USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina under the proprietary government, 1670-1719, V.2 > Part 2
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Proprietors, "wiped off the ignominy of his failure at St. Augustine, and increased his means by the sale or bondage of Indian captives." 1
The three ensuing years are among the most interesting in the history of the province. It was during these that, following the course of events in England, the attempt was made under the direction of Granville to exclude dissenters from participation in the government of the colony. But this important matter must be reserved for a succeeding chapter. For the present we pass over these years, to follow the events of the war between Eng- land on the one hand, and France and Spain on the other. which took place in Carolina.
Carolina. forming on the south and west the frontier of the English settlements, was open to invasion from Havana, as well as from St. Augustine. Sir Nathaniel Johnson, having long expected an attack from the French and Spaniards, Had exerted himself to put the town and colony in the best state of defence. His first measure was one which was to be the basis of all future legislation in regard to the domestic police of the province and State, until the abolition of slavery. From the preamble of the act, which was passed in 1704,2 we learn that its purpose was to provide against insurrections of the negro slaves upon occasions of invasion of the province which would draw the men of the colony to the coast. It provided for the draft of ten men from every militia company properly mounted, armed, and accoutred under a captain or other officer, whose duty it was to muster his men as a patrol upon all occasions of alarm, and at other times, as often as he or the General should think fit, and with them to ride
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers). 208, 209 ; Moore's account, Car- roll's Coll., vol. II, 574. Hewatt's Hist. of So. Ca., vol. I, 157.
2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 25%.
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from plantation to plantation, and to take up all slaves which they should meet without their masters' plantations, which had not a permit or ticket from their masters, and to punish them as provided by the act for the better ordering of slaves. Upon this beginning was based the patrol laws which. modified from time to time, formed the military police system of which we have spoken in the introduc- tory chapter. In the meanwhile the Governor pressed forward the work upon the fortifications and preparations for defence against the threatened invasion. In a letter of the Grand Council to the Queen's officers in England, written in 1708. the defences of the town erected at this time are thus described : -
" Charles Town the chief port in Carolina by the direc- tion and dilligence of our present governor, Sir Nathaniel Johnson. is surrounded with a regular fortification, con- sisting of bastions, flankers and half moons ditched and palisaded and mounted with 83 guns. Also at the en- trance of the harbor in a place called Windmill Point (within a carbine shot of which all vessels must pass by ) is now building and almost finished a triangular fort and platform of capacity to mount 30 guns which when finished will be the key and bulwark of this province but wanting some large heavy guns both for the fortification and about Charles Town and the said fort and platform to- gether with a suitable store of shot." 1
Windmill Point is that ever since known as Fort John- son.2 Trenches were cast up on White Point, now the Charleston Battery, and other places where thought neces- sary. A guard was stationed on Sullivan's Island, which
1 MISS. Letter to Board of Trade, quoted by Rivers, Hist. Sketches of So. Ca .. 207.
" The point from which the first gun in the late war between the States was fired.
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commanded a view of the ocean, with orders to kindle a number of fires opposite to the town equal to the number of ships that might appear on the coast.1
Yellow fever, which had first visited Charles Town in 1699. again made its appearance in 1706, and was raging in the town when news came that an expedition was being organized at Havana for the invasion of the place.
Governor Johnson had taken the precaution of having a privateer fitted out for cruising on the coast, under the command of Captain Stool. who was to keep a lookout. and was particularly charged to intercept supplies which were regularly sent to St. Augustine from Havana. Cap- tain Stool had been out a few days when, on Saturday, the 24th of August, he returned, bringing the report that he had engaged a French sloop off the bar of St. Augustine, but upon seeing four other ships advancing to her assist- ance, he thought proper to make all the sail he could for Charles Town and had narrowly escaped falling into the enemy's hands. Scarcely had he made this report when five separate smokes appeared on Sullivan's Island as a signal to the town that that number of ships was observed on the coast.
This invasion had been concerted at Havana. Mon- sieur Le Feboure, a captain of a French frigate, with four armed sloops had set sail for Charles Town, with directions to touch at St. Augustine and to carry from thence such a force as he judged adequate to the enter- prise. Upon his arrival at St. Augustine he had learned of the epidemic which raged at Charles Town, and that it had swept away a vast number of the inhabitants. This, instead of intimidating and deterring him from his par- pose, determined him to proceed with greater expedition. hoping to find the town in a weak and defenceless condi- tion, as the country militia, he supposed, would be afraid
1 Hewatt's Hist. of So. Co., vol. I, 180.
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to come to its support because of the fatal infection. Taking on board a considerable number of men at St. Augustine, he made sail for Carolina.
Sir Nathaniel Johnson at the time was at his planta- tion Silk-Hope. several miles from town, but Lieutenant Colonel Rhett. commanding officer of the militia, who was on the spot. immediately ordered the drums to beat and all of the inhabitants to be put under arms. A mes- senger was dispatched with the news to the Governor and orders to all the captains of militia in the country to fire alarm guns, raise their companies, and march to the assist- ance of the town.
In the evening the enemy's fleet came to the bar; but as the passage was intricate. they did not think it prudent to venture over it in the darkness of the night. Early Sunday morning. the 25th, watchmen on Sullivan's Island observed them a little to the southward of the bar manning their galley and boats as if they intended to land ou James Island. But they came to anchor and spent all that day in sounding the south bar. This delay was of great consequence to the Carolinians, as it afforded time to collect the militia in the country.
Sir Nathaniel Johnson came in on Sunday, and found the inhabitants in great consternation, but being a man of established courage and skill in war, his presence inspired the people with confidence and resolution. To avoid ex- posing the country troops to the contagion of the town. he established his headquarters about half a mile from it. Martial law was proclaimed. In the evening Major George Broughton, with two companies, and the gentlemen of Colonel Logan's troop arrived and kept watch during the night. Early on Tuesday morning, the 27th, Captains Jolison, Linche, and Hearne, and Drake from James Island were posted with their companies in the immediate neigh-
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borhood of the town. The same morning the enemy, with four ships and a galley and a number of boats for landing their men, crossed the south bar and stood for the town with fair wind and tide; but when they came in view of its fortification, where the Governor with his forces stood ready to receive them, they suddenly bore up and came to anchor under Sullivan's Island. A sloop, which had been sent over to Wando River to bring Captain Fenwicke and his company, succeeded in doing so, notwithstanding an attempt of the enemy's galley to intercept them.
The next morning, Wednesday, the 28th, Captains Long- bois from Santee and Seabrook from the islands, disregard- ing the pestilence, marched their men into the town. As the enemy hesitated, a council of war was held, and Gov- ernor Johnson determined to assume the offensive, and to go out and attack them. Three ships, a brigantine, two sloops, and a fireship, all the harbor afforded, were manned and equipped. and Colonel Rhett, who fortunately was a sailor, was commissioned as Vice Admiral, hoisted his flag, and was ready for action.
Observing these preparations for resistance, the enemy, who had so boldly crossed the bar, resorted to parley. They sent up a flag of truce to the Governor, summoning him to surrender. The flag was received by Captain Evans. the commander of Granville's Bastion, and the messenger upon landing was at once blindfolded, and held until Governor Johnson was ready to receive him. When taken to his presence, the messenger informed the Gov- ernor that he was sent to demand. in the name of the French King. the surrender of the town and country. and the inhabitants as prisoners of war, and that only one hour was granted for his decision. The Governor promptly and emphatically replied " that it needed not a quarter of an hour or a minute's time to give an answer to that de-
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mand, for he might see he was not in such a condition as to be obliged to surrender the town; but that he kept the same and would defend it in the name and by the authority of the great Queen of England and that he valued not any force he had; and bid him go about his business."
Governor Johnson was given but an hour to reply : but when the reply was so promptly made. the demand was not followed up by the French commander at the expi- ration of the hour or even at the end of the day, nor was any general attack made. The day following, Thurs- day, the 29th. a party of the enemy went ashore on James Island and burnt the houses on a plantation by the river side. Another party, consisting of 160 men, on Friday morning, the 30th. landed on the opposite side of the har- bor, and burnt two vessels in Dearsby's, now Shem's. Creek, and set fire to his storehouse. Captain Drake and his company, with a small party of Indians, was sent to James Island, to meet the enemy there, while Captain Fenwicke and Cantey crossed the Cooper, and marched against the party which had landed in Wando Neck. The latter party came up with the enemy before the break of day and, find- ing them unguarded with their fires burning, surprised them. A brisk engagement ensued, in which about a dozen of the invaders were killed and thirty-three taken prisoners. Some perished in attempting to escape by swimming. On the side of the Carolinians there was but one killed. Sir Nathaniel now assumed the aggressive. Colonel Rhett, with a fleet of six small vessels, on Satur- day morning, the 31st. sailed out and proceeded down the river to where the enemy's ship lay at anchor. In haste and confusion they weighed and stood for sea. Threaten- ing weather prevented a pursuit. Nothing more was heard of the enemy : but to be assured of their departure. on Sunday, the 1st of September. the Governor ordered
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Captain Watson of the Sea Flower to search and report. The captain returned without seeing the enemy, but ob- serving some men on shore whom they had left behind, he took them on board and brought them to town.
The country companies had been discharged and martial law had ceased, when information was now brought that a ship had anchored in Sewee Bay and landed its crew. Captain Fenwicke was at once, on Monday, the 2d of Sep- tember sent by land against this new movement; while Colonel Rhett, Captain Evans, and a number of gentlemen as volunteers, went by sea in a Bermudian sloop with the privateer which had brought the information of the inva- sion. This ship at Sewee was one of the French fleet under Captain Pacquereau, having 200 men on board, and had been intended as an important part in the invasion. Captain Pacgnereau does not seem to have been aware of the repulse of his comrades. A party of his men crossed the main from Sewee Bay to Hobcaw through Christ Church parish ; there Captain Fenwicke attacked them, killed fourteen and took fifty prisoners. while the same day Colonel Rhett entered Sewee Bay and the ship imme- diately surrendered with ninety men aboard. Mr. John Barnwell, a volunteer, was dispatched by Colonel Rhett with news of the capture, as the contrary winds prevented the immediate return of the little victorious fleet with their prize and many captives. There were now 230 French and Spanish prisoners in Charles Town. It is not known how many, if any, of them died of yellow fever.1
The Governor thanked the citizen soldiery who had
1 This account is taken from Hewatt and Rivers. Ramsay follows rerbatim that of Hewatt. Rivers's account is based upon the more reli- able authority of a report written in Charles Town September IS, 1706, published in the Boston Vers Letter, and republished in the Carolina Gazette, June 2, 1796, which paper is to be found in the files in the Charleston Library.
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responded so promptly to his call, under circumstances so unpropitious, for their valor and for their humanity, espe- cially at a time when such violent estrangements existed between political parties. On the other hand, the Governor himself received from the Proprietors a substantial token of their approbation in a tract of land granted in terms most flattering and honorable. And well they might, for the funds for necessary expenses were raised by Governor Johnson on his individual responsibility.1
Thus ended, says Rivers, the first attempt to take the city of Charlestown by a naval force, which failed, not through the strength of its fortifications nor the multitude of its defenders. but through the courage and activity of its citizens. Since Rivers wrote, another and more signally glorious defence of the city has been made, whereupon a recent English author has written: "Three times has Charlestown been attacked from the sea. Twice in the last century, and once in the present, have the ever-growing resources of naval warfare been brought to bear upon her walls. Dalgren's monitors were as powerless against her mighty natural defences as the French privateers or as Parker's men-of-war, and the stronghold of slavery only sank in the common downfall of that cause of which she was the parent and leader. But of the three defences of Charlestown all marked by conspicuous resolution on the part of the garrison. the first is the only one with which Englishmen can well feel sympathy, In each of the latter sieges the assailants and defenders were of the same race and speech. The settlers who held Charlestown against the allied forces of France and Spain were partners in the glory of Stanhope and Marlborough, heirs to the glory of Drake and Raleigh." 2
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. 214, note. 2 Doyle's English Colonies in Am., 308. 2 D
CHAPTER XVIII
1704
CAROLINA was a part of the British Empire, and a part which, though so distant, was drawing more and more closely in interest to the mother country. In the early days of the colony, the colonists had been too much en- gaged in clearing the grounds for their settlements, and erecting their cabins in the woods, to take much interest in the affairs of the old country. Busy in the first attempt at a settlement at Old Town on the Ashley, and their minds continually occupied with apprehensions of Indians and Spaniards. they had not been much concerned with the occasional news which reached them from England of the withdrawal of the Declaration of Indulgence to the Roman Catholics, or the Test Act, by which the reception of the sacrament, according to the forms of the Church of England, and renunciation of the doctrine of transubstan- tiation, were made the qualifications for office. Nor after their removal to Oyster Point had they felt themselves much interested in the Popish plot. or Exclusion Bill. or the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, save inasmuch as these measures had driven to the province the non- conformists under Morton and Axtell, and the French Protestants under Petit and Grinard. The death of Charles II and the accession of James had not disturbed them. Their political thoughts had been chiefly engaged in resisting the absurd Fundamental Constitutions of Locke,
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which the Proprietors were endeavoring to force upon them, and in extorting from their Lordships assurance of their titles to land. and the tenures under which they were to be held. But communication with London and Bristol and Dublin was now constant, not only through the Proprietors, but by the mercantile intercourse, which was steadily increasing. The province was beginning to recognize itself as a part of England, and every pulsation of political life there was now felt in the province without diminution, and was acted upon with as much zeal as at home. Political sentiment in Carolina at once responded, therefore. to the revival of Toryism upon the accession of Queen Anne, - a revival here which was greatly enhanced by the appointment of the faithful old soldier and follower of the Stuarts, Sir Nathaniel Johnson, as Governor of the province. During the ascendency of the Whigs under William III, Smith, Blake, and Archdale, all dissenters, had governed the colony. They had each and all, it is true, recognized the Church of England as the established church of the province, and Blake had been most liberal in his conduct to it. Still the colony had been. until Moore's interregnum administration, under the government of dis- senters, who, it was claimed, constituted a majority of the people. But now the Palatine and the Governor were both High Churchmen.
The party of Blake, Morton, and Axtell, led, at this time, by Joseph Boone and John Ash. claimed to be no less than two-thirds of the colonists. But, as it has been observed, this we may doubt, as it is difficult to understand how a minority could force measures on a reluctant ma- jority, even if we suppose, which is in itself unlikely, that the minority was completely united in itself.1 The mistake was in counting as dissenters all who were not
1 Doyle's English Colonies in Am., 370.
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churchmen. Thus, for instance, as we have before said, the French Huguenots were not dissenters ; nor were the Ger- man Lutherans. who were becoming quite numerous in the colony. The sympathies of both of these classes were rather with the churchmen than with the dissenters. This was recognized in the opposition of the latter to extend- ing the elective franchise to any who were not native- born Englishmen; and was proved by the readiness with which the clergymen of both these denominations accepted Episcopal rule and connected themselves with the Church of England.
As the chief obstacle in the way of carrying out in Eng- land the principle of uniformity in Church as well as in State, which had been Clarendon's policy upon the restora- tion of Charles II. had been the Independents and Pres- byterians, whose strongholds were the corporations of the boroughs, in many of which the corporations actually returned the borough members, and in all of which they exercised a powerful influence, it became necessary to drive the dissenters from municipal posts, in order to weaken. if not to destroy, that party in the House of Commons.1 To accomplish this, the famous Test and Corporation acts, passed by a Cavalier Parliament, required, as a condition of entering upon any office, - civil, military, or municipal, - the reception of the sacraments, according to the forms of the Church of England, a renunciation of the League and Covenant, and a declaration that it was unlawful, on any grounds, to take up arms against the King. William's attempt partially to admit dissenters to civil equality by a repeal of these aets had failed ; but many dissen- ters had evaded their provisions by occasionally partaking of the communion as required. though they subsequently attended their own chapels. It was against this "occa-
1 Green's Hist. English People, vol. III, 300.
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sional conformity " that the Tories, now once more in power, introduced a test, which, by excluding the non- conformists, would have given them the command of the boroughs. This test first received the support of Marl- borough, then all-powerful under Queen Anne: but the Whigs, who had ruled under William, still held the House of Lords, and rejected it as often as it was sent up to them.1
All the world, says Oldmixon,2 knew how zealous Lord Granville had been for promoting the bill against " occa- sional conformists " in England, that he had openly shown his aversion to dissenters, and had been removed from a high position because of the bitterness of his speeches in regard to them. However this may have been. there can be no doubt that Lord Granville warmly espoused the cause of the High Churchmen in Carolina, and that it was through his influence that an attempt was made in this province similar to that against the "occasional conformity " in England. In England, however, it was only a part of the representation in the Commons - the burgesses of the cities and boroughs -that could be reached by the Test and Corporation acts. The knights of shires, the other component part of the Commons, could not be; but in Carolina the whole representation in the Commons House was subject to statutes passed in the General Assembly here, and approved by the Proprietors in England. Lord Granville, the Palatine. determined that, though the Tories at home could not exclude all who were not churchmen from the Commons in Parliament, he at least would make the attempt to do so in Carolina. In this attempt he had the zealous co- operation of the noble, if somewhat bigoted, Governor,
1 Green's Hist. English People, vol. IV, 87.
2 British Empire in Im., vol. I, 174.
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Sir Nathaniel Johnson; of the astute, if unprincipled, Chief Justice Nicholas Trott; and also of Colonel William Rhett, who, though of choleric and violent disposition. appears to have been sincere and earnest in his devotion to his church.
The Assembly, which the Colleton dissenters charged had been so irregularly and scandalously elected. had chosen Mr. Job Howes as Speaker. They had been prorogued to the 10th of May, and the time of their reassembly had not yet arrived. They were now called by the Governor in extra session, and on the 4th of May, 1704. Colonel Risbee asked leave to introduce a bill. It was read. Its title was: "For the more effectual preserva- tion of the government of this province by requiring all persons that shall hereafter be chosen members of the Com- mons House of Assembly, and sit in the same to take the oaths and subscribe the declaration appointed by the act and to conform to the religious worship in this province according to the Church of England, and to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the rites of the said church."
Some members immediately called for the reading of the " grand charter." But the opposition was overcome. The bill was passed through its first reading with amend- ments, and Colonel Risbee was ordered to present it to the Governor and Council. They passed it, and returned it to the House. The next day it received its second and third readings, and was sent as a law for ratifica- tion to the Governor and Council. It bears date the 6th of May, and was signed by Sir Nathaniel Johnson and Colonel Thomas Broughton, Colonel James Moore, Robert Gibbes, Esq., Henry Noble, Esq .. and Nicholas Trott, Esq., of the Council. It was passed in the Assembly by a majority of one, twelve voting for it and eleven against
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it: among the latter were some churchmen. Seven members were absent.1
The preamble to the act declared. as the reason for its passage, that while nothing was more contrary to the profession of the Christian religion, and particularly to the doctrine of the Church of England, than perse- cution for conscience only, yet nevertheless it had been found by experience that the admitting of persons of different persuasions and interests in matters of religion to sit and vote in the Commons House of Assembly had often caused great contentions and animosities in the province, had very much obstructed the public busi- ness, and that by the laws and usage of England, all members of Parliament were obliged to conform to the Church of England by receiving the sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the rites of the said church. It was doubtless true that the Colleton dissenting members of the House, in order to enforce the passage of an election law to exclude the Huguenots from voting, had obstructed the business of the House at a time when the safety of the province from invasion demanded the united action of every patriotic citizen. And this was done, it was also true, merely to secure their own political ascendency. The provocation to the churchmen in Carolina was therefore great, even had they not the additional incentive
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