Clarendon colony abandoned.
Since the founding of the Ashley River colony it had fared ill with the Clarendon colony on Cape Fear River, which under favouring circumstances might perhaps have developed into a Middle Carolina. There were not people enough, and there was not trade enough for so many settlements. So Clarendon dwindled until 1690, when it was abandoned. This left a wide interval of forest and stream between Albemarle and the Ashley River colony, or North Carolina and South Carolina, as they were beginning to be called. The formal separation of Carolina into two provinces did not take place until 1729, but the two colonies were from the outset, as we have seen, distinct and independent growths; and by 1690 the epithets North and South were commonly used.
Philip Ludwell.
Just at this time, however, the two were united under one governor. Colonel Philip Ludwell, of Virginia, who had ably supported Berkeley against Bacon, and had afterward married Berkeley’s widow, was Sothel’s successor in Albemarle in 1689, and he was appointed to succeed him at Charleston in 1691. The proprietors wished to bring all Carolina under one government, and the Albemarle people were requested to send their representatives to the assembly at Charleston, but distance made such a scheme impracticable. The northern colony, however, was often governed by a deputy appointed at Charleston. The troubles were not yet over. Ludwell was an upright and able man, but the disagreements between the settlers and the lords proprietors were more than he could cope with, and in 1692 he was superseded.
John Archdale.
Joseph Blake.
Sir Nathaniel Johnson and the Dissenters.
It is not worth while to recount the names of all the men who served as governors in the two Carolinas. In the world of history there is a certain amount of meaningless mediocrity which a general survey like the present may well pass by without notice. The brief administration of John Archdale, in 1695, marks a kind of era. Archdale was a Quaker, a man of broad intelligence and character at once strong and gentle. He had become one of the lords proprietors, and in that capacity came out to Carolina, where for one year he ruled the whole province with such authority as no one had wielded before; for while he was backed up by the proprietors, he conciliated the assemblies. In the matter of the Indians and the quit-rents much was done, and the veto power of the proprietors was curtailed. After a year Archdale felt able to go home, leaving his friend Joseph Blake, a nephew of the great admiral, as governor in Charleston. Under Blake still further progress was made by admitting to full political rights and privileges the Huguenot immigrants, who had come to be in some respects the most important element in the population of South Carolina. But after Blake’s death, in 1700, it grew stormy again. The new governor, James Moore, came out to make money, and to that end he renewed the vile practice of kidnapping Indians. This presently made it necessary to gather troops and defeat the angry red men. Quarrels with the assembly were chronic. When the war of the Spanish Succession broke out, Moore invaded Florida, but accomplished nothing except the creation of a heavy public debt. In 1703 he was superseded by Sir Nathaniel Johnson, a precious bigot, who undertook to force through the assembly a law excluding from it all Dissenters. This was effected by trickery; the act was passed by a majority of one, in a house from which several members were absent. After the fraud was discovered, the assembly by a large majority voted to repeal the act, but the governor refused to sign the repeal. The Dissenters were perhaps three fourths of the population. They made complaint to the lords proprietors, but a majority of that body sustained the governor. Then a successful appeal was made to the House of Lords, and the proprietors suddenly found themselves threatened with the loss of their charter. The result was a great victory for the South Carolina assembly, which at its next session restored Dissenters to their full privileges.
Unsuccessful attempt of a French and Spanish fleet upon Charleston.
Like many another bigot, Governor Johnson was a good fighter. In August, 1706, Charleston was attacked by a French and Spanish squadron. A visitation of yellow fever, with half a dozen deaths daily in a population of 3,000, had frightened many people away from the town. On a broiling Saturday afternoon five columns of smoke floating lazily up over Sullivan’s Island announced that five warships were descried in the offing. They were French privateers with Spanish reinforcements from Cuba and St. Augustine. When the signal was reported to the governor at his country house, the militia were called together from all quarters and the ships in the harbour were quickly made ready for action. The evening air was vocal with alarm guns. But the enemy approached with such excessive caution that Johnson had ample time for preparation. It was not until Wednesday that the affair matured. Then the French commander sent a flag of truce ashore and demanded, in the name of Louis XIV., the surrender of the town and its inhabitants; the governor, he said, might have an hour to consider his answer. Johnson replied that he did not need a minute, and told the Frenchman to go to the devil. The enemy then landed 150 men on the north shore of the harbour, at Haddrell’s Beacon, but the militia soon drove them into the water, with the loss of a dozen killed and more than thirty prisoners. Many more were drowned in swimming to their boats. Another detachment on the south shore was similarly discomfited. On Thursday Colonel William Rhett, with six small craft heavily armed and a fire-ship, bore down upon the enemy’s fleet. But instead of waiting to fight, the French commander hastily stood out to sea. This conduct, as well as his whole delay, may be explained by the fact that an important part of his force had not come up. The best of the French ships, carrying beside her marine force some 200 regular infantry, did not arrive until Friday, when, in ignorance of the repulse of her consorts, she entered Sewee Bay and landed her soldiers. It was rushing into the lion’s jaws. The soldiers were promptly attacked and put to flight with the loss of one third of their number, while at the same time Colonel Rhett blockaded the bay and took the French ship with all on board. Thus the ill-concerted attack ended in ignominious defeat, with the loss of the best ship and 300 men out of 800.