The proclamation was torn from the hands of the officer, and the assembly elected colonel James Moore chief magistrate of the colony.
Revolution completed.
After proclaiming him in the name of the King, and electing a council, the legislature published a declaration stating the revolution that had taken place, with the causes which produced it; and then proceeded, deliberately to manage the affairs of the province.
While Carolina was effecting this revolution, the agent of the colony obtained a hearing before the lords of the regency and council in England, (the King being then in Hanover) who were of opinion that the proprietors had forfeited their charter. They ordered the attorney general to take out a scire facias against it, and appointed Francis Nicholson provisional governor of the province under the King. He was received with universal joy; and the people of Carolina passed, with great satisfaction, from the proprietary government to the immediate dominion of the crown. The proprietors surrender to the crown.This revolution was completed by an agreement between the crown and seven of the proprietors, whereby, for the sum of seventeen thousand five hundred pounds sterling, they surrendered their right and interest both in the government and soil. This agreement was confirmed by an act of parliament; soon after which John Lord Carteret, the remaining proprietor, also surrendered all his interest in the government, but retained his rights of property.[132]
1721
Carolina received with joy the same form of government which had been bestowed on her sister colonies. The people pleased with their situation, and secure of protection, turned their attention to domestic and agricultural pursuits; and the face of the country soon evidenced the happy effects which result from contented industry, directed by those who are to receive its fruits. 1732The province divided.For the convenience of the inhabitants, the province was divided; and was, thenceforward, distinguished by the names of North and South Carolina.[133]
About this period, the settlement of a new colony was planned in England. The tract of country lying between the rivers Savanna and Alatamaha being unoccupied by Europeans, a company was formed for the humane purpose of transplanting into this wilderness, the suffering poor of the mother country. This territory, now denominated Georgia, was granted to the company; and a corporation, consisting of twenty-one persons, was created under the name of "trustees for settling and establishing the colony of Georgia." Large sums of money were subscribed for transporting, and furnishing with necessaries, such poor people as should be willing to pass the Atlantic, and to seek the means of subsistence in a new world. One hundred and sixteen persons embarked at Gravesend, under the conduct of Mr. James Oglethorpe, one of the trustees, who, after landing at Charleston, proceeded to the tract of country allotted for the new colony, and laid the foundation of the town of Savanna, on the river which bears that name. Georgia settled.A small fort was erected on its bank, in which some guns were mounted; and a treaty was held with the Creek Indians, from whom the cession of a considerable tract was obtained.
The trustees continued to make great efforts for the accomplishment of their object, and settled several companies of emigrants in Georgia. Unfortunately, the wisdom of their regulations did not equal the humanity of their motives. Totally unacquainted with the country they were to govern, they devised a system for it, rather calculated to impede than to promote its population.
1733
Considering each male inhabitant both as a soldier and a planter, to be provided with arms and ammunition for defence as well as with utensils for cultivation, they adopted the pernicious resolution of introducing such tenures for holding lands as were most favourable to a military establishment. Impolicy of the first regulation.Each tract granted, was considered as a military fief, for which the possessor was to appear in arms, and take the field, when required for the public defence. The grants were in tail male; and, on the termination of the estate, the lands were to revert to the trust, to be re-granted to such persons as would most benefit the colony. Any lands which should not be enclosed, cleared, and cultivated, within eighteen years, reverted to the trust. The importation of negroes, and of rum, was prohibited; and those only were allowed to trade with the Indians, to whom a license should be given.