CHAPTER XV. COLONIZATION OF THE CAROLINAS. The first Settlers.-Grants to Royal Favorites.-The "Grand Model."-Settlement at Cape Fear River.-Sir John Yeamans.-Emigrants under Sayle. The Huguenots.-The People Independent.-Rice.-Churchmen and Dissenters.-Manufactures prohibited.-War between England and Spain.-Failure to Capture St. Augustine.—The ruin of the Appalachees.-Indian Wars.-German Emigrants.-The People repudiate the Authority of the Proprietaries. XV. We have now to speak of the permanent settlement of CHAP. the land, which the chivalric Sir Walter Raleigh endeavored to colonize; and to which the noble Coligny 1622. sent his countrymen to found a Protestant State, and where they perished by the hand of Spanish violence. That vast region, extending from the southern border of Virginia to the northern border of Florida, was represented as a "delightsome land" by the adventurers who had explored it. Thither, during the space of forty years, emigrants had gone from Virginia. These were Dissenters, a term which now began to be applied to all Protestants not attached to the Church of England. This Church, established by law in Virginia, exercised great illiberality toward those who would not conform to its ceremonies; and many Dissenters, greatly annoyed by the collectors of tythes, emigrated further south. Among them was a company of Presbyterians who settled on the 1653. Chowan. Berkeley, governor of Virginia, assumed jurisliction over them by appointing one of their number, XV. CHAP. William Drummond, governor. Drummond was a Scotchman by birth, a devoted advocate of popular liberty, the 1653. same who afterward, as has been related, returned tc Virginia, and was put to death by Berkeley for the par he took in Bacon's attempt to vindicate the rights of th 1676. people. Charles II., who gave away vast regions with as much coolness as if they really belonged to him, granted to eight of his favorites a charter and certain privileges, to 1663. repay them for their loyalty in restoring him to the throne of his father. This grant was of the territory extending from the present southern line of Virginia to the St. Johns, in Florida, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Many of these proprietaries were men of influence in their day. Among these were the Earl of Clarendon, who was prime minister; Sir Ashley Cooper, better known as the Earl of Shaftesbury; General Monk, Duke of Albemarle, who took an active part in the restoration of Charles ; Sir William Berkeley, whom we have met in Virginia history; and Sir George Carteret, a proprietary of New Jersey. They professed to have "a pious zeal for the spread of the gospel," but their conduct has led the world to believe that they desired more to enrich themselves by means of a vast land speculation. The labor of framing a government for their empire in the New World they intrusted to Shaftesbury, and the celebrated philosopher, John Locke. Their joint production by pre-eminence was named the "Grand Model" or "Fundamental Constitutions." In it the right to rule was assumed to belong only to those of noble blood; and therefore its principles were pronounced immortal. It made provision for Earls, Barons, and Squires, in whose hands, under various forms, should be the entire administration of affairs; while the people were to be attached to the soil as tenants. Those who owned fifty acres of land had the privilege of voting, and were termed freemen; but 66 THE GRAND MODEL." 143 XV. those who were tenants had no such privilege, neither CHAP. could they ever rise above that station. To the freemen an Assembly was granted, but on such conditions, that its 1663. acts were under the control of the aristocracy. Every religion was professedly tolerated, but care was taken to declare that the Church of England alone was orthodox. Such was the frame of government prepared for the people of the Carolinas by the united wisdom of two philosophers. Had it been designed for a people living in the Middle Ages, it might, at least, have had a trial; an honor to which the "Grand Model" never attained. It was as easy to convert log-cabins into castles, as to make the people perpetual tenants; they might be made nobles, but never dependents. Great numbers of them had left Virginia expressly to escape restraint and oppression ; and they had very little respect for the authority of the proprietaries, while they certainly did not fear and honor the king. The contest soon began. The proprietaries claimed the territory because the king had given them a charter, and they demanded quit-rents; the settlers, already in possession, claimed their lands because they had purchased them from the Indians. Why should they pay quit-rents? A few years before, a small company from New Eng- 1661, land had formed a settlement on Cape Fear river. Every inducement was held out to retain these settlers, and to encourage others to join them. To each one was offered one hundred acres of land, at a quit-rent of half a penny an acre; but the barrenness of the soil neutralized every effort. Many of these colonists returned home, and the distress of the remainder was so great, that contributions in their behalf were taken up in New England. Three years later quite an accession was made to this 166. settlement by a company of planters from the Barbadoes. Sir John Yeamans, their leader, was appointed governor. XV. CHAP. He was instructed, in order to induce others to come, to be "very tender" toward the New Englanders. The 1664. people did the best they could with their pine barrens, by making staves and shingles; these they sent to the West Indies a trade carried on to this day from that region. It was enacted that debts contracted out of the colony could not be collected from the emigrant by process of law until he had been a resident five years. It thus became a partial asylum for debtors. 1670. A company of emigrants, under the direction of William Sayle, was also sent by the proprietaries; and to superintend their own interests they appointed Joseph West commercial agent. They landed first at Port Royal, where the remains of the fort built by the Huguenots, one hundred years before, were still visible. It had been called Carolina, in honor of the reigning French king; the name was now retained in honor of Charles of England. One of the proprietaries, Carteret, gave his name to the colony. For some reason they, before long, removed to another situation further north, where they formed a settlement between two rivers, which, in honor of Shaftesbury, were named the Ashley and the Cooper. A location near the harbor, and better suited for commercial purposes, was afterward noticed. In process of time a village grew up on this spot; it is now known as the city of CHARLESTON. The colony continued to increase from emigration. Dissenters came, hoping to enjoy the religious rights denied them at home; Dutch and Germans from Europe; Presbyterians from the North of Ireland as well as from Scotland-the latter furnishing great numbers of "physicians, clergymen, lawyers, and schoolmasters; "-Churchmen from England, who expected their church to be established in accordance with the provisions of the "Grand Model;" emigrants from New York, because of the high-handed measures of the English governors; THE HUGUENOTS. 145 XV. and Huguenots, under the patronage of Charles II. He CHAP. wished to introduce the culture of the vine and olive, the raising of silk-worms, and ultimately the manufacture of 1670. silk. Great numbers of the Huguenots, from Languedoc, in the South of France, came to the Carolinas, attracted by the genial climate. A law granting toleration to the Protestants of France was made by Henry IV.: this was the famous Edict of 1598. Nantes, thus named from the city where it was given. This law remained in force almost ninety years, when it was revoked by Louis XIV. He had, as long as he 1685. could enjoy it, spent his life in vice and the grossest debauchery; now he thought to silence the clamors of conscience, that terrible enemy of wicked men, and yet win heaven by converting to the Romish church his Protestant subjects. Encouraged in this by the priests and the wiles of an apostate woman, he let loose upon these industrious and well-disposed people the terrors of persecution. Why go into the detail of their wrongs ?-the heart sickens at the remembrance. By a refinement of cruelty, they were forbidden to flee from their native land, and every avenue of escape was guarded by their inveterate enemies. Yet, after encountering unheard-of dangers and trials, many of them did escape, and more than five hundred thousand fled to different parts of the world. In the New World they were everywhere welcomed by sympa thizing friends. The Huguenots were so far superior to the Catholic portion of the French nation, in intelligence and the knowledge of the mechanic arts, that nearly all the manufactures of the country were in their hands. This skill they carried with them, and they thus became desirable citizens wherever they chose to settle. In South Carolina their influence was specially felt. Their quiet and inoffensive manners won for them respect; their integrity and industry gave them influence. Ere long they mingled |