THE CAROLINAS.
BY PROFESSOR WILLIAM J. RIVERS.
NORTH CAROLINA: PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT.—It was certainly manifest to
England that her claim to vast regions of valuable territory would
be substantiated, and her commerce and political power augmented,
by the settling of her subjects in North America. Yet the history
of her colonies bears, on many pages, evidence of the indifference
and inexcusable neglect of the mother country. Instead of a liberal
contribution of arms and munitions of war, the means of sustenance, and
the protection of her ever-present sovereignty to all who were willing
to leave the comforts of home and risk their lives in her service,
far away across the Atlantic, enough appeared to have been done if
lavish gifts of land were bestowed upon companies, individuals, or
proprietors, for their especial emolument, and through them some paltry
acres offered to emigrants, with promises of a little more religious
freedom and a little larger share of political privileges than they
were permitted to enjoy at home. The genesis of a new and potent
nationality may be said to have been involved in the acceptance, by the
colonists, of these conditions, as inducements to emigration, with all
else dependent on their own manly courage.
[Illustration: NORTH CAROLINA.
[This is a sketch of the map in Hawks’ _North Carolina_, ii. 570,
showing the grants and divisions from 1663 to 1729.
Quaritch in his _Catal._ for 1885, no. 29,516, prices at £25 a MS. map
of the south part of Virginia (North Carolina), showing the coast line
from Cape Henry to Cape Fear, and signed “Nicholas Comberford, fecit
anno 1657.” It measures 18¾ × 14 inches.—ED.]]
One of the colonies that struggled, through neglect and almost
insurmountable hardships, into permanent existence was Carolina. Before
its settlement, other colonies had successfully established themselves
in New England, and in Maryland and Virginia. In 1663, Charles II.,
in the second year after his restoration, granted the region south of
Virginia and extending from 31° to 36° north latitude, and westward
within these parallels across the continent, to some of his adherents,
to whom he was indebted for distinguished services. It is stated in
the grant that this extensive region is called “Carolina,” a name used
before, and now, no doubt, retained in honor of the king.[704] The
favored noblemen are thus introduced to us: “our right trusty and right
well-beloved cousins and counsellors, Edward, Earl of Clarendon, our
High Chancellor of England, and George, Duke of Albemarle, Master of
our Horse and Captain-General of all our Forces, our right trusty and
well-beloved William Lord Craven, John Lord Berkeley, our right trusty
and well-beloved counsellor, Anthony Lord Ashley, Chancellor of our
Exchequer, Sir George Carteret, Knight and Baronet, Vice-Chamberlain of
our Household, and our trusty and well-beloved Sir William Berkeley,
Knight, and Sir John Colleton, Knight and Baronet;” who, we are
deliberately informed, “being excited with a laudable and pious zeal
for the propagation of the Christian faith, and the enlargement of”
the British dominions, humbly besought leave of the king, “by their
industry and charge, to transport and make an ample colony” of his
subjects, “in the parts of America not yet cultivated or planted,
and only inhabited by some barbarous people who have no knowledge of
Almighty God.”[705] Had these high functionaries of the realm acted in
accordance with this solemn announcement of their pious zeal for the
propagation of Christianity, the blessing of Heaven would, no doubt,
have rested more largely upon their noble enterprise.
An adverse claim was soon made to the same territory under a grant
obtained in 1629,[706] by Sir Robert Heath, attorney-general of Charles
I. But he had failed to form a colony, and the claims of those to
whom he had conveyed his rights were on that account set aside. The
Proprietors under the new charter began to make immediate exertions to
form a settlement, that the king might see they did not “sleep with his
grant, but were promoting his service and his subjects’ profit.”[707]
[Illustration: AUTOGRAPHS OF THE LORDS PROPRIETORS.
These follow fac-similes given in the _Charleston Year Book_, 1883.]
Before this, settlers from Virginia had moved at various times
southward and taken up their residence on some good lands on and
near the river Chowan, in what is now the northeastern part of North
Carolina. Among these was a considerable number of Quakers, at that
time subject to religious persecution. It happened that Sir William
Berkeley, one of the new Proprietors, was governor of Virginia. He
was empowered by the other Proprietors to form a government forthwith
in this settlement, and appoint its officers; the appointment of
surveyor and secretary alone being reserved to the Proprietors in
England. “We do likewise send you proposals to all that will plant,
which we prepared upon receipt of a paper from persons that desired to
settle near Cape Fear, in which our considerations are as low as it is
possible for us to descend. This was not intended for your meridian,
where we hope to find more facile people, who, by your interest, may
settle upon better terms for us, which we leave to your management,
with our opinion that you grant as much as is possible rather than
deter any from planting there.” Sir William, it is inferred, followed
these instructions. William Drummond was appointed governor;[708] the
tract of land, at first forty miles square, was named Albemarle in
honor of the duke, and a council of six was constituted to make laws
with the consent of the delegates of the freemen. These laws were to
be transmitted to England for approval by the Proprietors. Lands were
granted to all free of rent for three years; and such lands as had been
taken by previous settlers were confirmed to them.
Almost simultaneously another colony (Clarendon) was settled in
what is now North Carolina. As early as 1660 some adventurers from
Massachusetts had gone to the Cape Fear, sometimes called the Charles,
River, and purchased lands from the Indians; but in a few years
abandoned the situation, leaving their cattle and swine in care of
the natives. To the same locality the attention of the inhabitants
of Barbadoes[709] was directed on the grant of the territory to the
powerful noblemen whose names are given in the charter. The passage
already quoted from the letter to Sir William Berkeley had reference to
them and their proposal. Explorers, employed by “several gentlemen and
merchants” of Barbadoes, were sent out (1663) under command of Hilton,
who ascended the Cape Fear far inland, and formed a more favorable
opinion of the country than the New Englanders had been enabled to form
near the mouth of the river. They purchased from the Indians “the river
and land of Cape Fair,” as they express it, and returned to Barbadoes
on January 6, 1664. An account of their exploration was published the
same year, to which were appended proposals from the Proprietors,
through their commissioners, Thomas Mudyford and Peter Colleton, to
all who should settle, at their own hazard and expense, south and west
of Cape Romano, sometimes called Cape Carteret. This was a bid for
volunteer settlers south of the Cape Fear settlement. Nothing whatever,
it appears, was accomplished under this offer of the commissioners.
In a _Description of the Province_, with liberal privileges offered
to settlers, issued also in London (1666), it is stated that a new
plantation had been begun by the English at Cape Fear on the 29th of
May, 1664. In the following November, Robert Sandford was appointed
secretary and John Vassall surveyor of “Clarendon County.”[710] It was
time the Proprietors should agree upon some definite and satisfactory
terms for settlement in their territory. While they did not sanction
the purchase of lands from Indians, as they had also disallowed the
claims of the New England adventurers, they made to all colonists,
from Barbadoes and elsewhere, liberal offers for settlement; and under
“concessions and agreement” a method of government was framed, and
John Yeamans of Barbadoes was knighted by the king (through means of
Sir John Colleton), and commissioned, in January, 1665, governor of the
newly formed Clarendon County[711] and of the territory southward as
far as Florida; for in this direction the Proprietors designed to place
a third colony or county.
The two counties, Albemarle and Clarendon, were formed under the
charter of 1663. Another charter was granted by the good-natured king
in June, 1665, enlarging the limits of the province to 36° 30´ on the
north, and on the south to 29°. This extension may be ascribed to the
desire of the Proprietors to secure beyond doubt the section on which
the Chowan colony happened to be formed near Virginia, and to embrace,
southwardly, the limits claimed with respect to Spanish Florida.
We have very little knowledge concerning the administrations of
Drummond and of Yeamans. It is said that the latter, being near the
sea, began at once to export lumber and opened a trade with Barbadoes;
and reports so favorable were carried thither, and so many were
induced to follow the first emigrants, that the authorities of the
island interposed, and forbade, under severe penalties, “the spiriting
off” of their people. In Albemarle, Drummond was succeeded by Samuel
Stephens as governor in 1667. In Clarendon, the colony soon ceased to
prosper, and most, if not all, of the colonists had abandoned it in
1667. We shall understand better why they did so if we bear in mind
that the territory of the Lords Proprietors was very extensive. There
were other places, not yet explored, more convenient for commerce,
more defensible, more fruitful, more desirable in all respects; the
advantages of which would naturally draw off settlers from the less
favorable localities selected before a thorough knowledge of the
country was obtained. The Proprietors, as we have said, thought of
forming, with larger preparations, a colony still further south. The
famous harbor of Port Royal, in what is now South Carolina, was the
locality they desired to occupy and (with unusual display of wisdom)
to fortify. For reasons, however, which will appear hereafter, when
we treat of South Carolina, the colonists, after visiting Port Royal,
and after a temporary settlement at Albemarle Point on the western
bank of the Ashley River, finally settled down on the opposite side,
at the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers, and founded the
present city of Charleston. There was, indeed, enough to discourage the
settlers at Cape Fear independently of the more extensive preparation
by the Proprietors to place a colony in a better situation. Secretary
Sandford (in his _Relation_ of his voyage in 1666) incidentally
mentions: “Wee were in actuall warre with the natives att Clarendon,
and had killed and sent away many of them, for they [the more southern
Indians] frequently discoursed with us concerning the warre, told us
the natives were noughts, their land sandy and barren, their country
sickly.” Surveyor-General Vassall, in a letter from Virginia (Oct.
6, 1667), speaks of the loss of the plantation on Charles River and
his furnishing shipping to carry away “such weak persons as were not
able to go by land.” And a letter from Boston (Dec. 16, 1667) states
that Cape Fear was deserted, and the settlers “come hither, some to
Virginia.”[712]
Here let us notice the policy and plans of the Proprietors with
respect to their distant colonies. The two charters differ only in a
few particulars. The second increases the extent of territory, its
main object, gives power to subdivide the province into distinct
governments, and is a little more explicit with regard to religious
toleration. No person was to be molested for difference of religious
opinion or practice who did not actually disturb the peace of the
community. With regard to political privileges, there is an important
clause in both charters conferring upon the Proprietors power to ordain
any laws and constitutions whatsoever (if consonant to reason and, as
far as possible, to the laws and customs of England), but only “by
and with the advice, assent, and approbation of the freemen,” or the
majority of them, or of their delegates or deputies, who, for enacting
such ordinances, were to be duly assembled from time to time. These
privileges, we shall see in the history of the colony, were maintained
by the people with a pertinacity commensurate with their importance,
whenever their lordships attempted to control the colonists without
due regard to their approbation and consent. The charter reserved to
the king only allegiance and sovereignty; in all other respects the
Proprietors were absolute lords, with no other service or duty to their
monarch than the annual payment of a trifling sum of money, and in case
gold or silver should be found a fourth part thereof.
On August 6, 1663, a letter to the Proprietors, from members of a
Cape Fear company of New England adventurers, claimed full liberty
to choose their governors, make and confirm laws, and to be free
from taxes, except such as they might impose on themselves, and
deprecated “discouragement in reference to their government” as to
the accustomed privileges of English colonists. While their claims
were not conceded, this letter was answered generally by their
lordships, on August 25th, announcing their concessions to all wishing
to settle in Carolina.[713] The New England claim of privileges is
worthy of notice for what we now call “advanced ideas.” And if we
compare the charters of Connecticut (1662) and Rhode Island (1663)
with that of Carolina (1663), it will appear that the self-interest of
Clarendon[714] and his associates stood in the way of their securing
to their colony some civil privileges which it would not have seemed
strange at that time to concede. And it may as well be stated here,
at once, that besides considerations of self-interest it was also
the express policy of their lordships to “avoid erecting a numerous
democracy” in their province. To carry out this policy, a grand scheme
of government, called the Fundamental Constitutions, was framed by
Shaftesbury and the philosopher Locke, and solemnly confirmed as a
compact among themselves,—the Proprietors,—and which was to be
unalterable forever. A scheme more utopian, more unsuited to the actual
condition of the colonists, could hardly have been devised. Yet its
adoption by the people was recommended, ordered, stubbornly insisted
on by their lordships at the risk of balking—as, for a while, it did
balk—the prosperity of their colony. The first set of the unalterable
Constitutions is dated 21st July, 1669; the second was issued in March,
1670,—and so on till a fifth set had been constructed. Under the right
conferred by the charter, respecting the consent of the freemen, or
their delegates, in establishing laws and constitutions, such consent
was never formally given; and the code was, at least in South Carolina,
again and again rejected. It was a gage of political contention
foolishly thrown down; but in taking it up, the colonists were made
ardent students of political rights.
By these Constitutions, the eldest Proprietor was made Palatine,—a
sort of king of the province. The other seven Proprietors were to be
high functionaries: admiral, chamberlain, constable, chief justice,
chancellor, high steward, and treasurer.[715] There was to be a
Parliament: eight superior courts, one to each Proprietor according
to his high office; county and precinct courts; and a grand Executive
Council, among whose duties was the preparation and first enactment
of all matters to be submitted to Parliament. Among the carefully
composed articles in these Constitutions should be noticed such as
enjoin that no person above seventeen years of age could have the
benefit and protection of the law who was not a member of some church;
and no one could hold an estate or become a freeman of the province,
or have any habitation in it, who did not acknowledge a God and that
He is publicly and solemnly to be worshipped. Moreover, in the set of
the Constitutions printed and sent over for adoption, the Church of
England[716] was made the established church, and “it alone shall be
allowed to receive a public maintenance by grant of Parliament.” It was
also enjoined that no one seventeen years old should have any estate
or possession or the protection of the law in the province, unless he
subscribed the Fundamental Constitutions and promised in writing to
defend and maintain them to the utmost of his power.
Their lordships in England, and most, if not all, of their appointed
officers in the colonies, as in duty bound, contended strenuously for
the adoption of this preposterous form of government till the year
1698; and hardly then did the incontrovertible logic of events convince
them of their folly. A late historian of North Carolina remarks,
“Their lordships theorized, the colonists felt; the Proprietors drew
pictures, but the hardy woodsmen of Carolina were grappling with stern
realities. Titles of nobility, orders of precedence, the shows of an
empty pageantry, were to them but toys which might amuse children; but
there was no romance in watching the savage, or felling the forest, or
planting the corn, or gathering the crop, with the ever-present weapon
in reach of the laboring hand.”
There was another cause of irritation on the part of the colonists,
both in North and South Carolina. The terms of the tenure of land
were of paramount interest to them and their children. The quantity
offered in 1663 was augmented in 1666, and two years later, by the
“Great Deed of Grant,” the fear of forfeiture was removed for not
clearing and planting a specified portion of the land; in other
words, settlers were permitted to hold lands as they were held in the
adjoining royal province of Virginia. At first each freeman received
one hundred acres, the same for his wife, each child and manservant,
and fifty for each woman-servant; paying a half-penny per acre.
After the expiration of servitude, each servant received a liberal
quantity of land with implements for tillage.[717] In 1669, in the
settling of the colony at Ashley River, one hundred and fifty acres
were offered to all free persons above sixteen years of age, and
the same for able-bodied men-servants; and a proportionate increase
for others, if they arrived before the 25th of March, 1670; then a
less number of acres for subsequent arrivals. The annual rent was a
penny or _the value of a penny_ per acre (as also announced in the
unalterable Constitutions); payments to begin September, 1689.[718]
When Governor Sayle died (a year after settling on Ashley River), Sir
John Yeamans came from Barbadoes to the new settlement; and having been
made a landgrave claimed the government as vice-palatine under the
Fundamental Constitutions. Such claim was denied by the colonists;[719]
but he soon received a commission, and his first measure, on assuming
control, was to have an accurate survey made and a record of lands
held by settlers in South Carolina, with a view to the collection of
quit-rents for the Proprietors. When ten years of outlay for their
province had brought them no pecuniary return, they began to think
“the country was not worth having at that rate.” They removed their
former favorite Yeamans, because further outlays were incurred, and
placed West in authority, who had attended more successfully to their
interests. In November, 1682, all prior terms for granting land were
annulled, and if a penny an acre (the words “or the value of a penny”
being omitted) was not paid, a right of reëntry was claimed: “to enter
and distraine, and the distress or distresses then and there found to
take, lead, and carry and drive away and impound, and to detain and
keep until they shall be fully satisfied and paid all arrears of the
said rent.” This produced inequality of tenure, or operated to the
injury of many who had previously taken up, on more liberal terms, only
part of the lands they were entitled to.[720] Their lordships were too
just to interfere with the stability of titles, but the alteration of
the tenure for new grants or of the mode of conveyance, from time to
time, was at least unwise. Besides, there was scarcely any coin in the
province, and the people found it hard that they could no longer pay
in merchantable produce. To their reasonable request for relief and a
better encouragement to new settlers came the reply, “We insist to sell
our lands our own way.” With this reply a peremptory order was sent
that the third set of the unalterable Constitutions should be put in
force.
A part of this manifest diminution of the generosity of the Proprietors
and their unwillingness to bestow further concessions may be accounted
for by the opposition their favorite scheme of government had
encountered in both colonies, and especially by a rebellious outbreak
which had just occurred in Albemarle County. Clarendon County at Cape
Fear had broken up and disappeared, as we have related; and henceforth
our attention must be directed to Albemarle at the northern end of
the province and the Ashley River colony at the south, remote from
each other, with a vast forest intervening, the dwelling place of
numerous tribes of Indians. Before the province was authoritatively
divided (1729), it had divided itself, as it were, into North and South
Carolina; and it is best that, in this narrative, we should begin to
call them so.
In North Carolina, the Quakers, who were in close association and
unison, and so far influential in action,[721] opposed the Fundamental
Constitutions and the Church of England establishment; and all the
settlers looked upon the enforcement of the recent orders of the
Proprietors—the displacement of an easy and liberal method of
government without asking their assent—as a violation of the terms
of settlement, and of the inducements at first held out to them.[722]
Governor Stephens endeavored to enforce the orders of the Proprietors,
but he died soon after receiving them, and was succeeded by Carteret,
president of the council, till an appointment should be made.
Carteret appears not to have been of a nature to contend against the
disaffection and turbulence which had arisen, and, in 1675, went to
England to make known personally, it is said, the distracted condition
of the colony. But two of the colonists, Eastchurch and Miller,
had also gone over to represent, personally, the grievances of the
people. They seemed, to the Proprietors, the ablest men to carry out
their instructions; and the former was made governor and the latter
deputy of Earl Shaftesbury and secretary of the province; he was also
made, by the commissioners of the king’s revenue, collector of such
revenue in Albemarle. They sailed for Carolina in 1677, but the new
governor remained a long while in the West Indies (winning “a lady
and her fortune”), and died soon after reaching Albemarle. Miller as
representing Eastchurch, but really without legal authority to act
as governor, ruled with a high hand. He had gone to represent the
grievances of his fellow colonists; he returned to harass them still
more. The new “model” of government, the denial of “a free election
of an assembly” (as the Pasquotank people complained), the attempt to
enforce strictly the navigation laws, the collection of the tax on
tobacco at their very doors,[723] his drunkenness and “putting the
people in general by his threats and actions in great dread of their
lives and estates,” as the Proprietors themselves express it, became
intolerable to the colonists.
The New Englanders, with their characteristic enterprise, had long
been sailing through the shallow waters of the Sound in coasting
vessels, adapted to such navigation, and had largely monopolized the
trade of North Carolina; buying or trafficking for lumber and cattle,
which they sold in the West Indies, and bringing back rum, molasses,
salt, and sugar, they exchanged these for tobacco, which they carried
to Massachusetts, and shipped thence to Europe without much regard
to the navigation laws. Miller, according to instructions sent to
Governor Eastchurch, sought to break up this thriving and lucrative
business, and to introduce a more direct trade with England. The
populace generally, including the Quakers, had their own grievances,
and fraternized with the New England skippers. Gillam, one of these
bold captains, arrived with his vessel laden with the commodities the
people needed, and armed, this time, with cannon. A wealthy Quaker,
Durant, was on board with him. On land, John Culpepper, who had lately
left South Carolina, where he had created commotions, became a leader
of the malcontents. Influenced, no doubt, by the recent rebellion of
Bacon in Virginia, some participators in which had taken refuge among
them, and led on by men of courage whose hard-earned emoluments were
threatened with ruin, the insurgents seized and imprisoned Miller and
seven of the proprietary deputies, and took from the former a large
amount of money which he had collected for the king. They had won over
to their side the remaining deputy, the president of the council; and
together they now governed the colony as seemed best to them. But they
were aware that violence and usurpation could not be passed over with
impunity by higher authority; and as Miller and some of his adherents
had escaped and gone to England, Culpepper and Holden were also sent
to the Proprietors on a mission of explanation. The explanation of
neither party was entirely satisfactory. Miller lost his offices, and
Culpepper, though he was unpunished by the Proprietors, was seized by
the Commissioners of the Customs to answer for the revenue money which
had been used in the time of the disorders. He was put on trial, in
1680, for “treason committed without the realm.” It is said by Chalmers
that the judges ruled that taking up arms against the proprietary
government was treason against the king. Notwithstanding this view
of the case, Culpepper was acquitted of treason, because Shaftesbury
asserted that the county of Albemarle had not a regular government, and
the offence of the prisoner amounted to no more than a riot.[724]
At this time the Earl of Clarendon sold his proprietary share to Seth
Sothel, who was appointed governor. Mr. John Harvey, as president of
the council at Albemarle, was to exercise the functions of governor
till Sothel’s arrival. The latter, on his voyage, was captured by an
Algerine corsair; Harvey died; Jenkins was made governor, and was
deposed by the people without reprimand from the Proprietors; and
in February, 1681, Wilkinson was appointed. These sudden changes in
executive authority were unfortunate for the prestige of proprietary
power in the colony; for all this while and until Sothel came in 1683,
the old adherents of the Culpepper party, or the popular party, held
control in Albemarle. But still more unfortunate for the Proprietors
was the coming of Sothel. He seems to have purchased his place as
Proprietor and to have come as governor in order to have a clear field
for the exercise of his rapacity. If he was “a sober, moderate man,”
as his colleagues thought when they intrusted their interests and the
welfare of the county to his hands, his association with the Algerines
must have materially changed his character. In 1688, the outraged
colonists seized him, intending to send him to England for trial. On
his appeal this was not done, but the case referred to the colonial
assembly, who condemned him. His sentence, however, amounted only to
banishment for twelve months and perpetual deposition from authority,
Proprietor though he was. He went to South Carolina, and his further
career will be noticed when we review the history of that colony.
The next year Philip Ludwell, of Virginia, was made governor, and after
four years was transferred to South Carolina and appointed governor of
both colonies. For more than twenty years North Carolina was governed
by a deputy of the governor at Charleston, or (when there was no deputy
appointed) by the president of her own council. The Albemarle colony
had become to the Proprietors only a source of vexation. At any rate,
they acted wisely in leaving its management, in some measure, under the
control of those more conversant with its affairs than their lordships
in England could possibly be. Their own mismanagement, in truth, was
the principal cause of the turbulent spirit of the people.[725]
After Sothel’s banishment the executive authority belonged, as a rule,
to the president of the council till Ludwell received it in 1689.
On the latter’s removal to Charleston, S. C., Lillington acted as
deputy in Albemarle. In 1695, Thomas Harvey became deputy governor by
appointment from Archdale, the Quaker Proprietor (who was sent over
to heal grievances in both colonies), and was followed in 1699 by
Henderson Walker, president of the council. In 1704, Robert Daniel was
appointed deputy by Governor Johnson, of South Carolina. John Porter, a
Quaker, or sympathizer with the Quakers (sent to England to complain of
Daniel and legislation in favor of the Church of England in the colony
by “The Vestry Act”), with the assistance of Archdale, prevailed
on the Proprietors to order Daniel’s removal, and Governor Johnson
appointed (1705) Thomas Carey in his place. He was as little acceptable
to the Quakers in North Carolina as his predecessor had been, and
through their influence in England at this conjuncture the appointment
of a deputy by the executive in South Carolina was suspended, Carey
was removed, and a new Proprietary Council formed, including Porter
and several Quakers. Porter returned to North Carolina in 1707, and
called together the new council, who chose William Glover, a Churchman,
president, and, as such, acting governor. He, however, as Carey had
done, required conformity to the English laws respecting official
oaths, which were displeasing to the Quakers; and Porter in opposition
declared Glover’s election as president illegal, formed a coalition
with Carey, whom he had before caused to be displaced, and secured his
election to the presidency of the council. There were now two claimants
for executive authority, and no power at hand to decide between them.
Carey and Glover sat in opposite rooms with their respective councils.
Daniel, being a landgrave, and having thereby a right to a seat in
the Upper House,—as the council with the governor was styled,—sat
alternately with one and the other, and no doubt enjoyed their
altercations.
A new rebellion, so-called, now broke out, based apparently on local
party strife. At first Carey and his Quaker supporters opposing Glover
and his party sought and obtained control of the assembly; and when
Edward Hyde came from England with letters on authority of which he
claimed executive power,[726] the Carey party, at first favorable to
him, finally, on losing control of the next assembly, directed itself
against him. Hyde’s life was endangered by Carey’s armed opposition;
and Spotswood, the energetic governor of Virginia, sent him military
aid and put down his opponents.[727] Carey, on his way through
Virginia, was arrested by Spotswood and sent to England for trial.
This was the occasion of Lord Dartmouth’s circular letter to all the
colonies “to send over no more prisoners for crimes or misdemeanors
without proof of their guilt.”
According to the latest history,—that of Rev. Dr. Hawks,—another
result of this acrimonious contest was the deplorable massacre of
hundreds of defenceless white settlers, men, women, and children,
by the Tuscarora Indians. This is doubtless merely _post hoc ergo
propter hoc_. We must ascribe hostilities solely to encroachments on
the lands of the natives; to ill treatment by traders and others; and
to the killing of one of their number, which called for revenge. The
Tuscaroras, it was thought, could muster 1,200 warriors. They suddenly
made their onslaught at daybreak, September 22, 1711. Their special
task in the diabolical conspiracy was to murder all the whites along
the Roanoke, while other tribes conducted a simultaneous attack upon
other sections. The wielding of the blood-dripping knife and tomahawk,
the conflagration of dwellings and barns, the murderous rush upon the
victims who, here and there, had hidden themselves and who ran out from
the blazing fires to a fate scarcely less dreadful, with other horrors
we are unwilling to relate, continued for three days. One hundred and
fifty were slain on the Roanoke, more than sixty at Newbern, an unknown
number near Bath; and the carnage was stopped only by the exhaustion
and besotted drunkenness of the bloodstained savages. Governor Hyde was
powerless to confront the foe. He could not raise half the number of
men the enemy had. The Quakers were non-combatants; and with them were
affiliated many others who opposed the government. Governor Hyde was
compelled to resort to arbitrary measures in impressing vessels and in
procuring provisions for such troops as he could muster; and these were
so inadequate, and so wide-spread was the Indian combination, that he
called for assistance from Virginia and South Carolina. Both responded
with alacrity. While Spotswood could not supply troops, he checked the
further combination of tribes in his direction. South Carolina sent
troops onward through the forests, under Colonel Barnwell, who defeated
the Tuscaroras and put an end to the war for the time being. But after
he retired to South Carolina, suffering with wounds, the Indians
treacherously renewed hostilities; and it was believed they would soon
be joined by more powerful northward tribes. To add to the calamities
of the people, an epidemic (said to be yellow fever) broke out. The
mortality was fearful, and among the victims was the governor of the
colony. The council elected Colonel Pollock as their president and to
act as commander-in-chief. The following mournful picture is given us
from manuscripts left by Colonel Pollock: “The government was bankrupt,
the people impoverished, faction abundant, the settlements on Neuse and
Pamlico destroyed, houses and property burned, plantations abandoned,
trade in ruins, no cargoes for the few small vessels that came, the
Indian war renewed, not men enough for soldiers, no means to pay them,
the whole available force under arms but one hundred and thirty or
forty men, and food for the whole province to be supplied from the
northern counties of Albemarle only.” South Carolina, being again
called on for help, sent Colonel James Moore, eldest son to Colonel
James Moore, late governor of the colony. On the 20th of March, 1713,
he conquered the last stronghold of the savages, who soon after, broken
and disheartened, left the province in large numbers, and joined
themselves with the Iroquois in what is now the State of New York. Such
of them as remained in North Carolina entered into a treaty of peace
with the whites. During these exhausting calamities the Proprietors
were appealed to; and it was a poor response to refer the matter to
General Nicholson “to enquire into the disorders of North Carolina.”
The next year (May, 1714) Charles Eden, an excellent officer, was
appointed governor. The adherents of Carey, or the popular party,
however, seemed to be actuated against all who were sent to rule the
colony. What grievances they had to palliate or justify their conduct,
on this occasion, we know not; but soon their active opposition had
to be dealt with by the constituted authorities. We shall see, when
we treat of South Carolina, that a few years later the colonists, in
that section, threw off, effectually, the inefficient rule of the
Proprietors, and placed themselves under the immediate control of the
Crown; deposing the last proprietary governor, and electing Colonel
Moore governor in the king’s name. It is probable that the same
spirit actuated the people in North Carolina. Yet her historians have
not made it evident that the continued disaffection and turbulence
and rebellion of the people are indications of their readiness to
act as their more southern brethren acted. Perhaps they had not, at
that conjuncture, the same amount of provocation. When we read the
letter of the Lords Proprietors to the council and assembly (June 3,
1723),[728] “We received an address from you, transmitted some time
since by our late governor, Mr. Eden, wherein you signified to us
your great dislike to the rebellious and tumultuous proceedings of
several of the inhabitants of South Carolina, and your constant and
steady adherence to our government and the present constitution,” we
are to bear in mind that this governor and council were the appointed
officers of their lordships. We are to ask, Where are the records
of the assembly,[729]—records of the thoughts and actions of the
representatives of the people? These, no doubt, will show, if they can
be found, that a spirit of local self-government actuated the people,
and is the thread of development to be followed by the future historian
of the State. We need the testimony of Porter, of Carey, of the able
and virtuous Edward Moseley (chief justice from 1707 to 1711), and of
other leaders of the people against the repressive policy of their
lordships in England and their governors and councils.
Some interesting subjects, indicative of the condition of the colony
in these early times, must be briefly noticed: the emission of paper
money consequent upon the expenses of the Indian war; the occasional
rating of commodities for exchange; the indigenous products of the
soil and staples of export; the forwarding of tobacco abroad through
Virginia, and troubles about boundary lines; the customs and modes of
life among the gentry or planters and the humbler classes, and among
their close neighbors, the Indian tribes; the visits of pirates to the
coast, both in North and South Carolina, notably Teach or Blackbeard,
and the romantic defeat of him in Pamlico Sound; the settling, at
first, along the streams, which became the principal highways for
travel and commerce; the ill effects necessarily resulting from the
habitations being far apart, and from the fact that there was very
little social intercourse; the transmission of letters only by special
messengers; the disadvantageous nature of the coast section, retarding
the prosperity of the colony.
During the proprietary period, or the first sixty-six years of the
colony, the people clung to the seaboard and that part of it which
had no good port of entry. This was as great a misfortune as it was
to cling to the border line of Virginia. The accession of population,
including foreigners, came chiefly through that border. In 1690 and
again in 1707, bodies of French Protestants arrived, and settled in
Pamlico and on the Neuse and Trent; and three years after some Swiss
and Germans settled at Newbern. The whites in the province numbered at
this time about 5,000. Large tracts of unoccupied land lay between the
selected points of settlement. A few towns had been begun: the first,
forty-two years after the first settling in the province. If a good
harbor had been selected and a town properly fortified built there for
exports, the progress of North Carolina might have been more rapid and
substantial. The metropolis was Edenton (founded 1715) on the Chowan.
The legislature met there. It contained forty or fifty houses. There
was no church there. The Rev. Dr. Hawks says: “For long, long years
there were no places of worship. They never amounted to more than some
half dozen of all sorts, while the Proprietors owned Carolina; and when
their unblessed dominion ended, there was not a minister of Christ
living in the province.” There had been, however, missionaries sent
out by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; and there were
some pious gentlemen in the colony who gave them welcome and all the
assistance in their power. But while a few of the missionaries were
exemplary and accomplished much good, others were a positive hindrance
to “the propagation of the gospel.”
Among the misfortunes of the colonists we must not fail to notice the
incompetent governors sent from England. Favoritism, and not fitness
for office, dictated the selection. Archdale, Hyde, and Eden are
considered the only governors sent to the province who did it much
service. The last two whom their lordships favored with the dignity
of executive authority were Burrington, pronounced “a profligate
blackguard,” and Sir Richard Everard, whom his superseded rival railed
against as “a noodle and an ape,” and “no more fit to be a governor
than Sancho Panza.” It was in the administration of Sir Richard that
the colony passed by purchase under the immediate control of the king.
Two thousand five hundred pounds sterling were paid for each of seven
shares; Lord Carteret declining to dispose of his, as it had come to
him by inheritance.[730] The claims for arrears of quit-rent due from
settlers were also purchased. Before the surrender of the charter
many changes had occurred in the ownership of shares in the province;
and not one of the original Proprietors remained alive to witness the
failure of their successors in the noble enterprise committed to their
management by the munificence of Charles II.
ROYAL GOVERNMENT.—The method of the royal government will be noticed
when we come to write of South Carolina. The more thoughtful in North
Carolina no doubt felt relieved in escaping from the negligent rule of
the Proprietors; but the transition from the old to the new form of
administration appears to have been a matter of indifference to the
people at large. All they saw in 1731 was that George Burrington, who
had been displaced for Everard in 1725, came back with a commission
as the first royal governor, to displace in turn his former rival.
Burrington, favored for his father’s services to the king, was
unsuited for his position, and soon became involved in disputes with
his council, the assembly, and the judges. He appeared to think
the foremost duty of the assembly was to provide for him a salary
suitable to his new dignity, to raise money for other royal officers
and an adequate and permanent revenue for the king. The assembly was
prorogued for declining to do so. His violence and tyranny caused
complaints against him to be sent, through Chief Justice Smith, to
the authorities in the mother country. One service, however, he
rendered, in conciliating the Indians on the western border. To this
end he sent Dr. John Brickell with a party of ten men and two Indian
hunters to assist them.[731] The account of the expedition adds to our
knowledge of the condition of that remote section of the province, as
the interesting work of Lawson does with respect to other sections.
In 1734, on the return of the chief justice, the governor retired to
Charleston and sailed thence to England. Soon afterwards he was found
murdered in St. James’ Park, in London.[732] Nathaniel Rice, secretary
of the province, and the first named of the councillors, administered
the government from April till November, when Gabriel Johnston, a
Scotchman and man of letters, received, through the influence of his
patron, Lord Wilmington, the royal appointment. For nearly twenty years
he prudently administered the affairs of the colony. At first he found
a formidable obstacle to a successful management of the people in their
disregard of laws and of gubernatorial dignitaries, imposed upon them
by foreign authority. Many hard things have been said of the people
by those who, perhaps, did not consider the neglect, mismanagement,
and tyrannical provocation under which they lived for two generations,
and the increasing intercolonial influences in behalf of popular
sovereignty. One of the Virginia commissioners, for laying off (in
1727) the northern boundary, states that the borderers preferred to
belong to the Carolina side, “where they pay no tribute to God or to
Cæsar.” Governor Johnston, at this time, was in need of the latter
kind of tribute. The salaries of the crown officers were to be paid
from quit-rents due to the Crown, the collection of which depended on
enactments of the assembly. The governor, finding great difficulty in
having a satisfactory enactment passed, prorogued the assembly and
attempted to collect the rents on his own authority. Not only was
this resisted by the people, but the assembly, being again convened,
denied the legality of the acts of the governor, and imprisoned his
officers who had distrained for the rents.[733] The assembly was
consequently dissolved (March, 1736). At the next session, in the
following September, the governor addressed the representatives of the
people on the general condition of the province, the lack of moral
and educational advancement, and of proper regard for law and good
order, and assured them “that while he was obliged by his instructions
to maintain the rights of the Crown, he would show a regard to the
privileges, liberties, and happiness of the people.” In the spirit of
compromise a law was passed with the concurrence of the governor, but
which the authorities in England rejected as yielding too much to the
demands of the popular assembly.
At this time (1738) commissioners were empowered to run the boundary
between North and South Carolina, and completed the work from the
Atlantic as far westward as the Pee Dee. The original division of
the coast section into three counties—Albemarle with six precincts,
Bath with four precincts, and Clarendon with one (New Hanover)—was
altered, and the precincts were denominated counties. The very names
of the original counties disappeared. Soon other counties westward or
inland were formed as the population increased, chiefly by overland
immigration. To each county the governor appointed a sheriff, selected
from three persons recommended by the county court. The judiciary
system was modified to suit the new administration and augmentation
of population. The governor had before (1736) deplored the fact that
no provision had been made “or care taken to inspire the youth with
generous sentiments, worthy principles, or the least tincture of
literature;” but not until 1754 was an act passed to establish a public
seminary. It did not receive the royal assent. That there were not many
schools is doubtless due to the sparseness of settlements, and not
to any general indifference to education.[734] During the period of
the royal government there were two schools that we read of,—those at
Newbern and Edenton. In the building of the former, a wooden structure,
the lower house of assembly occasionally held its sessions. In 1749,
printing was introduced at Newbern, from Virginia; and a weekly paper
styled the _North Carolina Gazette_, issued “on a sheet of post-sized
folio,”—“with freshest advices, foreign and domestic.” In 1752
appeared the first edition of the _Provincial Laws_.
At the town of Wilmington, so named in honor of the Governor’s patron,
and sometimes at Newbern, the assembly now met instead of at Edenton,
near the Virginia boundary. A new assembly was convened at Wilmington,
and an attempt was made to establish an equalization of representation,
with a consequent diminution of the number of representatives from
the old and more northern counties,—from five members each to two
members.[735] Dissatisfaction was the result; and the six northern
counties would neither recognize the assembly at Wilmington nor pay
taxes, nor would the jurors attend the courts. The colony, however,
was more thriving than it had been at any previous period. It was
favored by the mother country with bounties on its exports; and the
general prosperity was augmented by the coming in of the banished
Highlanders and of emigrants from Ireland, and especially by the
beginning of the great flow of overland immigration into the central
and more western section of the province. Under the prudent management
of Johnston, harmony at last prevailed, and such laws were enacted as
were necessary. On the declaration of war between England and France,
the defences of the coast received legislative attention, and a fort
mounting twenty-four cannon was erected on the south bank of the Cape
Fear, and called Fort Johnston, in honor of the governor.[736]
Governor Johnston died in August, 1752. What he had written to the
Duke of Newcastle, in 1739, was now even more applicable, that after
years of effort he had brought the colony “to system, where disorder
had before reigned, and placed it on a firmer foundation.” The
administration again devolved on Nathaniel Rice; and on his decease in
January, Matthew Rowan, the next councillor, acted as governor till
the arrival of Arthur Dobbs, in 1754. Rowan’s short term of service
was distinguished by liberal contributions for building churches and
purchasing glebe lands for the support of ministers of the gospel;
and by the convening of the assembly to provide for aiding Governor
Dinwiddie, of Virginia, by whose order George Washington had gone to
examine the alarming movements of the French on the Ohio. The militia
of North Carolina amounted at that time, as stated by Rowan, to 15,400
men.
Besides the early coast-line settlements, and those along the
bottom lands of the northeastern streams, there came, mainly after
Braddock’s defeat, a remarkable tide of immigration from the western
frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania into central and western North
Carolina. Between 1750 and 1790 the accession to the population is
computed[737] to be as much as 300,000. Many seeking fertile lands
moved over into the “Up Country” of South Carolina, and westward into
Tennessee. These hardy and liberty-loving German and Scotch-Irish
settlers formed a section of North Carolina which for a long time was
“distinct in population, religion, and material interests.” Their final
fraternization and blending in political union with the people of the
eastern section is a subject for the later history of the province and
State.
Governor Dobbs, a native of Ireland, and who had been a member of
its Parliament, brought to the colony cannon and firelocks, as a
present from the king; and, as a present from himself, “a number of
his relations, who had hopes of offices and preferments.”[738] While,
on the one hand, he sought to conciliate the Indian tribes, on the
other he continuously embroiled himself in contests with the assembly
and on trivial matters. It was, however, the irrepressible conflict
of that day,—the conflict we have been expecting all along in this
history,—the outgrowth of antagonism between the royal prerogatives
and the rights and privileges of the representatives of the people.
Contributions of men and money were called for by the governor for the
general defence of the provinces, and for fortifications within the
limits of North Carolina. The assembly were ever ready to defend their
frontiers and render aid to the neighboring colonies. But in the acts
for founding new counties, they disallowed “the royal prerogative of
granting letters of incorporation, ordering and regulating elections,
and establishing fairs and markets.” In enactments for a new court
system, the further emission of paper money, and the appointment of
an agent in England to solicit the affairs of the province, disputes
ensued between the assembly and the executive. A new assembly being
convened was equally jealous of its rights and privileges, and ably
maintained them in lengthy communications to the governor, but without
moving him from his convictions of duty under the royal instructions.
The assembly was prorogued after appointing, by resolution, the agent
to England, whom the governor had rejected. Upon reassembling, and
again in a new assembly, on various bills the struggle for legislative
rights was continued with the Upper House or council.
Two very different events here arrest our attention: the grant of the
king, through Parliament, of £50,000 to indemnify Virginia, North
and South Carolina, for their war expenses, and the proposal to the
colonies to form a union for common defence against general attacks of
the French and Indians; the one fostering attachment to the Crown, the
other teaching the method of effectual resistance.
Governor Dobbs was now infirm and over eighty years of age, and, having
obtained leave of absence, there was sent over, as Lieutenant-Governor,
the able and energetic William Tryon, a colonel in the Queen’s Guards,
who became, on the decease of Dobbs, in 1765, governor of North
Carolina. He was succeeded by Martin, the last royal governor. We
close this brief narrative, pondering upon the province’s progress
in wealth, population, and political stability; on the intercolonial
influences developing union and constitutional self-government; and on
the portentous shadow of the approaching Revolution.[739]
SOUTH CAROLINA.
PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT.—In 1665 the Lords Proprietors placed in charge
of Sir John Yeamans—whom they had, in January, commissioned governor
of Clarendon county at Cape Fear—the further discovery of the Carolina
coast southward of the portion embraced in the report of Hilton, Long,
and Fabian in 1663. Yeamans and his party left Barbadoes in three
vessels in October. After separation by a storm, they all reached the
Cape Fear or Charles River. But there a violent gale wrecked the vessel
containing the greater part of their provisions, arms, and ammunition.
Being in distress for supplies, their sloop was despatched to Virginia
for aid, and Yeamans himself returned to Barbadoes, leaving Robert
Sandford in commission to obtain a vessel and complete the exploration
of the southern coast. Sandford appears to have first entered the North
Edisto River, where he met the Cassique of Kiawah, who had traded with
the settlers in Clarendon county, and who now invited Sandford to his
country. But the explorers sailed on to Port Royal, arriving there
early in July. Their reception was apparently very friendly, and Dr.
Henry Woodward remained among the Indians to learn their language,
while a nephew of the chief accompanied Sandford. They designed, on
their return, to visit Kiawah; but by a mistake of the Indian who acted
as guide, they passed beyond the entrance (now Charleston harbor) which
led to that country, and the wind not being favorable for putting back,
the voyagers proceeded northward and returned to Cape Fear.[740]
In 1667, the Proprietors took measures to found, in the region reported
on by Sandford, a colony worthy of themselves and of the munificence
of the king in granting them almost royal authority in the extensive
territory lavishly bestowed by the charter. The elaborate plan of
government which Locke assisted in maturing was devised for this new
enterprise, and was solemnly agreed upon as a contract among the
Proprietors. Twelve thousand pounds sterling, a large sum at that
day, were expended in preparation for founding, in what is now South
Carolina, a colonial government calculated to bring both glory and
emolument to their lordships. In August, 1669, three vessels were
ready to sail from England: the “Carolina” frigate, the “Port Royall,”
and the sloop “Albemarle.” On board the first-named were ninety-three
passengers. How many were in the other vessels is not at present
known; but the intention appears to have been to begin the settlement
with at least two hundred. They stopped at Kinsale in Ireland to take
in other emigrants, receiving, however, only seven; and according
to instructions sailed thence to Barbadoes, which they reached in
October. They were to obtain there such plants as the vine, olive,
ginger, cotton, and indigo, and some swine for the new colony; and, no
doubt, as many emigrants as could be induced to join the expedition.
The fleet was consigned to Thomas Colleton, brother of the Proprietor,
Sir Peter Colleton. It seems that the Proprietors were not pleased
with the management of Sir John Yeamans in the previous expedition
and his leaving the perils of exploration to Secretary Sandford; yet
his experience and ability rendered his coöperation desirable, and
power was given him to fill a blank commission sent to him for the
governorship of the new colony. Living in Barbadoes, and familiar
with projects of colonization, he acted on this occasion on behalf
of their lordships, with authority as their lieutenant-general, and
assisted and encouraged the adventurers. But many disasters occurred:
at Barbadoes the “Albemarle” was driven ashore in a gale and lost,
in November; and in January the “Port Royall” suffered the same
fate at the Bahama Islands. A sloop obtained at Barbadoes in place
of the “Albemarle” became separated in a storm, and the “Carolina,”
in a damaged condition, put in at Bermuda for repairs. A part of the
equipments was lost by the wrecks; and Yeamans, to the discontent and
indignation of the colonists, withdrew from further participation in
their fortunes, saying he was obliged to return to Barbadoes as one of
the commissioners appointed to negotiate “with French commissioners
the affair at St. Christopher’s.” He persuaded the colonists to take
Colonel William Sayle, and inserted his name as governor in the blank
commission sent to him by the Proprietors. He describes Sayle as “a man
of no great sufficiency, yet the ablest I could then meet with.”[741]
The expedition sailed again on the 26th of February, 1670, in the
“Carolina” and a sloop bought at Bermuda (where Sayle had, twenty years
before, founded a colony of Presbyterians).[742] The Barbadoes sloop,
with about thirty persons on board, had gone to Nansemond, Virginia,
and joined the rest of the expedition at Kiawah in the month of May.
The other two vessels, about a fortnight after leaving Bermuda, had
reached the coast at a place called Sewee,[743] in March, and proceeded
thence to Port Royal harbor, their point of destination, and where the
instructions of the Proprietors directed them to go. They remained
there a few days. Governor Sayle summoned the _freemen_, according to
instructions annexed to his commission, and they elected Paul Smith,
Robert Donne, Ralph Marshall, Samuel West, and Joseph Dalton their
representatives in the council, which consisted of ten, the other five
being deputies named by the Proprietors. The governor and council, by
the same instructions, were to select the place for building a fort
and a town. Upon examination the land at Kiawah was judged better, and
a more defensible position could there be found than at Port Royal.
A discussion was held, and, the governor favoring Kiawah, it was
determined to remove and settle there permanently. Weighing anchor,
they sailed northward as to their home at last, and in the month of
April selected for their residence a bluff which they named Albemarle
Point, on the western bank of Kiawah River, now called the Ashley,
and began to build a town which they named Charles Town, and to erect
fortifications. Safely settled after a perilous voyage, when now, borne
down with daily toil, they sank to rest, soothing dreams of prosperity
and happiness, no doubt, renewed their courage for the labors and
dangers of the morrow.[744]
The administration of the colony devolved on the governor,
representing the Palatine (the Duke of Albemarle),[745] and the
council, representing partly the other Lords Proprietors and partly
the people. On the 4th July, 1670, the governor and council—because
the freeholders were “nott neere sufficient to elect a Parliament,”
as the instructions required—promulgated certain orders for the
better observance of the Sabbath; and a certain William Owens, arguing
that a parliament was necessary for such legislation, persuaded the
people to elect one among themselves, “which they did and returned
to said governor.” But this 4th July spirit of independence was not
persisted in, the members elect receding from their own “election
into dignity.”[746] The council continued to exercise all necessary
legislative and judicial as well as executive power, till a parliament
was formed.
Sayle was about eighty years of age and in feeble health, and died
on 4th March, 1671, transferring his authority, as he was empowered
to do, on the man of his choice. He selected Joseph West, his able
assistant, who had brought the colonists from England under commission
as “Governor and Commander in Chief of the Fleet.”
Scarcely had the English entrenched themselves when the jealous
Spaniards sent a party to attack them; but finding them stronger than
they expected, they returned to St. Augustine. The chief reason for
not settling at Port Royal, as they were directed to do, was evidently
the exposure of that situation to attacks, both from hostile Indians
and the Spaniards who instigated them, and who, from their early
exploration and settlement, claimed the noble harbor, of which Ribault
had said, a century before, the largest ships of France, “yea, the
argosies of Venice,” might enter therein.[747]
Sayle’s nomination of West, to act with all the authority conferred
upon himself, was of force only till the pleasure of the Proprietors
could be known. When they were informed of Sayle’s decease, they
gave the position of governor to Sir John Yeamans (commission dated
August, 1671); continuing West, however, as superintendent of important
interests in the colony. He was made governor when Yeamans was
displaced (1674); and in December, 1679, their lordships wrote to him,
“We are informed that the Oyster Point is not only a more convenient
place to build a town on than that formerly pitched on by the first
settlers, but that people’s inclinations tend thither; we let you
know the Oyster Point is the place we do appoint for the port town,
of which you are to take notice and call it Charles Town.” The public
offices were removed thither and the council summoned to meet there,
and, in 1680, thirty houses were erected. Even before this, some
settlers had left old Charles Town and taken up their residence at
Oyster Point. Great interest was aroused in all that pertained to the
colony by the active exertions and liberal offers of the Proprietors.
Every vessel that sailed to Charles Town brought new-comers. The
Proprietors’ trading-ship “Blessing” followed the first expedition,
its “main end” and chief employment being to transport emigrants from
Barbadoes, where Yeamans and Thomas Colleton were to advise and help
Captain Halsted in this work of emigration. The “Carolina,” in a return
voyage from the same island, had brought sixty-four settlers, and the
“John and Thomas” forty-two. In the “Phœnix” from New York a number of
German families arrived, who began to build James Town on the Stono
River. When Sir John Yeamans came to reside at Charles Town (April,
1672) he brought the first negro slaves into the colony. In 1680,
the date of the removal to Oyster Point, the settlers numbered about
1,200; in 1686, they were estimated at 2,500, English, Irish, Scotch,
French, and Germans. It is of significance, with respect to the first
political acts of these settlers, to bear in mind that they were mostly
dissenters. Boone, agent in London for a large portion of the people,
stated in his petition to the House of Lords (in 1706) that after the
reëstablishment of the Church of England by the Act of Uniformity, many
subjects of the Crown, “who were so unhappy as to have some scruples
about conforming to the rites of said Church, did transplant themselves
and families into said Colony, by means whereof the greatest part of
the inhabitants there were Protestant Dissenters from the Church of
England.” We must remember, too, that religious freedom was promised
as an inducement to emigrate. As Governor Archdale said, the charter
“had an overplus power to grant liberty of conscience, although at home
was a hot persecuting time.” And this overplus power was at first very
fairly used. All denominations lived harmoniously together, till Lord
Granville became Palatine, whose tyrannical disruption of the religious
privileges of the colonists (by excluding dissenters from the colonial
legislature) nearly cost the Proprietors their charter. The felling
of forests, clearing of plantations, experimenting in agricultural
products, establishing stock farms, building habitations, opening a
peltry trade with the Indians, forming military companies for mutual
defence against hostile tribes, and against the French at times, and at
times against the Spaniards, exploring the adjacent country, caring for
and nursing the sick who succumbed to the malarial influences of the
sultry low country along the coast, where the settlers were for many
years compelled to reside,[748]—amidst such circumstances there was no
disposition for religious dissension and none for political differences
among themselves. And when political opposition did arise, it was for
civil rights, and between the colonists as one party and the Lords
Proprietors and their official representatives as the other party. The
rights for which they contended against irritating obstacles engendered
a persistent spirit of political advancement which led to the overthrow
of the proprietary government in 1719, and in further development
through the royal administration culminated in constitutional
self-government. In this respect, the history of no other colony
presents a more interesting and instructive record. The awakening
of the people to a determined maintenance of what they deemed right
and just began with the stubborn efforts of the Proprietors to force
the colonists to adopt their scheme of government, the Fundamental
Constitutions. The people declared the charter of Charles II. to be
fundamental enough for them. The facts involved in this contention are
now to be related.
Locke and Shaftesbury’s elaborate and cumbrous system, solemnly adopted
by the Proprietors, suited only (if it could be made to suit) a large
population. A copy was sent out for the first governor, but not to be
immediately put in force. He was to govern by “instructions” annexed
to his commission, and prefaced with the words “In regard the number
of the people which will at first be set down at Port Royal will be so
small, together with want of Landgraves and Cassiques, that it will
not be possible to put our Grand Model of government in practice at
first;” the instructions, coming as nigh as practicable to the Grand
Model, must be used instead. The same “paucity of nobility” and people
is given as the reason for two sets of Temporary Laws (1671, 1672)
and the Agrarian Laws (1672). The governor and council are told to
follow always the latest instructions; a prudent order, for they came
in so quick succession, and with so many alterations, that they may
have confused the wisest of governors. In these official papers two
principles are prominent: one that nothing should be debated or voted
in the parliament (the majority representing the people) “but what
is proposed to them by the council” (the majority representing their
lordships); the other “that the whole foundation of the government
is settled upon a right and equal distribution of land,”—for the
Proprietors and provincial aristocracy, first; then the common people
could have their subordinate little share.[749]
Contrast with these official regulations framed in London the actions
of Governor West and his council as recorded in the “Council Journals”
for 1671-72, still preserved in the office of the secretary of state.
They were exercising, on account of the “paucity of nobility,” all
executive, judicial, and legislative powers with promptness and energy,
and were fully supported by the people. They proclaimed war against the
Kussoe Indians, had all fire-arms repaired, began to construct a fort,
raised military companies, commissioned their officers, and reduced
the enemy to submission. They heard and decided complaints and legal
issues, and punished criminals, distributed lands, and provided for the
health and security of the community. They denied to Sir John Yeamans,
Landgrave though he was, any claim to gubernatorial authority, under
the Fundamental Constitutions, and had him before their tribunal for
cutting timber not his own. It is said he retired again to Barbadoes.
But he was commissioned governor and reappeared in the colony, and was
“disgusted that the people did not incline to salute him as governor.”
In obedience to instructions, he immediately summoned, by proclamation,
the freemen to assemble and elect a parliament of twenty members, and
to select five of their number to be members of the grand council. This
legislative body (April, 1672), the first we have knowledge of in the
colony, had at this time very little power, compared with the council;
but it was destined to become, as the representative of the people,
the most potent factor in the political development of subsequent
years. Sir John Yeamans, two years later, gave place again (as before
stated) to his rival, Colonel West, whom the Proprietors declared the
“fittest man” to be governor.[750] He had, more than any other in
the province, promoted the best interests both of the people and of
their lordships. There was some scarcity of provisions at the close
of Yeamans’ administration, and he was charged with exporting, for
his own advantage, too great a quantity of the agricultural products
of the colony. Commotions ensued, and John Culpepper, surveyor, was
engaged in them or instigated them; and having left Charles Town, he
found in North Carolina popular discontents more ready for rebellious
activity. The cause of the commotions at Charles Town does not clearly
appear. The settlement was so prolific in all that sustains life—in
forest, in fields, in a harbor abounding in fish, in herds of swine
and cattle—that it is strange to hear of a scarcity of food; even in
1673, when want is said to have threatened the people, provisions were
exported to Barbadoes.
Governor Sayle, for reasons already stated, was not to put in force
altogether the Fundamental Constitutions; there was, however, a copy
“sent under our hands and seales,” as is mentioned in his commission.
The project of founding the new colony was based on this special scheme
of government. It is positively stated by the colonists, in their
letter to Sothel (1691), that this set originally sent bore date July
21, 1669; was “fairly engrossed in parchment, and signed and sealed”
by six of the Proprietors; and as all persons were required to swear
submission to them _before they could take up land_, “several hundred
of the people arriving here did swear accordingly.” A MS. copy[751] of
this set, but without signatures, is in the Charleston library. It does
not contain the article establishing the Church of England. In other
respects it is as favorable to settlers as the revised set bearing date
March 1, 1669-70, and containing that article. That many colonists (the
majority being dissenters) preferred the first set sent with Sayle’s
commission may thus be reasonably accounted for. It was afterwards
repudiated by the Proprietors (those who were then Proprietors) as “but
a copy of an imperfect original,” to use the words ascribed to them in
the letter to Sothel; and they say themselves in their letter to the
Grand Council, May 13, 1691, “The Constitution, so-called, and dated
21 July, 1669, we do not nor cannot own as ours.” The second set was
printed, and, it is said, was not known at Ashley River till February,
1673.[752]
In 1687, under Governor Colleton, the endeavor to force the adoption of
the Constitutions occasioned such contention between their lordships’
officers and the representatives of the people that no laws were
passed for two years; and as all laws were limited to twenty-three
months, there was in 1690 _not one statute law in force_ in the
colony. A new position was taken and with boldness. “The people
having not, according to the royal charters, assented or approved
of any fundamental constitutions in parliament, have unanimously
declared that the government now is to be directed and managed wholly
and solely according to said charters.” Their revolutionary spirit
went still further. The representatives in Parliament denied “that
any bill must necessarily pass the grand council before it be read
in parliament.” They maintained this position, and in consequence
were dissolved. The Proprietors instructed their favorite, Landgrave
Colleton, brother of one of themselves, to call no more parliaments
“unless some very extraordinary occasion should require it.” Colleton
proclaimed martial law. The Proprietors thought he did right. In
his arrogance, he imprisoned a clergyman and fined him £100 for
preaching what he considered a seditious sermon. The Proprietors
thought it best to remit the fine. The people, however, raised a cry
against his “illegal, tyrannical, and oppressive way of government.”
Fortunately for him, Seth Sothel, a Proprietor by purchase of
Clarendon’s share, arrived,—having been turned out of North Carolina
by its assembly,—and assumed control of affairs in the more southern
colony, and acted pretty much as he pleased, till he was turned out
of his new position by his colleagues in London. The Proprietors, by
their aristocratic folly, had kept the people continually studying
and maintaining their rights. A new policy began, about this time,
in England,—to revoke proprietary charters. The spirit, too, of the
colonists, demanded from the Proprietors some conciliatory concession.
Yet it cannot but appear a triumph for the people, and not a good-will
concession, when “the true and absolute” lords wrote to the Grand
Council (1691), almost in the words which they had written to Andrew
Percival and to the provincial authorities,—as if they wished to
make an emphatic apology,—that there had been “no alteration made in
any of the Constitutions, but for the greater security of the people
of Carolina from oppression, either by ourselves or our officers,
as any one that will please to peruse the several alterations may
plainly perceive; the last in date still bounding our own power most,
and putting more into the hands of the people.” But they were forced
soon—and it must have been with some little feeling of vexation—to
acknowledge the failure of their Grand Model, and to write to their
next governor, Ludwell (who could not conciliate the “factious”
assembly), that they now thought it best for themselves and the
colonists to govern by all the powers of the charter; but that they
would part with no power till the people were disposed to be more
orderly. This was written to Ludwell; but to the public it was at
last definitely announced “that as the people have declared they
would rather be governed by the powers granted by the charter without
regard to the Fundamental Constitutions, it will be for their quiet
and the protection of the well-disposed to grant their request.” The
Proprietors, however, still held to the Constitutions as a compact
among themselves and as a regulation of their mutual interests; and
even endeavored once more to tempt the people to adopt some part of
them in the fifth set, reduced to 41 Articles. They were then laid
aside entirely.
The assembly (we shall no longer call them parliament), not yet aware
of the action of the Proprietors, prepared a summary of grievances:
that the latest form of conveying land was not satisfactory; that
courts ought to be regulated by laws made by the assent of the people;
that the representatives of the people are too few in the assembly and
not appointed according to the charter; that the power of enacting
necessary laws should not be obstructed; that the application of the
laws of England to the province ought not to be by authority of a
Palatine Court (established by their lordships), but such laws are
applicable of their own force, or are to be so by act of the assembly;
that the powers of the assembly and the validity of their enactments
are not to be judged by inferior courts, but by the next succeeding
General Assembly; that martial law should not be resorted to except in
case of rebellion, tumult, sedition, or invasion; that there should be
more commoners in the council; that the deputies of the Proprietors
were forbidden to confirm a certain set of laws (necessary at times
for the immediate welfare of the people) until their lordships’ assent
should be given, which could not be known in the province “in less time
than one year, sometimes two,” and they do not conceive the Patent of
Carolina gives any such powers to their lordships.
There was a further principle announced by the people: that the
Proprietors could send what “instructions” they pleased, but they
certainly could never have intended that they should have the force of
statute laws without the assent and approbation of the people, except
in such matters as wholly belonged to their direction according to the
charter. With so intelligent and progressive a people to control, the
almost impotent “absolute lords” on the other side of the Atlantic
might well have written to Ludwell as they did to Morton, “Are you to
govern the people, or the people you?” Yet a further signal triumph
for the people was at hand. The Proprietors had already seen fit to
modify their rule that the assembly of the people should neither debate
nor vote on any matter except what the Grand Council should propose
to them; but their modification at that time amounted to very little,
namely, that if a necessary law was delayed by the council, and “the
majority of the grand juries of the counties” presented the matter for
legislation, then only might “any of the chambers” take cognizance of
it. It was now the good fortune of Governor Smith,[753] successor to
Ludwell, to announce that “the Proprietors have consented that the
proposing power for the making of laws, which was heretofore lodged
in the governor and council only, is now given to you as well as the
present council.”[754] Henceforth the assembly claimed the privileges
and usages of the House of Commons in England.
[Illustration: COOPER AND ASHLEY RIVERS.
[This is a side-map in a large folding one called _A new map of
Carolina, by Philip Lea, at the Atlas and Hercules, in Cheapside,
London_. Courtenay considers it to be of a date before 1700. There is
a fac-simile of the whole in _Charleston Year Book_, 1883. For the
associations and landmarks of these rivers see C. F. Woolson’s “Up the
Ashley and Cooper,” in _Harper’s Monthly_, Dec., 1875; and P. D. Hay’s
“Relics of Old South Carolina,” in _Appleton’s Journal_, xix. 498. In
the _Charleston Year Book_ (1883) there is a large map, showing the
town and the early farms on the west bank of the Ashley; the present
site of the city up to near the Clements’ Ferry road, with all lines of
fortifications and historic points. Cf. W. G. Simms’ “Description of
Charleston,” in _Harper’s Monthly_, June, 1857.
Moll’s map of South Carolina (1730) is given in fac-simile in
_Cassell’s United States_, i. 439.—ED.]]
When there was no longer any reasonable expectation for the adoption
of the Grand Model of government, a carefully prepared set of
Instructions, in 43 Articles, became the rules for the colony, all
former Instructions and Temporary Laws being abrogated, except such
as related to lands. These rules continued as long as the Proprietors
owned the province. It is not necessary to explain them. They were
for the interest of their lordships; simple enough, but establishing
a proprietary oligarchy. The Palatine and three other Proprietors,
and, in the colony, the governor and three other deputies, constituted
the governing power, with, apparently, a complete check upon the
representatives of the people. The people could not complain if their
lordships carried out what they wrote to Ludwell, that “they would
part with no power” conferred on them by the charter “till the people
were disposed to be more orderly;” for the people had demanded to be
governed solely by the charter. The prominent question now would be:
Do their lordships properly interpret and apply the powers granted them
in the charter?
But fresh political subjects engaged attention: the tenure of lands,
naturalization of the French Huguenots, payment of quit-rents, now
for some years due, the jury laws, and that relating to elections.
Governor Smith lost courage; he could be no champion for their
lordships against his friends and neighbors. The only way out of the
difficulties occasioned by the maladministration of the Proprietors was
that some Proprietor should be sent over “with full power” to heal all
grievances. This plan was adopted. The grandson of Earl Shaftesbury was
appointed, but declined to come. A pious, benevolent Quaker came, John
Archdale, whose policy was a smiling patience, but a strict requisition
of every penny that was due to the “true and absolute lords” of the
province,—himself among them. He thought his patience would, as
he expressed it, allay their heats. But this could only be done by
concessions. He yielded to their request to have thirty representatives
in the assembly. He also remitted, after a struggle, arrears of
quit-rents to Michaelmas, 1695, on condition that the remaining debts
were secured, rents for the future strictly provided for, and the town
fortified by taxation. Some political advancement was gained by the
assembly;[755] the repeal of any law not infringing on the rights of
the Crown or of the Proprietors, or relating to land, was not to be
made without the consent of the General Assembly. The council, too, was
so constituted by the pious Quaker as to be more in harmony with the
dissenters. But he seemed to fear that he might be prevailed upon to
grant too much, and appointing his friend, Joseph Blake, in his place,
hastened away (1696). He lived to see the peace and tranquillity vanish
which he hoped he had firmly established. Two years later the “House of
Commons” petitioned (among other things) for the privilege of coining;
and for the removal of duties on the chief exports from the colony.
They also prayed that no more than 1,000 acres be in future granted in
one piece; that an authenticated copy of the charter be sent them; and
that the colonial authorities have power to repeal laws (if expedient
to do so) which had been confirmed by the Proprietors: and though some
of these things (they said) were beyond their lordships’ power to
grant, their interest with the king was great enough to secure them for
their colonists. Their lordships, as might have, been expected, were
astonished that Blake, himself a Proprietor,[756] should allow such an
address to be issued,—a precedent for so much future evil.
The century now closed. Governor Blake died in 1700. As required under
the 43 Articles, the deputies elected a Landgrave to succeed Blake,
till the Proprietors could be heard from. At first they chose Morton.
He was set aside afterwards by the council, as were all the Landgraves
in the colony, and Colonel James Moore, a deputy, appointed. This
competition gave origin, for the first time in the history of the
colony, to what may be denominated party strife. Besides Moore, several
able leaders now appeared,—among them, Major Daniel, Colonel William
Rhett, and Sir Nathaniel Johnson; while to Nicholas Trott the foremost
place must be assigned for distinguished learning and ability. On his
arrival he espoused the popular cause; but with numerous offices and
honors bestowed upon him by the Proprietors, he and his brother-in-law,
Colonel Rhett, became their zealous champions. These able men so
largely influenced their lordships that at a word from them governors
and councils were sometimes set at naught.
At the opening of the new century, we must cease to look upon South
Carolina as the home of indigent emigrants, struggling for subsistence.
While numerous slaves cultivated the extensive plantations, their
owners, educated gentlemen, and here and there of noble families in
England, had abundant leisure for social intercourse, living as they
did in proximity to each other, and in easy access to Charles Town,
where the governor resided, the courts and legislature convened, and
the public offices were kept. The road that led up from the fortified
town between the two broad rivers so enchanted Governor Archdale that
he believed no prince in Europe, with all his art, could make a walk
for the whole year round so pleasant and beautiful. From the road, to
the right and to the left, avenues of water-oaks in mossy festoons, and
in spring-time redolent with jasmines, gave the passer-by glimpses of
handsome residences, from whose spacious verandas could be seen on the
east the beautiful waters of the Bay, on the west the Ashley River.
Hospitality, refinement, and literary culture distinguished the higher
class of gentlemen.[757]
Governor Moore and his party gained control of the council by filling
vacancies with those of whose good-will they were assured. But they
ineffectually sought, by every means in their power, to elect a
majority of assembly-men in their interest. Even violence was resorted
to, and some estimable gentlemen, opponents of the party in power,
were set upon and maltreated in the streets. The assembly resolved
to investigate the abuses at the election, and were, therefore,
prorogued from time to time; and it was reported that martial law would
be proclaimed. When at last the assembly convened, they began with
recriminations. If the public welfare had required their counsels, why
had the governor, through pique, prorogued them? And was it true that
he designed to menace them with coercion? “Oh! how is that sacred word
Law profaned when joined with Martial! Have you forgotten your Honor’s
own noble endeavor to vindicate our liberties when Colleton set up this
arbitrary rule?”[758] But further disputation was averted. The governor
had planned a secret and sudden attack on St. Augustine. The assembly
joined in the scheme. They requested him to go as commander instead
of Colonel Daniel, whom he nominated. They voted £2,000; and thought
ten vessels and 350 men, with Indian allies, would be a sufficient
force. The doors are closed. Men, and even women, who had been to St.
Augustine, are interrogated concerning its defences. An embargo is laid
on the shipping in the harbor. Moore with about 400 men sets sail, and
Daniel with 100 Carolina troops and about 500 Yemassee Indians march by
land. But the inhabitants of St. Augustine had heard of their coming,
and had sent to Havana for reinforcements. Retreating to their castle,
they abandoned the town to Colonel Daniel, who pillaged it before
Moore’s fleet arrived. Governor Moore and Colonel Daniel united their
forces and laid siege to the castle; but they lacked the necessary
artillery for its reduction, and were compelled to send to Jamaica for
it. Unfortunately the agent sent put back to Charles Town, and the
governor sent Colonel Daniel himself to Jamaica. Before he returned,
two Spanish ships appeared off St. Augustine. Moore instantly burned
the town and all his own ships, and hastened back by land. Colonel
Daniel, coming from Jamaica with the artillery, narrowly escaped
the Spanish ships, and was convoyed to Charles Town by an English
man-of-war which he met at sea. The expense entailed on the colony was
£6,000.
When this attack on St. Augustine was planned, it must have been
anticipated in the colony that war would be declared against Spain
and France. The impending danger to South Carolina, a frontier to
Spanish Florida, induced the Proprietors to appoint as governor
the soldierly Sir Nathaniel Johnson (June, 1702). James Moore was
made receiver-general; Nicholas Trott, attorney-general; Job Howes,
surveyor-general; and Rhett, Broughton, and other men of ability,
adhering to the government in its hour of peril, increased thereby the
power of the dominant party. Colonel Moore, being sent out by Johnson
(December, 1703) with fifty Carolinians and one thousand Indians,
ravaged the country of the Apalatchees, allies of the Spaniards,
and utterly defeated them and a body of Spanish troops that came to
their assistance. Three years later, in August, when yellow fever was
prevalent and five or six deaths a day, in the small population of
Charles Town, was not a rare occurrence, a French fleet of five vessels
under Le Feboure, aided by the Spanish governor at Havana, suddenly
appeared off the harbor. Troops were disembarked at several points. A
council of war was held, and the Carolinians determined to go out and
meet the enemy. Colonel Rhett, Captains Fenwicke, Cantey, Watson, and
others, with many gentlemen as volunteers, defeated the invaders, and
brought 230 French and Spanish prisoners into town. Thus perished the
first attempt to take Charles Town by a naval force, a feat which never
yet has been accomplished. The governor, handsomely rewarded by the
Proprietors, thanked the troops for their valor and their unanimity at
a time when violent estrangements existed between political parties in
the colony.