The vestries.
In one respect there is a resemblance by no means superficial between the settlement of South Carolina and that of Massachusetts. Most of the South Carolina settlers had left their homes in Europe for reasons connected with religion; and emigrants who quit their homes for such reasons are likely to show a higher average of intelligence and energy than the great mass of their fellow-countrymen who stay at home. Calvinism was the prevailing form of theology in South Carolina, though there were some Lutherans, and perhaps one fifth of the people may have belonged to the Church of England, which was established by the proprietary charter, and remained the state church until 1776. We have seen how much disturbance was caused by the attempts of the High Churchmen early in the eighteenth century to enforce conformity on the part of the Dissenters; but such attempts were soon abandoned as hopeless, and a policy of toleration prevailed. Though the Church of England was supported by public taxation, yet the clergymen were not appointed to office, but were elected by their congregations like the Dissenting clergymen. Their education was in general very good, and their character lofty; and in all respects the tone of the church in South Carolina was far higher than in Virginia. At the outbreak of the Revolution the elected Episcopal clergy of South Carolina were generally found on the side of the Whigs; a significant contrast to the appointed Episcopal clergy of Virginia, whose Toryism was carried so far as to ruin the reputation of their church. But the most interesting feature connected with the establishment of the English Church was the introduction of the parish system of local self-government in very much the same form in which it existed in England. The vestries in South Carolina discharged many of the functions which in New England were performed by the town meeting,—the superintendence of the poor, the maintenance of roads, the election of representatives to the Commons House of Assembly, and the assessment of the local taxes.
The South Carolina parish.
In one fundamental respect the political constitution of South Carolina was more democratic than that of Virginia. The vestrymen were elected yearly by all the taxpayers of the parish. In this they were analogous to the selectmen of New England. Parish government in Virginia was in the hands of a close vestry; in South Carolina it was administered by an open vestry. Moreover, while in Virginia the unit of representation in the legislature was the county, in South Carolina it was the parish. Now the South Carolina parish was of purely English origin, not of French origin like the parishes of Louisiana. The Louisiana parish is analogous to a county, that of South Carolina was nearly equivalent to a township.[291] Although the colony had such a large proportion of French settlers, and of such marked ability and character, the development of its governmental institutions was as thoroughly English as if no Frenchman had ever set foot upon its soil. The approximation to the New England township is interesting. The freemen of South Carolina, with their open vestry, possessed what the smaller landed proprietors of Virginia in Bacon’s rebellion strove for in vain.
Free schools.
In this connection it is worth while to observe that, from the first decade of the eighteenth century, a strong interest in popular education was felt in South Carolina. The same obstacles to schools in the rural districts that we have already observed in Virginia prevented the growth of anything like the public school system of New England. But of private free schools in the colony of South Carolina there were quite a number, and their quality was very good. The first was established in Charleston in 1712, and it not only taught the three Rs, along with bookkeeping, but it had classes in Greek and Latin. Private donations were encouraged by a provision that every giver of £20 “could nominate a scholar to be taught free for five years.” The commissioners of the school also appointed twelve scholars. Free schools were afterward erected by private bequests and subscriptions at Dorchester, Beaufort, Ninety-Six, and in many other places. A noteworthy instance was afforded by St. Thomas parish, where “James Childs bequeathed £600 toward erecting a free school, and the parishioners, by local subscription, increased the amount to £2,800.”[292] In such beginnings there lay the possibilities of a more healthy development than can be secured by the prevalent semi-socialist method of supporting schools by public taxation;[293] but the influences of negro slavery were adverse to any such development.
Rice and indigo.
The economic circumstance which chiefly determined the complexion of society in South Carolina was the cultivation of rice and indigo. The value of the former crop was discovered in 1693, when a ship from Madagascar, accidentally stopping at Charleston, had on board a little bag of rice, which was planted with very notable success. Rice was not long in becoming the great staple of the colony. By 1740 it yielded more than £200,000 yearly. Indigo was next in importance. Much corn was raised, and cattle in large numbers were exported to the West Indies. Some attention was paid to silk, flax, and hemp, tobacco, olives, and oranges. Some cotton was raised, but that crop did not attain paramount importance until after the invention of the gin and the development of great factories in England.
Rice and indigo absorbed the principal attention of the colony, as tobacco absorbed the attention of Virginia. Manufactures did not thrive. Every article, great or small, whether a mere luxury or an article of prime necessity, that had to be manufactured, was imported, and paid for with rice or indigo. This created a very prosperous trade in Charleston. The planters did not deal directly with the shipmasters, as in Virginia, but sold their crops to the merchants in Charleston, whence they were shipped, sometimes in British, sometimes in New England vessels, to all parts of the world.
Some characteristics of South Carolina slavery.