USA > North Carolina > The history of North Carolina from the earliest period, Volume I > Part 12
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The lords proprietors, reflecting how much their former instructions had been neglected, and their designs opposed by those who had been entrusted with their execution, flattered themselves with hav- ing found in Eastchurch, a man who would carry their views into effect, and appointed him governor of the county of Albemarle in the month of Novem-
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ber. His address and abilities had raised him to the office of speaker of the assembly, and he had lately arrived in England, in order to lay the remon- strances of the people before their lordships. The instructions which were given him at his departure, were calculated to allay the present, and to prevent future disorders. Miller, a man of consideration, was sent with him as secretary and collector of the customs. They took their passage on board of a vessel bound to the West Indies : here, the charms of a creole lady for a while held the governor in bondage. The captive sent his companion to rule the people of Albemarle, till the chain that bound him, proved too weak to hold him, or strong enough to enable him to draw the beauty, who had im- posed it.
John Barry and Francis Morrison, the king's commissioners sent to Virginia after Bacon's rebel- lion, in their report of that event, complained that the independent plantations of Maryland and Caro- lina, then very prejudicial, would in time prove utterly destructive, to the royal interest and govern- ment in Virginia, and they proposed that with a salvo to the right of the proprietor-, the jurisdiction and power of government might so reside in the crown, that they might be obedient to all orders, rules and process of the king and his council; else, he would not only find that he had given a great deal of land, but so many subjects also ; and that the next generation would not know nor own the royal power, if the writs, trials, and process be per- mitted to continue in the name of the proprietors, without any salvo of allegiance to the king : that it
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was daily seen, that not only servants, but also run away negroes and rebels, flew to Carolina or the southward, as their common refuge and lurking place; and when some of the late rebels were de- manded by letter, they could not have them sent back.
Miller reached the place of his destination in July, and entered on the duties of president of the council, which his friend bad conferred on bim, without relinquishing those of secretary and col- lector of the customs, which he had received from the lords proprietors. He found his government to consist of a few inconsiderable plantations, scat- tered on the north-east side of Albemarle sound, divided into four precincts. The colonists were far from being numerons: the whole population, consisting of all persons from the age of sixteen to that of sixty, amounting only to fourteen hundred polls, one third of whom were women, Indians, servants and negroes. Besides some cattle and Indian corn, eight hundred hogsheads of tobacco constituted the yearly produce of their labor, and the basis of an inconsiderable traffic, carried on chiefly by the people of New England. These men sup- plying the settlement with the commodities of Europe and the West Indies. and receiving all its produce, influenced in a considerable degree the affairs of the country, and directed the pursuits of the people to their own advantage. From July till December, Miller collected thirty-three hogsheads of tobacco, and a little more than five thousand dollars, for the duty of one penny sterling on every pound of tobacco exported to the other colonies ;
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almost all that was made, being exported to Boston, whence it was shipped to Europe. The little reve. nue acer ing to the colony, although badly collect- ed, amounted to something more than twelve thousand dollars a year.
The offices of president and collector, which Miller exercised, in the deranged state of the colony, were not calculated to render him popular. It was his misfor- tune not to possess any quality, by which this disadvan- tage could be balanced. The discontent of the people, emboldened by the example of the followers of Bacon, in Virginia, and excited by the counsel of some of these who had removed to Albemarle, and some New Eng- land men, increasing daily, rose to such a height that it broke into open rebellion in the precinct of Pasquotank; and Culpepper, a man who had come over to the coun- ty of Clarendon with governor Sayle, in 1670, as sur- veyor general of Carolina, and had raised some commo- tion on Ashley river, placing himself as the head of the malcontents, in the month of December, and securing the favor of the president, and that of some of the lords proprietors' deputies, entirely prostrated the government of the country.
They complained that the president had denied them a free election of an assembly, and had positively cheat- ed the county of 130,000 weight of tobacco, which had raised the levy to 250 Ibs of tobacco a head more than it would otherwise have been; besides nearly 20,000 weight of tobacco ; a charge which he had brought on the county by his piping guard. They stated that a Capt. Gillam had imported a quantity of goods, more than treble that which he had brought in the preceding year, and, about two hours after his landing, was arrested and
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held to bail for one thousand pounds, in an action of slander, and so much ill used and abused by the presi- dent, that had he not been persuaded by some, he would have gone directly out of the country: and the same night, at about twelve, the president went on board with a pair of pistols, presenting one of them cocked at a Mr. George Dinant's breast, and with the other hand arrested him as a traitor.
The insurgents, possessing themselves of about twelve thousand dollars, which were found in the fiscal chest, successfully employed them in the prosecution of the revolt, in the other three precincts. They appointed officers, established courts of justice, called a parlia . ment, and during two years undisturbedly exercised all the powers of an independent commonwealth.
They published a manifesto, in which they detailed the grievances which, in their opinion, had justified them in suppressing the government of Miller, and assigned as their principal motive in imprisoning him and some of his council, and in possessing themselves of the records of the county, a desire "that the county might have a parliament, that would represent their grievances to the lords proprietors."
Alarmed at the spirit of insubordination and insur- rection, which manifested itself so powerfully, in their colonies on the continent, the English ministry deter- mined on making an experiment in those of the West Indies, and a new system of legislation was adopted for the island of Jamaica, modelled on the Irish constitution. The Earl of Carlisle was sent over for the purpose of enforcing it. A body of laws was prepared in the privy council in England (among which was a bill for settling a perpetual revenue on the crown) which his lordship
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was instructed to present to the assembly and to require them to adopt the whole code, without any alteration or amendment. In future, the heads of all bills (money bills excepted) were to be suggested in the first instance by the governor and council, and transmitted to his majesty, to be approved or rejected. On their having obtained the royal confirmation, they were to be return. ed, under the great seal, in the shape of laws, and passed by the general assembly, which was to be convened for no other purpose than this, and that of voting the usual supplies, unless in consequence of special orders from England.
The assembly rejected the proffered constitution, with great indignation. No threat could frighten, no bribe could corrupt, nor art persuade, them to pass laws that would enslave them and their posterity.
A considerable number of persons went from New England upon a journey of discovery, and proceeded four hundred and fifty miles westward of the Missis- sippi. The war soon after breaking out between the British colonies and the Indians, many of the latter re- treated to Canada. From these Monsieur De la Salle, a French adventurer, obtained information which after- wards enabled the French to possess themselves of the river.
The year 1678 is remarkable for the pacification of Nimeguen. On the third of March, Charles II. signed a treaty of alliance with the States General, in which the treaty of Breda was confirmed.
The statutes relating to transportation were now ex- tended, and it was enacted that should any convicted felon in open court pray to be transported, the court N. CARO. 22
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might order him to prison, for transportation beyond sea. 31 Ca. II. ch. 2, s. 14.
Governor Eastchurch at length arrived'; to his com- mission or conduct no objection could be made. The insurgents, however, denied his authority, and refused obedience to him. He was compelled to solicit some aid from lieutenant governor Chicherly, of Virginia, but died of vexation before any could be obtained.
Charles II. ordered two small vessels to be fitted out at his own expense, to transport to Carolina several fo- reign protestants, who proposed to raise wine, oil, silk, and other productions of the south.
جم
After two years of successful revolt, the insurgents of the county of Albemarle despatched Culpepper to Eng- land to proffer their submission to the lords proprietors ; but instructed him to insist on the punishment of Mil. ler, who had found means of making his escape out of their hands. Culpepper found him in England, filling the court with complaints of his sufferings and accusations against his prosecutors, but without success. The lords proprie- tors accepted the submission of the insurgents ; but as their envoy was returning home, after having executed his trust, he was prosecuted by the commissioners of the customs, for having acted as collector of the cus~ toms, without their authority, and having embezzled the king's revenue in Carolina ; he was arrested on board of a vessel at the Downs, brought back, and at Trinity term, 1680, tried by virtue of the statute of Henry VIII. on an indictment for high treason committed without the realm. 35 H. VIII. ch. 2. The famous lord Shafts- bury, then in the zenith of bis popularity, appeared in his behalf, and represented, contrary to the most un- doubted facts, "that there never had been any regular
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government in the county of Albemarle, that its disor- ders were only feuds among planters, which could amount only to a riot." He was acquitted, and is the first colonist, who appears to have been regularly tried in the court of the king's bench, upon that statute.
The lords of the committee of the plantations reported to the king that, having heard the complaints of the com- missioners of the customs against John Culpepper, and having been attended by the lords proprietors of Caro- lina, they were fully satisfied, after a thorough investi- gation of the conduct of that man. that he had by his se- ditious practices abetted a rebellion in that province, imprisoned seven of the deputies of the proprietors and the collector of the king's customs, and having seized into his own hands the custom of his majesty, had, in a proclamation issued in his own name, declared himself the lawful collector, endamaging the roval revenue to a considerable amount : that these facts were confessed by the delinquent, who solicited a pardon, desiring that, if mercy was not extended to him, he might be tried in the country, where the offence had been committed. But the commissioners of the customs prayed that no favor might be shown to him, unless he made or pro- cured satisfaction for the property used and embezzled, which was said to amount to three thousand pounds.
The lords proprietors, in the mean time, had sent John Harvey, as president of the county of Albemarle, and they prevailed upon Seth Sothel, one of them, who, at the death of lord Clarendon, had purchased his lord- ship's share in the province, to go over as governor of Carolina, in order by his presence to allay the feuds of, and restore tranquility among, the colonists, He sail-
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ed on his intended voyage, but was captured by the Al- gerines.
The oldest records extant in the state of North Ca- rolina are proceedings of a palatine court, held by presi- dent Harvey who came out in 1679 or 1680. It appears to have been a court of probates. The accounts are kept in pounds of tobacco ; a negro woman is valued at four thousand five hundred pounds of that commodity, a milch cow at four hundred pounds.
The piece of land, formed by the confluence of Ashley and Cooper rivers, offering a more eligible spot for the chief town of the southern government of Carolina than the one on which Charleston had been built, the lords proprietors yielded to the wishes of the inhabitants, many of whom had begun in the preceding year to remove thither. The foundation of a new town was now laid here, and in the course of year thirty dwelling houses were erected. It received the name of the old town, which was now abandoned, and the new one was de- clared the port for the various purposes of traffic, and the capital for the general administration of government in that part of the province.
The province of New Hampshire was separated from that of Massachusetts : a commission for the distinct go- vernment of that colony being this year brought to Portsmouth, By it, the people had a representation, in a body chosen by themselves, and the king was repre- sented by a governor and council, of his own appoint. ment, and reserved to himself the right of repealing the acts of the legislature at his pleasure.
In the month of March, Monsieur De la Salle, ac- companied by Father Hennepin, descended the Ohio and ascended the Mississippi as far as the 46th degree of
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north latitude, where they were stopped by a fall, to which they gave the name of St. Anthony.
The ministry in England unable to conquer the stubborn perseverance of the assembly of Jamaica, for- bore insisting any longer on establishing the Irish con- stitution in that island, and on the third of November issued a commission to the earl of Carlisle, containing the power of making laws with the assembly, in the man- ner which had hitherto prevailed.
A party of Spaniards landed on the island of Provi- dence, one of the Bahama islands, and totally destroyed an English settlement. They took governor Clark, who commanded it, to the island of Cuba, in irons, and put him to death by torture ; and Don Philip de Vare- da Villegas arrived in April, 1680, at the island of Trist and the laguna de terminos, attacked the English log- wood cutters, while separated from each other, and dis -. lodged them from thence.
Henry Wilkinson was, in the following year, appoint- ed governor of that part of the province of Carolina which lies between that of Virginia and and a line drawn at the distance of five miles to the south of Pamplico ri- ver. President Harvey, whom he relieved, had com- manded but little regard. He manifested too vindictive a spirit, against those who had been implicated in the late revolt. They were proceeded against with severity, and punished with heavy fines, tedious imprisonment, and some of them with banishment ; contrary to the in- struction of the lords proprietors, who had recommend- ed great moderation.
The people of New England persevered in their resist- ance to the act of parliament, establishing a duty on colo- nial produce. Edward Randolph, who had been appointed
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collector of it at Boston, arrived this year, and made a vigorous, but unsuccessful attempt to execute his office.
On the fourth of March, Charles II. granted to Wil- liam Penn a charter for all the land between the river and bay of Delaware and Lord Baltimore's province of Maryland, erecting it into a province by the name of Pennsylvania, and constituting him and his heirs abso- lute proprietors of it. He immediately gave public no- tice of the king's grant, and invited purchasers ; and a number of persons, chiefly of the Quaker profession, formed themselves into a company, and bought twenty thousand acres of land in the new province, at the rate of twenty pounds sterling for every thousand acres. On the 11th of July he entered into stipulations with the purchasers and other individuals who desired to remove to Pennsylvania, and in the fall a number of the colo- nists left England. They reached the new province late in the year, and began a settlement, above the con- fluence of the Schuylkill with the Delaware.
In the spring, the proprietor published a form of go- vernment and laws, which he had made with the con- sent of the persons in England who had become inter- ested in the province. He obtained from the duke of York a release of his right to the land in Pennsylvania, and a conveyance for the tract which was first known under the appellation of the territories of Pennsylvania, afterwards by the three lower counties of Delaware, and now as the state of Delaware.
On the 24th of October, he landed at Newcastle, at- tended by about one hundred new settlers. He caused the people in the neighborhood to meet him on the next day, and having received before them legal possession of the province, he made a speech to them, acquainting
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them with his views, commenting on the nature and end of government, particularly of that which he meant to establish, assured them of liberty of conscience and civil freedom, and recommended to them to live in sobriety and peace. After renewing the commissions of former magistrates, he proceeded to Upland, the settlement now known as the town of Chester ; he there met the general assembly of the province, on the fourth of December. The three lower counties were annexed to the province, and an act of settlement was passed, in reference to the frame of government ; the Dutch and Swede inhabit- ants, and other foreigners in the province, were natural- ized, and all the laws agreed on in England, were passed in form.
William Penn immediately after entered into a treaty with the natives, from whom he purchased as much of the soil, as the circumstances of the province called for, and settled a very kiud correspondence with them. He immediately after laid out the city of Philadelphia, and, in the course of the year, upwards of eighty houses or cottages were erected in it.
Lord Cardross, a Scotch nobleman, embarked with a number of families of his nation, with whom he began a settlement on the island of Port Royal, in Carolina ; but his lordship, in consequence of some arrangement made with the lords proprietors, having claimed separate and co-ordinate authority with governor West of Charles- ton, was compelled, with circumstances of outrage, to acknowledge his submission and dependence; he soon after returned home.
The spring of the following year is memorable in the annals of the western world, by the descent of Monsieur De la Salle down the Mississippi to the sea, which he
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reached on the seventh of April. He took possession of that mighty stream in the name of his sovereign, Louis XIV. of France, in whose honor the country was called Louisiana.
On his way, he stopped on the left bank of the river, and built a fort, within the then chartered limits of North Carolina, near the present town of Memphis, in the state of Tennessee.
Seth Sothel arrived this year in Carolina, and took on himself the government of the northern part of the pro- vince, governor Wilkinson having lately died. The new administrator did not find the scene of anarchy altered, neither was he calculated to put a period to it. The instructions of the lords proprietors enjoined him to endeavor, by a mild and humane administration, to reconcile the colonists to order and obedience. The annals of delegated authority have not recorded a name, which deserves more to be transmitted to posterity with infamy, than that of Sothel : bribery, extortion, injus- tice, rapacity, breach of trust, and disobedience to the laws, are the crimes with which he was charged, while he misruled a miserable colony.
The four precincts on Albemarle Sound, which were hitherto designated by the titles or names of some of the lords proprietors, viz. Shaftsbury, Berkely, &c. were now named by the principal streams that water them, Chowan, Perquimans, Pasquotank and Currituck; ap- pellations which they to this day retain.
Edward Randolph, the collector sent from England for the port of Boston, having written home, that he was in danger of being punished with death, by an accursed law of the province, as a subverter of the constitution, for his attempts to exercise the duties of his office, was
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ordered home. On his arrival, he preferred an accusa- tion of high crimes and misdemeanors, against the cor- poration of Massachusetts, and on the sixth of July an erder in council was passed, for issuing process of quo warranto, for the dissolution of its charter. This order was however accompanied by a declaration of the king, that if the colony, before prosecution, would submit to his pleasure, he would regulate their charter, for his service and their good, and with no other alterations than such as should be necessary for the support of his government in the province. The proud spirit of New Englandmen could not brook to yield to such terms ; it preferred encountering the full effect of the royal wrath. Accordingly, the high court of chancery in England, on the eighteenth of June following, gave judgment for the king, against the governor and company of Massachu- setts; their charter was annulled, and their liberties taken in the king's hands. Colonel Kirk was now appointed the royal governor for the colonies of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Plymouth.
The French, in order to engross the fur trade, and to check the influence of the English on the Indians, built the fort at Detroit.
Lord Effingham, who was appointed the preceding year governor of the province of Virginia, was instruct- ed by his sovereign to allow no person to use a print- ing press, on any occasion whatever.
The want of a circulating medium being severely felt in the province of Carolina, its parliament, at the same time "raised the value of foreign coin," and passed an act to suspend the prosecution of all foreign debts; it received the assent of the lords proprietors, but it was afterwards dissented from, because it "was . N. CARO. 23
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contrary to the king's honor, since it was in effect to stop the course of justice, and because the parliament had no power to enact a law so contrary to those of Eng. land." The lords proprietors ordered all officers to be dismissed, that had promoted that law.
The confederacy of the five nations of Indians, in Canada, had extended its conquests to a vast extent to the south and west, from the shores of the Mississippi to the borders of the western settlements of Maryland and Virginia. These two provinces, often involved in the calamities of their Indian allies, whom they were unable to protect, except by treaties. found it expedient to settle terms of peace with the ferocious conquerors : the governor of Virginia proceeded to Albany, where, with that of New York, he met the deputies of the five nations, and concluded a peace.
In 1685, the bishop of London sent James Blair, as his commissary in Virginia.
On the 16th of February, Charles II. died, and was succeeded by James, duke of York, his brother.
At this period, with the exception of the province of Georgia, which was not established till half a century after, all the colonies, who in the next century seceded from the British empire, and became the United States of America, were already in an advanced state of pro- gressive improvement : the English had besides valua- ble establishments at Bermudas, and in a number of the West India islands.
The French in Canada made great, but not equal pro- gress ; they had settlements to the west, as far as Detroit and Michillimackinac, and had extended of late their discoveries to the gulf of Mexico ; they carried
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on a considerable commerce among the Indian tribes, who hunted on the banks of the Mississippi. Their progress, however, was considerably checked by the Indians of the five nations, whom the government- of the English colonies supported, as a barrier against the encroachments of the French.
The Spaniards had no settlement on the northern continent, except the few forts on the coast of Florida, which for upwards of a century they had kept up, with- out any agricultural improvements around them.
Although the English colonies might rejoice in their advancing population and wealth, their political sky Was not as serene as the natural. We have seen the storm bursting over the northernmost section ; thick clouds were gathering over Rhode Island and Connecti- cut ; the people of New York were not yet allowed all the rights of Englishmen; the small colony of New Jersey, divided among two proprietors, was distracted in her councils ; Pennsylvania, in the midst of her sis- ters, in perfect tranquility beheld, unconcerned for her own situation, the clouds that hovered around them. The southern provinces had not recovered from their internal dissentions, and the attacks of the Indians.
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