Colonial period of South Carolina
Encyclopedia
The history of the colonial period of South Carolina focuses on the English colonization that created one of the original Thirteen Colonies
. Major settlement began after 1712 as the northern half of the British colony of Carolina attracted frontiersmen from Pennsylvania and Virginia, while the southern parts were populated by wealthy English planters who set up large slave plantations. Therefore the Province of South Carolina was separated from the Province of North Carolina in 1729. With its capital city of Charleston becoming a major port for traffic on the Atlantic Ocean, South Carolina produced a large export surplus in the colonial era, making it one of the most prosperous of the colonies. A strong colonial government fought wars with the local Indians, and with Spanish imperial outposts in Florida, while fending off the threat of pirates. Birth rates were high, food conditions were abundant, and offset the diseased environment of malaria to produce rapid population growth. The colony developed a system of laws and self-government and a growing commitment to Republicanism
that patriots feared was threatened by the British Empire after 1765. South Carolina joined the American Revolution in 1775, but was bitterly divided between Patriots and Loyalists. The British invaded in 1780 and captured most of the state, but were finally driven out.
and English
had abandoned the area of present-day South Carolina
north of the Edisto River
. In 1629 Charles I
granted his attorney general a charter to everything between latitudes 36 and 31. Later, in 1663, Charles II
gave the land to eight nobles, the Lords Proprietor
. There was a single government of the Carolinas based in Charleston until 1712, when a separate government (under the Lords Proprietors) was set up for North Carolina. In 1719, the Crown purchased the South Carolina colony from the absentee Lords Proprietor and appointed Royal Governors. By 1729, seven of the eight Lords Proprietors had sold their interests back to the Crown; the separate royal colonies of North Carolina and South Carolina were established.
Throughout the Colonial Period
, the Carolinas participated in numerous wars with the Spanish and the Native Americans
, particularly the Yamasee
, Apalachee
, and Cherokee
. During the Yamasee War
of 1715-1717, South Carolina faced near annihilation due to Indian attacks. A pan-Indian allliance had formed to try to push the colonists out, in part a reaction to their trade in Indian slaves for the nearly 50 years since 1670. The effects of the slave trade affected tribes throughout the Southeast. Estimates are that Carolinians exported 24,000-51,000 Indian slaves to markets from Boston
to Barbados
. The emerging planter class used the revenues to finance the purchase of enslaved Africans. So many Africans were imported that they comprised a majority of the population in the colony during most of the years before the American Revolution.
The Carolina upcountry was settled largely by Scots-Irish immigrants arriving from Pennsylvania
and Virginia
, German descended people in the Piedmont, and the white population of the Low Country was dominated by wealthy plantation
owners of English and French descent. Toward the end of the Colonial Period, the upcountry people were underrepresented and mistreated. In reaction, they took a loyalist
position when the Low Country complained of new taxes that would later help spark the American Revolution
.
colonists shaped Carolina's culture and economy well into the 19th century. They brought a functional social system rooted in European feudalism and slave-based sugar plantation industry. They brought African slaves to grow rice for export as the main cash crop.
In North Carolina a short-lived colony was established near the mouth of the Cape Fear River. A ship was sent southward to explore the Port Royal, South Carolina area, where the French had established the short-lived Charlesfort
post and the Spanish had built Santa Elena
, the capital of Spanish Florida
from 1566 to 1587, until it was abandoned. Captain Robert Sanford made a visit with the friendly Edisto Indians. When the ship departed to return to Cape Fear, Dr. Henry Woodward
stayed behind to study the interior and native Indians.
In Bermuda, an 80-year-old Puritan Bermudian colonist, Colonel William Sayle
, was named governor
of Carolina. On March 15, 1670, under Sayle (who sailed on a Bermuda sloop
with a number of Bermudian families), they finally reached Port Royal. According to the account of one passenger, the Indians were friendly, made signs toward where they should land, and spoke broken Spanish. Spain
still considered Carolina to be its land; the main Spanish base, St. Augustine
, wasn't far away. The Spanish missionary provinces of Guale
and Mocama
occupied the coast south of the Savannah River and Port Royal. Though the Edisto Indians were not happy to have the English settle permanently, the chief of the Kiawah Indians, who lived farther north along the coast, arrived to invite the English to settle among his people and protect them from the Westo
tribe, slave-raiding allies of Virginia.
The sailors agreed and sailed for the region now called West Ashley. When they landed in early April at Albemarle Point on the shores of the Ashley River, they founded Charles Town
, in honor of their king. On May 23, Three Brothers arrived in Charles Town Bay without 11 or 12 passengers who had gone for water and supplies at St. Catherines Island
, and had run into Indians allied with the Spanish. St. Catherines Island was the capital of Spanish Florida's Guale province. Of the hundreds of people who had sailed from England or Barbados, only 148 people, including three African slaves, lived to arrive at Charles Town Landing.
as governor and sent a representative to ask the King to make Carolina a royal province with a royal governor. They wanted the Crown to grant the colony aid and security directly from the English government. Because the Crown was interested in Carolina's exports and did not think the Lords Proprietor were adequately protecting the colony, it agreed. Robert Johnson
, the last proprietary governor, became the first royal governor.
Meanwhile, the colony of Carolina was slowly splitting in two. In the first fifty years of the colony's existence, most settlement was focused on the region around Charleston. The northern part of the colony had no deep water port. North Carolina's earliest settlement region, the Albemarle Settlements
, was colonized by Virginians and closely tied to Virginia. In 1712, the northern half of Carolina was granted its own governor and named "North Carolina." North Carolina
remained under proprietary rule until 1729.
Because South Carolina was more populous and more commercially important, most Europeans thought primarily of it, and not of North Carolina, when they referred to "Carolina". By the time of the American Revolution, this colony was known as "South Carolina."
to make Charles Town's shipping more profitable, and to create a buffer zone against attacks. The Carolinians arranged a fund to lure European Protestants. Each family would receive free land based on the number of people that it brought over, including slaves. Every 100 families settling together would be declared a parish and given two representatives in the state assembly. Within ten years, eight townships formed, all along navigable streams. Charlestonians considered the towns created by the Germans, Scots, Irish
, and Welsh, such as Orangeburg
and Saxe-Gotha (later called Cayce
), to be their first line of defense in case of an Indian attack, and military reserves against the threat of a slave uprising.
By the 1750s the Piedmont
region attracted numerous frontier families from the north, using the Great Wagon Road
. Differences in religion, philosophy and background between the mostly Scots-Irish Calvinist subsistence farmers in the Upcountry
and the wealthy English slaveholding Anglican planters of the Low Country bred distrust and hostility between the two regions. The Low Country planters traditionally had wealth, education and political power. By the time of the Revolution
, however, the Back Country contained nearly half the white population of South Carolina, about 20,000 to 30,000 settlers. Nearly all of them were Dissenting Protestants
. After the Revolution, the state legislature disestablished the Anglican Church.
as a British outpost and trading center near the Keowee River
. Two years later Old Hop, an important Cherokee chief, made a treaty with Glenn at Saluda Old Town, midway between Charles Town and Keowee. Old Hop gave the Carolinians the 96th District, a region that included parts of ten currently separate counties.
By January 19, 1760, the Cherokee, angered by broken British promises, increasing tension with colonists, and the gradual theft of their land, began attacking white settlers in the Upcountry. This uprising was called the Cherokee War
. South Carolina's Governor Lyttelton raised an army of 1,100 men and marched on the Lower Towns (Seneca Town was the closest), which quickly agreed to peace. As part of the peace terms, 29 Cherokee chiefs were imprisoned as hostages in Fort Prince George
. Lyttelton returned to Charles Town, but the Cherokee were still angry and continued raiding the frontier. In February of 1760, the Cherokee attacked Fort Prince George in a rescue attempt of the hostages. In the battle, the fort's commander was killed. His replacement quickly ordered the execution of the hostages, then fought off the Cherokee assault.
Unable to put down the rebellion, Governor Lyttelton appealed to Jeffrey Amherst
, who sent Archibald Montgomery
with an army of 1,200 British regulars and Scots Highlanders. Montgomery's army burned a few of the Cherokees' abandoned Lower Towns. When he tried to cross into the region of the Cherokee Middle Towns, he was ambushed and defeated at "Etchoe Pass" and forced to return to Charles Town. In 1761 the British made a third attempt to defeat the Cherokee. General Grant
led an army of 2,600 men, including Catawba
scouts. The Cherokee fought at Etchoe Pass but failed to stop Grant's army. The British burned the Cherokee Middle Towns and fields of crops.
In September of 1761, a number of Cherokee chiefs led by Attakullakulla petitioned for peace. The terms of the peace treaty included the cession of most of the eastern lands of the Cherokee, including the whole region of the Lower Towns. The Cherokee who had lived there were forced to migrate - most went to the Middle Towns or beyond.
After the Cherokee defeat and cession of land, new settlers flooded into the Upcountry through the Waxhaws
in what is now called Lancaster County. Lawlessness ensued and robbery, arson
, and looting became common. Upcountry residents formed a group of "Regulators," vigilantes who took the law into their own hands to control the criminals. Having acquired 50% of the state's white population, the Upcountry sent representative Patrick Calhoun and other representatives before the Charles Town state legislature
to appeal for representation, courts, roads, and supplies for churches and schools. Before long, Calhoun and Moses Kirkland were in the legislature as Upcountry representatives.
By 1775, the colony
contained an estimated 60,000 European Americans and 80,000 mostly enslaved African Americans.
Lord William Campbell was the last English Governor of the Province of South Carolina.
The highly successful preaching tour of evangelist George Whitefield
in 1740 ignited a religious revival --called the First Great Awakening
-- which energized evangelical Protestants. They expanded their membership among the white farmers, as women were especially active in the small Methodist and Baptist churches that were springing up everywhere. The evangelicals worked hard to convert the slaves to Christianity and were especially successful among black women, who played the role of religious specialists in Africa and again in America. Slave women exercised wide-ranging spiritual leadership among Africans in America in healing and medicine, church discipline, and revivalistic enthusiasm..
in 1739. Some of the leaders had previously been involved in Africa in the Christian kingdom of Kongo; they introduced their ritual practices and apparently employed military tactics they had learned in the Kongo.
The 1752 hurricane caused massive damage to homes, businesses, shipping, and the rice crop. Charleston, the capital, was the fifth largest city in British North America at the time. The storm was compact and powerful, but the city and surrounding areas were saved from even greater destruction only because the wind shifted some three hours before high tide. The bickering between the various political authorities over money following the destruction of the colony's defenses, a devastating financial crisis, and the threat of the Commons to report Governor Glen's conduct to the king substantially weakened the relationship between the royal governor and the local political elites in the Commons House Assembly.
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...
. Major settlement began after 1712 as the northern half of the British colony of Carolina attracted frontiersmen from Pennsylvania and Virginia, while the southern parts were populated by wealthy English planters who set up large slave plantations. Therefore the Province of South Carolina was separated from the Province of North Carolina in 1729. With its capital city of Charleston becoming a major port for traffic on the Atlantic Ocean, South Carolina produced a large export surplus in the colonial era, making it one of the most prosperous of the colonies. A strong colonial government fought wars with the local Indians, and with Spanish imperial outposts in Florida, while fending off the threat of pirates. Birth rates were high, food conditions were abundant, and offset the diseased environment of malaria to produce rapid population growth. The colony developed a system of laws and self-government and a growing commitment to Republicanism
Republicanism in the United States
Republicanism is the political value system that has been a major part of American civic thought since the American Revolution. It stresses liberty and inalienable rights as central values, makes the people as a whole sovereign, supports activist government to promote the common good, rejects...
that patriots feared was threatened by the British Empire after 1765. South Carolina joined the American Revolution in 1775, but was bitterly divided between Patriots and Loyalists. The British invaded in 1780 and captured most of the state, but were finally driven out.
Overview
After several expeditions and settlement attempts in the 16th century, the FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
had abandoned the area of present-day South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
north of the Edisto River
Edisto River
The Edisto River is the longest completely undammed / unleveed blackwater river in North America, flowing 206 meandering miles from its sources in Saluda and Edgefield counties, to its Atlantic Ocean mouth at Edisto Beach, SC...
. In 1629 Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
granted his attorney general a charter to everything between latitudes 36 and 31. Later, in 1663, Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
gave the land to eight nobles, the Lords Proprietor
Lords Proprietor
Lords Proprietor was the name for the chief or highest owners or proprietors of certain English proprietary colonies in America, such as Carolina, New Jersey and Barbados....
. There was a single government of the Carolinas based in Charleston until 1712, when a separate government (under the Lords Proprietors) was set up for North Carolina. In 1719, the Crown purchased the South Carolina colony from the absentee Lords Proprietor and appointed Royal Governors. By 1729, seven of the eight Lords Proprietors had sold their interests back to the Crown; the separate royal colonies of North Carolina and South Carolina were established.
Throughout the Colonial Period
Colonial America
The colonial history of the United States covers the history from the start of European settlement and especially the history of the thirteen colonies of Britain until they declared independence in 1776. In the late 16th century, England, France, Spain and the Netherlands launched major...
, the Carolinas participated in numerous wars with the Spanish and the Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
, particularly the Yamasee
Yamasee
The Yamasee were a multiethnic confederation of Native Americans that lived in the coastal region of present-day northern coastal Georgia near the Savannah River and later in northeastern Florida.-History:...
, Apalachee
Apalachee
The Apalachee are a Native American people who historically lived in the Florida Panhandle, and now live primarily in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Their historical territory was known to the Spanish colonists as the Apalachee Province...
, and Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
. During the Yamasee War
Yamasee War
The Yamasee War was a conflict between British settlers of colonial South Carolina and various Native American Indian tribes, including the Yamasee, Muscogee, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Catawba, Apalachee, Apalachicola, Yuchi, Savannah River Shawnee, Congaree, Waxhaw, Pee Dee, Cape Fear, Cheraw, and...
of 1715-1717, South Carolina faced near annihilation due to Indian attacks. A pan-Indian allliance had formed to try to push the colonists out, in part a reaction to their trade in Indian slaves for the nearly 50 years since 1670. The effects of the slave trade affected tribes throughout the Southeast. Estimates are that Carolinians exported 24,000-51,000 Indian slaves to markets from Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
to Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
. The emerging planter class used the revenues to finance the purchase of enslaved Africans. So many Africans were imported that they comprised a majority of the population in the colony during most of the years before the American Revolution.
The Carolina upcountry was settled largely by Scots-Irish immigrants arriving from Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
and Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, German descended people in the Piedmont, and the white population of the Low Country was dominated by wealthy plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
owners of English and French descent. Toward the end of the Colonial Period, the upcountry people were underrepresented and mistreated. In reaction, they took a loyalist
Loyalist (American Revolution)
Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men. They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution...
position when the Low Country complained of new taxes that would later help spark the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
.
The first passage
The BarbadianBarbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
colonists shaped Carolina's culture and economy well into the 19th century. They brought a functional social system rooted in European feudalism and slave-based sugar plantation industry. They brought African slaves to grow rice for export as the main cash crop.
In North Carolina a short-lived colony was established near the mouth of the Cape Fear River. A ship was sent southward to explore the Port Royal, South Carolina area, where the French had established the short-lived Charlesfort
Charlesfort-Santa Elena Site
Charlesfort-Santa Elena Site is an archeological site on Parris Island, South Carolina, which is also known as Ribaut Monument, San Marcos, San Felipe, or 38BU51 and 38BU162...
post and the Spanish had built Santa Elena
Charlesfort-Santa Elena Site
Charlesfort-Santa Elena Site is an archeological site on Parris Island, South Carolina, which is also known as Ribaut Monument, San Marcos, San Felipe, or 38BU51 and 38BU162...
, the capital of Spanish Florida
Spanish Florida
Spanish Florida refers to the Spanish territory of Florida, which formed part of the Captaincy General of Cuba, the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and the Spanish Empire. Originally extending over what is now the southeastern United States, but with no defined boundaries, la Florida was a component of...
from 1566 to 1587, until it was abandoned. Captain Robert Sanford made a visit with the friendly Edisto Indians. When the ship departed to return to Cape Fear, Dr. Henry Woodward
Henry Woodward (colonist)
Henry Woodward , often referred to as Dr. Henry Woodward, was the first British colonist of colonial South Carolina. He was instrumental in establishing relationships with many Native American Indians in the American southeast...
stayed behind to study the interior and native Indians.
In Bermuda, an 80-year-old Puritan Bermudian colonist, Colonel William Sayle
William Sayle
William Sayle was an explorer, settler of the Bahamas, and the first governor of colonial South Carolina from 1670–71.William Sayle established the first English settlement of the Bahamas between 1646–48 on the island of Eleuthera, although his legal claim to proprietorship in the Bahamas now...
, was named governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
of Carolina. On March 15, 1670, under Sayle (who sailed on a Bermuda sloop
Bermuda sloop
The Bermuda sloop is a type of fore-and-aft rigged sailing vessel developed on the islands of Bermuda in the 17th century. In its purest form, it is single-masted, although ships with such rigging were built with as many as three masts, which are then referred to as schooners...
with a number of Bermudian families), they finally reached Port Royal. According to the account of one passenger, the Indians were friendly, made signs toward where they should land, and spoke broken Spanish. Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
still considered Carolina to be its land; the main Spanish base, St. Augustine
St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine is a city in the northeast section of Florida and the county seat of St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorer and admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, it is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United...
, wasn't far away. The Spanish missionary provinces of Guale
Guale
Guale was an historic Native American chiefdom along the coast of present-day Georgia and the Sea Islands. Spanish Florida established its Roman Catholic missionary system in the chiefdom in the late 16th century. During the late 17th century and early 18th century, Guale society was shattered...
and Mocama
Mocama
The Mocama were a Native American people who lived in the coastal areas of what are now northern Florida and southeastern Georgia. A Timucua group, they spoke the dialect known as Mocama, the best-attested dialect of the Timucua language. Their territory extended from about the Altamaha River in...
occupied the coast south of the Savannah River and Port Royal. Though the Edisto Indians were not happy to have the English settle permanently, the chief of the Kiawah Indians, who lived farther north along the coast, arrived to invite the English to settle among his people and protect them from the Westo
Westo
The Westo were a Native American tribe encountered in the Southeast by Europeans in the 17th century. They probably spoke an Iroquoian language. The Spanish called these people Chichimeco , and, Virginia colonists may have called the same people Richahecrian...
tribe, slave-raiding allies of Virginia.
The sailors agreed and sailed for the region now called West Ashley. When they landed in early April at Albemarle Point on the shores of the Ashley River, they founded Charles Town
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, in honor of their king. On May 23, Three Brothers arrived in Charles Town Bay without 11 or 12 passengers who had gone for water and supplies at St. Catherines Island
St. Catherines Island
St. Catherines Island, also known as Santa Catalina, is one of the Sea Islands or Golden Isles on the coast of the U.S. state of Georgia, 50 miles south of Savannah in Liberty County. The island is ten miles long and from one to three miles wide, located between St. Catherine's Sound and Sapelo...
, and had run into Indians allied with the Spanish. St. Catherines Island was the capital of Spanish Florida's Guale province. Of the hundreds of people who had sailed from England or Barbados, only 148 people, including three African slaves, lived to arrive at Charles Town Landing.
The end of proprietary rule
Proprietary rule was unpopular in South Carolina almost from the start, mainly because propertied immigrants to the colony hoped to monopolize fundamental constitutions of Carolina as a basis for government. Moreover, many Anglicans resented the Proprietors' guarantee of freedom of religion to Dissenters. In November 1719, Carolina elected James MooreJames Moore (South Carolina politician)
James Moore was the British governor of colonial South Carolina between 1700 and 1703. He is remembered for leading several invasions of Spanish Florida, including attacks in 1704 and 1706 which wiped out most of the Spanish missions in Florida....
as governor and sent a representative to ask the King to make Carolina a royal province with a royal governor. They wanted the Crown to grant the colony aid and security directly from the English government. Because the Crown was interested in Carolina's exports and did not think the Lords Proprietor were adequately protecting the colony, it agreed. Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson (governor)
Robert Johnson was the British colonial Governor of the Province of South Carolina in 1717-1719, and again from 1729-1735. Governor Johnson ordered Colonel William Rhett to engage the notorious pirate Stede Bonnet's sloops in the Battle of Cape Fear River near Charleston in 1718...
, the last proprietary governor, became the first royal governor.
Meanwhile, the colony of Carolina was slowly splitting in two. In the first fifty years of the colony's existence, most settlement was focused on the region around Charleston. The northern part of the colony had no deep water port. North Carolina's earliest settlement region, the Albemarle Settlements
Albemarle Settlements
The Albemarle Settlements were the first permanent English settlements in what is now North Carolina, founded in the Albemarle Sound and Roanoke River regions, beginning about the middle of the 17th century. The settlers were mainly Virginians migrating south...
, was colonized by Virginians and closely tied to Virginia. In 1712, the northern half of Carolina was granted its own governor and named "North Carolina." North Carolina
Province of North Carolina
The Province of North Carolina was originally part of the Province of Carolina in British America, which was chartered by eight Lords Proprietor. The province later became the U.S. states of North Carolina and Tennessee....
remained under proprietary rule until 1729.
Because South Carolina was more populous and more commercially important, most Europeans thought primarily of it, and not of North Carolina, when they referred to "Carolina". By the time of the American Revolution, this colony was known as "South Carolina."
Frontier settlement
Governor Robert Johnson encouraged settlement in the western frontierFrontier
A frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary. 'Frontier' was absorbed into English from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"--the region of a country that fronts on another country .The use of "frontier" to mean "a region at the...
to make Charles Town's shipping more profitable, and to create a buffer zone against attacks. The Carolinians arranged a fund to lure European Protestants. Each family would receive free land based on the number of people that it brought over, including slaves. Every 100 families settling together would be declared a parish and given two representatives in the state assembly. Within ten years, eight townships formed, all along navigable streams. Charlestonians considered the towns created by the Germans, Scots, Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
, and Welsh, such as Orangeburg
Orangeburg, South Carolina
Orangeburg, also known as "The Garden City," is the principal city in and the county seat of Orangeburg County, South Carolina, United States. The city is also the fifth oldest city in the state of South Carolina. The city population was 12,765 at the 2000 census, within a Greater Orangeburg...
and Saxe-Gotha (later called Cayce
Cayce, South Carolina
Cayce is a city in Lexington and Richland counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina, along the Congaree River. The population was 12,150 at the 2000 census...
), to be their first line of defense in case of an Indian attack, and military reserves against the threat of a slave uprising.
By the 1750s the Piedmont
Piedmont, South Carolina
Piedmont is a census-designated place along the Saluda River in Anderson and Greenville counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 4,684 at the 2000 census....
region attracted numerous frontier families from the north, using the Great Wagon Road
Great Wagon Road
The Great Wagon Road was a colonial American improved trail transiting the Great Appalachian Valley from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, and from there to Georgia....
. Differences in religion, philosophy and background between the mostly Scots-Irish Calvinist subsistence farmers in the Upcountry
The Upstate
The Upstate is the region in northwestern South Carolina, United States, also known as The Upcountry, which is the historical term. Although loosely defined among locals, the general definition includes the 10 counties of the commerce-rich I-85 corridor in the northwest corner of South Carolina. ...
and the wealthy English slaveholding Anglican planters of the Low Country bred distrust and hostility between the two regions. The Low Country planters traditionally had wealth, education and political power. By the time of the Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, however, the Back Country contained nearly half the white population of South Carolina, about 20,000 to 30,000 settlers. Nearly all of them were Dissenting Protestants
English Dissenters
English Dissenters were Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.They originally agitated for a wide reaching Protestant Reformation of the Established Church, and triumphed briefly under Oliver Cromwell....
. After the Revolution, the state legislature disestablished the Anglican Church.
Land acquisition
Though Governor Francis Nicholson attempted to pacify the Cherokee with gifts, they had grown discontented with the arrangements. Sir Alexander Cuming negotiated with them to open some land for settlement in 1730. Because Governor James Glenn stepped in to bring peace between the Creek and Cherokee, the Cherokee rewarded him by granting South Carolina a few thousand acres of land near their major Lower Town of Keowee. The Carolinians built Fort Prince GeorgeFort Prince George
Fort Prince George was an uncompleted fort on what is now the site of Pittsburgh, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The site was originally a trading post established by Ohio Company trader William Trent in the 1740s...
as a British outpost and trading center near the Keowee River
Keowee River
The Keowee River is created by the confluence of the Toxaway River and the Whitewater River in northern Oconee County, South Carolina. The confluence is today submerged beneath the waters of Lake Jocassee, a reservoir created by Lake Jocassee Dam....
. Two years later Old Hop, an important Cherokee chief, made a treaty with Glenn at Saluda Old Town, midway between Charles Town and Keowee. Old Hop gave the Carolinians the 96th District, a region that included parts of ten currently separate counties.
By January 19, 1760, the Cherokee, angered by broken British promises, increasing tension with colonists, and the gradual theft of their land, began attacking white settlers in the Upcountry. This uprising was called the Cherokee War
Anglo-Cherokee War
The Anglo-Cherokee War , also known as the Cherokee War, the Cherokee Uprising, the Cherokee Rebellion, was a conflict between British forces in North America and Cherokee Indians during the French and Indian War...
. South Carolina's Governor Lyttelton raised an army of 1,100 men and marched on the Lower Towns (Seneca Town was the closest), which quickly agreed to peace. As part of the peace terms, 29 Cherokee chiefs were imprisoned as hostages in Fort Prince George
Fort Prince George (South Carolina)
Fort Prince George was constructed in 1753 in northwest South Carolina, on the Cherokee Path. It was named for the Prince of Wales, who would later become King George III of the United Kingdom...
. Lyttelton returned to Charles Town, but the Cherokee were still angry and continued raiding the frontier. In February of 1760, the Cherokee attacked Fort Prince George in a rescue attempt of the hostages. In the battle, the fort's commander was killed. His replacement quickly ordered the execution of the hostages, then fought off the Cherokee assault.
Unable to put down the rebellion, Governor Lyttelton appealed to Jeffrey Amherst
Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst
Field Marshal Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst KCB served as an officer in the British Army and as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces.Amherst is best known as one of the victors of the French and Indian War, when he conquered Louisbourg, Quebec City and...
, who sent Archibald Montgomery
Archibald Montgomerie, 11th Earl of Eglinton
Archibald Montgomerie, 11th Earl of Eglinton was a Scottish General, and Member of Parliament in the British Parliament. He was also the Clan Chief of the Clan Montgomery. Montgomerie fought in the Seven Years' War, where he served with George Washington...
with an army of 1,200 British regulars and Scots Highlanders. Montgomery's army burned a few of the Cherokees' abandoned Lower Towns. When he tried to cross into the region of the Cherokee Middle Towns, he was ambushed and defeated at "Etchoe Pass" and forced to return to Charles Town. In 1761 the British made a third attempt to defeat the Cherokee. General Grant
James Grant (general)
James Grant, Laird of Ballindalloch was a major general in the British Army during the American War of Independence. He served as Governor of East Florida from 1763 to 1771.-Early career:...
led an army of 2,600 men, including Catawba
Catawba
Catawba may refer to several things:*Catawba , a Native American tribe*Catawban languages-Botany:*Catalpa, a genus of trees, based on the name used by the Catawba and other Native American tribes*Catawba , a variety of grape...
scouts. The Cherokee fought at Etchoe Pass but failed to stop Grant's army. The British burned the Cherokee Middle Towns and fields of crops.
In September of 1761, a number of Cherokee chiefs led by Attakullakulla petitioned for peace. The terms of the peace treaty included the cession of most of the eastern lands of the Cherokee, including the whole region of the Lower Towns. The Cherokee who had lived there were forced to migrate - most went to the Middle Towns or beyond.
After the Cherokee defeat and cession of land, new settlers flooded into the Upcountry through the Waxhaws
Waxhaws
The Waxhaws is a geographical area on the border of North and South Carolina.-Geography:The Waxhaws region is in the Piedmont region of North and South Carolina, southwest of the Uwharrie Mountains. The region encompasses an area just south of Charlotte, North Carolina, to Lancaster, South...
in what is now called Lancaster County. Lawlessness ensued and robbery, arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
, and looting became common. Upcountry residents formed a group of "Regulators," vigilantes who took the law into their own hands to control the criminals. Having acquired 50% of the state's white population, the Upcountry sent representative Patrick Calhoun and other representatives before the Charles Town state legislature
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
to appeal for representation, courts, roads, and supplies for churches and schools. Before long, Calhoun and Moses Kirkland were in the legislature as Upcountry representatives.
By 1775, the colony
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
contained an estimated 60,000 European Americans and 80,000 mostly enslaved African Americans.
Lord William Campbell was the last English Governor of the Province of South Carolina.
Religion
Numerous churches build bases and Charleston, and expanded into the rural areas, including Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Lutherans. Catholics and Jews built their churches and Charleston. The Baptists and Methodists appeared in the late 18th century, and grew rapidly, attracting many slaves. The Scotch-Irish in the Backcountry were Presbyterians, and the wealthy planters in the Lowcountry were English Anglicans. They had many disputes over politics and economic policy, but seldom fought over religion.. The different churches recognized and supported each other, building the colony into a pluralist and tolerant society..The highly successful preaching tour of evangelist George Whitefield
George Whitefield
George Whitefield , also known as George Whitfield, was an English Anglican priest who helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain, and especially in the British North American colonies. He was one of the founders of Methodism and of the evangelical movement generally...
in 1740 ignited a religious revival --called the First Great Awakening
First Great Awakening
The First Awakening was a Christian revitalization movement that swept Protestant Europe and British America, and especially the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, leaving a permanent impact on American religion. It resulted from powerful preaching that gave listeners a sense of personal...
-- which energized evangelical Protestants. They expanded their membership among the white farmers, as women were especially active in the small Methodist and Baptist churches that were springing up everywhere. The evangelicals worked hard to convert the slaves to Christianity and were especially successful among black women, who played the role of religious specialists in Africa and again in America. Slave women exercised wide-ranging spiritual leadership among Africans in America in healing and medicine, church discipline, and revivalistic enthusiasm..
Slaves
Many of the rich planters came, along with their slaves, from Barbados and other islands in the Caribbean. The built plantations focused on export crops, such as law Sea Island cotton, indigo, and rice. The slaves came from many diverse cultures in Africa, and the one major rebellion was the Stono rebellionStono Rebellion
The Stono Rebellion was a slave rebellion that commenced on 9 September 1739, in the colony of South Carolina...
in 1739. Some of the leaders had previously been involved in Africa in the Christian kingdom of Kongo; they introduced their ritual practices and apparently employed military tactics they had learned in the Kongo.
Hurricanes
South Carolina was struck by four major hurricanes during the colonial period, and South Carolinians were constantly aware of the threat these storms posed and even their impact on warfare.The 1752 hurricane caused massive damage to homes, businesses, shipping, and the rice crop. Charleston, the capital, was the fifth largest city in British North America at the time. The storm was compact and powerful, but the city and surrounding areas were saved from even greater destruction only because the wind shifted some three hours before high tide. The bickering between the various political authorities over money following the destruction of the colony's defenses, a devastating financial crisis, and the threat of the Commons to report Governor Glen's conduct to the king substantially weakened the relationship between the royal governor and the local political elites in the Commons House Assembly.