Revolution of 1719 | |||
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![]() Governor Johnson is confronted by Colonel Parris on East Bay Street on the morning of the putsch | |||
Date | December 21, 1719 | ||
Location | |||
Goals | End of proprietary rule, establishment of a crown colony | ||
Methods | Military coup | ||
Parties | |||
Lead figures | |||
Governor Robert Johnson Col. James Moore, Jr. |
The Revolution of 1719 was a bloodless military coup in the Province of South Carolina which resulted in the overthrow of the Lords Proprietors and the installation of Colonel James Moore, Jr. as the colony's de facto ruler, a post he held until 1721.
Popular discontent with the inefficiencies of proprietary rule, exacerbated by the Yamasee War of 1715-1717, has been cited as the precipitating cause of the Revolution of 1719.
The Revolution of 1719 led to the permanent end of proprietary rule in South Carolina and its recreation as a crown colony under a royal governor. It foreshadowed events 56 years later when — in September 1775 — royal governor Lord William Campbell was compelled to flee South Carolina due to growing civil unrest on the eve of the American Revolution.
Between 1663 and 1665, Charles II of England granted the Province of Carolina to eight non-resident proprietary lords. [1] European settlement of the area, however, was limited to Charleston and what later was called Albemarle County, the two places being geographically non-contiguous. [1] By 1710 the two regions had effectively ceased operating as a single political entity, resulting in the creation of the Province of North Carolina – composed of the area centered around Albemarle County – and the Province of South Carolina. [1]
By 1719, South Carolinian legislative authority was vested in a bicameral body composed of the popularly elected Commons House of Assembly sitting as a lower chamber, and the Grand Council of the Lords Proprietors, which functioned both as an upper chamber and as a collegiate executive, though its day-to-day powers were exercised by a residential governor it appointed. [1] Governance of South Carolina by the proprietary lords has been characterized as ineffective and erratic. [1] Their failure to adequately prepare for defense of the colony during the Yamasee War created further strain between the people and the London-based proprietors. [1]
In an effort to resolve tensions between the colonists and proprietors, the Commons House of Assembly dispatched Francis Yonge as their delegate to travel to London and meet with the proprietors. [2] The Earl of Granville, Palatine of the Lords of Proprietors, was unavailable to meet, however, the remaining seven proprietary lords considered Yonge's appeal and provided him with a response in the form of sealed letters addressed to their governor, Robert Johnson. [2] Upon receiving the letters from Yonge, Johnson decided not to share them with the Commons House of Assembly due to their inflammatory contents and, instead, dissolved the body, calling for new elections on November 26. [2]
In early November, word arrived in Charleston of an approaching Spanish fleet. [3] Leading community members expressed concern at the city's defensive works which, due to neglect owing at least in part to the detached disinterest of the proprietors, were in a dilapidated state. [2] During the militia muster called for the third week of that month, officers and soldiers began associating into an informal organization intent on usurping power from the proprietors. [3] Among them was Colonel James Moore, Jr. and Arthur Skeene, the Speaker of the Commons House of Assembly. [3] [4]
The elections of November 26 brought the plotters and their sympathizers into a majority of the Commons House of Assembly. [2] The new assembly convened on December 16 and were summoned by Governor Johnson for the throne speech. At the speech, Assemblyman Arthur Middleton publicly declared the assembly recognized only the authority of Johnson as a governor of George I and had decided that the Grand Council was an illegal body. [2] Johnson was surprised to the point of inaction by the announcement. [2]
The following day, the assembly - now calling itself a "convention of the people" - set forth a written petition of grievances to Johnson. [2] Responding to the petition, Johnson ordered the Commons House of Assembly dissolved and dispatched Provost Marshal Thomas Conyers to relay his orders. [2] [3] Conyers' visit to the chamber of the Commons House of Assembly was not welcomed by the members, who physically expelled him. [2] The following day, the assembly unilaterally declared Col. Moore to be acting governor of South Carolina. [2]
Concerned that a military review planned for December 21 in Charleston would be used by the rebel faction to move against his government, Governor Johnson ordered militia Col. Alexander Parris to direct the parade's cancellation. [2] Unknown to Johnson, Parris was among the conspirators and, despite assurances that he gave to the governor, did not cancel the review. [2]
On December 21, Johnson learned that up to 300 soldiers of the Charleston Militia had assembled in the city center and personally went to order their dispersal. Finding Parris among the militiamen, Johnson inquired “How durst ... [ye] appear in arms, contrary to ... [my] orders?” When Parris ignored the inquiry, Johnson moved closer to the man, whereupon Parris ordered his soldiers to level their muskets at Johnson. [2] Johnson withdrew and the militia set out to Granville Bastion, the fortification on the southeast corner of the military works at Oyster Point and the traditional site for the inauguration of Carolinian governors. [2] Johnson followed the march, shouting pleas at the soldiers to stop and obey his orders until he was shouted down by Rear Admiral Sir Hovenden Walker, who had thrown in with the putschists. [2]
At Granville Bastion, Col. Moore met the arriving soldiers and - in front of them - was sworn in as acting governor of South Carolina. [2] The coup passed without fighting or bloodshed. [3]
Among the revolutionary government's first orders of business was to petition the Crown to withdraw the proprietary charter of South Carolina and recreate it as a royal colony instead. [5] By the following year, the revolutionary government's wishes were granted and direct, royal rule established. [5] While the revolutionary government requested that Moore continue as royal governor, Francis Nicholson was instead installed by royal appointment. [5]
After surrendering the government to Nicholson, Moore served as Speaker of the Commons House of Assembly until his death in 1724. [4]
Royal rule effectively ended in South Carolina on March 26, 1776, when the governor, Lord William Campbell, was evacuated from the colony by the Royal Navy owing to increasing unrest in Charleston on the eve of the American Revolution. Control of the colony was then assumed by the revolutionary Committee of Safety. [6] [7] The following July, South Carolina ratified the United States Declaration of Independence. [6]
The governments of the Thirteen Colonies of British America developed in the 17th and 18th centuries under the influence of the British constitution. After the Thirteen Colonies had become the United States, the experience under colonial rule would inform and shape the new state constitutions and, ultimately, the United States Constitution.
Richard Caswell was an American politician and lawyer who served as the first and fifth governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1776 to 1780 and from 1785 to 1787. He also served as a senior officer of militia in the Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War. As a delegate to the First Continental Congress, he was a signatory of the 1774 Continental Association.
Robert Johnson (1682–1735) served as the governor of South Carolina from 1717 to 1719 and from 1729 to 1735. Johnson ordered Colonel William Rhett to engage the notorious pirate Stede Bonnet's sloops in the Battle of Cape Fear River with the Charleston Militia on sea in 1718. His grandson was South Carolina Senator Ralph Izard.
The Province of South Carolina, originally known as Clarendon Province, was a province of the Kingdom of Great Britain that existed in North America from 1712 to 1776. It was one of the five Southern colonies and one of the thirteen American colonies of the British Empire. The monarch of Great Britain was represented by the Governor of South Carolina, until the colonies declared independence on July 4, 1776.
The Province of North Carolina, originally known as Albemarle Province, was a proprietary colony and later royal colony of Great Britain that existed in North America from 1712 to 1776.(p. 80) It was one of the five Southern colonies and one of the thirteen American colonies. The monarch of Great Britain was represented by the Governor of North Carolina, until the colonies declared independence on July 4, 1776.
The Province of Carolina was a province of the Kingdom of England (1663–1707) and later the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1712) that existed in North America and the Caribbean from 1663 until partitioned into North and South on January 24, 1712. It consisted of all or parts of present-day Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
The Granville District was an approximately 60-mile wide strip of land in the North Carolina colony adjoining the boundary with the Province of Virginia, lying between north latitudes 35° 34' and 36° 30'. From 1663 until 1779, the District was held under control of the descendants of Sir George Carteret, one of the original Lords Proprietor of the Province of Carolina. After 1729, the Granville District's land allotment totaled nearly half of the land in North Carolina.
Rawlins Lowndes was an American lawyer, planter and politician who became involved in the patriot cause after election to South Carolina's legislature, although he opposed independence from Great Britain. Lowndes served as president/governor of South Carolina during the American Revolutionary War, and after the war opposed his state's ratification of the U.S. Constitution because it would restrict the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Lowndes also served as a state legislator and mayor of Charleston before his death. Two of his sons, Thomas and William Lowndes, would serve in the U.S. Congress.
James Moore Sr. was an Irish-born military officer and colonial administrator who served as the governor of Carolina from 1700 to 1703. He is best known for leading several invasions of Spanish Florida during Queen Anne's War, including attacks in 1704 and 1706 which wiped out most of the Spanish missions in Florida. He captured and brought back to Carolina as slaves thousands of Apalachee Indians.
A lord proprietor is a person granted a royal charter for the establishment and government of an English colony in the 17th century. The plural of the term is "lords proprietors" or "lords proprietary".
The colonial period of South Carolina saw the exploration and colonization of the region by European colonists during the early modern period, eventually resulting in the establishment of the Province of Carolina by English settlers in 1663, which was then divided to create the Province of South Carolina in 1712. European settlement in the region of modern-day South Carolina began on a large scale after 1651, when frontiersmen from the English colony of Virginia began to settle in the northern half of the region, while the southern half saw the immigration of plantation owners from Barbados, who established slave plantations which cultivated cash crops such as tobacco, cotton, rice and indigo.
South Carolina was outraged over British tax policies in the 1760s that violated what they saw as their constitutional right to "no taxation without representation". Merchants joined the boycott against buying British products. When the London government harshly punished Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party, South Carolina's leaders joined eleven other colonies in forming the Continental Congress. When the British attacked Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775 and were beaten back by the Massachusetts Patriots, South Carolina Patriots rallied to support the American Revolution. Loyalists and Patriots of the colony were split by nearly 50/50.
The Yamasee War was a conflict fought in South Carolina from 1715 to 1717 between British settlers from the Province of Carolina and the Yamasee, who were supported by a number of allied Native American peoples, including the Muscogee, Cherokee, Catawba, Apalachee, Apalachicola, Yuchi, Savannah River Shawnee, Congaree, Waxhaw, Pee Dee, Cape Fear, Cheraw, and others. Some of the Native American groups played a minor role, while others launched attacks throughout South Carolina in an attempt to destroy the colony.
A charter is a document that gives colonies the legal rights to exist. Charters can bestow certain rights on a town, city, university, or other institution.
The Provincial Congresses were extra-legal legislative bodies established in ten of the Thirteen Colonies early in the American Revolution. Some were referred to as congresses while others used different terms for a similar type body. These bodies were generally renamed or replaced with other bodies when the provinces declared themselves states.
James Moore was a Continental Army general during the American Revolutionary War. Moore was born into a prominent political family in the colonial Province of North Carolina, he was one of only five generals from North Carolina to serve in the Continental Army. He spent much of his childhood and youth on his family's estates in the lower Cape Fear River area, but soon became active in the colonial military structure in North Carolina.
Nicholas Trott was an 18th-century British judge, legal scholar and writer. He had a lengthy legal and political career in Charleston, South Carolina and served as the colonial chief justice from 1703 until 1719. He came from a prosperous English family; his grandfather Perient Trott having been a husband of the Somers Isles Company and his uncle Sir Nicholas Trott served as the governor of the Bahamas. Like his nephew, the governor was involved in dealings with pirates, and so, to avoid confusion, is often referred to as Nicholas the Elder.
James Colleton was a governor of the English proprietary Province of Carolina from 1686 to 1690.
Robert Gibbes was an English Landgrave, chairman and acting governor of the province of South Carolina between 1710-1712. Although he was elected acting governor by the Executive Council between the three proprietary deputies of former governor, Edward Tynte, after his death, received one vote more than his opponent Thomas Broughton, getting it through bribery. This sparked a conflict between both the oppositions and their supporters which finished with the Lords Proprietors declaring the election of Gibbes illegal and the appointment of Charles Craven as governor of South Carolina in 1711, who didn't arrive until 1712.