Nature seems to have prepared, during the Revolution, men for subduing the wilderness and its savage inhabitants.  They cheerfully encountered all the difficulties and hazards thus presented, and constantly pursued their object to its consummation.  They came from every section of the older communities, and all seemed animated with the same spirit.  They were orderly, but rude; and though beyond the pale of the law, they were a law unto themselves; and these laws were strictly enforced by a public opinion which gave them being and efficiency.  With remarkably simple habits and very limited opportunities, their wants were few; and these were supplied by their own industry and frugality upon the farm.  Their currency was silver coin, Spanish milled, and extremely limited in quantity.  The little trade carried on was principally by barter, and social intercourse was confined almost exclusively to the Sabbath.  The roads were rough and uneven, consisting almost entirely of a way sufficiently wide for an ox-cart to pass, cut through the forest, where the stumps and stones remained; and in soft or muddy places, the bodies of small trees or split rails were placed side by side, so as to form a sort of bridge or causeway, so rough as to test and not unfrequently to destroy the wheels of the rude vehicles of the country.  These obtained and to this day receive the sobriquet of Georgia railroads or corduroy turnpikes.

Very few of these immigrants were independent of labor; and most of them devoted six days of the week to the cultivation of a small farm and its improvement.  Children learned early to assist in this labor, and those who were sent to school, almost universally employed the Saturday of each week in farm-work.

Man’s social nature induces aggregation into communities, which stimulates an ambition to excel in every undertaking.  From this emulation grows excellence and progress in every laudable enterprise.  These small communities, as they grew from accessions coming into the country, began to build rude places for public worship, which were primitive log-cabins, and served as well the purposes of a school-house.  Here the adult population assembled on the Sabbath, and the children during the week.  This intercourse, together with the dependence of every one at times for neighborly assistance, was greatly promotive of harmony and mutual confidence.  Close and familiar acquaintance revealed to all the peculiar character of every one—­the virtuous and the vicious, the energetic or the indolent, the noble and the ignoble—­and all very soon came to be appreciated according to their merit.

Rude sports constituted the amusements of the young—­wrestling, leaping, and hunting; and he who was most expert at these was the neighborhood’s pride:  he rode from church with the prettiest girl, and was sure to be welcomed by her parents when he came; and to be selected by such an one was to become the neighborhood’s belle.  At log-rollings, quiltings, and Saturday-night frolics, he was the first and the most admired.