USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina V. I, Pt. 1 > Part 17
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In January, 1711, this invitation was accepted, and Hyde
1710
New Bern founded 1710
The Cary administra- tion
Records Carteret County
Jan., 1711
172
THE CHRY REBELLION
1711
Hyde's administra- tion
coming to Carolina, settled himself in Chowan, near Colonel Pollock's, who, as well as Glover, had returned about that time to his Carolina home. But although the new presi- dent came in by common consent, he was met at the outset with the same practical question that had so largely entered into the politics of the colony during the preceding decade. Should Quakers be admitted to office? Should they be allowed to enter into office without qualifying themselves by taking an oath? This question could not be avoided. It met the new administration face to face and demanded an unequivocal answer.
C. R., I, 768,781, 784
Glover's influence
Hyde might perhaps have determined the matter in ac- cordance with the practice of the preceding administration and agreeably to the fundamental constitution of the colony had it not been for the influence exerted by the adherents of Glover, who had suffered no little because of their fidelity to the cause they represented. They prided themselves that it was the cause of the legitimate. lawful and regular gov- ernment no less than the cause of the Church and of true religion, and they sought, not without avail, to impress the new governor with the correctness of their views, and doubt- less he espoused them the more readily since they were in conformity with the prevailing notions in England in regard to the Quakers.
Urmstone, who had succeeded Mr. Adams as the solitary clergyman in the colony, wrote that "after long debates Hyde persists in Mr. Glover's opinion of not suffering the Quakers, who had deputations, either forged or granted by those who were not Proprietors, to be of the council, or have anything to do in the administration," which meant that the Quakers were excluded from the council, as in Glover's time. And again Pollock wrote to the Lords Proprietors, in September, 1712, that "the Quakers are not permitted to sit in the Assembly."
This decision on the part of Hyde opened afresh all the old sores, and threw into the opposition a strong party, who, having lately enjoyed the powers of government, were easily led to make another stand for the principles they had so ardently maintained. The leaders of that party coming to understand that Hyde's administration would be in the
Opposition arises
THE CHURCH PARTY TRIUMPHS
173
nature of a return of the Glover faction, whose temper was very bitter and hostile, sought to weaken it by withdrawing their adherence and declaring that Hyde, having no com- mission, was not a legal governor.
The new Assembly
The Cary officers, it is said, falling in with these sug- gestions, retained their records. seals and other muniments of office and would not surrender them to Hyde's appointees. Such was the situation when, in March, 1711, the Assembly, March, 1711 called by Hyde, met at Colonel Pollock's residence in Chowan. Of that Assembly Urmstone writes : "With much difficulty we had the majority. . . . The Assembly was made up of a strange mixture of men of various opinions and C. R., I, 768 inclinations : a few Churchmen, many Presbyterians, Inde- pendents, but most anythingarians-some out of principle, others out of hopes of power and authority in the govern- ment to the end that they might lord it over their neighbors, all conspired to act answerably to the desire of the president and council." The Quakers being excluded, the Assembly was sufficiently manageable.
The rising sun was too strong for those who were deemed Hyde to be on the wane. Hyde triumphed over the opposition. The "awful respect" of his great name was heavy weight in his favor, and "the Presbyterians, Independents and any- thingarians" of the Assembly were drawn to his side in hopes of favors to come. and also because three months before he had been brought in as governor by common consent ; while Cary's administration had fallen into disrepute because of inefficiency, and he himself had either squandered or had not collected the quit rents due the Lords Proprietors. Whatever were the influences working the change, the Assembly was quite as severe against the Cary party as the former Assembly had, in October, 1708, been against its Glover opponents. It declared that Cary and Porter had failed to attend with Hyde as members of his council, that they had been guilty of sedition and had sought to overturn Hyde's government, and they impeached them for high crimes and misdemeanors and committed them to the cus- tody of the provost marshal.
1711
succeeds
Partisan legislation
Cary and Porter impeached
45
174
THE CARY REBELLION
1711 C. R., I, 735 Proceeding> in the courts annulled
It petitioned the Lords Proprietors to remove Cary, Porter and Moseley from any share in the government : and as Cary's government had declared void all proceedings had nine months before it came in, so this Assembly declared void all proceeding, save certain exceptions, that had been in Cary's courts, land offices, etc., during the space of two entire years.
C. R .. I, 785, 786
It further re-enacted the former law in regard to the qualification of all officers by oaths according to the strict- ness of the English laws, and enacted that all laws made for the establishment of the Church in England should be in force in the colony.
C. R., I, 780
Cary's usurpation
And various sundry other enactments were made in the first flush of victory by those who had been under the ban for three years, of such a character as to draw even from Spotswood, "that they added some other clauses perhaps too severe to be justified, wherein it must be confessed they showed more their resentment of their ill-usage during Mr. Cary's usurpation (as they call it) than their prudence to reconcile the distractions of the country."
C. R., I, 791
Particularly was an act passed directing Cary to account with Hyde for all funds that he had collected for the Lords Proprietors, and upon his failing to do so within two months, Hyde was authorized to issue execution against his prop- erty. Truly, Cary had fallen from his high estate, and the Glover party, animated by a fierce resentment of their in- juries, were pursuing him with a strong hand. Having disrobed him of power, they sought to press him to the wall. But as Spotswood wrote, their measures were beyond their power to enforce them. By their want of moderation they threw the whole opposition into violent antagonism.
Hyde embodies men May, 1711
Both Cary and Porter escaped from the custody of the provost marshal and regained their liberty, and two months having elapsed without the former having accounted for the money of the Lords Proprietors, Hyde embodied a force to go and take him. On Sunday, May 26th, Hyde, with some secrecy, collected about eighty men at his own house in Chowan, and on Monday, crossed the sound and went twelve miles up the river, where his force was increased to one hundred and fifty men. Hastening through the wilder-
-
------
175
CARY TAKES UP ARMS
ness, on the 28th they reached Cary's house at Pamlico, but he having received notice of their approach, made his escape to Governor Daniel's house, a few miles farther down the river.
The next day Hyde pursued, but found that his delay had been disastrous. Cary had called around him some forty followers and had so fortified himself that it was hazardous to attack him.
On June Ist the forces of the disappointed governor with- drew, having only their trouble for their pains, and having by an accident lost one of their own men, a kinsman of the governor, who unfortunately was killed during the expedi- tion. So ended Hyde's fiasco, and well indeed had it ter- minated there! Whatever else may have been the disposi- tion of Cary, he was not a man to shun danger, no matter in what form it came. He was as resolute as he was violent, and as audacious as implacable.
He at once infused into the people of Pamlico that the As- sembly was not called by proper authority, that it was not duly elected, that Hyde was not governor, having no com- mission sent him, and therefore that he could not comply with this demand to account with Hyde for money belonging to the Lords Proprietors. Nor did his efforts end in words. He erected his standard and gathered his forces.
And just then Captain Roach, an agent of Dawson, one of the Lords Proprietors, brought his vessel into Pamlico, there being among his cargo several cannon and a quantity of small arms and ammunition. Roach vigorously espoused the side of Cary, and strengthened his cause as well by de- claring that the Proprietors did not intend that Hyde should be governor, as by furnishing the munitions and sinews of war. A brigantine belonging to Emanuel Lowe was armed with cannon and a barco-longo was also equipped for active service.
All was activity among the Presbyterians and Indepen- dents of Bath. And so with Hyde and his supporters in Chowan.
Pasquotank and Perquimans and Currituck seem not to have been involved, the Quakers remaining quiet and the
17II --
Dennis's Narrative, C. R., 1, 803
₩
Roach aids Cary C. R., 1, 804
176
THE CARY REBELLION
IZII
other citizens of those counties responding but slowly to the call of the governor for active support. Indeed so slowly did they respond that Hyde early realized the superior strength of his adversary, and at once applied for aid to the governor of Virginia.
Spotswood seeks to mediate June, 1711
On June 13th Spotswood, in response to the demand, de- termined to send a mediator to seek a suspension of military operations until the differences of the contestants could be laid before the Lords Proprietors. To that end, on June 20th he wrote letters to each, Hyde and Cary, which he sent by Mr. Clayton, saying to Cary that he had ever advised Hyde to moderation and to endeavor to reconcile and unite both parties, and that it was on this basis that he now pro- posed mediation.
C. R., I, 760
On June 25th Clayton reached Pollock's residence, which was situated somewhat west of the site of Edenton, and on the next day delivered the letter to Cary, whose well-manned brigantine and barco-longo were then sailing off some twelve miles from Pollock's in the sound.
C. R., I, 795
Cary agreed to the proposition to meet Hyde the next day at an appointed place, and that in the meantime the forces should remain where they were. But Hyde, upon considera- tion, found the appointed place too inconvenient, and sug- gested two other points for a conference to be held on the 28th. But this proposition, says Hyde himself, did not reach Cary in time, because of bad weather, and negotia- tions thereupon were broken off.
Cary threatens Hyde with Parke's fate
Clayton again visited Cary and delivered a second letter from Spotswood. withheld at first, threatening Cary with his own armed interference if he should not come to terms. Cary now declared he would make no terms, but that he would seize Hyde and his council, and that Hyde might ex- pect the same fate that Colonel Parke had at Antigua.
This threat produced a great commotion among the friends of Governor Hyde, for two years before Colonel Parke, the governor of the island of Antigua, one of the British Isles in the Caribbean Sea, had after three years of tyranny and despotic oppression been seized by the outraged people, and had been torn limb from limb ; a tragic fate. well known in Virginia, where one of Governor Parke's daugh-
177
HYDE IS VICTORIOUS
ters had married Colonel Custis, and was thus allied to some of the first people in that colony.
But Cary's threats were impotent. His men were not C. R., I, equal to the occasion. On the morning of June 30th, he de- 762, 795 termined to make the attempt to seize Hyde, and approach- June 30 ing Pollock's house that lay near the water, he fired two can- non from his brig and, throwing a force into two boats, made a dash for the land.
But Hyde was prepared, and returning shot for shot, struck the mast of the brig, and deployed his men along the shore ready for the assault. Such an unexpected show of force struck terror into the hearts of Cary's men, who quickly returned to their vessel and sought to draw off .* Hyde in turn manned some boats and gave pursuit. And now Cary's force thought only of escape. The brig was hastily run ashore, and the men fled into the woods. When Hyde's boats approached, the brig, armed with six cannon, fell into their hands, along with her owner, Emanuel Lowe, and three sailors, who composed her crew.
Being favored by this good fortune, Hyde issued a procla- Hyde's mation pardoning all who had been led into acts of violence, moderation except the chief movers, which, together with the loss of prestige incident to the miscarriage of the attempt to seize Hyde, tended to draw the people away from Cary, whose forces rapidly dispersed. Roach, however, fortified himself at Pamlico, and it was said that John Porter went among the Indians and endeavored to persuade them to fall upon the people on the western shores of Chowan, the inhabitants there having espoused the cause of Hyde. The Indians, how- ever, declined the invitation. if any were indeed made to them. In the meantime, Hyde, flushed with his success in capturing the armed brigantine, hastily threw on board of the vessel a force of his own and sailed off to Pamlico to make an end C. R., I, 795 of the matter by capturing Cary at Roach's house, the place where he had fortified : but again did the governor find dis- cretion the better part of valor. Cary was too strongly en-
*This sudden flight was probably due to the appearance among Hyde's followers of Baron De Graffenried's servant, in his yellow coat, which led to the impression that some of the queen's troops were present, it being treason to make war on them.
I711
De Graffen- ried's Narra- tive, C. R., 1, 918
.
178
THE CARY REBELLION
1711
trenched ; no attack was made, and the expedition returned without result. But Spotswood having on the application of Hyde sent some marines to his assistance, the appearance of these on Pamlico. about July roth, being troops of the queen, accomplished the final dispersion of the Cary forces.
Cary and Porter sent to England July 31
Colonel Cary and several of his most active supporters hastily proceeded to Virginia to take shipping for England, but were there seized by Spotswood, and, on July 31st, were sent to England on board a man-of-war under charges of rebellion and sedition. They arrived in London on Septem- ber 25th, but there being no evidence produced against them, they were discharged.
Porter's will Off. Sec. State
On November 20th, within a month after his arrival, we find Cary before the Lords Proprietors obtaining copies of the charges made against him by Hyde. A year later he had returned to Carolina, Hyde having been instructed by the Lords Proprietors not to proceed to the punishment of any of the parties engaged against him. John Porter remained in England and died at Bridgewater during the spring or summer of 1713.
C. R., I, 750
Final separation of North and South Carolina
On the death of Governor Tynte, the Lords Proprietors appointed Hyde governor of North Carolina in his own right, and a recent act of Parliament requiring the approval of the Crown, the royal assent was given, and on May 9, 1712, he received his appointment, bearing date Jan- uary 24th. Taking the oaths, he became Governor of North Carolina, being the first appointed by the Lords Proprietors since Ludwell's time, and this appointment was the begin- ning of the entire separation of the government of North Carolina from that of the southern colony.
CHAPTER XV
THE TUSCARORA WAR
The Indians disquieted .- Lawson's activities .- Lawson executed .- The cause of the Indian war .- The massacre .- Preparations for defence .- Active war .- Gale's mission successful .- Barnwell acts vigorously .- War measures .- Barnwell makes a truce .- Barnwell's Indians return to South Carolina .- Hostilities renewed .- The death of Hyde .- Pollock's truce with King Blount .- James Moore arrives. -He takes Fort Nohoroco .- Many Tuscaroras depart for New York. -Major Maurice Moore arrives .- Effects on the settlers .- Harmony in the colony .- Governor Eden .- South Carolina imperilled .- Aid " sent .- The Cores renew hostilities.
The Indians disquieted
In the dissensions of the colony, the Pamlico section ad- hered to Cary, and the Indians of that region were led by the execrations of the neighboring whites to regard the new gov- ernor as a person to be detested by them, while the rapid extension of the settlements to the southward and along the waters of the Pamlico and Neuse raised apprehensions lest they should be forced back and utterly expelled from their old hunting grounds. At this time the tribes at the north had dwindled into insignificance; they were the Meherrins, the Nottoways, and the Chowans on Bennett's Creek and the Pasquotank, some of whom had already fallen into the habits of the whites, wore clothes and had cattle, making butter for sale. On the western frontier, beginning in Vir- ginia and extending nearly to the Neuse, were the Tusca- roras, a warlike tribe of northern origin. They occupied fifteen towns and numbered altogether 1200 fighting men. Adjoining them were the Woccoons, about one-tenth their number : and a few miles distant were the Pamlicos, once an important tribe, who had, however, been swept away by a fearful epidemic some fifteen years before, and now could boast only fifty braves. The Neuse and the Chautauquas, who occupied the region allotted to De Graffenried's colony,
Sept., 1711
1711
ta
180
THE TUSCARORA WAR
IZII
were likewise weak : but the tribes farther to the eastward, on Bear River and Core Sound, were more populous. Near Bath was a small tribe of Pungos, and on the sounds to the south were found the Coranines; while at Hatteras lived the remnant of a tribe now reduced to sixteen braves, who claimed that some of their ancestors were white, and valued themselves extremely on their kinship to the English, and were very friendly. In confirmation of this claim, in effect that they were descended from Raleigh's Lost Colony, Law- son declares that some of them had grey eyes, a circum- stance not observed among any other Indians.
Byrd's Div. Line, 89
In the distant interior, on the Eno, had been the Oc- coneechees, and nearby the Schoccories and the Keiauwees, and farther south the Saponas and the Toteros; but these a few years earlier had consolidated and had removed from Carolina into Virginia, settling at Christianna, ten miles north of the Roanoke. After remaining there some twenty- five years. however, they returned to Carolina and dwelt with the Catawbas. In all, there were some 1500 braves bor- dering on the south and west of the settlements; but the Indians to the northward, nearer the Virginia line, did not sympathize in the apprehensions felt by the lower towns concerning the encroachments made on the Pamlico and Neuse and were not inclined to be inimical to the whites.
Lawson's work
Lawson had projected an interior road from the southern settlement to Virginia, and with a view to locating it he had made a progress through the region inhabited by the Indians ; he had also as surveyor been conspicuous in estab- lishing the Palatines and the Swiss, and in laying off planta- tions, and indeed himself had a large grant located on the Neuse; and thus he became an object of particular resent- ment among the discontented Indians.
Sept. 8, 1711
Such was the feeling early in September, some two months after the dispersion of Cary's forces and the flight of his principal adherents from the colony, when Lawson and Christopher Gale and Baron De Graffenried arranged for an expedition up the Neuse and to make a progress through the Indian towns with a view of locating the proposed road. Gale was fortunately detained, but the baron and Lawson. accompanied by two negroes, on September 8th, set out from
181
LAWSON'S FATAL EXPEDITION
New Bern by boat on the exploration, taking fifteen days' provision with them. On the evening of the second day, the Indians, discovering them, became alarmed, and mistak- ing the baron for Governor Hyde, seized them and hurried them in great haste to their king's town, on Cotechney, where a council of Indian chiefs was speedily assembled, by whom both the baron and Lawson were condemned to instant death.
De Graffenried, however, with great address, saved him- self by asserting that he was not an Englishman, but a king . and a friend of the queen of England, who would certainly punish them for any violence done to him. Reprieving him, on Lawson they reaped their vengeance by a sum- mary execution ; an unhappy fate, in strange contrast with the humane and friendly sentiments he had expressed in his History in regard to the proper treatment and the wel- fare and happiness of these original inhabitants of the Caro- lina territory. The day following the trial and execution of Lawson, the Indian chieftains informed De Graffenried that they had determined to make war on the English, and that the particular objects of their enmity were the people on the Neuse, Pamlico and Trent rivers and on Core Sound, for set- tlers had established themselves even in that locality.
Governor Pollock, writing to Governor Spotswood some The cause of the Indian war nine months after the outbreak, gives this account of the origin of the war: "Our own divisions, chiefly occasioned by the Quakers and some few other evil-disposed persons, hath been the cause of all our trouble. For the Indians being informed by some of the traders that the people that lived here were only a few vagabond persons that had run away out of other governments and had settled here of their own head, without any authority, so if they were cut off there would be none to help them: this, with the seeing our own Hawks, II, differences rise to such a height that we, consisting of only +34 two counties, were in arms against each other, encouraged them to fall on the county of Bath, not expecting that they would have any assistance from this county or any other English plantation. This is the chief cause that moved the Indians to rise against us so far as I can understand."
This internecine strife and bitterness doubtless led the
1711 - Hawks, II. 380 ; De Graffen- ried's Narra- tive. C. R., I, 925 Sept., 1711
Lawson executed
182
THE TUSCARORA WAR
1711 -- Indians to consider that a favorable time and opportunity : but the cause. the reason of their einity, was quite another thing. If some of Hyde's adherents are to be believed. they had during the Cary troubles declined to attack the whites. although invited to do so; and it was only after quiet had been restored and Cary and Porter had been absent two months that hostilities began. In July some of Hyde's ad- herents alleged that at the time of the dispersal of Cary's forces, John Porter had gone among the Tuscaroras and sought to incite them to cut off the inhabitants on the Chowan who were adherents of Hyde, but they had refused to be drawn into such an enterprise. In the massacre now resolved on, the upper towns of the Tuscaroras again de- clined to participate ; but the Cotechneys, the Woccoons, the Pamlicos, the Cores and the Neuse Indians were the chief promoters of the murderous work, and the victims were the settlers who had located on the frontier and who had been Cary's supporters. The outbreak was evidently an effort of the southern tribes to preserve their hunting grounds, which the settlers were now fast occupying.
Cary's adherents the sufferers
The massacre
Sept. 22, 1711
Five hundred warriors, consisting of Indians from every tribe on the southern frontier, having congregated at Han- cock's town on the Cotechney, formed into small bands and dispersed themselves as if in a friendly way throughout the new settlements. On the morning of September 22d, about sunrise, they fell upon the unsuspecting planters in their isolated homes and began a fearful massacre. In two hours one hundred and thirty persons fell beneath their bloody blows. On some plantations all, men, women and children alike, were ruthlessly and barbarously murdered ; at others. the men only were slain, and the women and children were spared to be held, however, as slaves. In savage wrath, they slew and burned and pillaged, and the entire region south of the Albemarle was a horrid scene of brutal murder and deso- lation. The French settlers on the Pamlico suffered heav- ily, eighty of De Graffenried's colonists fell victims, and the outlying districts were depopulated.
De Graffen- ried's Narra- tive, C. R., I, 933
In those hours of fearful calamity, those who fortunately escaped the first fury of the savages fled in dismay to con- venient points of refuge. They collected at Bath and at ten
183
THE MASSACRE
other places, where they hurriedly fortified themselves against attack.
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