rank, the people were not to own any, but were to be in a position like the old Russian serf, attached to the soil, and without voice in the government. The plan was complex and impracticable; the colonists could not have understood it, and could not have carried it out if they had. The only immediate effect was almost to destroy what little government there was in the colony, particularly in the northern part, with the result of making it the most turbulent, lawless, and factious of all the American settlements. An attempt was made to adapt the government to the "model," but it was finally given up in 1693 without ever having gone into practical operation. In 1695 the proprietors sent out John Archdale, a Friend, as governor. Under his wise administration order was restored. He lowered the quit-rents. paid the proprietors, pursued a peaceful policy toward the Indians and the Spaniards, appointed a council satisfactory to the colonists, and allowed them to choose their representatives to the Assembly. The result was "prosperity, and, for a time, peace to the colony." In 1696 the representatives in South Carolina declared that Archdale, by "his wisdom, patience, and labor, had laid a firm foundation for a most glorious superstruction.” Such praise as this is perhaps unique in American colonial history. After a short time. Archdale went back to England, and before long the old state of disorder returned. 29. Division of the Carolinas; North Carolina. (1729.) — It was found in a few years that Carolina was too large to be governed as one colony, and so there were two Assemblies chosen, and after having sometimes two governors and sometimes one, it was finally (1729) divided into two parts which received the names by which they are now known. The first settlers of the colony of North Carolina were from Virginia: others came from New England, and later, from the northern colonies, from Scotland, from the north of Ireland, and from Switzerland. "The population was much more scattered than elsewhere, schools were few, and the advance of the North Carolinians was on lines of independence and sturdy courage rather than of refinement and elegance." 30. South Carolina; the Carolinas become Royal Colonies. (1629-1729.) In 1670 the proprietors sent out a colony to settle within the bounds of South Carolina. At first a position some distance from the sea was chosen, but after ten years' trial the whole settlement was moved to the junction of the Ashley and Cooper rivers, where the city of Charleston now is. These rivers were named after one of the proprietors, the Earl of Shaftesbury, whose name was Anthony Ashley Cooper. The number of settlers was increased by emigrants from North Carolina, by Dutch from New York, and by a large number of French Protestants or Huguenots from France, who had left their homes on account of the persecution following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Huguenots formed a most valuable part of the population, though they were not admitted for some time to all the rights of the other colonists. The chief products of South Carolina were rice and indigo: the former was introduced from the East Indies in 1696, and the latter in 1741. These two crops were the chief staple products until the invention of the cotton gin gave cotton the first place. In North Carolina, tar, pitch, turpentine, and lumber were the staple products. The proprietors had gained little profit from their grant, but in 1719 there was a rebellion against them in South Carolina, and the colonists, on appealing to the king, were given a royal governor. In 1729 the proprietors sold all their rights to the crown, and the Carolinas became absolutely royal GEORGIA; OGLETHORPE. 33 colonies, and were permanently divided into North and South Carolina. 31. Settlement of Georgia; Oglethorpe. (1733.) - Though the latest of the colonies, it may be well to notice the settlement of Georgia in this connection. General James Oglethorpe was an Englishman whose heart had been touched by the sight of the suffering of the poor in England, particularly of those who had been imprisoned for debt, and he resolved to try to better their condition by offering them a refuge in the new world, where they could make a new start in life. Accordingly he obtained a grant of the land lying between the Savannah and the Altamaha rivers and extending westward to the South Seas, to found such a colony. The charter (1732) was to last for twenty-one years. The powers invested in a board of trustees were almost absolute, the settlers JAMES OGLETHORPE. themselves having little voice; there was to be religious freedom to all but Roman Catholics; slavery was forbidden, and also the sale of rum. In the fall of 1732, the same year in which the charter was granted, Oglethorpe himself sailed with an expedition, and made a settlement (1733) on the site of the city of Savannah. Notwithstanding the efforts of the founder, and of John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield, the great preachers, it was long before Georgia, as the colony was named, proved a success. The very restrictions which the trustees, who had no pecuniary interest in the undertaking, had provided for the good of the colonists, were not only distasteful to them as in the case of slavery, but in some cases, as in the restrictions upon the sale of land, were really injurious to the prosperity of the colony. At the expiration of twenty years the trustees resigned their charter to the crown, and Georgia, like the Carolinas, became a royal colony with its governor appointed by the crown.1 32. The Dutch and New Netherland; Disputes with English Colonies. (1626–1664.) — The Dutch West India Company governed New Netherland (sect. 11) from 1626 to 1664, but the settlements were regarded by the Dutch in the light of trading posts rather than colonies, and they do not seem to have realized in the slightest degree the possibilities that were before them in the possession of the Hudson River and New York Bay. The settlements were few and grew slowly. Meanwhile the English colonies to the north and south, increasing rapidly in wealth and population, were divided by the Dutch possessions as by a wedge. This was both unpleasant and dangerous. There were many disputes between the settlers of Connecticut and the Dutch regarding territory, not only on the mainland, but also on Long Island, on which men from Connecticut had settled, but which the Dutch claimed. The English always held that the whole coast from Maine to Florida belonged to them in virtue of the Cabots' discovery (sect. 5), and so Charles II. in 1664 granted the territory held by the Dutch, and also Pemaquid 1 Oglethorpe lived to see the colonies gain their independence. He died in London in 1785. |