Charles Town Mini-Q

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Why Was Charles Town Difficult to Settle?

Overview:

Charles Towne Landing was the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Carolina province.

Approximately 148 colonists, including men, women, and children, landed at Albemarle Point the first

Wednesday in April 1670. The colony had to quickly establish homes, food and defenses to survive and create

a successful colony. The first years of settlement were not easy. This Mini-Q asks you why Charles Town was

difficult to settle.

The Documents:

Document A: Map - “1671 Old Plats of Charles Town”

Document B: Description of South Carolina, 1761

Document C: Indian Traders Journal of Carolina, 1709

Document D: Advertisement of the Carolinas

Document E: Letter From Eliza Lucas Pinckney, 1760

Charles Town Mini-Q

Hook Exercise: Charles Town

Directions: Examine the map, and answers the following questions below.

Source: Historycooperative.org

1715 Indian Coalition- Southeastern Native Americans

Questions

1. What can you infer about who lived in this area before the arrival of the English?

2. Why would the English choose to settle here?

3. What kind of conflicts do you predict will take place here?

4. Who may be involved in these conflicts and why?

5. What do you predict will be the biggest threat to the settlement of Charleston?

Charles Town Mini-Q

Why Was Charles Town Difficult to Settle?

Spanish explorers were the first Europeans to explore the coastal regions of present-day

South Carolina. In 1521 Francisco Gordillo sailed to the Carolina coast from the Spanish base in

Santo Domingo. Many historians believe he anchored in Winyah Bay near present-day

Georgetown. While Gordillo did not attempt a settlement, he did anger the local tribe by

capturing natives and selling them into slavery in the Caribbean.

Five years later, Lucas Vasquez de Ayllón led approximately 600 settlers in an attempt to

establish a settlement in the area Gordillo explored earlier. Unfavorable weather, sickness, low

food supplies, and hostility from the natives hampered the settlement from the beginning.

With the death of their leader de Ayllón, the settlement was doomed. Within six months, the

Spanish departed.

Near present day Beaufort along Port Royal Sound, a failed settlement attempt by the

French took place in 1562 when Jean Ribault led a group of French Huguenots in search of

religious freedom. Within several years of this French attempt, the Spanish tried several more

times to establish a permanent settlement in South Carolina, but to no avail.

In 1629, a grant was given to Sir Robert Heath by King Charles I of England to settle the

vast area below the Virginia colony that stretched southward to Spanish Florida. Carolina

would be named for Charles I – “Carolus” is the Latin word for Charles. While Heath’s initial

settlement attempt would never take place and he would lose the grant, the settlement effort

would be renewed in 1663 when Charles II would reward eight loyal supporters with a charter,

giving ownership to the land called “Carolina.” The eight men would have the title “Lords

Proprietors.”

A small settlement was founded at Albemarle Point on the Ashley River in 1670. The

community’s name of Charles Towne honored Charles II, King of England. The success of the

new colony greatly depended upon the friendly relations and subsequent fur and animal hide

trade with the surrounding Native American tribes, though this relationship between settlers

and natives would become strained at various times.

As Charles Towne started to prosper, its future was still not certain. The Spanish, and to

a lesser extent the French, had their eyes upon the area and did not accept the British claim to

the southern coast of North America. As a result of these conflicting claims, the Spanish

launched several unsuccessful attacks upon Charles Towne. By 1680, with the Spanish threat

ended, the settlement had been moved to nearby Oyster Point, today’s Charleston. It proved

to be a better location with stronger fortifications and a better port to receive and send goods

to England.

Charles Town Mini-Q

Rice and later indigo cultivation was introduced to the colony and became major cash

crops. These crops made Carolina planters very wealthy and ensured the economic success of

the colony. However, both these crops were dependent on slave labor which fostered the

growth of elaborate plantation systems.

Along with the arrival of African immigrants, most of which were slaves, the colony

started being populated by French, German, Welsh, and Scots-Irish settlers from Europe, as

well as migrants from other American colonies. Settlements started spreading westward to the

backcountry which increased tensions with native American tribes, but South Carolina would

none-the-less become an important, highly productive colony of Great Britain.

Background Essay Questions

1. What obstacles did the Spanish encounter when settling South Carolina?

2. What role did Sir Robert Heath play in the settlement of South Carolina?

3. Where did the English first settle South Carolina?

4. What problems did the settlers encounter at Albemarle Point?

5. What success were the settlers seeing by the 1680’s?

Charles Town Mini-Q

Understanding the Question and Pre-Bucketing

Understanding the Question

1. What is the analytical question asked by this Mini-Q?

2. What terms in the question need to be defined?

3. Rewrite the question in your own words.

Pre-Bucketing

Directions: Using clues from the Mini-Q question, think of logical analytical categories and

label the buckets.

Charles Town Mini-Q

Document A

Source: National Humanities Center: “1671 Old Plats of Charles Town”

Document Analysis

1. This is an early map of Charles Town. What obstacles would a cartographer (map-maker)

have encountered?

2. What natural resources are abundant according to this cartographer?

3. Is this a trustworthy map? Why or why not?

4. How did the proximity to water become both an advantage and a disadvantage to settlers?

5. Using only this document, what problems made Charles Town difficult to settle?

Use the evidence from the document to support your answer.

Charles Town Mini-Q

Document B

Source: James Glen, "A Description of South Carolina,” 1761

18th Century Description of South Carolina

"The land of South Carolina for a hundred or a hundred and fifty miles back is flat and

woody; intersected with many large rivers, some of which rise out of the Cherokee

Mountains, and after a winding course of some hundreds of miles, discharge themselves

into the sea.”

"It is remarkable for the diversity of its soil; that near the coast is generally sandy, but not

therefore unfruitful; in other parts there is clay, loam, and marl; I have seen of the soil of

some high bluffs, near the sides of rivers, that exactly resembles castile soap, and is not less

variegated with red and blue veins, nor less clammy.”

"There are dispersed up and down the country several large Indian old fields, which are

lands that have been cleared by the Indians, and now, remain just as they left them. There

arise in many places fine savannahs, or wide extended plains, which do not produce any

trees; these are a kind of natural lawns, and some of them as beautiful as those made by art.

"The country abounds everywhere with large swamps, which, when cleared, opened, and

sweetened by culture, yield plentiful crops of rice. Along the banks of our rivers and creeks

there are also swamps and marshes, fit either for rice, or, by the hardness of their bottoms,

for pasturage.”

Document Analysis

1. Would flat land be an advantage to Carolina settlers? Why or why not?

2. Why would “Lands that have been cleared by the Indians” be highly desirable to the first

settlers in Carolina?

3. What is pasturage and how might this land be used?

4. What phrase suggests that early settlers found the Carolina landscape beautiful?

5. Using only this document, why was Charles Town difficult to settle? Use the

evidence from the document to support your answer.

Charles Town Mini-Q

Document C

Source: Indian Trader John Lawson’s Journal of Carolina, 1709.

Note: Description of South Carolina.

“Viewing the Land here, we found an extraordinary rich, black Mould, and some of a

Copper-colour, both Sorts very good; the Land in some Places is much burthen’d with Iron ,

Stone, here being great Store of it, seemingly very good:…When we were all asleep, in the

Beginning of the Night, we were awaken’d with the dismall’st and most hideous Noise that

ever pierc’d my Ears: This sudden Surprizal incapacitated us of guessing what this

threatening Noise might proceed from; but our Indian Pilot (who knew these Parts very

well) acquainted us, that it was customary to hear such Musick along that Swamp-side,

there being endless Numbers of Panthers, Tygers, Wolves, and other Beasts of Prey, which

take this Swamp for their Adobe in the Day, coming in whole Droves to hunt the Deer in the

Night, making this frightful Ditty ‘till Day appears, then all is still as in other places.”

Document Analysis

1. What type of soil did the settlers find in Charles Town?

2. What animal life existed in the Carolinas?

3. Using only this document, why was Charles Town difficult to settle? Use the evidence from

the document to support your answer.

Charles Town Mini-Q

Document D

Source: Library of Congress

Note: The following is an advertisement used by the Lord Proprietors in 1664 to attract settlers after the

Carolina Charter was signed by Charles II, King of England. Though it is difficult to read, their intent was

clear. Examine the advertisement and answer the following questions.

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“…The Healthfulness of the Air; the Fertility of the Earth and Waters, and the great Pleasure and Profit

will accrue to those that shall go thither to enjoy the fame”

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Document Analysis

1. Translate the quote into mondern English.

2. Explain the quote.

3. Using only this document, why was Charles Town difficult to settle? Use the evidence from

the document to support your answer.

Charles Town Mini-Q

Document E

Source: “The Letter book of Eliza Lucas Pinckney 1739-1762”

Note: A letter to a Mrs. Evance March 15, 1760.

“A great cloud seems at present to hang over this province. We are continually insulted by the

Indians on our back settlements, and a violent kind of small pox rages in Charles Town that

most puts a stop to all business. Several of those I have to transact business with are fled into

the Country, but by Divine blessing I hope a month or two will change the prospect. We expect

shortly troops from Gen. Amherst, which I trust will be able to manage these savage Enemies.

And the small pox, as does not spread on the Country, must be soon over for want of subjects”

Document Analysis

1. What does Eliza mean when she describes “a great cloud over this province”?

2. Describe the impact that small pox had on this developing colony.

3. Rewrite this letter in your own words; be sure to include all parts of the letter.

4. Using only this document, why was Charles Town difficult to settle? Use the evidence from

the document to support your answer.

Charles Town Mini-Q

Bucketing—Getting Ready to Write

Bucketing

Look over all the documents and organize them into your final buckets. Write labels under

each bucket and place the letters of the documents in the buckets where they belong.

Remember, your buckets are going to become your body paragraphs.

Thesis Development and Road Map

On the chicken foot below, write your thesis and your road map. Your thesis is always an

opinion that answers the Mini-Q question. The road map is created from your bucket labels

and lists the topic areas you will examine in order to prove your thesis.

Charles Town Mini-Q

Mini-Q Essay Outline Guide

Working Title

Paragraph #1 Grabber Background Stating the question with key terms defined Thesis and road map Paragraph #2 Baby Thesis for bucket 1 Evidence: Supporting detail with document citation Argument: Connecting evidence to thesis Paragraph #3 Baby Thesis Evidence Argument Paragraph #4 Baby Thesis Evidence Argument Paragraph #5 Conclusion: “Although” statement followed by restatement of your main idea