U. S. History

North and South Carolina sprung from the province of Carolina which was a North American British colony from the year 1663 to the year 1712. In essence, the province of Carolina completely split into two in 1712 where North and South Carolina separated to form two independent states. After the province which was by then led by lords’ proprietary split into two, the resultant states still remained under the control and leadership of the same proprietors but this was not for long as a rebellion broke out in 1791. The lords’ proprietary was a group of eight English noblemen rewarded by Charles II of England in the year 1663.

This was in accordance to the faithfulness they had exhibited in regard to supporting his efforts to regain and restore the monarchy or in general the throne of England. The proprietors were granted the province in honor of Charles I the farther to Charles II. In essence, the granting of the province to the lords proprietors was officially provided for by the 1663 charter which granted the eight noblemen title to the land located from the southern border of Virginia colony and extended along the coast of Georgia.

In 1965, this charter was slightly modified to extend the northern side of the province to include settlers land located along Albemarle Sound and south to include Daytona Beach in Florida (Marrs, 2004, 98). The fundamental constitution of Carolina which was initially a plan of colony government was established to help the government in executing its powers and in ruling the now expanded colony. However, it was evident that some of the members of the lord’s proprietors had interests in other colonies such as Virginia and the province of New Jersey.

As such, some of these members did not exhibit much interest in the province of Carolina but notably Lord Shaftsbury who with assistance of philosopher John Locke had drafted the fundamental constitution showed a remarkable active interest in the province. It was consequently evident also that there existed some kind of dissent among the members of the lords proprietors and as history has it, it was this dissent that led to the separation of the province to form North and South Carolina in the long run.

While the authority exercised by the lords’ proprietors was exclusively granted by the charter, they were on the other extreme able to exercise this authority almost with the power of a sovereign independence. In the province by then, the actual ruling government consisted of an appointed governor, and an authoritative council. In this respect, half of the council members were appointed by the proprietors while the remaining half was appointed by a popularly elected assembly which by then was relatively weak.

Around the year 1653, the first permanent English settlement had been established by emigrants from Bermuda, New England and the Virginia colony. This was in the Albemarle Sound area found in northeast corner of the modern North Carolina. Specifically, these immigrants settled at the banks of Roanoke and Chowan Rivers to form the Albemarle Settlements. A second permanent settlement was formed in 1665 alongside the Cape Fear River through the efforts of Sir John Yeamans. This was also in present day North Carolina and in particular Clarendon.

Around the same time, the lords’ proprietors had established another settlement to the south of the other previous two settlements in Charleston which geographically is located in the present day South Carolina. This settlement owing to various factors such as the natural harbor and consequently easy access to trade developed relatively faster than the other two settlements. In this context, this last settlement formed the home for the governor of the province of Carolina (Andrew, 2001, 421).

Despite the fact that both the northern part and the southern part of the province as marked by the settlements were under the authority of the same government, they had by this time begun to operate independently owing largely to their remoteness between them. In line with this, after the appointment of a governor for both the northern and southern parts of the colony in 1691, the northern section retained its own council and assembly and the deputy governor who as stated earlier resided in the southern part appointed a deputy governor to administer the northern part of the colony.

It was during this time that the two parts of the colony begun to be referred to as Northern and Southern Carolina (Scott, 2007, 78). Despite the fact that one may view the political background of the province of Carolina as the exclusive contributors of the total separation of the two colonies, this may not be true if other factors are put under consideration.

While it is true that the settlements in the northern and the southern side of the province brought about confrontations between the people and the government and also between the southern and the northern administration, it is also true that the displaced natives were not entirely happy with the settlements. The natives of the province who were mainly Indians saw whites as intruders into their territory and were worried about been completely pushed away from their native land.

Though the Indians considered the whites as good friends due to their trade activities, it later became apparent that trade was not the only intention that the whites had when they came to settle in the province. Expansion of the white settlements around which most of the Indians lived pushed the Indians further and further from their hunting grounds. When the Indians fully realized the magnitude of the consequences of the newly established settlements, they plotted to kill the whites and drive them away (Roper, 1996, 238).

In 1711, the Indians managed to attack many of the settlers in the northern side. This they succeeded to a higher degree but with time, help came from the southern side and a war had begun. This is what is historically known as the Tuscarora War in which the northern Indians were engaged into a war by the whites with the support of the Indians’ southern brothers, the Yamasee. The whites succeeded after a lengthy confrontation and many Indians were killed with others freeing to other neighboring colonies.

Unknown to the whites, the southern Indians were also not happy with white settlements and though they assisted the whites in fighting the northern Indians, they themselves had strategized on how to stage a revolution in the southern part of the province. The Yamasees War in the south was brought about by various factors but the major cause was the Spaniards who had settled as St. Augustine in the southern side of Carolina. The Spaniards had a remarkable hatred towards the British and sought any opportunity to attack them.

Following this, the Spaniards encouraged the Yamasees to confront the British promising to offer their support to drive away the white settlers. The plan was not as successful as the one devised by the northern Indians but the Yamasee War also contributed significantly to the long run separation of the province into two. With this latter war, the governor was quickly able to collect an army to counter the raging Indians and with the help of the now grateful northern side, Yamasees were defeated by the whites.

This last War with the Indians cost province a significant amount of money and owing to the fact that the lords proprietor made significant reap from the colony, the white settlers demanded that they too bear some costs incurred during the war. In this context, the white settlers begun to send complaints to their home country about the proprietor. However, the latter paid little attention and refused to bear any cost underwent during the war.

What resulted was a settlers’ revolution though not in form of war but at their demands, king William III made South Carolina a crown colony and some years later, North Carolina was also made a crown colony (Watson, 1994, 346). As stated earlier in the discussion, there were various dissents among the members of the lords’ proprietor owing to existing individual differences in terms of in terms of interests among other factors. however, the major dissent which is attributed to the final separation of the to parts of the colony came as a result of attempts to establish in the colony an Anglican state church in the earlier 1770s.

At around 1708 to 1710, the entire province failed to reach an agreement regarding elected officials and thus for some time stayed without a legal and recognized government. Further, the inability of the lords’ proprietor to make quick and meaningful decisions regarding the existing political situation coupled by the Yamasee and Tuscarora Wars led to separate governments for the two parts of the colonies at the end. In this respect, North Carolina and South Carolina acquired separate and independent governments. Notably however, the formation of two separate governments did not actually characterize the full separation of the two colonies.

Rather, full separation was to occur later in the year 1729 whereby North Carolina and South Carolina became recognized as two separate colonies (Roper, 1996, 234). It was in this year that the lords’ propriety pushed by the quite revolution of the settlers and their individual interests sold their interests in Carolina to the crown and northern and southern Carolina became known as to legal separate colonies. The organization of the governments in these two colonies was similar in their organization in respect to the proprietor and the crown rule.

The major challenge that remained even after the eventual separation of the two colonies was the appointment of the governing officials which brought about lengthy disagreements between the lords’ proprietor and the crown. In conclusion, the splitting of the Carolina province to form two states or colonies as they were initially called can be attributed to a number of factors including Indian revolutions both in the southern and northern side of the province, complaints aired by the settlers in respect to the non-contributing proprietor and individual interests of the members of the lords’ proprietor.

Work Cited:

Andrew Slap. The spirit of ‘76’: The reconstruction of history in the redemption of South Carolina. The Historian, Vol. 63, 2001, p. 421 Marrs Aaron. Desertion and loyalty in the South Carolina infantry, 1861-1865. Civil War History, Vol. 50, 2004, p. 98 Roper Louis. The unraveling of an Anglo-American utopia in South Carolina. The Historian, Vol. 58, 1996, p. 234 Scott Rohrer. From new Babylon to Eden: The Huguenots and their migration to colonial South Carolina. Journal of Southern History, Vol. 73, 2007, p. 78 Watson Alan. The origin of regulation in North Carolina. The Mississippi Quarterly, Vol. 47, 1994, p. 346

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