1 7 1 9 George, James Moore was proclaimed governor. Then I and there the lords proprietors lost a province. Prominent among the leaders of the revolt was Arthur Middleton, speaker of the assembly.

A Provisional

of Carolina

A council of twelve was chosen, Richard Allein was Government made chief-justice in the place of Nicholas Trott, and Colonel John Barnwell was sent to England to ask that South Carolina be taken under royal protection and government. The convention then resolved itself into an assembly and resumed its legislative functions. Of course, all this action was without authority of law; its only justification lay in the neglect and helplessness of the proprietors, the subsequent approval of the king, and the acceptance of the results by the people. Governor Eden The Division and his council at Albemarle refused to hold any communication with Governor Moore at Charles Town, thus making very real the division of the Carolina province. In spite of the excitement in England caused by the Governor for South Sea bubble, of which more in a later chapter, the South Carolina agents successfully urged upon the board of trade the necessity of action. General Francis NicholSeptember 26, son, formerly of New York and Virginia, was commissioned as the provisional royal governor of South Carolina. The South Carolina revolution of 1719 was closely parallel to the Maryland revolution of 1690 and the commission given to Nicholson in 1720 followed the copy of the one issued to Sir Lionel Copley nearly thirty years before. Nicholson arrived at Charles Town in May, 1721, and, with his glad reception, the revolution was completed. The charter was not surrendered until 1729, but the royal government began at once. There is little

A Royal

South Carolina

1720

Carolinian

doubt that the agitation that thus ended had been begun by Edward Randolph, collector of the king's customs, and that it was encouraged by the board of trade and plantations. Little more than half a century later, the principles thus approved by the English ministry were successfully asserted against its authority.

From Virginia to Massachusetts there was a chain of Characteristics English colonies with something like a common senti

ment. Between Jamestown and Charles Town there 1 7 2 1 were no roads and the ocean route was made dangerous for coasting craft by the projection of Cape Hatteras. The Spaniards in Florida were much nearer than any powerful English allies and Carolina was an assertion of British dominion in disputed territory. This practical isolation developed a spirit of self-reliance and strongly influenced the political and social organization of the province. The system of government and the customs and manners transferred from Barbados, the influence of the fundamental constitutions, and the peculiar hold upon the people that the profitable production of rice gave to negro slavery united in a tendency to create an aristocratic social order.

For more than a hundred years, the general assembly State met at Charles Town and constituted the common gov- Sovereignty ernment for province and town, and largely for the church. In that period, no court of general jurisdiction was held outside the town and every magistrate of the province was appointed at that center. From 1665 to 1865 there was no such thing as a county or township government of any kind in South Carolina. Everything tended to intensify the conception of the entity and sovereignty of the state. Moreover, the attempt of the proprietors to impose the fundamental constitutions Strict upon the colony had forced upon the people the great t political lesson of government by a written constitution. "It was this principle - the essential difference between the constitution of tradition and precedent of England and the lex scripta of America that was forced upon Thus it came to pass that the first political question asked and debated in Carolina was: 'What is written in the law? how readest thou?' and that question has continued to be asked and repeated in all the history of the province and the State."

their attention.

Construc

tionists

1690

I 73 I

The
Government

of Albemarle

Coalition and
Confusion

1706

RULE IN NORTH CAROLINA

FTER the banishment of Sothell in 1688 and the transfer of Governor Ludwell from Albemarle to

Charles Town, the proprietors allowed the people of the northern colony to manage local affairs pretty much in their own way. In 1704, Henderson Walker, president of the council and, ex-officio, acting governor, died. The stone that marks his grave records that during his administration North Carolina enjoyed tranquillitysepulchral testimony that Mr. Bancroft calls "the history of four years in which the people, without molestation, were happy in their independence." Then Sir Nathaniel

Johnson, the high-church governor of South Carolina, appointed Robert Daniell, who had commanded the land forces in the expedition against Saint Augustine, as his deputy for the government of North Carolina.

Some historians affirm that Daniell sought to establish the English church in "the sanctuary of runaways" and even to disfranchise some of the inhabitants because of their opinions. Others insist that all the trouble arose from the refusal of the Quakers to take oaths, even the oath of allegiance to Queen Anne. At all events, the Quakers made complaint and, with Archdale's help, induced the proprietors to order Daniell's removal. When Thomas Cary proved to be no more acceptable and was removed, the appointment of a North Carolina deputy by the South Carolina executive was suspended. A new

proprietary council, including John Porter and several 1 7 0 7 other Quakers, convened in 1707 and chose William 17 10 Glover, an English churchman, as president and, exofficio, acting governor. Porter declared Glover's election illegal, formed a coalition with the lately deposed Cary, and secured the election of the latter to the presidency. Glover and Cary had their respective councils and, for a time, North Carolina had a double-headed government. The other deposed deputy, Daniell, was a landgrave and, by virtue of his rank, entitled to a seat in the council of either governor. He sat one day with one, the next day

with the other and, no doubt, enjoyed the altercations of both. Cary's party obtained control of the assembly and Glover was forced to take refuge in Virginia.

In the summer of 1710, Edward Hyde arrived from Governor England and claimed executive authority. His com- Hyde mission as deputy-governor for North Carolina was to be made out by the governor of South Carolina, but Governor Tynte had died before Hyde's arrival. When Hyde's life was put in danger by Cary's armed supporters, Spotswood, the royal governor of Virginia, sent him aid. Cary's Quaker adherents would not fight and the blood

1 7 1 1 less rebellion suddenly collapsed. Cary was arrested and sent to England. In December, 1710, the proprietors had proposed to appoint a separate governor for the Albemarle settlements and, about a year later, Hyde was commissioned by the proprietors and sworn in as

January,

1711-12

Missing
Records

The
Tuscarora
Conspiracy

A NEW

VOYAGE

T.O

CAROLINA;

CONTAINING THE

Exalt Defcription and Natural Hiftory

OF THAT

the first governor of

North Carolina.

There is an unfortunate hiatus in the

COUNTRY: Carolina records of

Together with the Prefent State thereof.

AND

this period. The two colonies were practically distinct, but they were governed by a single corporation and the documents relating to each are sadly mixed with those relating to the other. In spite of this, the records leave no doubt that the people were drifting or marching in the same Title-page of John Lawson's New Voyage direction as the South Carolinians. There were the chronic quarrels of Anglicans and Quakers and, in 1717, "the people acknowledged no power not derived from themselves."

A JOURNAL
Of a Thousand Miles, Travel'd thro' feveral

Nations of INDIANS.

Giving a particular Account of their Customs,
Manners, c.

By JOHN LAWSON, Gent. Surveyor-
General of North-Carolina.

LONDON:

Printed in the Year 1709.

Upon this slow combustion were heaped the fiercer fires of Indian conspiracy and massacre. The Tuscaroras could muster twelve hundred warriors; the population of North Carolina, of every age, sex, color, and condition was about seven thousand. At daybreak of the twentysecond of September, 1711, the Tuscaroras made a sudden onslaught on the settlements along the Roanoke and Pamlico, while the warriors of the allied tribes made murderous attacks in other quarters. Governor Hyde