Southern revolutionary rifle

[Stophel]

I (barely) remember reading a quote from Lord Oglethorpe bemoaning the dearth of men in his colony practicing any kind of mechanical trade (granted, this is a little early, and I don't have the quote available).

The gunsmiths in S.C. and Georgia just weren't there. A few, no doubt, but apparently not many. Even in Virginia, it seems that the number of known gunsmiths in the entire colony/State at any one time were outnumbered by gunsmiths in Lancaster county, PA ALONE. :haha:

And remember, the population of the far southern colonies was MUCH less than their neighbors to the north. Fewer people, fewer guns (of any kind).

Here is a list of the estimated population of each colony in 1770.
1. Virginia 447,016
2. Pennsylvania 240,057
3. Massachusetts 235,808
4. Maryland 202,599
5. North Carolina 197,200
6. Connecticut 183,881
7. New York 162,920
8. South Carolina 124,244
9. New Jersey 117,431
10. Rhode Island 58,196
11. New Hampshire 62,396
12. Delaware 35,496
13. Georgia 23,375

claimed territories of the colonies:
Maine (part of Massachusetts) 31,257
Kentucky (Virginia) 15,700
Vermont (New York/New Hampshire) 10,000
Tennessee (North Carolina) 1,000

 

[SgtErv]

Do those population figures count African American slaves and indentured servants? Just wondered; someomes they did and sometimes they didn't, depending on who was counting.

Having studied my area (West Virginia) pretty extensively, it seems everyone knew Pennsylvania rifles were the best and they were highly sought after. I agree with the gentlemen above that discussed that these Pennsylvania rifles made their way into the Appalachians, north and south. There was a good deal of trade in the interior, and much movement of people.

I also agree that cheap trade guns were abundant. Rifles were mighty expensive, but it seems that those who hunted deer commercially saw them as an investment.

Very interesting thread I've been following here.

 

[Twisted_1in66]

If you do much reading of primary documents in the 1700's you'll find that people's spelling was all over the place, with the same word sometimes spelled three different ways in one letter. And that includes spelling by Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc. They primarily seemed to spell phonetically as opposed to "dictionary spelling".

I would be surprised if Deckard and Dickert weren't the same builder especially since the pronunciation in the south for "Dickert" would be MUCH different than it was in Pennsylvania and very close to the way Deckard is spelled. There just were no spelling standards to speak of back then.

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:
Dan