First Charter of North Carolina.

Early Settlements on the Chowan and Cape Fear.

Planters from Barbadoes.

a March 24.

b 1653.

In 1630, a patent was granted to Sir Robert Heath for the whole of the country extending from Virginia, southward, over six degrees of latitude, to the rather indefinite boundary of Florida, then in possession of the Spaniards. The region was named Carolina in honor of the sister of Charles the First, of that name. Heath was unable to fulfill the conditions of his charter, and it was forfeited before any settlements were made. In 1663, Charles the Second granted a charter to a company, among whom were General George Monk (the Duke of Albemarle), Lord Clarendon, Sir George Carteret, Lord Ashley Cooper (afterward Earl of Shaftesbury), Lord Berkeley, and his brother Sir William, the governor of Virginia. The region under this grant extended from the thirty-sixth de gree to the River San Matheo in Florida, now the St. John's. Ten years earlier than this, a permanent settlement had been formed upon the northern banks of the Chowan. Roger Green, an energetic man, led a company across the wilderness from the Nansemond to the Chowan, and settled near the present village of Edenton. There they flourished; and in the same year, when the charter was granted to Clarendon and his associates, a government, under William Drummond, a Scotch Presbyterian, was established over that little territory. In honor of the Duke of Albemarle, it was called Albemarle County Colony. In 1662, George Durant purchased from the Indians the Neck, which still bears his name;' and the following year George Cathmaid received a large grant of land, for having settled sixty-seven persons south of the Roanoke. Two years later, it being discovered that the settlement on the Chowan was not within the limits of the charter, Charles extended the boundaries of that instrument, so as to include northward the region to the present Virginia line, southward the whole of the present Carolinas and Georgia, and extending westward, like all of that monarch's charters, to the Pacific Ocean. These charters were liberal in the concession of civil privileges, and the proprietors were permitted to exercise toleration toward non-conformists to the Church of England, if it should be thought expedient. Great encouragement was offered to immigrants, from home, or from the other colonies, and settlements steadily increased.

c 1665.

In 1661 some New England adventurers entered Cape Fear River,' purchased a tract of land from the Indians on Old Town Creek, about half way between Wilmington and Brunswick, and planted a settlement there. The Virginians looked upon them as rivals, for the latter claimed a right to the soil, having settled prior to the grant to Clarendon and his associates. Difficulties arose. A compromise was proposed, but the New Englanders were dissatisfied. The colony did not prosper; the Indians lifted the hatchet against them, and in less than three years the settlement was abandoned. Two years later,c several planters from Barbadoes purchased of the Indians a tract of land, thirty-two miles square, near the abandoned settlement. They asked of the proprietaries a confirmation of their purchase, and a separate charter of government. All was not granted, yet liberal concessions were made. Sir John Yeamans, the son of a cavalier, and then a Barbadoes planter, was, at the solicitation of the purchasers, appointed their governor. His jurisdiction was from Cape Fear to the San Matheo (the territory now included in South Carolina and Georgia), and was called Clarendon county. The same year the Barbadoes people laid the foundation of a town on the south bank of the Cape Fear River. It did not flourish, and its site is now a subject for dispute.

Settlements now began to increase south of the Roanoke; and as the proprietors of Albemarle county saw, in anticipation, a powerful state within the limits of their fertile ter

It is said that Durant's Neck has the honor of having furnished the first seed for the Timothy Grass which is in such high repute among farmers. Among the first settlers was a Quaker named Timothy somebody, who observed the grass growing wild, and supposed it would be good for cultivation. He sent some of the seed to his friends in England, who, having found the grass to be valuable, called it Timothy Grass, in honor of their friend in Carolina.-Caruthers's Life of Caldwell, page 52. A Bible brought from England by Durant (and probably the first brought into North Carolina) is now in the library of the Historical Society of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill.

2

The Cape Fear is formed by a union of the Haw and Deep Rivers, about one hundred and twenty-five miles northwest from Wilmington, and enters the Atlantic a little more than twenty miles below that city Ꮓ

II.

The absurd "Fundamental Constitutions" of Shaftesbury and Locke.

Sketch of the Authors.

Extent of the Province.

ritory, and dreamed of a grand American empire, they took measures to establish a government with adequate functions, and to transport into the New World the varied ranks and aristocratic establishments of Europe. The Earl of Shaftesbury,' the ablest statesman of his time, and John Locke,' the illustrious philosopher, were employed to frame a Constitution. They completed their labor in the spring a March. of 1669, after exercising great care. The instru

John Locke

ment was composed of one hundred and twenty articles, and was called the Fundamental Constitutions. These were in the highest degree monarchical in character and design. Indeed, the proprietors avowed their design to " avoid making too numerous a Democracy." Two orders of nobility were to be instituted; the higher to consist of landgraves or earls, the lower of caciques or barons. The territory was to be divided into counties, each county containing four hundred and eighty thousand acres, with one landgrave and two caciques, a number never to be increased or diminished. There were also to be lords of manors, who like the nobles were entitled to hold courts and exercise judicial functions. Persons holding fifty acres were to be freeholders; the tenants held no political franchise, and could never attain any higher rank. The four Estates of Proprietors, Earls, Barons, and Commons were to sit in one legislative chamber. The proprietors were always to be eight in number; to possess the whole judicial power, and have the supreme direction of all tribunals. None but large property holders were eligible for a seat in the Legislature, where the commons were to have four members for every three of the nobility. An aristocratic majority was thus always secured. In trials by jury, the oppressed had but little hope, for the majority were to decide. Every religion was professedly tolerated, yet the Church of England only was declared to be orthodox, and the national religion of Carolina. Such is an outline of the principal features of the Constitution by which the proprietaries proposed to govern free colonists in America. It seems very strange that minds like those of Locke and Shaftesbury should have committed such an egregious blunder;

1 Anthony Ashley Cooper was born at Winborne, in Dorsetshire, in 1621. He was educated at Oxford, studied law, and when in his nineteenth year, he was chosen representative for Tewksbury. He was hostile to Cromwell, and took an active part in the restoration of Charles the Second. For his services Charles made him Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord of the Treasury, and created him Lord Ashley. In 1672 he was made Earl of Shaftesbury, and appointed Lord Chancellor. He resigned his office within a year, but held it again in 1679. During that year he conferred on his country the benefit of the Habeas Corpus Act. He afterward opposed the unconstitutional measures of the king, and was twice committed to the Tower. He finally withdrew to Holland, where he died, January 22, 1683.

2 John Locke was born at Wrington, near Bristol, England, in 1632. He was educated at Westminster school. He studied the science of medicine and became eminent, but he was more noted for his proficiency in polite literature. His health would not allow him to practice the medical art, and in 1664 he accepted the secretaryship to Sir William Swan, who was sent envoy to the Elector of Brandenburg. He turned his attention to politics and jurisprudence, and because of his skill and knowledge on such subjects, Shaftesbury employed him to assist him in drawing up a charter for North Carolina. While at Montpelier, for the benefit of his health, he commenced his celebrated Essay on the Human Understanding. When Shaftesbury went to Holland, Locke accompanied him. There, on the death of the earl, envy and malice persecuted him. He was accused of treason, and for twelve months he kept himself concealed. He returned to England after the Revolution in 1688, and was honored by government appointments. He was a Commissioner of Trade and Plantations for five years, when declining health made him resign the office in 1700. He died on the twenty-eighth of October, 1704, in the seventy-third year of his age. This document is supposed to be chiefly the work of Shaftesbury.

The territory comprising more than seven degrees of latitude from the Nansemond, south, included the whole of the present North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, a good portion of Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, a large portion of Mexico, and the whole of Upper and Lower California.

"There were some Quakers in the Albemarle colony, and when, in 1672, William Edmunson and George Fox visited that settlement, many were added to that persuasion. Near the Roanoke, in that region, and in the counties of Orange, Guilford, and Randolph, are the only settlements of that sect in North Carolina The Quakers were the first to organize a religious government in that state. 6 Bancroft, ii., 136-150. Chalmers, 517-526. Locke's Works, x., 194. Martin, i., 148–150. This instrument is published at length in the Appendix to the first volume of Martin's History of North Carolina.

Abrogation of the Constitutions.

Government Officers imprisoned.

Governor Sothel banished.

John Archdale.

that men so wise and sagacious should have attempted such a solemn farce. Albemarle, the chief settlement, had only about fourteen hundred "working hands," and the habitations in Carolina were chiefly log huts. The whole population was hardly four thousand in number. Where were the landgraves, and caciques, and lords of manors to be found among them? and where were mansions for the nobility and aristocracy? The error was soon perceived, yet the proprietaries insisted upon commencing the system with a view to its further accomplishment. But the spirit of the whole thing was adverse to the feelings of the people; and, after a contest of twenty years, these Constitutions were abrogated, and the people were allowed to be governed by their earlier and more simple and appropriate code under Stevens, the successor of Drummond—a governor with his council of twelve, six appointed by the proprietaries, and six chosen by the Assembly; and a House of Delegates chosen by the freeholders.

While the contest was going on between the proprietaries and the people, temporary laws were established. The harmony which prevailed before the magnificent scheme of government was proposed, was disturbed, and both counties were shaken by internal commotions. Disorders prevailed most extensively in the Albemarle or Northern colony, the population of which was far more numerous than the Clarendon or Southern colony. Excessive taxation and commercial restrictions occasioned discontent, while the influence of refugees from Virginia, the participators in Bacon's rebellion there, who were sheltered in Carolina, ripened the people for resistance to monarchical schemes to enslave or oppress them. A year after the death of Bacon, a revolt occurred in Albemarle. Miller, the secretary of the colony, acting governor before Eastchurch arrived, and the collector of customs, attempted to enforce the revenue laws against a vessel from New England. Led by John Culpepper, a refugee from Clarendon, the people seized Miller and the public funds, imprisoned him and six of his council, appointed new magistrates and judges, called a Parliament, and took all the functions of government into their own hands. Thus matters remained for two years.' Culpepper went to England to plead the cause of the people. He was arrested for treason, a but, through Shaftesbury, he was acquitted, that statesman justly pleading that in Albemarle there had been no regular government; that the disorders were but feuds among the people. Thus early, that feeble colony of North Carolina asserted the same political rights for which our fathers so successfully contended a hundred years later.

a 1680

b 1689

Seth Sothel, one of the corporators, an avaricious and dishonest man, arrived in the Albemarle province in 1683, as governor. He plundered the people, and prostituted his office to purposes of private gain. According to Chalmers, "the annals of delegated authority include no name so infamous" as Sothel. The people, after enduring him for six years, seized him, and were about sending him to England to answer their accusations before the proprietors, when he asked to be tried by the Colonial Assembly. Such trial was granted, and he was sentenced to banishment for one year, and was forever deprived of the privilege of holding the office of governor. He withdrew to South Carolina, where we shall meet him again. The proprietors acquiesced in the proceedings of the colonists, and sent over Philip Ludwell as their representative, who, by wisdom and justice, soon restored order. He was succeeded by Thomas Harvey in 1692, and, two years later, Henderson Walker succeeded Harvey.

€ 1690.

In 1695, two years after the splendid Fundamental Constitutions of Locke and Shaftesbury were abrogated, and landgraves and caciques, and lords of manors, were scattered to the winds, John Archdale, a Quaker, and one of the proprietors, arrived as governor of both Carolinas. From that period until the partition of the provinces in 1729, it is difficult to separate their historics, although governed by distinct magistrates. In 1698 the first settlement was made on the Pamlico or Tar River, the Pamlico Indians having been nearly all destroyed two years previously by a pestilence. Population rapidly increased under the liberal administration of Archdale. The first church in Carolina was built in Chowan county in 1705, and religion began to be respected.

I Williamson, i., 132.

Settlements in the Interior.

Indian Hostilities.

Flight of the Tuscaroras.

Pirates.

First Royal Governor.

In 1707, a company

The colonists now began to turn their attention to the interior. of French Protestants came from Virginia and settled in Carolina; and in 1709, one hundred German families, driven from their home on the Rhine by fierce persecutions and devastating war, sought a refuge in the free, tolerant, and peaceful soil of North Carolina. Already the Huguenots were settling in South Carolina, and were planting the principles of civil liberty there. The French immigrants were not favorably received by the English, and disputes occurred. Archdale managed with prudence for a year, and then left affairs in the hands of Joseph Blake, afterward governor of South Carolina. The difficulties between the English and French were settled, and the latter were admitted to all the rights of citizenship. The Indians along the sea-coast were melting away like frost in the sunbeams. The powerful tribe of the Hatteras, which numbered three thousand warriors in Raleigh's time, were reduced to fifteen bowmen; another tribe had entirely disappeared; and of all the aborigines, but a small remnant remained. They had sold their lands, or had been cheated out of them, and were driven back to the deep wildnerness. Strong drink and other vices of civilization had decimated them, and their beautiful land, all the way to the Yadkin and Catawba, was speedily opened to the almost unopposed encroachments of the white man. Yet, before their power was utterly broken, the Indians made an effort to redeem their losses. The Tuscaroras of the inland region, and the Corees southward, upon whom their countrymen of the coasts had retreated, resolved to strike a blow that should exterminate the intruders. Upon the scattered German settlements along the Roanoke and Pamlico Sound, they fell like lightning from the clouds. In one night one hundred and thirty persons perished by the hatchet. a The savages also scoured the country on

a October 2, 1711. Albemarle Sound, burning dwellings and massacring the inhabitants for three days, until disabled by drunkenness and fatigue. To the Southern colony the people of Albemarle looked for aid. Nor was it withheld. Captain Barnwell, with six hundred white men, and three hundred and sixty Indians of the tribes of the Cherokees, Creeks, Catawbas, and Yamasees,' as allies, marched against the Tuscaroras,b and, driving them back b 1712. to their fortified town near the Neuse, a little above Edenton, in the upper part of Craven county, forced them to make a treaty of peace. Both parties soon violated this treaty, and the Indians commenced hostilities. Colonel Moore, of South Carolina, with forty white men, and eight hundred friendly Indians, arrived in December, 1713, besieged the savages in their fort, and took eight hundred of them prisoners. The hostile Tuscaroras soon afterward migrated northward, and joining the Five Nations on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, formed a part of the powerful confederacy of the Six Nations in New York. In 1715 peace was concluded with the Corees, and Indian wars ceased.

From this period until 1729, when the two provinces were surrendered to the crown, and were permanently separated, the colonists enjoyed comparative prosperity. The people had some difficulties with the Indians; were troubled with a swarm of pirates on the coast, under Teach, the famous "Black Beard;" and disputed, with the vehemence of men determined to remain free, with all unwise and aristocratic governors sent to rule them. Perceiving that the expenses which had attended the settlement of the Carolinas were hardly productive of any advantage, the lords proprietors offered to surrender the provinces to the crown. This was effected, and each proprietor received twelve thousand five hundred dollars, as the consideration of the surrender. Their charter had been in existence sixty-six years. The population of both provinces, including negroes, did not exceed twentyfive thousand persons, ten thousand in North Carolina, and fifteen thousand in South Carolina. The last proprietary governor was Sir Richard Everard, successor to Charles Eden.

c 1729.

с

George Burrington was the first royal governor of North Carolina, and took his seat without difficulty, in February, 1730. His first important act was to announce a remission of

1 These tribes, and others from Cape Fear to the Gulf of Mexico, numbering about six thousand warriors, soon afterward confederated, with the design of exterminating the white people on the Atlantic coast. This event is noticed on page 437.

The general form of the Colonial government was not materially changed. The governor could de

Removal of the Seat of Government to Wilmington.

First Legislative Assembly.

The Governor and People at Variance.

This was highly satisfactory.

arrears of quit-rent.

His second, under instructions, was to send a deputation into the interior to conciliate the Indians, particularly the Cherokees. The first Legislative Assembly was convened at Edenton in April, 1731, a where a April 13. the future policy of the royal government was unfolded by Burrington. The representatives of the people were dissatisfied with its aspect, and when, in the king's name, the governor demanded of them a sufficient revenue for defraying the expenses of the local government, and a sufficient salary for the governor, his council, and the officers employed in the administration of justice, they murmured. In these requisitions they could not recognize the promised advantages of a change in ownership, and they early showed a disposition to pay very little attention to these demands of the chief magistrate. Three years afterward, commercial restrictions, hitherto unknown, increased the discontents of the people,' and the seeds of revolution were planted in a generous soil. The Assembly uttered the old complaint of exorbitant fees on the part of public officers; the governor rejected their remonstrance with contempt. The former refused to vote a revenue or to pass any acts, and sent a complaint to England of Burrington's " violence and tyranay in the administration of government." The Board of Trade reprimanded and deposed him, and then appointed in his place Gabriel Johnston,b late steward of Lord Wilmington, a prudent and cunning Scotchman.

с

b Nov., 1734.

c March, 1737.

The new governor encountered quite as much trouble as his predecessor. The Assembly were refractory, and Johnston attempted to collect the rents' on his own authority. Payment was resisted, and the Assembly not only denied the legality of the governor's proceedings, but imprisoned the officers who had distrained for quit-rents. Johnston made concessions to the people, but his arrangements were rejected by the home government, as yielding too much to the popular will. For nearly ten years the quarrel concerning rents continued between the governor and the Assembly, and, in the mean while, the salaries of government officials remained in arrears, for the rents, which produced the sole fund for the payment of the royal officers, were inadequate. The governor now resorted to cunning management as a last effort to sustain his authority. The province had been divided into several counties. The southern counties, lately settled, were more tractable than the northern ones, but they had only two members each in the Assembly, while the others had five. The governor, at a time when several of the northern members were absent, procured the passage of an act, placing all the counties upon an equal footing as to representation, and also for the removal of the seat of government from Edenton to Wilmington, a new town, lately established at the head of ship navigation, on the Cape Fear River, and named in honor of Lord Wilmington, Johnston's patron. The six northern counties refused to acknowledge the newly-organized Assembly as legal, and carried their complaint to England. They were obliged to submit, and at last the governor procured the passage of an act, by which the expenses of government were provided for.

d 1748.

It was during the administration of Governor Johnston that two important occurrences

nothing legally without the assent of his council. With them, he was authorized to establish courts of justice, and to hold a Court of Error. The governor, members of the council, commander of the king's ships in the province, chief-justices, judges of the Vice-admiralty, secretary, and receiver-general, were constituted a court for the trial of pirates.

1 The settlers procured furs from the Indians with great facility, and the manufacture of hats from this material was becoming a source of considerable revenue to several of the colonists. They exported hats to the West India Islands, Spain, and Portugal. The jealousy of England was awakened, and to secure those markets for her home manufactures, Parliament forbade the exportation of hats from the American colonies. They were not allowed to send them from one colony to another. None but persons who had served seven years apprenticeship to the trade were allowed to make hats, and no master was permitted to have more than two apprentices at a time. The business was soon confined within narrow limits, for severe penalties accompanied these enactments. Obstacles were also thrown in the way of the manufacture

of ropes and cordage in America, and other kinds of business soon felt the checks of a narrow and unjust commercial policy.

2 The whole soil belonged to the crown. The people were required, by the governor, to pay the expenses of the government, in addition to the stipulated rents.