Here, upon the spot where the first permanent English settlement in South Carolina was accomplished, let us glance at the record of history.
In the Introduction to this work (page xxxii.), I have referred to the first attempt at permanent settlement on South Carolina soil, and the result. As it was only an attempt, proved unsuccessful, and does not illustrate the growth of popular liberty, except so far as the principles, of the Huguenots (those first emigrants) had influence in the political opinions of the people in after years, we will not stop to consider the details, but pass on to the period of permanent settlements.
For a hundred years after the first attempt at colonization in South Carolina was made, no settlements were undertaken, and no white man walked in her forests, except a few Spaniards, who penetrated the wilderness from St. Augustine in search of a fancied region of gold. At length the English, who had formed settlements on the Cape Fear and vicinity, turned their attention to more southerly regions.
In January, 1670, two ships, with materials fora permanent settlement, sailed from England, under the command of Sir William Sayle, who had previously visited and explored the South Carolina coast. He entered Port Royal, planted his colony upon Beaufort, and soon afterward died there.
The jurisdiction of Sir John Yeamans, of the Northern colony, was then extended over this settlement, and in 1671 he was chosen their governor. The people were easily induced, "for the convenience of pasturage and tillage," to remove to the south bank of the Ashley River, further north, and there they laid the foundation of old Charlestown ** (at present called Old Town, or the Landing); and there was planted the first fruitful seed a gift of the commonwealth of South Carolina. The colony, in honor of Sir George Carteret, one of the proprietors, was called the Carteret County Colony. ** Nine years afterward, the settlers abandoned this spot, and upon Oyster Point, nearer the sea, at the confluence of the
* There were about fifty families who went from the Fort Royal settlement to the Ashley River, and about the same number from the Northern colony accompanied Governor Yeamans thither.
** Governor Yeamans caused a number of African slaves to be brought from Barbadoes, and in the year 1672 the slave system in South Carolina was commenced
Founding of Charleston.—Increase of Settlers.—Their Character.—Difficulties with the Indians.
Ashley and Cooper Rivers * (so called in compliment to Ashley Cooper, the Earl of Shaftesbury), a place more eligible for commercial pursuits, they founded the present city of Charleston,1680 and in the course of the year built thirty houses. *** The city retained its original name of Charles Town until after the Revolution, when it was called Charleston. The general early history of South Carolina we have already considered in its connection with the North State; we have, therefore, only a few particular points to notice in its progress prior to the separation in 1729.
The beauty of the climate and the freedom which then prevailed made South Carolina a chosen refuge for the oppressed and the discontented of all lands. Several Dutch families of New York went to South Carolina when that city passed into the hands of the English, and settled on the southwest side of the Ashley, near the English colony, from whence they spread over the state, and were joined by many from "fader-land." In 1679, Charles the Second sent quite a number of French Protestant refugees (Huguenots) thither; and when, in 1685, the Edict of Nantes (see page 386, volume i.) was revoked, large numbers of the Huguenots crossed the Atlantic, and sought refuge in South Carolina from the fires of persecution about to be relighted in France. Ten years later,1696 a colony of Congregationalists, from Dorchester, in Massachusetts, ascended the Ashley almost to its head, and founded the town of Dorchester, in the present parish of St. George, Dorchester. This was a village of considerable note during the Revolution, but it is now deserted, and little remains of the past but the primitive church and the graves around it.