A Brief History of the United StatesMcMaster, John Bach
History
A Brief History of the United States
McMaster, John Bach
United States -- History
Two groups of settlements were planted. One in the north, called the
Albemarle Colony, was of people from Virginia; the other, in the south,
the Carteret Colony, was of people from England, who founded Charleston
(1670). John Locke, a famous English philosopher, at the request of the
proprietors drew up a form of government, [14] but it was opposed by the
colonists and never went into effect. Each colony, however, had its own
governor, who was sent out by the proprietors till 1729, when the
proprietors surrendered their rights to the king. The province of Carolina
was then formally divided into two colonies known as North and South
Carolina.
LIFE IN NORTH CAROLINA.--The people of North Carolina lived on small farms
and owned few slaves. In the towns were a few mechanics and storekeepers,
in whose hands was all the commerce of the colony. They bought and sold
everything, and supplied the farms and small plantations. In the northern
part of the colony tobacco was grown, in the southern part rice and
indigo; and in all parts lumber, tar, pitch, and turpentine were produced.
Herds of cattle and hogs ran wild in the woods, bearing their owner's
brands, to alter which was a crime.
There were no manufactures; all supplies were imported from England or the
other colonies. There were few roads. There were no towns, but little
villages such as Wilmington, Newbern, and Edenton, the largest of which
did not have a population of five hundred souls. As in Virginia, the
courthouses were the centers of social life, and court days the occasion
of social amusements. Education was scanty and poor, and there was no
printing press in the colony for a hundred years after its first
settlement.
Much of the early population of North Carolina consisted of indented
servants, who, having served out their term in Virginia, emigrated to
Carolina, where land was easier to get. Later came Germans from the Rhine
country, Scotch-Irish from the north of Ireland, and (after 1745)
Scotchmen from the Highlands. [15]
SOUTH CAROLINA.--In South Carolina, also, the only important occupation
was planting or farming. Rice, introduced about 1694, was the chief
product, and next in importance was indigo. The plantations, as in
Virginia, were large and lay along the coast and the banks of the rivers,
from which the crops were floated to Charleston, where the planters
generally lived. At Charleston the crops were bought by merchants who
shipped them to the West Indies and to England, whence was brought almost
every manufactured article the people used. Slaves were almost the only
laborers, and formed about half the population. Bond servants were nearly
unknown. Charleston, the one city, was well laid out and adorned with
handsome churches, public buildings, and fine residences of rich merchants
and planters.
[Illustration: CHARLESTON IN EARLY TIMES. From an old print.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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