Maryland and North Carolina.
CAPTAIN John Smith was the first white man to explore the Chesapeake. In 1621 William Clayborne, an English surveyor, was sent out by the London Company to make a map of the country around the bay. By the second charter of Virginia that province included all of the present State of Maryland. To explore and occupy the country was an enterprise of the highest importance to the Virginians. In May of 1631 Clayborne was authorized to survey the country as far north as the forty-first degree of latitude, and to establish a trade with the Indians. In the spring of 1632 he began his important work.
First Posts in Maryland.
2. The enterprise was attended with success. A trading-post was established on Kent Island, and another near Havre de Grace. The Chesapeake was explored and a trade opened with the natives. The limits of Virginia were about to be extended to the borders of New Netherland. But, in the mean time, religious persecutions were preparing the way for the foundation of a new State in the wilderness. Sir George Calvert, a Catholic nobleman of Yorkshire, better known by his title of Lord Baltimore, was destined to become the founder.
3. In 1629 he made a visit to Virginia. The general assembly offered him citizenship, but required such an oath of allegiance as no honest Catholic could take. Lord Baltimore thereupon left the narrow-minded legislators; returned to London; drew up a charter for a new State on the Chesapeake, and induced King Charles to sign it.
4. The provisions of the charter were ample. No preference was given to any particular religion. The lives and property of the colonists were carefully guarded. Arbitrary taxation was forbidden. The power of making the laws was conceded to the freemen of the colony.
Lord Baltimore's Charter.
5. Before the patent could receive the seal of state, Sir George Calvert died. His title descended to his son Cecil; and the charter was issued to him on the 20th of June, 1632. In honor of Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I., the name of Maryland was conferred on the new province. In the fall of 1633 a colony numbering two hundred persons was collected. Leonard Calvert, a brother of Cecil, was appointed to accompany the colonists to America.
Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore.
6. In March of 1634 the immigrants arrived at Old Point Comfort. They proceeded up the bay and ascended the Potomac. Finding a half-deserted Indian village at the mouth of the St. Mary's, the English moved into the vacant huts. The rest of the town was purchased; and the name of St. Mary's was given to the colony. Friendly relations were established with the natives. The Indian women taught the wives of the English how to make cornbread, and the warriors instructed the colonists in the art of hunting. There was neither anxiety nor want in the colony. Within six months the settlement had grown into greater prosperity than Jamestown had reached in as many years.
7. In 1639 a representative government was established in Maryland. Hitherto a system of democracy had prevailed; each freeman had been allowed a vote in determining the laws. When the new delegates came together, a declaration of rights was adopted. All the liberal principles of the colonial patent were reaffirmed. The rights of citizenship were declared to be the same as those of the people of England.
8. In 1642 Indian hostilities were begun on the Potomac. But the settlements of Maryland were compact, and no great suffering was occasioned. In 1644 the savages agreed to bury the hatchet and to renew the pledges of friendship.
9. In 1650 the legislature of Maryland was divided into two branches. The rights of Lord Baltimore were defined by law. An act was passed declaring that no taxes should be levied without the consent of the assembly. Such was the condition of affairs in the colony of Maryland when the Commonwealth was established in England.
Conflict with Parliament.
10. In 1651 parliamentary commissioners came to America to assume control of Maryland. Stone, the deputy of Baltimore, was deposed from office; but in the following year he was permitted to resume the government. In April of 1653 he published a proclamation, declaring that the recent interference had been a rebellion. Clayborne thereupon collected a force in Virginia, drove Stone out of office, and directed the government himself.
11. In 1654 a Protestant assembly was convened at Patuxent. The supremacy of Cromwell was acknowledged, and the Catholics were deprived of the protection of the laws. Civil war ensued. Governor Stone armed the militia, and seized the records of the colony. A battle was fought near Annapolis, and the Catholics were defeated, with a loss of fifty men. Stone was taken prisoner, but was saved from death by the friendship of some of the insurgents. Three of the Catholics were tried and executed.
12. After the death of Cromwell, Maryland was declared independent. On the 12th of March, 1660, the rights of Lord Baltimore were set aside, and the whole power of government was assumed by the House of Burgesses. On the restoration of monarchy the Baltimores were again recognized, and Philip Calvert was sent out as governor. From 1675 to 1691 Charles Calvert was governor of Maryland.
13. On the 1st of June, 1691, the charter of Lord Baltimore was taken away and a royal governor appointed. The Episcopal Church was established by law. Religious toleration was abolished and the government administered on despotic principles. This condition of affairs continued until 1715, when Queen Anne restored the heir of Lord Baltimore to the rights of his family. Maryland remained under the authority of the Calverts until the Revolution.
Settlement of the Carolinas.
14. The first effort to colonize North Carolina was made by Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1630 the country was granted to Sir Robert Heath. But, after thirty-three years, the patent was revoked by the English king. The name of Carolina had been given to the country by John Ribault, in 1562. The first actual settlement was made on the Chowan about the year 1651. In 1661 a company of Puritans settled on Oldtown Creek. In 1663 Lord Clarendon, and seven other noblemen, received a grant of all the country between the thirty-sixth parallel and the river St. John's.
15. The work of preparing a frame of government for the new province was assigned to Sir Ashley Cooper. The philosopher John Locke was employed by him and his associates to prepare the constitution. From March until July of 1669, Locke worked away in drawing up a plan which he called The Grand Model. It contained one hundred and twenty articles; and this was but the beginning! The empire of Carolina was divided into districts of four hundred and eighty thousand acres each. The offices were divided between two grand orders of nobility.
16. All attempts to establish the new government ended in failure. But the settlers had meanwhile learned to govern themselves. They grew prosperous by trading in staves and furs; and when this traffic was exhausted, they began to remove to other settlements.
17. The people of the colony were greatly oppressed with taxes. The trade with New England alone was weighed down with an annual duty of twelve thousand dollars. A gloomy opposition to the government prevailed; and when, in 1676, large numbers of refugees from Virginia arrived in Carolina, the discontent was kindled into an insurrection. The people seized Governor Miller and his council, and established a new government of their own. John Culpepper, the leader of the insurgents, was chosen governor. In 1679 Miller and his associates escaped from confinement and went to London. Governor Culpepper, who followed to defend himself, was seized, indicted for treason, tried, and acquitted. After a time new settlers came from Virginia and Maryland—Quakers from New England, Huguenots from France, and peasants from Switzerland.
Indian Troubles.
18. The Indians of North Carolina gradually wasted away. Some of the nations were already extinct. The lands of the savages had passed to the whites, sometimes by purchase, sometimes by fraud. Of all the tribes of the Carolinas, only the Corees and the Tuscaroras were still formidable. These grew jealous and went to war with the whites.
19. On the night of the 22d of September, 1711, the savages fell upon the scattered settlements and murdered a hundred and thirty persons. Civil dissensions prevented the authorities from adopting vigorous measures of defence. But Colonel Barnwell came from South Carolina with a company of militia and friendly Indians; and the savages were driven into their fort. A treaty of peace was made; but, on their way homeward, Barnwell's men sacked an Indian village, and the war was at once renewed.
20. In the next year, Colonel Moore of South Carolina arrived with a regiment of whites and Indians, and the Tuscaroras were pursued to their fort, which was carried by assault. Eight hundred warriors were taken prisoners. The power of the hostile nation was broken; and the Tuscaroras, abandoning their hunting-grounds, marched across Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, joined their kinsmen of New York, and became the sixth nation of the Iroquois.
Separation of the Carolinas.
21. In 1729 a separation was effected between the two Carolinas, and a royal governor was appointed over each. In spite of many reverses, the northern colony had greatly prospered. Intellectual development had not been as rapid as the growth in numbers and wealth. Little attention had been given to questions of religion. There was no minister in the province until 1703. Two years later the first church was built. The printing-press did not begin its work until 1754. But the people were brave and patriotic. They loved their country, and called it the Land of Summer.