Arlin C. Migliazzo. To Make This Land Our Own: Community, Identity, and Cultural Adaptation in Purrysburg Township, South Carolina, 1732-1865. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2007. x + 435 pp. $59.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-57003-682-8.

Reviewed by Lisa Denmark (Department of History, Georgia Southern University)
Published on H-SC (May, 2008)

The Nexus of Community

In the summer of 1732, Jean Pierre Purry, military official, merchant, former mayor, theorist, and for some an "unscrupulous opportunist," was now acting in the role of an "early modern Moses," preparing to leave the shores of Europe to lead his people to "a new promised land of plenty and opportunity" (p. 41). Yet, when Purry and his contracted followers arrived in South Carolina, they discovered that the land was not as advertised, and in some cases it was not even their land. Over the next four decades, these original settlers and their children faced numerous challenges in making the land their own and forming a community out of a "neighborhood of strangers" (p. 12).

Community development within Purrysburg, South Carolina and the larger colonial network is at the center of Arlin C. Migliazzo's latest book To Make This Land Our Own. In this highly readable and minutely researched work, Migliazzo seeks to move beyond a local study of Purrysburg to understand its development within the larger context of the colonial South. Approaching his study of the origins, establishment, evolution, and eventual decline of Purrysburg from the Annales school, Migliazzo challenges the myth of a monolithic "Cavalier white culture." He asserts that the process of assimilation was more complicated and took longer than current historians have recognized. Using Purrysburg as a case study of what he calls "the other South," he maintains that immigrants who settled in the South continued to identify with their native European cultures long after the first generation, in the process influencing community development within both the town and region (p. 2).

Employing network theory, which assumes the existence of multiple and "dynamic" contexts of community, Migliazzo submits that ethnic identification, linguistic isolation, religious division, and cultural markers inhibited local community development (p. 8). However, these same elements, combined with commercial ties, promoted closer contacts with external groups and facilitated vertical integration into the larger colonial structures of the South Carolina and Georgia lowcountry.

The book has eight thematically organized chapters. The first two detail the origins of Purrysburg Township and the importance of lowcountry interests. The remaining chapters focus on various elements of community development, including family, church, and commerce. After explaining how each of these often function to strengthen local community bonds, Migliazzo analyzes their operation in Purrysburg. He concludes that while the normal horizontal linkages did not promote a sense of local community for Purrysburg residents, vertical linkages proved much stronger and more enduring.

In part, Migliazzo argues, the difficulty in creating a sense of local community, can be attributed to the dominance of lowcountry interests. Purrysburg was established primarily due to South Carolina's need for military protection and a growing desire to "augment the white population to make the colony safe from any potential enemies" (p. 31). Purry's driving ambition to establish a settlement coincided with the British Empire's desire to secure its southern flank in the North American colonies. After fifteen years of effort and several failures, Purry's plan received new life when the Yamassee Indians rebelled against their former English allies in South Carolina. When Charleston's need for protection supplanted other mercantilist priorities, Purry's vision came one step closer to reality.

Charleston's defensive requirements, therefore, dictated both the creation of Purrysburg and its location. Situated on the Savannah River thirty miles from the Atlantic Ocean in an infertile region commonly known as the pine barrens, Purrysburg became part of the "cordon sanitaire on the southern flank" (p. 26). The same exigencies determined the layout, population, and property allotments of the township. In Migliazzo's words, "Purrysburg Township served the interests of entrenched provincial elites at the expense of the colonists to be" (p. 46). In addition to conflicting with the interests of Purrysburg residents, Charleston's military, economic, and political plans inhibited local, or horizontal, community development in Purrysburg.

The purpose, location, and layout of the town may have been obstacles to local community development, but they were not insurmountable ones. Migliazzo notes that the "unique cultural composition," which consisted of multiple layers of division, including language, religion, nationality, and ethnicity, were further complicated by political isolation and growing splits among urban and rural populations (p. 47). Given all of these obstacles, it is actually remarkable that Purrysburg existed as long as it did.

In chapter 3, Migliazzo begins his analysis of community development with the family. Due to Purrysburg's ethnic diversity, the family took on an even more important role in establishing communal bonds. Utilizing a wide array of court records, wills, estate inventories, and personal manuscripts, Migliazzo maintains that "multiple marriages and blended families" were characteristic of the Purrysburg settlement. These familial links often developed as a result of vertical ties, particularly with Ebenezer. The marriages that crossed the ethno-linguistic barriers, Migliazzo argues, were usually among those "up-and-coming township families" (p. 115). Other than the ever-present specter of sickness and death, many families also dealt with the strain of poverty, which required husbands and fathers to find work in other communities. These long and sometimes permanent absences (due to death or abandonment) increased the burdens on remaining family members. This greater autonomy was not necessarily beneficial, particularly when it came to legal issues and property rights. The situation was so common, however, that colonial leaders were forced to recognize the issue and adapted by giving women greater legal status control over their property. But, as Migliazzo notes, these same leaders saw this simply as a necessary expedient. In addition to its impact on women, the division of families contributed to loss of parental control, which manifested itself in disciplinary and courting problems.

In chapter 4, Migliazzo addresses the function of the church and religion as factors of horizontal community development. Rather than acting as a centripetal force facilitating bonds among residents, religion subverted local community development. Although Purrysburg immigrants were Protestants, Migliazzo carefully delineates the numerous theological differences which existed among them. From the placement of the church on the outskirts rather than the center of the township, to the linguistic barrier between the German and French Reformed, to the religious differences between the French and German Reformed and the Lutheran Pietists, the church "inhibited local community development for nearly thirty years" because it forced inhabitants to choose between conflicting "cultural and religious traditions" (p. 117). The choice of priests also undercut efforts to forge a common religious identity. Most of the appointees were not bilingual, which isolated them from part of the congregation. As a further deterrent, some of the priests were more interested in spending time in Savannah or accumulating land and acquiring wealth than nurturing the spiritual needs of their parishioners.

This same drive for wealth, according to Migliazzo, led to an increasingly wide network of commercial linkages emanating from Purrysburg to the larger community of the lowcountry. In chapters 5 and 6, the most substantive part of the book, Migliazzo argues that while Purrysburg residents developed only weak horizontal relationships within their community, commercial ties laid the foundation for stronger and more enduring communities to develop among Purrysburg and the surrounding townships, particularly Savannah and Ebenezer. By virtue of its location on the Savannah River, Purrysburg was the primary stopping point for those traveling to and from the backcountry. It acted as a provisioning area, parcel drop-off, and transfer station. In addition to spur roads that led to the township, the King's Highway, which for a time served as the primary road between Charleston and Savannah, also ran through Purrysburg.

Ebenezer, as the closest settlement to Purrysburg and inhabited by German Lutheran Pietists, had the most frequent contact with this South Carolina outpost. Reverend Johannn Martin Boltzius, the pastor at Ebenezer, wrote often about his Purrysburg neighbors. It was rare indeed for him to record anything positive. Yet, due to the paucity of records from Purrysburg inhabitants, the observations left by Ebenezer residents constitute a valuable source. Migliazzo uses these to weave together the story of Purrysburg and its relation to the rest of the region. The existence of a German-speaking Lutheran Pietist settlement only twelve miles away perpetuated and even exacerbated religious divisions in Purrysburg. Yet, while Ebenezer undercut the development of horizontal relationships within the Purrysburg community, it facilitated vertical relationships within the larger regional network. Some Purrysburg residents chose to worship with the Ebenezer congregation; others sent their children to school at the settlement; while still others found work there. The relationships between these two settlements, however, could never be described as harmonious. A particular source of tension came from Purrysburg's penchant for selling alcohol, a product forbidden in early Georgia.

While Purrysburg's willingness to participate in various forms of legitimate and illicit trade created tensions with its closest neighbor, it also underscores the economic adaptability of Purrysburg's residents. To survive and succeed, they had to be willing to seek economic opportunity where they could find it. Skilled in various crafts, Purrysburg citizens found little call for their skills in the wilderness. They dealt with this by finding employment or underemployment in other locations like Ebenezer or Savannah. Some opted to do so permanently. Migliazzo contends that the limited economic options available to those who chose to stay compelled some residents to take up farming. Doing so in this region was not an easy task. In addition to lack of agricultural experience and continued illegal land grants of the best land to wealthy Carolinians, they had to contend with the infertile soil of the pine barrens. Yet, in spite of early food shortages and even a cattle plague, by the 1740s those who persevered had laid the foundation for the creation of a plantation economy. These planter-ranchers, as Migliazzo classifies them, began moving onto land beyond the township during the first decade, consolidated that land by the second decade, and had become increasingly prosperous slave-owning planter-ranchers by the third. Thus, by the mid-1770s a mature slave-based plantation economy had eclipsed the town vision of Purrysburg.

Exactly what these planters-ranchers living on the fringe of the great rice-growing region were producing is not always clear. While early records indicate a large amount of livestock, Migliazzo implies that Purrysburg planters had a diversified economy, producing possibly rice and indigo as well as wheat and corn, which they sold to lowcountry planters. Yet, this diversified economy could not satisfy Migliazzo's artisans-turned-agricultural entrepreneurs, who sought title to the new rice-growing lands in Georgia. In contrast to the majority of the well-documented primary research, here Migliazzo relies primarily on comparative secondary sources.

The onset of war interrupted the development of Purrysburg's plantation economy. Migliazzo concludes his study of Purrysburg with a look at its experience during the American Revolution and its gradual decline following the war. From the outbreak of hostilities, Purrysburg became an important outpost, but after the British invaded Savannah it finally served its original purpose--protecting the southern flank of South Carolina. Migliazzo details the ordeal of Purrysburg residents as they dealt with an army of occupation, albeit a friendly one. Although Purrysburg managed to weather eventual British occupation and survive the war, the township would never return to its prewar importance. During the early nineteenth century, Purrysburg retained its position within the region's transportation network. But after the 1820s, with the construction of new roads and especially the move to railroads, Purrysburg dwindled in importance and residents continued to leave the township. In the last two sections of this chapter, Migliazzo details the last years of Purrysburg and its final destruction at the hands of Sherman's army.

Readers of H-SC will appreciate the way Migliazzo's situates the development of Purrysburg within the larger context of colonial South Carolina's needs. His assertions regarding Charleston's efforts to dominate will come as no surprise, but their specific application and impact with respect to Purrysburg is informative and enlightening. Those who study the colony's neighbor to the south will be interested in Migliazzo's perspective on Georgia's early development, particularly Savannah and Ebenezer, which played significant and possibly even determining roles in the evolution of Purrysburg.

There are some minor errors. For instance, Migliazzo locates Bethesda Orphanage north of Savannah, when in reality it was established to the south. Beginning in chapter 5, Migliazzo begins to reference dates rather awkwardly. He notes that Purry made a visit to Savannah in "February 1733/34" (p. 180). At first this reader thought it was merely a typo. However, by chapter 7, this form of date reference was a common occurrence. On more substantive issues, in Migliazzo's effort to emphasize the numerous obstacles to community development, it is possible that he slights other mechanisms that may have strengthened local bonds. One of these may have been common feelings of resentment towards Charleston's domination. Another and potentially more important one may have been the militia. It would seem that mustering during the year, participating in frontier defense against the Indians, as well as aiding the English in the War of Jenkins Ear against the Spanish would in some way have promoted closer bonds.

These deficiencies aside, Migliazzo's study of Purrysburg will be of interest to historians examining the development of the colonial South. Drawing upon a wide variety of sources, Migliazzo has made an important contribution to understanding Purrysburg within the larger historical context of the South and has reminded historians of the importance of recognizing the dynamism of community development.

If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at: https://networks.h-net.org/h-sc.

Citation: Lisa Denmark. Review of Migliazzo, Arlin C., To Make This Land Our Own: Community, Identity, and Cultural Adaptation in Purrysburg Township, South Carolina, 1732-1865. H-SC, H-Net Reviews. May, 2008.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14492

Copyright © 2008 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For any other proposed use, contact the Reviews editorial staff at hbooks@mail.h-net.org.