USA > South Carolina > A sketch of the history of South Carolina to the close of the proprietary government by the revolution of 1719. With an appendix containing many valuable records hitherto unpublished > Part 9
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But the restraints now put upon the Indian trade were not free from selfish motives on the part of the proprietors. They knew that furs and deer skins, ob- tained in traffic for trifling articles, formed the prin- cipal source of wealth to the industrious traders, among whom were the chief men of the colony. If frauds and abuses occurred, a prevention of them would not surely follow the restricting of the trade to proprietary agents. In April, 1677, Albemarle, Shaftesbury, Craven, Clarendon, and Colleton, agreed to contribute each £100, to be placed in the hands of Mr. William Saxby, their secretary and treasurer, for carrying on the trade, allowing one fifth of the " clear profit" to Dr. Woodward, according to a pre- vious contract between him and the Earl of Shaftes- bury. At the same time they issued an "order and command" to the "governor, council, and other in- habitants of our province of Carolina," forbidding
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any of them, under pain of prosecution and severe punishment, to trade, during seven years, with the Westoes, Cussatoes, or other Indians living beyond Port Royal; but leaving open to the settlers the trade for a considerable distance on the sea-coast, "and any other way not less than one hundred miles from their plantation, which is all they can `pretend or expect from us," continue their lordships, "it being in jus- tice and reason fit, that we should not be interrupted by them in our treaties and transactions with those nations that inhabit these distant countries, with whom, by our grant and charter from his majesty, we only have authority to treat or intermeddle." The proprietors had perhaps forgotten that in their Fun- damental Constitutions they committed to the grand council the power " to make peace and war, leagues, treaties, &c., with any of the neighbor Indians," with- out defining what should constitute neighborhood ; and had frequently commanded, in subsequent tem- porary modes of government, that they should be careful to put in execution as much of these consti- tutions as they could. The council had already de- clared war, made peace, and entered into treaties with the Indians; and it would not be surprising had they disregarded the ruinous policy of lodging these important functions with a set of noblemen on the other side of the Atlantic ocean, while their own fa- milies lived exposed to the tomahawk and scalping knife. We shall soon perceive how much dissatisfac- tion and contention were occasioned in the settlement by this trading scheme of the proprietors.
The influence of the Earl of Shaftesbury in the
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affairs of the province was never marked by more wisdom than in purchasing from the Indians a trans- fer of their lands. A measure so simple and equita- ble, if adopted earlier or more extensively pursued, would have allayed the hostility of the irritable and warlike natives, and secured the peace and prosperity of the settlers. But it had been made illegal for any individual to purchase land from the Indians. The proprietors claimed to be the sole owners of every acre of Carolina by the king's grant, and they ex- pected their colonies to be established by driving the Indians away from the homes and the graves of their ancestors. They were to be dealt with as savages deserved, if they resisted the claims conferred by his sacred majesty King Charles II. of England.
The first deed of transfer on record was made in March, 1675, by Andrew Percival, for the Earl of Shaftesbury and the rest of the lords proprietors, " for and in consideration of a valuable parcel of cloth, hatchets, beads, and other goods and manufac- tures." The territory ceded was that of "Great and Lesser Casor, lying on the river Kyewaw, the river of Stono, and the fresher of the river of Edisto." Perhaps to strengthen the deed of conveyance, the signatures were taken of an odd assemblage of the Indians, there being the marks and scals of four ca- ciques, the marks of eleven war-captains, and of four- teen "women captains!" In 1682 and subsequently, lands were ceded by the caciques of Wimbee, Stono, Combahee, Kussah, Edisto, Ashepoo, Witcheaw, and by the queen and captains of St. Helena; who generally surrendered (to please the English) their
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lands in a north-westward direction as far as the " Apalatchean mountains," although they had no claim to any great distance from the sea-coast. All the north-west portion of the province was possessed by the populous and powerful Cherokees.
We have noticed the hostility of the Kussoes in 1671, and the successful invasion of their towns. In July, 1672, the Westoes also exhibited a warlike dis- position, and were said to be lurking to the southward of Charles Town with the design of marching against it. At a meeting of the grand council it was promptly resolved to dispatch a party of thirty men against them. This force was extremely inadequate for such a service, as the Westoes were the most powerful tribe between Charles Town and the Sa- vannah, or Isundiga River." No battle was fought. The Westoes were no doubt unwilling to risk an en- gagement while the intervening small tribes continued friendly to the English. For several years they threatened the colony ; and notwithstanding the treaty effected by the proprietors in 1677, they were still inimical and ready for strife. At the close of 1678 it was necessary for the council to order that none of the friendly Indians should guide them to the settlement, and that their approaching the Eng- lish habitations would be at their peril. Their rest- less nature brought them in conflict with other Indians; and though Governor West concluded a treaty with them, by which they agreed not to mo-
* The Georgia Indians called this river by other names (Hawkins). See Hist. Coll, Georg. Vol. iii., p. 16.
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lest the feeble tribes in the vicinity of the settlement, they violated this as they had done the former treaty, and captured and sold to the planters as many of their neighbors as they could. The grand council in June, 1680, sent Capt. William Fuller and Mr. John Smith to visit the different plantations, and bring all such captive slaves to the Ashley to be set at liberty, in accordance with the previous instructions of the proprietors, and their own honor as protectors of the friendly tribes. The Westoes at length, after a bloody war with the Sarannas, or Yamassees, who lived on the Savannah River, were vanquished and driven from their territory. "The hand of God," says Go- vernor Archdale, who could not see the future, "was eminently seen in thinning the Indians to make room for the English."
Little credit is to be given to the assertion, that the colonists began about this time to instigate the tribes against each other for the purpose of traffick- ing in their captives. A sufficient answer to the charge is found in the prevailing customs of the In- dians, exhibited in a preceding chapter; in the treaties which were made; in the fact that peace throughout the province was advantageous to the planters, and in tracing the origin of hostilities in almost every instance to the intrigues of Spanish settlers to the south-west of Carolina. That especial care should be taken to. do justice to the Indians, a distinct jurisdiction for that purpose was established, which all were required to obey. Commissioners, among whom was Colonel West, were named by the proprietors in 1680, and were empowered to settle all
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differences between the English and Indians, the making of treaties only being reserved to the grand council.
On the 13th January, 1672, Capt. Godfrey, Capt. Gray, and Maurice Matthews were appointed by the council to examine the banks of the Cooper (Wando) River, and mark such places as might be suitable for towns, and all persons were forbidden to settle on such spots. The tongue of land called Oyster Point, which stretched between the Ashley and Cooper, had been taken up by John Coming and Henry Hughes. It is probable that the committee reported in favor of this situation ; for on the 21st of the following month, Mr. Hughes appeared before council and vol- untarily surrendered "one half of his land near a place upon Ashley River, known by the name of the Oyster Point, to be employed in and toward enlarg- ing of a town and common of pasture there intended to be erected. Mr. John Coming and Affera his wife came likewise before the grand council, and freely gave up one half of their land near the said place for the use aforesaid."
This place, like others in the neighborhood, was designed, no doubt, for the settlement of newcomers. The removal of Charles Town was not yet contem- plated; for the settlers there were engaged in build- ing a fort, which was finished in May, 1672; and in June an act was proposed for the uniform build- ing of their town. In accordance with this act, it was regularly laid out and divided into sixty-two lots. Those who owned town lots gave them up, and a redistribution was made to the inhabitants.
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Additional works of defense were afterward erected in 1674. At the same time that the new distribu- tion of lots was made in Charles Town (July, 1672), Gov. Yeamans had issued, with the consent of coun- cil, his warrant to John Culpepper, surveyor-general, to mark off the contemplated town at Oyster Point, which was done on the spot now embraced between Broad and Water streets, and limited by Meeting street on the west. It was called Oyster Point Town. Seve- ral streets were marked running east and west, in- tersected by others from north to south ; and rules were established for building the town. The lots were slowly taken up, as emigrants preferred the more populous situation on the western bank of the Ashley.
The proprietors encouraged the settling at some distance from the coast, and it was their design to build their chief town on some highland on the Ashley or Cooper, if such could be found, free from the sickliness of the coast and the sudden inroads of an enemy's ships. But the explorations of Capt. Halsted, and the search of the committees of the grand council, failed to find a more eligible situation than Oyster Point, to which the settlers at Charles Town began generally to remove in 1679. Others had fixed their abode there as early as 1672. The invasions of the Spaniards and Indians, which con- tinued to be threatened, rendered the position of Charles Town on the west of the Ashley more inse- cure than Oyster Point, while for purposes of com- merce the latter was much more commodious, and as a place of residence more healthy.
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Such representations were made to the lords pro- prietors as caused them to write, to Gov. West and the council, on 17th December, 1679, " we are in- formed that the Oyster Point is not only a more con- venient place to build a town on than that formerly pitched on by the first settlers, but that people's in- clinations 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." And it was ordered at the same time that the public offices should be removed thither, and the grand council summoned to meet there. In the spring* of 1680 the removal was made, and during the same year thirty houses were erected. It was called for a while by some persons New Charles Town, to distinguish it from the old town, which now began to be abandoned; but from 1682 it was known for a period of one hundred years simply as "Charles Town."
" The town is regularly laid out," says a writer at this time, " into large and capacious streets, which to buildings is a great ornament and beauty. In it they have reserved convenient places for building of a church, town-house and other public structures, an artillery ground for the exercise of their militia,
* I say in the spring, because at a council-meeting at "Charles Town," June 1, 1680, it was ordered that all the Indians purchased as slaves from the Westoes and their confederates, should be brought be- fore the council " at Kiawah, sometimes called Charles Town," and be there set at liberty. The Kiawah being the name of the Ashley, I un- derstand the place here spoken of to be old Charles Town-and that consequently the meeting of June Ist was held at " Charles Town" on Oyster Point. The number of houses built during the year is also an evidence of the early removal.
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and wharves for the convenience of their trade and shipping."
The situation reserved for a church was that now occupied by St. Michael's. The building first erected there (St. Philip's) was of cypress on a brick founda- tion, and was generally called the English church. It was probably begun about 1682, during the ad- ministration of Gov. West, who was distinguished for piety as well as justice, valor, and moderation. As early as 1671, he had endeavored to restrain the licen- tiousness naturally arising among a new people, com- posed in great part of adventurers, and living without the influence of the public ordinances of religion. In the last parliament convened in his long term of office (May, 1682), acts were passed for the observance of the Lord's day, and for the suppression of idleness, drunkenness and profanity. Besides these efforts for promoting the morality of the people, the close of his administration was marked by the wisdom of laws for settling the militia of theprovince, and for mak- ing high roads from the new town at Oyster Point through the forests that stretched into the interior.
Some of the political measures which now engaged the public attention, had arisen within the colony and from the peculiar circumstances of the times. Others had originated with the proprietors in Eng- land, who from remoteness, insufficient acquaintance with the necessities of the colonists, and the de- fective organization of themselves as a governing power-often opposed the wishes and interests of the people, and stubbornly insisted on the carrying out of their own unwise instructions. We shall see that
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their arbitrary control was checked through the democratic branch of parliament, and by the failure of their scheme of governing by deputies and a pro- vincial nobility. But at this period the ability and well-deserved popularity of the governor himself formed an obstacle to any encroachment through him and his council upon the rights and advance- ment of the people. And yet no one else seemed so able to harmonize the discordant elements gathered around him. The dissenters, or advocates of the popular interests (for religious differences did not yet peculiarly distinguish the parties), had been gradually losing ground, as every arrival from England aug- mented the number of cavaliers, high churchmen, or adherents of the proprietary party." The adoption of the Fundamental Constitutions was again to be pressed upon the parliament, and the election of representatives altered by the establishment of coun- ties and the separation of the polls.
Governor West had long held the most influential position in the colony, and his removal may have been simply to reward the adherence of Landgrave Joseph Morton, through whose encouragement, in connection with Landgrave Axtell, more than five hundred persons had arrived in Carolina in less than one month." But the cause generally assigned for the removal of Governor West, is the displeasure of the proprietors at the selling of Indian slaves pur- chased by the planters from neighboring tribes .; No
* Archd. pp. 100 and 112, MSS.
t See Letter to Percival -- Appendix.
# Oldmixon, p. 407.
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objection was made to keeping them as slaves in the province. It was not slavery in any shape that was displeasing to the proprietors. Their own Funda- mental Constitutions embraced a provision for the introduction of slavery, with unlimited power in the matter, before the first settlement of South Carolina. It was their favorite, Sir John Yeamans, who first brought hither African slaves, and English vessels long continued to offer them for sale to the American colonies. No cargo of them was sold in Carolina the money for which did not fill the pockets of the British or New England adventurers. It was the proprietors themselves who at first "gave the privi- lege" (to use their own language) of selling Indian captives from Carolina to the West India Islands, as the cheapest means of "encouraging the soldiers" of their infant colony. But it was also their early policy to bring the Indian nations within their jurisdiction; and especially after taking the trade into their own · hands, their interests being more blended with the peace and friendship of the natives, they undertook to protect them to a certain extent, and in 1683 sent out instructions which forbade their transportation without a license from the parliament. If this be not the true exposition of their motives, it will be much more difficult to reconcile their policy with any principle of benevolence while they continued to en- courage the indiscriminate expatriation of men, women, and children from the coast of Africa, and disseminated the promise that "every freeman of Carolina shall have absolute power and authority over his negro slaves." If Governor West had endeavored
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under these circumstances to oppose the sending away from the feeble colony troublesome and dan- gerous slaves, there were so many of the principal citizens and deputies engaged in the practice and irritated by the attempted monopoly of the Indian trade, that his opposition would have been as ill- timed as were the inconsistent efforts of the proprie- tors after his removal from office.
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CHAPTER VI.
Establishment of Counties and separation of Polls-Opposition to the Plans of the Proprietors-A Governor from abroad appointed-Sir Richard Kyrle dies -- Quarry acts as Governor -- Abuses his Position -Joseph West again Governor-Political state of the Colony -- Ob- stinacy of Proprietors-West's services to the Colony-Morton again Governor -- Fundamental Constitutions ordered to be subscribed by members of Assembly-Refusal and ejectment of majority of the Members-Lord Cardross and his settlement at Port Royal-Expe- dition against St. Augustine-Stopped by arrival of Colleton as Go- vernor -- Disappointment of the people-Pirates-The extent of in- dulgence shown them by the Colonists-Opposition to the Naviga- tion Acts-Proprietors in danger of losing their Charter-Disposition of the people for a Royal Government-Increased opposition to the Proprietors-Governor Colleton-Disagreements with the people- Proclaims martial law-Arrival of Seth Sothell-Favored by the people -- His action against Colleton and his party-Proprietors re- call Sothell-Colonel Philip Ludwell appointed Governor-Griev- ances of the people unredressed-Private Instructions to Ludwell- Opposition of Assembly to plans of Proprietors-Dispute on Indem- nity Act-Committees on grievances and framing a plan of Govern- ment-Proprietors become conciliatory-Their concessions-Funda- mental Constitutions laid aside-Condition of the colonists unaltered.
AT the close of Governor West's administration the colony was in a very flourishing condition. Emi- grants of worth and ability were constantly arriving, on whom grants of land were lavishly bestowed. One of the first measures required of Governor Morton was the division of the inhabited portion of the pro- vince into three counties :# Berkley, embracing Charles Town, extended from Sewee on the north to Stono Creek on the south; beyond this to the northward was Craven county, and to the southward Colleton
* Order of Proprietors, May 10, 1682.
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county, all extending within the land to a distance of thirty-five miles from the sea-coast." A county court was also directed to be established at Charles Town, for all the inhabitants. Craven county was sparsely settled, and claims little attention until the Huguenots occupied the banks of the Santee ; so that politically there were but two counties at this period.
The proprietors desired that Berkley and Colleton should be equally represented by the election from each of ten members of the biennial parliament, ;- and that the election should be on the same day, respectively at Charles Town and at London (now Wiltown) in Colleton. The qualifications of a mem- ber required that he should possess a freehold of five hundred acres in his county. The inconvenience which the people had experienced in attending the same poll is strikingly illustrated by the practice al- luded to in a letter of the proprietors in 1683. “ We are informed," they said, "that there are many un- duc practices in the choice of members of parliament, and that men are admitted to bring papers for others and put in their votes for them, which is utterly ille- gal and contrary to the custom of parliaments, and will in time, if suffered, be very mischievous. You are therefore to take care that such practices be not suffered for the future; but every man must deliver his own vote, and no man suffered to bring the vote of another ; and if the sheriff's of the counties shall presume to disobey herein, you are to commissionate other sheriffs in their room."} The establishment of
* 1682, and Instructions to Ludwell, 1691.
f MSS. 18th Nov. 1683. # See Appendix.
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counties and separate polls was so advantageous to the people, that we might regard them as intractable and factious in resisting the orders of the proprietors, unless we consider that an equal number of members was indiscreetly given to each county without regard to any principle of representation. There were at the highest estimate about two thousand inhabitants in the colony," a majority of whom belonged to Berk- ley county, which alone had a sufficient population to entitle it to a county court. The twenty members of the lower branch of parliament had been always chosen at Charles Town; and consequently in the election for September, 1683, the orders of the pro- prietors were disregarded, and the members chosen as usual.+ The parliament so chosen was ordered to be immediately dissolved. But if these instructions arrived in time, they were equally disregarded, and their lordships were left to complain and reiterate their commands.t
Among the numerous acts passed by this parlia- ment, was one for protecting the colonists against prosecution for debts contracted out of the colony. This the proprietors viewed with abhorrence, as stop- ping the course of justice, as against the king's honor, and repugnant to the laws of England. Astonished that their deputies should assent to such a law, they ordered "that all officers should be displaced who had promoted it," although they had themselves sanc-
* In 1682, "T. A.," clerk of the Richmond, (which arrived in Caro- lina in 1680,) says, the population amounted to 1000 or 1200, and was more than doubled by the arrival of emigrants during the two following years.
t MS., 1683, Poll. Ann., 317.
# MS. Notes.
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tioned a similar law in 1670, when they were anxious to encourage immigration. The governor and coun- cil were further blamed for slighting their instruc- tions concerning the election. A dissolution of the parliament, they repeated, should be proclaimed; and no other elected unless in compliance with their orders. Charles Town, they said, was unhealthy ; and it was unjust that the inhabitants of Colleton should have no representatives, or by a combination be compelled to attend the polls at Charles Town. We have power, by our charter, to call assemblies of the freeholders ; our Fundamental Constitutions ap- point how this should be done; and our orders are in place of the constitutions until they can be put in practice. We have given the power of magistracy into the hands of our governor and council " for the good of the people, who should not be turned into prey, as we doubt hath been too much practiced." But this haughty strain did not quell the spirit of opposition ; and their lordships further showed how little they understood those under their magistracy, when, vexed at their failure, they wrote to Gov. Mor- ton, in the following March, "Are you to govern the people, or the people you ?"
Unfortunately for the plans of the proprietors, their governors and deputies were for the most part neces- sarily selected from the colonists themselves, and their dispositions and principles they could not be sure were in accordance with their own. Did they instruct Morton to remove all officers who sold or encouraged the selling of Indian slaves? The
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