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one-fourth of this population is in the City of Charleston, where an accurate system of the registration of deaths makes the mortality returns more complete than they are anywhere else, except in twenty-two of the large cities, where the same measures are in force. The colored race also forms seventy-three per cent. of the population in these regions, against sixty per cent. for the State at large.

TABLE B.-Percentage of Total Deaths occurring under 1 Year, under 5 Years, and under all Ages among the Male and Female Population of the United States and of South Carolina, and in the Upper, Middle, and Lower Country of the latter.

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Middle Country, or Piedmont, Sand and 47.9 52.1 12.5 10.6 23.7 20.9 Red Hill, and Upper Pine Belt Region. J

Lower Country, or Lower
Pine Belt and Coast Region

48.4 51.6 13.0 12.1 23.7 22.0

The number of deaths under five years of age amount to sixty-three per cent. of all deaths in the country at large, and to nearly seventy per cent. in South Carolina, due to the excess of infant mortality in the colored population. The excess of female over male deaths is due in part at least to the preponderance of females in South Carolina.

TABLE C.-Percentages of Deaths in the United States and in South Carolina, and in the Upper, Middle, and Lower Country of the latter, resulting from ten principal Diseases.

United States.

South Carolina.

14.2 12.0 11.0 8.6 5.0 4.5 3.0 2.0 1.2 1.1

12.3 10.4 9.2 8.0 3.5 6.2 3.7 0.1 2.2 1.9

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Alpine Region

Piedmont, Sand and
Red Hill, Upper
Pine Belt Regions.

15.7 7.7 6.5 7.7 1.8 4.6 11.1 0.2 1.2. .

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13.1 9.8 8.6 9.0 3.1 6.7 4.0. .

2.4 3.0

Lower Pine Belt and
Coast Regions.

10.7 9.7 10.4 6.2 4.1 5.7 2.4

3.9 1.1

Table "C" exhibits the causes of death, and shows that the most fatal diseases are less potent in South Carolina than elsewhere. The data, as regards malarial diseases, are not given. But deaths from this cause are only 2.7 per cent. of the total deaths for the country at large, and 6.5 per thousand in the grand group, where it is most prevalent, being in New Orleans itself only 4.4 per cent., are less than the deaths in the country at large from diseases of the digestive organs. The percentage from consumption in Carolina is doubtless much larger than it should be, the numbers being increased by the deaths of transient visitors, having this disease, to health resorts in this State, as well as by the permanent settlement here of many persons bringing the disease with them, in the hope that they may find relief in the mildness of this climate.

CHAPTER III.

A SKETCH

OF THE

INSTITUTIONS, GOVERNMENT AND LAWS

OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

PREPARED FOR THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,

BY G. H. SASS, Esq OF THE CHARLESTON BAR.

The first permanent European settlement in South Carolina was made by a colony of Englishmen, who landed at Port Royal in 1670. There had been several previous attempts at colonization by French and Spanish expeditions, but they had all failed, and had left no trace behind them except in the name bestowed upon the Province, which was called Carolina, in honor of King Charles IX. of France.* The advantages of

* The question of the derivation of the name of Carolina is a somewhat obscure one. Some historians derive it from Charles II. of England. Rivers seems to give the preference to Charles I. of England, because, in the grant by that king to Sir Robert Heath, in 1630, the country is called Carolina, or Carolana. This fact is certainly fatal to the claim of Charles II., but it does not dispose of the prior claim of Charles IX. Some of the early annalists (such, for example, as Drs. Melligan and Hewett) say distinctly, that the name was given in honor of Charles IX.; and it is reasonable to suppose that the name given by Ribault and Laudonnière to the country surrounding Charles Fort (arx Carolina), in honor of the French King, survived the

Port Royal, with its magnificent harbor, had also been pointed out by the French expedition under Ribault, and this led to its selection as a landing place by the English colony mentioned above. In 1663, Charles II. of England granted a charter to certain English noblemen, known in the history of the Province as "The Lords Proprietors," conveying to them all the lands lying between the thirty-first and thirty-sixth degrees of north latitude, comprising all of the present States of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. This grant was enlarged two years later so as to include all between twenty-nine degrees and thirty-six degrees and forty seconds, north latitude, and from these two points on the Atlantic coast westward to the Pacific ocean. The Bahama islands were subsequently added to the grant. The colony which landed at Port Royal in 1670 was sent out by the Lords Proprietors, and was commanded by Col. Wm. Sayle. Port Royal proved to be too near to the Spanish settlements in Florida, and to the Indian tribes allied with the Spaniards, for the peace or safety of the colony, and within a year Col. Sayle determined to remove further up the coast. Leaving between themselves and their enemies the several rivers, bays and estuaries which indent the coast of Carolina between Port Royal and Charleston, the colonists selected a spot on the west bank of the Ashley river, about three miles above the present city, and called it, in honor of the King, Charles Town. This situation, however, was soon found to be inconvenient for shipping; and by degrees, the inhabitants of Charles Town began to move lower down the river, and to establish themselves nearer the sea. The point formed by the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers, and known. as Oyster Point, was low and marshy, and cut up by numerous creeks; but there was sufficient high ground on the Cooper river side to afford room for a settlement, and by 1677 there were enough houses built upon it to need some designation, and the new settlement was called Oyster Point Town. In 1680, so large a majority of the people had removed to this spot, that the seat of government was formally transferred to it, and its name was changed to New Charles Town. Two years later, the old settlement was virtually abandoned, and the new one became the only Charles Town. It was at that time declared a port of entry, and in 1685 a collector was appointed. It was not, however, until 1783 that the city destruction of the French colony, and was adopted by the English settlers. This is the view held by Simms, in his "History of South Carolina." Speaking of the fort which Laudonnière called “La Caroline," in honor of the reigning monarch, he says (page 28): “The name thus conferred extended over the whole country a full century before it was occupied by the English. It remained unchanged, and was adopted by them, as it really served to distinguish their obligations to Charles II. of England, under whose auspices and charter the first permanent European colony was settled in Carolina."

was incorporated by the State Legislature under its present name of Charleston

The colony of Carolina, very early in its history, began to attract to itself emigrants from all parts of Europe. Though the Church of England was the established church, freedom of religious worship was guaranteed to all, and settlers of all social classes and all religious denominations began to swell the population. Emigrants were offered land at an easy quit-rent, and clothes and provisions were distributed by the Proprietors to those who could not provide for themselves. The Proprietors, being of the cavalier class, aided or induced many of their friends or dependents to emigrate to Carolina; while the English Puritans, whom the restoration of the monarchy in England had deprived of many of their religious rights, were attracted to the colony by the greater religious freedom there enjoyed. Two vessels also arrived from New York with emigrants, and in 1671, the Grand Council of the colony laid out for them a town on a creek to the south of Stono, to be called James Town, lots in which were granted to every person in each family. These colonists were Dutch, and they were followed by others of their countrymen from Holland. The settlement at James Town was abandoned after a few years, and the settlers spread themselves over the country. In 1679, Charles II. provided, at his own expense, two small vessels to transport to Carolina a few foreign Protestants, who might there domesticate the productions of the South of Europe. In 1683, a colony of Irish were attracted to the Province by the fame of its fertility, which was spread abroad, and they were received with so hearty a welcome that they were soon merged in the other colonists; and about the same time, the remnants of a Scotch settlement at Port Royal, who were driven thence by the Spaniards, found a refuge in Charles Town and its vicinity. In 1685-6, a very important accession to the colony was made by the arrival of a large number of French Protestant refugees, whom the revocation of the Edict of Nantes drove out of France. In 1696, a colony of Congregationalists, from Dorchester, in Massachusetts, settled near the head of the Ashley river, about twenty-five miles from Charles Town.

Such were the components of the colony over which the Lords Proprietors exercised their original jurisdiction, and for the government of which they proceeded to frame a system of laws under the powers committed to them in the charter of Charles II. Their first organized attempt at such a system embodied itself in the famous Fundamental Constitutions, generally attributed to the English philosopher, John Locke, but probably inspired to a considerable extent by Lord Shaftesbury. It is unnecessary here to state in detail the provisions of Locke's Constitution. Its principal feature was the establishment of an oligarchy of rank

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