The story of Carolina’s second settlement attempt was the type of failure we’ve frequently discussed, but it was also a failure for a new era. English proprietors got distracted, severe supply shortages emerged, and conflict with indigenous tribes ultimately caused the colony to collapse. But, colonists knew what to do, they forcefully made their feelings known, and they were led by people sympathetic to their plight. This meant that a story which, 20 years before, would have left the colonists either dead or destitute, ended with most able to move on with their lives.
The story of Carolina’s second settlement attempt was the type of failure we’ve frequently discussed, but it was also a failure for a new era. English proprietors got distracted, severe supply shortages emerged, and conflict with indigenous tribes ultimately caused the colony to collapse. But, colonists knew what to do, they forcefully made their feelings known, and they were led by people sympathetic to their plight. This meant that a story which, 20 years before, would have left the colonists either dead or destitute, ended with most able to move on with their lives.
Transcript
Episode 2: A rude rabble
Carolina was the first English colony founded by people who had been in America for a generation, and which at its founding was surrounded by other colonies big and established enough to lend support. And yet, its first official settlement failed after three years for all-too-familiar reasons.
Introduction
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When planning Carolina’s first real settlement, the proprietors first had to decide where to plant it. They only wanted to sponsor one settlement to start with, because population density was, as we discussed last week, key to settler security.
And interested settlers had strong feelings on this topic. New Englanders were dedicated to the area around Cape Fear. They’d sent William Hilton there before, so they had some familiarity with the region and it seemed like excellent farmland from Hilton’s reports. It was also further away from existing Spanish settlements, and therefore potentially safer. And, they’d bought the land around there from the Indians, so there was probably some undercurrent of angling for political control of the future settlement. Barbadians preferred Port Royal, which was better situated for transporting goods, including to their own colony, and which seemed to be every bit as fertile as Cape Fear. They dreamed of selling cornmeal, flour, beef and pork to the sugar colonies, rather than trying to make a profit selling things like sugar and indigo to English merchants.
The proprietors saw the validity of both sets of arguments, but when they started to favor Barbadians’ Port Royal plan, and before they’d finalized their decision, New Englanders rushed to settle Cape Fear without permission. This was the settlement that was started last episode. If proprietors were just leaning toward Port Royal, they might not feel strongly enough to force an existing settlement to move, and just settle on Cape Fear.
The proprietors still agreed with Barbadians’ vision for the colony, though, and they had deeper connections to Barbados than they did to New England. And they knew that the vast majority of the people who went to Carolina were likely to be Barbadians, simply because of the colony’s current economic situation and number of poor and landless people. Furthermore, Governor Willoughby had lent both official and unofficial support to the venture, so Barbados would be a reliable contributor to Carolina colonization. Barbados had already helped fund Hilton’s exploratory missions, and people from the local tribes had visited Barbados in what had by now become a relatively standard cultural exchange.
Barbadians had circulated pamphlets recruiting settlers, and people were enthusiastic. They also tried to recruit women from England, with the promise that pretty much any woman could find a decent husband, a “golden age, when men paid a dowry for their wives, for if they be but civil and under 50 years of age, some honest man or other will purchase them for their wives.” All this to say that the proprietors did feel much more strongly about Port Royal than New Englanders had anticipated. All this to say that the proprietors did feel much more strongly about Port Royal than New Englanders had anticipated. New England always involved itself in colonial efforts, for better and for worse, but Barbados was what would make or break Carolina.
So, in 1665 as Barbados planned to send its first group of 85 settlers to Carolina, the proprietors did give them permission to settle at Port Royal. They didn’t make the New Englanders move, but they did encourage Port Royal settlement by giving colonists there bigger grants of land than those at Cape Fear. They also made a Barbadian named John Yeamans governor, with New Englander Samuel Vassall acting as deputy governor. And New Englanders were decidedly displeased with all of this news.
Yeamans had been in Barbados since 1637, well before the Civil Wars had broken out, he’d navigated the transition to sugar successfully enough to become wealthy, and he was, true to Barbadian form, aggressive, vocal, opinionated, belligerent, ambitious and wealthy. He was also just a bit on the unscrupulous side, even compared to his contemporaries. He’d taken a lead in helping to plan the colony and recruit settlers, so in addition to making him governor the proprietors urged the king to knight him and make him a baronet. He’d be governor for three years, and these limited governor terms were another Carolina innovation which would carry over into future US politics. The standard for governor appointments had tended to be lifetime with the possibility of removal, but the proprietors decided that they could better ensure stability and prevent conflict by making them three year terms with the possibility of reappointment instead.
As the Barbadians arrived, they brought a variety of seeds, roots and herbs, like potatoes, indigo, tobacco, cotton, lemons, limes, oranges, apples, pears and other fruit trees. They brought cattle from other colonies, as well as hogs, and over the course of time they would also plant rice, rapeseed and linseed. Some did try sugar, but they found that it couldn’t, in fact, be grown successfully there. In addition to all of this, they would grow local corn, trade for furs and sell lumber, staves and shingles for Barbados to build its houses with, as well as cypress for ship masts.
So already, Carolina had a massive potential economic foundation. By supporting the activities of the sugar isles, they could help share in their wealth. They wouldn’t be relegated to several decades of dabbling in tobacco until they figured out how to make more profitable crops and industries work. They could have a diverse, flourishing economy that would grow quickly, and almost from the get go.
Their trip to Carolina was rough, though. The planned voyage took colonists first to Cape Fear to deliver supplies, and then down to Port Royal to found their own settlement. While they were en route, though, a storm destroyed the mast of their largest ship. They were able to fix it so that it was at least functional, but when they reached the Cape Fear area another storm hit and pushed a second ship into some shoals and sunk it. Everyone on board survived, which was actually somewhat amazing, but that had been the ship with all their ordinance and most of their food, clothing and supplies, and all of that was lost in the wreck.
Then, when they sent the last undamaged ship to Virginia to buy more food and clothing, that one also wrecked at Point Lookout, again losing all of its supplies, but again sparing most of the crew.
So by the end of the trip, all they had was one damaged frigate and no supplies. They tried to send the frigate to Barbados to collect yet another batch of supplies, but the weather still wasn’t great and the ship still wasn’t in great shape. With all of that, the ship, which should have been able to get to Barbados in about 14 days, was stuck bobbing helplessly on the open sea for several weeks. The captain, overwhelmed by the situation, went into a frenzy and jumped overboard, to his death. The ship only made it back to Cape Fear because a young boy, probably 12-13 years old, managed to take control of it and get it back.
Establishing a Port Royal colony was looking unfeasible after everything that had happened. But, Yeamans sent a group of boats down to explore the area anyway. This six week mission went well. In fact, exploration around Carolina had always gone well. The local tribes had never been anything less than gracious and welcoming. Even when Hilton had first visited the region, only one warrior had shot an arrow in their general direction. He’d been chastised by his tribe’s leader, known in this region as a cacique, who had then offered the English two beautiful young women to make up for the trouble. Hilton had politely refused, but distributed gifts to the cacique and the women to prevent any offense, and then the tribe had given the English a bunch of fresh fish for their return voyage.
And this new trip, led by Robert Sandford, was no different. Sandford had led an interesting life. He was a Barbadian who had grown up on James Drax’s plantation, and he’d recently spent time in Willoughby’s Suriname colony. You might remember how utterly brutal that place was, to the point that Willoughby had been stabbed almost to death during his visit there. Sandford was one of the most intense among them, and had been part of the group that rejected the local government, and he’d gone to England to appeal his court martial for participation in a revolt. In Barbados, too, he’d been arrested for treason for his leadership in revolts against Willoughby. He saw in Carolina the possibility of a new start, both personally, and in a new colony where things might operate in a way that better resembled his own, intensely republican ideology. He’d met with Shaftesbury and the other proprietors, and he liked their vision enough to throw his lot in with it. And I’m sure they saw in him someone with the competence and experience to help the settlement thrive.
Sandford’s little fleet, if you could call it that, was pretty pathetic. He was in that damaged frigate, and was joined by a sloop with a disturbing number of rotten boards. That sloop disappeared soon after they left Cape Fear, but Sandford continued his journey.
First, he met members of the Edisto tribe, who guided his party to their cacique in a couple of canoes. One of these men was Shadoo, a member of the tribe who had visited Barbados after Hilton’s voyage. They spent a few days getting to know the tribal leadership. The cacique spent the night on board the ship out of curiosity, and he gave them seats of honor equal to himself at his own house, he told them all about the area and sold them some land. And as the English departed, some of the Edisto accompanied them.
A few miles downriver, another tribe hailed them. This was the Kiawah tribe, and if anything they worked to outdo the Edisto in terms of hospitality, though Sandford couldn’t stay long because of the weather. And finally he reached Port Royal, where he saw a cross which had been erected by the Spanish, and where he was surprised to find the lost sloop, and again, where the local Escamacu tribe welcomed them with similar enthusiasm. The cacique came aboard their ship with his nephew, who he said would like to join the English. In exchange, the ship’s surgeon, Henry Woodward, would stay with the Escamacu to learn their language and culture. He immediately gave Woodward a large plot of land, and again sat the 20 year old Englishman beside himself as his equal. He sent his own niece to act as Woodward’s servant, and Sandford left Woodward in charge of the area, partly to learn the local language and customs, and partly to hold it in case of Spanish or other European arrival. And after a few days there, they returned to Cape Fear.
As they sailed, Sandford observed the interactions among the Edisto, Kiawah and Escamacu representatives, and concluded that all three tribes were angling for an English alliance. The English playing a role in intertribal dynamics had been a thing since Roanoke, and after nearly a century of experience they were starting to understand this more and more. For the local tribes, an English alliance meant a higher trading priority and military advantage against potential rivals. Sandford didn’t want the English to be pulled into this tricky and dangerous political landscape, so he was very careful to treat each tribe and delegate completely equally, and to avoid doing anything which might be construed by anyone as favoritism.
When he returned to Cape Fear, it was to an exuberant reception. The mission had been a big success, and Sandford announced that the Port Royal area was everything they’d dreamed, a perfect location for a “perfect commonwealth.” The colony might not be in the position to settle Port Royal yet, but soon.
It was the first and only real success the colony had, too. Political and cultural rivalries at Cape Fear had further eroded the settlement, and the geography of the area had proven incompatible with proprietors’ plans for a dense population. When the colony’s population expanded to its maximum of 800 people, they had to scatter 60 miles up and down the local river. Colonists also didn’t want to have to pay a quitrent on non-arable land. They were already paying double the normal, and they certainly didn’t want to pay that for unusable swampland. They wrote a petition asking proprietors to reconsider the policy, potentially having them pay double the current quitrent, four times the average, on arable land while not taxing swampland at all.
They asked Yeamans to sign, and while he didn’t want to put his name on a petition, he did agree to write a personal letter accompanying their petition and supporting it. Meanwhile, Vassall, Sandford, and twelve other colony leaders did sign the document, and they sent it to London as Yeamans returned to Barbados.
But the proprietors refused the requested changes, and this was the beginning of a spiral that is all too common in our story. Barbadians and New Englanders didn’t particularly get along, and the resentment was exacerbated by proprietor preference for the Port Royal colony, and Barbadians weren’t happy that New Englanders had gotten away with their Cape Fear sneakiness. And these were the two main groups in the colony. There were some Virginians and Bermudians, but not enough to actually buffer the two rival groups, and even if there had been, it’s hard to imagine either remaining impartial.
Carolinians had lost three ships intended to get supplies, two of which had been full when they sank, and it’s not as if there were enough supplies floating around to be able to lose that quantity of food, clothes, tools and weapons. Virginia was chronically weak, Barbados was a net importer of food, and New England was set up for trade, not providing huge amounts of goods itself. They sent a shipment of food and clothes, but it was nowhere near enough to slow the decline.
To make matters even worse, the Great Fire of London and a plague epidemic had both struck England within just a few months of each other, and Carolina proprietors like Albemarle and Shaftesbury were put in charge of handling the situation. John Colleton could have led the colony singlehandedly through this period, but he died. And then, the Second Anglo Dutch War broke out, and consumed both Barbados and England, it killed Governor Willoughby, and it also led to a Dutch attack in the Chesapeake which captured yet another ship full of food bound for Carolina.
It’s a variation of the same old story, but with one difference. Carolinian colonists weren’t the overwhelmed Englishmen of old who quietly lamented or meekly complained while blundering their way through challenges. They were a new generation, who had grown up in the wilds of America and had no problems voicing their opinions or acting on them. Belligerent, rough, tough, competent, but uncooperative. Vassal echoed common sentiment about these people when he wrote that “the rude rabble of our inhabitants are more daily ready to mutiny against me for keeping them there so long.” This is a constant theme in Carolina history, and a relatively new one for America as a whole.
And then, on top of everything else, came the Cape Fear War. We don’t even know how it started, or exactly why, but the local tribes attacked the English. It was a stark and seemingly sudden change from the overwhelming hospitality and enthusiasm that had characterized early interactions. Some speculate that the local tribes were alarmed by the sheer quantity of land the English were taking, or the quantity of people they were sending there. News traveled fast and far among the indigenous population, though, so they should certainly have been aware of this inevitability.
Another theory is that conflict arose over ownership of the livestock that the first New Englanders had left there in 1660. Certainly the colonists would have been eager to reclaim them given their supply troubles, but the tribes had learned animal husbandry and grown to value the cattle and hogs, too. Several years later, could they really be considered the property of the English?
And perhaps, it was an extension of tribal politics that the English weren’t fully privy to. We just don’t know. There’s very little documentation of this war or its causes.
But regardless, war came, and the widely dispersed English were extremely vulnerable to attack, just as the proprietors had feared. And even the ones who managed to reach the colony’s meeting house, its one truly fortifiable building, couldn’t be guaranteed space or protection there because it was so small. So it was war, it was brutal, and it was bloody on both sides. Neither side was overwhelmingly stronger than the other, and neither was particularly well protected. There’s record of local prisoners being sent to the Caribbean as slaves, and we don’t even know how many English people died. What we know is that it was enough to force the English to leave.
After a steady trickle had made its way to Virginia, Vassall admitted that it was hopeless and hired a handful of ships at his own personal expense to take the remaining settlers to Virginia, and from there to Boston or Barbados if they chose. Most of them either went to Boston or stayed in Southern Virginia. He tried to recruit 20 who would stay to maintain the settlement, knowing he had enough corn to sustain that number of people for two years, but everyone refused. And on the trip to Virginia, both Vassall and his son Henry also died.
One of the last things Vassall did was write to the now-dead Colleton, explaining that they had had to leave because they couldn’t defend themselves and had no supplies, and criticizing the favor which the proprietors had shown Port Royal over Cape Fear, and lamenting the failure of a colony he’d been trying to start for 30 years.
So, after three years, the second major settlement attempt in the Carolina Colony had failed, leaving little more than the account of Sandford’s six week exploratory voyage. We don’t even know the names of most of the settlers or the casualty count of the war that destroyed the colonies. They left little behind for future archaeologists, or genealogists. It would be three years before anyone tried to settle Carolina again. and when they did it would be at neither Port Royal nor Cape Fear. Cape Fear in particular would remain empty for the next 50 years. When it was resettled again, though, the movement to do so would be led by a group of Yeamans’ descendents.
There were some noteworthy differences in the way the story played out, though, which show a distinct progression of American history and the evolving realities of colonization. First and foremost among these is that when Cape Fear failed, the colonists were able to leave, and being led by a colonist sympathetic to their plight, they were supported in leaving. Vassall’s life may have been a morally ambiguous one, with his being a puritan who had both opposed New England’s religious authoritarianism and someone who had truly encouraged the development of the slave trade, but his last action was to use his own money to save the lives of colonists under his command and to help them get where they needed to be without economic devastation. These colonists were able to actually move on with their lives when they got to their destinations. That hasn’t been the norm for our story, and it was again enabled by the more fleshed out American colonial landscape.
But there was still no real Carolina. The third time would be a charm, though, and next episode we’ll discuss that, the Carolina colony’s first permanent settlement.