Unit 1: Settlement of South Carolina

Native Americans

• Native American nations of North America were divided into regional groups based on where they lived and their language.

• The Eastern Woodlands Native Americans were one of the first groups to encounter European settlers in North America.

Eastern Woodlands

• The Eastern Woodlands region included tribes that were forest dwellers.

• They were affected by the geography of their region and had plenty of waterways, flora (natural vegetation), and fauna (animals).

• Some ways the Eastern Woodlands used their resources are:– Rivers: transportation and fishing– Rocks, wood, and animal pelts: hunting, farming,

and clothing– Tree trunks: to build canoes– Tree bark and animal hides: housing

• The land was very fertile, therefore the people of the Eastern Woodlands were able to develop farming techniques.

• They used sharp points carved from rocks and animal bones and well as bows and arrows because they had not discovered iron.

• Eastern Woodlands tribes had more permanent settlements.

• They did not have private ownership of the land—it was held in trust by tribes.

• The Native Americans of the Woodlands cut trees and burned brush (slash and burn agriculture) to create farmland or drive out animals.

• Women gathered fruits and nuts and were the main farmers.

• The main crops were the three sisters (corn, pole beans, squash), pumpkins, gourds, and tobacco.

• There were many tribes of the Eastern Woodlands in South Carolina.

• They spoke different languages and preserved history orally through storytelling.

• The main tribes were:–Cherokee (mountains)–Catawba (Piedmont)– Yemasee (coast)

Cherokee

• The Cherokee:– Lived in the foothills and mountains of SC.–Called themselves “the real people”.–Were very powerful.– Lived in villages with up to 600 people

surrounded by a palisade.–Had summer homes that were open–Had winter homes with thick walls made of

grass and clay (daub)

– Had roofs made of bark and branches (wattle)– Fished by poisoning the water with walnut

bark. (This stunned the fish and made them rise up to be gathered).

– Had leaders that met as a council to make rules.

– Had a leader in times of peace called the White leader.

– Had a leader in times of war called the Red leader.

– Had a holy man or woman.

Catawba

• The Catawba tribe:– Were called the “river people” because they lived

along rivers in the Piedmont in villages protected by a palisade.

– Lived in houses called wigwams (made of sapling and covered with bark).

– Had council houses in their villages where rules were made.

– Were great potters (used clay).

Yemassee

• The Yemassee:–Were originally from Spanish Florida

(present-day Georgia).–Moved near the mouth of the Savannah

River to escape the Spanish governor.– Lived in wigwams on the beach covered

with palmetto leaves (in the summer).– Lived inland in homes with palmetto leaves

as a roof.

–Ate clams and oysters.–Had a council that sometimes included

women.– Fled to Florida after the Yemassee War with

settlers.

Settlers

• When the Europeans arrived, the people of the Eastern Woodlands traded fur and deerskins for iron, tools, weapons, and guns.

• Settlers began taking over the native peoples’ lands, cheated them in trade, and forced natives into slavery.

• This led to hostility between the settlers and the people of the Eastern Woodlands.

Spanish Settlers

• As a result of Spanish exploration, the Spanish controlled large areas in Central and South America.

• At first, the settlers were looking for gold, but later set up encomiendas (large plantations) and the native people were forced into slavery.

• Disease and overwork decreased the native population, leading to the African slave trade.

• The Spanish:– Built cities.– Established universities.– Established a strict social class system.– Brought in their style of government.– Brought their Catholic religion to the New

World.– Searched for gold and more land in North

America (Florida, South Carolina, Southwest North America)

– Enslaved the Native Americans

French Settlers

• The French:– Settled in Montreal and Quebec (Canada).–Had a good relationship with the Native

Americans.– Set up a Catholic colony.– Traveled along the Mississippi River and

claimed an area known as Louisiana.

English Settlers• The English:– Sailed along the coast of North America.– Set up permanent settlements in Virginia and New

England.– Attracted to North America because they were

hoping to find gold.– Stayed to grow tobacco.– Fled from religious persecution (Pilgrims).– Brought their culture (language, Protestant

religion, and ideas about self-government) to the New World.

– Eventually pushed Natives off of their land

The Columbian Exchange

• The Columbian Exchange was the exchange of people, goods, technology, ideas and even diseases between the old and new worlds.

• Native Americans contributed corn, squash, potatoes, tobacco, turkeys, pumpkins, and cocoa to this exchange.

• Europeans brought livestock and plants such as wheat and rice.

• Europeans also brought new technologies such as weapons and carriages.

Read page 93 in textbook if available.

European Settlements in SC

• Spain, France, and England wanted a foothold in South Carolina to make their country wealthy.

• Spanish explorer Hernan de Soto traveled through South Carolina looking for gold.

• Neither Spain nor France could establish and permanent settlement because of problems and conditions in the settlements.

Spanish settlement (San Miguel de Guadalpe) French settlement (Charlesfort)

English settlement (CharlesTown)

• Spain founded the San Miguel de Gualdape settlement along the Waccamaw River (Georgetown) in the 1520s but abandoned it.

• The French founded Charlesfort (Beaufort) in the 1560s but abandoned it.

• The Spanish tried again and founded San Felipe, built in the abandoned Charlesfort area. It survived for 10 years but was attacked by Native Americans—the settlers fled to St. Augustine, FL).

• The English founded the first permanent colony of Charles Town (1670).

Jamestown

• The first permanent English settlement in the New World was Jamestown (1607).

• It was established by a joint stock company (several people investing money).

• The settlers endured years of starvation and deaths until tobacco made the settlement wealthy.

• The London Company started the headright system (provided land to anyone who paid their own passage or the passage or others to the settlement).

• The headright system led to large tobacco plantations and more land was needed—this led to conflict with the natives.

• Tobacco growers also paid the passage of indentured servants.

• By the end of the 1600s, African slaves were used for tobacco plantations.

• The London Company established the House of Burgesses (1619) so settlers could have a voice in governing the colony.

• The House of Burgesses was not completely democratic, but it went along with English tradition.

• Jamestown grew into the colony of Virginia and established the pattern for the southern colonies.

New England Colonies

• The New England colonies were founded because of religious persecution in England.

• The Separatists (Pilgrims) landed in Plymouth after signing the Mayflower Compact (1620), which led to the idea that people form a government.

• The Pilgrims struggled, but learned to survive from the Natives by planting corn.

• More Puritans landed in the Massachusetts Bay in the 1630s.

• Puritans invested in their own joint stock company and brought their charter with them to the New World.

• They had a democratic form of government that included town meetings and a general assembly.

• All male church members could vote.

• The Puritans prospered by harvesting lumber in the woods, building ships, and trading.

• They set up schools so that children could learn to read the Bible.

• Dissenters fled to other parts of the region.• The Puritan population was very large.

The Middle Colonies

• The Middle Colonies’ settlers included a variety of Europeans.

• The Dutch first settled New York.• The Swedish settled Delaware.• The English Quakers settled Pennsylvania.

(Quakers were a group of dissenters who believed everyone had an “inner light” and they promoted religious tolerance)

• The Middle Colonies had the greatest diversity of people and religions in British North America.

• King Charles II granted William Penn land as a repayment of a family debt (Pennsylvania).

• Pennsylvania had a representative assembly, as well as other colonies in the Middle Colonies.

• This region depended on good harbors and fertile fields.

• It was known as the “breadbasket” of the colonies.

South Carolina

• SC was founded as a proprietary colony when King Charles II granted land to the eight Lords Proprietors (rewarded with SC by the king for being loyal).

• They hoped to profit by charging settlers a quitret (tax) on the land.

• John Locke was asked to write the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina.

Eight Lords Proprietors• Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon • George Monck, Duke of Albemarle • William, Earl of Craven • John Lord Berkeley • Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury • Sir George Carteret • Sir William Berkeley • Sir John Colleton

• Green=counties in SC• Blue=city in SC (Monck’s Corner)• Red=Rivers

• The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina:– Included policies, such as religious

toleration.– Included information for setting up a social

class system based on grating titles to large landowners (it was never carried out).–Made it clear that Carolina was to be a

society for the elites.

• To encourage immigration, the proprietors granted large tracts of land to settlers through the headright system (like Virginia).

• This lead to large plantations based on cash crops.

• The first settlers were Englishmen who emigrated from Barbados and brought slavery with them.

• Other settlers included people from: France, Switzerland, Germany, Scotland, and Ireland.

• French Huguenots and Jewish settlers were among the different religious groups.

• SC had great natural resources, including fertile land, a mild climate, and many waterways.

• At first, the Lords Proprietors controlled the government through a Governor and Grand Council, which included representatives of the proprietors, the Carolina elite, and a small group of common people. (Similar to a democracy)

Slavery and South Carolina

• The economy of South Carolina was largely based on the plantation system.

• The indentured servant system didn’t work in SC because people were not willing to sign a contract.

• Natives could easily escape, so enslaving them did not work either.

• Settlers from Barbados brought slaves and additional slaves were forced through the “Middle Passage” from West Africa.

• These Africans brought knowledge of tending cattle and cultivating rice.

• Africans also harvested naval stores (goods used to build ships) and lumber from the forests of Carolina.

• The more cash crops, the more slaves that came to SC.

• Yams were a staple in the southern diet.

• Slaves came in through the port of Charleston.• Slaves brought their African culture of West

Africa, including language, dance, music, woodcarving, folk medicine, and basket weaving.

• Slaves used their music to help them get through long work days.

• They also used this as a way to communicate with slaves on other plantations.

Gullah

• Gullah was a spoken language and the shared culture of Africans that developed off the coasts of SC and Georgia (it’s called Geechee in Georgia) on the Sea Islands.

• Gullah was a mixture of many spoken languages combined with newly created words and was unique because of the Sea Islands limited access and large group of Africans.

Sea Islands of SC

Stono Rebellion

• The Assembly of SC began to worry that there were too many slaves in the colony, but slavery was vital to the colony’s success.

• Slaves outnumbered whites (75% of population were slaves).

• The Stono Rebellion took place near Charles Town and it began when a small group of slaves broke into a store on the Stono River and killed two settlers.

• The slaves used their drums to summon more slaves to join them.

• By the end of the day, many slaves and settlers had been killed.

• The reason why the slaves rebelled is because they wanted to escape to St. Augustine, Florida because they were told they would be free.

• The result of the Stono Rebellion was the Slave Codes (Negro Act of 1740) which prohibited slaves from:– Learning to read and right–Gathering without white supervision–Carrying guns

• It included harsh punishments for disobeying the law but also fined slave owners who were cruel to their slaves.

Free African-Americans in SC

• South Carolina had fewer free African-Americans than most other colonies.

• The state legislature gave the right of owners to free their slaves for good cause in the 1700s.

• Some slaves were freed by their owner’s last will and testament, for faithful service, or from masters who freed their slave mistresses and their children.

• In some cases, if a slave had a special talent that they could be hired and paid for, they could use the money to purchase their freedom.

• Free blacks were required by law to leave SC within six months or be re-enslaved and sold.

• 4% of free blacks lived in the South.• Most free blacks lived in urban areas (cities) were

they could earn money.• After the American Revolution, there were more

restrictions on the right of owners to free slaves.

Geography of SC• SC had natural resources included:– Deer that could be hunted for skins– Pine forests that could be used to harvest timber– Fertile land–Mild climate– Long growing season– Low country had good conditions for rice

planting– Port in Charleston–Waterways along the coast for shipping goods

Trade in SC

• SC was a profitable colony because of its’ natural resources.

• At first, traders would get furs and deerskins from Native Americans in exchange for beads, trinkets, guns, and alcohol, but that relationship ended when Native Americans were enslaved.

• Because the early settlers of SC were from Barbados, there was a thriving trade between the two places.

• South Carolinians sold cattle and Native American slaves to Barbados.

• The British desired SC pine trees for pitch and tar (naval stores for building ships).

• With slaves came knowledge of cattle herding and rice planting.

Rice and Indigo

Locations for rice plantations

Indigo plant

• Rice was known as “Carolina Gold” because it made plantation owners so wealthy.

• Eliza Lucas, and immigrant from Antigua, planted indigo (a plant used to make a blue dye) in order to make her family plantation successful.

• The British government offered a subsidy (loan or grant) to anyone who would grow it.

• Eliza Lucas shared her success with other planters and indigo became a cash crop for SC.

British Trade with SC

• Mercantilism was the system in which the mother country controlled trade in order to export more goods than it imported.

• The mother country would get a lot of gold and silver and become very wealthy.

• SC was a source of raw materials and market for British manufactured goods.

• Britain encouraged people to grow rice and indigo.

• Rice and indigo were on a list of products that could only be sold to Britain, but Britain wasn’t very strict about this law at the time.

• The British government did not enforce most laws of mercantilism, so many colonies didn’t have to worry about British interference.

A Proprietary Colony

• SC’s government became more democratic during the colonial period.

• SC began as a proprietary colony (land and political control over the land was granted to the eight Lords Proprietors by the king).

• Proprietors started sharing some control of the colony with property owners.

• The colony developed a political elite as a result of the large plantation owners having a lot of money and power.

• There was a legislative assembly in SC whose job was to make laws.

• Most English colonies had a bicameral (two-house) assembly.

• In SC, the Proprietors and the elite had more representation than the common people.

• The Grand Council decided that a majority of each group in the colonies should have equal voice in government. This was not proportional to the population.

• Later, a separate house was set up as the Commons House of Assembly to represent the people.

• Representation for the Lowcountry (Sandhills to the coast) continued to be greater than that for the Backcountry/Upcountry (Piedmont and Blue Ridge).

A Royal Colony

• By the end of the 1600s, most English colonies founded as joint stock companies lost their right to name the colonial governor and had become royal colonies.

• A royal colony means that the king appointed the governor.

• This was usually because the king wanted to control the wealth.

• There was tension between the colonists and the Proprietors because the colonists felt neglected by their landlords who collected their rent but didn’t protect them.

• The Proprietors thought the colonists were disobedient.

• The Council protested to the king about the Proprietors neglecting them, and asked for Carolina to be a royal colony.

• The king reached a financial agreement with the Proprietors and Carolina became a royal colony that was later split into North and South Carolina.

• SC had a governor appointed by the king and also had a representative assembly.

• The royal governor had limited power because the assembly controlled the taxes.

• For the most part, the King and Parliament left the colonies alone to control their government.

• One advantage to becoming a royal colony is that England increased subsidies for naval stores (paid more money for these goods) and allowed the colony to sell rice to foreign countries directly.

• Townships were set up in the Backcountry (also called the Upcountry) to encourage migration. These were plots of land in the upper regions of SC that were given to Europeans to encourage them to move to the colony.

Backcountry Townships

The Backcountry

• The first white settlers to move to the Backcountry were traders and woodsmen, so the Lowcountry elite thought of them as “uncivilized”.

• The Lowcountry around Charleston was the home of wealthy rice and indigo plantation owners.

• The Scotch-Irish and Germans traveled from Pennsylvania to the Backcountry of SC, and the Backcountry’s white population began to outnumber the Lowcountry’s population.

• The Backcountry had much less representation in government—they paid taxes and didn’t have much of a say in government.

The Regulator Movement

• There was no law enforcement or courts in the Backcountry, therefore people began to attempt to “regulate” the people.

• The Regulator movement was when people acted as “vigilantes” to control any problems.

• The people considered “guilty” were hanged or beaten to death without a jury trial. This violated their rights as Englishmen.

• Eventually, the government of SC set up seven circuit courthouses around the colony to provide justice, law, and order in the Backcountry.

• Problems between the Lowcountry and Backcountry continued.