





THE PROPRIETARY COLONY:
Rice, Indigo, Expansion, Pirates and the First American Revolution No One Learns About in School
1700-1720
1770
March 1 -- A committee appointed by members of the Charleston Library Society made their report recommending that fundraising should be undertaken for the creation of a school, a predecessor of the College of Charleston. (Source: A History of the College of Charleston, p. 11)
1703
Jan. 6 -- Ruth Brewton, the sister of Miles Brewton and Rebecca Brewton Motte, future wife of S.C. Commissary Gen. William Pinckney, and mother of Col. Charles Pinckney, was born.
1707
Nov. 24 -- Land between the Combahee and Savannah rivers was set aside for the Native American Yemassee tribe.
1708
Sept. 17-- Governor Nathaniel Johnson sent a report to the Board of Trade in London with the good news that the Charles Town colony was flourishing, with a population of 9,580 - 3,960 of which were free whites, 120 white indentured servants, 1,400 enslaved Native Americans, and 4,100 enslaved Africans and African Americans. (Source: Charleston! Charleston!, p. 28)
1711
Feb. 20 -- The Rev. Francis LeJau wrote a letter to his sponsors at the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, warning them of impending trouble with the Native Americans in the St. James, Goose Creek Parish, noting "It is evident that our traders have promoted Bloody Wars this last year to get slaves and one of them bought lately one hundred of these poor souls." This Native America slave trade would lead to the Yemassee War of 1715, as LeJau predicted. (Source: Dr. Michael J. Heitzler in Goose Greek: A Definitive History, Vol. 1, page 52)
Mar. 1 -- Because the congregation of St. Philip's Anglican Church was outgrowing its building at the corner of Broad and Meeting streets, the colonial Assembly passed an "Act for Erecting a New Brick Church" on the east side of Church Street, just above Queen Street.
1715
Apr. 15 -- In response to the growing slave trade of Native Americans with the West Indies, the Yemasees, Creeks, Catawbas and Choctaw tribes aligned to attack a number of frontier settlements about 80 miles southwest of Charles Town on Good Friday. They slew about 100 people. One of them, trader Thomas Nairne, was roasted to death.
1718
Sept. 27 -- A patrol of pirate bounty hunters under the command of Colonel William Rhett spotted Bonnet in the Cape Fear River inlet. (Rhett was actually looking for another pirate, Charles Vane, at the time.)
Oct. 28 -- Chief Justice Nicholas Trott convened the Court of the Vice Admiralty in a private residence to try the case of the pirates who had recently been captured along with Stede Bonnet.
Nov. 5 -- Gov. Robert Johnson took four ships to attack another group of pirates off the coast and a dramatic battle ensured.
Nov. 8 -- Twenty-two (accounts vary a bit) of Stede Bonnet's crew were hanged at what is now White Point Gardens.
Nov. 10 -- Stede Bonnet was stood trial for piracy with Judge Nicholas Trott presiding.
Nov. 13 -- Several more, perhaps seven, of Bonnet's crew were hanged at White Point Gardens.
Nov. 19 -- The trial began for 19 pirates captured by Gov. Robert Johnson before Judge Nicholas Trott.
Nov. 24 -- Judge Nicholas Trott sentenced the 19 pirates captured by Gov. Robert Johnson to death by hanging.
Dec. 10 -- Stede Bonnet was hanged for piracy at White Point Gardens.
1719
Nov. 17 -- In what some call America's First Revolution, Carolina's colonial Assembly met in Charles Town and disavowed further allegiance to the Lords Prioprietors in favor of becoming a Royal Colony. The Assembly declared itself "the government until His Majesty's pleasure be known."
Dec. 21 -- The Assembly proclaimed Gen. James Moore Jr., who had led a successful attack on the Tuscarora tribe during the Yemassee War, as provisional governor until they received further directives from the Crown.





