About the same time Philip Ludwell, a gentleman from Virginia, being appointed governor of Carolina, arrived in the province. Sir Nathaniel Johnson, who had been general of the Leeward Islands in the reign of King James, being created a Cassique of Carolina, after the Revolution retired to that country, and took his seat as a member of the council. The proprietors having found the fundamental constitutions disagreeable to the people, and ineffectual for the purposes of government, repealed all their former laws and regulations, excepting those called Agrarian Laws, and sent out a new plan of government to Mr. Ludwell, consisting of forty-three articles of instruction, for the better management of their colony. The inhabitants, who had been long in a confused and turbulent stare, were enjoined to obedience and submission. Liberty was granted to the representatives of the people to frame such laws as they judged necessary to the public welfare and tranquillity, which were to continue in force for two years, but no longer, unless they were in the mean time ratified and confirmed by the palatine and three more proprietors. Lands for the cassiques and landgraves were ordered to be marked out in square plats, and freedom was granted them to chuse their situation. Hitherto the planters remained utter strangers to the value and fertility of the low lands, the swamps were therefore carefully avoided, and large tracts of the higher lands, which were esteemed more precious, were surveyed, and marked out for estates by the provincial nobility.
[Sidenote] Harsh treatment of the colonists to the refugees.
Governor Ludwell, who was a man of great humanity, and considerable knowledge and experience in provincial affairs, by those large estates which were allowed the leading men, and the many indulgences he was authorized to grant to others, had the good fortune to allay the ferment among the people, and reconcile them to the proprietors. But this domestic tranquility was of short duration. New sources of discontent broke out from a different quarter. He had instructions to allow the French colony settled in Craven county, the same privileges and liberties with the English colonists. Several of the refugees being possessed of considerable property in France, had sold it, and brought the money with them to England. Having purchased large tracts of land with this money, they sat down in more advantageous circumstances than the poorer part of English emigrants. Some of them, who had gone to the northern provinces, hearing of the kind treatment and great encouragement their brethren had received in Carolina, came to southward and joined their countrymen. Having clergymen of their own persuasion, for whom they entertained the highest respect and veneration, they were disposed to encourage them as much as their narrow circumstances would admit. Governor Ludwell received the wandering foreigners with great civility, and was not a little solicitous to provide them with settlements equal to their expectations. While these refugees were entering on the hard task of clearing and cultivating spots of land, encouraging and relieving each other as much as was in their power, the English Settlers began to revive the odious distinctions and rooted antipathies of the two nations, and to consider them as aliens and foreigners, entitled by law to none of the privileges and advantages of natural-born subjects. The governor had instructions to allow them six representatives in assembly; this the Englishmen considered as contrary to the laws of the land, and beyond the power of the proprietors, who were subject to the laws, to grant. Instead of considering these persecuted strangers in the enlarged light of brethren descended from the same common parent, and entitled to the free blessings of Providence; instead of taking compassion on men who had sought an asylum from oppression in their country, whom they were bound to welcome to it by every tie of humanity and interest; they began to execute the laws of England respecting aliens in their utmost rigour against them. Their haughty spirit could not brook the thoughts of sitting in assembly with the rivals of the English nation for power and dominion, and of receiving laws from Frenchmen, the favourers of a system of slavery and absolute government. In this unfavourable light they were held forth to the people, to the great prejudice of the refugees; which sentiments, however narrow and improper, served to excite no small jealousies and apprehensions in their minds, with respect to these unhappy foreigners.
Hard as this treatment was, this violent party did not stop here. They insisted, that the laws of England allowed no foreigners to purchase lands in any part of the empire under her supreme jurisdiction, and that no authority but the house of commons in Britain could incorporate aliens into their community, and make them partakers of the rights and privileges of natural-born Englishmen; that they ought to have been naturalized by parliament before they obtained grants of lands from the proprietors; that the marriages performed by their clergymen, not being ordained by a bishop, were unlawful; and that the children begotten in those marriage could be considered in law in no other light as bastards. In short, they averred, that aliens were not only denied a seat in parliament, but also a voice in all elections of members to serve in it; and that they could neither be returned on any jury, nor sworn for the trial of issues between subject and subject.
The refugees, alarmed at these proceedings, and discouraged at the prospects of being deprived of all the rights and liberties of British subjects, began to suspect that the opposition of England would fall heavier upon them than that of France from which they had fled. Dejected at the thoughts of labouring they knew not for whom, if their children could not reap the fruits of their labours, or if their estates should escheat to the proprietors at their decease, they could consider themselves only as deceived and imposed upon by false promises and prospects. After holding several consultations among themselves about their deplorable circumstances, they agreed to state their case before the proprietors, and beg their advice. In answer to which the Proprietors instructed Governor Ludwell to inform them, that they would enquire what does in law qualify an alien born for the enjoyment of the rights and privileges of English subjects, and in due time let them know; that, for their part, they would take no advantages of the present grievous circumstances of the refugees; that their lands should descend to such persons as they thought proper to bequeath them; that the children of such as had been married in the same way were not deemed bastards in England, nor could they be considered as such in Carolina, where such unlimited toleration was allowed to all men by their charter. Though this served in some measure to compose the minds of the refugees, yet while the people harboured prejudices against them the relief was only partial; and, at the next election of members to serve in assembly, Craven county, in which they lived, was not allowed a single representative.
[Sidenote] The manner of obtaining lands.
From the first settlement of the colony, the common method of obtaining lands in it was by purchase, either from the Proprietors themselves, or from officers commissioned by them, who disposed of them agreeable to their directions. Twenty pounds sterling for a thousand acres of land, and more or less, in proportion to the quantity, was commonly demanded, although the proprietors might accept of any acknowledgment they thought proper. The emigrants having obtained warrants, had liberty to go in search of vacant ground, and to pitch upon such spots as they judged most valuable and convenient. This was surveyed, and marked out to them, according to the extent of their purchase, and plats and grants were signed, registered and delivered to them, reserving one shilling quitrent for every hundred acres, to be paid annually to the Proprietors. Such persons as could not advance the sum demanded by way of purchase, obtained lands on condition of paying one penny annual-rent for every acre to the landlords. The former, however, was the common method of obtaining landed estates in Carolina, and the tenure was a freehold. The refugees having purchased their estates, and meeting with such harsh treatment from the colonists, were greatly discouraged, and apprehensive, notwithstanding the fair promises of the Proprietors, they had escaped one abyss of misery only to plunge themselves deeper into another.
[Sidenote] Juries chosen by ballot.
The manner of impannelling juries in Carolina being remarkably fair and equitable, justly claims our particular notice. Juries here are not returned by sheriffs, whose ingenuity and integrity are well known, particularly in England; but according to an article in the fundamental constitutions. The names of all the freemen in the colony being taken down on small pieces of parchment of equal size, they are put into a ballot-box, which is shaken on purpose to mix them, and out of which twenty-four names are drawn, at every precinct court before it rises, by the first boy under ten year of age that appears; which names are put into another box, and twelve out of the twenty-four are drawn by another boy under the same age, and summoned to appear at the next meeting of court; which persons are the jury, provided no exceptions are taken against any of them. If any of them are challenged by the prisoner, the boy continues drawing other names till the jury be full. In this mild and fair manner prisoners are tried, which allows them every chance for life humanity can suggest or require: for after the most careful examination of witnesses, and the fullest debate on both sides from the bar, the jury have instructions about the evidences given, and the point of law which is to guide them in their decision, from the bench; and are shut up in a room, where they must remain until they agree, and return their unanimous verdict, guilty or not guilty.
[Sidenote] Pirates favored by the colonists.