CHAPTER XXIII SOCIAL LIFE AT THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION In the homes of the people.-Social conditions.-The state church. -The Protestant dissenters.-The Baptist churches.-Pioneers of Methodism.-Education and schools.-Taxation.-The lawyers.The Quakers and the militia.-Servants and slaves. In the homes of the people McRee, in his "Life of Iredell," has given an admirable portrayal of two communities in the province about the time McRee's of Martin's administration. Of the region of which Eden- Iredell, I, ton was the centre, he says: It was of such remarkable fertility that it might well have been styled the granary of the province; it was also the place of concentration and market-town for the opulent planters of a large district of country. The climate was humid and unhealthy, but soft and luxurious. Game and fish were abundant, and cattle and sheep and swine throve and multiplied upon the spontaneous fruits of the earth. If there was little of the parade and pomp of older communities, if many of the appliances of luxury were wanting, ease and abundance were the reward of but a slight degree of frugality and industry. No palatial dwellings existed-tapestry and plate were wanting; but the homes of the planters were comfortable and ample for all the purposes of hospitality, while their tables groaned beneath dainties beyond the reach of wealth on the other side of the Atlantic. He who supposes them an untutored people is grossly deceived. The letters that will appear in the course of the narrative will demonstrate that they were equal in cultivation, ability, and patriotism to any of their contemporaries. The men were bold, frank, generous, and intelligent; the females, tender and kind and polite. The strength of the former was developed by manly labors. The taste of the latter was improved and their imaginations exalted by the varied forms of beauty that surrounded them. . . . In 1769 the town of Edenton was the court end of the province. Within its limits and in its immediate vicinity there was, in proportion to its population, a 31-34 1771 1771 Social conditions McRee's Iredell, I, 194, 195 greater number of men eminent for ability, virtue, and erudition than in any other part of America. Colonel Richard Buncombe was a native of St. Kitts. He was educated in England and possessed a large fortune. Of "Lawyer Pearson, an English gentleman," little is known save that he married the mother of Sir Nathaniel Dukinfield, and thus became master of large estates. Colonel John Dawson (a lawyer who married the daughter of Governor Gabriel Johnston) resided at Eden House, noted for its splendid hospitality and the refined society generally assembled there. Dr. Cathcart was a gentleman of extraordinarily fine sense and great reading. His two daughters "were possessed of the three greatest motives to be courted: beauty, wit and prudence, and money; great fortunes, and toasted in most parts of the province." And so McRee continues with brief accounts of Joseph Hewes, Thomas Barker, Thomas Jones, Jasper Carlton, Stephen Cabarrus, Robert Smith, Charles Johnson, William Cumming, Sir Nathaniel Dukinfield, the Harveys and the Johnstons, who "possessed talents and attainments that, when combined, not only enabled them to determine the politics of their district, but gave them a potent influence in the province." Of the lower Cape Fear he likewise says: Mr. Hooper was a native of Boston and a graduate of Cambridge, Mass. After studying law with James Otis, he became a citizen of Wilmington. That town and its vicinity was noted for its unbounded hospitality and the elegance of its society. Men of rare talents, fortune, and attainment united to render it the home of politeness and ease and enjoyment. Though the footprint of the Indian had as yet scarcely been effaced, the higher civilization of the Old World had been transplanted there and had taken vigorous root. There were Colonel John Ashe, the great popular leader, whose address was consummate, and whose quickness of apprehension seemed intuition, the very Rupert of debate; Samuel Ashe, of stalwart frame, endowed with practical good sense and a profound knowledge of human nature; Harnett, "who could boast a genius for music and taste for letters," the representative man of the Cape Fear; Dr. John Eustace, "who united wit, and genius, and learning, and science"; Colonel Thomas Lloyd, "gifted with talents and adorned with classical literature"; Howe, "whose imagination fascinated, whose repartee overpowered, and whose conversation was enlivened by strains of exquisite raillery"; Dr. John Fergus, of stately presence, with velvet coat, cocked hat, and gold-headed cane, a graduate LEADING FAMILIES of Edinburgh and an excellent Latin and Greek scholar; William Pennington, afterward master of the ceremonies at Bath, "an elegant writer, admired for his wit and his highly polished urbanity"; Judge Maurice Moore, of versatile talents, and possessed of extensive information; as a wit, always prompt in reply; as an orator, always daring the mercy of chance; Maclaine, irascible but intellectual, who trod the paths of honor nearly pari passu with Iredell and Hooper and Johnston, and "whose criticisms on Shakespeare would, if they were published, give him fame and rank in the republic of letters." And he continues to portray the social characteristics of the Hills, Lillingtons, DeRossets, Moores, and others who then adorned the Cape Fear region. 379 1771 Social conditions New Bern, as well, was a centre where refinement and elegance abounded. It was the residence of the governor; an emporium of trade, with wealthy merchants, enterprising citizens and cultivated society. Originally settled by the Huguenots, Palatines, and Swiss, by industrious Germans as well as by Welsh and Englishmen, the region of which it was the social metropolis was inhabited by a population notable for their thrift, politeness and fine characteristics. There the first academy had been established and main- Weeks, tained; there the first printing press was erected, and there the first newspaper, the North Carolina Gazette, was published in December, 1755-followed, at length, by another at Wilmington, in September, 1764. Among the earliest publications of Davis's press, other than provincial laws, was a sermon preached before the General Assembly by Rev. James Reid, in 1762, "Recommending the Establishing Public Schools for the Education of Youth," printed by the Assembly, that "the same might be dispersed in the several counties within this province." Halifax had also become a nucleus of elegant society, with rich planters and cultured citizens; while at Hillsboro, where the governors spent their summers, the simplicity of backwoods life was giving place to the refining influences of advanced social conditions. In all the counties were men like Willie and Allen Jones, the Kenans, Dicksons, Battles, Holmes, Hawkins, Haywoods, Harts, Alstons, Rowans, Lloyds, Osborns, Polks-too numerous to specify, men of education and culture, many of whom were native and "to the Press of North Eighteenth 18, 29, 58 Carolina in Century, 1771 At the west manor born," while others, like Caswell, Hooper, Hewes, Avery, the Sumners, Martins and McDowells, had but recently come from other communities, well educated, energetic, enterprising, vigorous in mind and in body. Along the Virginia border the people were chiefly of colonial descent; but on the upper waters of the Cape Fear were congregated thousands of Highlanders, many of whom were well educated. At Wachovia the Moravians had been prosperous, had erected mills and had grown in importance; C. R., VIII, while the Scotch-Irish, who occupied the fertile regions 630 Immigrants The marts of trade watered by the Catawba and tributaries of the Yadkin, were interspersed with Germans, of whom there were some three thousand families, likewise accompanied by their pastors, men of learning, who taught the young while ministering to their congregations. And in their new homes the Scotch, Scotch-Irish and the Germans preserved their former manners and customs and their racial characteristics, and these have in some measure been perpetuated so that after the lapse of a century and a half their respective settlements can still be distinguished. Similarly a settlement of Quakers, coming from Nantucket, who located at New Garden, has preserved its peculiar characteristics, while the Jersey settlement on the Yadkin near Salisbury, so called because made by emigrants from New Jersey, has retained its original appellation. Facilities of communication were scant. This was a particular hardship with the settlers at the far west who, coming from the north, located at a considerable distance beyond the frontier settlements extending from the coast. There was a wide breadth of forest intervening between the inhabitants of Sandy Creek, Wachovia, Salisbury and the Catawba, and the marts of trade on the lower Cape Fear. Easier roads led to the towns of Virginia and of South Carolina, and those became the markets of the western counties. There was no specie in the province, while the amount of paper currency became entirely insufficient as the population was rapidly augmented. At the east both saw-mills and grist-mills had long been established; at the west the new settlers quickly began to PROGRESS AND INDUSTRY erect them on the streams where they located; and these became important points in their social and business life. Felling the forests, clearing the fields, building houses, opening roads, constructing mills-in a word, making their homes habitable in those secluded regions-called forth the best exertions of those new settlers; and fortunate was it for them that their winters were mild, the summers temperate, while their fields yielded rich harvests, and the bright sunshine brought buoyant hope, health and happiness. Many of the families, observed Governor Dobbs, have ten children in them, and experience has long since proved that the natural increment of population in that favored region is nowhere exceeded in the world.* The state church 381 It was contemplated in the original grant to the Lords Proprietors that there might be a state church and presumably that it would be conformable to the usage in England. The first effort in that direction was made in 1701, when each precinct was declared to be a parish, for which a vestry was appointed, and the vestry was empowered to employ ministers and to lay a tax of not more than five shillings on the poll for parish purposes, which included looking after the poor as well as providing a place of worship. Ten years later, when Governor Hyde met his first assembly, an act of Parliament having been passed declaring the province a C. R., I, *In 1810 the editor of the Raleigh Star received many communications from intelligent men residing in every part of the State, throwing light on the commencement and progress of settlements in North Carolina. This mass of manuscripts was subsequently deposited in the library at Chapel Hill, but now cannot be found. Mr. Caruthers, who examined it, said: "From it we learn that Edgecomb began to be settled in 1726 by people from Virginia, who came there for the sake of living at their ease, as the climate was mild, the range good, and game in abundance; Wayne in 1735, but made little progress until 1750; Caswell in 1750, but had not more than ten families until 1755, when the Leas, Graves, Kimbros, Pattersons and others came from Orange and Culpepper counties in Virginia; Rockingham in 1750, by hunters, who were soon followed by a more substantial population; and Guilford about the same time, as appears from the deeds of land obtained by the Nottingham company. That company, by agents sent out for the purpose, purchased 33 surveys, or 21,120 acres, on the waters of North Buffalo and Reedy Fork; and one of their deeds, which is now before me, is dated December 3, 1753.” (Caruthers' Life of Caldwell, 93.) 789, 790 1771 |