USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 1 > Part 32
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UNION CHURCH, though not organized so early, dates its first planting back to this period. It was situated near the centre of Union district. The first settlement was made in 1754 and 1755, by emigrants from Pennsylvania, who had lived under the ministry of Rev. Mr. Cathcart. Several heads of families, among whom were Messrs. Brandon, Brogan, Jolly, Kennedy, and McJunkin, settled in a then uninhabited wild, not far from the spot on which Union meeting-house afterwards stood.
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300
OTHER MINISTERS.
[1750-1760.
They lived in tents until they got cabins erected. Several of these adventurers were truly pious, and they frequently met on the Lord's-day for reading the Scriptures, still hoping to be visited by some of their own ministers.
The settlements on Duncan's Creek and Long Canes were already commenced; but as the history of those churches properly begins at a later period, we defer further notice till we treat of the ten following years, from 1760 to 1770.
CHAPTER III.
SuCH are the facts we have been able to discover relating to the Presbyterian and the Independent churches of this State, united in their history, and adhering, the one closely, the other more loosely, to the Westminster Confession. Mr. Simpson mentions two other ministers, Rev. Mr. Munroe, chaplain to a Highland regiment in Charleston (March 19th, 1758), and Mr. Bennett, a probationer, whose "sweet gospel sermon" he heard January 6th, 1759. We have found the presbytery usually meeting in the city of Charleston, with a jurisdiction somewhat extensive, and ruling with some au- thority. Mr. Simpson was appointed by them to read a letter to the Pon Pon church, reproving them for employing Mr. Hutson, " a worthy Independent minister," which he did, much against his will, April 22d, 1757. " Read the letter with- out comment. The people were greatly surprised and dis- pleased." Mr. Whitefield spent but fifteen months in Amer- ica in the ten years; seven of which were in Georgia, with frequent visits to Carolina. He was either employed in his delightful work of " gospel ranging," as he was fond of call- ing his itinerant preaching, or engaged in building his new tabernacles at London, Bristol, Norwich, and his chapel at Tottenham Court. He had also become a preacher, as early as 1748, to persons of the most distinguished rank, who flocked to the drawing-room of the Countess of Huntington, where he preached to them with the utmost faithfulness and the most thrilling eloquence. Thither were drawn persons the most unlikely to attend his ministry, such as the Earl of Chesterfield, Horace Walpole, Lord Bolingbroke, and David Hume. The latter said he would go twenty miles to hear him. The brother of Bolingbroke became a convert, and died in the hope of the gospel. He had conceived the idea of convert-
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301
.
THE SCHISM HEALED.
1750-1760.]
ing the orphan-house at Bethesda into a college. He had declared his intention, provided the honorable trustees would put the colony on another footing, and allow the introduc- tion of negroes, without which Georgia could never be a flourishing province.
The measures pursued by the actors in the " Great Awaken- ing," and the resistance it met with, had divided the Presby- terian church of the north into the " Old Side" and the "New Side," into the synod of Philadelphia and the synod of New York. But both were alike men of probity, piety, and soundness in the faith; and after seventeen years of separa- tion, this schism was healed, the " Old" and "New Side" co- alesced, and the synod of New York and Philadelphia took the place of the separate jurisdictions. In this division the Pres- byterians of South Carolina, whatever may have been their private views, took no active part.
The outward events which disturbed the peace of our peo- ple arose from the proximity of their Indian neighbors and the overshadowing power of France on this continent. Eng- land occupied the Atlantic slope, but claimed to the Pacific. France had settled the Canadas and Louisiana, and held the country bordering on the Mexican Gulf, as far as Mobile. She claimed the Mississippi and its tributaries, had her line of forts from Canada to New Orleans, and her traders and Jesuit missionaries dispersed among the Indian tribes. She had settled Nova Scotia under the name of Acadia. It was con- quered by the English, but long neglected, and alternately ceded to France and reconquered. New England troops, led on by Peperell, for whose flag Whitefield had given for a motto, Nil desperandum, Christo duce, had taken Louisburg, and in 1749 the English had laid the foundations of Halifax.
The French settlers who were of the Romish faith, had been required to take the oath of allegiance to the British crown or leave the country. To this the Acadians consented, if they should not be obliged to take up arms against the French or their Indian allies; but the government required an unconditional oath or an immediate departure. To this the Acadians refused their assent. They claimed to be neu- tral, and were called" the French neutrals." They are repre- sented as devoted to the peaceful pursuits of the shepherd, the herdsman, and the agriculturist ; as dwelling in neat and well- constructed houses, having large possessions of flocks and herds, and living almost in a land of enchantment, in harmony and peace, under the care and control of their own priests.
302
THE ACADIANS.
[1750-1760.
Their disputes were settled among themselves, domestic virtue prevailed, and the law of kindness and mutual aid reigned abroad. They had increased in numbers until they amounted to sixteen or seventeen thousand. In their igno- rance of English laws they were defenceless. Their arms and boats were taken from them. By a general proclamation the males above ten years of age were required to assemble at their respective posts. At Grand Pre, as one instance, four hundred and eighteen met together and were marched into the church, and its avenues closed and guarded. Winslow, the American commander, gave them the astounding information that their lands, tenements, and live-stock, of all kinds, were forfeited to the crown, and that they were to be removed from the province. Their wives, their sons-in number five hundred and twenty-seven -- their daughters-five hundred and seventy-six-in all one thousand nine hundred and twenty-three souls, in this single community, were driven forth by force. The 10th of September, 1755, was fixed on for their embarkation. They were drawn up six deep. The young men were ordered first to march on board the vessel. They were unarmed, at the point of the bayonet, and there was no resistance. They marched slowly and sadly from the chapel to the shore, between kneeling women and children, sending their cries to heaven in their behalf. The old men followed. The women and children must remain behind for other means of transportation. They were scattered through the colonies from New Hampshire to Georgia. Families were thus separated, and the colonial newspapers contained advertisements of sons anxious to meet with and relieve their parents, and of parents seeking for their children. The cry of Rachel, the mother of the Benjaminites, went up, -- of Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they were not. To prevent their return, their houses, barns, mills, and churches were consumed. "For several successive evenings, the cattle assembled amid the ruins where they had been sheltered, as if in anxious expectation of the return of their masters, while all night long the faithful watch-dogs of the neutrals howled over the scene of desola- tion, and mourned alike the hand that had fed, and the hand that had sheltered them." "It was the hardest case," said one of the sufferers, " which had happened since our Saviour was upon earthı." Their flocks and hierds were at last seized for spoils, the forests took possession of their cultivated fields, the ocean broke through their neglected dykes. Seven
303
FRENCH INTERFERENCE.
1750-1760.]
thousand of these people were banished to the different colo- nies, one thousand and twenty to South Carolina alone. They were pursued with hatred in the provinces whither they were carried.
The Journals of the House of Assembly speak with dread of their presence in the province, as men tainted with perni- cious principles. The South Carolina Gazette frequently speaks of them, generally in the language of prejudice. Some leave the province and go off in boats and canoes for the north. Most of those sent to Georgia left for Carolina ; on one occasion two hundred going off in ten rude boats which they had constructed, hoping to reach, by threading the coast, once more their beloved Acadia. The governor and council offered them vessels at the public charge to transport them- selves elsewhere, and many went to France, some to Canada, others to Louisiana ; in one direction and another they were eventually dispersed. To those who escaped to Louisiana, lands were assigned above New Orleans, in what is still known as the Acadian Coast. A few remained in the colonies, some of whom recovered from their despondency and became useful citizens. The family of Lanneau, in Charleston, who embraced the Protestant faith, have been long recognized for their devoted piety and active efforts for the cause of Christ. Two of them, Rev. John F. Lanneau, long a missionary to Jerusa- lem, and Basil Edward Lanneau, for some years Hebrew tutor in the Theological Seminary at Columbia, and afterwards professor in the Oakland College, Mississippi, have been favor- ably known in this generation.
The treatment of the Acadians was perhaps aggravated by the disastrous defeat of Braddock in his attempt on Fort Duquesne, July 9th, 1755. The effects of this on the settle- ment of the up-country of Carolina were very manifest. The western frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia were exposed to Indian depredations, and the settlers, a large share of whom were Presbyterians, removed for safety further south, away from the influence of the French. The French suc- ceeded too in expelling the English from their ancient post of Oswego, and from Lake George, and Fort William Henry surrendered to the French general Montcalm. " Of the North American continent, the French claimed and seemed to pos- sess twenty parts in twenty-five, leaving four only to Spain, and but one to Britain."
Both Mr. Simpson and Mr. Hutson allude to the sad state of things. "Everything," says the former, " looks awful and
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304
ALARMS.
[1750-1760.
dreadful, and all against us; a very hardened and sinful peo- ple, laden with iniquity." " Alas! it seems," says Mr. Hutson, " as if to the end of the war desolations were determined ! May God have mercy upon us, and if suffering times are coming on, may he give suffering grace to all his people."
The tables were turned when William Pitt became prime minister. Louisburg was first taken, and the power of France fell on the eastern coast. Fort Frontenac succumbed before the vigorous attack of Bradstreet. Fort Duquesne was cap- tured by Washington, and, in honor of the distinguished minister at the head of affairs, was by acclamation named Pittsburg. In 1759 Quebec surrendered to the heroic con- duct of Wolfe, who lost his life on the heights of Abraham ; and the power of Catholic France was at an end on the continent of North America.
All would now have been peace; but the royalist gov- ernor of South Carolina was bent on war with the Cherokees, who had assisted in the capture of Fort Duquesne. Having lost their horses, many of them took, in passing through Virginia, such as fell in their way. The Virginians assailed them, and killed twelve or fourteen of their number. They became excited by this conduct towards those who were allies, and on arriving at their homes, parties of young warriors, contrary to the remonstrance of the chiefs, sallied forth. and murdered and scalped whoever fell in their way.
The Indians now regarded their accounts balanced, and would have remained at peace. They sent thirty-two of their chiefs to Charleston to settle these matters. But Governor Lyttleton determined on war, and refused to treat on any terms. He ordered the officers of the militia to collect their men and stand to arms. On Friday, the 12th of October, 1759, Mr. Simpson writes : "Early this morning an alarm was fired by the discharge of three muskets at every dwelling-place in the province. This seems very terrible. All the men im- mediately repaired with their arms to a public place of muster, and there the one half were drafted and ordered to be in readi- ness at an hour's warning to march against the Indians. God in his holy providence so ordered it that the draft to go out did not fall on me, for ministers, both of the establishment and dissenters, are obliged to be under arms and stand their draft, none being excepted. It was a serious time among us." The troops rendezvoused at the Congarees. Marion was there, then twenty-six years of age; and Christopher Gadsden, at the head of an artillery company which he had just raised.
305
LYTTLETON'S RETURN.
1760-1770.]
The Cherokees had accompanied the army thus far. Here they were made prisoners ; a captain's guard was put over them, and they were marched to Fort George, full of resent- ment at the treatment they had received, and were shut up in a hut hardly sufficient for a lialf-dozen soldiers. Lyt- tleton sent for Attakulla, an aged chief, and demanded that the twenty-four men who had been guilty of the murders should be delivered up to him, to be punished for their deeds. Atta- kulla replied that he had ever been the firm friend of the Eng- lish, and had only now returned from a long and fatiguing expedition to aid tliem against their enemies, the French. That notwithstanding these things they had been cruelly treated in Virginia by those in whose behalf they had taken up arms ; that though he would use his influence with his tribe, they had no power over each other, and he did not believe that the demand of the governor could be complied with. Under the importunities of the governor, who was desirous of finishing his campaign with credit, a treaty was signed between himself and six of the head men ; one of the provisions of which was, that the twenty-two chiefs now in confinement should remain pris- oners till the murderers who had escaped were delivered up. It is doubtful if the men who set their mark to these provisions entirely understood them. Certain it is that the nation paid no regard to the treaty afterward. Their chiefs sent as am- bassadors to treat of peace, and to whom the governor had guaranteed a safe conduct, and that not a hair of their heads should be touched on their way to their homes, were miserable captives. The natural sense of justice of these untutored sav- ages was outraged, and they were ready for vengeance.
BOOK TENTH.
1760-1770. CHAPTER I.
THE governor returned to Charleston on the 8th of January, and was received as a conqueror, though returning from a bloodless war. Flattering addresses were presented to him by different societies and professions, and bonfires and illu- minations testified to the public joy. The Presbyterian clergy among others were present with "their humble address."
306
ADDRESS OF PRESBYTERY.
[1760-1770.
" May it please your Excellency," they say, "We be his Majesty's loyal subjects, the Ministers of the Church in this province, having ordination from the established Church of Scotland, and beg leave to congratulate your Excellency on your safe return from your expedition to the Cherokee Nation. And we return our unfeigned thanks to the Almighty for your Preservation and Success in a campaign attended with so many Difficulties and Dangers," &c.
The terms in which they proceed to express themselves are sufficiently flattering, believing, as they did, in the perma- nency of the seeming peace which was so soon to end, and filled, no doubt, with the prevailing resentment. The names attached to the address are twelve in number :
Patrick Kier,
John Baxter,
John Alison,
John McLeod,
James Campbell, John Rae,
William Richardson,
Charles Lorimer,
Charles Gordon,
Archibald Simpson,
Jolın Martin, Philip Morison.
Charlestown, 11th January, 1760.
The hoped for peace was but a delusion. The young braves who had shed the blood of the settlers, had only been avenging in their own way the wrongs of their people, and could not be given up.
One thing led to another. An attempt was made to rescue the commissioners of the Cherokees, whose persons Lyttleton had seized and held as hostages at Fort Prince George. The commander of the fort was enticed into a parley with a chief at the river-side, and was shot down with the two officers that accompanied him. An attempt was made to secure the per- sons of the commissioners, which, meeting with resistance, the garrison put them to death. The blood of the Indians was now up. The leaders in every town seized the tomahawk, and told their warriors " that the spirits of their murdered brothers were hovering around them and crying for ven- geance." They fell upon the defenceless settlements, and men, women, and children were cruelly murdered. Such as fled to the woods perished with hunger, and those who were taken as captives were carried into the wilderness and suffered incredible hardships. The inhabitants of Long Canes, in what is now Abbeville district, fled for refuge to the older and more protected parts of the country. A party, of whom Patrick Calhoun was one, who were removing their wives, children, and most valuable effects to Augusta for safety, were
307
MASSACRE AT LONG CANES.
1760-1770.]
attacked by the Cherokees on the 1st of February, 1760, and some fifty persons, mostly women and children, were slain. After the massacre, many children were found wandering in the woods. One man brought nine of these fugitives-some of whom had been cut with tomahawks and left for dead. Others were found on the bloody field scalped, yet living still. Two little girls, daughters of Mr. William Calhoun, brother of Patrick, were carried into captivity. The elder of them was, after some years, rescued ; the other was never heard of. " The scene of the melancholy catastrophe is on a descent, just before reaching Patterson's bridge. Attacked at the moment when they had stopped to make an encampment, and entangled by their wagons, they could offer but little resist- ance. Some, however, were so fortunate as to escape. Cutting loose the horses, and favored by the night, they fled to the Waxhaws, with another portion of the company which was in advance. Among the slain was the mother of the family, Mrs. Catharine Calhoun ; and a curious stone, engraved by a native artist, marks the spot where she fell among her children and neighbors."-(MS. Hist., by Mrs. M. E. Davis.) Patrick Calhoun, who returned to the place where the action had happened, to bury the dead, found twenty dead bodies inhu- manly mangled. The Indians had set fire to the woods, had rifled the carts and wagons, which were thirteen in number, but had not destroyed them. Patrick Calhoun represented this settlement, at this time, as amounting to about two hun- dred and fifty souls, fifty-five or sixty of whom were fighting men, but they were not now in a condition to resist. In this incursion of the Indians, the grandfather of Mr. Samuel Clark, late of Beech Island, was killed, and other members of his family. The wife and four children escaped. This sad news filled the whole province with consternation. "People," says Mr. Simpson, " seem stupefied with horror and amaze- ment." At his meetings for prayer he notices " their melan- choly, amazed, and overwhelmed state, the spiritual effect on most being to harden and stupefy, on others of a truly pious spirit, to drive them to their Creator and Preserver." "The men were now summoned to the muster-field, where the companies were divided into three parties, one to go out at a time to scout the woods behind us. This is what is doing throughout the province, until an army be raised to march against the enemy." "Lord's-day, February 17th-The congregation confused and distracted. Fear had so seized upon the people as in a great measure to discompose them for the duties of
308
THE FUGITIVES.
[1760-1770.
the day. With others it was a very solemn and affecting time. What made it more so was to see so many poor, destitute families present with us, without habitation or dwelling- place."
To these troubles were added the ravages of the small-pox. The South Carolina Gazette, under date of March 22d, speaks of six thousand persons in Charleston as having had the small- pox, and says that five hundred alone remain to be attacked. The chief mortality had been among the Acadians and ne- groes. Three hundred and eighty whites and three hundred and fifty negroes liad died. Rev. Mr. Hutson of Charleston notices the same afflictive events, and speaks of the goodness of God to him " in this day of general calamity." " He has provided an ark for my family, I hope, to preserve them from the contagious disorder, and has also hitherto preserved the remote branches of my family from the incursions of the sav- ages." He had removed his immediate family to James Island. "Find some of the fugitives," says Simpson, "who were settled at the Long Canes to be very sober, serious, sensible, religious people. There is one family among them who seem to be amongst the most excellent knowing Christians I ever met with in America. I have baptized some young people and some children for them ; and have great satisfaction in administering the ordinances to them, they being the best- instructed young people I have ever met with in these parts of the world." The fort at 96 was attacked by two hundred and fifty savages, but unsuccessfully. Several of their warriors fell. " We fatten our dogs with their carcasses," said Francis to Lyttleton, " and display their scalps neatly ornamented on the tops of our bastions." Such is the retaliatory spirit of war. They drew nearer to the middle of the province. Two men were killed and scalped in the forks of the Edisto, ten miles from Congaree Creek, and another on the following day. These things increased the general dismay. " The destruction ap- proaches near us. Poor families in droves," says Simpson, "removing in the most melancholy circumstances, not know- ing where to go, and meeting with but too little sympathy and support among those who are safe in their habitations. Yet it is a pleasure that I have seen some of the fruits of the last Sabbath's sermon to engage this congregation to help them, as not knowing how soon it may be our own case."
In the month of April, General Amherst detached six hun- dred Highlanders and six hundred Royal Scots to march to tlie relief of Carolina, under the command of Colonel
1760-1770.]
END OF INDIAN TROUBLES. 309
Montgomery and Major Grant. A number of Carolinians joined the expedition, and seven companies of rangers had before been raised to co-operate with him. His march was rapid, and the vengeance summary. Their towns and villages, occupying the beautiful valley of the Keowee, were reduced to ashes, their magazines of corn consumed, some sixty to eighty slain, and forty, chiefly women and children, made prisoners.
" Their villages were agreeably situated, their houses neatly built and well provided, for they were in the greatest abundance of everything. Estatoe and Sugar Town consisted at least of two hundred houses, and every other village at least of one hundred houses. We intended to save Sugar Town, but we found the body of a dead man whom they put to the torture that very morning ; it was then no longer possible to think of mercy."-(James Grant, South Carolina Gazette June 7th, 1760.) . These settlements occupied the districts of Anderson and Pickens, in South Carolina, and Cherokee and Macon, in North Carolina. The care of his wounded and the general plan of his expedition occasioned his rapid retreat. This sealed the doom of Fort Loudon and its garrison of two hundred. Famished with hunger, they capitulated to the savages, and were allowed to march forth on their return to Carolina. On the very next day they were surrounded. Demere, the commander, three other officers, and twenty- three privates, the exact number of the hostages which Gov- ernor Lyttleton had detained in custody, were killed. The rest were distributed among the tribes, and the whole num- ber of captives they were supposed to possess was believed to amount to three hundred souls. The expedition of Mont- gomery had but inflamed the savage warriors the more. They boasted that they had forced the army to retreat.
These Indian troubles were brought to a close in the follow- ing year, 1761. Canada having been reduced, General Amherst despatched an English regiment, under the command of Colonel James Grant, with two companies from New York. Governor Bull raised a Carolina regiment of one thousand men, under the command of Colonel Thomas Middleton. Henry Laurens was the lieutenant-colonel ; William Moultrie, was one of the captains, and Francis Marion a lieutenant under his command. Andrew Pickens, and others whose names were afterwards distinguished, served in this expe- dition. The army of Colonel Grant suffered much in this campaign, but they burned the towns and hamlets of the outside settlement on the Tennessee, laid waste their planta-
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