrations, bibliographical essay, index. $6.75.

It is unfortunate that this conscientious and courageous man seems

to have left so few details of his own life that this book had to be con

fined almost entirely to his administrations, particularly the last. There

also, the author has been so concerned with Johnson's struggle with

land-grabbers, and the solution of the quit-rent problem, that he gives us only a scant notice of the governor's statesmanlike spreading of

the province, and its protection from Florida by the founding of Georgia as a buffer colony.

The book fails in editing, both by the writer and the publishers. Readers, even of such special phases of history as this, are surely entitled

to greater clarity of style and organization of material than they will find

here. Also a more comprehensive index might easily have been had.

A very handsome format has been unnecessarily spoiled by unworthy illustrations. Five times, for end-papers and as an illustration, a crudely

ugly sketch of the coat-of-arms of the governor's father has been used, without attributions. A picture (allegedly) of Johnson's return to South

Carolina in 1731 is another illustration. Without intrinsic merit, it is

also extremely doubtful as a document of any historical veracity.

Samuel G. Stoney

Henry Newmans Salzburger Letterbooks. Translated and edited by

George Fenwick Jones. Wormsloe Foundation Publications, Number

Eight. Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1966. Pp. xi, 626. Intro

duction, notes, index, maps. $12.00.

As secretary of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,

Henry Newman administered a reservoir of funds which could be ap

plied to various charitable projects. Into his office, in 1732, came a letter

from Germany concerning the plight of "the Poor Saltzburgers who for

the sake of the Protestant Religion are driven out of their country." In

responding to the need of these religious refugees, Henry Newman began a correspondence that would fill five folio manuscript volumes and three

account books. George Fenwick Jones, of the University of Maryland, has translated and edited this rich mine of correspondence for the Worms

loe Foundation Publications series on Georgia history. This large and handsomely printed volume contains two major di

visions. Part One contains the "Outward Correspondence", or letters

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REVIEWS 259

written by Newman himself, from June 13,1732, to July 14, 1739. The let

ters are arranged chronologically, and the whole section occupies a little

less than half of the volume. Part Two, "Inward Correspondence", con

tains letters to Newman from The Rev. Samuel Urlsperger, who super vised the distribution of funds to the refugees in Augsburg, and from

many other men?Oglethorpe, Bolzius, Gronau, and von Reck?whose

names are associated with the early settlement of Georgia. This second

part spans the time from April 14, 1732, to October 27, 1735.

Editor Jones has chosen to print "inward" and "outward" corres

pondence separately, even though this arrangement forces the reader

to listen to one end of the "conversation" at a time. His decision is justified,

however, by the facts that letters often crossed in the mails and that

months would elapse between the writing and the receiving of any

given letter. Thus a strictly chronological blending of the inward and

outward correspondence would be meaningless. Jones has provided a

useful introduction, notes to interpret obscure references, and an index

to the authors of inward correspondence. An index to proper names, which completes the volume, should be of special interest to people en

gaged in genealogical research. This reader found two minor errors in the

latter index: the last reference under "Presbyterians" should read "599

nl3" and True Christianity should be identified as a "Hetistic" rather

than a "Dietistic" treatise.

This volume will contribute two important perspectives to colonial

history. First, it will broaden our understanding of the vast Salzburg mi

gration, which comprised about 40,000 people. American historians tend

to forget that the hundreds of refugees who came to this country were

only a tiny fraction of the thousands who were resettled in Europe. Sec

ond, the book will replace many romantic tales and legendary accounts

of the European background of the Salzburger emigration with equally

gripping and more reliable facts. The prosaic fines of many letters ring with the heroism and suffering of humble people whose fives have never

before been chronicled.

Of particular interest to South Carolinians and Georgians are the

letters written about the crossing and settlement in Georgia. We see the

Salzburgers move through frontier Savannah toward their alloted land

at Old Ebenezer. Then come letters pleading for permission to move

to higher and better ground. The further history of this colony is prom ised to us in forthcoming volumes of the Worlmsloe Foundation series

which will present material from the Salzburger leaders, as published in

Germany by the Rev. Mr. Urlsperger. These "Urlsperger Reports" have

long been known to contain much important material, and their promised

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260 SOUTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL MAGAZINE

publication, under the editorship of Mr. Jones, will be a major contri

bution to southern colonial history.

Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary H. George Anderson

Georgia Voices, A Documentary History to 1872. By Spencer B. King,

Jr. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1966. Pp. vi, 370. Index. $6.95.

In this volume Dr. King, chairman of the Department of History and

Government at Mercer University, has collected quotations from original

documentary sources and arranged them chronologically and topically. The quotations are tied together by transitional narrative paragraphs. The book covers the period from the Spanish exploration to the end of

Reconstruction. The author treats such topics as ante-bellum society, the Negro, education, and literature in separate chapters.

The quotations are typical, informative, carefully chosen, and some

times amusing. The transitional paragraphs are of uneven quality and in

at least one case the author wisks the reader from De Soto to Henry Woodward in less than a paragraph. The author rarely introduces in

terpretations in his transitional narratives, leaving it up to the reader

to infer the author's opinion from the selections. In a section on the Klan,

King places the testimony of ex-Confederate General John Gordon that

the Klan was "a combination of the best men of the country" acting

purely in self-defense next to that of a Negro man who saw these flowers

of Southern chivalry whip defenseless women. This is followed by the

laconic statement of the author that the Negro was later shot. The remark

of a Negro slave to his mistress that he had been afraid that plowing would never be tried because horses were scarcer than men gives as much

insight into the effect of that institution on its victims as would a chapter of interpretation.

Much of the material covered by the selections are common to the

history of both South Carolina and Georgia. However, very little material

specifically referring to South Carolina is included. Such topics as the

aid given to Oglethorpe by Carolina, the border dispute, cooperation dur

ing secession are covered; but none of the material will be new to South

Carolinians.

South Carolinians might bridle at the author's suggestion that the

southwide commercial conventions were more important in the history of the nullification movement than the Nullification Convention. Humor

ously the author comments on an attempt by Georgians to take credit

from the Charleston Mercury for unfurling the first banner of independ

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