WEBVTT NOTE 28. Response in the Carolinas and Georgia 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.960 Volume 3, Chapter 28, Response in the Carolinas and Georgia 2 00:00:05.960 --> 00:00:13.960 In North Carolina and Georgia, no stamp distributors had been appointed by November 1. In Georgia, 3 00:00:13.960 --> 00:00:19.400 radicals had to content themselves with demonstrating with nameless effigies. The appointment of 4 00:00:19.400 --> 00:00:26.840 George Angus was announced to the Georgians on November 7. But Angus, alone of all the 5 00:00:26.840 --> 00:00:34.560 Colonial Distributors was a native Englishman and had not yet set sail for America. The 6 00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:39.640 people of Georgia could only keep vigil to mete out similar treatment as in the other 7 00:00:39.640 --> 00:00:45.080 colonies. Meanwhile, the Stamp Act was not being enforced there. 8 00:00:45.080 --> 00:00:51.560 In North Carolina, Henry McCullough had naturally been the original appointee, but he prudently 9 00:00:51.560 --> 00:00:59.160 The appointment then went to Dr. William Huston, who only heard the news by mid-November. 10 00:00:59.160 --> 00:01:05.320 When Huston arrived at Wilmington on November 16 to claim his commission, he was confronted 11 00:01:05.320 --> 00:01:11.920 with a determined crowd headed by the mayor and forced to resign immediately. 12 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:17.760 South Carolina provided a notable example of radical resistance to the Stamp Act. 13 00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:23.840 This leader was the great statesman Christopher Gadsden of Charleston, a leader in the House 14 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:30.840 and one of the wealthiest merchants in the colony. For his mass base, Gadsden, as in 15 00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:36.720 the case of Massachusetts and New York, relied on the small businessmen, the artists and 16 00:01:36.720 --> 00:01:43.560 manufacturers of Charleston, the bulwark of the Sons of Liberty. South Carolina's appointed 17 00:01:43.560 --> 00:01:50.520 Stamp Distributor, Caleb Lloyd, arrived to Charleston on October 18, along with the 18 00:01:50.520 --> 00:01:52.240 stamped paper. 19 00:01:52.240 --> 00:01:59.400 Immediately, lamented Governor William Bull, the minds of men were universally poisoned 20 00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:05.760 with the principles which were imbibed and propagated from Boston and Rhode Island. 21 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:10.840 The next day the people erected a high gallows at the center of Charleston. 22 00:02:40.840 --> 00:02:45.720 in a mock funeral procession. 23 00:02:45.720 --> 00:02:52.280 They arrived at the house of George Saxby, appointed inspector of stamps for the Carolinas, 24 00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:56.420 and the Bermudas, and still on the high seas. 25 00:02:56.420 --> 00:03:01.980 The crowd searched the house, but could find no telltale stamped papers which had been 26 00:03:01.980 --> 00:03:04.560 placed at Fort Jackson. 27 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:11.880 Over a hundred Sons of Liberty, however, stormed Fort Jackson and destroyed the papers. 28 00:03:11.880 --> 00:03:18.000 After burning the effigies and burying a coffin dubbed American Liberty, the crowd proceeded 29 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:24.080 to search the houses of Tories and British officers for more stamped paper. 30 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:31.040 Caleb Lloyd fled for his life to Fort Johnson and there he was joined by Saxby a week later. 31 00:03:31.040 --> 00:03:36.120 In Charleston, threats to the British officers and posters asserting the natural rights of 32 00:03:36.120 --> 00:03:43.120 the colonists filled the town. Finally, on October 29, under threat of death, Saxby and 33 00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:50.520 Lloyd agreed to suspend execution of their offices until Britain decided whether to enforce 34 00:03:50.520 --> 00:03:56.400 or repeal the stamp tax as a result of colonial protests. 35 00:03:56.400 --> 00:04:03.440 By November 1, then, the popular liberals of the colonies had done their work well. 36 00:04:03.440 --> 00:04:10.360 Not one stamp master remained ready, willing or able to enforce the Stamp Act. 37 00:04:10.360 --> 00:04:17.600 Virtually all had either resigned or publicly pledged not to support the Act. 38 00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:23.280 Only two ambiguities in status remained, and these were cleared up quickly. 39 00:04:23.280 --> 00:04:29.700 At his refuge in Flushing, New York, Zachariah Hood, the Maryland stamp distributor, was 40 00:04:29.700 --> 00:04:37.260 visited on November 28 by an angry crowd of 300 Sons of Liberty from New York City, carrying 41 00:04:37.260 --> 00:04:45.420 banners inscribed with the slogan, Liberty, Property and No Stamps. Hood was persuaded 42 00:04:45.420 --> 00:04:50.860 to resign forthwith. The New York Liberty boys were thanked for their effective work 43 00:04:50.860 --> 00:04:57.660 by the Sons of Liberty of Baltimore, who assured them that Hood had escaped the just resentment 44 00:04:57.660 --> 00:05:00.340 of his injured countrymen. 45 00:05:00.340 --> 00:05:07.020 George Angus finally arrived to assume his post in Georgia on January 4. 46 00:05:07.020 --> 00:05:12.860 Spirited to the home of Governor James Wright, Angus distributed some paper to the customs 47 00:05:12.860 --> 00:05:13.860 officers. 48 00:05:13.860 --> 00:05:20.740 But within two weeks, angry crowds persuaded Angus to flee the country. 49 00:05:20.740 --> 00:05:26.100 Plans for a march of some six hundred men on Savannah induced the governor to send the 50 00:05:26.100 --> 00:05:33.700 stamped paper back to England on a British warship. Thus the ambiguities of stamp distribution 51 00:05:33.700 --> 00:05:40.700 in Maryland and Georgia were quickly resolved. The New York Sons of Liberty also exercised 52 00:05:40.700 --> 00:05:47.540 due vigilance in pursuing current and potential stamp masters. In the late November, the Sons 53 00:05:47.540 --> 00:05:52.980 Friends of Liberty of New York forced the retirement of Peter Delancey from his post 54 00:05:52.980 --> 00:05:59.380 as inspector and distributor of stamps in Canada and Nova Scotia. A few days later, 55 00:05:59.380 --> 00:06:07.460 James McEvers was forced to repeat his public resignation as stamp distributor for New York. 56 00:06:07.460 --> 00:06:13.940 In early January, the Albany Liberty boys warned prospective stamp distributors, and 57 00:06:13.940 --> 00:06:20.740 and some 400 of them pulled down the house of one such candidate, Henry Von Schack. Von 58 00:06:20.740 --> 00:06:26.140 Schack, seeing the handwriting on the wall, hurried to his son's meeting the following 59 00:06:26.140 --> 00:06:33.680 day to promise never to accept the post of stamp master. He was duly cheered by the throng, 60 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:40.140 and in Rhode Island, Augustus Johnston was again forced to resign as stamp distributor 61 00:06:40.140 --> 00:06:46.300 at the end of December. When a little later the stamped papers arrived, the Sons of Liberty 62 00:06:46.300 --> 00:06:50.540 of Newport ceremonially burned the papers.