Chapter 7

Thus ended the unsuccessful expedition against Augustine, to the great disappointment of both Georgia and Carolina. Many heavy reflections were afterwards thrown out against General Oglethorpe for his conduct during the whole enterprize. Perhaps the only chance of success he had from the beginning was by surprising this garrison in the night by some sudden attempt. He was blamed for remaining so long at fort Diego, by which means the enemy had full intelligence of his approach, and time to prepare for receiving him. He was charged with timidity afterwards, in making no bold attempt on the town. It was said, that the officer who means to act on the offensive, where difficulties must be surmounted, ought to display some courage; and that too much timidity in war is often as culpable as too much temerity. Great caution he indeed used for saving his men, for excepting those who fell by the sword in fort Moosa, he lost more men by sickness than by the hands of the enemy. Though the disaster of Colonel Palmer, in which many brave Highlanders were massacred, was perhaps occasioned chiefly by want of vigilance and a disobedience of orders, yet many were of opinion, that it was too hazardous to have left so small a party on the main land, exposed to sallies from a superior enemy, and entirely cut off from all possibility of support and assistance from the main body. In short, the Carolineans called in question the General's military judgment and skill in many respects; and protested that he had spent the time in barren deliberations, harassed the men with unnecessary marches, allowed them not a sufficient quantity of provisions, and poisoned them with breakish water. He, on the other hand, declared he had no confidence in the firmness and courage of the provincials; for that they refused obedience to his orders, and at last abandoned his camp, and retreated to Carolina. The truth was, so strongly fortified was the place, both by nature and art, that probably the attempt must have failed, though it had been conducted by the ablest officer, and executed by the best disciplined troops. The miscarriage, however, was particularly ruinous to Carolina, having not only subjected the province to a great expence, but also left it in a worse situation than it was before the attempt.

[Sidenote] A great fire at Charlestown.

The same year stands distinguished in the annals of Carolina, not only for this unsuccessful expedition against the Spaniards, but also for a desolating fire, which in November following broke out in the capital, and laid the half of it in ruins. This fire began about two o'clock in the afternoon, and burnt with unquenchable violence until eight at night. The houses being built of wood, and the wind blowing hard at north-west, the flames spread with astonishing rapidity. From Broad-street, where the fire kindled, to Granville's Bastion, almost every house was at one time in flames, and exhibited an awful and striking scene. The vast quantities of deerskins, rum, pitch, tar, turpentine and powder, in the different stores, served to increase the horror, and the more speedily to spread the desolation. Amidst the cries and shrieks of women and children, and the bursting forth of flames in different quarters, occasioned by the violent wind, which carried the burning shingles to a great distance, the men were put into confusion, and so anxious were they about the safety of their families, that they could not be prevailed upon to unite their efforts for extinguishing the fire. The sailors from the men of war, and ships in the harbour were the most active and adventurous hands engaged in the service. But such was the violence of the flames, that it baffled all the art and power of man, and burnt until the calmness of the evening closed the dreadful scene. Three hundred of the best and most convenient buildings in the town were consumed, which, together with lots of goods, and provincial commodities, amounted to a prodigious sum. Happily few lives were lost, but the lamentations of ruined families were heard in every quarter. In short, from a flourishing condition the town was reduced in the space of six hours to the lowest and most deplorable state. All those inhabitants whose houses escaped the flames, went around and kindly invited their unfortunate neighbours to them, so that two and three families were lodged in places built only for the accommodation of one. After the legislature met, to take the miserable state of the people under consideration, they agreed to make application to the British parliament for relief. The British parliament voted twenty thousand pounds sterling, to be distributed among the sufferers at Charlestown, which relief was equally seasonable and useful on the one side, as it was generous and noble on the other. No time should obliterate the impressions of such benevolent actions. This gift certainly deserved to be wrote on the table of every heart, in the most indelible characters. For all men must acknowledge, that it merited the warmest returns of gratitude, not only from the unfortunate objects of such bounty, but from the whole province.

[Sidenote] A petition in favour of the rice trade.

While the war between Great Britain and Spain continued, a bill was brought into parliament to prevent the exportation of rice, among other articles of provision, to France or Spain, with a view to distress these enemies as much as possible. In consequence of which, a representation to the following effect, in behalf of the province of Carolina, and the merchants concerned in that trade, was presented to the House of Commons while the bill was depending before them, praying that the article of rice might be excepted out of the bill, and endeavouring to prove, that the prohibiting its importation would be highly detrimental to Great Britain, and in no respect to her enemies: "The inhabitants of South Carolina have not any manufactures of their own, but are supplied from Great Britain with all their clothing, and the other manufactures by them consumed, to the amount of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling a-year. The only commodity of consequence produced in South Carolina is rice, and they reckon it as much their staple commodity as sugar is to Barbadoes and Jamaica, or tobacco to Virginia and Maryland; so that if any stop be put to the exportation of rice from South Carolina to Europe, it will not only render the planters there incapable of paying their debts, but also reduce the government of that province to such difficulties for want of money, as at this present precarious time may render the whole colony an easy prey to their neighbours the Indians and Spaniards, and also to those yet more dangerous enemies their own negroes, who are ready to revolt on the first opportunity, and are eight times as many in number as there are white men able to bear arms, and the danger in this respect is greater since the unhappy expedition to Augustine.

"From the year 1729, when his Majesty purchased South Carolina, the trade of it hath so increased, that their annual exports and imports of late have been double the value of what they were in the said year; and their exports of rice in particular have increased in a greater proportion: for, from the year 1720 to 1729, being ten years, both included, the whole export of rice was 264,488 barrels, making 44,081 tons. From the 1730 to 1739, being also ten years, the whole export of rice was 499,525 barrels, making 99,905 tons; so that the export of the latter ten years exceeded the former by 235,037 barrels, or 55,824 tons: and of the vast quantities of rice thus exported, scarcely one fifteenth part is consumed either in Great Britain or in any part of the British dominions; so that the produce of the other fourteen parts is clear gain to the nation; whereas almost all the sugar, and one fourth part of the tobacco, exported from the British colonies, are consumed by the people of Great Britain, or by British subjects; from whence it is evident, that the national gain arising from rice is several times as great in proportion, as the national gain arising from either sugar or tobacco.

"This year, _viz._ 1740, in particular, we shall export from South Carolina above ninety thousand barrels of rice, of which quantity there will not be three thousand barrels used here, so that the clear national gain upon that export will be very great; for at the lowest computation, of twenty-five shillings sterling _per_ barrel, the eighty-seven thousand barrels exported will amount in value to one hundred and eight thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds, at the first hand; whereto there must be added the charge of freight, _&c._ from South Carolina to Europe, which amount to more than the first cost of the rice, and are also gain to Great Britain; so that the least gain upon this article for the present year will be two hundred and twenty thousand pounds, over and above the naval advantage of annually employing more than one hundred and sixty ships of one hundred tons each."

"Rice being an enumerated commodity, it cannot be exported from South Carolina without giving bond for double the value that the same shall be landed in Great Britain, or in some of the British plantations, excepting to the southward of Cape Finisterre, which last was permitted by a law made in the year 1729; and the motive for such permission was, that the rice might arrive more seasonably and in better condition at market. We have hereunto added an account of the several quantities of rice which have been exported from South Carolina to the different European markets since the said law was made; and it will thereby appear, that we have not in those ten years been able to find sale for any considerable quantity of rice in Spain; for in all that time we have not sold above three thousand five hundred and seventy barrels to the Spaniards, making only three hundred and fifty-seven barrels annually upon a medium; nor can we in the time to come expect any alteration in favour of our rice trade there, because the Spaniards are supplied with an inferior sort of rice from Turkey, _&c._ equally agreeable to them and a great deal cheaper than ours; the truth whereof appears by the rice taken in a ship called the Baltic Merchant and carried into St. Sebastians, where it was sold at a price so much under the market rate here, or in Holland, as to encourage the sending of it thence to Holland and Hamburgh.

"In France the importation of Carolina rice without licence is prohibited; and though during the last and present years there hath, by permission, been some consumption of it there, yet the whole did not exceed nine thousand barrels, and they have received from Turkey so much rice of the present year's growth, as to make that commodity five shillings _per_ 100 _lb._ cheaper at Marseilles than here, and even at Dunkirk it is one shilling and sixpence _per_ 100 _lb._ cheaper than here; so that there is not any prospect of a demand for Carolina rice in France, even if liberty could be obtained for sending the same to any port of that kingdom.

"Germany and Holland are the countries where we find the best market for our rice, and there the greater part of it is consumed; so that the present intended embargo, or prohibitory law, cannot have any other effect, in relation to rice, than that of preventing our allies from using what our enemies do not want, nor we ourselves consume more than a twentieth part of, and which is of so perishable a nature, that even in a cold climate it doth not keep above a year without decaying, and in a warm climate it perishes entirely. The great consumption of rice in Germany and Holland is during the winter season, when pease and all kinds of pulse, _&c._ are scarce; and the rice intended for those markets ought to be brought there before the frost begins, time enough to be carried up the rivers; so that preventing the exportation only a few days may be attended with this had consequence, that by the frost the winter sale may be lost.

"And as we have now, _viz._ since November 11th, above ten thousand barrels of old rice arrived, so we may in a few weeks expect double that quantity, besides the new crop now shipping off from Carolina; the stopping of all which, in a country where there is not any sale for it, instead of permitting the same to be carried to the only places of consumption, must soon reduce the price thereof to so low a rate, that the merchants who have purchased that rice will not be able to sell it for the prime cost, much less will they be able to recover the money they have paid for duty, freight, and other charges thereon, which amount to double the first cost: for the rice that an hundred pounds sterling will purchase in South Carolina, costs the importer two hundred more in British duties, freight, and other charges[1]."

[1] An Account of Rice exported in Ten Years after the Province was purchased for the King.

_Barrels._ To Portugal, - - - - - - - 83,379 To Gibraltar, - - - - - - 958 To Spain, - - - - - - - - 3,570 To France, - - - - - - - - 9,500 To Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Plantations, - - - 30,000 To Holland, Hamburgh and Bremen, including 7000 barrels to Sweden and Denmark, - - - - - - - 372,118 ------- Total quantity exported in those ten years, - - - 499,525

"Thus it appears, that by prohibiting the exportation of rice from this kingdom, the merchants who have purchased the vast quantities before mentioned will not only lose the money it cost them, but twice as much more in duties, freight, and other charges, by their having a perishable commodity embargoed in a country where it is not used. Or if, instead of laying the prohibition here, it be laid in South Carolina; that province, the planters there, and the merchants who deal with them, must all be involved in ruin; the province, for want of means to support the expense of government; the planters, for want of the means to pay their debts and provide future supplies; and the merchants, by not only losing those debts, but twice as much more in the freight, duties, and other charges, upon rice which they cannot sell. So that, in either case, a very profitable colony, and the merchants concerned in the trade of it, would be ruined for the present, if not totally lost to this kingdom, by prohibiting the exportation of rice; and all this without doing any national good in another way, for such prohibition could not in any shape distress our enemies. It is therefore humbly hoped, that rice will be excepted out of the bill now before the honourable House of Commons."

As this representation contains a distinct account of the produce and trade of the province, and shews its usefulness and importance to Great Britain, we judged it worthy of the particular attention of our readers, and therefore have inserted it. With respect to the internal dangers arising from the savage nature and vast number of the slaves, mentioned in this and a former state of the province, we shall now make some remarks, in which we will be naturally led to consider their miserable condition, and the harsh treatment to which slavery necessarily subjects them.

[Sidenote] Remarks on the treatment of slaves.

That slavery has been practiced by many of the most civilized nations in the world, is indeed a truth evident from the history of them. In war the conquerors were supposed to have a right to the life of their captives, insomuch that they might kill, torture or enslave them, as they thought proper. Yet, though war may be justifiable on the principles of self-preservation and defence, it is no easy matter to vindicate the conqueror's right to murder or enslave a disarmed enemy. Slavery in general, like several other enormities, ought to be ascribed to the corruption and avarice of men, rather than to any principles of nature and humanity, which evidently testify against it; and that vindication which is drawn from the custom and practice of ancient nations in favour of such an institution, is equally applicable to many other enormities which are a shame and disgrace to human nature. Helpless children have been exposed to the fury of wild beasts; pride and ambition have spread their desolations far and wide; but such practices are not therefore humane and just. That many nations have encouraged slavery, and that the remains of it are still observable among the freest of them, are argument which none will plead for their honour and credit. That species of servitude which still remains in Britain among the labourers in the coal mines, _&c._ is very different from that to which the natives of Africa are subjected in the western world; because such labourers voluntarily enter on such servitude, they acquire wages as their reward, and both their persons and properties are under the protection of the laws of the realm.

Upon the slightest reflection all men must confess, that those Africans, whom the powers of Europe have conspired to enslave, are by nature equally free and independent, equally susceptible of pain and pleasure, equally averse from bondage and misery, as Europeans themselves. Like all rude nations, they have a strong attachment to their native country, and to those friends and relations with whom they spent the early years of life. By this trade being torn from those nearest connections, and transported to a distant land, it is no easy thing to describe the uneasiness and pain they must endure from such violence and banishment. During the passage being loaded with irons, and cooped up in a ship, oppressed with the most gloomy apprehensions, many of them sicken and die through fear and regret. The provisions made for the voyage by the merchants and masters of ships, who consult their worldly interest more than the dictates of humanity, we may be sure are neither of the best kind, nor distributed among them in the most plentiful manner. After their arrival they are sold and delivered over to the colonists, to whose temper, language and manners they are utter strangers; where their situation for some time, in case of harsh usage, is little better than that of the dumb beasts, having no language but groans in which they can express their pains, nor any friend to pity or relieve them. Some destroy themselves through despair, and from a persuasion they fondly entertain, that, after death, they will return to their beloved friends and native country.

[Sidenote] The hardships of their situation.

After the sale the purchasers become vested with the absolute property of them, according to the laws, usages, and customs of the trade, and whatever hardships are thereby imposed on those foreigners, the planters are so far excusable, having the sanction of the supreme legislature for the purchase they make. The laws of England, from necessity or expediency, have permitted such labourers to be imported among them; and therefore, on their part, the purchase, however injurious, cannot be illegal. Having acquired this kind of property, it then lies with the colonists to frame laws and regulations for the future management of their slaves. In doing this, absolute obedience and non-resistance are fundamental principles established for the government of them, and enforced by the severest penalties. All laws framed with respect to them, give their masters such authority over them as is under few limitations. Their power of correction may be said to be only not allowed to extend to death. However severely beat and abused, no negro can bring an action against his owner, or appear as an evidence against white men, in any court of law or justice. Their natural rights as human creatures are entirely disregarded, and punishments are commonly inflicted according to the will of their master, however cruel and barbarous his disposition may be. A common place of correction is instituted, to which they are sent to receive such a number of stripes as their owners shall order, and such blunders have been committed in giving and executing those orders, that the innocent sometimes have suffered along with the guilty. In short, such is their miserable condition, that they are exposed defenceless to the insolence, caprice, and passions of owners, obliged to labour all their life without any prospect of reward, or any hope of an end of their toil until the day of their death. At the decease of their masters they descend, like other estates of inheritance, to the heir at law, and sometimes to thoughtless and giddy youth, habituated from their earliest days to treat them like brutes. At other times, no doubt, they are more fortunate, but their condition of life evidently subjects them to harsh usage even from the best of masters, and we leave the world to judge what they have to expect from the worst.

Indeed it must be acknowledged, in justice to the planters of Carolina in general, that they treat their slaves with as much, and perhaps more tenderness, than those of any British colony where slavery exists; yet a disinterested stranger must observe, even among the best of masters, several instances of cruelty and negligence in the manner of managing their slaves. Comparatively speaking, they are well clothed and fed in that province, which while they continue in health fits and qualifies them for their task. When they happen to fall sick, they are carefully attended by a physician; in which respect their condition is better than that of the poorest class of labourers in Europe. But in the West Indies, we have been told, they are both covered with rags and have a scanty portion of provisions allowed them, in which case urgent necessity and pinching hunger must often urge them to pilfer, and commit many injuries to which otherwise they would have no inclination, and for which they incur severe punishment. In cases of violence and murder committed on these wretched creatures, it is next to impossible to have the delinquents brought to punishment; for either the grand jury refuse to find the bill, or the petty jury bring in the verdict not guilty. When they are tempted to fly to the woods to shun severe labour or punishment then they may be hunted down or shot as wild beasts. When whipped to death, the murderer, after all, is only subjected to an inconsiderable fine, or a short imprisonment, by the provincial laws. It is impossible that the Author of nature ever intended human beings for such a wretched fate; for surely he who gave life, gave also an undoubted right to the means of self-preservation and happiness, and all the common rights and privileges of nature.