CHAPTER IV.
THE COLONIZATION OF THE SOUTH. (1606-1700.)
Bibliographies.—S. Kingsbury, Introduction to Records of Virginia Company, 207-214; P. Bruce, Economic History of Virginia, I. xv.-xix.; N. Mereness, Maryland, 521-524; E. Whitney, Government of South Carolina, footnotes; Avery, United States, II. 411-417, 434-438, III. 407-410, 412, 413; Larned, Literature of American History, 100-106; Winsor, III. 153-166, 553-562, V. 335-356; C. Andrews, Colonial Self-Government, 351-354; Channing and Hart, Guide, §§ 97-102.
Historical Maps.—Nos. 2 and 3, this volume (Epoch Maps, Nos. [2], [3]); Doyle, English Colonies, I.; MacCoun, Winsor, and school histories cited in our ch. i.
General Accounts.—Lodge, English Colonies, chs. i., iii., v., vii.; Doyle, as above, I.; H. Osgood, American Colonies in Seventeenth Century; Avery, as above, II. chs. ix., x., III. chs. i.-iii.; Channing, United States, I. chs. v.-ix.; Andrews, as above, chs. ix., xiii.-xv.; Greene, Provincial America, chs. i.-v.; Winsor, as above, III. chs. v., xiii., V. ch. v.
Special Histories.—Virginia: Brown, First Republic in America, and English Politics in Early Virginia History; Bruce, as above; Fiske, Old Virginia and Her Neighbors; J. Cooke (Commonwealths); L. Tyler, Cradle of the Republic, and Williamsburg; R. Pryor, Birth of the Nation; J. Wayland, German Element in Shenandoah Valley.—Maryland: Browne (Commonwealths), Scharf, Bozman, Mereness, as above; C. Hall, Lords Baltimore; B. Steiner, Beginnings of Maryland.—Carolinas: J. Moore, I. chs. i.-iii.; C. Raper; E. McCrady, South Carolina under Proprietary Government; S. Ashe, North Carolina, I. Lives of Smith by Bradley, Roberts, and Smith.
Contemporary Accounts.—Reprints of Smith's True Relation, and other early documents: Force, Tracts; publications of historical societies and commissions of the several states; Carroll, Historical Collections; Brown, Genesis of United States; Kingsbury and Osgood, Records of Virginia Company; Jameson, Original Narratives of Early American History; American History told by Contemporaries, I. part iv; American History Leaflets, No. 27.
28. Reasons for Final English Colonization.
Over-population of England in the seventeenth century.
By the beginning of the seventeenth century it was quite evident to thoughtful men that England needed room for growth. The population of the island had greatly increased during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The extension of the wool trade had encouraged the turning of vast tracts of tillable ground into sheep-pastures, which elbowed large communities of farm-laborers out of their calling. England at large waxed great, the condition of the merchant and upper classes was improved, but the peasant remained where he was, the gulf widening between him and those above him. The growth of the merchant class and their appearance on the scene as large landholders, still further lessened the feudal sympathy between peasant and landlord. The land abounded with idle men. Everywhere was noticed the uneasiness which frets a people too closely packed to find ready subsistence. Starvation induced lawlessness. |Colonization as a means of relief.| Colonization was thought by many to be the only means of obtaining permanent relief from the pressing political and economic dangers of pauperism; and naturally America, from which Gosnold, Pring, and Weymouth had but recently brought favorable reports, was deemed most available for the planting of new English communities.
Chartered trading companies undertake the task.
But the temper of Englishmen had somewhat changed since the days of Raleigh's brilliant enterprises. A spirit of sober calculation had succeeded with the increase of the mercantile habit. Raleigh was out of favor, and there were no longer any private men who would undertake the task of colonization. If it were to be done at all, it must be by chartered trading companies; and naturally they looked upon all ventures with merchants' eyes rather than statesmen's. The career of the Muscovy Company, which had been profitably trading to Russia for a half century, and the rapid successes achieved by the East India Company, founded in 1599, were pointed to as examples of what could be done in this direction; although the obvious fact that Russia and India were old and wealthy countries, while America was a wilderness peopled by savages, appears not to have been considered.
29. The Charter of 1606.
Gosnold, returning from his voyage to New England, was ardent in the desire to establish a colony in the milder climate of Virginia, and easily won to his support six representative Englishmen,—Richard Hakluyt, then prebendary of Westminster, and now famous as an editor of the chronicles of early voyages; Robert Hunt, a clergyman; Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers, two "brave and pious gentlemen;" a London merchant named Edward Maria Wingfield; and John Smith, a soldier. |The London and Plymouth Companies organized.| As a result of their endeavors,—seconded by Sir John Popham, chief justice of England, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges (page [41]),—a charter was granted by King James (April 10, 1606) to a company with two subdivisions,—1. The London Company, composed of London merchants, who were to establish a colony somewhere between the 34th and 41st degrees of latitude; that is, between the southern limit of the North Carolina of to-day and the mouth of Hudson River. 2. The Plymouth Company, composed chiefly of traders and country gentlemen in the West of England, with chief offices at Plymouth, who were to plant a settlement somewhere between the 38th and 45th degrees; that is, north of the mouth of the Potomac, and south of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. But neither was to make a planting within one hundred miles of the other, although their assigned territories overlapped each other three degrees. Later (1609), the southern colony was given bounds in more specific terms,—it was to extend two hundred miles along the coast in either direction from Old Point Comfort, and "up into the land from sea to sea, west and northwest;" this latter phrase being the foundation of the later claim of Virginia to the Northwest.
How the colonies were governed.
King James, unlike Elizabeth, did not favor colonization; but he was induced to yield his consent to this undertaking. The colonies established under the charter were directly under the king's control, and not under that of Parliament. The government of the two proposed colonies was placed in the hands of two resident councils, of thirteen members each, nominated by the Crown from among the colonists; while above them was a general council of fourteen in England, also appointed by the king. Afterwards, eleven other persons, similarly selected, were added to the council in England.
Royal instructions to the Virginia colonists.
The resident council was to govern according to laws, ordinances, and instructions dictated by the Crown. The royal instructions sent out with the first colonists to Virginia stipulated that the Church of England and the king's supremacy must be maintained, but the president of the council must not be in holy orders. The land tenure was to be the same as in England. Jury trial was guaranteed. Summary punishment must be enforced for drunkards, vagrants, and vagabonds, while the death penalty was prescribed for rioting, mutiny, and treason, murder, manslaughter, and offences against chastity. The resident council might coin money and control the extraction of all precious metals, giving one fifth to the Crown. It might also make provisions for the proper administration of public affairs; but all laws were to remain in vogue only conditionally, till ratified by the general council in England or the Crown. In another clause the king declared that all ordinances should be "consonant to the laws of England and the equity thereof." All trade was to be public, and in charge of a treasurer or cape merchant,—an officer chosen by the resident council from its own membership. All the produce of the colony was to be brought to a magazine, from which settlers were to be supplied with necessaries by the cape merchant. Doyle says: "The company ... was to be a vast joint-stock farm, or collection of farms, worked by servants who were to receive, in return for their labor, all their necessaries and a share in the proceeds of the undertaking." As a pious afterthought, the colonists were admonished "to show kindness to the savages and heathen people in those parts, and use all proper means to draw them to the true knowledge and service of God."
The rights of the patentees.
The rights given to the patentees, represented in the general council in England, were: free transport of emigrants and goods, the right to exact a duty of two and one half per cent on trade with the colony by Englishmen, and five per cent on trade by foreigners. For twenty-one years the proceeds of the enterprise were to accrue to the company; after that, to the Crown.
The king is granted too much power.
It should be noted that this patent, given by James to the combined London and Plymouth companies, differed greatly from that granted by Elizabeth to Gilbert and Raleigh, for it prescribed a constitution for the colonies, and left but little to the judgment of the patentees. The latter, in their eagerness to get a commercial charter, had allowed the king to assume an undue political control over their establishment. It was fortunate for Englishmen, both in America and England, that James was a weak monarch. He might readily have used his supreme power over the Virginia colonists, not only to browbeat them at will, but to tax them unmercifully for the purpose of raising money, with which he would be the better enabled to bid the home Parliament defiance while attacking the liberties of his people. He did not lack desire, but was wanting in courage and astuteness, and allowed those shrewder than himself gradually to re-shape the American charter until, within twenty years, Virginia had emerged into practical independence.
30. The Settlement of Virginia (1607-1624).
The London Company first in the field.
The London Company, of which Hakluyt, Somers, and Gates were the most active spirits, was first in the field. A hundred and forty-three colonists were gathered aboard three ships,—the "Discovery," the "Good Speed," and the "Susan Constant,"—which on the 19th of December, 1606, sailed down the Thames, on the way to Virginia. The composition of the party was not promising. Most of them were "gentlemen," unused to and scorning manual toil; only twelve were laborers; and among the artisans were "jewellers, gold-refiners, and a perfumer." |Character of the colonists.| Adventure, mines, and golden sands were in the minds of the company, and the "gentlemen" doubtless thought they were out for a holiday excursion. The fact that there were neither women nor children in the expedition shows how little conception these people had of the true mission of a colony. The little fleet was in charge of Christopher Newport, a seaman of good reputation, with whom Gosnold was associated.
John Smith.
Among the party was one of the patentees,—Captain John Smith. He was the son of a Lincolnshire gentleman; and being a soldier of fortune, had travelled and experienced adventures in many European countries,—a brave, robust, self-reliant, public-spirited, enterprising, humane, and withal a boastful Englishman, he has come down to us as one of the most romantic figures in American history. Smith's active temperament was not at first appreciated by his fellow-colonists, and in a fit of jealousy on shipboard they put him into irons upon a silly charge of conspiracy; and though he had been named a councillor by the king, he was not allowed to participate in the government for nearly a month after landing.
Jamestown settled.
On the sixteenth of April, 1607, land was sighted, and the adventurers soon entered Chesapeake Bay, naming the outlying capes, Henry and Charles, after the king's sons, and the river, which they soon ascended, the James, in honor of the monarch himself. Fifty miles above the mouth of the river is "a low peninsula half buried in the tide at high water," which they unfortunately selected as the site of a town; and landing there on the thirteenth of May, they called the place Jamestown. Wingfield, one of the patentees, was chosen president of the resident council, exploring parties were sent out, fortifications were begun, and a few log-huts reared. The colonists had been instructed by the English council to search for water passages running through to the Pacific. A party soon set out, under Newport and Smith; but on reaching the falls of the James turned back. At first they were troubled by Indians; but peace had been made with the neighboring chief before Newport left for England, the twenty-second of June.
The marshes were rank, the water was bad, and food scanty at Jamestown. The colonists were for the most part a shiftless set, lacking the habit of industry. |A dismal summer.| The heat was so intense during the first summer that few houses were built, and the tents were rotten and leaky. The natives, being ill-treated, soon broke out again into hostilities. When autumn came, fifty of the colonists had died. "Some departed suddenly," wrote a chronicler, "but for the most part they died of mere famine. There were never Englishmen left in a foreign country in such misery as we were in this new discovered Virginia.... It would make ... hearts bleed to hear the pitiful murmurings and outcries." The only men in office who had not in some degree succumbed to the miseries of the situation were Gosnold, a man of really superior ability, and Smith himself, the latter having now attained to supreme control by common consent. Smith compelled his people to labor,—"he that will not work shall not eat," was his dictum,—maintained trade with the Indians, among whom he became popular, drilled the little garrison, kept up the fortifications, explored and mapped the country and the coast, wrote appeals for assistance to London, and was the life and soul of the colony for two years.
In 1609 Newport had come out with supplies and one hundred and twenty emigrants, who again were mainly "gentlemen, goldsmiths, and libertines;" and he promptly sailed back with a load of worthless shining earth. Smith found the new-comers seized with a frenzy for discovering gold mines, and his troubles increased. |Smith the savior of the colony.| The company, impatient for returns, were disappointed because he insisted on having the people cultivate the rich soil, build houses, trade with the natives, and explore, rather than go seeking for gold where there was none. He appears to have been the only man of authority in the enterprise who understood the true conditions of colonization. He had repeatedly urged the patentees in London to cease sending him gentlemen, idlers, and curious handicraftsmen, and instead of such to ship "carpenters, husbandmen gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and diggers up of trees' roots;" and insisted that they "as yet must not look for profitable returning." To Smith we owe it that Jamestown lived through all its early disasters, so that when he left it, in October, 1609, it had acquired a foothold and was the nucleus of permanent settlement in Virginia. He never again returned to the colony, although in later years we find him diligently exploring the New England coast.
The king yields some of his prerogatives.
With the following year began a new order of things. The London Company, stimulated by ill success, had gained from the king many of the powers heretofore reserved to himself, and secured the appointment of Lord Delaware as governor and captain-general; he was authorized to rule by martial law, thus depriving the turbulent colonists of numerous privileges heretofore given them. |Administrations of Delaware and Dale.| Delaware was in Jamestown but for one year, being succeeded by Sir Thomas Dale (1611), who found the colony in ill condition; many of its servants had defaulted, and there was a large deficiency. In March following (1612), the company obtained a fresh charter, giving it still further powers of self-direction and of dealing with crime and insubordination, and adding to its domain the Bermudas, or Somers Islands,—called thus after Sir George Somers, who had touched at them in 1609 while on a voyage of relief to Virginia. Dale, now possessed of enlarged authority, met with excellent success in bringing the unruly mob of settlers under control of the military code, and induced fresh immigration of a somewhat better class. He caused the abandonment of the non-progressive and unsatisfactory system of communal proprietorship, introduced individual allotment, and broadened the foundations of a prosperous State.
Samuel Argall, "a sea-captain of piratical tastes," followed Dale in the governorship (1617), but was soon recalled (1618), because the settlers complained bitterly of tyrannical and mercenary treatment at his hands. |Liberals gain control of the company.| The liberals in England—prominent among whom were Sir Edwin Sandys and the Earl of Southampton—had now gained control of the corporation, and were fighting the king through the colony, with the result that Virginia gained in the next few years political privileges which were never after wholly relinquished; the colonists, too, had, in the case of Argall, learned the power of organized resistance,—a lesson which long stood them in good stead.
First meeting of the assembly.
The colony was granted a representative assembly,—the first in America,—called the house of burgesses, which was first convened in June, 1619. In the words of the "briefe declaration," written a few years later, "That they might have a hande in the governinge of themselves, yt was graunted that a general Assemblie shoulde be helde yearly once, whereat were to be present the Govr and Counsell wth two Burgesses from each Plantation, freely to be elected by the Inhabitants thereof, this Assemblie to have power to make and ordaine whatsoever lawes and orders should by them be thought good and profitable for our subsistance." In this assembly Governor Yeardley (arrived April, 1619) and his council had seats and took active part. The effect of this convention, composed of twenty-two burgesses, representing eleven "cities," "hundreds," and "plantations," was greatly to restrict the governor's power, heretofore quite absolute. Yeardley was a judicious executive, and the settlement, in spite of many difficulties, prospered under his rule. |Indented servants.| Men with families began to come out from England; but an unfortunate element in the immigration of the time was the class of indented servants, which not only included convicts and vagabonds, but was largely made up of boys and girls entrapped on the London streets by press-gangs and hurried off to Virginia to be forcibly placed in servitude for long terms of years,—the nucleus of the "poor white" element in the South. Another and far worse disaster befell the colony this year (1619). |Introduction of slavery.| Twenty African slaves, the first in America, were landed and sold in Jamestown from a Dutch man-of-war. This was the beginning of a large and wide-spreading traffic in human beings throughout the Southern colonies.
Further political concessions.
In 1622 Sir Francis Wyatt succeeded Governor Yeardley, and brought out with him, as a gift to the colonists, a most unexpected political concession,—confirmation of all liberties previously granted, and definite assurances and provisions for the regular assemblage of the house of burgesses. It is no wonder that the king declared the London Company, with its free debates and bold experiments in popular government in Virginia, "a seminary for a seditious Parliament."
The following year (1623) the Indians combined against the whites, who had persistently maltreated them, and more than three hundred settlers were killed. |Virginia becomes a royal province.| This loss, which was a serious blow to the colony, was one of the grounds urged by James in annulling the company's charter (1624). Thereupon the settlers passed under the immediate control of the king,—which was, on principle, an improvement over government by a profit-seeking commercial company, however liberal the tendencies of the latter. The growing of tobacco had by this time become an important industry in Virginia,—forty thousand pounds being shipped to England in 1620,—and both James and his son and successor, Charles, received a considerable revenue from taxes on the product.
31. Virginia during the English Revolution (1624-1660).
Harvey's administration.
After a succession of inefficient governors, Sir John Harvey came out in 1629, being the first serving under direct royal appointment. Harvey proved obnoxious to the colonists because of his despotic rule and constant attempt to browbeat the house of burgesses; by the latter he was "thrust out of his government" in 1635, whereupon he hastened to England to plead his cause before Charles. The king, much incensed at the unruly temper of his people, ordered the governor back; but four years later, desirous of mollifying the Virginians, upon the profits of whose tobacco-raising he had an eye, the king supplanted Harvey, and again sent out Wyatt. Under his mild rule the colony once more lifted its head.
Berkeley's first term.
Sir William Berkeley succeeded Wyatt in 1642. While frequently quarrelling with the assembly, as all the royal governors did, and eager for the spoils of office, he was an educated, courtly gentleman and a courageous statesman, though often unscrupulous and overbearing. A man of strong passions and convictions, he was a pitiless hater of enemies of the State; and in his estimation Puritans and Catholics were more prominent in that category than the marauding savages who skulked in the forests. A second Indian uprising (1644) was vigorously suppressed by the governor.
During the Long Parliament.
During the great struggle in England between Charles I. and the Long Parliament (1642-1649), public sentiment in Virginia was with the king. There were but few Puritans in or about Jamestown, and they had for the most part come in from New England under Harvey's administration; their missionary labors in the conservative South were unwelcome, and they were warned "to depart the collony with all conveniencie,"—while the Papists, who had settled Maryland in 1634 under Lord Baltimore, were not tolerated in Virginia under any conditions. |Virginia a refuge for Cavaliers.| The execution of Charles (1649) naturally aroused deep indignation among the colonists, refugee Cavaliers from England soon joined them by thousands, and Berkeley seriously, but in vain, invited Charles II. to take up his abode among his American subjects. The extent of this sudden influx of Cavalier immigration to the colony was so great that while the population of Virginia was but fifteen thousand in 1650, it had increased to forty thousand by 1670.
Parliamentary commissioners take possession.
Parliament, however, was not disposed to allow Virginia to become a breeding-place for disloyalty to the Commonwealth, and appointed commissioners (1652), to whom the colony was surrendered possession with surprising promptness. "No sooner," wrote Lord Clarendon, "had the 'Guinea' frigate anchored in the waters of the Chesapeake than all thoughts of resistance were laid aside." The Puritan party at once took charge of the government, ruling with moderation and wisdom; and the colony, now allowed the utmost freedom in the conduct of its home affairs, prospered politically and financially under the Protectorate.
Claiborne's quarrel with Maryland.
Among the commissioners was William Claiborne, an able, resolute, and passionate Virginian, who was the leader of the Puritan party, and carried on a considerable trade with Nova Scotia, New England, and Manhattan. He had been much before the public of late years. The grant of Maryland to Lord Baltimore was regarded by Virginians as an invasion of their territory; and Claiborne, holding a royal license to trade in that region, had planted a settlement (1631) on Kent Island, in Chesapeake Bay, within the limits now claimed by Baltimore. Not acknowledging Baltimore's proprietorship there, he was summarily ejected. The following year (1635) he led a party of rangers against Maryland, compelled the Catholic governor, Calvert, to fly to Virginia, and seized the government himself; being soon expelled, however, by Calvert, who had now secured Berkeley's support. As one of the Roundhead commissioners to settle the affairs of the colonies, the turbulent Claiborne proceeded promptly to pay back some of his old debts against the Maryland Catholics. In 1654, Puritan invaders of Maryland, headed by Claiborne, who was now Secretary of the Province of Virginia, met the Catholics near the mouth of the Severn River and worsted them, thus again obtaining temporary control of the northern colony. Three years later a compromise was reached between Baltimore and the Puritans.
Governors under the Commonwealth.
Richard Bennett was the first governor of Virginia under the Commonwealth (1652), being elected by the burgesses and receiving his authority from them. He was succeeded by Edward Digges (1655) and Samuel Matthews (1656), both similarly chosen. They quarrelled with the burgesses, like the governors of old, but were worthy and sensible men, and when outvoted generally yielded with grace. Claiborne's affair with Maryland and an unimportant Indian panic (1656) were the only clouds upon the horizon during this tranquil period.
32. Development of Virginia (1660-1700).
Berkeley recalled.
When Oliver Cromwell died (1658), his successor, Richard, was accepted in Virginia without question; but when the following year the latter abdicated, Berkeley was quickly recalled, as "the servant of the people," from peaceful retirement on his country estate; |The Restoration.| and upon the Restoration (1660) the king's party was suffered again to take control of the government, and Claiborne was dismissed from the secretaryship. The return of the Royalists to power was accompanied in Virginia by harsh measures against Dissenters, by the enforcement of the Navigation Act under which the colonists were obliged to ship their tobacco to English ports alone, and to import no European goods except in vessels loaded in England, and by the gift of the entire province to Lords Arlington and Culpeper. The Puritans, angered by the harshness and profligacy of the church, by economic distress occasioned by the navigation laws, and by the ruthless invalidation of long-established land-titles, rose against the provincial government in 1663, and were not repressed until several of their leaders were hanged. The government became corrupt and despotic, and for many years the people were denied the privilege of electing a new house of burgesses,—the Royalist house chosen at the time of the Restoration holding over by prorogation.
The Bacon rebellion.
The Bacon rebellion (1676) was an outgrowth of the general discontent. The Indians were murdering settlers in the frontier counties; but Berkeley, accused of having fur-trade interests at stake, and perhaps fearing to have the people armed, dismissed the self-organized volunteers who proposed to go out against the savages. Nathaniel Bacon, a popular young member of the council, honest and courageous, but indiscreet, took it upon himself to raise a small force for the purpose. Berkeley refused Bacon a military commission, and declared him and his rangers rebels, and sought to crush them with the regular militia. Through the succeeding four months Virginia was thrown into confusion by a warfare which resembled the stormy military duels with which the South American republics have been so often harassed. The opposing forces had varying fortunes, and the fickle militiamen rallied under one standard or the other, according to the direction of the wind. Harrying Berkeley out of Jamestown, Bacon burned the capital to ashes, "that the rogues should harbor there no more." In October he died, either from poisoning or swamp-fever. His adherents, having no other cohesion than their sympathy for him, now scattered, and were caught by Berkeley, who executed twenty-three of them, and returned to Jamestown to renew his tyrannical policy for a time undisturbed. |Berkeley recalled by the king.| But even Charles tired of his governor's harsh and bloody doings, saying: "That old fool has hanged more men in that naked country than I have done for the murder of my father." Berkeley was summoned to England, his departure being celebrated by the colonists with salutes, bonfires, and general rejoicings. The king refused him an audience upon his arrival in London, and Berkeley died (1677) "of a broken heart."
A sorry time under the Royalists.
The Royalists were now in full power, the friends of Bacon discreetly held their peace, and the governors were allowed to browbeat and rob the province at their will. The successor to Berkeley was Colonel Sir Herbert Jeffries (1677); after him came Sir Henry Chicheley (1678), Thomas Lord Culpeper, one of the proprietors under the king's patent (1679), Lord Howard of Effingham (1684), Sir Francis Nicholson (1690), Sir Edmund Andros (1692) and Nicholson again (1698). During the administration of Culpeper, who was a greedy extortionist, the tobacco-planters rose in rebellion because of the disaster to their industry brought on by the attempt of government to regulate prices and establish ports of shipment. The governor hanged a number of the offenders, and still further added to his unpopularity as a ruler and his notoriety as a rascal by arbitrarily and for his own gain raising and lowering the standard of coinage.
These closing years of the seventeenth century were sorry times for Virginia. Riots and consequent imprisonments and hangings were ordinary events. Nicholson told the gentlemen of the province that he would "beat them into better manners," or "bring them to reason with halters about their necks." The people were discontented, the province grew poorer as each new governor introduced some fresh extortion, immigration practically ceased, and the spirit of political independence was torpid.
Virginia in the Albany Council.
There were two or three gleams of sunshine during this period of almost total darkness. Delegates were sent to Albany in 1684 to represent the province at the famous council to consider a plan of union for repressing Indian outbreaks. It was one of the earliest attempts at the confederation of the colonies,—a scheme which Governor Nicholson persistently fostered, in the vain hope, it is said, of being placed at the head of the united provinces as governor-general. |Establishment of William and Mary College.| Again, under Nicholson's rule (1691), the house of burgesses sent Commissary Blair to England to solicit a patent for a college. This was obtained, and in 1693 the agent returned with the charter of "William and Mary," the second university in America,—Harvard, in Massachusetts, being the first and Yale, founded in 1701, the third. The new college was set up at Williamsburg, whither Governor Nicholson had removed the capital of the province. |Arrival of Huguenots.| Another event, quite as significant, signalized the close of the century. De Richebourg's colony of Huguenots settled (1699) on the upper waters of the James and "infused a stream of pure and rich blood into Virginia society."
Thus, in the ninety years from 1607 to 1697, the population of Virginia had increased from a few score to nearly a hundred thousand; the dreams of speedy wealth entertained by the patentees had been idle, but the hard labor of Englishmen, supplemented by the forced service of negroes, had built up a prosperous agricultural community. More important still was it that, through all the vicissitudes of control, of government in England, and of party in America, the germ of popular government had grown into an established system, jealously watched by the colonies.
33. Settlement of Maryland (1632-1635).
George Calvert, Lord Baltimore.
George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, had been one of the members of the London Company as well as a councillor in the Plymouth Company. From the beginning of the century he had taken a strong interest in English colonization schemes. A staunch Roman Catholic, he was (1618-1625) principal Secretary of State to James I. Baltimore's observation of the turbulent career of Virginia had convinced him that a commercial colony could not be successful, because of divided administration and the mercenary aims of non-resident stockholders. He went out with a colony to Newfoundland (1621) under a proprietary patent, but the inhospitable climate was against the project. In 1629 he landed at Jamestown with forty Catholic colonists; but the Protestant Virginians made it uncomfortable for the Romanists, and they returned to England.
Secures a charter for Maryland.
Baltimore thereupon secured a charter from King Charles I. for a tract of country north of Potomac river, the limits being imperfectly defined,—on the north, the fortieth degree of latitude (the southern boundary of the Plymouth Company's patent); on the west, a line drawn due north from the head of the Potomac. The lands embraced in this grant were within the bounds of Virginia, as specified in 1609, but had thus far not been occupied. |His son Cecil succeeds him.| At the king's request the country was named Maryland, in honor of his queen, Henrietta Maria. Lord Baltimore died before the charter had passed the seal, and was succeeded in his rights and titles by his son Cecil. The province of Maryland being made a palatinate, Lord Baltimore was given almost royal powers, the Crown reserving feudal supremacy and exacting a nominal yearly tribute. |Provisions of the charter.| The proprietor could declare war, make peace, appoint all officers, including judges, rule by martial law, pardon criminals, and confer titles. He was to summon the freemen to assist him in making laws, which were to be similar to those of England, but did not require the king's confirmation, and need not be sent to England. It was therefore impossible for the Privy Council to check or inaugurate legislation in Maryland. The relations between the Crown and his lordship being thus established, it was left for the colonists and the proprietor to settle their relation under the charter; but no tax could be levied without consent of the freemen.
St. Mary's founded.
In November, 1633, Cecil sent out his brother Leonard with two hundred colonists,—some twenty of whom were gentlemen, and the others laborers and mechanics,—and in March following they founded a town near the mouth of the Potomac, calling it St. Mary's. |Quarrel with Claiborne.| The troubles with Claiborne, the Virginian who had made a settlement on Kent Island, in the Chesapeake and within Baltimore's grant, have already been alluded to (page [77]). The dispute was a protracted one, and gave rise to much ill-feeling and some bloodshed.
Religious toleration. Humane treatment of Indians.
Many of Baltimore's colonists were Protestants. He was, however, sincere in his desire for complete religious toleration, and did not appear to concern himself in what his subjects believed. The Jesuit priests accompanying the party exerted their influence in behalf of a humane treatment of the Indians, and a cordial friendship was soon established with the resident tribes. |The settlers of good quality.| As for the settlers, they were thrifty and industrious, held their land in fee-simple, and up to the Commonwealth period there was prosperity and content.
Legislative dispute with the proprietor.
The colonists were, however, not blind to their political rights, in the midst of this economic security. In primary assembly, in which proxies were allowed, the freemen adopted a code of laws (1635) which the proprietor rejected because the former had presumed to take the initiative, and for two years the province was self-governed under the English common law. In 1638 a set of laws drafted by the proprietor was promptly vetoed by the assembly, and thus a deadlock was created. The matter was soon arranged by compromise, with the utmost good-nature on both sides; there was created a representative house of burgesses,—in which, however, individual freemen might also appear,—Baltimore was granted a poll-tax subsidy, and the people reserved to themselves the rights of self-taxation and legislative initiative. The anomalous system of allowing both freemen—of whom there were but one hundred and eighty-two in 1642—and their representatives to sit in the general assembly continued, with some variations, until 1647, when that body became truly representative. Three years later (1650), the legislature was divided into two houses, the burgesses sitting in the lower chamber, and the councillors and others especially summoned by the proprietor in the upper.
34. Maryland during the English Revolution (1642-1660).
Religious dissensions arise.
As in the other colonies, the outbreak of the civil war in England resulted in serious dissensions in Maryland. The Puritan party waxed strong, and sympathized with Claiborne's intruding Protestant colonists on Kent Island. The seizure of a Parliament ship by Deputy-Governor Brent, under orders from King Charles, resulted in popular disturbances. |Claiborne drives out Calvert, but the latter eventually wins.| Claiborne, taking advantage of the disorder and coming over from Virginia, seized the government at St. Mary's. Governor Calvert fled to Virginia, where Governor Berkeley gave him shelter until he was able to march back at the head of a large force and suppress the Claiborne administration, which was weak and mercenary, and had not commended itself to the people.
Growth of the Protestant party.
Leonard Calvert died in 1647. William Stone, a Protestant, appointed Governor in 1648, favored Parliament as against the king, but was sworn by the proprietor to protect Catholics and give them an equal chance with other colonists. The Protestant party grew apace; but while represented by the governor and council, was in the minority in the assembly. In 1649 a "Toleration Act" was passed, by which Sunday games, blasphemy, and abuse of rival sects were severally prohibited. "Whereas the enforcing of the conscience in matters of religion," ran the preamble, "hath frequently fallen out to be of dangerous consequence, ... and the better to preserve mutual love and amity among the inhabitants of the province," no person professing to be a Christian shall be "in any ways molested or discountenanced for or in respect of his or her religion, nor in the free exercise thereof."
Under the Protectorate.
The Parliamentary commissioners sent to reduce the colonies (1652) displaced Stone; but his great popularity caused them to reinstate him. Stone, however, now sided with the proprietor, who wished to banish all colonists who would not take the oath of fidelity to his lordship. The governor proclaimed the Puritan leaders as seditious, and ejected many. The Puritans therefore rose and called in Claiborne, who was one of the Parliamentary commissioners, to help them. In a pitched battle at Providence (1655) the Protestants won, and followed up their victory by the execution of several of Stone's followers and the sequestration of their estates. Stone himself, though sentenced to death, was reprieved. The party of Cromwell was now in full power in the palatinate. Claiborne renewed his claim to Kent Island; but the Commissioners for Plantations do not appear ever to have recognized it.
Baltimore restored to his proprietorship.
Baltimore was finally restored to his proprietorship by the English Commissioners for Plantations (1657), the assembly accepted the situation, an Act of Indemnity was passed, the right of the colonists to self-government was reaffirmed, and the policy of toleration was again adopted. The result of the proprietor's restoration was to enlarge the political privileges of the people, and toleration succeeded Catholic supremacy in Maryland,—a reflex of the tendencies of the Great Rebellion in the mother-land.
35. Development of Maryland (1660-1715).
Charles Calvert as governor.
In 1661 Charles Calvert, eldest son of Lord Baltimore, became governor of the province. His admirable administration lasted for fourteen years, during which the colony greatly prospered, there being a considerable immigration of Quakers and foreigners,—Maryland, with its religious toleration and beneficent laws, becoming widely known as a haven for the oppressed of all nations. Unhampered by the proprietor, the assembly was reasonable in its dealings with him, and harmony prevailed between them. The crops, particularly of tobacco, were profitable, the Indians were never a source of serious disturbance, and the people were contented and loyal.
By the death (1675) of Cecil, Lord Baltimore, Charles fell heir to the family title and estates. Thomas Notly was sent out from England as deputy-governor. In 1681 the new proprietor secured the passage of a law limiting the suffrage to those having freeholds of fifty acres or other property worth forty pounds. |A spirit of unrest.| There was some popular uneasiness over this, as well as over the encroachments on the Maryland grant made by William Penn; the Navigation Act, compelling the planters to sell their tobacco in English ports alone, was also fretting the people; while the Protestants, most of whom were now of the Church of England, and bitter against Puritans and other Dissenters, as well as Catholics, deemed the Toleration Act an impious compact. |The Fendall and Coode revolt.| Taking advantage of this spirit of unrest, and smarting under old grievances, Josias Fendall, an unworthy demagogue, intrigued with a retired clergyman named John Coode and instigated a revolt, in which the aid of some Virginians was obtained. The uprising was promptly suppressed; but under the influence of the revolution in England (1688) Coode again headed an insurrection under the auspices of the Association for the Defence of the Protestant Religion. In 1689 the associators seized the government of Maryland, under the flimsy pretext that they were upholding the cause of William and Mary. |Maryland declared a royal province.| They at first won the favorable consideration of the king; but in 1691 Maryland was declared a royal province, and Sir Lionel Copley came out as the first royal governor. Baltimore's interests were respected, but he now became a mere absentee landlord. The powers of government rested in the Crown, the Church of England was established, and other Protestant sects were discountenanced while practically tolerated, but Catholics were persecuted.
Annapolis becomes the capital.
The capital was removed from St. Mary's, the centre of the Catholic interest, to Annapolis,—first settled by Puritans, and now controlled by the adherents of the establishment. Maryland's prosperity, heretofore unrivalled in the colonies, now suffered a check, and for a term of years the royal administration was signalized by religious persecution and a low political and social tone, till in 1715 the proprietorship was re-established. In 1729 the city of Baltimore was founded as a convenient port for the planters. The settlement and growth of Maryland had enforced two lessons which were never wholly forgotten,—the possibility, under official toleration, of bringing members of different religious sects together in one civil community and government; and the comfort and prosperity attainable in a well-governed colony.
36. Early Settlers in the Carolinas (1542-1665).
Between Virginia and Spanish Florida a broad belt of territory lay long unoccupied. A Huguenot colony in 1562 had had a brief existence there, and in consequence France claimed the country as her share of Florida. |Early colonial attempts.| But the Spaniards drove out the French, and thus unwittingly left the field to the north clear for the English. In 1584 Amadas and Barlowe led a prospecting party to Roanoke Island (p. [38]), and here also (1585, 1587) two of Raleigh's ill-fated colonies spent their strength. The swamp-girted coast had few harbors, the colonizing material did not possess staying qualities, the ill-treated Indians turned on the invaders of their soil, the sites of settlements were ill-chosen. For a long period of years after the failure of these enterprises a prejudice existed against the middle region as a colonizing ground.
Adventurous Virginians explore North Carolina.
But before Jamestown was two years old restless Virginians had explored the upper waters of some of the southern rivers, and by 1625 the region was fairly familiar to hunters and adventurous land-seekers as far south as the Chowan. In 1629 Charles I. gave "the province of Carolana" to Sir Robert Heath, his attorney-general; but nothing came of the grant. The Virginia Assembly took it upon itself to issue exploring and trading permits in the southern portion of the Virginia claims, often called Carolana, to certain commercial companies, with the result that the character of the country became generally known. |Roger Green plants Albemarle.| In 1653 a small colony of Virginia dissenters, harassed by the Church of England party at home, were led by Roger Green to the banks of the Chowan and Roanoke; and there they planted Albemarle, the first permanent settlement in what is now North Carolina.
Miscellaneous colonizing parties.
Numerous colonizing parties and individual settlers ventured into North Carolina during the next twenty years, and purchased lands of the Indians. Among these were many Baptists and Quakers who had found life intolerable in the northern settlements. |New Englanders at Cape Fear River.| The story goes that in 1660 a number of New Englanders, desiring to raise cattle, settled at the mouth of Cape Fear River; but they incurred the hatred of the Indians, and the colony soon melted away. The survivors, upon taking their departure, affixed to a post a "scandalous writing, ... the contents whereof tended not only to the disparagement of the land about the said river, but also to the great discouragement of all such as should hereafter come into those parts to settle." |Colonists from Barbadoes at Clarendon.| This was said to have been found in 1663 by a company of wanderers from the English community on the island of Barbados, which had been founded in 1625. These West Indian colonists, headed by a wealthy planter, Sir John Yeamans, established themselves (1664), to the number of several hundred, on the Cape Fear, in the district which soon came to be known as Clarendon.
37. Proprietorship of the Carolinas (1663-1671)
The Lords Proprietors acquire the Carolinas.
It is probable that Charles II. knew little of these infant settlements of Virginians and Barbados men at Albemarle and Clarendon,—which were some three hundred miles apart,—or of the numerous small holdings between them; but he cautiously confirmed all private purchases from the Indians, in giving Carolina (1663) to a coterie of his favorites. Chief among these were the Earl of Clarendon, the Duke of Albemarle, the Earl of Shaftesbury, and Sir William Berkeley, then governor of Virginia. The proprietaries had been commanded to recognize the land-claims of the settlers already on the ground. William Drummond, a Scotch colonist in Virginia, was made governor of Albemarle, while Yeamans remained governor of Clarendon, these two districts roughly corresponding to the North and South Carolina of to-day. |Early prosperity.| The proprietaries at first authorized a popular government on the simplest plan, and the settlers, particularly in Albemarle, looked forward to a prosperous career. A considerable trade in lumber and fur at once sprang up, and the crops were good; for the soil proved richer than in any other of the American colonies then occupied.
An enlargement of bounds.
In 1667 Samuel Stephens succeeded Governor Drummond, who went to Virginia, where he became a leader in the Bacon rebellion. The Lords Proprietors in 1665 secured a charter, with enlargements of their bounds; their new grants in terms included the present territory of the United States between Virginia and Florida, to the Pacific. In 1670 was added the Bahamas,—neither the claims of Virginia nor of Spain being considered in the grants. Stephens was assisted by a council of twelve, his own appointees when the proprietaries did not choose them. The assembly, of twelve members chosen by the people, was a lower house. |Immigrants attracted.| This first legislature met in 1669; and actuated by a desire to attract immigrants, declared that no debts contracted abroad by settlers previous to removal to Carolina could be collected in their new home. As a consequence, along with many desirable colonists flocking in from the Bermudas, Bahamas, New England, and Virginia, came others who were not worthy material for a pioneer community. The proprietaries themselves were quite liberal in their land-grants to inhabitants.
Locke's Fundamental Constitutions.
Unfortunately for the Carolinians, the Lords Proprietors engaged John Locke, the famous philosopher, to devise for them a scheme of colonial government (1669). It was a complicated feudal structure, entitled the Fundamental Constitutions, not suited to any community, old or new, and now chiefly interesting as a philosophical curiosity. The province was to be divided into counties, and they into seignories, baronies, precincts, and colonies; and the people were to be separated into four estates of the realm,—proprietaries, landgraves, caciques, and commons. Locke defined "political power to be the right of making laws for regulating and preserving property." The objects sought to be attained in his constitution were avowedly the "establishing the interest of the lords proprietors," the making of a government "most agreeable to the monarchy, ... that we may avoid erecting a numerous democracy," and the connecting political power with hereditary wealth. The leet-men, or tenants, were to be kept from asserting themselves by rigid feudal restrictions: "nor shall any leet-man or leet-woman have liberty to go off from the land of their particular lord and live anywhere else without license obtained from their said lord, under hand and seal. All the children of leet-men shall be leet-men, and so to all generations." The plan was the dream of an aristocrat; it was an attempt to reproduce the thirteenth century in the seventeenth; it was artificial and unwieldy. While the rough backwoods-men could not grasp its intricacies or understand its mediæval terms, they instinctively felt it to be a useless bit of constitutional romancing, and would have little to do with it.
The only important result of the attempt was to unsettle existing conditions and, especially in Albemarle, to create a contempt for all government; while the attempt of the proprietaries to regulate trade strengthened the too-prevalent spirit of lawlessness. Their officious lordships had set out to establish the Church of England; but the result of their interference was that the Quakers, elsewhere despised, took advantage of the spirit of dissent and obtained a firm hold over the Carolinians.
The planting of Charleston.
During this period of unrest in the northern settlements William Sayle, who had explored the coast in 1667, planted (1670-1671) a colony "on the first highland" at the junction of the Ashley and Cooper rivers,—the site of the Charleston of to-day.
38. The Two Settlements of Carolina (1671-1700).
North Carolina neglected by the proprietaries.
The settlements at Cape Fear and Charleston being more orderly and promising than that at Albemarle, the proprietaries were henceforth more considerate towards them. North Carolina, as it was ultimately called, was practically left to take care of itself for upwards of a decade, during which the neglected colonists made a rough struggle for existence upon their crude clearings in the wilderness, those nearest the coast eking out their scanty income by trafficking with New England smugglers. Throughout the rest of the seventeenth century the proprietaries had but a nominal hold upon the people of the northern colony. In 1676 Thomas Eastchurch was appointed governor of Albemarle, but he ruled only through deputies. Deputy Miller, collector of the king's customs, a drunken, vicious fellow, added to his unpopularity by attempting to browbeat the assembly. The colonists |The Culpeper rebellion.| rose in arms (1678), imprisoned Miller, chose one Culpeper as collector of customs, and convened a new assembly, which confirmed the revolutionary proceedings and controlled affairs until 1683, when Seth Sothel was sent out as governor. Sothel won the reputation of being an arbitrary and rapacious official, and in 1688 the unruly assembly deposed and banished him, despite the feeble remonstrance of the proprietaries.
Charleston aided by the proprietaries.
Meanwhile, Sayle's colony at Charleston made good progress, the proprietaries being lavish in their aid of the enterprise. While it was found that but few features of Locke's elaborate constitutions could be put into practice in a frontier settlement, their lordships minutely managed the affairs of the colony, leaving little to the judgment of the inhabitants. Sayle died the first winter, and Yeamans, the founder of the Cape Fear colony, succeeded him as governor (1672). Two years later (1674), the unpopularity of Yeamans led to his being supplanted by Joseph West, who ruled in a wholesome manner for twelve years.
Thrifty condition of Clarendon.
In 1682 the Clarendon settlements, now chiefly centred at Charleston, which had an excellent town government, embraced about three thousand persons. Despite trade restrictions, the exports of furs and timber were large for the time, much live-stock was reared, the cultivation of tobacco was extensively engaged in, and the supply of fish was abundant.
Arrival of Huguenots.
The settlers were of various types,—among the colonists being groups of Englishmen from the Bahamas, Barbados, Virginia, and New England; while in 1679 French Huguenots began to arrive in considerable numbers, and had a permanent effect upon the character of the province. A small party of Scotch Presbyterians, flying from persecution at home, established themselves at Port Royal,—the southernmost of the English settlements. Two days' sail to the south lay the Spanish town of St. Augustine. |Scotch Presbyterians routed by the Spanish.| The Spaniards, jealous of this encroachment, and suffering as well from the raids of pirates who made their headquarters in Charleston, fell upon the little outpost of Port Royal (1686) and completely destroyed it. It was long held as a cause of complaint in the Carolinas that the proprietaries peremptorily forbade the colonists chastising the Spanish, on the principle that a dependency had no right to carry on war against a country with which the home government was at peace.
Colonial grievances in South Carolina.
The Huguenots, who had settled chiefly in Craven County, were for a time denied all political rights, although the proprietaries favored them. The buccaneers, who frequently appeared in Charleston, were continually preying on Spanish commerce, and causing their lordships much trepidation lest these sea-rovers should bring on a war with Spain. The dissenters, who were in the majority, were constantly warring with the Church of England party, represented by the proprietaries. The trade restrictions were exceedingly unpopular. Proprietary interference, even when well intended, unsettled the public mind. The colonists, while conducting their local political affairs on independent English models, were continually apprehensive of a change in the form of government, and in general nursed many grievances, petty and great.
A period of turbulence.
After the close of West's first term (1683) there was some turbulence, and within the following seven years a succession of unsatisfactory governors. Sothel (1690) was driven out by the Southern colonists in 1691, as he had been by the Northern (page 93), and Philip Ludwell came on from Virginia to assume control. |The Carolinas reunited.| The proprietaries had at last changed their policy, and determined to rule both Carolinas, as one province, Ludwell being the first governor (1691) of the united colonies. He was weak, however, and unable to restore order and public confidence. Under his successor, Thomas Smith, the assembly was granted a share in initiating legislation.
The century closes with improved conditions.
It was not until John Archdale, a sound-headed and conservative Quaker, himself one of the proprietaries, came out (1695) as governor that the colonists ceased their bickerings and the province settled down into a condition of peace and good order. Joseph Blake, Archdale's nephew, succeeded him (1696). Under Blake's benign rule the century closed in the Carolinas with a better popular feeling towards the Huguenots, complete religious toleration to all Christians except Catholics, and a marked increase in the material prosperity of the settlers.
The Carolinas, which had been planted sixty years later than Virginia, were in 1700 still feeble; and it was half a century before they began to be important colonies. The chief interest of the Carolinas in the development of America is the failure of the proprietors to stem or to deflect the tide of local government. Nowhere does the innate determination of the Anglo-Saxon to control his own political destiny more strikingly appear than in the contentions of the Carolinians with their rulers in England.