Thursday Things: Margravate of Awesome Edition
14 September 2023. Vol 5 No 37. By Dan McGirt. #214
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Savannah is nice and all. But it could have been a margravate! Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash
Margravate musings
This week I learned about a bit of Georgia history that was completely new to me: the Margravate of Azilia.
The who what now?
Gallery Highlight: The Margravate of Azilia: The Colony that Never Was
In 1717 Sir Robert Montgomery proposed the creation of the Margravate of Azilia on a tract of land between the Savannah and Altahama Rivers. In his publication A Discourse Concerning the design’d Establishment Of a New Colony To The South of Carolina, in the Most delightful Country of the Universe, Montgomery imagined a new colony that would rival the Garden of Eden. The Margravate of Azilia never came to fruition, perhaps in part because its proposal came on the heels of the Yamasee Indian War.
Okay, that’s intriguing. But I need to know more:
Fortunately this quilting site has you covered: THE MARGRAVATE OF AZILIA -- PART ONE
Montgomery proposed a colony of some 400 square miles between the Savannah River and the Alatamaha [sic] River in a tract entitled "A Discourse concerning the design'd establishment of a New Colony to the South of Carolina, in the most delightful country of the Universe. By Sir Robert Mountgomry, Baronet." The "tract" is somewhat of a prospectus for the project. A margravate is an eastern European name for a small colony whose leader is a "margrave," (ruler) normally with some form of lineage; Azilia is a Mesolithic European culture. The map that accompanied the tract was an impressive piece of work and probably served as the prototype for other similar ventures. Each twenty-square mile box represents a district or township…
In the center of the Margravate of Azilia a city "three miles square" with the palace of the Margrave at the center. Around the city "a void," as described by Montgomry, sort of a green space, of a mile. The ambitious plan called for a grant from Lord Carteret the Lord Palatine, and the Lords Proprietors of the Province of Carolina. In exchange the new colony would pay a penny sterling for each acre of land. (There are 256,000 acres in 400 sq. miles).
After the green space around the city came the homes of the gentry, the landed class. In each quadrant is an area of 25 square miles of "great Parks." One contains horses, one cows, one sheep, and the fourth contains deer. Hunting is portrayed in the area with the deer.
Outside the noble's estates were farms to be worked by commoners, who after a number of years of service to the Margrave would recieve title to the land. Finally, the land of the Margrave himself. On the outside of the square a defensive, walled parameter of eighty miles would be established. (quoting ourgeorgiahistory.com)
The Margravate of Azilia didn’t take off, although the idea of planting a colony in what would become Georgia as a buffer between the Spanish territories in Florida and the rich Carolina colony1 would come together about twenty years later under James Oglethorpe.
We did not cover this in my 8th grade Georgia history class! Which is a shame because I am fascinated by crazy colonization schemes that never got off the ground.
Also — we could have had a margravate! How cool is that?
You might wonder why information about the Margravate of Azilia the above was on a quilting-themed blog. That’s due to the plan of settlement for proposed margravate included in Montgomery’s proposal. You must admit it would make an interesting quilt design:
The Margravate of Azilia. It wasn’t much of a colony but it makes a nice quilt. Image: Digital Library of Georgia.
Instead of this we got Savannah. Which, don’t get me wrong, is a great city! I love Savannah.
But it’s no margravate.
I’d settle for the quilt though.
When ants attack!
Speaking of Georgia history, fire ants have been a part of life in Georgia and across the South for so long that we forget they aren’t a native species.2 Fire ants, named for their fiery sting, are originally from South America where, as in Australia, everything in nature wants to kill you. We’ve just gotten used to them.
Europe, however, has not. But it looks like they’re about to:
Invasive red fire ant spotted in Europe for first time, researchers say
The red imported fire ant, classified as one of the worst and costliest invasive species in the world, has been spotted in Europe for the first time, researchers warned Monday.
Although there have been several "interceptions" of the destructive and stinging South American ant species previously in Europe, an established, mature colony had never been found on the continent until this past winter in Italy, according to the authors of a study published in the journal Current Biology.
The team of Spanish and Italian researchers found 88 red fire ant nests across 5 hectares (12 acres) near the Sicilian commercial port city of Syracuse and determined through genetic testing that the colonies could have come via shipping routes from China or the United States.
Good luck, y’all! You’ll need it.3
This is exactly what it feels like when a fire ant stings you. Except it’s never just one. Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash
Sad to say
I’ll round out my Georgia theme this week with this sad item:
The Georgia accent is fading away, university researchers say
The Southern accent is going away, according to a collaborative study between the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech.
Researchers say this change is thanks to Generation X.
Generation X includes people born between 1965 and 1982, which is when the accent fell off a cliff.
Wait, I’m Gen X! What did we do?
“We found that, here in Georgia, white English speakers’ accents have been shifting away from the traditional Southern pronunciation for the last few generations,” said Margaret Renwick, associate professor in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Department of Linguistics and lead on the study. “Today’s college students don’t sound like their parents, who didn’t sound like their own parents.”
Researchers focused on recordings of white individuals native to Georgia, born from the late 19th century to the early 2000s, and the way they pronounced vowels.
The team is now pursuing the study of cross-generational accents among the Black population, according to the release.
The reasons have to do in part population shifts — there are lot more folks in Georgia and across the South who weren’t born here and didn’t grow up here, bringing with them their own vocal patterns and pronunciations from elsewhere. The other big factor, no surprise, is the media — television and film mainly — which seems to drive a homogenization of pronunciation everywhere.
“The demographics of the South have changed a lot with people moving into the area, especially post World War II,” said co-author Jon Forrest, UGA assistant professor in the department of linguistics. Forrest noted that what the researchers see in Georgia is part of a shift noted by others across the entire South, and furthermore, other areas of the U.S. now have similar vowel patterns. “We are seeing similar shifts across many regions, and we might find people in California, Atlanta, Boston and Detroit that have similar speech characteristics,” Forrest said.
I suppose those tidal shifts in language are bigger than you and me. But I think it’s a shame if we all sound alike in the future. Save the Southern accent, y’all!
You can read the full study here: Boomer Peak or Gen X Cliff? From SVS to LBMS in Georgia English
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Seriously. Georgia was founded to be South Carolina’s bodyguard. Not even kidding.
The Neverending Battle with Atlanta’s Fire Ants
To fight your enemy you have to know your enemy. The type of fire ants that persist here in Atlanta, are not native to the U.S. In fact, they originated from South America sometime in the 1930s and ended up migrating to Texas. Quite comfortable with the warmer temperatures, now there is hardly a place in the south that doesn’t have them.
These imported fire ants are more aggressive than their North American cousins. Fire ants are not shy about attacking animals and humans that happen upon their nests. Fire ants are a competitive and hardy species that don’t respond well to traditional ant control products.
They can’t be bargained with.
And it’s not like you weren’t warned all the way back in 2011.
Fire Ants Using U.S. as Staging Ground for Global Invasion
For a tiny insect, red fire ants pack a nasty sting. Stepping on a nest can put you in the hospital. The ants originally hail from South America and spread to the United States 75 years ago. Now genetic studies show that the southern United States, not these native lands in South America, is the source of multiple new invasions around the globe. Pinning down where these ants are coming from may help countries slow the spread of the insects before they do too much damage.
In the southern United States, fire ants have been a menace since they snuck into North America in the 1930s from Argentina, most likely as cargo stowaways. They spread rapidly in Florida, Louisiana, and other southern states, driving out other ants and disrupting the landscape with prolific, aggressive colonies. With no natural enemies, their densities reached 10 to 100 times that of Argentina. Each year, they exact a $6 billion toll from property damage, medical treatments, and control costs.
For many years, the fire ants seemed confined to states such as Florida and Texas. But in the 1990s, they made it to California, hitchhiking on the pallets used to transport honeybees moved from farm to farm to pollinate crops. And recently, fire ants have shown up in Australia, Taiwan, China, and the Caribbean. They have the potential to spread over half the land in the world, seemingly limited by dry climates and freezing weather.
Back in 2011 researchers found that fire ants had emigrated from the southeastern US at least nine times — to California twice, and to Taiwan, China, and Australia. Clearly they’ve been busy since then, having now reached Italy.
Fire ants often stow away in dirt in nursery stock or on pallets or earth-moving equipment. They can persist for months without food and will even eat their young to prevent starving. And they thrive in areas where the natural vegetation has been disrupted, which is where they are likely to land once transported.
Bon voyage!