8-1.6: Compare the development of
representative government in SC to the other
colonial regions, including the under the
proprietary regime, the period of royal
government, and South Carolina’s Regulator
Movement.
Government
Set of policies, roles, and responsibilities
established to direct and control the uses of
technology, direction of state, and actions of
citizens
Why do we have government?
To ensure the natural rights of the people are
protected (life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness)
Purposes of Government:
1. Maintain order by preserving life and
protecting property
2. Provide public goods and services such as
highways and schools
3. Promote equality through health, welfare
and social equality policies
Economics:
The study of how limited resources are
distributed in society through the concepts of
supply and demand
1. Supply is the amount of a good available
2. Demand is how much of the good is
purchased
3. the price of a good establishes the
amount of supply available and the
amount of a product demanded
South Carolina’s Government:
First Plan of Government: Fundamental Constitutions of
Carolina
1. Became more democratic during colonial period
SC began as proprietary colony
1. Lords Proprietors had control over land and political control of
land granted to them by king
2. Proprietors attracted settlers by beginning to share some
political control with property owners
Largest plantation owners, the Carolina political elite.
1. amassed great wealth & political power
2. Other colonies developed a political elite based on
economic status too.
Carolina’s Government:
 Legislative Assembly:
1.
2.
3.
made laws including tax laws
bicameral (2 house) assembly (most colonies)
Proprietors & elite had greater representation in government than
common man
 Grand Council decided majority of each group in colonies –
reps of Proprietors, colonial elite, and common peopleshould have equal voice in gov’t.
 Problem with this: the representation would not be proportional to
their numbers in the population
 Later separate Commons House of Assembly established to
represent the common people
 Representation greater for Lowcountry than backcountry
Changes in Control of Colonies:
 By end of 1600’s most joint stock company
colonies had become royal colonies and could
not name governors
 Royal colonies: king appoints governors to
help control wealth or limit the independence
of colony
Changes in Control of Colonies:
 SC colonists asked to become a royal colony, why?
1. Tension between Proprietors & colonists
2. Colonists felt neglected by proprietors who collected rent, but
offered little protection
3. Proprietors thought colonists were disobedient & were making
little profit
4. Council protested to king about neglect & asked to become
royal colony
5. King & proprietors made a financial deal, Carolina became a
royal colony
6. Carolina split into South & North Carolina (1712) due to
differences between wealthy SC & backwoods NC
South Carolina as a Royal Colony
 Royal Government:
1. representative assembly allowed Carolina some selfgovernment
2. governor appointed by king (power limited)
3. assembly controlled taxes that paid governor
4. most often colonies left alone by king & Parliament to
control local governments
Economic Advantages of being royal colony:
1. Increased subsidies for naval stores & indigo
2. Direct rice sale by merchants to foreign countries
3. Expanded markets to sell goods
Expansion of Colony Under Royal
Colony
 Township Plan
1. Established by royal governor to encourage migration to the
Carolina backcountry
2. Established townships in backcountry
3. Settlers established subsistence farms there
4. encouraged animosity between the Lowcountry &
backcountry
 First backcountry settlers: white traders & woodsmen
viewed by Lowcountry as “uncivilized”
 Lowcountry: first area settled, along Atlantic coast,
Charles Town (Home of plantation owners rich from export of
rice & indigo)
Reasons for animosity/tension
between backcountry & Lowcountry
Lowcountry:
Backcountry:
1.
First area settled
1. Settled later
2.
Along Atlantic Coast
2. Inland
3.
Plantation owners, Barbadians
(rice & indigo)
3. Subsistence farmers, traders &
woodsmen
4.
Wealthy, prosperous
4. Poor
5.
Considered aristocratic
5. Considered “uncivilized”
6.
Small white population
6. Larger white population
7.
Larger slave population
7. Few slaves, anti-slavery
8.
Majority representation in
Assembly
8. Less representation in
Assembly
Backcountry:
 Coastal settlers moved inland
 Immigrants traveled along backcountry valleys
from Pennsylvania (Scotch Irish & German)
 White population grew & outnumbered
Lowcountry’s
 Backcountry continued to have much less
representation in Assembly
 Paid taxes, but got little from colonial government
 No law enforcement so settlers became vigilantes
Regulator Movement:
No law enforcement
Settlers took law/regulation of society into own hands
No Courts, so Regulators operated as vigilantes
Movement turned lawless
Guilty hanged or beaten to death without jury trial
 (violated rights as Englishmen)
SC government eventually came to aid of backcountry settlers
 Circuit Court Act of 1769: set up 7 circuit courthouses around
colony to provide justice, law & order in the region
Representation in Assembly was still disproportional & tensions
continued between backcountry & Lowcountry