What did North Carolina Colonists learn?

Answer 1

North Carolina came near being the first of the permanent English colonies in America. Five voyages were made under the Raleigh charter of 1584 with the view of planting a permanent colony on the soil that became North Carolina; but the effort ended in failure, and almost a century passed when other hands carried into effect the noble ambition of Raleigh. Again, the people who founded Virginia had intended to settle in the vicinity of Roanoke Island, but a storm changed their course, and the first colony was planted in the valley of the James.

An account of the first attempt to govern this colony fills a curious page in American history. Shaftesbury, who was unmatched as a theoretical politician, conceived a plan of government that seems ludicrous to the American reader of today. The plan was supposed to have been drawn up by john Locke, the philosopher, and was known as the Fundamental Constitutions, or the "Grand Model,"

which proved to be grand only as a grand failure and a model only to be shunned by the liberty-loving American of the future. By this plan the essence of monarchy, of aristocratic rule in the extreme, was to be transplanted to America. It divided the land into counties, and for each county there was to be an earl and two barons who should own one fifth of the land while the proprietors retained another fifth. The remaining three fifths were reserved for the people as tenants, who were to be practically reduced to serfdom and denied the right of self-government. Its one good feature was its guarantee of religious liberty, though the Church of England was established by law.

But the settlers in North Carolina had found even the colonial governments too oppressive and had migrated deeper into the wilderness for the purpose of gaining a larger amount of freedom. Could they now accept such a government as proposed by Shaftesbury? Certainly not willingly; nor was it possible to enforce it, and after twenty odd years of futile attempts to do so, the whole plan was abandoned.

The people of North Carolina were, in the main, honest and well meaning, and when not goaded by profligate rulers and unjust laws, quiet and peaceable. It is true there were many who had fled from other colonies to escape debts or the hand of the law; but a large portion of society was composed of sturdy, Christian men and women. Religion soon found a footing here as in the other colonies, though there was no resident clergyman in the colony before 1703. The Church of England was supported by taxation, but the Dissenters were in the majority. The Quakers especially became numerous, George Fox himself, the founder of the sect, having visited the place and made many converts.

Or something like that... WORKS CITED

Footnotes

1A charter for the same tract had been granted to Sir Robert Heath in 1629, but this had lapsed for want of use. It was repealed in 1664.[return]

2The other seven were the Earl of Clarendon, the Duke of Albemarle, Lord Craven, Lord John Berkeley, Sir George Carteret, Sir William Berkeley, and Sir John Colleton.[return]

3It is claimed by some that the name Carolina was not used by Ribault; but it is known to have been used when Charles I was king of England.[return]

4This singular document is given in full in Ben Perley Poore's "Charters and Constitutions."[return]

5Fiske, "Old Virginia," Vol. II, p. 302.[return]

6The price paid was about £50,000. Carteret had declined to sell. He was later granted for his share a strip of land just south of Virginia, sixty-six miles wide "from sea to sea."[return]

Source: "History of the United States of America," by Henry William Elson, The MacMillan Company, New York, 1904. Chapter IV pp. 83-88. Transcribed by Kathy Leigh.