THE CAROLINAS.
SETTLEMENT.—Lord Clarendon and several other noblemen obtained (1663) from Charles II. a grant of a vast tract south of Virginia, which was termed in honor of the king, Carolina. Two permanent settlements were soon made.
[Footnote: This in Latin is Carolus II.]
[Footnote: Both colonies were named after prominent proprietors of the grant.]
1. The _Albemarle__Colony_. This was a name given to a plantation which was already settled by people who had pushed through the wilderness from Virginia. A governor from their own number was appointed over them. They were then left in quiet to enjoy their liberties and forget the world.
[Footnote: Except when rent day came. Then they were called upon to pay to the English proprietors a half-penny per acre.]
2. The Carteret Colony was established (1670) by English emigrants. They first sailed into the well-known waters where Ribaut anchored and the fort of Carolina was erected so long before. Landing, they began a settlement on the banks of the Ashley, but afterward removed to the "ancient groves covered with yellow jessamine" which marked the site of the present city of Charleston. The growth of this colony was rapid from the first. Thither came shiploads of Dutch from New York, dissatisfied with the English rule and attracted by the genial climate. The Huguenots (French Protestants), hunted from their homes, here found a southern welcome.
[Footnote: In Charleston alone there were at one time as many as 16,000 Huguenots. They added whole streets to the city. Their severe morality, marked charity, elegant manners and thrifty habits, made them a most desirable acquisition. They brought the mulberry and olive, and established magnificent plantations on the banks of the Cooper. They also introduced many choice varieties of pears, which still bear illustrious Huguenot names. Their descendants are eminently honorable, and have borne a proud part in the establishment of our Republic. Of seven presidents who were at the head of the Congress of Philadelphia during the Revolution, three were of Huguenot parentage.]
THE GRAND MODEL was a form of government for the colonies prepared by Lord Shaftesbury and the celebrated philosopher, John Locke. It was a magnificent scheme. The wilderness was to be divided into vast estates, with which hereditary titles were to be granted. But the model was aristocratic, while the people were democratic. It granted no rights of self-government, while the settlers came into the wilderness for the love of liberty. This was not the soil on which vain titles and empty pomp could flourish. To make the Grand Model a success, it would have been necessary to transform the log-cabin into a baronial castle, and the independent settlers into armed retainers. The attempt to introduce it arousing violent opposition, it was at length abandoned.
NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA SEPARATED.—The two colonies,—the northern, or Albemarle, and the southern, or Carteret,—being so remote from each other, had from the beginning separate governors, though they remained one province. There was constant friction between the settlers and the proprietors. The people were jealous. The proprietors were arbitrary. Rents, taxes, and rights were plentiful sources of irritation. Things kept on in this unsettled way until (1729) the discouraged proprietors ceded to the crown their right of government and seven-eighths of the soil. The two colonies were separated and they remained royal provinces until the Revolution.