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chapterfive
A PERMANENT SETTLEMENT
AT CHARLES TOWN
What was the first permanent settlement in South Carolina?
SELECTED
VOCABULARY
Radical
Fundamental
Constitutions
Democracy
Headright
Indentured servants
Daub and wattle
Naval stores
OVERVIEW
The Dutch and the Swedes
settled on the middle Atlantic
coast. But in the end the entire
area came under English control.
In 1669, Anthony Ashley
Cooper became the leader of the
Lords Proprietors of Carolina. He
drew up the Fundamental
Constitutions to govern the
colony. He bought three ships
and recruited settlers. In 1670
they established a permanent settlement at Charles Town in present-day South Carolina. They
fought off the Spanish threat from
Florida. Within, they were divided between settlers from England
and Barbados. But with the help
of Dr. Henry Woodward, they
traded with the Native Americans
for skins and slaves. They produced naval stores and raised cattle. In 1680 they moved Charles
Town to its present site.
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TIMELINE
UNITED STATES
SOUTH CAROLINA
1629
New Amsterdam
1638
New Sweden
1664
English seized
New York,
New Jersey
1669
Lord Ashley headed Carolina
Proprietors
Fundamental Constitutions
Voyage to Carolina began
1670
Charles Town settled
1680
Charles Town moved to
Oyster Point
1681
Pennsylvania settled
I. SETTLING THE MIDDLE COLONIES
What new proprietary colonies were
established?
While the Lords Proprietors of Carolina were planning to settle their land, other Englishmen had plans
for the land along the Atlantic coast between New
England and Maryland. As early as 1614 the Dutch
were buying furs from the Indians along the Hudson
River. In 1626 the Dutch West India Company bought
Manhattan Island from the Indians and established
New Amsterdam as the capital of a colony they called
New Netherland. In 1638 the Swedes settled along the
Delaware River, but the Dutch attacked them in 1655
and added New Sweden to New Netherland. In 1664
King Charles II granted the Dutch colony to his brother the Duke of York, who captured it and renamed it
New York.
That same year, in 1664, the Duke of York gave the
land west of the Hudson to Sir George Carteret and
Lord John Berkeley, who were also proprietors of
Carolina. The land became New Jersey.
In 1681, Charles II granted the land west of the
Delaware to William Penn, the son of his supporter,
Admiral Sir William Penn. He named it Pennsylvania,
or Penn’s Woods, in honor of the admiral. The younger
Penn founded a colony there based on the principles of
the Society of Friends, or Quakers. William Penn had
become a Quaker while a student at the University of
Oxford. The Quakers were radical Puritans who
believed that God spoke to each individual through an
“inner light.” They believed in the equality of all people
before God and renounced war. Penn allowed all
groups to worship freely in Pennsylvania, and soon
Germans and Scots-Irish settlers joined the English
Quakers. Penn named the leading town of his colony
Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.
II. LORD ASHLEY AND CAROLINA
What role did Lord Ashley play in establishing
Carolina?
When the older and more prominent Lords
Proprietors of Carolina sold their shares to others or
lost interest in the project, the man who saved the
colony was Anthony Ashley Cooper. Born in 1621,
Ashley Cooper descended from two prominent families in southwestern England—the Ashleys of Dorset
and the Coopers of Hampshire. His grandfather,
Anthony Ashley, had been the clerk, or secretary, of
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the Privy Council under Elizabeth I and James I. His father, Sir John Cooper, was
a gambler who lost much of the family’s fortune. Young Ashley Cooper was
taught at home by tutors, went to the University of Oxford, and later studied law.
By the end of the English Civil War, Ashley Cooper took the side of the king.
When Charles II went back to England in 1660, he appointed Ashley Cooper a
member of the Privy Council. The next year the king made him a noble, Lord
Ashley. Eventually he became one of the king’s most powerful ministers, the Lord
Chancellor, and was given a new title, the Earl of Shaftesbury.
Very short, Lord Ashley was sometimes called “the little man.” He had a very
painful liver disease, and his doctor, John Locke, in a famous operation inserted
a gold tube in Ashley’s side to prevent more infection. Everyone at court talked
about Lord Ashley and his “gold pipe.”
In 1669, when he was forty-eight, Lord Ashley became leader of the Lords
Proprietors of Carolina. He urged that each proprietor contribute £500 (British
pounds) to found a new settlement at Port Royal in Craven County in present-day
South Carolina. He asked each one to pledge £200 a year for four years to support the colony. With the money, he recruited 100 colonists from England, purchased three ships for the voyage, and arranged for them to stop in Ireland and
Barbados to take on more passengers.
William Penn, the founder of
Pennsylvania, was a Quaker.
Library of Congress
What did the Quakers
believe?
III. THE FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONS OF CAROLINA
How did the Fundamental Constitutions attempt to restrict democracy?
In addition to preparing for the voyage to Carolina, Lord Ashley spent time
during the summer of 1669 drafting laws for the colony. He called them the
Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina. He had the help of his physician and
private secretary, John Locke. Locke was not only a famous doctor, but he
became a well-known philosopher and writer. As their guide, Lord Ashley and
Locke used the ideas of James Harrington, one of Ashley’s fellow law students. In
his book The Commonwealth of Oceana, Harrington wrote that a government must
keep order by controlling who owns the land. In a republic every citizen should
own land, but a few people, the elite, must own large amounts of land to keep
peace. Like most people of his day, Harrington was afraid of a democracy in
which all citizens are equal.
Under the Fundamental Constitutions all settlers were given a grant of land
ranging from 100 to 150 acres called a headright. Slaveholders could claim more
land for each slave. The Carolina nobility—the Lords Proprietors, the landgraves,
and the caciques (CASS-iks)—would receive large estates of thousands of acres.
Such estates, or plantations, would have to have large numbers of slaves. To
attract settlers, Ashley provided for freedom of worship in Carolina.
In the colony the Lords Proprietors were the highest authority. In their
absence a governor would rule. Members of the nobility would form the Grand
Council, like the Privy Council in England. A Parliament composed of the nobles
and representatives of the landowners would accept or reject laws proposed by
the Grand Council.
Lord Ashley never thought that the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina
could be put in force immediately. He called it the “Grand Model.” It would take
years before the new colony would be ready for such a government. In fact, the
settlers never voted to approve the Fundamental Constitutions, and it never went
into effect.
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For Albemarle County, in present-day
North Carolina, the proprietors appointed
a separate governor. Though they did not
call the northern area North Carolina until
1712, the proprietors thought of Albemarle
County as a separate part of Carolina. Our
story concerns the development of presentday South Carolina.
IV. THE VOYAGE TO CAROLINA
Where did the ships to Carolina sail?
Why did the ships
stop in Ireland?
Whom did they find
on the island of Nevis?
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By late in the summer of 1669, Lord
Ashley had purchased three ships he
named the Carolina, the Port Royal, and the
Albemarle. He put them under the command of Captain Joseph West. About 100
settlers sailed from England in August. They
included some members of the gentry, some skilled workmen, and at least one
African slave. There were a number of indentured servants—both men and
women—who signed a contract to work in Carolina to pay for their passage. The
ships stopped in Ireland to enlist more servants, but none signed on. So they set
out across the Atlantic to Barbados for more colonists. Lord Ashley told West to see
Sir John Yeamans, a wealthy sugar planter in Barbados who had been governor of
the earlier colony at Cape Fear. Yeamans had said he would serve as governor of
Carolina or find someone to take his place. A gale hit Barbados while the expedition was there, and the Albemarle sank. Yeamans leased another ship, the Three
Brothers, and he set sail with about fifty more settlers from Barbados. On the island
of Nevis they found Dr. Henry Woodward, who had been imprisoned by the
Spanish and set free by the English. He agreed to return to Carolina. Another storm
wrecked the Port Royal and separated the other ships. When the Carolina reached
Bermuda, Yeamans decided to return to Barbados. He chose William Sayle, a former governor of Bermuda who was then eighty years old, as governor.
On March 15, 1670, the Carolina reached Bull’s Bay north of present-day
Charleston. The head man, or cacique (CASS-ik), of the Kiawah tried to persuade
his old friend Dr. Woodward to settle at Bull’s Bay, where they would be safe from
the fierce Westo nation who had just moved into Carolina from Virginia. But the
English sailed south toward Port Royal, their original destination. When the settlers arrived, Governor Sayle set up a temporary government. The freemen elected five people to serve on the Grand Council. Five members were also appointed
by the proprietors. Afraid of the Spanish in nearby Florida, Sayle decided to move
the colony farther north. About April 1, the Carolina sailed up the Ashley River
and anchored in Town Creek, off a low bluff the settlers named Albemarle Point
in honor of the Duke of Albemarle. By the end of May the Three Brothers arrived.
It had gone first to Virginia, then sailed south along the coast to Georgia, where
a landing party was captured by the Native Americans and turned over to the
Spanish. The long, stormy voyage was finally over. “God will preserve me,” one
woman wrote, “as He hath in many Dangers when I saw His wonders in ye Deepe
and was by Him Delivered.”
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V. THE SETTLEMENT AT ALBEMARLE POINT
How did the settlers attempt to make Charles Town successful?
Albemarle Point had three sides and could be easily protected. Located on the
waterfront, it was well back from the ocean. On the land side the settlers quickly
dug a moat, or large ditch. They cut down trees and erected a palisade to keep out
unwelcome visitors. Soon the proprietors renamed the settlement Charles Town
in honor of the king.
Even though Lord Ashley had sent a plan for laying out a town, the settlers put
up houses here and there with little thought. The first houses were built of daub
and wattle like many back home in England. First, a house was framed with
heavy timbers that marked off the windows and doors. Then the walls were filled
in by weaving small branches together into wattle. The wattle was plastered over
or daubed with mud. The roof was covered with reeds that were tied together in
layers called thatch. Only later did the carpenters take time to build wooden or
clapboard houses with roofs made of shingles.
Settlers working for the proprietors planted an experimental farm using seeds
and cuttings sent by Lord Ashley or brought from Barbados by Captain West. They
tried tobacco, cotton, indigo, sugarcane, grapes, and olives, as well as oranges,
lemons, limes, pomegranates, and figs. But much of the food and supplies for the
new town had been lost in the storms on the
voyage. So Governor Sayle sent the Carolina
to Virginia and the Three Brothers to Bermuda
for more supplies. In the meantime he sent
Dr. Woodward to buy food from the Native
Americans. The doctor traveled as far as
Silver Bluff on the Savannah River. The
native people sent food and promised to protect the English if the Spanish attacked.
VI. THE SPANISH THREAT
What was the Spanish threat?
In August 1670, soon after Woodward
returned, his native friends at Port Royal
sent word that the Spanish were on their
way to Albemarle Point. The Spanish came
up the Ashley River in three ships with their Native American allies in dugout
boats. But just as the enemy arrived, the Carolina sailed into the harbor with guns
blazing. The native people fled, and the Spanish sailed back to St. Augustine.
Soon the Spanish withdrew from their outposts in Georgia and Florida and
began to build a great stone fort to protect St. Augustine, the Castillo de San
Marcos.
Sir John Yeamans lived here at
Nicholas Abbey, a sugar plantation, on the island of
Barbados in the West Indies.
What part did Sir John play
in the early settlement of
South Carolina?
VII. THE ENGLISH SETTLERS VS. THE BARBADIANS
Why were the settlers divided over who had power in the colony?
The proprietors advertised for more settlers for Carolina. In February 1671, 110
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Barbadians arrived. Before the end of the year, ninety-six settlers came from New
York. About half the population was then from Barbados, and the Barbadians
began to demand more power in the colony. They complained about Governor
Sayle. He was too old, and they needed an active leader. He was a Puritan, and they
belonged to the Church of England. Perhaps most important, he was not from
Barbados. They demanded more representatives on the Grand Council.
On March 4, 1671, the governor died. On his deathbed he urged the council
to appoint Joseph West governor until the proprietors could make a decision. But
the Barbadians were no happier with West. He was English, and he was a Quaker.
And he was not from Barbados. Then, in July, Sir John Yeamans arrived from
Barbados and demanded the governorship. He was a landgrave; Governor West
was only a cacique. Under the Fundamental Constitutions, Yeamans outranked
West. But the new governor would not resign, and the Grand Council supported
him. Not until 1672 did word arrive from the proprietors. Yeamans outranked
West, and Yeamans should be governor.
Seventeenth-century sailing ships
seem very small today. This
modern model was built in 1970.
It is located at Charles Towne
Landing State Historic Site, the
original site of Charles Town.
What did the settlers name
this place in 1670?
VIII. RELATIONS WITH THE NATIVE AMERICANS
What was the settlers’ relation with Native Americans?
From their arrival in 1670 the English settlers had good relations with the
native people. Dr. Henry Woodward had long been a friend of the natives along
the coast. Trade began when the settlers sold them trinkets, guns, clothing, and
rum in return for deerskins and beaver furs. Not all the Native Americans were
friendly. The Coosaw began to steal grain from the fields at Charles Town. So in
1671 the English attacked them. After a few Coosaw were taken prisoner, the
fighting ended.
Ever since the Westo arrived in Carolina about 1670, they had been hostile to
the coastal natives. The local head men told the English that the Westo were cannibals. In 1672 rumors reached Charles Town that the Westo were about to
attack. The English prepared to fight. But the proprietors wanted trade, not war.
Lord Ashley sent word to Dr. Woodward to open trade with the Westo. Traveling
alone into Westo country, Woodward made a treaty in which the Westo pledged
to support the English against the Spanish and trade with Charles Town. Soon
the English were buying deerskins and furs from them. Even though the proprietors refused to permit Native American slavery, the Westo began to sell slaves to
the English settlers as well.
IX. A GROWING ECONOMY
How did the Carolinians exploit the physical environment
to make money?
Once the fear of native attack was over, the Carolinians turned to making
money. The Barbadians had become wealthy by growing sugarcane in the West
Indies. In Carolina there was no one crop that was successful. So the colonists
turned to the forests. The pine trees were a source of pitch and tar, which the
English needed for the navy. Pitch and tar were called naval stores. Hardwood
trees furnished wood to make barrels. The forests of Carolina also were perfect
for raising cattle. Many of the African slaves had raised cattle in Africa. They knew
how to ride the range and round up cattle into cowpens before driving them to
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market. The Africans in Carolina were among the first cowboys in America.
The settlers shipped deerskins and furs, naval stores and barrel staves to
England for sale. They shipped beef and Native American slaves to the West Indies
in return for rum and sugar. Soon the Carolina settlers began to grow wealthy.
The settlers protected Charles
Town by digging a moat and
building a palisade made of
logs. This reconstruction, built
in 1970, stands at Charles
Towne Landing.
X. A NEW SITE FOR CHARLES TOWN
Why was the settlement moved to Oyster Point?
Before Governor Sayle died, he planned to move Charles Town from Albemarle
Point. The land there was too low and marshy. The people seemed to get sick easily. Large ships could not sail into Town Creek. Sayle set aside 600 acres across
the Ashley River on Oyster Point for the new town. Oyster Point lay on a peninsula between the Ashley and Cooper rivers. The harbor was broad and well protected. In 1680 the settlers moved. By that time much of the land there had been
settled. Again Lord Ashley sent directions for a planned city with proper
European walls and a moat. He wanted streets that crossed at right angles. This
time the settlers followed his directions. The new town fronted on the Cooper
River. A watch house was
built at the foot of Broad
Street for storing arms
and guarding the town.
Where Broad crossed
Meeting Street, the first
English church was built,
St. Philip’s Church.
Gradually the old site of
Charles Town fell into
ruins. For 300 years it
was known as Old Town
The first houses built by the
settlers at Charles Town in 1670
were of daub and wattle construction. This one has been
reconstructed at Charles Towne
Landing.
What is daub and wattle?
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EYEWITNESS TO HISTORY:
Nicholas Carteret Arrives in Carolina, 1670
On March 15, 1670, the ship Carolina finally
arrived off the coast of South Carolina at Bull’s Bay.
Nicholas Carteret, one of the passengers, described
the arrival of the ship and the settlers’ first encounter
with the Kiawah.
Barmuda, Febry 26th, sayling from thence we came up with the
land between Cape Romana [that is, Romain] and Port
Royall, and in 17 days the weather being faire and the
winde not friendly the Longe boate went ashoare the better to informe as to the certainty of the place where we
supposed we were. Upon its approach to the land few
were the natives who upon the strand made fires and
came towards us whooping in theire own tone and
manner, making signes also where we should best land, and when we
came ashoare they stroaked us on the shoulders with their hands,
saying Bony Conraro Angles, knowing us to be English by our collours (as we supposed). We then gave them brass rings and tobacco,
at which they seemed well pleased, and into the boate after halfe an
houre spent with the Indians we betooke ourselves. They liked our
company soe well that they would have come aboard with us . . .
Thornton Map
[T]he next day we brought the shipp to anchor feareing a contrary winde and to
gett in for some fresh watter. A day or two after the Governor whom we tooke in
Where was the original
at Barmuda [William Sayle] with several others went ashore to view the Land
Charles Town settlement?
there, some 3 Leagues distant from the shipp, carrying along with us one of the
eldest Indians who accosted us on the other day, and as we drew to the shoare a
Where was it moved?
good number of Indians appeared, clad with deare skins, having with them their
bows and arrows, but our Indian calling out Appada they withdrew and ledged
theire bows and returning ran up to the middle in mire and watter to carry us
ashore, where then we came they gave us the stroaking complim[en]t of the country and brought dear skins, some raw, some drest [dressed], to trade with us, for
which we gave them knives, beads, and tobacco and glad they were of the Market.
By and by came theire women clad in their Mosses roabs, bringing their potts to
boyle a kinde of thickening which they pound and make food of, and
as they order it being dryed makes a pretty sort of bread. They
Questions for Reflection:
brought also plenty of Hickory nutts, a wallnut in shape and taste,
onely differing in the thickness of the shell and the smallness of the
1. Why did the settlers spend so
kernell. The Governor and several others walking a little distance
much time at Bull’s Bay?
from the watter side came to the Hutt Palace of his Ma[jes]ty of the
place [that is, the casique of Kiawah], who meeteing us tooke the
Governor on his shoulders and carryed him into the house in token
2. How were the English received
of his cheerfull entertainment. Here we had nutts and root cakes,
by the Native Americans?
such as their women usually make, as before, and watter to drink for
they use no other lickquor as I can learn in this country.
?
3. Why do you suppose Carteret did
not mention that Dr. Henry
Woodward, who knew the native
language, was with them?
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“Mr. Carteret’s Relation of their Planting at Ashley
River ‘70,” in Narratives of Early Carolina, 1650-1708
(New York, 1911, 1967),pp. 116-18.
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Recalling wha
t you read
I. Settling the Middle Colonies
1. What were the activities of the Dutch along the Atlantic coast?
2. How was New Jersey established?
3. How did Penn acquire the land west of the Delaware? What name did he
give it?
4. Who were the Quakers and what did they believe?
5. What did Penn name the leading town of his colony, and what does the
word mean?
II. Lord Ashley and Carolina
1. What evidence is given that describes Anthony Ashley Cooper as well-bred
and well-educated?
2. What positions and titles were given to him by the king?
3. As leader of the Lords Proprietors of Carolina, what did he propose in
order to strengthen the colony?
FOR
THOUGHT
1. Why could Ashley
Cooper be called
the real “founder”
of Carolina?
2. Why did the proprietors try to prevent
Native American
slavery? What were
the results of native
slavery?
III. The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina
1. Who helped Lord Ashley write the laws for the colony? Who was he?
2. Whose ideas did they use? How was the government to keep order?
3. How much land could settlers own? How did that compare with the
amount of land owned by the Lords Proprietors?
4. Who were the men of highest authority in the colony?
5. What was the governor’s role?
6. Who formed the Grand Council? What was it supposed to do?
7. Who made up Parliament? What was it supposed to do?
8. Why did the proprietors appoint a separate governor for Albemarle
County?
IV. The Voyage to Carolina
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
What were the names of Lord Ashley’s ships? Who was in command?
What types of people sailed from England in August of 1669?
Who was Sir John Yeamans?
What happened to the ships Lord Ashley sent from England?
Who did he select as governor of Carolina?
When the Carolina reached the Charleston area, what did the native people
want?
7. What did Governor Sayle do when the settlers arrived in Port Royal?
8. What caused Governor Sayle to move up the Ashley River to Albemarle
Point?
9. What happened to the landing party of the ship Three Brothers in Georgia?
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Recalling wha
t you read
V. The Settlement at Albemarle Point
1.
2.
3.
4.
How would you describe the location of Albemarle Point?
What was it renamed? Why?
Describe the location and construction of the houses of Charles Town.
From what sources did Governor Sayle expect to get provisions for the
people of Charles Town?
5. Were the Native Americans friendly or hostile? How do you know?
VI. The Spanish Threat
1. What happened when the Spanish approached Albemarle Point in their
ships?
2. What did the Spanish build to protect St. Augustine?
VII. The English Settlers vs. the Barbadians
1.
2.
3.
4.
What were the complaints of the Barbadians against Governor Sayle?
What did they want?
When Governor Sayle died, who became governor?
How were the problems of the Barbadians resolved?
VIII. Relations With the Native Americans
1. The native people were generally friendly, but what happened with the
Coosaw?
2. What did Dr. Woodward do to promote good relations with the hostile
Westo nation?
3. What did the Westo do that was against the wishes of the Proprietors?
IX. A Growing Economy
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Were the crops of Barbados successful in Carolina?
Why were the forests important to colonists in Carolina?
Why can we call the African slaves some of America’s first cowboys?
What did the Carolina settlers ship to England that made them wealthy?
What did the settlers ship to the West Indies in return for rum and sugar?
X. A New Site for Charles Town
1. Why did Governor Sayle want to move the settlement of Charles Town
from Albemarle Point?
2. What was the site of the new town?
3. What were the advantages of the new location?
4. What were Lord Ashley’s instructions for the building of a new town?
5. What was the name of the first church built and where was it located?
6. What name was given to the old site of Charles Town?
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