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Culpeper’s Rebellion
As you read, look for:
• the conditions that led to Culpeper’s Rebellion
• the results of Culpeper’s Rebellion
• vocabulary terms General Assembly, Navigation Acts,
Culpeper’s Rebellion, governor, treason
This section will help you meet the
following objectives:
8.1.06 Identify reasons for the
creation of a distinct North Carolina
colony and evaluate the effects on its
government and economics.
8.1.07 Describe the contributions
of diverse groups to life in colonial
North Carolina and other colonies.
Albemarle settlers from the start showed their independence in political matters. When the Proprietors convened the first General Assembly
(the law-making body made up of representatives from the various necks),
one of the first laws it passed was a declaration that land deeds already
held by the inhabitants be respected. The representatives also insisted
that they pay quit-rents at the same rate as in Virginia. The Proprietors,
wanting to make a good first impression, approved these ideas in 1668
with the Great Deed of Grant.
Albemarle citizens showed their independence again in 1673, when the
Proprietors took steps to get more money from the colonists. The Proprietors decided to enforce the Navigation Acts. England had passed these
laws in the 1660s. They listed which colonial goods—such as tobacco, dried
fish, flour, or shingles—would be subject to customs duties. The whole
idea was to have England benefit from the sale of colonial products.
The collection of those “duties” meant that many Albemarle residents
who sold to New England shippers could no longer avoid the duties. Most
of the Albemarle residents wouldn’t pay. To keep in the good graces of
the king, and to keep him from taking back their charter, the Proprietors
tried to stop the tax evasions. But the first person they put in charge of
collecting the duties simply let most of the ships leave the sound without checking their cargo.
Some residents of the Albemarle, however, sided with the Proprietors.
Thomas Miller, an apothecary, had selfish motives in mind. Since the
tax collector got a portion of the duties as the fee for his work, Miller
wanted the job. Also, tax evaders might eventually forfeit (lose) their
property and their power in the colony. So, people who sided with Miller
could then buy up the forfeited land and resell it for a profit. Miller’s ally
was Thomas Eastchurch, a surveyor, who likely saw that he would collect more fees if a lot of land was sold.
Miller and Eastchurch brought about Culpeper’s Rebellion, an event
so complicated that it rivaled the best soap opera on television today.
Above: Tobacco was one of the
colonial goods subject to custom
duties under the Navigation Acts.
An apothecary was something like today’s druggist.
But an apothecary also often
provided medical treatment, prescribed medicine,
performed surgery, and
delivered babies.
Section 3: Culpeper’s Rebellion
101
The story was as much a comedy as it was a political struggle over the
control of the Albemarle. Even the name was confusing. John Culpeper
was only a minor player in all the drama.
The Beginnings
In 1676, Miller and Eastchurch went to England to tell the Lords Proprietors of “the deplorable situation” in the colony. To counter them,
George Durant set sail for England and presented the other side of the
argument—that the problem of access to the sea kept the settlers too poor
to pay the duties. Since the Proprietors wanted to please the tax-loving
king, they appointed Eastchurch governor (leader) of the colony and
made Miller the tax collector. Durant then defiantly told the Proprietors
he and others like him “would turn Rebel.”
Eastchurch’s real desires were proven during his voyage back to Carolina. When the ship docked in a Caribbean port, Eastchurch met “a woman
that was of a considerable fortune” and immediately married her. He then
stayed behind for a honeymoon and sent Miller on to the Albemarle to
take charge without him.
Miller the Tyrant
Above: William Drummond was the
very first governor of what became
the Albemarle Sound region. The
Proprietors called him a “Scotch
gentleman of good repute.”
Drummond, however, took part in
Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia at
about the same time as Culpeper’s
Rebellion in the Albemarle.
Drummond was executed for his
role in the rebellion.
102
Miller sailed into Albemarle Sound in 1677 with a small ship he had
armed to help collect the duties. Residents soon accused him of “many
extravagant things” including baseless arrests and heavy fines imposed
on anyone he disliked. When George Durant returned from London, Miller
tried to arrest him. Miller’s timing was bad, for Durant had returned to
the Albemarle with weapons that he distributed up and down the various necks. When Miller thrust a cocked pistol into Durant’s ribs and called
him a traitor, forty other residents of Durant’s Neck came to the rescue.
Within days, Miller and his followers were “clapt in irons” in a prison
built just for them. Most of the rebel meetings were held at the Durant
home. In the midst of the chaos, Eastchurch finally arrived. Since
Eastchurch could legally claim the Proprietors had put him in charge,
the rebels faced being charged with treason (the act of trying to overthrow the government).
But Eastchurch got sick and died, and the fight resumed. Again, the
two sides sent written complaints back across the Atlantic to plead their
cases before the Proprietors. One of Miller’s imprisoned friends sawed
himself free of chains, escaped, and traveled all the way to London. There
he denounced Durant and his neighbors.
The Proprietors were afraid that the king would think they could not
manage the situation and take the colony back. They sent one of their
own, Seth Sothel, to be governor. Surely, they thought, the surly Albemarle
would listen to one of the Lords.
But on the way Sothel’s ship was overtaken by Turkish pirates, and
Sothel was taken away as a prisoner!
The Proprietors, wanting very much to quiet the Albemarle, turned to
John Harvey to be governor. Respected by almost everyone, Harvey calmly
Chapter 3: The Proprietors and Their Problems
began to send some quit-rents and customs duties
back to England, for the first time in six years. Then,
Harvey died. Thomas Miller escaped and went to
London and once again told the Proprietors he was
the real leader of the Albemarle.
Durant and Friends Win
By 1680, so many Albemarle residents were in
London, each telling a different story, that the king
had to step in to fix the problem. A hearing was conducted about whether to revoke the Carolina charter. The desperate Proprietors decided to blame Miller
for the whole matter, since Durant and others were
the taxpayers.
Unfortunately, the Albemarle did not get to settle
down. The colony of Virginia claimed that the
Albemarle was still part of Virginia and, therefore,
the quit-rents belonged to Virginia. To pressure the
Albemarle settlers into paying, Virginians passed a
law barring the sale of Albemarle tobacco in Virginia.
In 1683, four years after being kidnapped by pirates, Seth Sothel finally arrived in the Albemarle.
Sothel acted as if the colony was his private estate. He took land titles
away from residents who angered him and threw in jail anyone who
disagreed with him. The chief victim was George Durant, who was thrown
out of his house. Sothel believed that Durant “was always a discontented
man and the most active of the rebels.” Angry Albemarle residents came
to Sothel’s house and “clappt him into a logg house.” They then set up
their own court to “abjure” Sothel to leave “this country.”
The Albemarle continued to have troubles even after the Sothel affair.
A resident of the Currituck neck, John Gibbs, led a small rebellion that
tried to stop the new governor from taking office, promising to continue
the fight “as long as My Eyelids shall wagg.” This “Gibbs Rebellion,”
however, was shortlived. Gibbs’s neighbors made him flee into Virginia.
In 1691, the frustrated Proprietors split their colony into two. They
told the governor to live in Charles Town, where customs duties on rice
were substantial. A deputy governor of “north” Carolina was sent to the
Albemarle. That governor, John Archdale, was a Quaker and largely left
the Albemarle region alone.
Above: Anthony Ashley-Cooper, a
Proprietor, lent his name to the two
rivers that come together at Charles
Town. Ashley-Cooper hired John
Locke, an English philosopher, to
write the Fundamental Constitutions
designed to govern the colony.
After Sothel was banished
from the Albemarle,
he went to Charles Town,
where he became
a governor for South
Carolina.
It’s Your Turn
1. What was the purpose of the Navigation Acts?
2. Why did the settlers say they could not pay the customs duties?
Section 3: Culpeper’s Rebellion
103