Part 7 (2/2)

1669.

4. Their earliest known legislation allowed no settlers to be disturbed for the collection of debts contracted before coming to live in Albemarle. Another law exempted all newcomers from taxes for one year; and prohibited the transfer of any land by a settler during the first two years of his residence. These laws were evidently pa.s.sed to encourage immigration.

5. As there were no Church of England preachers then in the colony, another statute allowed people to get married by simply going before the Governor, or any of his council, and declaring a purpose to become man and wife.

1670.

6. Albemarle at that time was divided into the precincts of Carteret, Berkeley and Shaftesbury. The settlements extended rapidly down the seacoast, and soon reached as far south as the present town of Beaufort, on old Topsail Inlet.

7. Governor Stephens soon reached the conclusion of his administration and the term of his natural life. The closing months of his rule were embittered by the nature of the instructions he received from the Lords Proprietors and the Board of Trade in London.

8. One of these instructions, materially changing the simple government previously existing in the province, was concerning the colonial trade. English merchants saw that New England vessels were visiting the scattered settlements on the watercourses and establis.h.i.+ng a lucrative exchange of manufactured goods for the tobacco, corn and lumber of Carolina.

9. It was determined in London to stop this, and appropriate to English factors whatever of profit might be realized. The old English Navigation Act, pa.s.sed under Cromwell, to break down the Dutch trade, was revived against the Boston skippers. Governor Stephens accordingly told the colonists they must exchange the products of their farms with none but English traders, but he quickly found that the people were resolute in refusing obedience to any such regulations.

10. It was further announced that a new scheme of rule had been prepared in England. This was the work of Lord Shaftesbury and a distinguished philosopher named John Locke. This, familiarly known as ”Locke's Grand Model,” was called by the Proprietors ”The Fundamental Const.i.tutions of Carolina,” and was a c.u.mbrous and elaborate system, full of t.i.tles and dignities. It involved a large expenditure, and was as unsuited to the Carolina wilderness as St. Paul's Cathedral in London was for a meetinghouse for the Quakers of Pasquotank!

11. The people who were constantly enduring danger and privations in Albemarle at once resolved that they would have no part in the t.i.tles and pageants concocted by these wise men of England. They had been promised freedom if they would come to America, both by the king in the Great Deed of Grant and by the Lords Proprietors, and nothing less than the privileges of Englishmen would satisfy them.

12. The ”Navigation Act” was intended to destroy their commerce and manufactures, and the ”Fundamental Const.i.tutions,” if submitted to, would have put an end to their home rule. They waged a long opposition to these two things, and a century went by before, in the blood of the Revolution, American commerce became free. They were denounced as unruly subjects, but they were, in all truth, wise and resolute patriots. They were protecting not only themselves, but the generations of the future.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who succeeded Governor Drummond as Governor of Albemarle?

What kind of a man was Governor Stephens?

2. In what did the government consist at that time?

3. What is said of the Grand a.s.sembly? Where did the General a.s.sembly usually meet?

4. Mention some of the earliest laws.

5. What law was enacted concerning marriage?

6. How was Albemarle divided? How far had the settlement extended?

7. What trouble came to Governor Stephens?

8. What kind of trade was carried on between Carolina and New England?

9. What was determined by the Lords Proprietors? What old law was revived? How did the people receive the orders from Governor Stephens?

10. What two celebrated Englishmen prepared a form of government for Carolina? What was this system called? State its nature.

11. What was resolved by the colonists concerning the Grand Model?

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