Good help is hard to find.....

So far we have two sons of Zachariah that I am currently investigating that could be our grandfather after Zach.

Patrick Butler b March 1, 1760 in St Pauls Parrish Hanover Co Va married Elizabeth Fannin in Va , served in Capt James Anderson's company, Colonel Nelson's regiment, and in 1781 in Captain Brown's company. He was in the battles of Camden and Guilford.

Both Battles were lost to the British , but with such a high cost that British General Cornwallis lost 25% of his troops in the Battle of Guilford. The Americans were led by Nathaniel Green good friend of George Washington and his most trusted General.

After the war Patrick was awarded land in Georgia in Elbert Co and went there with his father Zachariah. His grave is in Elbert Co in the Butler Cemetery on the Dye Homeplace in Fortsonia Ga, south of Elberton in Elbert Co Ga along with his father Zachariah. Their wives and others are probably there too.

Nathan(iel) Butler b1769 Virginia married Mary Ann ? I have not found their marriage record, but I have copies of land transfers done in Elbert Co Ga that show his wife's name to be Mary Ann. April 20th 1805 Nathan and Mary Ann his wife sold over 100 acres for $250.00 to John Brewer on the waters of the Wahatchee Creek a branch of the Broad River.

So Zachariah and his sons and their wives and children came to Ga for their free land. They left Virginia and traveled by foot or horse or wagon to Elbert Co Ga.

A 200 acre farm needs at least 9 -12 adults to do the work necessary to cultivate the land, clear the land, raise crops, tend animals, build homes and out buildings, dig a well,
fortify the place against attacks by Native Americans and wild animals, chop wood to last through the winter, etc.
Zach, Patrick, Nathan, possibly another son....how did they do all that was needed to survive?

They had help...like I said before.
They brought all their worldly possessions from Virginia and that included their slaves..

Are you surprised, shocked, or maybe in the back of your mind you always knew that the possibility existed that our forefathers actually owned other human beings? I was not surprised, but I was sad that along with my pride in America I have to temper that pride with the knowledge about the sin of Slavery..Yes I call it a sin, because I believe greed was the seed that for some justified slave labor. Servitude was nothing new to the British. The social classes had rigid lines and people of higher social standing had always had servants who did the day to day work. The Lords ruled over the peasants, the land owners over the renters. Indentured servants worked for a craftsman or over lord for period of time and then they were free to go out on their own. Many people worked under the thumb of someone else to earn their passage to America. But agricultural cash crops like tobacco, corn, cotton, and rice needed lots of intense labor and the sin of slavery became an institution that provided that labor. .....In the end it would cost them almost everything.

So Zachariah, Patrick, and Nathan worked their land and they did not do it alone. We don't know who they were, but the Africans who came to Georgia with our Grandfathers worked side by side with the Revolutionary war heroes, and their wives building a new life in north Georgia..........