USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina under the proprietary government, 1670-1719, V.1 > Part 3
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operations of the partisan bands of South Carolina and her two neighboring States-operations conducted with- out military commissions to require or sanction them. We shall undertake to show that it was to these voluntary uprisings of the people of South Carolina, with the assist- ance of their friends in North Carolina and Georgia, that the whole of the enemy's plans were foiled. frustrated, and broken up, and the grand culmination of Yorktown ren- dered possible : and then we shall critically examine the relative claims of Greene and Lee, of Sumter, Marion, and Pickens, to the glory of this achievement.
We venture to believe that the record we shall present will show that no one of the thirteen original States of the Union suffered so severely in the war of the Revolu- tion as the State of South Carolina; that in no one was there so much actual warfare ; in no one was there such an uprising of the people ; in no one was so much accom- plished for the general cause-and that with so little assistance.1
In the same year that Judge Johnson published his
1 A chronological list of battles, actions, etc., is given in an Appendix to a work entitled Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution, April, 1775, to December. 1788, by F. B. Heitman, Washington, 1893. This list gives the names of 315 battles, etc. Of these 89 took place in the State of New York, 54 in South Carolina, 34 in New Jersey. 24 in Georgia, 21 in North Carolina, 15 in Canada, 15 in Massachusetts. 14 in Connecticut, 14 in Virginia, 13 in Pennsylvania. 5 in Rhode Island, 3 in Delaware, 3 in Indiana, 2 in Vermont. 1 in Maine, 1 in Nova Scotia, 1 in Florida. 1 in Chesapeake Bay, 1 in Lake Champlain, and 3 elsewhere. In a table prepared by the author of this work he has a list of 130 battles, engagements, etc., which took place in South Carolina, including, of course, the smallest affairs. but, on the other hand, including as but one the siege of Charleston, which lested forty days ; the siege of Ninety-Six, which lasted twenty- Seven days, etc. His tables show that there was actual fighting in every county in the State as present organized but three, and that these three Were traversed by both armies.
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work there appeared Dr. Alexander Garden's " Anecdotes of the Revolutionary War in America, with Sketches of Character of Persons the Most Distinguished in the Southern States for Civil and Military Services." The title of this work is an injustice to its historical character. It is really a series of most valuable biographical sketches. The popular title by which it is known, "Garden's An- ecdotes," would not lead one to consult it for the valuable historical information which it contains. The anecdotes proper which it relates are but a small part of the work. Authentic sketches and incidents of the Revolution form by far the greater part.
Besides the numerous published works upon the subject. of the Revolution, British and American, which we have been able to consult, too numerous to mention, we have been so fortunate as to have had access to two volumes of manuscript letters and papers of General Sumter, con- taining all of General Greene's letters to him, and also to copies of his letters to General Greene. few of which have yet been published. This correspondence, together with that published by Major Henry Lee. the son of Colonel Henry Lee, in his work entitled " Campaigns in the Caro- linas, " 1824, written in answer to Mr. Justice Johnson's claims in behalf of General Greene, throw great light upon. the subject, and we think will be found to sustain the posi- tion we shall take in regard to the relative merits of the services of these distinguished men.
In 1802 Governor John Drayton published under the title of " A View of South Carolina" a brief. but most valuable, treatise relating to the interior economy and material resources of the State, containing important sta- tistieal information. To this he added. in 1821. two vol- umes of Memoirs, compiled principally from the papers of William Henry Drayton, his distinguished father, in which
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he has preserved important original material. chiefly re- lating to the years immediately preceding the Revolution.
In 1820 the Rev. Frederick Daleho, M.D .. compiled his church history. It is entitled " An Historical Ac- count of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Caro- lina." etc .. but it is far more than a history of the Church of which he writes. It is full of the most important information in regard to the province generally and is entirely free from sectarian bias.
Mills's Statistics of South Carolina, etc .. published in 1826, was intended, as the author states in his preface, as an appendix to his great work, the " Atlas of the State." It is full of curious and interesting information; unfort- unately. however, it is not so reliable historically as his atlas. which must ever remain the basis of every subse- quent work. His statistics are unquestioned and supply a want in the history of the State. Historically, how- ever, he is inaccurate. His list of the Proprietary and Royal Governors, which is usually followed. is incorrect, as he makes no distinction between the Governors and Lieutenant Governors. presidents of council or others acting ad interim. There were no natives of Carolina Governors under the Royal rule.
Hewatt cites no authorities in his work, and indeed appears to have had access to few original papers, and, as we have observed. Ramsay added nothing in this line ; it remained for Mr. B. R. Carroll. in 1836, to give to the State the first collection of original documents relating to the Proprietary and Royal Governments. It is diffi- cult to estimate the value of this contribution to the study of the history of the State in the two volumes published. His compilation is entitled " Historical Col- lections of South Carolina. Embracing Many Rare and Valuable Pamphlets and Other Documents Relating to
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the History of the State from its Discovery to its Inde- pendence in the Year 1776." The first of these volumes contains a republication of Hewatt's History. The second is the most valuable as containing the original papers upon which much of the history of the province must depend.
William Gilmore Simms, the poet, novelist, and histo- rian of the State, in 1840 produced a volume originally conceived with the view to the instruction of an only daughter in the history of her birthplace. His purpose, he tells us in the preface to the last edition of the work, was to present something more than an abridgment of the previous cumbersome volumes relating to the his- tory of the State in a cheap and popular form. He made no original research ; but accepted the statements of Hewatt and Ramsay, endeavoring only to simplify and popularize the style of their story. His history, so pre- pared. has gone through several editions, 1840. 1842, 1860, but is now out of print. The historical reputation of the author does not, however, depend upon his professed his- tory, but rather upon his historical novels. It is in these that Mr. Simms has brought out the strong individuality of the Carolina character as it impressed itself upon the struggle of the Revolution, "and developed into that unique partisan warfare so bold in its conception, so brilliant in its performance, so triumphant in its results." " And I cannot refer to this glorious portion of our his- tory," observes one of the most distinguished sons of Carolina. the Hon. William Henry Trescot, "without ac- knowledging the debt which I think the State owes to one of her most distinguished sous for the fidelity with which he has preserved its memory, the vigor and beauty with which he has painted its most stirring scenes and kept alive in fiction the portraits of its most famous
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heroes. I consider Mr. Simms's partisan novels as an invaluable contribution to Carolina history."1
In 1851 Joseph Johnson. M. D., published a volume of " Traditions and Reminiscences Chiefly of the American Revolution in the South, including Biographical Sketches. Incidents. and Anecdotes." etc. This is as it purports to be a volume of traditions and reminiscences. It does not assume to be a connected history, nor to be taken from original sources. The traditions which the author gives are sometimes. therefore. found to be incorrect. as tradi- tions in their details often are. but the volume has never- theless preserved many most valuable loose papers, and has rescued from oblivion and preserved many most im- portant and interesting incidents. Especially so in re- gard to the upper country. Its great value. like that of the second volume of Ramsay's History, is in its biograph- ical sketches and Revolutionary incidents.
In 1853 R. W. Gibbes, M.D., published a volume of "Documentary History of the American Revolution. Con- sisting of Letters and Papers Relating to the Contest for Liberty. Chiefly in South Carolina in 1781 and 1782, from originals in the possession of the editor and from other sources." Dr. Gibbes says in his preface that the series of letters collected by General Peter Horry, which he published, had been in the hands of Weems. Garden, and Simms, who have each written a life of Marion. To these he has added a few letters, which he selected from Tarle- ton's Memoirs. Ramsay's Revolution in South Carolina, Johnson's Life of Greene. Lee's Memoirs and Lee's Cam- paign of 1781. The original letters to and from Greene. Sumter, and Marion, and of Governor Rutledge. etc .. are of the greatest historical value. In 1-55 Dr. Gibbes fol-
1 Oration of Hon. William Home Frescot before the South Carolina Historical Society, May 19, 1850, Call. Iist. So. Se., vol. III. 20.
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lowed this volume with a second, and in 1857 with a third, bearing the same title, composed chiefly of original papers; the second relating to the early period of the Revolution. and the third to the later. The two last are quite as valuable as the first.
In 1856 Mr. Plowden C. J. Weston printed for private distribution a volume entitled " Documents Connected with the History of South Carolina." These documents are five in number. The first two, viz. "The Land Travels of David Ingram, 1568-9." and the " Letters of Capt. Thomas Young," etc., 1634, relate but indirectly, if at all, to the history of Carolina. The other three are very important. They are : (1) "Governor Glen's An- swers to the Lords of Trade." which are evidently the original of a tract entitled "A Description of Carolina," etc .. published in London, 1761, and reprinted in Carroll's collection : (2) " The Letters of Richard Cumberland, Esq .. to Roger Pinckney, Esq .. his Deputy, with Regard to the Provost Marshalship of South Carolina." and (3) ~ De Braham's Philosophico-Historico-Hydrogeography of South Carolina, Georgia, and East Florida."
The State owes a debt of deep gratitude to these col- lectors of historical material, but no less is due to Professor William James Rivers for the first standard work upon her history. In 1856 Professor Rivers. then of the South Carolina College, published " A Sketch of the History of South Carolina to the Close of the Proprietary Govern- ment. 1719, with Appendix Containing Many Valuable Records." This history is compiled from original docu- ments, and the authorities upon which he relies for his statements are all given. Its accuracy has recently been severely tested by the publication of the Colonial Records of North Carolina, many of which records of the time of the Proprietary Government are really the records of this
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province, and. in the main, incidentally only to North Caro- lina -and also by the manuscript recently obtained by this State from the State paper office in London. This test has sustained the accuracy of Professor Rivers's work. and vindicated his conclusions to a remarkable degree.
Professor Rivers has made other most valuable contri- butions to the History of the State. Topics on the History of South Carolina. Chapters on Colonial History, etc.
The "Collection of the Historical Society of South Carolina," the publication of which was begun in 1857, but which. from the late war and various causes, have been impeded. contain a vast amount of information, and are invaluable to the student. The original documents are all important : but the great value of the work con- sists in the " List and Abstract of Documents Relating to South Carolina now Existing in the State Paper Office, London," prepared for the Society by their agent. the late W. Noel Sainsbury, assistant keeper of the public records ; the Records of Council of Safety in the beginning of the Revolution ; and Mr. Laurens's narrative of his capture and imprisonment in the town from 1780 to 1782.
In 1858 the Hon. John Belton O'Neal, Chief Justice of the State. published a small volume entitled " The Annals of Newberry." in which much information in regard to the settlement of that district (now county) is given. The next year, 1859, the first volume of a proposed His- tory of the Upper Country of South Carolina, by John H. Logan, appeared. It is deeply to be regretted that the war, and Mr. Logan's subsequent death. should have put an end to this admirable work, which promised to be of such great value to the State. The volume published is full of the most curious information. In 1867 the . History of the Old Cheraws." by the Rt. Rev. Alexander Gregg. D. D., was published. This work contains an account of
٢٢٢٧٣٣ ٠
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the aborigines of the Pee-Dee. the first white settlements. their subsequent progress, civil changes, the struggle of the Revolution, and growth of the country afterward. from 1730 to 1810. with notices of families and sketches of in- dividuals. It offers the most complete history of a given section of the State to be found. In 1870 the Rev. George Howe, D.D., professor in the Theological Seminary. Co- lumbia, South Carolina, published a " History of the Pres- byterian Church in South Carolina." This volume is a mine of information in regard to the settlement of the upper part of the State. It contains much new matter in regard to the lower country also ; but its chief value is in the material the reverend author has collected about the settlements of the other section. He has done very much to supply the work upon which Mr. Logan was en- gaged. It is not without its significance that the two Church histories, Episcopal and Presbyterian. should em- body so much that is of interest and value to the State at large.
In 1891 the General Assembly of the States provided for the appointment of a commission of tive citizens to be known as " The Public Record Commission of South Carolina." The records now known as the Shaftesbury papers, the transcripts of which aggregate about a thou- sand closely written cap-size pages, remained in the family of Sir Ashley Cooper for two centuries. The late Earl about twenty years ago deposited these original docu- ments in the Public Record office in London. These papers were at once classified, catalogued. and made ac- cessible to the public. In preparing the address in 1883 on the occasion of the " Centennial of Incorporation of the City of Charleston," the Hon. William A. Courtenay, then mayor of the city. had sent him through Mr. Sainsbury some of the earliest letters and other documents which
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he used upon that occasion. The names of the colonists who came out in the Carolina under Governor Sayle were first published in that address. Impressed with the im- portance of the partial information thus obtained, he sug- gested to the City Council to secure transcripts of the remaining papers. This was done, and subsequently these earliest records of South Carolina were deposited with the South Carolina Historical Society, accompanied by an appropriation to promote their publication. The General Assembly of the State also contributed to the same purpose, and these valuable records are now in press and will shortly appear. Mayor Courtenay has for two decades been an active worker in State history : during his mayoralty he edited and published eight octavo vol- umes of municipal department reports. with an appendix to each volume of original historical papers. These ap- pendices contain in all twelve hundred pages of interesting and valuable material not accessible elsewhere. His Cen- tennial Address, subsequently revised and enlarged at the request of the City Council, contains the only connected sketch of the history of Charleston in print. The church histories prepared especially for his Year Books are full of local information of value. In the Cartography of South Carolina there are twenty-four maps, from the first ever drawn of dates 1672 down to later years. The most of these are rare and difficult to purchase even at high prices. Each map has been reproduced in fac-simile from originals, and together form a most desirable cartographical collec- tion. In 1890-91 Mayor Courtenay originated a plan for procuring transcripts of all the papers relating to South Carolina in the London record office, and was chiefly in- strumental in obtaining the passage of an act creating the Public Record Commission of South Carolina. This commission consisted of the Hon. J. E. Tindall, Secretary
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of State. ex officio chairman, the Hon. Henry MeIver, Chief Justice. Hon. William A. Courtenay, Hon. W. C. Benet. and Professor R. Means Davis, whose duty it was made to procure transcripts of such documents relating to the history of South Carolina as they might deem necessary or important, and appropriations were made for the pur- pose. The commission immediately upon its appointment chose Mr. W. Noel Sainsbury, who was then retired from his official position in England, as the agent of the State for the purpose of procuring transcripts of every paper relating to the province and colony of Carolina from the date of the first charter of the Lords Proprietors. 1663. to the overthrow of the Royal Government, in 1775. In the three years since the commission has received and placed in the office of the Secretary of State thirty-six volumes of manuscript colonial records and fifteen hundred pages of missing journals of the Commons House of Assembly. These volumes, together with the colonial records of North Carolina, obtained from the same source and pub- lished by that State, and the Shaftesbury papers, copied for the City Council of Charleston, in 1883, under the direction of Mayor Courtenay, deposited with the South Carolina Historical Society, and just now about to be pub- lished. with the papers published as appendix to the work of Professor Rivers's Historical Sketches of South Caro- lina. present nearly, if not every, paper of public interest relating to the early history of the province. The man- uscript volumes thus obtained by the commission have been entitled by them " Public Records," and will be so quoted in the following work.
A great revival of interest in colonial history has re- cently taken place all over the country, and renewed attention is given to that of each of the old thirteen States. In this study the history of this State is receiv-
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ing its full share. In the series of studies instituted by the Johns Hopkins University in historical and political science three volumes have been issued relating to South Carolina.
The first of these is one by B. James Ramage, A. B .. entitled " Local Government and Free Schools in South Carolina," first part read before the Historical Society of South Carolina. December 15, 1882. It is composed of two short essays, in the first of which the author traces very briefly the history of the organizations of the parish, district, and county, and in the second that of the free schools. It is to be regretted that the limits which the author prescribed for himself did not permit a further investigation into these interesting subjects-a regret the more felt because of the excellent treatment of them as far as he has gone.
The second of these is one by Shirley Carter Hughson. entitled " The Carolina Pirates and Colonial Commerce, 1670-1740" (Twelfth Series, V. VI. VII). 1894. The title to this volume we think misleading. There were few or no " Carolina Pirates." Pirates infested the Caro- lina coast. When their nest in New Providence was broken up in 1718 by the British Government, they sought refuge in the Cape Fear and other less commodious har- bors on the coast, and from these points they carried on their depredations. But these pirates were as much ene- mies of the people of Carolina as the Indian savages in the woods behind our colony. While, however, we differ from the author in some respects. we recognize the thor- oughness of his work, and admire his graphic descriptions of the actions between the Carolina forces and these for- midable buccaneers. Mr. Hughson's story of these pirates and of the manner in which they were met. beaten, and destroyed by Colonel Rhett and Governor Robert Johnson
0
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is well told and full of romance. We shall follow closely his statements of facts in regard to them.
The other volume, published by the Johns Hopkins University, is one by Professor Edison L. Whitney, Ph.D.,
LL.B., professor of history. Benzonia, Michigan.
This
monograph, the author says, aims to give a description of the Government of South Carolina during the colonial period from the constitutional point. The author states in his preface that the foot-notes have been made more numerous than was necessary in order to show to the reader where to turn for fuller information, rather than to furnish authorities for statements in his work. This. we think. is unfortunate. for in such a work the most important purpose of such notes is to give the authority upon which the historian relies for his statements, and in this work the authorities given in the notes do not always. we think. bear out the statements of the text. The author has undoubtedly given much patient research to his sub- ject and has consulted a number of authorities to which he refers. His difficulty has been that in pursuing "the special method " which he has adopted, rather than a chronological order. he has at times lost the historical con- nection which is necessary in order to understand the pro- visions of the law he cites. He has attempted to evolve a system from the letter of the statute without reference to the circumstances under which it was passed or to the question whether it was indeed actually put in operation.
He has also fallen into the serious error of stating that while Lieutenant Governors were frequently appointed in the islands. they were seldom on the Continent. and that Colonel Broughton was the only Lieutenant Governor com- missioned in South Carolina. This is altogether a mis- take. Lieutenant Governors were often appointed on the Continent. They were so appointed in New York.
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Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Florida. Lieu- tenant Governor Broughton, who succeeded to the admin- istration of the government upon the death of Governor Robert Johnson, May 3, 1735. died on the 22d No- vember, 1737, whereupon, no Governor having yet been appointed by his Majesty in the place of Governor John- son, William Bull, the son of Stephen Bull. the emi- grant, succeeded to the administration as President of the Council. but on the 3d of June. 1738, was appointed Lieutenant Governor, and so continued until his death. 230 May. 1755. a period of seventeen years. His son, William Bull. who had been Speaker while his father was Lieutenant Governor, was commissioned Lieutenant Gov- ernor in 1759, and so continued until the overthrow of the Royal Government in 1775, a period of sixteen years. The father and son thus being Lieutenant Governors thirty-three years. Neither father nor son was ever Gov- ernor. The list of Royal Governors. given in Appendix II to the work. following that prepared by Mills, is in- correct. Arthur Middleton was never Governor. He was "President of the Council." and as such adminis- tered the government during the absence of Governor Nicholson. He was addressed as "President and Com- mander-in-chief." The first Lieutenant Governor Bull's administration was between the death of Governor John- son and the appearance in the province of Governor Glen (five years after his appointment). He continued as Lieu- tenant Governor for twelve years, during Governor Glen's commission, and after. until his death. The second Lieu- tenant Governor Bull heldt his commission through the administrations of Governors Lyttleton. Boone. Lord Charles Greville Montague, and Lord William Camp- bell. Neither was deputy to any particular Governor. but held his office independently of the Governor's tenure.
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