Colonial South

CHAPTER 2

Carolina
 Essential Question

How did South Carolina develop

during the colonial period in comparison
with other colonies?
Settlement and
LESSON 1

Change
 The English Establish Carolina
• In 1629, English King Charles I gave Sir Robert
Heath a charter to explore land south of
Jamestown and west to the Pacific Ocean.
• The area was first named “Carolana,” (Latin for
Charles).
• King Charles II later changed named the
settlement Carolina, in honor of his father.
 Map of
Carolana
 The Lords Proprietors
Eight noblemen, known as the Lords Proprietors,
received a charter from King Charles II, giving them
the power to rule Carolina.
• Edward Hyde, earl of • John Berkley, Baron
Claredon Berkeley of Stratton
• George Monck, duke of • Sir William Berkeley,
Albemarle governor of Virginia
• William Craven, earl of • Sir George Carteret,
Craven Treasurer of the Navy
• Anthony Ashley • Sir John Colleton of
Cooper, earl of Barbados
Shaftesbury
 The Lords Proprietors (cont.)
• To finance the colony, they tried to collect an
annual rent, called a quitrent, from settlers. But
they had a hard time getting the money.
• None of the Lords Proprietors ever went to
Carolina.
• Early efforts at colonizing failed. Eventually, all
the Proprietors lost interest in Carolina, except
one—Anthony Ashley Cooper.
• Carolina became a Proprietary Colony.
 Governing a Diverse Population
• The Lords Proprietors’ controlled the colony
through a Governor and Grand Council, which
included representatives of the proprietors.
• The first settlers were Englishmen who emigrated
from the British Colony of Barbados and they
brought a well-developed slave system.
• A diverse population of settlers came from
France, Switzerland, Germany, Scotland, and
Ireland as well.
• Diverse religions arrived, including French
Huguenots and Jews.
Attracting Settlers
• Lord Ashley was able to
convince investors to fund
a new settlement at Port
• Royal. 100 settlers were recruited.
• Three ships, the Albemarle, the Port Royal, and
the Carolina set sale, stopping in Ireland and
Barbados on the way.
• Two of the ships bound for Carolina sank or ran
aground; the Carolina, and The Three Brothers,
were the only ships to arrive safely.
A Permanent
Settlement
• Charles Town was
Carolina’s first
permanent settlement.
• Its location high above
the Ashley River provided protection
• Charles Town moved to Oyster Point (between the
Ashley and Cooper Rivers).
• Streets were laid out in a grid with zoned land.
• Charles Town, or Charleston, became the capital
of the colony, one of the five largest cities and
largest ports in the colonies.
 The Barbados Connection
• Barbados was England’s most successful colony
in the West Indies.
• In the 1640s, settlers realized that Barbados had
the perfect climate to grow sugar cane. It became
their cash crop.
• Settlers began to use slaves to grow sugar cane
and used strict slave codes to control the slaves.
• Many settlers moved from Barbados to South
Carolina to find more economic opportunity and to
escape overcrowding.
 Map of Barbados

Settlers from Barbados made up nearly 50%

of Carolina’s population
 Africans in Carolina
• The African slaves brought by the Barbadians had
a rich heritage of music, dancing, wood carving,
story telling and folk medicine, and worship.
• Additional slaves were forced through the Middle
Passage from the west coast of Africa by way of
the West Indies.
• These Africans brought a knowledge of
cultivating rice, and tending cattle.
• The Africans came from many nations or tribes
and spoke different languages. Once in America,
they began to create a common language called
Gullah.
 The Gullah Culture
• The Gullah people live on the Sea Islands along
the coast.
• “Gullah” is the name for the language along the
sea islands. It is a mix of several African
languages and English.
• They knew more about growing rice than the
plantation owners.
• Since their knowledge of rice was so great,
plantation owners assigned daily tasks instead of
close supervision.
LESSON 2

Colonial Government
 Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina
• Lord Ashley worked with John Locke to create the
Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina.
• Under the Constitution, all settlers were given a
grant of land. The richer investors were given
large estates, sometimes as large as thousands of
acres.
• To attract settlers, freedom of religion was allowed.
Only Catholics were denied.
• Encouraged the Headright system.
 Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina

In what ways were the Fundamental

Constitutions of Carolina progressive? What
was not progressive about the new plan of
government? Why do you think religious
freedom was not extended to all groups?
 Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina

How it Worked
• Each proprietor appointed a deputy, who served
on the Grand Council with other nobles and
elected representatives.
• The Grand Council created laws and served as
the court for the colony.
• Later, the government split. Officials appointed
by the proprietors stayed in the Grand Council.
Elected officials moved from the Council to the
Commons House of Assembly.
 Two Carolinas
• The northern and southern parts of Carolina
developed differently.
• Poor, small farmers from Virginia settled in the
north.
• Prosperous rice planters settled in the south.
• Wilderness and dangerous seas off the coast
separated the north from the south.
• Because it was so hard to govern both parts
together, in 1712, North Carolina and South
Carolina became separate colonies with their
own governments.
 Unstable & Divided Government
• Goose Creek Men and the Dissenters were two
factions that fought because of religious and
political differences.
• The Goose Creek Men tried to take over and make
the Church of England the official church of the
colony.
• The Church Act made the Anglican Church the
official church and split the colony into 10 parishes.
Each parish served as an election district.
• Trouble with the Native Americans brought the two
factions together.
 Yamassee War
• Native Americans were upset because of
mistreatment by the settlers.
• Trade Abuses, enslavement, and settlement
drove the Natives to a breaking point.
 Yamassee War (cont.)
• The Yamassee launched an attack that threw the
colony into war.
• Even though the settlers defeated the Yamassee,
other tribes kept fighting.
• The Cherokee helped bring an end to the war.
Their motivation was not to help the English, but to
seek revenge on the Creek Indians.
 Revolution of 1719
• The Lords Proprietors didn’t provide colonists with
any protection from the Spanish, Pirates, or
Native Americans. It seemed the Proprietors were
only interested in making money.
• Colonists began taking steps to protect
themselves.
 Revolution of 1719 (cont.)
• The Goose Creek Men and the Dissenters joined
forces and asked England to take over the colony
directly.
• England appointed a royal governor and for 10
years negotiated with the Lords Proprietors to get
control of South Carolina.
• In 1729, South Carolina became a royal colony.
 A Tale of Two Pirates
• The threat of pirates also led colonists to seek help from
England.
• Charleston was a big target for pirates because it was an
important port.
• Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet were pirates who caused
a lot of trouble in South Carolina.
• The colonists wanted to end the Golden Age of Piracy,
when merchants did business with and protected pirates.
A Tale of Two Pirates
 A Tale of Two Pirates

• Stede Bonnet was caught, tried,

and executed.
• Blackbeard, despite being shot
five times, continued to fight but
was brutally killed in his final
battle. His head was displayed on
a pole in the front of a ship as a
warning to other pirates.
• Why do you think the colonists
punished Blackbeard and Bonnet
so harshly?
 A Royal Government
• In 1720, the Privy Council to appointed a temporary
governor, Sir Francis Nicholson.
• Leading the colony was the Royal Governor.
• Royal Governors were appointed by the king and
approved all laws made by the legislature.
 A Royal Government

• South Carolina had a bicameral legislature,

meaning it had two houses.
o Royal Council (Upper House) was appointed
by the British government in London.
o Commons House of Assembly (Lower
House) was one of the houses. They were
elected by qualified voters in the colony
 A Royal Government

How do you think the “power of the

purse” helped the colonists?
A Royal Government
 The Township Plan
• Governor Robert Johnson wanted people to settle
in some of the less populated areas of South
Carolina.
• Johnson’s plan created 12 townships, each with
20,000 acres.
• He promised more land to families who decided to
move to the backcountry.
• Immigrants from Europe and other English
colonies came to South Carolina, making it one of
the most ethnically diverse colonies.
LESSON 3

The Colonial Economy

 Mercantilism
• Mercantilism fueled competition between
European powers by creating a race for colonies.
• Colonies existed to bring wealth to their mother
country (home country)
• England’s colonies provided raw materials that the
English could make into finished products and sell
for profit.
• South Carolina and the other colonies could trade
only with England.
• European nations often went to war to get more
colonies or protect the ones they had.
 Mercantilism

An economic policy intended to increase

wealth by closely regulating trade,
collecting high taxes on imported items,
and importing more than exporting.
 South Carolina’s Economy
• Cattle ranching and hog farming were two of South
Carolina’s first industries.
• Trade with Native Americans was critical for the
economy to grow. Natives would trade deer skin for
European goods.
• In South Carolina, the slave trade included not just
African Americans, but Native Americans as well.
Native Americans were sold into slavery in the West
Indies and New England colonies.
• South Carolina was the top producer of naval stores.
• Rice, called “Carolina Gold,” became the biggest
cash crop in the colony.
 Carolina Gold
• African slaves brought with them prior knowledge
of growing rice. However, rice was a very labor
intensive crop that only grew near the coast.
 The Navagation Acts
• A series of English laws that regulated trade
between England and her colonies.
• Goods sold in England must be shipped on
English ships with English crews. Certain crops
grown in the colonies could be sold only in
England (tobacco, rice, indigo). All goods sold in
America by other nations had to be sent to
England first, and shipped on English ships.
• Many colonists resorted to smuggling to get
around the laws.
South Carolina’s Economy
• What items did
colonists want from
Native Americans?
• What did Native
Americans want
from colonists?
• What issues hurt
trade relations
between Native
Americans and
colonists?
 South Carolina’s Economy

Why did the

colonists sell the
Native Americans
to the West Indies
instead of letting
them stay and
work in South
Carolina?
 Indigo
• Eliza Lucas Pinckney
took over her father’s
plantation where she
was allowed to study
botany.
• Using seeds her father
send from the West
Indies, she created a
high-quality, expensive
blue dye.
 A Slave Economy
• Because South Carolina’s plantation economy
depended on slave labor, the slave trade became
a big business. Rice & indigo demanded a large
labor force.
• Middle Passage—British firms bought slaves from
local chiefs or traders in Africa, loaded them on
ships and took them to the West Indies, from there
many were taken to America.
• The voyage was so dangerous that one out of six
Africans died.
A Slave Economy
A Slave Economy
 Olaudah Equiano
• Olaudah Equiano was born in West
Africa and was first a slave to an
African family.
• When he was sold to British slave
traders, he traveled the Middle Passage
to America. He was sold to the highest bidder.
• After working in Virginia, he was sold to a British
naval officer, and his master let him keep some of
the money from odd jobs he did for others.
• Equiano eventually earned enough money to
purchase his freedom.
• In England, he learned how to read and write and
in 1789, published his autobiography.
LESSON 4

Rebellion and Conflict

 The Stono Rebellion
• The Stono Rebellion was the largest slave
uprising in the colonies at that time.
• Despite strict laws, a literate slave named Jemmy
organized a rebellion against plantation owners.
They hoped to arm themselves and escape to
freedom in Spanish Florida.
• It began when Jemmy and some other slaves
broke into a store on the Stono River and killed
two settlers. Using their drums, they summoned
more slaves to join the rebellion.
 The Stono Rebellion (cont.)
• The colonists formed a militia and fought in the
biggest slave uprising in the colonies. All the
slaves were caught or killed.
• At least 35 slaves and 25 colonists were killed.
 The Stono Rebellion

Why do you think Spain offered freedom to any

slave that escaped from the English colonies?
 Slave Code of 1740
• In response to the Stono Rebellion, the colonial
government passed this series of laws designed
to control the slave population:
o Slaves could not travel without passes.
o Could not learn to read or write.
o Could not dress in a way “above the condition
of slaves.”
o They could not gather in groups, raise food, or
earn money.
• In addition, slaveowners could not free slaves
without permission from the government.
 Slave Code of 1740

Why did lawmakers institute a

tariff (an import tax) on all newly
arrived slaves from Africa?
 The French Indian War
• France, Spain, and Britain in fierce competition for
land, trade, and power.
• The French and the British clashed in the Ohio
Valley and the war began.
• Native Americans fought on both sides.
• The British won the war.
• Treaty of Paris in 1763 stated that Britain got all
the land east of the Mississippi River, along with
French Canada and Florida.
The French and Indian War
 Pontiac’s Rebellion
• British colonists tried to take over Indian land in
the Ohio Valley.
• In response, an Ottawa chief named Pontiac led a
rebellion that killed thousands of soldiers and
settlers.
• The colonists responded by giving Native
Americans blankets infected with smallpox. Many
died as a result.
• Britain passed the Proclamation of 1763 in an
effort to stop conflict between colonists and Native
Americans. The proclamation forbid colonists from
settling in the Ohio Valley.
• The new policy angered many colonists and was a
first step toward the American Revolution.
 Pontiac’s Rebellion

The Proclamation
Line of 1763
Why do you think the
Proclamation of 1763
angered the British
colonists?
 Pontiac’s Rebellion

Chief Pontiac organizing the resistance to British settlement

 Hints to the American Revolution

Franklin promoted his plan of union in this cartoon published

in the Pennsylvania Gazette. What colonies are missing
from the cartoon?
 The Cherokee War
• In 1759, the Cherokee attacked South Carolina
colonists because they were upset by a “long train
of abuses.”
• British soldiers came to South Carolina to defend
the colonists.
• The outnumbered Cherokee could not continue to
fight and agreed to give up much of their land in
exchange for peace.
 The Regulator Movement
• The backcountry in
South Carolina was
isolated from other
cities and towns in
the colony.
• Violence and crime
in the backcountry
increased after the wars.
• A vigilante group called the Regulators organized and
punished criminals themselves.
• The movement resulted in new courts and more order in
the backcountry.