School History of North Carolina : from 1584 to the present time

by John W. Moore

CHAPTER XII.

GOVERNOR STEPHENS AND THE FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONS.

A. D. 1667 TO 1674.

After Sir William Berkeley had put Governor Drummond to death in the manner described, Governor Stephens was sent in 1667 to take his place. Stephens was a ruler of ordinary abilities, and probably did his best for the interests of the province, so far as was consistent with a keen regard for instructions from the Lords Proprietors.

1668.

2. The government, in his day, consisted of the Governor, his council of twelve, and twelve members of the House of Assembly, elected by the freeholders. Every white man having an estate of inheritance, or for life, in fifty acres of land, was a freeholder. Perfect religious liberty was allowed, and there was no check at that day upon the government, provided it preserved its fealty to the King and the Lords Proprietors.

3. A wide margin was left to the Grand Assembly of Albemarle for the display of its power. Neither the Legislature nor the Governor had any capital city for the transaction of business. The Governor lived on any farm he pleased, and the General Assembly met at such place as it deemed most convenient.

1669.

4. Their earliest known legislation allowed no settlers to be disturbed for the collection of debts contracted before coming to live in Albemarle. Another law exempted all newcomers from taxes for one year; and prohibited the transfer of any land by a settler during the first two years of his residence. These laws were evidently passed to encourage immigration.

5. As there were no Church of England preachers then in the colony, another statute allowed people to get married by simply going before the Governor, or any of his council, and declaring a purpose to become man and wife.

1670.

6. Albemarle at that time was divided into the precincts of Carteret, Berkeley and Shaftesbury. The settlements extended rapidly down the seacoast, and soon reached as far south as the present town of Beaufort, on old Topsail Inlet.

7. Governor Stephens soon reached the conclusion of his administration and the term of his natural life. The closing months of his rule were embittered by the nature of the instructions he received from the Lords Proprietors and the Board of Trade in London.

8. One of these instructions, materially changing the simple government previously existing in the province, was concerning the colonial trade. English merchants saw that New England vessels were visiting the scattered settlements on the watercourses and establishing a lucrative exchange of manufactured goods for the tobacco, corn and lumber of Carolina.

9. It was determined in London to stop this, and appropriate to English factors whatever of profit might be realized. The old English Navigation Act, passed under Cromwell, to break down the Dutch trade, was revived against the Boston skippers. Governor Stephens accordingly told the colonists they must exchange the products of their farms with none but English traders, but he quickly found that the people were resolute in refusing obedience to any such regulations.

10. It was further announced that a new scheme of rule had been prepared in England. This was the work of Lord Shaftesbury and a distinguished philosopher named John Locke. This, familiarly known as "Locke's Grand Model," was called by the Proprietors "The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina," and was a cumbrous and elaborate system, full of titles and dignities. It involved a large expenditure, and was as unsuited to the Carolina wilderness as St. Paul's Cathedral in London was for a meetinghouse for the Quakers of Pasquotank!

11. The people who were constantly enduring danger and privations in Albemarle at once resolved that they would have no part in the titles and pageants concocted by these wise men of England. They had been promised freedom if they would come to America, both by the king in the Great Deed of Grant and by the Lords Proprietors, and nothing less than the privileges of Englishmen would satisfy them.

12. The "Navigation Act" was intended to destroy their commerce and manufactures, and the "Fundamental Constitutions," if submitted to, would have put an end to their home rule. They waged a long opposition to these two things, and a century went by before, in the blood of the Revolution, American commerce became free. They were denounced as unruly subjects, but they were, in all truth, wise and resolute patriots. They were protecting not only themselves, but the generations of the future.