USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina, V I pt 2 > Part 2
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Subsequent movements
The next day the wounded were sent to the plantation of Michael Holt with a surgeon and medicines, and the main army proceeded to Lewis's mill. three miles beyond the field of battle, where a detachment under Colonel Ashe that had been advanced was surrounded by about three hundred of the Regulators. Immediately after the battle a proclamation had been issued granting pardon to all who should come into camp, surrender up their arms, take an oath of alle- C. R., VIII, giance to the king and an oath of obligation to pay their 649 taxes, and to support and defend the laws of the land .* Ex- ceptions. however, were made of the outlaws and prisoners taken and some fourteen others. Many now accepted these Pardons and exceptions terms and submitted. The army the next day marched to James Hunter's and destroyed his dwelling and outhouse, and then took possession of Hermon Husband's plantation, finding there "a large parcel of treasonable papers;" and, the inhabitants continuing to come in, submitting themselves to government, the proclamation of pardon was renewed and the time extended; but the exceptions now embraced the
*Governor Martin spoke of this "oath as one of allegiance. etc., etc." Atticus described it as "your new coined oath to be obedient to the laws of the province. and to pay the public taxes." To that description the governor himself added, "to support and defend the laws of the land." as in the text.
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374
TRYON'S ADMINISTRATION, 1765-71
"Black Boys" and some others at first omitted, among them being Thomas Person. The outlaws named were Hus- band. Hunter, Howell and Butler, and on their heads a price was set. Heavy rains, which had begun on May 20th and continued until the 28th, added much to the discomfort of the men. many of whom were seized with pleuri-ies.
The army remained a week in Sandy Creek, then passed to Deep River, and on June ist was in the Jersey settlement. On June 4th, on Reedy Creek. General Waddell's forces joined the main army, and they marched to Wachovia, where they remained several days, and at Salem on June 6th they celebrated the king's birthday and the victory of the 16th. During this march the houses and plantations of those who were outlawed were laid waste and destroyed, and their owners fled from the province.
C. R., VIII, 651
The insurgents having been quieted on the Deep and the Haw, and information being received that they were rising to the south and west. General Waddell was detached on June 8th with some five hundred men and artillery to move into that section and suppress them ; and on the same day Governor Tryon began his return movement.
S. R., XIX, 852
The army reached Hillsboro on the 14th, where the cattle and horses were turned on the plantation of William Few, the father of James Few, who was said to have been "very active in promoting the disturbance of the country." Hav- ing taken some prisoners on May 13th, Governor Tryon ordered that a special term of court under the riot act should C R., VIII, be opened at Hillsboro on the 30th of that month, but the governor had kept the prisoners along with the army with the view of parading them before the country, and the court had been kept open awaiting their arrival for trial.
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The trials
The victims
The trials began on June 14th and lasted until the 18th, when twelve prisoners were sentenced to death on the charge of high treason. Six of these were immediately executed. The record of the court has not been preserved. Four of those executed were Benjamin Merrill. Robert Matear, Cap- tain Messer and James Pugh. The names of two are un- known. Six were reprieved : Forrester Mercer, James Stew-
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P.ICIFIC.ITION AND ITS RESULTS
art, James Emerson, Herman Cox. William Brown and James Copeland, and later they were pardoned by the king. The melancholy spectacle of the execution was accompanied by a military parade,* and its terrors were augmented by the impressiveness of the scene. The governor attended with the entire army, and caused all of the prisoners to be brought out to witness it.
The people, utterly subdued, their leaders fled or taken, The people submit had continued to come in and ask for pardon. so that by June 19th more than three thousand had submitted to the government and taken the oath to pay their taxes and obey the laws which Governor Tryon had exacted of them. When, later. General Waddell had made his report, giving C. R., 1X, 78 the result of his excursion into the southwestern part of the province. the entire number who had taken the oath aggre- gated 6400, and about 800 guns had been turned into the government by the malcontents. Apparently then the west- ern counties were disarmed and thoroughly subjugated. But the people were not pacified, and many moved from the province. some passing the mountains and finding homes in the forests of the Holstein settlement.
Governor Tryon, having on June 13th received informa- tion that he had been appointed governor of New York, and having instructions to repair without loss of time to that province, communicated to the army that he would march to the southward immediately after the executions, and that he would leave the army under the command of Colonel Ashe, he himself hastening to New Bern. On June 30th he embarked for New York, where he arrived on July 7th and assumed the administration. He carried with him the esteem and good-will of the leading men of the eastern part of the province, who commended his bravery and courage, and approved his administration in the difficult circun- stances that attended it.
*A gruesome memorial of this event is preserved in State Records. XXII, 465 :
"The Public to Thomas Donaldson. Dr .- 19th June. 1771. To hanging six men at Hillsboro Court of Oyer, etc., five pounds each- thirty pounds. P'r Thomas Donaldson."
1771
Trvon departs from the province C. R., VIII, 675
June. 1771 C. R., 1X 9, 142
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TRYON'S ADMINISTR. ITION. 1765-71
The riot acc ir England C. R .. IX. 285. 286 S. R., XI, 240
As the disturbances incident to the Regulation movement were a marked feature of affairs during that period, so the efforts of the government to suppress them were also un- usual and remarkable. The riot act, passed by the Assembly. of which Caswell was speaker, and Harnett. Johnston. Hewes, Howe, the Moores and many others who led in the revolu- tionary movement three years later, were members, and which received the approval of the governor, was such a stringent measure as to challenge criticism. That clause of it which required indicted persons. after proclamation. to surrender themselves within sixty days and stand trial on pain of being deemed guilty and of being held outlaws sub- ject to being killed by any one, was considered by the Crown officers as "irreconcilable to the principles of the con- stitution." "full of danger in its operation" and "unfit for any part of the British Empire :" although they mentioned that "the circumstances of the province may excuse inserting such clause in this act." It was certainly a fierce and bloody expedient. resorted to because the persons accused could not be arrested. Other than that. the act received the ap- proval of the Crown, and inasmuch as its operation was limited to a single year, it was allowed to stand until its expiration. James Few was the only person who suffered death under it. as an outlaw. if indeed the governor justified even his execution by that sanction.
The army. after Tryon's departure from Hillsboro. pro- ceeded to Colonel Bryan's in Johnston County and there the detachments separated, marching to their respective counties, where they were disbanded. The cost of the expedition. about £60.000, had in part been met by notes issued by Treasurer Ashe, which he announced would be received by him in payment of taxes. These notes circulated as cur- rency, and in some measure gave relief to the people in the scarcity of a circulating medium.
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Shows Chronological Dates of Expansion of Settlements.
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MAP OF NORTH CAROLINA : SHOWING EVOLUTION OF SETTLEMENTS AND. LOCATION OF RA ES DOWN TO 177
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377
CHAPTER XXIII
SOCIAL LIFE AT THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION
In the homes of the people .- Social conditions .- The state church. -- The Protestant dissenters .-- The Baptist churches .- Pioneers of Methodism .- Education and schools .- Taxation .- The lawyers .-- The Quakers and the militia .- Servants and slaves.
In the homes of the people
McRee, in his "Life of Iredell," has given an admirable portrayal of two communities in the province about the time of Martin's administration. Of the region of which Eden- ton was the centre, he says :
It was of such remarkable fertility that it might well have been styled the granary of the province; it was also the place of concen- tration and market-town for the opulent planters of a large district of country. . . . The climate was humid and unhealthy, but soft and luxurious. Game and fish were abundant, and cattle and sheep and swine throve and multiplied upon the spontaneous fruits of the earth. If there was little of the parade and pomp of older com- munities, if niany of the appliances of luxury were wanting, ease and abundance were the reward of but a slight degree of frugality and industry. No palatial dwellings existed-tapestry and plate were wanting ; but the homes of the planters were comfortable and ample for all the purposes of hospitality, while their tables groaned beneath dainties beyond the reach of wealth on the other side of the Atlantic. He who supposes them an untutored people is grossly deceived. The letters that will appear in the course of the narrative will demon- strate that they were equal in cultivation, ability, and patriotism to any of their contemporaries. The men were bold, frank, generous. and intelligent; the females, tender and kind and polite. The strength of the former was developed by manly labors. The taste of the latter was improved and their imaginations exalted by the varied forms of beauty that surrounded them. . . . In 1769 the town of Edenton was the court end of the province. Within its limits and in its immediate vicinity there was, in proportion to its population, a
1771
McRee's Iredell, I, 31-34
378
SOCIAL LIFE .IT THE REVOLUTION
1771 -- Social conditions
greater number of men eminent for ability, virtue. and erudition than in any other part of America. Colonel Richard Buncombe was a native of St. Kitts. He was educated in England and possessed a large fortune. Oi "Lawyer Pearson, an English gentleman." little is known save that he married the mother of Sir Nathaniel Dukin- field, and thus became master of large estates. Colonel John Dawson (a lawyer who married the daughter of Governor Gabriel Johnston ) resided at Eden House, noted for its splendid hospitality and the refined society generally assembled there. Dr. Cathcart was a gentle- man of extraordinarily fine sense and great reading. His two daugh- ters "were possessed of the three greatest motives to be courted : beauty, wit and prudence, and money ; great fortunes, and toasted in most parts of the province."
And so McRee continues with brief accounts of Joseph Hewes, Thomas Barker, Thomas Jones, Jasper Carlton, Stephen Cabarrus. Robert Smith, Charles Johnson, William Cumming, Sir Nathaniel Dukinfield, the Harveys and the Johnstons, who "possessed talents and attainments that, when combined. not only enabled them to determine the politics of their district, but gave them a potent influence in the province."
Of the lower Cape Fear he likewise says :
Mr. Hooper was a native of Boston and a graduate of Cambridge, Mass. After studying law with James Otis, he became a citizen of Wilmington. That town and its vicinity was noted for its un- bounded hospitality and the elegance of its society. Men of rare talents, fortune. and attainment united to render it the home of politeness and ease and enjoyment. Though the footprint of the Indian had as yet scarcely been effaced the higher civilization of the Old World had been transplanted there and had taken vigorous root. There were Colonel John Ashe, the great popular leader, whose ad- dress was consumimate, and whose quickness of apprehension scemed intuition. the very Rupert of debate; Samuel Ashe, of stalwart frame, endowed with practical good sense and a profound knowledge of human nature: Harnett, "who could boast a genius for music and taste for letters." the representative man of the Cape Fear; Dr. John Eustace, "who united wit, and genius, and learning, and science"; Colonel Thomas Lloyd, "gifted with talents and adorned with classical literature"; Howe, "whose imagination fascinated. whose repartee overpowered. and whose conversation was enlivened by strains of exquisite raillery"; Dr. John Fergus, of stately pres- ence, with velvet coat, cocked hat. and gold-headed cane, a graduate
McRee's Iredell, I, 194. 195
379
LEADING FAMILIES
of Edinburgh and an excellent Latin and Greek scholar: William Pennington. afterward master of the ceremonies at Bath. "an ele- gant writer, admired for his wit and his highly polished urbanity"; Judge Maurice Moore, of versatile talents, and possessed of extensive information : as a wit, always prompt in reply : as an orator, always daring the mercy of chance: Maclaine, irascible but intellectual, who trod the paths of honor nearly pari passu with Iredell and Hooper and Johnston, and "whose criticisms on Shakespeare would, if they were published, give him fame and rank in the republic of letters."
And he continues to portray the social characteristics of the Hills, Lillingtons, DeRossets, Moores, and others who then adorned the Cape Fear region.
New Bern, as well. was a centre where refinement and elegance abounded. It was the residence of the governor : an emporium of trade, with wealthy merchants. enterprising citizens and cultivated society. Originally settled by the Huguenots, Palatines, and Swiss, by industrious Germans as well as by Welsh and Englishmen, the region of which it was the social metropolis was inhabited by a population notable for their thrift, politeness and fine characteristics. There the first academy had been established and main- tained; there the first printing press was erected. and there the first newspaper, the North Carolina Gasette, was pub- lished-in December, 1755 -- followed. at length, by another at Wilmington, in September. 1764.
Among the earliest publications of Davis's press, other than provincial laws, was a sermon preached before the General Assembly by Rev. James Reid, in 1762, "Recom- mending the Establishing Public Schools for the Education of Youth," printed by the Assembly, that "the same might be dispersed in the several counties within this province."
Halifax had also become a nucleus of elegant society, with rich planters and cultured citizens ; while at Hillsboro, where the governors spent their summers, the simplicity of back- woods life was giving place to the refining influences of advanced social conditions. In all the counties were men like Willie and Allen Jones, the Kenans, Dicksons, Battles, Holmes, Hawkins, Haywoods, Harts, Alstons, Rowans, Lloyds. Osborns, Polks-too numerous to specify, men of education and culture, many of whom were native and "to the
1771
Social conditions
Weeks, Press of No:th Carolina in Eighteenth Century, 18. 29, 58
380
SOCIAL LIFE AT THE REVOLUTION
1771
manor born," while others, like Caswell, Hooper. Hewes, Avery, the Summers, Martins and McDowells, had but re- cently come from other communities, well educated, ener- getic. enterprising, vigorous in mind and in body.
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At the west Along the Virginia border the people were chiefly of colonial descent : but on the upper waters of the Cape Fear were congregated thousands of Highlanders, many of whom were well educated. At Wachovia the Moravians had been prosperous, had erected mills and had grown in importance ; C. R., VIII, while the Scotch-Irish, who occupied the fertile regions watered by the Catawba and tributaries of the Yadkin, were interspersed with Germans, of whom there were some three thousand families, likewise accompanied by their pastors, men of learning, who taught the young while ministering to their congregations.
Immigrants
And in their new homes the Scotch, Scotch-Irish and the Germans preserved their former manners and customs and their racial characteristics, and these have in some measure been perpetuated so that after the lapse of a century and a half their respective settlements can still be distinguished. Similarly a settlement of Quakers, coming from Nantucket, who located at New Garden, has preserved its peculiar char- acteristics, while the Jersey settlement on the Yadkin near Salisbury, so called because made by emigrants from New Jersey, has retained its original appellation.
The marts of trade
Facilities of communication were scant. This was a par- ticular hardship with the settlers at the far west who. com- ing from the north, located at a considerable distance be- yond the frontier settlements extending from the coast. There was a wide breadth of forest intervening between the inhabitants of Sandy Creek. Wachovia, Salisbury and the Catawba, and the marts of trade on the lower Cape Fear. Easier roads led to the towns of Virginia and of South Caro- lina, and those became the markets of the western counties. There was no specie in the province, while the amount of paper currency became entirely insufficient as the population was rapidly augmented.
At the east both saw-mills and grist-mills had long been established ; at the west the new settlers quickly began to
381
PROGRESS AND INDUSTRY
erect them on the streams where they located; and these became important points in their social and business life.
Felling the forests, clearing the fields, buikling houses, opening roads, constructing mills-in a word, making their homes habitable in those secluded regions-called forth the best exertions of those new settlers ; and fortunate was it for them that their winters were mild. the summers temperate, while their fields yielded rich harvests, and the bright sun- shine brought buoyant hope, health and happiness. Many of the families, observed Governor Dobbs. have ten children in them, and experience has long since proved that the natural increment of population in that favored region is no- where exceeded in the world .*
The state church
It was contemplated in the original grant to the Lords Pro- prietors that there might be a state church and presumably that it would be conformable to the usage in England. The first effort in that direction was made in 1701, when each precinct was declared to be a parish, for which a vestry was appointed. and the vestry was empowered to employ min- isters and to lay a tax of not more than five shillings on the poll for parish purposes, which included looking after the poor as well as providing a place of worship. Ten years later, when Governor Hyde met his first assembly, an act of Parliament having been passed declaring the province a C. R., I,
*In ISto the editor of the Raleigh Star received many communi- cations from intelligent men residing in every part of the State, throwing light on the commencement and progress of settlements in North Carolina. This mass of manuscripts was subsequently deposited in the library at Chapel Hill. but now cannot be found. Mr. Caruth- ers, who examined it. said: "From it we learn that Edgecomb began to be settled in 1726 by people from Virginia, who came there for the sake of living at their ease. as the climate was mild. the range good, and game in abundance : Wayne in 1735, but made little prog- ress until 1750: Caswell in 1750, but had not more than ten families until 1755. when the Leas, Graves. Kimbros, Pattersons and others came from Orange and Culpepper counties in Virginia: Rockingham in 1750. by hunters, who were soon followed by a more substantial population : and Guilford about the same time, as appears from the deeds of land obtained by the Nottingham company. That company. by agents sent out for the purpose, purchased 33 surveys, or 21.120 acres on the waters of North Buffalo and Reedy Fork: and one of their deeds, which is now before me, is dated December 3, 1753." (Caruther,' Life of Caldwell, 93.)
75g, 700
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SOCIAL LIFE AT THE REVOLUTION
1771 -- member of the Crown of England, the Assembly enacted that the laws of England "are the laws of this government so far as they are compatible with our way of living"; and that all the statute laws of England made for the establishment of the Church and for the indulgence to Protestant dissenters were in force in the province. This enactment firmly estab- lished the Church of England as the state church, and put in force the Act of Toleration, which remitted all penalties for non-conformity in the case of Protestant dissenters who did not deny the doctrine of the Trinity.
SR , XXIII, 187
In 1729 apparently each parish was invested with the right to elect its own vestrymen, who still had the privilege of employing their ministers, being members of the established church. Up to that time there had been in the province no other ordained ministers of any denomination : but about that time Paul Palmer and Joseph Parker organized Bap- tist churches in the Albemarle section. In 1741 the vestry law was amended requiring vestrymen to declare that they "would not oppose the liturgy of the Church of England." They still had the right to lay a tax on the poll for parish purposes, and by a two-thirds vote they could withdraw the stipend agreed to be paid to any minister. At that period there were only four ministers of the established church in the province, perhaps an equal number of Baptist ministers and none of the Presbyterian faith. There was but little room for clashing among the ministers. Later some differ- ences arose in regard to the right of Presbyterian ministers to perform the marriage service. Originally in 1666 certain civil officers were empowered to perform the marriage cere- mony. and "the persons violating this marriage shall be pun- ished as if they had been married by a minister according to the rites . . . of England." The Quakers married according to their own rites. In 1715 it was again enacted that magis- trates right perform the marriage service in parishes where no minister was resident: but in all cases a license or the publication of hanns was required. The law remained un- changed until 1741, when it was again enacted that no min- ister or justice should celebrate the rite of marriage without license or banns : and that the parish minister. if one, should be entitled to the fee unless he neglected or refused to per-
The rite of marriage
S.R., XXIII, 10, 153
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THE EST.IBLISHED CHURCH
form the service. There were still no Presbyterian ministers settled in the province and but very few Baptist ministers, and it was nowhere the practice for Baptist ministers at that time to perform the marriage service. About 1755 Hugh McAden and Jamies Campbell established themselves respec- tively in Duplin and Cumberland counties, where they or- ganized Presbyterian congregations. These were regularly ordained ministers of that faith. A little later Rev. Henry Pattillo, James Criswell. David Caldwell, Joseph Alexander and Hezekiah Balch had charges of the same communion further in the interior. In their respective settlements there were but few adherents of the Church of England. Now, however, some clashing because of religious differences be- came observable.
Originally introduced in 1701 in an effort to secure some religious services for the colony, at a later period the state church was fostered by influences emanating from Great Britain. It was a survival of former usages, and was not then so inharmonious with the times as it subsequently be- came. In every European country religion was the care of the state; and in England the established church was at once the mainstay of the Crown and the support of the rul- ing dynasty, while it had long been the bulwark protecting Protestantism from the domination of Catholicism. When the province became attached to the Crown, the king being at the head of affairs, ecclesiastical as well as civil, and all provincial laws requiring his concurrence, his officers sought to strengthen and promote the state church, and such was the tenor of the instructions given to the governors. Par- ticular effort was to be made to that end-even schoolmas- ters being required to be members of the established church. Such was one of the results of the domination of the Crown, of the close connection of the province with the mother country. North Carolina was to be fashioned after England-a consequence not so intoler- able, for all the inhabitants were British subjects, reared under existing institutions, and regarding their king as the fountain of all honor and justice.
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