This journal comprises three sections: diary-like notes and commonplace-book-style entries, including comments on newspaper articles and political events; a list of persons to whom Clark sent his circular; and finally, his text concerning the charges laid against him by the district attorney, particularly the accusation of using slaves in his temporary custody in positions supposed to be held by whites. The journal provides full details of the legal battle which culminated in the Supreme Court. St Marys was an important port in the early nineteenth century. Boats and rafts loaded with cotton, hides and furs, dried meats, honey and beeswax could be seen plying their way to the port. Cotton, rice, sugar cane, corn, peaches, oranges, lemons and figs were the town's main exports. The area's abundant resources determined St Marys' industrial development. By the 1820s it had become the business and cultural centre of south-east Georgia. Lumbering, shrimping, fishing, shipbuilding and canning were the main activities. The emergence of the railways heralded the waterfront's demise. Clark's house at 314 Osborne Street survives and is St Marys' oldest building.
