23. Proprietary Rule in South Carolina

In 1713, the Yamassees and other South Carolina Indians had helped North Carolina annihilate the Tuscaroras. Yet, only two years later, the Yamassee and Creek Indians launched a general attack on the South Carolina settlements. What had turned erstwhile faithful allies into enemies? Partly, it was the old story of settler encroachment on Indian land. But even more important in the case of the Yamassee war were the abuses against the Indians by the white traders. The traders systematically engaged in theft, fraud, and illegal enslavement of free Indians. They expropriated the Indians’ farm animals and crops and often paid much of the account in violence rather than acceptable commodities. Often they held an entire Indian town collectively liable for a private Indian’s debt.

These accumulating grievances prompted the Yamassees, Creeks, and their allies to launch an attack on the white settlements in South Carolina. Contemporary opinion, quick to scent alleged foreign conspiracy, accused the Spaniards at St. Augustine and the French on the Mississippi of inciting the Indians to attack, but these powers played only the secondary role of selling ammunition to or purchasing plunder from the Indians. The Indian grievances were real and so was their opposition to the regime.

The Yamassee war was launched in the spring of 1715, and might have succeeded in driving the English into the sea. Governor Charles Craven used the occasion to become virtual dictator of the colony—prohibiting emigration, conscripting ships and supplies, drafting Negro slaves into the army along with their masters, and mobilizing the militia. But the Indians would have been successful had not the whites induced the powerful Cherokees to remain aloof, and indeed to aid the English. The Yamassees were ejected from the colony and thrust into Florida by 1716, and the following year a peace was concluded with the Creeks. The result of the war was to clear the bulk of the Indians from the South Carolina settlements and the land to the south.

The end of the Yamassee war cleared a great deal of land from the Indians and opened it up for white settlement. The South Carolina proprietary promptly removed its prohibition against settlement in the south, between the Combahee and Savannah rivers, which had been preserved for the Yamassees. Furthermore, provincial elections had, until now, always been held exclusively in Charleston, which served to concentrate power in the hands of an oligarchy allied to the proprietary party. The Assembly now provided for elections in each parish, distributed representation proportionately to population in the parishes, and allowed voting by ballot. These provisions brought South Carolina into greater uniformity with other American colonies. Furthermore, the Assembly hit at the proprietary by excluding from the legislature all men holding office or patronage from the proprietors.

The proprietary was becoming increasingly disliked in South Carolina, and this temper was aggravated by the rule over the colony by a small clique headed by two men, apart from the governor: Nicholas Trott, chief justice of the province, and his brother-in-law William Rhett, receiver general of the proprietary revenue and collector of the royal customs. Trott, a high Tory who had been enthusiastic over the reactionary policies of Queen Anne, was perhaps the last American judge to impose a belief in witchcraft in a charge to the jury. Trott was given extraordinary powers by the proprietors in 1714, so that without his presence, the Council of South Carolina could not have a quorum. Trott was also made judge of the admiralty and head of the chancery courts, thus virtually monopolizing the administration of justice in South Carolina. Through collusion with Richard Shelton, secretary of the Board of Proprietors, Trott was virtually able to dictate to the entire province, except for the Assembly. William Rhett was not only receiver general, but also military commander and sometimes Speaker of the Assembly.

The colony was soon struck a grim blow when Trott and Rhett were able to induce the Crown to disallow the electoral reforms of 1716 and to return to the practice of exclusive elections at Charleston.

Thirty-one articles of complaint against Trott’s tyranny were now submitted to the Assembly, charging him with monopolizing justice, acting as counsel and judge in the same case, and extracting exorbitant fees. When the proprietors disallowed the electoral reform, the Assembly denied their right of veto, inasmuch as even the proprietary governor and Council had approved the reforms of 1716. Trott stood fast, however, in defense of the veto by the proprietors.

The Carolina proprietors reacted by backing Trott all the way, reprimanding their disobedient governor, and promptly appointing a new Council packed with their supporters, with the opposition leaders summarily removed. Moreover, the proprietors ordered that no more private land be granted in the colony; instead, fifteen large baronies were to be laid out near Port Royal in the south for the exclusive use of the proprietors, thus ousting several hundred Ulster Scot immigrants who had just settled on these lands recently evacuated by the Yamassees.

Great Britain had now launched a war against Spain and the colony began to go into the usual American conniptions in fear of a foreign attack, this time supposedly directed from Havana. In consequence, Governor Robert Johnson mobilized the militia, and the popular forces in South Carolina seized the opportunity of being under arms to conduct a revolution against the now hated proprietary. The militia members, led by Alexander Skene—one of the councillors ousted by the proprietary—drew up and virtually unanimously signed articles of association. These articles, signed November 28, 1719, declared the resolve of the members to overthrow the proprietary completely and to declare South Carolina a royal province. The revolutionary leaders then took their case to the populace and signed up nearly every freeman in South Carolina.

In December, the Assembly declared the Council illegal and resolved to ignore it; it also declared the reforms of 1716 still valid and the proprietors forfeit of their rule. The Assembly proceeded to form itself into a revolutionary association, naming Colonel James Moore as governor, and appointing a new Council. The convention then voted itself as a new Assembly, replaced Trott as chief justice, and drew up a statement of its case to put before the Crown. This declaration included a melodramatic wording of the proprietary neglect of the defense of the province against foreign and Indian enemies, an argument that would certainly appeal to the Crown. William Rhett, incidentally, showed no compunction at betraying his brother-in-law and conveniently joined the revolutionary cause. Robert Johnson tried to reassert his claim to the governorship by threatening to have Charleston bombarded by friendly warships, but the people refused to bow and Johnson never carried out his threat.

For once the royal bureaucracy, never enthusiastic for proprietary colonies, approved of a popular revolution against constituted government. From that point on, South Carolina was accepted as a royal province, with a royally appointed governor and Council. The Crown was intelligent enough to oust Trott, to replace him with a leader of the opposition, and to return the popular opposition leaders to the Council. Finally, in 1729, all the rights of the Carolina proprietors were bought out by the Crown. This not only made South Carolina a royal colony, but also meant that the proprietors had lost all their power to annoy and harass the people of South Carolina.