there was a cordial, and even an affectionate,
understanding between the slaves and their owners, that perhaps had no
parallel elsewhere. The poorer whites had no reason to hold their heads
down because they had to work for their living. The richest slave owners
did not feel themselves above those who had few negroes or none. When
a man called his neighbor "Colonel," or "Judge," it was to show his
respect, nothing more. For the rest, the humblest held their heads as
high as the richest, and were as quick, perhaps quicker, in a quarrel.

The Virginians and North Carolinians who settled in the Broad River
region intermarried, and spread out over middle Georgia. Those who were
not akin were bound to each other by ties of long acquaintanceship; but
the homogeneousness of the people, complete and thorough as it was, was
not marked by any monotony. On the contrary, character and individuality
ran riot, appearing in such strange and attractive shapes as to puzzle
and bewilder even those who were familiar with the queer manifestations.
Every settlement had its peculiarities, and every neighborhood boasted
of its humorist,--its clown, whose pranks and jests were limited by
no license. Out of this has grown a literature which, in some of its
characteristics, is not matched elsewhere on the globe; but that which
has been preserved by printing is not comparable, either in volume or
merit, with the great body of humor that has perished because of the
lack of some one industrious enough to chronicle it.

One of the most perfect types of the Georgia humorist was the late John
M. Dooly. Judge Dooly was a remarkable man in other respects, but it is
his wonderful fund of humor that has made his name famous in Georgia and
throughout the country. It has been told in these pages how Colonel John
Dooly was dragged from his bed by the Tories and murdered. This Colonel
Dooly was the father of John M., who was hid under the bed when the
Tories dragged his father out and murdered him. It might be supposed
that such an event would have a tendency to give a boy a very serious
view of life. Judge Dooly's views were no doubt serious enough; but they
were overwhelmed and overpowered by a temperament which found cause for
laughter in almost every person and passing event, and was the cause of
innocent mirth in others.

Judge Dooly was born in what he called the "Dark Corner" of Lincoln
County, which had not then been cut off from Wilkes. After the m