e may have been a few
drones in the towns, but there were no idle hands in the country places.

The men built for their families comfortable log cabins; and these,
with their clean sanded floors, are still the fashion in some parts of
Georgia. This done, they went about the business of raising crops, and
stocking their farms with cattle. The women and children were just as
busy. In every cabin could be heard the hum of the spinning wheel, and
the thump of the old hand loom. While the men were engaged in their
outdoor work, the women spun, wove, and made the comfortable jeans
clothes that were the fashion; while the girls plaited straw, and made
hats and bonnets, and in many other ways helped the older people. In
a little while peddlers from the more northern States began to travel
through Georgia with their various wares, some with pewter plates and
spoons, and some with clocks. The peddlers traveled in wagons instead
of carrying their packs on their backs, and in this way brought a great
deal of merchandise to the State.

As was natural, the political development of Georgia was much more rapid
than its industrial progress. In January, 1783, Lyman Hall was elected
governor. He was distinguished for the patriotic stand he took at the
very beginning of the controversy between the Colony and the King. The
Legislature met in Savannah after the evacuation of the town by the
British; but it was so far from the central and upper portions of the
State, and there was so much dissatisfaction among the people on this
account, that in May Augusta was made the capital. In that town the
General Assembly met July 8, 1783. Measures were at once taken to seize
land, and confiscate the property of those Royalists who had lived
in Georgia. This property was sold for the benefit of the public. In
November of the same year a new cession of land was obtained from the
Creek nation by treaty. This was divided into the counties of Franklin
and Washington, and the land distributed in bounties to the soldiers of
the war.

It is worthy of note that about this time, when the State had hardly
begun to recover from the effects of the war, the representatives of
the people began to move in the matter of education. The Constitution
of 1777 had declared that "schools shall be erected in each county, and
supported by the general expense of the State." On the 31st of July,
1783, the Legislature appropriated one thousand acres of land to each
county for