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The Chartering of
Carolina
This section will help you meet the
following objective:
8.1.03 Compare and contrast the
differing motives for European
exploration.
8.1.05 Describe the factors that led
to the founding and settlement of the
American colonies.
As you read, look for:
• how Carolina came to be a separate colony
• why the Lords Proprietors wanted the Carolina colony
• conditions that shaped the early settlers
• vocabulary terms charter, Lord Proprietor, quit-rent
Every one of Great Britain’s
Map 11
The Carolina
Charter
Map Skill: What southern
states were not included in the
Carolina charter?
96
American colonies was eventually
organized by a charter, a contract
granted by the king to individuals
or groups who were to be in charge
of settlement and then govern
the settlers. Virginia, for example,
was established when the king
gave a charter to a group called the
London Company. The new company established Jamestown in
1607 and ran the colony to make
a financial profit.
Despite the popularity of tobacco, early Virginia did not succeed very well, so the company
sold its interest back to the king in
1622. These legal transactions canceled out the old rights to Roanoke
held by the Raleigh interests. Thus, when the Durants and others moved
south of the Dismal Swamp, they still lived in Virginia.
Everything changed in 1663, when the king of England at that time,
Charles II, created the new Carolina colony. Charles II had gone into exile
during a long civil war in which the monarchy was abolished and his
father, King Charles I, executed. Charles II was “restored” in 1660 by
Englishmen who still wanted a king to rule the country. Charles II owed
favors to those who had put him back in charge. So, he gave a group of
English aristocrats the southern part of Virginia.
Chapter 3: The Proprietors and Their Problems
On March 24, 1663, eight Lords Proprietors received the Carolina charter.
The recipients of the charter were called “Lords” because they were to be
the “true and absolute” rulers of the colony. They were called “Proprietors”
since they were the owners of the property. In 1665, the king expanded
their charter to include all the territory that is North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia and part of Florida today. The Proprietors were also given
claim to all territory west to “the South Seas,” another name for the Pacific
Ocean. Although no one at the time knew just how much land was involved, the Carolina colony claimed most of what became the southern
half of the United States, extending all the way to California. (So, in a way,
Los Angeles was once part of Carolina, although the Spanish owned it then
and would not have given it up without a fight.)
Above: The original Carolina
Charter of 1663 is housed at the
State Archives Building in Raleigh.
The state bought the document in
1949 for $8,000. North Carolina
is one of only seven states that has
its original charter.
The Lords Proprietors
The Lords Proprietors were some of the most powerful men in England. For example, George Monck, the Duke of Albemarle, was “master of the king’s horse,” which meant he commanded the English army.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper was “chancellor of the exchequer,” which meant
he was national treasurer. The proprietors would later name the Albemarle
Sound for the Duke and two rivers for Sir Anthony. The Ashley and Cooper
Section 2: The Chartering of Carolina
97
Figure 6
The Thirteen English Colonies
Colony
Year Settled English Colony Reasons for Settlement
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
New
England Colonies
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Massachusetts
Bay
1620
1630
Religious freedom
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Connecticut
1633
1636
Religious freedom, agriculture
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rhode
Island
1636
1644
Religious freedom
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
New
Hampshire
1623
1679
Commercial venture
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Middle
Colonies
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
New
York
1626
1664
Trade, agriculture
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
New
Jersey
1626
1664
Trade, agriculture
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Pennsylvania
1642
1681
Religious freedom
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Delaware
1638
1701
Trade
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Southern
Colonies
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Virginia
1607
1607
Commercial venture
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Maryland
1634
1632
Religious freedom;
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
buffer against Dutch
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
North
Carolina
1650s
1712
Agriculture
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
South
Carolina
1669
1729
Agriculture
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Georgia
1733
1732
Debtor colony;
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
buffer against Spanish
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
rivers come together to form the great harbor where the Proprietors built
Charles Town, South Carolina.
Why would these men want a colony, since they lived in great comfort
in London and did not plan to move? Money was the answer. Like a real
estate developer of today, they wanted to sell the land and make their money
through financing the deal. To encourage settlers to come to Carolina, the
Proprietors almost gave the land away, charging mostly for surveying
(measuring) the property and filing the land deed. But the Proprietors
expected each year to receive a quit-rent. This was an old form of payment that had existed for centuries in Europe. The owner actually held
title to his land, but he had to pay an annual land tax to the Proprietors.
This would have gone on forever, even as the descendants of the original
owner took over the property. Since it was assumed that only a portion of
the quit-rents would go for the maintenance of the colony, the Proprietors
hoped to reap a great profit over the coming years.
The Proprietors saw the arrangement as a good deal for all concerned.
In return for the revenue from the quit-rents of “their fair and prosperous
98
Chapter 3: The Proprietors and Their Problems
province on the continent of America,” they were obligated
to govern the colony fairly for everyone. They were to give
the colonists the same “liberties, franchises, and privileges”
that were given in England itself. They also had to protect
the colonists from invasion and attack. These rules were
put into place with “the Concessions of 1665.” A key phrase
in that document was that all taxes were to be “reasonably
assessed . . . by and with the consent of the free people”
living in the colony.
To ensure that government would work and to make
certain the quit-rents and other taxes would be collected,
the Proprietors approved the Fundamental Constitutions
in 1669. This document established a form of government
run by men with an elaborate series of titles and ranks.
The “Grand Model,” as the constitution was more commonly called, was copied from the English aristocratic
model. Each settler would know where he stood in the
social order and, therefore, know who to listen to when
the taxes were to be paid. The Fundamental Constitutions
gave people titles like caciques, landgraves, and yeomen.
At the top rank was the palatine, who came from the ranks of the Proprietors but who ran the colony from England.
The Proprietors hoped that the order they gave to the colony would
help everyone involved. But, as it turned out, regular people like George
Durant had very different views about society than aristocrats like Sir
Ashley-Cooper. A “rogue” and a “landgrave” were not exactly the same
sort of thing. The Albemarle region turned out to be the least profitable
and governable part of Carolina. In comparison, the settlement of Charles
Town in the 1680s proved a benefit when residents there made a fortune
growing rice. In contrast, the poor access to the sea hindered the Albemarle
Sound’s prosperity, stunting the economic development of the region.
And, the social attitudes of the early settlers often blunted the efforts of
the Proprietors to get results from the northern necks of their colony.
Social and Economic Conditions
Most of the Albemarle settlers were not nearly as wealthy as their counterparts in Virginia. Most Carolina settlers lived in wood frame huts that
rested upon cypress piles driven into the ground. Since it was expensive to
haul in nails, they used wooden pegs in the construction. Most houses
were one- or two-room cottages, with a loft above and a chimney at the
end of the larger room. The chimney heated the room and provided a space
for cooking. Families used the main room as an all-purpose gathering place,
where they mixed work and play on a daily basis.
Farming was by no means advanced, even for that day. Most of the
early farmers did not own a plow; instead they dug their gardens and
fields with hoes and shovels. They laboriously placed each tobacco plant
in a heaped mound of dirt and dung. The tobacco, along with corn or
Above: George Monck, the Duke of
Albemarle, was one of the original
Lords Proprietors. His royal title
was used for the naming of the
Albemarle Sound in the 1660s.
The eight original Lords
Proprietors were 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; and Sir John
Colleton.
Section 2: The Chartering of Carolina
99
Above: George Fox, the founder of
the Quaker faith, never lived in
North Carolina, but he made visits
to other Quakers during the
Proprietary period. Fox’s plain
dress suggests how most Albemarle
residents might have looked.
any other crop, could be sold at a small profit to the New
England ship captains who came to the Albemarle each
summer.
Most of the early Albemarle families did the labor themselves. Only about one in ten settlers was an African slave.
Still, it was not an exhausting life for many, who got by
with the least they needed. William Byrd, a rich Virginia
planter, said that many men “make their Wives rise out of
their beds early” while “at the same time they lye and
Snore.” While the women cared for children and did chores,
“they stand leaning with both arms upon the cornfield
fence.” More than one prosperous Virginian who came to
the region called the people “lubbers,” a derogatory term
of the day that referred to someone with lazy habits. “Thus,
they loiter away their lives,” observed Byrd. Some Virginians came to call the Albemarle “Lubberland.”
Nor were there churches and schools in the first neighborhoods. People worshipped in homes, especially among
settlers who professed to be Quakers, a new religious faith
that had recently originated in England. The Society of
Friends, as Quakers called themselves, emphasized the ability of every
individual to have a genuine religious experience, even without the leadership of a preacher or a priest. In 1672, the founder that that new faith,
George Fox, made a journey to “the north of Carolina” to hold “meetings
among the people.” Four years later, hundreds of settlers had joined the
Quakers. Since Quakers did not have to have a minister to conduct a
service, no clergyman was a resident of the Albemarle for years, and no
meetinghouse was erected until after 1700.
The growth of the Quaker faith added to the independent attitude of
the settlers. For example, some men who attended the first church service in the colony, in 1672, “shocked the sensibilities of some . . . by
smoking their pipes . . . during the devotional exercises.” They wanted
to show they could make up their own minds about religion, since men
in that day often smoked a pipe while they thought about something.
The same Albemarle “lubbers” who seemed lazy most days reacted
energetically to any effort by the Proprietors to impose order on them. They
had little desire to pay the quit-rent required of them and little use for the
fancy titles given to a few rich people in their midst. In fact, the Albemarle
settlers were very assertive of their independence from the start.
It’s Your Turn
1. Who were the Lords Proprietors?
2. What was a quit-rent?
3. Why was the Fundamental Constitutions unsuccessful?
100
Chapter 3: The Proprietors and Their Problems