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This section will help you meet the
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Continuing Political
Troubles
As you read, look for:
• North Carolina’s first royal governors
• the problems faced by the royal governors
• vocabulary terms boycott, Granville District, frontier,
French and Indian War, ranger
When the king of England bought North Carolina in 1729, the
colonists hoped life would get better in the colony. Gabriel
Johnston, sent by the king in 1734 to govern the colony, saw
some hopeful signs. For one, the first formally trained physician
to live in North Carolina, Armand de Rosset, had helped establish Wilmington. However, Governor Johnston would not find
much peace during the
eighteen years he was in
North Carolina.
The handicaps of geography continued to plague
the colony. Because it was
Gabriel Johnston was the
so difficult to navigate the
longest-serving governor,
Outer Banks, goods cost
from colonial to
50 percent more to ship
contemporary times.
from North Carolina than
from ports like Philadelphia or Charles Town. Although the top 10 percent of North Carolina families were wealthy, they did not live as well as rich people
elsewhere. For example, fewer of their sons went to college than
was the case for the wealthy families of Virginia. Even North
Carolina’s poor seemed poorer. Many of the farmers who pushed into
the richer areas of the Coastal Plain in the 1730s went there without plows.
following objective:
8.1.01 Assess the impact of
geography on the settlement and
developing economy of the Carolina
colony.
8.1.06 Identify reasons for the
creation of a distinct North Carolina
colony and evaluate the effects on its
government and economics.
Above: George II was king of
England when North Carolina
became a royal colony.
Sectional Conflicts
The settlement of the Cape Fear continued to cause conflict. The
Albemarle resented the wealth and power that Cape Fear residents
had gotten selling naval stores. Albemarle residents wanted their area to
Section 1: Continuing Political Troubles
123
Map 13
The Granville
District
Map Skill: Would present-day
Raleigh be located in the
Granville District?
Lord Granville
continue to rule the colony. Albemarle leaders tried to stop the Cape
Fear planters from taking advantage of blank patents. Because the
The Granville District
land deeds did not indicate how
began at the Virginia
much land was being claimed,
border and extended
some planters got very rich very
fast. When the Cape Fear demandsouth for 70 miles.
ed equal representation in the
General Assembly, the Albemarle
boycotted the Assembly from 1746 to 1754; nothing got done. (To
boycott is to refuse to participate in or to buy something until certain
conditions are met.)
To make a bad situation worse, in 1744 the king finally figured out
what to do with the claim of Lord Granville, the one Proprietor who had
refused to sell his share in the colony. The king granted him what
amounted to the northern half of the colony.
Granville could sell this land and still collect the quit-rent each year.
Since the Granville District was inside the colony, the colony was still
responsible for its government. The people in the Cape Fear would be
taxed to help the people in the Albemarle govern the Granville District.
When it later turned out that Lord Granville’s agents demanded bribes
for their services, people all across North Carolina were angry.
A New Royal Governor
After the death of Governor Johnston, Arthur Dobbs was sent to govern the colony in 1754. He faced a dire situation. Only half the revenue
that could be collected was actually being put into the treasury. Public
expenses were higher than ever, because there were so many new settlers west of the fall line. Settlement of the frontier (the area at the edge
or just beyond a settled area) was moving closer to the Cherokee. The
124
Chapter 4: A Royal Colony Struggles
Cherokee were beginning to threaten the settlers. They would
kill cattle left in the woods or come to the doors of cabins and
ask for food or presents. They seemed to arrive most often
when the father was not home, often frightening the rest of
the family.
The French and Indian War
The French and Indian War (1754-1763) made matters
worse in North Carolina. This war, which started in America
and spread to Europe, was part of a long struggle between
the British and the French. This particular war was over which
European kingdom would control North America. Because
the French controlled the territory west of the Appalachians,
they and their Indian allies could attack along the borders of
the thirteen colonies. The Cherokee sided with the French.
To counter this threat, colonial leaders met in Albany, New
York, to discuss how to protect themselves. Benjamin Franklin
of Pennsylvania proposed the “Albany Plan of Union.” Under this plan, a central government, headed by a “presidentgeneral,” would provide defense for all the colonists. A majority of the
colonies, however, rejected the idea because it would weaken their authority. North Carolina did not even send a delegate to Albany.
Although North Carolina did not become part of a colonial union, it
did act to protect itself. Governor Dobbs got the feuding Cape Fear and
Albemarle to do a better job collecting taxes. The colony used the money
Above: Royal Governor Arthur
Dobbs. Below: North Carolinians
were part of the Braddock expedition that invaded French territory in
present-day Pennsylvania. General
Braddock was killed in this ambush.
Section 1: Continuing Political Troubles
125
Above: These are the surviving
walls of St. Philip’s Church in
Brunswick. Arthur Dobbs was
married in the church while it was
the colonial capital.
In Europe, during the
same time, the fighting
was referred to as the
Seven Years War.
126
to erect Fort Dobbs near the present site
of Statesville. An elaborate log “blockhouse” that was both fort and barracks,
Fort Dobbs served as headquarters for
defending the backcountry. From the fort,
Captain Hugh Waddell of Wilmington
patrolled the frontier with companies
of rangers, forerunners of the North
Carolina’s Highway Patrol in the twentieth century. The rangers quickly rode to
wherever trouble occurred. They often
covered hundreds of miles each week.
The Treaty of Paris ended the war in
1763. The French lost all their land in
America. This left Great Britain in control of all the land east of the Mississippi
River.
Dobbs tried to unify the colony by
setting up a permanent place for the General Assembly to meet, upriver from New
Bern. No one, however, agreed to that
location. He did set up more courts, making it easier for citizens to settle their disputes without having to travel too far.
Dobbs’s policies put the colony in
debt. There were other problems. He was
accused of giving friends financial advantages. Dobbs tried to gain favor with the
Cape Fear faction by living in Brunswick,
but it only angered the Albemarle. He also angered the officials of the
Granville District by giving away land within the district, even though
he had no right to do so. To hide what he had done, Dobbs accused the
Granville agents of wrongdoing.
Dobbs kept the colony in an uproar. In the early 1760s, the leaders
of the General Assembly sent the king fifteen different charges related
to Dobbs’s leadership. Dobbs, however, held onto his office until his
death in 1765.
It’s Your Turn
1. Who did the king appoint as royal governor in 1734?
2. Why did the Albemarle boycott the General Assembly from 1746 to
1754?
3. How did the Granville District come into being?
Chapter 4: A Royal Colony Struggles