USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina under the proprietary government, 1670-1719, V.2 > Part 8
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After a tedious passage Mr. Johnson arrived off the harbor; but the ship not being able to cross until a suc- ceeding tide, the commissary, impatient of the delay and anxious to reach his charge, ventured in a small sloop with three other passengers to proceed to town. It
1 Hist. Am. Episcopal Ch. (Bishop Perry), vol. I, 138.
2 These were the Reverends Atkin Williamson, Edward Marston, William Corbin, Philip de Richbourg, M. de La Pierre, Thomas Hasell, Richard Marsden, and Francis Le Jau. Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 432.
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happened that soon after leaving the ship, a sudden squall drove the sloop ashore upon "a sandy island, "1 where they remained. it is said, twelve days before they were discovered by the boats sent to their relief.2 The ship, waiting for a tide to cross, did not reach the town for some days after. When it was learned, upon her arrival, that Mr. Johnson had attempted to reach the city, and had not done so, sloops. boats, and canoes were sent in search of the missing clergyman. In the meanwhile, the party had suffered miserably for the want of shelter and food. One of them, a sailor, attempting to swim to the mainland was drowned; Mr. Johnson's health, which was not strong, was seriously injured by the exposure.
Disheartened and discouraged by this untoward entrance upon his work. and finding. as soon as he was able to exert himself, that a party had been raised by one Richard Marsden, who had imposed himself upon the people as a clergyman in good standing, to keep him out of his promised benefice ; denied an entrance into his - parsonage house," finding, as he alleged, no respect paid to his offi- cial character, nor to the pledges and promises made to him by the authorities, both of Church and State, at home, - the good man in despair wrote to the " Great Bishop " who had sent him and with whom he corresponded: "I never repented so much of anything, my sins only excepted, as my coming to this place, nor has any man been treated with less humanity and compassion considering how much I had suffered in my passage than I have since my arrival in it." 3
1 This we suppose to have been Morris Island. Had it been Sullivan's Island, the name would probably have been given, as it was then well established.
2 Dalche gives the time of their detention on the island as but the days, - which is the more probable. But Bishop Perry quotes the letter as given in the text.
3 Hist. Am. Episcopal Ch., vol. 1, 378.
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Mr. Johnson arrived in the midst of the contentions over the church acts. In feeble health, with a large family, he found the cost of living in the province greater, he com- plained, than in England or Ireland, and for this his stipend was insufficient. But above all he was distressed at-the factious opposition at the hands of a brother clergyman. This last difficulty was, however, soon overcome and Mr. Johnson was duly installed as rector of St. Philip's Church. It has been said that Commissary Johnson's humility and prudence softened the asperity of opposing interests in the colony, and that ultimately his piety pro- cured him the love and esteem of all.1 But Mr. Johnson's private letters to the authorities in England, since come to light, scarcely sustain this character. It is fortunate that the people over whom he came to minister did not know of the impression he had formed and of the opinion of them he had hastened to express upon his first arrival. He wrote to the Bishop of London :2 -
"The people here generally speaking are the vilest race of men upon the earth. They have neither honor, nor honesty, nor religion enough to entitle them to any tolerable character, being a perfect medley or hotch-potch, made up of bankrupt pirates. decaved liber- tines, secretaries and enthusiasts of all sorts who have transported themselves hither from Bermudas, JJamaica. Barbadoes, Montserat, Antego, Nevis, New England, Pennsylvania, etc., and are the most factious and seditious people in the whole world. Many of those that pretend to be churchmen are strongly crippled in their goings between the Church and Presbytery, and as they are of large and loose prin- ciples so they live and act accordingly sometimes going openly with the Dissenters, as they now do against the church, and giving incredible trouble to the Governor and clergy."
This letter scarcely breathes a spirit of humility or Christian charity, and even allowing. as we should do, for
1 Daicho's Ch. Hist., 79. 2 Hist. A. Episcopal Ch , vol. I, 379.
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the untoward events of his arrival, there is a bitterness and contempt in it scarcely compatible with the character of meekness and lovingkindness which should adorn one of his profession. Like Marston. too, it appears that he opposed and criticised the government, even when admin- istered by so good a Governor as Craven. In a letter from Carolina in 1715, supposed to have been written by George Rodd, Attorney General. the writer declares his surprise that the Lords Proprietors should favor that person ( Par- son Johnson) with the most valuable place under their donation " that openly & daily affronts and writes against the gov." 1 The letter to the Bishop of London would, no doubt, have been pronounced a libel by either party which for the time happened to be in control, and such, indeed. it was. Smith, or Risbee either, would have summoned the reverend gentleman before the bar of the House, to answer for its aspersions, had it fallen into his hands. There was, nevertheless, a grain of truth in the description of the people. They were " medley or hotch-poteh." There were very probably persous of each of the classes described. There was a large leaven of the old Puritan factiousness; and there were without doubt many churchmen whose religion was more a matter of politics and association than of earnest conviction. There were probably many characteristics of a newly formed community of bold, restless, adventurous men, who had thrown off the restraints and decorum of an old society. and had not yet formed another. Deference was not likely one of their common graces. But the people generally were not by any means such as Mr. Johnson in the bitterness of his spirit represented them. There were many earnest Christian men in the colony, Puri-
1 Coll. Hist. Sue of So. Ca., vol. II, 223 ; Public Records ; Year Book City of Charleston ( Ficken), 1894, 821.
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tan as well as churchmen. If, as he complained, some of the churchmen were "so strangely crippled in their goings between the Church and Presbytery," was it to be wondered at when there was no bishop in America to con- firm? When Marsden's orders were denied, and. Marston was driving the members of the church from its doors. was it surprising that some of them straved off to the White Meeting ? The establishment of the church under the circumstances is strong evidence that there were earnest Christians and faithful churchmen in the colony. There must have been a deep religious sentiment in a people, who, numbering less than 10,000 souls, including men, women, and children, Indians and negroes, bond and free, maintained within two years, as we shall see, from the time Mr. Johnson wrote seventeen ministers.1
The religious animosities and strifes in the colony were but the counterpart of those in England at the time. They all, indeed. originated in the mother country. They were not indigenous to the province of Carolina.
Another storm of popular religious passion was just about to burst on the Whigs in England over "a dull and silly sermon " of one Dr. Sacheverell, a High Church divine, for which the Whigs unwisely attempted to im- peach the author, -a political blunder as great as that of the Tories in 1704, when they attempted to tack the bill against "occasional conformity " upon a supply bill. necessary for the continuance of the war which was then popular. But political sentiment had now again changed, and an outburst of popular enthusiasm in Sacheverell's favor showed what a storm of hatred had gathered against the Whigs and the war.2
1 Howe's Hist. Presb. Ch., 163. 2 Green's Hist. English People, vol. IV, 97.
CHAPTER XXI
1710-11
JUST before Governor Johnson's removal, he had been called upon by the Royal Government for a detailed state- ment of the condition of the province. In answer to this an elaborate and carefully prepared report was made. This paper is of so much value and its account so suc- cinctly given that. following Rivers, we shall not attempt to abbreviate, but will give it in full.1 The letter is dated the 17th of September, 1708, and is signed by Sir Nathaniel Johnson, Thomas Broughton, Robert Gibbes, George Smith, and Richard Berresford.
" We, the Governor and council." said they. " in obedience to her sacred Majestys command and your Lordships instructions, have carefully inquired into the present circumstances of the province, etc.
"The number of inhabitants in this province of all sorts, are com- puted to be 9,580 souls; of which there are 1,360 free men, 900 free women, 60 white servant men, 00 white servant women. 1700 white free children, 1,800 negro men slaves, 1.100 women negro slaves, 500 Indian men slaves, 600 Indian women slaves, 1.200 negro children slaves, and 300 Indian children slaves.
" The freemen of this province, by reason of the late sickness brought hither from other parts, though now very healthy. and small supply from other parts, are within these five years last past decreased about 100, free women about 40; white servants, from the aforesaid reasons, and having completed their servitude, are decreased 50 ; white servant women, for the same reasons, are decreased 30; white children are increased 500; negro men slaves by importation, 800;
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 231.
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negro women slaves, 200. Indian men slaves, by reason of our late conquest over the French and Spaniards, and the success of our forces against the Appalaskys and other Indian engagements. are within these five years increased to the number of 400, and the Indian women slaves to 430; negro children to 600, and Indian children to 200.
" The whole number of the militia of this province, 950 white men, fit to bear arms, viz : 2 Regiments of foot, both making up 16 com- panies, 50 men, one with another, in a company; to which might be added a like number of negro men slaves, the captain of each com- pany being obliged by an act of assembly, to enlist, train up and bring into the field for each white, one able slave armed with a gun or lance, for each man in his company; and the governor's troop of guards, consisting of about forty men ; the colonel, lieutenant colonel, captain, cornet. and two exempts. together with nine patrols, ten men in each patrol, to take care of the women and children, in case of an aların and invasion : French Protestants, and independent company of Santee, consisting of forty-five inen, and a patrol of ten men.
" The commodities exported from this province to England, are rice, pitch. tar. buck and doeskins in the hair, and Indian dressed : also, some few furs. as beaver, otter, wildcat, racoon. a little silk, white oak, pike staves and sometimes some other sorts.
" We are sufficiently provided with timber fit for masts and yards of several sizes, both pine and cypress, which may be exported very reasonable, and supplied at all times of the year, there being no frost or snow considerable enough to hinder bringing them down the river.
"Other commodities, not the produce of the place. but brought here from the American islands and exported to England, are logwood braziletto, fustic, cortex, isleathera, tortoiseshell, ambergrease, and cocoa.
" From this province are exported to several of the American islands, as Jamaica. Barbadoes, Antigua, Nevis, St Christopher's. the Virgin's, Montserrat. and the Bahama Islands-staves, hooks and shingles, beef, pork. rice, pitch, tar, green wax, candles made of myrtle berries, tallow and tallow candles, butter. English and Indian peas, and some- times a small quantity of tanned leather.
"Goods imported from the foregoing islands are, rum, sugar, molasses, cotton. fistic. braziletto, isleathera. ambergrease, tortoise- shell, salt, and pimento; logwood is generally brought from the Bay of Campeachy.
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"We are also often furnished with negroes from the American Islands. chiefly from Barbadoes and Jamaica; from whence also comes a considerable quantity of English manufactures, and Some prize goods viz. claret, brandy &et, taken from the French and Spaniards. " We have also commerce with Boston. Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia: to which place, we export Indian slaves, light deerskins dressed. some tanned leather, pitch, tar, and a small quantity of rice. From thence we receive beer, cider, flour. dry codfish and mackerel; and from Virginia some European commodities.
" Further we have a trade to the Madeiras (from whence we receive most of our wines) also to St Thomas and Curacoa, to which places we send the same commodities as to the other islands, excepting pitch, tar, and rice. lately prohibited, which prohibition is very disadvan- tageons to the trade in these parts.
"The trade of this province is certainly increased of late years, there being a greater consumption yearly of most counnodities im- ported. And the inhabitants, by a yearly addition of slaves are made the more capable of improving the produce of the colony. Notwith- standing it is our opinion. that the value of our import is greater (if we include our negroes) than our export, by which means it comes to pass that we are very near drained of all our silver and gold coin ; nor is there any remedy to prevent this, but by a number of honest laborious persons to come among us, that would consume but little, by which means the produce of the country being increased might in time make our exportation equalize if not exceed our importation.
" That which has been a considerable though unavoidable hindrance to the greater increase of our trade, is the great duty on goods. both imported, and exported, occasioned by the debts. the country is in- volved in. by the late expedition, in the time of Governor Moore against St Augustine, and the charge in fortifying Charles Town this time of war and danger : to which may very justly be added the late prohibition of pitch. tar, and rice.
" There are not above ten or twelve sail of ships belonging to this province, about half of which number were built here, besides a ship and sloop now on the stocks; neither are there above twenty seafar- ing inen who may be properly accounted settlers or livers in the province.
" There are not as yet any manufactures settled in the province, saving some particular planters, who for their own use, make a few stuffs of silk and cotton, and a sort of cloth of cotton and wool of their own growth to clothe their slaves.
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" All possible precautions are taken by this government to prevent illegal trade, the acts of trade, and navigation being strictly enforced on all occasions.
" And now having answered the several queries stated to us by your lordships, in the best manner we are at present capable of, we humbly crave leave to superadd an account of the Indians our allies, our trade and commerce. with one another and their consumption of our goods. together with the present circumstances of Charles Town, and our new triangular fort and platform at Windmill Point, with an account of what provisions we want, to make them complete fortifica- tions.
"The Indians under the protection of his [her ?] majestys govern- ment are numerous, and may be of great use in time of invasion. The nations we have trade with are as follows. The Yamassees, situated about SO to 100 miles south from Charles Town ; they con- sist of about 500 men able to bear arms; they are become great warriors, and are continually annoying the Spaniards, and the Indians their allies.
" To the Southward of the Yamassees are a small nation called Paleachuckles, in number about 80 men. They are settled in a town about 20 miles up the Savannah River, and are very serviceable in furnishing with provisions the Englishmen who go up that river in periangers with a supply of goods for the Indians, and bring skins for them.
" About 150 miles southwest from Charles Town, is settled, on the aforesaid river a nation of Indians called the Savannahs. They are seated in three towns and consist of about 150 men. A few miles dis- tant on the said River is a considerable town of Indians that deserted the Spaniards, and came with our forces from them about five years past. They are known by the name of Apalachys, and are about 250 men. and behave themselves very submissive to this government. These people are situated very advantageous for trade. Indians seated upwards of 700 miles off are supplied with goods by our white men, who transport them from this river upon Indians backs.
" About 150 miles westward are settled on Ochasee River eleven towns of Indians, consisting of 600 men, among whom are several families of the aforesaid AApalachys. These people are great warriors and hunters and consume great quantities of English goods.
" About 150 miles west from these people on the Choeta-Kuchy River there is a town of Indiaus settled for carrying on trade who are very serviceable on that account. These people are wrated about
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midway between Ochasee River and the settlements of the Talla- bousies and the Attalbanees. They have many towns and consist of at least 1300 men, are great warriors, and trade with this government for great quantities of goods.
" About 200 miles from the Tallabousies and the Attalbanees west- ward, lie the nations of Indians called the Chickysaws, who are at least in number 600 men. These Indians are stout and warlike. They are divided part in the English interest and part in the French. There is a factory settled by those French about four days journey down that river whereon the Tallabousies and Attalbanees live.
" We have but few skins or furs from the Chickysaws, they living so distant it will hardly answer the carriage. Slaves is what we have in exchange for our goods, which these people take from several nations of Indians that live beyond them.
"The Cherokee Indians live about 250 miles northwest from our settlements, on a ridge of mountains; they are a numerous people, but very lazy : they are settled in 60 towns and are at least 500 men. The trade we have with them is inconsiderable, they being but ordinary hunters and less warriors.
" There are several nations of Indians that inhabit to the northward of us; our trade as yet with them is not much, but we are in hopes to improve it very shortly.
"From the aforesaid several nations of Indians are brought and shipped for England, one year with another, at least 50,000 skins; to purchase which requires at least $2500 or $3000- first cost of goods in England. The goods proper for a trade with the Indians are English cottons, broadcloth of several colors, duffels blue and red, beads of several sorts and sizes, axes, hoes, falchions, small fnsee guns, powder, bullets, and small shot.
" St. Augustine, a Spanish garrison being planted to the Southward of us about 100 leagues makes Carolina a frontier to all the English settlements on the main," etc.
Two years subsequent to this report, i.P. 1710, the whites in the colony were computed to be 12 of the whole inhabi- tants ; Indian subjects, 66; and negro slaves, 22. Of the whites again, the planters were 70; merchants, abont 13; and artisans. 17. With regard to religion, the Episcopal party were 42; the Presbyterians, including the French 2 1
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who retained their own discipline, 45; the Anabaptists, 10; and the Quakers, 3.
The prices of daily labor in currency of the colony were. - for a tailor, 5s. ; a bricklayer. 68 .; a cooper. +s. ; carpenters and joiners from 3s. to 58. ; a laborer. 1x. 3d. to 2s. with food and lodgings. Overseers of planters received from £15 to £40 per annum, and persons engaged to trade with Indians from £20 to £ 100 per annum. 1
Taxes were raised for extraordinary purposes from real and personal estate, and generally from imports of wines, liquors, sugar, molasses, flour, biscuits, negro slaves, etc. ; dry goods imported paid 3 per cent, and deerskins exported Bd. per skin. The duties amounted to about £4500 per annum, which was then £1000 more than the annual ex- penses of the government.
The expenses consisted of £1000 for ten Church of England ministers: the same for finishing and repairing fortifications : $600 for officers and soldiers in garrison ; £300 for military stores; £250 for the Governor; and £400 for incidental charges. The overplus was intended for sinking bills of credit. These estimates were in cur- rency. and so must be reduced by one-third in estimating their value in good money; and this, calculated upon the present currency, will make the items, probably, nearly as follows: the church. from .813.000 to $16.000: fortifica- tions the same; officers and soldiers from $4000 to 85000 : Governors from $2500 to 83000; military stores. $2000 to 82500; and incidental charges from 5000 to $6000.
The bills just mentioned were first issued for $6000 to pay the expenses of the expedition to St. Augustine in 1703. and bore twelve per cent interest. To offer them in payment was a legal tender, and if refused. the creditor lost his claim for the debt. But such refusal never occurred,
1 Carroll's Coll., vol. II. 200 ; Hist. Sketches (Rivers). 289.
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for the paper was hoarded for the sake of the interest. An addition of several thousand pounds was stamped, and the "old currency" exchanged for the new, which was without interest. for the purpose of drawing the bills more into cirenlation, and to save the treasury from ac- cumulating demands. Notwithstanding the change, the bills remained at par until the subsequent issue of very large amounts caused their depreciation.1 There was lit- tle coin in circulation ; and of the little, various values in colonial paper currency were attached to German, Peru- vian, Mexican, French, and Spanish pieces of gold and silver. To prevent the confusion arising from the dif- ferent rates at which these pieces passed in the differ- ent colonies, a uniform value was affixed to them, by a proclamation from the mother country, in the sixth year of Queen Anne's reign. -- 1707. Hence the denomina- tion of " proclamation money," the standard of which was £133 6%. 6.7. paper currency for £100 sterling.2
The commerce between South Carolina and England employed, on an average, twenty-two vessels in 1710. The mannfactures and slaves imported were only in part paid for by returns of colonial produce. The balance was re- quired by the merchants in spices and exchange sold in Charles Town at fifty per cent premium, and year after year still higher. But the Carolinians held a monopoly of rice, which was soon raised to four times its former price, and other produce in proportion as the currency depre-
1 In Governor Glen's Description of So. Ca., he states that in 1710 there was not much English money among the colonists, but that what they had passed at fitty per cent advance, the rate of exchange between South Carolina and England being $150 currency per €100 sterling.
2 The difference must be borne in mind between proclamation money and currency. The former was in foreign coins, the value of which was fixed by act of Queen Anne, 170s. The latter was the paper money of the province. See Statates, vol. II, TO8, 709.
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ciated. The merchants of London began now to become a new and important power near the throne, ever watchful of the embarrassments of Carolina and prompt to com- plain of the maladministration of the Lords Proprietors.
The planters sowed rice in furrows eighteen inches apart, about a peck to an acre, with a yield of thirty to . sixty bushels. It was cleaned by mills turned by horses or oxen. The lands, after a few years' culture, lay fallow and were esteemed excellent pastures. The usual yield of corn to an acre was from eighteen to thirty bushels, with six bushels of Indian peas sown among it. Besides the great herds of cattle owned, as we have seen. by the planters, swine were raised in great numbers. Orchards of peaches and various fruits, forests of acorns, and mild winters rendered Carolina more abundant in stock than any other English colony.
The experience of forty years among an energetic peo- ple, observes Rivers, from whom these statistics have been taken, had drawn from forest. field, and stream the same means of subsistence which we now enjoy. All the arts of peace were introduced. and education and religion had become matters of public concern. But wars and pesti- lence, tempests and inundations, had not spared them; and the noise of political strife, which disturbed the slumbers of their childhood. had now attuned itself to sounds not unpleasant to their ears.1
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