1. What ships had been sent over to relieve the colony?
2. How did Grenville continue English claims to Roanoke? What was the fate of his settlers?
3. What was Raleigh's next attempt at settlement? Who was appointed Governor? How many people composed the colony? How was this colony better prepared for permanent settlement than any of its predecessors? What became of this colony?
4. Where had White been ordered to make settlement? Point out Hampton Roads on the map. Why did he land at Roanoke Island? What is said of Manteo?
6. What is said of little Virginia Dare? How is her name still honored in this State? Point out Dare county on the map.
7. What did Governor White do in a few weeks after his arrival at Roanoke?
8. What was furnished to him on his arrival in England? Did he at once go back to relieve the colonists?
9. Why did not Governor White immediately return to his suffering people?
10. What became of the "Spanish Armada"? How did Governor White become engaged in this conflict?
11. How long was Governor White away from Roanoke? What did he find on his return? What is supposed to have been the meaning of the word "Croatan"? What did Governor White find?
12. Where is "Croatan"? Can you locate it on the map? Did Governor White go to this place to seek his people? Was any settlement on Roanoke at this time? What effort did Raleigh make to find these people?
The story of the attempted settlement on Roanoke Island is the story of one of the world's tragedies. Misfortune seemed to be the doom, not only of the colonists, but of many gallant men who sought to aid Sir Walter Raleigh in his enterprise. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, with two of his ships, was the first to perish at sea; Sir Francis Drake and his compeer, Sir John Hawkins, both died of pestilence in the West Indies; and, to the baffled and broken- hearted originator of the scheme, the coming years were black with disaster and death.
2. With the loss of Governor White's colony, Raleigh found that his expenditures had greatly impaired his wealth. He had lost more than two hundred thousand dollars (£40,000 sterling), and, no longer able to fit out costly and fruitless expeditions, was forced to solicit aid from others, joining them in the rights and privileges granted him by the queen in his charter.
[NOTE—It must also be remembered that money in the sixteenth century was worth at least five times more than at present. Forty thousand pounds expended by Sir Walter Raleigh would, at that time, purchase about what one million dollars would now command in England or the United States. ]
1603.
3. But Raleigh found his greatest disaster in the death of Elizabeth. After ruling England so wisely and well for more than fifty years, she died on March 24th, 1603. This great queen left her throne to one of the most paltry and contemptible of men.
4. King James I, was an ungainly Scotch pedant, who was incapable of appreciating heroism and manliness in others, because of his own deficiency in all such qualities. He lavished favors and titles on unworthy favorites, and incurred the contempt of wise men for his follies and vices.
1618.
5. Sir Walter Raleigh had long treated the Spaniards as the enemies of his country. The King of Spain hated him on that account, and King James, to please His Catholic Majesty and secure the marriage of Prince Charles to a Spanish princess, caused the great lawyer, Sir Edward Coke, to procure the wrongful conviction of Raleigh, his greatest subject. After lying in prison for twelve years under this conviction, Raleigh was released by King James, and although not pardoned, was put in command of an expedition to the coast of Guiana. The expedition was unsuccessful, and on his return, to satisfy the King of Spain, James signed the warrant for Raleigh's execution upon his former sentence. Accordingly, Raleigh was beheaded, at the age of sixty-five, as a traitor to the land for whose good he had accomplished more than any one else in all its limits.
[NOTE—Sir Walter Raleigh occupied the twelve years of his imprisonment in writing a "history of the world." This work gave great offence to King James, who endeavored to suppress its circulation. When Raleigh was carried to execution, while on the scaffold, he asked to see the axe. He closely examined its bright, keen edge, and said, with a smile: "This is a sharp medicine, but a sound cure for all diseases." He then laid his head composedly on the block, moved his lips as if in prayer, and gave the signal for the blow. ]
6. Thus suffered and died the man who first sent ships and men to the soil of North Carolina. That he failed in what he desired to accomplish should not detract from the gratitude and reverence due to his memory. If incompetent and unworthy agents, and the accidents of fortune, thwarted him in his designs, the fault is not his. He was the greatest and most illustrious man connected with our annals as a State, and should ever receive the applause and remembrance of our people.
7. After the death of Sir Walter Raleigh no more efforts were made to plant a colony at Roanoke. The spot was never favorable for such a purpose. No coast in the world is much more dangerous to ships than that of North Carolina. Cape Hatteras is even now the dread of all mariners. It is visited by many storms, and sends its deadly sandbars for fifteen miles out into the ocean to surprise and wreck the ill-fated vessel that has approached too near the coast.
8. Governor Lane, while at Roanoke, discovered the broad, deep inlet and safe anchorage at Hampton Roads, within the present limits of Virginia. This port lies, but little to the north of that inlet which Amadas and Barlowe entered on the first English visit to Carolina. Into Hampton Roads, in 1607, went another colony, sent over by men who had succeeded the unfortunate Raleigh in the royal permission to plant settlements in America. To the genius and bravery of the leader, Captain John Smith, was due the permanence of the settlement at Jamestown. The name of "Virginia," which had been applied to all the territory claimed by England under the discoveries of Gilbert and Raleigh, was then confined to the colony on James River.
9. In the course of a few years many places on the Atlantic coast were occupied by expeditions sent out from England and other countries of Europe. Those of England, at Plymouth, of the Dutch, at New Amsterdam, and of the Swedes, in New Jersey, were speedily seen, while yet roamed the Tuscarora in undisturbed possession of North Carolina.
10. As Virginia grew more populous there were hardships and troubles concerning religion. Men and women were persecuted on account of their religious practices. If people did not conform to the "English" or Episcopal Church they were punished by fine and imprisonment. Sometimes cruel whipping became the portion of men who were found preaching Quaker and Baptist doctrines.
11. Sir William Berkeley, who was Governor of Virginia, had no authority over men who dwelt in the region south of a line a few miles below where the ships approached the inland waters of Virginia. When this became known many people around the Nansemond River and adjacent localities went southward, towards the Albemarle Sound, seeking homes where the tyrant of Virginia had no jurisdiction.
1653.
12. For this cause Roger Green, a clergyman, in 1653, led a considerable colony to the banks of the Chowan and Roanoke Rivers; but even before this, there were probably scattered settlements over most all the region north of the Albemarle Sound, of which we have no reliable account.
1. What is said of the attempted settlement upon Roanoke Island?
2. What had the expedition cost Raleigh?
3. What was Raleigh's greatest loss?
4. Who succeeded Queen Elizabeth? What kind of a man was King James I. ?
5. What new trouble came upon Raleigh? Describe his conviction and death.
6. How should the people of North Carolina ever think of Sir Walter Raleigh?
7. Were any further efforts made to plant a colony at Roanoke? What is said of the place?
8. What safe anchorage had Governor Lane discovered? What colony entered Hampton Roads in 1607? What town was settled in Virginia, and by whom? To what locality was the name "Virginia" then confined?
9. Mention some settlements made on the Atlantic coast about this time.
10. What persecutions were common in Virginia?
11. Over what section of country did Governor Berkeley have no authority? When this became known to the people what did many of them do?
12. What settlement was made by Roger Green, and when? Were there any settlements in North Carolina before this time?
After the discovery of North Carolina, in 1584, by Amadas and Barlowe, many years had gone by before the period now reached in this narrative. Not only had James succeeded Elizabeth, but Charles had succeeded James and had been beheaded as a traitor to the land he pretended to rule. Cromwell had lived, ruled and died, and Charles II. was on the throne of his fathers, and thus again royal bounties became possible and fashionable.
2. Many men in England had heard of the goodly land which was being peopled around Albemarle Sound, beyond the jurisdiction of Governor Berkeley. He, too, with his bitter and envenomed soul, took part in a scheme which was to give him some authority over the refugees who had imagined themselves beyond the reach of his cruel rule.
1663
3. In the year 1663, His Majesty Charles II., King of England, Scotland and Ireland, granted to George, Duke of Albemarle; Edward, Earl of Clarendon; William, Earl of Craven; John, Lord Berkeley; Anthony, Lord Ashley; Sir George Carteret, Sir John Colleton, and Sir William Berkeley, as "Lords Proprietors," all the territory south of the lands not already granted to the province of Virginia, down to the Spanish line of Florida.
4. There were some remarkable men among these titular owners of the land we now inhabit. The Duke of Albemarle had been General George Monk before the restoration of King Charles, and was made a nobleman on account of his part in that transaction. He was not possessed of very great ability, and only became famous by the accidents of fortune.
5. Very different was the astute lawyer, Edward Hyde, who, for his abilities, was made the Earl of Clarendon and Lord High Chancellor of England. He was a selfish and crafty man, and lost his offices in his old age, but had two granddaughters who became queens of Great Britain.
6. Lord Ashley, afterward the Earl of Shaftesbury, will ever be remembered for the part he bore in establishing the writ of habeas corpus as a part of the British Constitution. He was a bold, able and profligate man, who marred great abilities by greater vices. He combined within himself all that is dangerous and detestable in a demagogue.
7. Sir William Berkeley, then Governor of the province of Virginia, was another of these Lords Proprietors. He was the embodiment of the cruelty and religious prejudice of that age. He whipped and imprisoned people who worshipped God in a way not pleasing to himself, and was immortalized by the remark of King Charles II., who said of him: "That old fool has taken more lives without offence in that naked country than I, in all England, for the murder of my father."
8. To these men, as Lords Proprietors, a great territory was granted, which they called "Carolina," in compliment to King Charles II. [Many years before this time the name of "Carolina" had been applied to the territory between Virginia and Florida, in honor of King Charles IX. of France. ] All of them except Governor Berkeley lived in England, but they ruled the new country and sold the lands at the highest rate of money they could get, with a tax of seventy-five cents on each hundred acres to be paid every year.
9. Many fine promises were made to the English and other people to induce them to go to Carolina and settle. Freedom to worship God in the way that seemed best to each individual was especially held out to poor sufferers like John Bunyan, who, in those days, were too often kept for long years in loathsome prisons because of their differing with the civil magistrates as to certain matters of faith and practice in the churches.
NOTE—Governor Berkeley exhibited some traits of his character by saying, while Governor of Virginia: "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing here, and I hope we shall have none of them these hundred years."
10. Religious persecutions were practiced in most of the American colonies. It had been decreed in some of the New England colonies that Quakers, upon coming into the province, should have their tongues bored with a hot iron and be banished. Any person bringing a Quaker into the province was fined one hundred pounds sterling (about five hundred dollars), and the Quaker was given twenty lashes and imprisoned at hard labor. In Virginia the persecutions were equally as bad, if not worse, and some of the punishments were almost as severe as Indian tortures. The Assembly of this colony (Virginia) levied upon all Quakers a monthly tax of one hundred dollars.
11. To escape persecution, many men who were Quakers and Baptists had already gone to the region around the Albemarle Sound; and others followed from various inducements. Their settlements were known as the "Albemarle Colony." The whole country was still roamed over by Indians, and even in Albemarle the rude farmhouses were widely scattered.
12. There was not even a village in the new province. No churches, courthouses or public schools were to be seen; but the men and women of that day loved liberty. They preferred to undergo danger from the Indians and the privations of lonely homes in the forest to the persecution which they found in England and in many portions of America.
13. It can hardly be realized amid the present luxuries and enjoyments of the American people, what dangers and privations were encountered by the white settlers in North Carolina two hundred years ago; for while now thronging cities, teeming fields and busy highways of a people numbering many millions cover the land, then cruel and crafty Indians, always hostile at heart to the tread of the white man, surrounded the defenceless homes of the scattered colonists and filled the great forest stretching three thousand miles toward the setting sun.
1. What period have we now reached in our history? What changes had taken place in the English government?
2. In what new scheme do we find Governor Berkeley taking part?
3. What new grant of this territory was made in 1663? What was the new government called?
4. What kind of a man was George, Duke of Albemarle?
5. Who was Edward, Earl of Clarendon?
6. Who was Lord Ashley? What was his character?
7. What was Governor Berkeley's character? What was said of him by King Charles II. ?
8. What name was given to the territory now granted? In whose honor was Carolina named? Where did the Lords Proprietors live? What tax was to be paid to them?
9. What inducements were offered to the English to go to Carolina and settle? Why was "religious freedom" an inducement for them to leave their comfortable homes and settle in a savage country?
10. What religious persecutions were seen in most of the American colonies?
11. What two religious sects had emigrated to this section? What did they call their colony?
12. What was the condition of the colony? What sacrifices had the colonists made, and why?
13. How did the condition of the colonists differ from ours?
1. King Charles II., who thus bestowed this vast dominion upon a few of his friends, was in marked contrast, as a sovereign, to Queen Elizabeth. He was a gay, dissolute, shameless libertine, who despised all that is valuable in human duties, and spent his life in the paltriest amusements. He could be polite and entertaining in conversation, but abundantly justified Lord Rochester's remark that "he never did a wise thing or said a foolish one."
2. Under instructions from the other Lords Proprietors, Sir William Berkeley, in 1663, appointed William Drummond the first "Governor of Albemarle." He was a Scotch settler in Virginia, and was a man who deserved the respect and confidence of the people whom he governed. He was plain and prudent in his style of life, and seems to have given satisfaction to the people who had been previously uncontrolled by law or magistrate.
3. After a stay of three years, Governor Drummond returned to Virginia. A great trouble arose in Virginia at this period, known as "Bacon's Rebellion." A brave young man, Nathaniel Bacon, was at the head of a force resisting the presumption and illegal authority of Governor Berkeley. William Drummond, seeing the justness of the resistance, warmly supported Bacon's cause. Mrs. Sarah Drummond, wife of the Governor, nobly sustained her husband. Bacon died before the close of the "Rebellion," and a large number of the leaders were put to death. Governor Drummond was, by order of Berkeley, hanged within two hours after his capture. The entire property of Mrs. Drummond was confiscated and herself and five children were turned out to starve.
4. This tragic culmination of Berkeley's ruthless cruelties was the occasion of the bitter censure by the king, already recorded. After the death of Berkeley, Mrs. Drummond brought suit against his wife, Lady Frances Berkeley, for recovery of her property, and a verdict in her favor was given by a Virginia jury. Governor Drummond is commemorated by the lake in the Dismal Swamp which still bears his name.
5. It was discovered soon after the king's grant to the Lords Proprietors, that a belt of land extending southward from the present Virginia boundary to a point on a line with the month of Chowan River, and extending indefinitely west, was not included in that charter; so, in 1665 another charter was granted joining this strip of territory to North Carolina.
6. In 1663 there was an expedition formed in the island of Barbadoes, which came to the shores of Carolina and explored to the distance of about one hundred and fifty miles the courses of the northeast branch of the Cape Fear River. This expedition was under command of an experienced navigator named Hilton, who was assisted by Long and Fabian, and returned to Barbadoes in February, 1664.
7. Among the planters who had fitted out this expedition was John Yeamans. He was a young man of good connections in England. His father had been Sheriff of the City of Bristol during the war of King Charles I. with Parliament, and was put to death by the order of Fairfax on account of his stubborn defence of his city in the king's behalf.
1666.
8. Yeamans had emigrated to Barbadoes, hoping to mend his broken fortunes, and being pleased with the report of Captain Hilton's expedition, he determined to remove to Carolina. He went to England to negotiate with the Lords Proprietors and receive from them a grant of large tracts of land, and at the same time he was knighted by the king in reward for the loyalty and misfortunes of his family. Returning from England in the autumn of 1665, he led a band of colonists from Barbadoes to the Cape Fear, and purchasing from the Indians a tract of land thirty-two miles square, settled at Old Town, in the present county of Brunswick. The settlement was afterwards known as the "Clarendon Colony." This village, which was called Charlestown, soon came to number eight hundred inhabitants, and they occupied their time in clearing the land for cultivation and preparing lumber, staves, hoops and shingles for shipment to Barbadoes. The colony greatly prospered under the excellent and prudent management of Sir John Yeamans, but was afterwards deserted, when Yeamans was ordered by the Lords Proprietors to the government of a colony on Cooper and Ashley Rivers, South Carolina.
9. There had been, as early as 1660, a New England settlement for the purpose of raising cattle, on the Cape Fear; but this colony incurred the resentment of the Indians, it is said, by kidnapping their children under the pretence of sending them to Boston to be educated; and the colonists were all gone when the men from Barbadoes visited the Cape Fear. Whether the New Englanders were driven from the settlement by the Indians, or left because their enterprise was unprofitable, is not known with certainty. These men left attached to a post a writing discouraging "all such as should hereafter come into these parts to settle."
1667.
10. During Governor Drummond's stay in Albemarle there was entire satisfaction manifested by the people with his rule, and also with that of the Lords Proprietors. He exerted himself to arrange matters so as not to disturb the titles acquired in the time previous to the king's grant; and there was full sympathy between him and the class represented by George Durant.
11. This sturdy Quaker had, some years before, bought from the Yeoppim Indians the place known as "Durant's Neck," on Perquimans River; and he was a leader in wealth and influence among the settlers. He was prosperous in his affairs, and largely controlled the views of the people belonging to his religious sect.
12. The rivers were full of fish every spring, and with little trouble large supplies were caught in the nets and weirs. Indian corn, tobacco and lumber were sent in vessels to New England and the West Indies. In return sugar, coffee and rum were brought to Albemarle, and an active trade grew up, which was almost wholly conducted by the New England vessels.
13. These vessels all passed through the inlet at Nag's Head, where, as late as 1729, twenty-five feet of water was found upon the bar. This afforded entrance to ships of considerable size. Cape Hatteras was then, as now, a place of great peril to ships, and many were wrecked upon the terrible outlying sand bars; but this did not deter the brave mariners from the trade which they found was growing each year more profitable.
1. What was the character of King Charles II. ? What was said of him by Lord Rochester?
2. Who was appointed the first Governor of Albemarle? What kind of man was he?
3. How long did Governor Drummond stay in North Carolina? Can you tell something of "Bacon's Rebellion"? What part did Governor Drummond take, and what was the result? What can you tell of Mrs. Sarah Drummond?
4. What further is said of Mrs. Drummond? How is Governor Drummond's name commemorated in the State? Point out this lake.
5. What additional piece of land was given to the Lords Proprietors in 1665?
6. What expedition came to Carolina in 1663?
7. What is said of Sir John Yeamans?
8. What was the object of Yeamans' visit? What colony did he form in 1665? Where was it located? What is the history of this colony?
9. What previous settlement had been made in this same vicinity? Why was it deserted?
10. How had the people of Albemarle been pleased with the administration. of Governor Drummond?
11. Who was George Durant? Point out "Durant's Neck "on the map.
12. Give some account of the prosperity of Albemarle. What vessels conducted the trade?
13. Through what inlet did vessels enter the sound? Describe the neighborhood of Cape Hatteras.
After Sir William Berkeley had put Governor Drummond to death in the manner described, Governor Stephens was sent in 1667 to take his place. Stephens was a ruler of ordinary abilities, and probably did his best for the interests of the province, so far as was consistent with a keen regard for instructions from the Lords Proprietors.
1668.
2. The government, in his day, consisted of the Governor, his council of twelve, and twelve members of the House of Assembly, elected by the freeholders. Every white man having an estate of inheritance, or for life, in fifty acres of land, was a freeholder. Perfect religious liberty was allowed, and there was no check at that day upon the government, provided it preserved its fealty to the King and the Lords Proprietors.
3. A wide margin was left to the Grand Assembly of Albemarle for the display of its power. Neither the Legislature nor the Governor had any capital city for the transaction of business. The Governor lived on any farm he pleased, and the General Assembly met at such place as it deemed most convenient.
1669.
4. Their earliest known legislation allowed no settlers to be disturbed for the collection of debts contracted before coming to live in Albemarle. Another law exempted all newcomers from taxes for one year; and prohibited the transfer of any land by a settler during the first two years of his residence. These laws were evidently passed to encourage immigration.
5. As there were no Church of England preachers then in the colony, another statute allowed people to get married by simply going before the Governor, or any of his council, and declaring a purpose to become man and wife.
1670.
6. Albemarle at that time was divided into the precincts of Carteret, Berkeley and Shaftesbury. The settlements extended rapidly down the seacoast, and soon reached as far south as the present town of Beaufort, on old Topsail Inlet.
7. Governor Stephens soon reached the conclusion of his administration and the term of his natural life. The closing months of his rule were embittered by the nature of the instructions he received from the Lords Proprietors and the Board of Trade in London.
8. One of these instructions, materially changing the simple government previously existing in the province, was concerning the colonial trade. English merchants saw that New England vessels were visiting the scattered settlements on the watercourses and establishing a lucrative exchange of manufactured goods for the tobacco, corn and lumber of Carolina.
9. It was determined in London to stop this, and appropriate to English factors whatever of profit might be realized. The old English Navigation Act, passed under Cromwell, to break down the Dutch trade, was revived against the Boston skippers. Governor Stephens accordingly told the colonists they must exchange the products of their farms with none but English traders, but he quickly found that the people were resolute in refusing obedience to any such regulations.
10. It was further announced that a new scheme of rule had been prepared in England. This was the work of Lord Shaftesbury and a distinguished philosopher named John Locke. This, familiarly known as "Locke's Grand Model," was called by the Proprietors "The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina," and was a cumbrous and elaborate system, full of titles and dignities. It involved a large expenditure, and was as unsuited to the Carolina wilderness as St. Paul's Cathedral in London was for a meetinghouse for the Quakers of Pasquotank!
11. The people who were constantly enduring danger and privations in Albemarle at once resolved that they would have no part in the titles and pageants concocted by these wise men of England. They had been promised freedom if they would come to America, both by the king in the Great Deed of Grant and by the Lords Proprietors, and nothing less than the privileges of Englishmen would satisfy them.
12. The "Navigation Act" was intended to destroy their commerce and manufactures, and the "Fundamental Constitutions," if submitted to, would have put an end to their home rule. They waged a long opposition to these two things, and a century went by before, in the blood of the Revolution, American commerce became free. They were denounced as unruly subjects, but they were, in all truth, wise and resolute patriots. They were protecting not only themselves, but the generations of the future.
1. Who succeeded Governor Drummond as Governor of Albemarle? What kind of a man was Governor Stephens?
2. In what did the government consist at that time?
3. What is said of the Grand Assembly? Where did the General Assembly usually meet?
4. Mention some of the earliest laws.
5. What law was enacted concerning marriage?
6. How was Albemarle divided? How far had the settlement extended?
7. What trouble came to Governor Stephens?
8. What kind of trade was carried on between Carolina and New England?
9. What was determined by the Lords Proprietors? What old law was revived? How did the people receive the orders from Governor Stephens?
10. What two celebrated Englishmen prepared a form of government for Carolina? What was this system called? State its nature.
11. What was resolved by the colonists concerning the Grand Model?
12. What was the intent of the Navigation Act? Of the Fundamental Constitutions?
1674. Samuel Stephens, upon his death in 1674, was succeeded by George Carteret as Governor of Albemarle. The oldest member of the council was entitled by law to the place, but the members of the House of Assembly succeeded in obtaining the position for their speaker. Governor Carteret found many difficulties in the office he had assumed; and becoming disgusted with the continued opposition of the people to the Fundamental Constitutions and the navigation laws of 1670, he went over to London and resigned his place as Governor.
1676.
2. When he reached England he found Eastchurch, who, as Speaker, of the House of Assembly, had been sent over to remonstrate with the Proprietors against the innovations they were proposing. His friend Miller, who was accused of indulging in rebellious language, had been carried out of the province for trial at Williamsburg, in Virginia, and was also in London at this time seeking redress for his alleged grievances.
3. Eastchurch was in London as the agent for Albemarle. The people were paying him to procure the assent of the Proprietors to some remission in the hard measure of the navigation laws; also for the abrogation of the Fundamental Constitutions. He and Miller betrayed their trusts, and became the willing tools of Lord Shaftesbury and the Board of Trade.
4. As the price of their subservience, Eastchurch was appointed Governor of Albemarle and Miller was made Secretary of State. The authorities in London were fully resolved that the New England vessels should be excluded from Carolina waters and that the Fundamental Constitutions should be accepted as the system of government.
5. This betrayal of a high trust was to bring its own punishment on the heads of both Eastchurch and Miller. On their way to America they stopped at the Island of Nevis, where the new Governor of Albemarle met a Creole lady. His conduct in London had been weak enough, but complete insanity seemed to have fallen upon him at Nevis. For two years he was oblivious to all the disorders and distresses of the people committed to his government; and he surrendered everything else to his lovemaking.
1677.
6. Miller went on to Albemarle, and in July, 1677, assumed control of public affairs. There were then in the colony two thousand taxpayers. Besides Indian corn, which was the staple production, eight hundred thousand pounds of tobacco were made that year. The whole colony was enjoying such prosperity as a fertile soil and good climate always give.
7. The new Governor conducted matters in an outrageous manner. He imposed taxes upon all goods sent to other colonies, and in this way soon realized five thousand dollars on the tobacco which was sent to Virginia and Boston.
8. He was particularly emphatic in his orders forbidding trade with New England vessels. George Durant, with a large majority of the people, was determined to thwart him in this matter. Governor Miller, on the other hand, was so determined in enforcing his orders that he in person boarded a Boston vessel and arrested the skipper.
1678.
9. Thereupon John Culpepper, with his followers, seized Miller, and having put him in prison, assumed the government himself. He imprisoned all the deputies of the Lords Proprietors. The king's revenue, also, amounting to fifteen thousand dollars, was appropriated by him; Culpepper, like Gillam, the skipper who had caused the outbreak, was from New England.
1680.
10. At last, after two years delay upon his journey, Eastchurch made his appearance in Albemarle. He had won his bride, but lost everything else. Culpepper scouted his claims to the government. He went to Williamsburg, in Virginia, to beg the Governor of that province to aid him in regaining the place he had lost by his folly; but so slow and ceremonious was his lordship, that Eastchurch died of vexation before anything substantial had been accomplished in his behalf.
11. Miller escaped from the confinement to which he had been subjected by Culpepper, and again went to England to utter his complaints. Culpepper followed him there, and though indicted and tried for treason, was acquitted by aid of Lord Shaftesbury.
12. Thus it was, in the earliest days of our history as a people, that the men of North Carolina found means to resist the execution of laws enacted abroad for their oppression, and commenced a struggle which was to continue for a century.
1. Who succeeded Samuel Stephens as Governor? How did he obtain the place? Why did Governor Carteret go to England?
2. What two men from Carolina did he find in England and what was their mission?
3. What duty had the colonists entrusted to Eastchurch? How did he fulfill the trust?
4. How were Eastchurch and Miller rewarded for their betrayal? What was the determination of the London authorities?
5. What was the conduct of Eastchurch while on his way to Carolina?
6. What did Miller do in the meantime? What was the condition of the colony at this period?
7. How did the new Governor manage affairs?
8. What trade did he forbid? By whom was his command thwarted? What violent act was done by Miller?
9. What was done to Miller? Who assumed the government?
10. When did Eastchurch arrive at Carolina? How did he find matters? To whom did he go for aid, and with what success?
11. What became of Miller and Culpepper?
12. What do the events of this lesson teach us?
When John Culpepper had ended his administration the authorities in England sent over John Harvey as Governor. Little is known of him or of his successors, John Jenkins and Henry Wilkinson. There were still misrule and confusion in Albemarle. A few men of wealth, who acted as deputies in the Council for the absent Lords Proprietors, were their advocates and defenders in everything they proposed; but the people still traded with New England vessels and vented their scorn upon the Fundamental Constitutions.
1681.
2. At last, in 1681, the authorities in England concluded that if one of their own number went over he might exert more influence upon the people than a hired agent. Therefore, they induced Seth Sothel, who had bought the interest first granted to the Earl of Clarendon, to venture on the doubtful expedient.
1683-88.
3. To the great good fortune of the province, this abandoned man was captured at sea by Algerine pirates. Thus he became the slave of these corsairs for two years. When he arrived it was soon seen what a beastly and detestable monster had been sent as a reformer of the morals of the people of Albemarle. He was the most shameless reprobate ever seen as a Governor in America. He took bribes, stole property and appropriated the Indian trade to his own uses, growing worse and worse until the people, in 1688, could no longer endure his iniquities, and drove him from the place he disgraced. He went to South Carolina, and after his sentence to twelve months exile had expired, returned to North Carolina and died in 1692.
1689-93.
4. Philip Ludwell and Alexander Lillington were the next rulers in North Carolina, and the administration of the latter witnessed the triumph of the colonists in the consent of the Lords Proprietors to the abolition of the Fundamental Constitutions. This event occurred in 1693, and brought no little joy to the men who had so long and successfully opposed it as the Constitution of North Carolina.
1695-96.
5. Thomas Harvey ruled next in Albemarle, while John Archdale, a wise and benevolent Quaker, was put in charge of all the settlements in what was North Carolina, and also those on Cooper and Ashley Rivers, in South Carolina. In the year 1696 a severe pestilential fever visited all the tribes of Indians along Pamlico Sound and destroyed nearly all of them. The Colonists, soon after this, feeling somewhat safer from Indian attacks, began to form settlements southward.
1704.
6. Henderson Walker succeeded to the rule by virtue of his place as President of the Council. After him Colonel Robert Daniel, who had made reputation in an expedition against the Spaniards in Florida, became, in 1704, the Governor of the province.
7. Governor Daniel was probably the mistaken and ignorant agent of Lord Carteret, who happened then to be the Palatine, or chief of the Lords Proprietors, in a foolish effort at reform. Carteret, like James II., was by no means a pattern in morality, but became impressed with his duty to cause the Assembly to pass a law making the Episcopal Church the State Church in the province, as it was in England.
8. The Baptists and Quakers were numerous, and both of these sects were sternly opposed to any such regulation. The law was passed in spite of their votes to the contrary, and provided for building churches, buying glebe lands, and public taxation to pay the rectors' salaries, but did not visit any disqualification or punishment upon nonconformists. The first Episcopal preacher arrived at Albemarle in 1703, and the first church was built in 1705, in Chowan county.
9. These persons, who were not members of the Episcopal Church, said they were already paying for the support of their pastors, and at once declared that they would not submit to the injustice of paying money to men who were the leaders in the persecutions of Baptists and Quakers in England and America.
10. The Presbyterians of South Carolina sent John Ashe, of that section, to London to resist the confirmation of the law, and Edmund Porter was sent, for the same purpose, by the people of Albemarle. Ashe died in London before he knew of his success. Both Queen Anne and the House of Lords denounced the innovation as unjust and impolitic, and the law was therefore annulled by Her Majesty in her privy council.
11. It was thus, year by year, that the Carolinians kept up their struggle for freedom and equality before the law. The ocean stretched between them and the men who sought their oppression, and large expenditures, both in money and heartwearing efforts, were undergone, as the dangerous and alarming years went by; but these men of the woods never wavered in their determination to be free.
1. Who was sent from England to succeed John Culpepper asGovernor of Carolina? Who followed Governor Harvey in office?What was the condition of affairs in the colony under theseGovernors?
2. Who became Governor in 1681? Who was Seth Sothel, and why was he selected?
3. What befell Sothel on his way to Carolina? What kind of man was Governor Sothel? What did the people do?
4. Who next took charge of Carolina? What important thing was accomplished under this administration?
5. Who was Governor in 1696? Who had charge of all the settlements?
6. What two Governors are next mentioned?
7. Whose agent was Governor Daniel? What law was passed by the Assembly?
8. What two religious sects were strongest opposers of the act? What was provided for in the statute?
9. What complaint was made by the Baptists and Quakers?
10. Who was sent to London in the interest of the Presbyterians? What man from Albemarle? What was the success of the mission to London?
11. What was the almost constant struggle of the people of Carolina?
Thomas Carey, who had already reached the positions of Speaker of the House of Assembly and Lieutenant-Governor, was promoted to be Governor in 1705. He had been a leader in opposition to Governor Daniel's church scheme, and for that reason John Archdale and the Quakers had procured his elevation to the latter position. It may be imagined what was their disgust and surprise when it was found that Carey had changed sides and become the willing tool of Lord Carteret.
1705.
2. In 1705 the town of Bath, in Beaufort county, was settled, and this was the first incorporated town in North Carolina. One of the oldest churches in the State is at Bath. The bricks used in the building were brought from England. The edifice is still in a good condition, and is regularly used for public worship.
3. When the General Assembly met, Governor Carey announced that, under English laws, none but members of the English or Episcopal Church could be allowed to take the oaths necessary to qualification for a seat in either House. John Porter was thereupon sent to London to make known this fresh outrage and betrayal of the people.
4. He was soon back with orders for Carey's removal; and the General Assembly elected William Glover by the votes of John Porter and the men he influenced. It is sickening to add that Glover also immediately deceived the men who were his supporters, and was found acting and talking exactly as Carey had done. The next thing seen was the pacification of Carey and the Quakers, and their re-election of him as Governor.
5. Two rival governments were thus at open rupture, each claiming to be the local government in Albemarle. They both took up arms, and it seemed that bloodshed must ensue. A General Assembly was called to decide the question of authority. Members were present with certificates of election signed by Glover, and another set whose certificates were issued by Carey. Glover and Carey, with their adherents, occupied separate rooms in the same building, and great confusion and bitterness prevailed. Finally the members of Glover's council were compelled to seek refuge in Virginia.
6. In such a state of affairs, Edward Hyde arrived from England with papers directing Edward Tynte, the Governor of both South and North Carolina, to commission him as Governor of North Carolina. In the meantime Carey, having heard of Governor Tynte's death, refused to acknowledge Hyde's claims, and proceeded to arm and equip his followers.
1711.
7. The cruel and crafty Tuscaroras now resolved to avail themselves of the divisions among the white people. They procured the Meherrins, Corees, Mattarnuskeets and other tribes to unite with them in an effort to murder all they could of the settlers. They kept the secret so well that on the night of the 11th of September, 1711, according to the calendar of that day, more than two hundred whites were butchered. The Tuscaroras mustered in their ranks a strong force, which was increased by their allies to sixteen hundred warriors. The Indians continued this terrible slaughter for three days, and only ceased when fatigue and drunkenness rendered them incapable of further continuance.
8. The Baron de Graffenreid, a nobleman from Bern, had just established (in 1710) a flourishing colony, comprising about six hundred persons, Germans and Swedes, at New Bern, at the confluence of the Neuse and Trent Rivers. De Graffenreid and John Lawson, the surveyor-general, while on an exploring voyage up the Neuse River, a few days before the massacre of September 11th, were seized by the Indians. The war council decided that both the men should be put to death. De Graffenreid made claim that he was king of the Swiss settlement just established, and escaped death by promising that no more land should he taken from the Indians without their consent. The unfortunate Lawson and a negro servant were put to death by the most horrible cruelties.
9. Baron de Graffenreid was held a captive for several weeks, and was set at liberty upon application of Governor Spottswood. On his return to his settlement he found it in a condition of almost desolation. He became so disheartened at the prospect that he soon sold his interest in Carolina and returned to Switzerland.
1712.
10. The South Carolina militia and near a thousand Yemassee Indians, under Colonel John Barnwell, came as swiftly as they could to the rescue, and inflicted a stunning blow upon the savages. They were attacked in a fort near New Bern, and more than three hundred of the Indians were killed and a hundred made prisoners. Thinking the league crushed, Colonel Barnwell went home with his forces, after making a treaty with the Indians, which was quickly broken.
11. In this terrible emergency, which threatened the destruction of so many settlers, Governor Spottswood, of Virginia, did nothing to aid the colony except keep the Five Nations and Tom Blount's Tuscaroras neutral in the war. The great danger was in the possible adhesion of the New York Iroquois to the savage league. With Albemarle divided, and consequently in a measure helpless, it was seen that it would be impossible to meet the Five Nations in battle.
12. When the next spring had opened, some hundreds of men in North Carolina were joined by Colonel James Moore, from South Carolina, with another force of a hundred and fifty of his white neighbors and the Yemassees, who again were willing to make war upon their hated enemies, the Tuscaroras.
13. Another bloody attack upon a fort made of earthworks and palisades resulted in such slaughter of the Indians that Handcock, their chief, who had boldly led them before, was so disheartened at the loss of his braves that, with his tribe, he abandoned Carolina and rejoined his brethren in the lake country of New York, who were from that time known as the Six Nations. They ventured no more among the men who had so fearfully broken their strength and power as belligerents. The fort occupied by Handcock and his force was situated where the village of Snow Hill, Greene county, now stands, and was called by the Indians "Nahucke." The siege began March 20th, and in a few days the fort, with eight hundred prisoners, was taken by storm. Colonel Moore's loss was twenty white men and thirty-six Indians killed and about one hundred wounded.
14. In the midst of the danger, in this second year of the war, yellow fever was seen for the first time in Albemarle. Governor Hyde fell a victim to its virulence. He died September 8, 1712, and was succeeded by Thomas Pollock, who had long been known as one of the richest and most influential of the settlers. Pollock and Edward Moseley, who was the leading lawyer and ablest man in Albemarle, were in deadly enmity concerning the quarrels between the contending Governors.
15. During this turbulent period among their rulers the people of Albemarle were giving their principal attention to growing corn and other farm products. They were improving their settlements and reaping the full reward of industry and perseverance. In 1704 the manufacture of tar began, and it was soon discovered that this native article was destined to become a very valuable commodity, both at home and in foreign countries.
16. During the years just considered North Carolina received large accessions to her population. As early as 1690 French Protestant refugees purchased lands and began to form settlements in Pamlico. In 1707 another body of French emigrants, under the guidance of their clergymen, Phillipe de Richebourg, located in the same section. A good number of French Huguenots, also, had formed thrifty settlements in the Pamlico region and along the banks of the Neuse and Trent Rivers.
1. How did Thomas Carey become Governor of Albemarle? How did he disappoint the people who elected him?
2. Where was the first town incorporated in the State?
3. What announcement was made by Carey at the meeting of the Assembly? How was this received by the people?
4. What orders were brought by Porter? Who was elected as Carey's successor? How were the people disappointed in Governor Glover?
5. What was the condition of affairs?
6. Who arrived from England, and for what purpose? How did Carey receive Governor Hyde's demand?
7. How were the Tuscaroras acting during this public trouble? What calamity befell the colony?
8. What befell Baron de Graffenreid and John Lawson?
9. What further is said of de Graffenreid?
10. What aid came from South Carolina? Describe the battle.
11. How did Governor Spottswood, of Virginia, act during this trouble? What was specially feared by the people?
12. How was the colony preparing for war?
13. Describe the second battle and the result.
14. What terrible sickness visited Carolina in 1712? Who was one of the victims? Who succeeded Governor Hyde? What is said of Governor Pollock?
15. How were the people of Albemarle occupying themselves during these troublesome times?
16. Give some account of the growth of the settlements in North Carolina.
With the conquest of the Tuscaroras and their allies, a great danger was removed from the settlements in Carolina. Tom Blount and his people were assigned a tract of land as a token of the gratitude of the whites for their refusal to join in the war. This reservation was first located south of Albemarle Sound, but was afterwards changed to the region still known as the "Indian Woods," in Bertie county.
1713.
2. In 1713, Colonel Pollock was relieved of his office as Governor by the arrival of Charles Eden, with full powers from the Duke of Beaufort, who was then Palatine. Governor Eden was instructed by the Proprietors to discourage much expansion of the settlements. He became popular with a large portion of the people. He lived some years at Queen Annie's Creek, which town was called Edenton, as a compliment to him. He afterwards bought a place on Salmon Creek, in Bertie county, and dwelt there. This place is still known as "Eden House."
1715.
3. In 1715 the same Yemassee Indians who had so signally aided in the overthrow of the Tuscaroras, repeated, in South Carolina, the bloody work of their old enemies in Albemarle. They were aided by other tribes, and murdered many white people. The Indians in the Bath precinct also, taking advantage of the alarm caused by this outbreak in the southern province, raised the war cry and murdered several white people on the Pamlico plantations before they could be checked.
4. At the request of the Governor of South Carolina, Governor Eden immediately sent a strong force of both cavalry and infantry to aid the South Carolinians. Colonel Maurice Moore, who was the brother of Colonel James Moore, the late commander against the Tuscaroras, and had become a resident of Albemarle, was in command.
5. The oldest statutes of which we have copies were enacted in 1715, at the house of Captain Richard Sanderson, in Perquimans. Edward Moseley was Speaker of the House of Assembly and differed with Governor Eden in many matters of provincial policy. Through all his life as a public man he was intensely devoted to the interest of the colony; and though warmly attached to the English or Episcopal Church, was resolute in his advocacy of complete religious liberty. He formed a strong party of men, who regarded the Governor as simply the agent of the Lords Proprietors; and therefore, to be vigilantly watched and checked in any innovation upon established privileges.
6. There had been, for years, many crimes committed by pirates upon the ocean just along the North Carolina Coast. They sometimes extended their infamous practices to the sounds and rivers. One Edward Teach, who was also called "Black-Beard," was the chief of these bloody robbers. He had a fleet of armed vessels; the largest of which was called Queen Anne's Revenge. This formidable craft carried a crew of one hundred men, and forty cannon.
7. Edward Moseley and others were clamorous for the arrest and punishment of such horrid offenders against the law, and denounced Governor Eden as their accomplice. It was brought to the knowledge of Capt. Ellis Brand, who came in command of a British squadron in Hampton Roads, that Teach was to be found near Ocracoke.
8. Lieutenant Robert Maynard was ordered to go to that point and capture the outlaws. He found the pirates, who saluted him with so deadly a broadside that a large portion of the royal men were slain. Maynard unfortunately got his ship aground in the action, and his deck was terribly raked by his antagonists' fire. His case seemed well nigh hopeless, when he resorted to a stratagem. All of his men were ordered to go below, and soon the pirates saw nothing but dead men upon the deck. They hastened to board what they thought was another prize.
9. But Maynard and his men met them as they crowded upon the deck, and after a bloody struggle, captured nine men, who were the survivors of the prolonged and desperate conflict. Among these was a gigantic negro, who was on the point of blowing up the pirate vessel when arrested in his desperate purpose.
10. Black-Beard was slain during the battle, and Maynard sailed away from the scene of his victory with the corsair's head fixed upon his bowsprit. The captured offenders were carried to Williamsburg, Virginia, and there tried and executed, as they deserved to be.
11. In the early portion of the eighteenth century the whole Atlantic coast of America was more or less infested by these buccaneers. In some quarters they congregated in great numbers, and made expeditions in which they laid cities under contribution, and endangered all legitimate commerce in the new world. They were as cruel desperadoes as have been seen in any age of the world's history. After long and costly effort by the English and other governments, they were driven from the seas.
1. What reservation was given to the Indians?
2. Who became Governor in 1713? How had Governor Eden been instructed by the Lords Proprietors? Where did he live?
3. What occurred in 1715?
4. Who was sent to aid the people of South Carolina?
5. At whose house did the Legislature meet? What noted man was Speaker of the House? Give some description of Edward Moseley.
6. What famous pirate was ravaging the coast about this time?
7. Of what had Governor Eden been charged?
8. Who was sent to capture the pirate? Describe the battle.
9. How did the engagement result?
10. What disposition was made of the captives?
11. What is said of the Atlantic coast during this period?
Upon the death of Governor Eden in 1722, Colonel Thomas Pollock, as President of His Majesty's Council for North Carolina, assumed the place of Governor, but he died in a short while and was succeeded by William Reed. That year Bertie precinct was erected west of Chowan River, and court houses were, for the first time, ordered to be built. Not only the General Assembly, but courts and all public affairs, up to this time, had been held in private houses.
2. North Carolina then comprised three counties. These wereAlbemarle, Bath and Clarendon. Albemarle contained Currituck,Pasquotank, Perquimans, Chowan and Bertie precincts. Bath andClarendon, though counties, were not subdivided at this time.
1724.
3. The Lords Proprietors, as the last evidence of their lack of wisdom and interest in the province they had so long cursed with their misrule, sent over George Burrington. After the creation of the counties of Bath and Clarendon the representative of the Lords Proprietors was called "Governor of North Carolina."
4. Governor Burrington's character was very bad; he had been indicted and punished in the Old Bailey, in London, for beating an old woman, and was, all his life, drunken and quarrelsome. Yet such a man came over to be the guardian of a people who knew not when they were to be tomahawked by the savages or driven into further exile by the zealots who were disturbed at the nature of their religious belief.
1725.
5. This weak and wicked ruler only remained one year in charge, when Sir Richard Everhard came to replace him. They were brothers in iniquity, and before Burrington left Edenton these two men disgraced themselves by fighting in the streets of that village. The General Assembly met at Edenton, and by enactment of law the dividing line between North Carolina and Virginia was run in November of this year.
1729.
6. Such rulers as have just been mentioned so utterly disgusted every one in the colony that the King and Parliament were petitioned to buy the province and abolish the rule of those who had only hindered its growth. So, in 1729, for the sum of forty- five thousand dollars, all of the proprietors except Lord Carteret, sold to the crown their interest in Carolina . Thus, after sixty-six years of unbounded misrule, these men in London who had so greatly cursed North Carolina by their ignorance and mistakes, surrendered their title to property which had never paid them more than about one hundred dollars a piece in any one year.
7. They had never really cared for the people whom they were so anxious to disturb with their crude notions of religion. The schemes of London merchants were of far more moment thanthe welfare of Albemarle, and the folly of the Fundamental Constitutions was to be upheld even at the ruin of the province.
8. As an earnest of the want of care King George I. was to exhibit towards the colony, Governor Burrington was sent back to the people who were already so well acquainted with his faults of temper and character. He soon got into trouble with the leading men of the province, and pretending to go to South Carolina, returned to England, where he was soon after killed in a night- brawl in the city of London.
1734.
9. Nathaniel Rice was Governor until the arrival and qualification of Gabriel Johnston, who took the oaths of office at Brunswick, on the Cape Fear River. Governor Johnston was a Scotchman, who had lived for several years in London, and was to prove the wisest and best of all the men sent over to rule the people in Carolina. He married Penelope Eden, daughter of the late Governor, and dwelt at her home on the Chowan River.
10. There were no troubles between the Governor and people in the time of Governor Johnston's administration. Sometimes Edward Moseley, always a stickler for the rights of the colonists, would carry some dispute into the General Assembly, but the measures of Governor Johnston, as a general thing, were pleasing to all classes of the people and received their support.
11. At this period, Dr. John Brickell, with a party of white men and Indians, was sent by the General Assembly to explore the mountain region of Western North Carolina. He went into East Tennessee in his travels among the Cherokees. He brought back wondrous accounts of the beauty of the region and of the simplicity and kindness of the natives. Dr. Brickell practiced medicine in Edenton and wrote an interesting book about the North Carolina of that day.
1740.
12. During the Spanish war Governor Johnston enlisted four hundred North Carolina troops for the expedition that was led by Governor Oglethorpe against the Spaniards at St. Augustine, in Florida. They formed a battalion of the regiment commanded by Colonel Vanderclussen. They were carried under Admiral Vernon to the siege of Carthagena and participated in the dangers and horrors of that expedition. But few returned to tell the story of their disasters.
1746.
13. In consequence of the great defeat of the Scotch by the English at the battle of Culloden, many Scotch emigrants began to settle in North America. The captives in the struggle mentioned had been offered choice between death and exile to America. The emigrants landed at Wilmington in large numbers and formed settlements along the Cape Fear River. One of their principal towns was at Cross Creek, now known as Fayetteville. These Scotch people were brave, industrious, and frugal, and North Carolina has always esteemed them as a part of her best population.
1748.
14. The province had never grown so rapidly, or been so prosperous, as in the rule of this wise and excellent man who now conducted public affairs. The provinces of North and South Carolina were formally separated in Governor Burrington's time, and upon the death of Governor Johnston, in 1752, it was found that the population had been multiplied several times over what it had been twenty years before, and it now numbered nearly fifty thousand people. Great quantities of tar, pitch and turpentine, also staves, corn, tobacco and other products of the farm, besides pork, beef, bacon and lard were exported.
1. Who became Governor on the death of Governor Eden? What changes were noticed in the colony?
2. Into what precincts and counties was North Carolina divided?
3. Who was sent over by the Lords Proprietors in 1724 as Governor?
4. Can you tell something of Governor Burrington's past life?
5. How long was Governor Burrington in office, and who succeeded him? How did these officers conduct themselves in Edenton?
6. What large purchase was made in 1729? Which of the Lords Proprietors reserved his right? What had been the annual profit to the Proprietors from the colony?
7. How had these men always felt toward their province?
8. What was the first act of George I. in the government of North Carolina? How did Burrington's administration terminate?
9. Who was Burrington's successor? Who followed Governor Rice? Tell something of Governor Johnston.
10. How did Governor Johnston conduct affairs?
11. What expedition was sent out at this time? What account of the western country was given by Dr, Brickell on his return?
12. What occurred in 1740?
13. How and by whom was the Cape Fear region now being settled?
14. Give an account of the prosperity of the province during period.