Note 757 — Chapter V

At this time, one passed, in riding up the road, the plantations of Matthews, Green, Starkey, Gray, Grimball, Dickeson, and Izard, on the Cooper River; and further up, those of Sir John Yeamans, Landgrave Bellinger, Colonel Gibbes, Mr. Schenking, Colonel Moore, Colonel Quarry, and Sir Nathaniel Johnson. On the left, Landgrave West, Colonel Godfrey, Dr. Trevillian, and Mr. Colleton, had plantations. Westward from Charlestown lived Col. Paul Grimball, Landgrave Morton, Blake (a Proprietor), and Landgrave Axtel; while many residences in the town, as those of Landgrave Smith and Colonel Rhett, were said to be “very handsome buildings,” with fifteen or more “which deserve to be taken notice of.” From these residences could be seen entering the harbor vessels from Jamaica, Barbadoes, and the Leeward Isles, from Virginia and other colonies, and the always welcome ships from England. An active and lucrative commerce employed many ships to various ports in North America, and also twenty-two ships between Charles Town and England; about twelve were owned by the colonists; half of these had been built by themselves. The inhabitants (1708) numbered nearly 10,000; the whites and negroes being about equal, with 1,400 Indian slaves. (Letter of Governor and Council, Sept. 17, 1708, in S. C. Hist. Soc. Coll., ii. p. 217.) For a few years the whites had decreased in number on account of epidemics and disaffection with regard to the tenure of lands (the nature of this disaffection may be noticed in what is recorded in the preceding narrative sketch of North Carolina); while negroes were regularly imported by the English traders and by Northern ships, as the plantation work extended, particularly the culture of rice, which had become the most valuable export. A little later (1710) the whites were computed at .12 of the whole inhabitants, negro slaves .22, and Indian subjects .66. Of the whites, the planters were .70, merchants about .13, and artisans .17. With respect to religion, the Episcopalians were then computed to be .42, the Presbyterians, with the French Huguenots, .45, Anabaptists .10, and the Quakers .03. (Inserted in Governor Glen’s Description of South Carolina.)