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PERIOD III. 1689-1763. INTERCOLONIAL WARS. ANALYSIS.
PERIOD III. - INTERCOLONIAL WARSChap. I.--The Separate Colonies.
I. Colonies already established, p. 75.
II. The new Colony, Georgia, p. 79.
III. French and Spanish Settlements, p. 80.Chap. II.--King William's War, p. 82.
Chap. III.--Queen Anne's War.
1. Beginning of the War. -- War in the South, p. 93.
II. War in the North. -- Treaty of Utrecht, p. 84.Chap. IV.--The Spanish War, p. 85.
Chap. V.--King George's War, p. 86.
Chap. VI.--The French and Indian War.
I. The Beginning of Hostilities and the Declaration of War, p. 87.
II. Unfortunate Campaigns of 1756 and 1757, p. 90.
III. Successful Prosecution and Termination of the War, p. 91.Chap. VII.--Condition, at the Close of this Period, of what is now the United States, p. 95.
Chronology, p. 98.
PERIOD III. DISTINGUISHED FOR INTERCOLONIAL WARS.
EXTENDING FROM THE ACCESSION OF WILLIAM AND MARY TO THE THRONE OF ENGLAND, IN 1689, TO THE PEACE OF PARIS, IN 1763.
CHAPTER I.
THE SEPARATE COLONIES.
I. COLONIES ALREADY ESTABLISHED -- 1. In the preceding Period we have seen the English colonies in America struggling with the wilderness, without much sympathy with, or knowledge of, each other: in this Period we shall see common dangers bringing together those already established, and anew colony1 (Georgia) called into being. Some facts that peculiarly mark the growth of each colony will be given in this chapter. After this chapter the English possessions in what is now the United States will generally be regarded as a unit, having a common history.
2. New Hampshire2 remained under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts till 1692, when, contrary to the wishes of the
1 See p. 79. 2 See pp. 45,46.
QUESTIONS. -- 1. What have we seen in the preceding Period? What shall we see in this period? What will be given in this chapter? After this chapter what of the English possessions in the present United States? 2. What happened to New Hampshire in 1692?(75)
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PERIOD III. 1689-1763. INTERCOLONIAL WARS. people, New Hampshire again became a separate province. After seven years the two provinces came under one governor (Earl of Bellamont); but a final separation took place in 1741.
The vexatious Masonian controversy1 was terminated by yielding to the claimants under Mason's grant the unoccupied portions of the province.
3. Massachusetts.2--William and Mary, successors of James II. on the English throne, refused to restore to Massachusetts her former charter,3 but granted a new one in 1691, less liberal than the old.4 By the new charter Plymouth was united to Massachusetts, whose jurisdiction also extended over Maine and Nova Scotia;5 and the governor and other high officers, formerly chosen by the people, were appointed by the king. In May of the next year, Sir William Phipps, a native of Maine, arrived from England as first governor under the new charter, which he brought with him.
4. About this time that strange delusion known as the Salem witchcraft6 prevailed in Massachusetts. Suspicions of witchcraft had previously arisen in New England, and some persons had been executed for practising the craft. In 1692 the delusion broke out anew in consequence of the strange actions of some children in the family of Mr. Parris, a minister in Danvers, then a part of Salem. A physician pronounced them bewitched, and an Indian servant of Mr. Parris was flogged into an admission that she had bewitched them. Other children and some adults were soon afflicted in the same way, and several persons were accused of witchcraft. The accusations attracted great attention, and were generally believed.
5. The awful mania spread. Cotton Mather, an influential minister of Boston, and a firm believer in witchcraft, encouraged the delusion; the magistrates countenanced it; the newly-appointed governor hastened to summon a special court to try the accused. So warped were the judgments of men, that the strangest and most improbable stories were taken as evidence. In a few months twenty persons had been executed, more
1 See p. 46, ¶ 3. 2 See pp. 36-44. 3 See p. 44, ¶ 9. 4 See p. 39, ¶¶ 2, 3.
5 England did not come into undisputed possession of Nova Scotia till 1713 (see p. 85, ¶ 4), nor of the eastern part of Maine till 1755 (see p. 89, ¶ 9).
6 At this period, the actual existence of witchcraft was taken for granted, and doubts respecting it were deemed little less than heresy. The learned Baxter, who lived at this time in England, pronounced the disbeliever in witchcraft an "obdurate Sadducee;" Sir Matthew Hale, one of the brightest ornaments of the English bench, repeatedly tried and condemned those who were accused of witchcraft; and the celebrated Blackstone, a half century later, declared that to deny the existence of witchcraft was to deny Revelation.
QUESTIONS. -- Seven years afterwards? In 1741? -- How was the Masonian controversy settled? 3. What happened to Massachusetts in 1691? By the new charter how were the territory and jurisdiction of Massachusetts extended? How were her privileges abridged? Who was the first governor under the new charter? 4. About this time what prevailed in Massachusetts? -- Give an account of the origin and progress of the delusion. 5. What is said of Cotton Mather? The magistrates? The governor? How many persons were executed?
CHAPTER 1. THE SEPARATE COLONIES. 77
than fifty had been tortured or frightened into confessing themselves witches, -- indeed, confession was their only safety, -- and the jails were full of prisoners. No one was safe from suspicion. At length the frenzy spent itself, people began to come to their senses, the accused were liberated, and the terrible drama closed.
6. Rhode Island1 and Connecticut2 continued to thrive under their charters until long after they ceased to be dependencies of Great Britain, but without any change so marked in their internal policy, or external relations, as to need special mention in this chapter.
7. New York.3-- Leisler,4 supported by the democracy, but bitterly opposed by the aristocracy, conducted the affairs of the province with great prudence, until the arrival, in 1691, of Colonel Henry Sloughter as governor. The destruction of Leisler was now resolved upon by his enemies. He was tried on a charge of treason, and found guilty. Governor Sloughter at first refused to sign the death warrant; but his signature was obtained while he was drunk, and when he recovered his senses Leisler was no more. Sloughter was succeeded by the corrupt and covetous Benjamin Fletcher, and the latter, in 1698, gave place to the Earl of Bellamont, whose jurisdiction was also made to extend over Massachusetts and New Hampshire. A little before this William Kidd,5 a New York shipmaster, having been commissioned to cruise against the pirates that were then infesting every sea, himself turned pirate, and became the most notorious of them all. Bellamont caused him to be seized and sent to England, where he was tried and executed.
8. In 1741, during the administration of George Clarke, the supposed discovery of a negro plot to burn the city of New York, and to rob and murder the inhabitants, threw the people into great commotion. Many negroes were arrested and imprisoned. On insufficient evidence, more than thirty were burned at the stake or hanged, and twice as many transported. When the alarm was over, and impartial judgment had taken the place of excitement and fear, many persons believed that the proceedings had been rash, and that there was no evidence of any plot among the negroes.
9. New Jersey.6 -- In 1702 the proprietors of both the Jerseys surrendered the powers of government to the crown, and the two provinces were united, and placed under the same .governor with New York, but having a separate legislative assembly. In 1738 New Jersey became entirely distinct from New York, with Lewis Morris as governor.
1 See pp. 50, 51. 2 See pp. 46-50. 3 See pp. 52-57. 4 See p. 57, ¶ 4.
5 The name is wrongly given in the once well-known ballad,--"My name was Robert Kidd, as I sailed, as I sailed." 6 See pp. 57, 58.
QUESTIONS. -- HOW many confessed themselves witches? At length what happened? 8. What is said of Rhode Island and Connecticut? 7. Give an account of the administration and fate of Leisler. What can you tell of William Kidd? 8. Give an account of the negro plot in New York. 9. What happened to the Jerseys in 1702? What in 1738?
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PERIOD III. 1689-1763. INTERCOLONIAL WARS. 10. Pennsylvania.1--After William and Mary became sovereigns of England, Penn's loyalty being suspected, the government of his province was taken from him and given to the governor of New York; but in 1694, the charges of disloyalty having been disproved, he resumed his authority.
11. Returning to Pennsylvania, he found the people clamorous for greater political privileges, and granted them, in 1701, a more liberal charter,2 under which the colony prospered till the American Revolution, when the Pennsylvanians took the government into their own hands, and purchased of Penn's heirs the proprietary claims.3
12. Delaware4 was permitted, in 1702, to secede from Pennsylvania, so far as to have a separate legislative assembly; but the same governors presided over both colonies until the Revolution, when Delaware became an independent state.
13. Maryland,5 in 1715, was restored to the heir of Lord Baltimore, and remained a proprietary province until the Revolution, when the people assumed the government, and confiscated the rights of the proprietor.
14. Virginia6 enjoyed a steady growth during this period, and though among the foremost in its turbulent scenes, there is nothing in her history that needs a separate narrative here.
15. North Carolina and South Carolina.7 -- The infamous Sothel, banished from the northern colony,8 appeared in South Carolina, and assumed the government. The people, after enduring his oppression about two years, drove him from the colony. Philip Ludwell and John Archdale stand preëminent among the early governors of the Carolinas. They restored order to the province, and immigration was encouraged by the liberal policy of the proprietors. Huguenots and Quakers here found a home; and here too settled, in 1710, many Swiss and Germans, the latter driven from their homes on the Rhine by religious persecutions.
In 1729 the two Carolinas, which had hitherto been considered as one province, were separated, and the proprietors having ceded to the crown their rights of government and seven eighths of the soil, North Carolina and South Carolina became distinct royal provinces. See pp. 83-4, ¶¶ 2, 5.
1 See: pp. 61-64. 2 See p. 64, ¶ 6. 3 Penn died in England in 1718. 4 see pp. 58, 59.
5 See pp. 59-61. 6 See pp. 29-35. 7 See pp. 64-67. 8 See p. 66, ¶ 2.
QUESTIONS. -- 10. Why was Penn deprived of his government? To whom was it given? When did Penn resume his authority? 11. What did he grant the people of his province? What did the Pennsylvanians do at the time of the Revolution? 12. When and to what extent did Delaware separate from Pennsylvania? What of Delaware at the time of the Revolution? 13. When was Maryland restored to the heir of Baltimore? What of Maryland at the time of the Revolution? 14. What is said of Virginia? 15. What is said of Sothel? Of Ludwelt and Archdale? What of Huguenots and Quakers? Of Swiss and Germans? -- When did the Carolinas become distinct royal provinces?
CHAPTER 1. THE SEPARATE COLONIES. 79
II. THE NEW COLONY, GEORGIA.1-- 1. To James Oglethorpe, an Englishman, greatly distinguished for his philanthropy, and eminent both as a soldier and as a civilian, belongs the honor of founding in America a refuge for the poor of his own country, and the persecuted of all nations. In 1732 George II. granted to him and associates, "in trust for the poor," the territory between the Savannah and the Altamaha.2 This territory was named Georgia, from the king.
2. The same year thirty-five families, consisting of about one hundred and twenty-five persons, embarked from England under Oglethorpe. They landed in February, 1733, and began to build the town of Savannah, on a high bluff near the mouth of the river of the same name. The Indians received the strangers with great cordiality. Oglethorpe early arranged a treaty with the assembled chiefs3 of the Creeks,4 and made satisfactory bargains with them for land.
3. After ten years of disinterested effort in behalf of Georgia, during which time he visited England twice to bring over emigrants and soldiers, Oglethorpe left his colony to return to it no more. He left it in a state of tranquillity; but it had never flourished. A party of Scotch Highlanders, who settled Darien (1736), and a company of German Lutherans, formed thriving communities, but most of the colonists were poor and inefficient; none, at first, were permitted to gain a free title to the land they cultivated.
1 See Map, p. 81.
2 This region had been included in the Carolina patent, but the proprietors had surrendered their interests to the crown. See p. 64, ¶ 1, and p. 78, ¶ 15.
3 Tomochichi, one of the chiefs, presented to Oglethorpe a buffalo's skin, painted on the inside with the head and feathers of an eagle. "The eagle," said he. "signifies swiftness; and the buffalo, strength. The English are as swift as a bird, and as strong as a beast; since, like the first, they fly over the vast seas, and, like the second, nothing can withstand them. The feathers of the eagle are soft, and signify love; the buffalo's skin is warm, and signifies protection; therefore love and protect our families."
4 See p. 22, note (IV., 3).
QUESTIONS. -- 1. What is said of James Oglethorpe? What grant of land was made to him and associates? When and by whom? Name of the grant? 2. Give an account of the founding of Savannah. What is said of the Indians? Of the treaty with them? 3. What more is said of Oglethorpe? How did he leave his colony? What is said of some Scotch Highlanders and German Lutherans? What of most of the colonists?
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