WEBVTT NOTE 13. The Carolinas 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.700 Volume 1, Chapter 13, The Carolinas 2 00:00:04.700 --> 00:00:10.460 In the mid-seventeenth century, many settlers from Virginia, disgruntled by the domination 3 00:00:10.460 --> 00:00:18.060 of society by the planter aristocracy or by the Anglican Church, moved down to the southern 4 00:00:18.060 --> 00:00:25.920 part of the Virginia Grant on the north of Albemarle Sound, in what is now North Carolina. 5 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:31.960 The leader of the first settlement was the Presbyterian Roger Green. Many of these settlers 6 00:00:31.960 --> 00:00:38.480 were Quakers. At first, part of Virginia, this settlement, which was also largely devoted 7 00:00:38.480 --> 00:00:45.480 to raising tobacco, was relatively independent. Soon, however, it was to feel the heavy hand 8 00:00:45.880 --> 00:00:52.300 of a feudal proprietary grant, for the large territory south of Virginia and down to the 9 00:00:52.300 --> 00:00:59.300 In 1663, the newly installed Charles II granted a feudal proprietary gift of the territory between the 31st and 36th parallels from what is now slightly north of the Florida-Georgia border to the northern boundary of North Carolina to a proprietorship comprising eight of his favorite courtiers and supporters. 10 00:01:22.300 --> 00:01:30.300 This grant whittled away the southern portion of the Virginia Grant, which had been bounded by the 34th parallel. 11 00:01:30.300 --> 00:01:40.300 The eight proprietors were Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, later First Earl of Shaftesbury, 12 00:01:40.300 --> 00:01:49.300 the Governor of Virginia Sir William Berkeley, his brother John Lord Berkeley, a high-ranking naval officer, 13 00:01:49.300 --> 00:01:56.300 Officer, the Earl of Clarendon, Chief Minister to the King, General George Mack, the new 14 00:01:56.300 --> 00:02:06.100 Duke of Albemarle, Sir George Carteret, the wealthy Earl of Craven, and Sir John Colleton, 15 00:02:06.100 --> 00:02:13.480 a wealthy Barbadian planter and slave trader. As in the Virginia Grant, the territory grandiosely 16 00:02:13.480 --> 00:02:23.480 The idea of the grant originated with those proprietors already interested in the Americas. 17 00:02:23.480 --> 00:02:33.480 Colleton, William Berkeley, Ashley Cooper, also a Barbadian landholder, and Clarendon, a landowner in Jamaica. 18 00:02:33.480 --> 00:02:39.480 John Berkeley acted as agent of the others to persuade the king to make the grant. 19 00:02:39.480 --> 00:02:45.480 The grant was known as Carolina after previous land grant to the area. 20 00:02:45.480 --> 00:03:00.480 In 1629, King Charles I made his first land grant of the area between the 31st and 36th parallels to Sir Robert Heath and called it New Carolina. 21 00:03:00.480 --> 00:03:09.480 Heath transferred his grant in 1630 to Samuel Vassel and others, but they failed to settle the Virgin Territory. 22 00:03:09.480 --> 00:03:17.480 In 1632, Heath conveyed his rights to Henry Lord Maltraven, who also failed to settle the area. 23 00:03:17.480 --> 00:03:27.480 The Duke of Norfolk, heir of Maltraven, Samuel Vassel, and the Cape Fear Company of London and New England merchants, 24 00:03:27.480 --> 00:03:34.480 who had settled on the Cape Fear River of North Carolina in 1662, but quickly abandoned the settlement. 25 00:03:34.480 --> 00:03:43.480 All now tried to invalidate the Carolina Charter, but the Crown voided their patents in 1665. 26 00:03:43.480 --> 00:03:50.480 And yet, as late as 1768, the Crown granted the Cox family of New Jersey, 27 00:03:50.480 --> 00:03:57.920 to whom had been transferred the Heath title in 1696 100,000 acres of the land in New York 28 00:03:57.920 --> 00:04:02.160 as a payment for their tenuous and dubious claim. 29 00:04:02.160 --> 00:04:07.800 Two years later the eight Carolina proprietors received a new charter extending their grant 30 00:04:07.800 --> 00:04:14.680 to 36 degrees 30 minutes in the north and down to 29 degrees in the south, the latter 31 00:04:14.680 --> 00:04:19.680 however being academic as it covered the Spanish settlements of Florida. 32 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:32.680 A party of settlers, under the new grant, established a settlement at Charlestown, now Charleston, at the mouth of the Aisling Cooper Rivers in 1670. 33 00:04:32.680 --> 00:04:45.680 From the beginning, the proprietors had to govern two distinct and separate settlements, Unruly Albemarle in the north and Charlestown in the south, far more under its control. 34 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:51.600 Moreover, the two settlements were, from the beginning, administered by different governors, 35 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:57.360 though under the same proprietary. Albemarle was under the General Aegis of Virginia's 36 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:03.280 Governor Berkeley, one of the proprietors who appointed the governor of the district. 37 00:05:03.280 --> 00:05:09.760 From 1691 on, Albemarle's settlement was known as North Carolina and the Charleston 38 00:05:09.760 --> 00:05:15.800 in the American area as South Carolina, separately administered though for some years under a 39 00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:19.240 single proprietary rule. 40 00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:24.560 The proprietors were given a grant with feudal powers virtually as sweeping as the Maryland 41 00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:28.800 gift of privilege, a veritable palatinate. 42 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:33.960 The proprietors were empowered to work their will with the very important exception that 43 00:05:33.960 --> 00:05:39.440 the assembly of the freemen of the colony or their representatives had to approve of 44 00:05:39.440 --> 00:05:54.440 Thus, as in the other colonies, the popularly elected assembly originated less as a sovereign branch of government than as a check on the despotic rule of the executive. 45 00:05:54.440 --> 00:06:04.440 Even before Charleston was settled, the proprietors in 1665 drew up for the government of the Chartered Area the Concessions and Agreements, 46 00:06:04.440 --> 00:06:17.440 A relatively liberal document granting freedom of conscience, liberal land distribution subject to the inevitable but small quit-rent, as well as an assembly elected by the freemen of the colony. 47 00:06:17.440 --> 00:06:26.340 But in 1669, the proprietors, spurred by the ambitious Ashley Cooper, decided to embark 48 00:06:26.340 --> 00:06:33.040 on the fantastic project of fastening a feudal rule on the colony that could not be supplanted 49 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:36.680 or dissolved by market processes. 50 00:06:36.680 --> 00:06:42.520 For not only were there to be proprietors as feudal lords, but there was to be a fully 51 00:06:42.520 --> 00:06:49.260 Ordered Feudal Hierarchy of Various Degrees of Subinfudiation. This scheme to be imposed 52 00:06:49.260 --> 00:06:56.260 on the entire Carolinas was drawn up for the supposedly liberal Shaftesbury by his 53 00:06:56.260 --> 00:07:06.260 hired theoretician, John Locke, and promulgated as the fundamental constitutions of the Carolinas. 54 00:07:06.260 --> 00:07:12.400 The contradiction has often been noted between the arch feudalism of Block's fundamental 55 00:07:12.400 --> 00:07:21.760 constitutions and the individualist laissez-faire liberalism of his civil government, a liberalism 56 00:07:21.760 --> 00:07:27.460 destined to have great intellectual impact on 18th century America. 57 00:07:27.460 --> 00:07:31.580 The latter was written not much more than a decade later. 58 00:07:31.580 --> 00:07:33.620 This is largely true. 59 00:07:33.620 --> 00:07:40.300 However, we must also point out that a staunch defense of private property rights will mean 60 00:07:40.300 --> 00:07:47.580 laissez-faire liberalism in a new country largely unsaddled by the yoke of feudal land 61 00:07:47.580 --> 00:07:55.220 tenure, while an equivalent defense in a country already hag-ridden by feudalism will be, at 62 00:07:55.220 --> 00:08:03.940 At least in part, an apologia for feudal rather than justly private property and a free society. 63 00:08:03.940 --> 00:08:09.620 In short, the crucial issue is the justice of the private property titles that are being 64 00:08:09.620 --> 00:08:15.560 defended. Glossing over this question means that the same set of principles may lead to 65 00:08:15.560 --> 00:08:23.100 a libertarian society in a non-feudal America, where land titles devolve fairly rapidly upon 66 00:08:23.100 --> 00:08:31.100 from the actual settlers, but to retention of quasi-feudalism in an England where land titles had been largely feudal. 67 00:08:31.100 --> 00:08:40.100 A conservative bulwark for feudalism, when transplanted, can prove to be a radically libertarian call for a free society. 68 00:08:40.100 --> 00:08:48.500 The Cooper-Lock Scheme envisioned a hereditary feudal nobility that was to preempt two-fifths 69 00:08:48.500 --> 00:08:55.320 of the land of the Carolinas, to be sold to it by the proprietary. Each of these nobles 70 00:08:55.320 --> 00:09:02.860 was to have his own scenery of 12,000 acres in each county. Underneath the nobles were 71 00:09:02.860 --> 00:09:09.860 were the land graves, each of whom was to have four baronies totaling 48,000 acres. 72 00:09:10.500 --> 00:09:17.500 Next to them, the casiques, with two baronies totaling 24,000 acres. Underneath them, the 73 00:09:17.580 --> 00:09:24.140 lords of the manor, each with 3,000 to 12,000 acres, and finally, the freeholders, with 74 00:09:24.140 --> 00:09:30.620 a 500-acre minimum requirement for voting. The unfree, slaves and indentured servants, 75 00:09:30.620 --> 00:09:44.740 The eight proprietors were to constitute a supreme Palatine court, with each proprietor 76 00:09:44.740 --> 00:09:47.620 also operating a court of his own. 77 00:09:47.620 --> 00:09:54.020 The Palatine court was to appoint the governor and exert sovereign rule over the colony. 78 00:09:54.020 --> 00:10:00.660 The assembly was to be limited to the governor, the hereditary nobility, and the deputies, 79 00:10:00.660 --> 00:10:06.980 the last restricted to holders of 500-acre freeholds. All fishing and mineral rights 80 00:10:06.980 --> 00:10:13.740 were to be retained in the ownership of the proprietors. Religious freedom was to be guaranteed, 81 00:10:13.740 --> 00:10:20.420 a long-standing conviction of locks, even for Quakers, Jews and slaves. But the Church 82 00:10:20.420 --> 00:10:27.420 The Church of England was to be established by the government, with churches to be built and the ministers paid by the state. 83 00:10:27.420 --> 00:10:38.420 But although Locke did not agree with the establishment of the Church of England, he was perhaps partially compensated for this disappointment by receiving the title of Landgrave. 84 00:10:38.420 --> 00:10:45.420 It was, however, also decreed that no non-theist could hold public office or even have the protection of the law. 85 00:10:45.420 --> 00:10:50.420 Another libertarian provision was the guarantee of trial by jury. 86 00:10:50.420 --> 00:10:58.420 Fortunately for the Carolinas, the proprietors were never able to persuade the assembly to accept this scheme. 87 00:10:58.420 --> 00:11:06.420 As a consequence, the gravest threat of permanent feudalism in English America was nipped in the bud. 88 00:11:06.420 --> 00:11:12.420 Twenty-six land graves and thirteen casiques were created, but they mostly expired with 89 00:11:12.420 --> 00:11:18.480 the original holder and did not become hereditary. Furthermore, no manor was ever created, no 90 00:11:18.480 --> 00:11:22.820 large scenery or barony was established. 91 00:11:22.820 --> 00:11:29.820 We have seen that by the mid-1670s the southern colonies were becoming ripe for revolution. 92 00:11:29.820 --> 00:11:36.140 Accumulated grievances in Virginia and Maryland included English restrictions on tobacco, 93 00:11:36.140 --> 00:11:42.760 aggravated dictatorial rule by the governor in Virginia, as well as growing Indian troubles, 94 00:11:42.760 --> 00:11:49.760 and also attempts to impose feudalism and Protestant anti-Catholicism in Maryland. 95 00:11:50.220 --> 00:11:57.220 But the Carolinas, small though they yet were, did not need a lengthy incubation for serious 96 00:11:57.300 --> 00:12:03.940 rebellion. Indeed, with the attempt to impose an elaborate feudal structure upon the Carolinas, 97 00:12:03.940 --> 00:12:08.780 The new colony was ripe for rebellion almost immediately. 98 00:12:08.780 --> 00:12:13.940 This was particularly true of North Carolina, where an unusually independent group of small 99 00:12:13.940 --> 00:12:19.540 farmers exercised religious toleration, even for Quakers. 100 00:12:19.540 --> 00:12:24.800 Unburdened by feudal planters or a theocratic church, they were suddenly confronted with 101 00:12:24.800 --> 00:12:30.580 an attempt by a new English ruler to fasten upon them the very conditions for which they 102 00:12:30.580 --> 00:13:00.580 North Carolina, which had a population of about 1,000 in 1660, grew rapidly. Its free atmosphere and complete religious freedom, attracting religious sects and great admixtures of ethnic groups, Germans, French, Swiss, Scots, and Moravians. By the 1670s its population totalled about 4,000, while New South Carolina was still well under 1,000. 103 00:13:00.580 --> 00:13:10.580 The English Navigation Laws and Restrictions on Tobacco occasioned additional grievances among the tobacco-growing North Carolinian settlers. 104 00:13:10.580 --> 00:13:21.580 The free spirit of the North Carolina settlers was further reinforced by the failure of land grants for large plantations to take root there. 105 00:13:21.580 --> 00:13:28.580 This was a colony of small farmers who had largely settled there to assure their independence. 106 00:13:28.580 --> 00:13:45.580 It had no large town or city. The largest town was Eddington. That could serve as a convenient seat for governmental rule. The earliest arrivals either settled freely on the land or purchased it from Indian chiefs. 107 00:13:45.580 --> 00:14:02.580 The proprietary, anxious to make money by encouraging rapid settlement, adopted the equivalent of the Virginia headright system, first granting 100 acres to each settler, plus 50 acres of land for each person the settler brought over to the colony. 108 00:14:02.580 --> 00:14:10.580 By the 1680s, the headright was 60 acres for each settler and 60 for each servant brought over. 109 00:14:10.580 --> 00:14:17.580 Each servant was also to receive a hundred acres of land on expiration of his term of service. 110 00:14:17.580 --> 00:14:25.580 This system, while subject to grave abuses through accumulation of head rights resulting in arbitrarily large land grants, 111 00:14:25.580 --> 00:14:30.580 at least assured a wide distribution of land in the colony. 112 00:14:30.580 --> 00:14:35.580 The land from the first was subject to restrictive conditions and charges, 113 00:14:35.580 --> 00:14:39.580 including a quit rent of half a penny per acre to the proprietor, 114 00:14:39.580 --> 00:14:55.580 In the early 18th century, the Virginia planter William Byrd was to write of the North Carolinians that they treat their governors with all the excesses of freedom and familiarity. 115 00:14:55.580 --> 00:15:01.460 Virginia planter William Byrd was to write of the North Carolinians that they treat their 116 00:15:01.460 --> 00:15:08.340 governors with all the excesses of freedom and familiarity. They are of the opinion that 117 00:15:08.340 --> 00:15:13.620 rulers would be apt to grow insolent if they grow rich and for that reason take care to 118 00:15:13.620 --> 00:15:16.360 keep them poorer. 119 00:15:16.360 --> 00:15:21.260 Another shock to visitors was the absence of churches. Apparently the North Carolinians 120 00:15:21.260 --> 00:15:51.260 The great English founder of the Quakers, George Fox, visiting Albemarle in 1672, discovered to his chagrin that he could find no place of worship in all the colony, and some years later William Byrd was again stunned to find that this is the only metropolis in the Christian or Muhammadan world where there is neither church, chapel, mosque, synagogue, or church. 121 00:15:51.260 --> 00:15:56.460 or any other place of public worship of any sect or religion whatsoever.