History Day Project Part 4. Ernesto.

South Carolina.

       To the north of Palmetto State (South Carolina) is North Carolina, its "sister state", Georgia lies to the south and west, and the Atlantic to the east. The state is very forested and its animals include deer, black bear, foxes, opossum, rabbits, mink, and wood chuck.
      Native Americans first came to what is now South Carolina at least 10,000 years ago. When they came here, most of them lived by hunting and fishing, and about 3,000 years ago, they learned how to farm. Before the arrival of the Europeans, at least 20,000 Natives lived in the Colony of South Carolina, as many as fifty tribes. The largest tribe were the Cherokee. They lived in the western part of South Carolina, where there were mountainous regions. Catawba was another tribe that lived in the middle of the border of North and South Carolina. The Westo and Yamasee were two tribes that lived along the Savannah River. The Native Americans lived in villages of a few dozen to several thousand people. The villages were surrounded by wooden walls called palisades. Women often did the farming with their daughters, they grew corn, beans, and squash. In some tribes, though, the men did the farming (one of them was the Catawba). Men and sons did the fishing and hunting with bows and arrows, nets, and traps. The children collected berries and nuts in the forest, they also scared the birds away from the growing crops. The native Americans didn't just kill the animals for food, they used the skin for clothes, blankets, and moccasins (a type of shoe). Almost everything was used from the animals that were killed. The Native Americans held a number of yearly festivals to honor their spirits. The two main gods were the Great Spirit who was the one that supposedly gave good weather, and Evil Spirit who was blamed for everything bad. Tobacco, or tsalu, was smoked in the festivals, they said that the smoke carried prayers to the spirit. Back then though, they did not smoke it every day.
         The first known European to reach South Carolina was Francisco Gordillo, a Spaniard that reached the South Carolina coast in 1521. The Spanish named the Spanish named the region Carolana, meaning "land of Charles" in honor of the Spanish King Charles I. Gordillo didn't only go to South Carolina for exploration, they wanted to take Indians as slaves to the West Indies (islands east of Mexico) because they had killed so many of them, they needed more! One of the Indians learned Spanish and became friend with the officials, his name was Francisco Chicora. He told a official named Vásquez de Ayllón about strange stories about treasure abandoned in Carolana. The Spanish believed in the stories and they tried to go and look for the treasure. They settled somewhere in South Carolina in 1526. Before the year ended, only 150 people of the 500 people that went with the expedition survived. They died from hunger and disease, and even Ayllón died. France Also tried to make a settlement, but Jean Ribault and his people were unsuccessful. The English established a permanent settlement in 1670 under the supervision of eight lords proprietors who had been granted Carolana by King Charles II of England. The lord advertised a lot in England telling the people of the great opportunities in the colony. First they settled at Albermarle, then after 10 years they moved across the river to Charlestown. Most of the people that came here were reasonably wealthy, and most of them had rice plantations.
Q- What tribe lived near the Savannah River?
1- Cherokee. 2- Yamasee. 3- Catawba.

North Carolina Colony.

North Carolina first permanent settlement was in 1653.

          North Carolina was first explored in early 1524 by Giovanni de Verrazano, with his ship Daphine. He was an Italian working for France. He was looking for a shortcut to Asia just like some other explorers like John Cabot, an English explorer. The first place Verrazano stepped on was Cape Fear in North Carolina, then he went north looking for the shortcut. He was also the first person who explored New York and Rhode Island. Verrazano gave a good reputation to North Carolina saying that it was a very good region. In 1526 Spaniards may have made an attempt to settle North and South Carolina. That summer Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón led about 500 people and they made a settlement that may have been in the place where Cape Fear empties into the Atlantic. They moved south because of starvation and disease but still, people died. By October of that year only 150 out of the original 500 people were still alive, these people gave up and returned to Santo Domingo (now this city is part of the Dominican Republic).
          England realized that they better do something before Spain occupied all the land like they did in Central and South America. Some English people became very interested in the Americas. One of them was Walter Raleigh. In the spring of 1584 Queen Elizabeth gave a charter to Raleigh to build an American colony. Raleigh sent an expedition to find a good site for his colony. Two ships departed to America under the command of Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow in April 1584. After two months, on July 4, 1584 the ships approached North Carolina.
The commanders were very happy with what they saw, they wrote reports saying how wonderful the land was. During the summer of 1584 the commanders held a ceremony in which they claimed the present day US for England. They asked the Indians North Carolina's name, the Indians didn't understand the English and they responded "Wingandacon" meaning "You wear good clothes", as a result the English called the place Wingand. After two months of staying in North Carolina Amandas and Barlow departed for England, around mid-August. By mid-September of 1584 the expedition was back in England, there they gave the good news. The news caused excitement in England and in the next few months Raleigh organized a group of people to begin settling the new colony. In this period of excitement, Queen Elizabeth knighted Raleigh, so from now on, he was supposed to be called Sir Walter Raleigh. At the same date that the queen knighted Raleigh she changed the name of the colony from Wingandacon to Virginia, which means "Fresh or unspoiled". The Virginia at that time wasn't the same size as the Virginia of today, at that time it included the Carolinas and other States. Raleigh's first people that were going to be in the first colony reached North Carolina's outer banks in late June 1585. Raleigh planed that the settlement would be at Roanoke Island which was just off the coast of NC. Before they went to that Island they visited several villages.
       The Indians welcomed the new comers very well. One day, the Englishmen found one silver cup of theirs missing, Sir Richard Grenville, who was one of the leaders, assumed that the Indians stole the cup and in revenge he did the most stupid and cruel act that helped doom the colony turning the Indians against the Englishmen. He burned the whole village and its cornfields.
       The expedition finally reached Roanoke Island in late July 1585. Raleigh and the people that came with him were prepared to do work, though Grenville soon departed back to England. Ralph Lane was in charge of the colony. Not everything went right for him, in fact, he was lacking things like food. The Indians would have helped, but after knowing what Englishmen did for a drinking cup, they didn't help. The Indian Chief was going to destroy the island but Ralph Lane knew this and in late spring 1586 he attacked and killed Roanoke' chief Wingina.

Click here for explanation of Sir Francis Drake's visit.

(Please Click on the picture)        Ralph Lane went back to England, and soon the ships with supplies that were sent by Raleigh arrived, posibly just a day after Ralph departed. A few weeks after the supplies arrival, more supplies arrived, Grenville arrived and brought with him a years' supplies for the colony. Nor did Raleigh or Grenville find a sign of life from the people that they left before going to England, the only thing that they did find were a settler and an Indian, both dead. Grenville went back to England in 1586, he left 15 to 18 people in the colony to see if they could survive, which was very probable. Next year more settlers came. The colonists only found a skeleton out of the 15 to 18 people that Grenvile left before going. A friendly Indian told them that at least one settler was killed by the Indians and the rest probably fled.
       Among the new colonists that came in 1587, was George Howe who was killed by the Indians in revenge for their murdered chief, Wingina. A few days later, on August 13, 1587, Manteo, who was a Croatoan, adopted the Christian faith, he was the first known Protestant Baptist in what is now the U.S.. Five days later, Elenor White Dare gave birth to the first child in the colony, Virginia Dare, the first Christian child born in the U.S.. Governor White faced many problems, the most important was that the colony didn't have food and the Indians didn't want to help because of the bad reputation of the Englishmen. White went back and reached England in November of 1587, but before he left he told the settlers that if for some reason they had to leave the city of Raleigh, they were supposed to write their destination on the tree near the fort, and if they were in danger, they were supposed to mark a cross on top of it. He ran into some problems while in England, the biggest one was that he couldn't do anything to help the new colony because all the ships of England were being used to fight the Spanish armada. Sir Francis Drake and other captains defeated the Armada in the summer of 1588, but for reasons that aren't quite clear he couldn't come back to the colony until 1590.
      White reached the Roanoke Island in that summer of 1590, and found the tree near the fort. It read "CROATOAN" which was the name of an Indian tribe. He tried to go to that island were they lived, but a big storm (in which seven people drowned), and lack of food and fresh water made them go back to England. White died without knowing what happened with the colony.
       All of these bad things that happened prevented North Carolina from being the site for the first English colony. The Colony of Virginia was formed as the first permanent colony, please read Virginia Colony for more information. Virginia was governed by a private company at first, but then, in 1624 it became a royal colony. In 1625 King James died and his son, Charles I, became the king. The King lopped off a huge area south of modern day Virginia, it included the greater part of N. Carolina, S. Carolina, and Georgia and named it Carolana which meaned "Land of Charles" in Latin. The King gave this piece of land to Sir Robert Heath. The name Carolana was changed to Carolina in 1663. In 1665, King Charles II enlarged the Carolina colony, from the present day border of N. Carolina to border with Florida.
       During the 1600s most of the people that lived in N. Carolina were big families and people with religious problems. The main crop was corn, because the colonists ate almost all of the corn. Corn wasn't the only crop though, beans, peas, potatoes, rice, sweet potatoes, and wheat, also tobacco was something that the settlers grew a lot. The families in this period did a great deal of trading with each other. Later on N. Carolina became a state in about 1653 and became the 10 Colony.
Q- What was one of the first acts that turned the Indians against the Englishman?
1- They were racist. 2- They burned the Indian village. 3- They destroyed the Indian god.

Georgia Colony.

In 1879 Georgia created a flag similar to the Stars and Bars, the first flag of the Confederacy. It had a vertical blue stripe on the left side and three horizontal stripes (one white and two red) on the right. The state coat of arms was added to the blue stripe in 1905, and in 1956 the horizontal stripes were replaced by the Confederate battle flag, a red field with crossed blue-and-white stripes bearing 13 white stars. The original battle flag had a white border that is not part of Georgia's flag. (The Colony was adopted in 1733, last Colony)

It was 1539 when Hernando de Soto sailed from Cuba to the mainland of what is now United States of America. The crew spent from 1539-1542 exploring Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. They spent four months exploring the region were now is Georgia. The expedition was made because de Soto though there was gold in these lands, but he didn't found any. While they stayed in Georgia, the Creeks (indian tribe), which were well known about their hospitality, brought food and place to live to de Soto. In return, de Soto captured the Creeks and added them to his slave crew. His expedition ended soon when he died in the spring of 1542 on the Mississippi river. Even though they had found no gold, the Spanish wanted to add the southeastern United states to their list of American possessions.
In 1565, the French were interested in the Southeastern of what is now the U.S.. Spain new that other Europeans countries wanted the lands that they possessed. The Spanish started building forts. In 1566, Spain built a fort on St. Catherine Island in what is now Georgia. A few years later, Spanish priest built missions in Guale (this was the name given to this region back then, it is the name of a local Indian Chief.) where they taught the Indians about Christianity. Although Spain and France would have liked to gain control over the east coast of what is now the United States, neither country did much about settling the region. Except for Florida, the Spanish showed a little building settlements along the east coast.

          In the early 1600's, the people from England started coming to the Americas. In 1607, the English built their first permanent town in their first permanent colony, it was made in Jamestown, Virginia. The British had several reasons to come here, one of the most important ones was the freedom of religion. By 1670, England population in the colonies was about 110,000, by this time, the Georgia colony wasn't totally under the control of England. England had claimed the Georgia colony as early as 1629, but a century passed until the English tried to back up their claim.
         In 1720s, a young man named James Edward Oglethorpe lived in England. He was a member of the British lawmaking body called the Parliament. In this period of time, people that didn't pay their debts were jailed, and much of them died in the prison, and when the people that didn't died came out, they still had to pay their debts. Oglethorpe concerned about this, so he and some people raised some money and asked England's King George II to grant land in America between the English Carolinas and the Spanish Florida. King George II saw he could "kill three birds with one stone" by sending the debtors to Georgia. He thought that if they send the debtors there, they could get rid of them, he could make sure that land between Florida and the Carolinas was settled by English people, and he could watch the activities of Spain (Florida) and France (Louisiana). In spring of 1732, the king signed the charter creating a new colony called Georgia.
         Soon the plan was changed. The land of Georgia wasn't mainly for the debtors anymore. Instead, now it was mainly for people that were out of work and had religious beliefs problems. These people were called "charity" and would have their way paid through by the Trustees (who were the people that were in charge of the Georgia Colony). They would also receive fifty acres of land in Georgia, and enough food and supplies for about a year. The other kind of people that lived in Georgia were the adventurers, which were poor farmer that paid their way through. To these people, the Trustees gave five hundred acres of land.
         On November 17, 1732, the Anne (Anne was the name of the ship) sailed down England's Thames River. It was a very crowded ship. Besides the approximately 120 people, a large number of hogs, geese, ducks, and sheep were being brought to stock the farms. The cradles were where the people had to sleep in was just a bit over five and one half feet long, you can imagine how uncomfortable it would be. Georgia had no official governor, but the colonist considered Oglethorpe their leader. On the morning of January 13, of 1733, the people aboard the Anne spotted land. The land was South Carolina. The ship stopped there and Oglethorpe showed to the Governor Robert Johnson the charter. The south Carolinas were thrilled about the settlement of Georgia, for it meant they would have a colony between themselves and the Spanish to the south. Oglethorpe chose a place that was very close to the border of South Carolina to be the first town for several reasons. He wanted the town to have mutual protection, the nearby river could provide drinking water (Savannah river, also called Rio Dulce by the Spanish). A indian tribe called Yamacraws gave permission to Oglethorpe to make his town near where he live by, he said that there would be enough room for both of them. Oglethorpe went to South Carolina where the people were at and returned with the rest of the colonists in February 12, 1733, people now use this date as the birth of the state. The first baby born in Georgia was Georgia Close, he was born in May of 1733, but soon died of decease. They called the town Savannah.
           A few month later, in the spring of 1734, James Oglethorpe returned to England to report to the Trustees and raise money. He took Tomochichi the chief and his family. In London Tomochi approved the treaty the Creeks had made with the Georgia colonists. In January of 1735, while Oglathorpe was still in England, he added three rules for Georgia. There were to be no Saves in the colony, Rum was banned, and no colonists could trade with the Indians unless they had a special permission. In late 1735, they returned back to Georgia.
           England had rivals countries, which were Spain and France. Between 1689 and 1763 England fought French and Indian wars, mostly in the Northern states. Between 1739-1744, there was a war called "War of Jenkin's Ear". The countries in the 1700's didn't wanted to trade with the other countries so they would get economical advantage. In 1731, an English captain named Robert Jenkins was taking goods to the Islands of the coast of Florida. Spanish coast guards cough him and took goods from the ships. To punish Jerkins, they cutter of his ear. He showed the problem to the British Parliament. The war began and Oglethorpe was in charge of the military forces for Georgia.
           James Oglethorpe returns to England because he had spent too much money on the colony that he didn't even had for himself. When he comeback to England in 1743, England repaid him the money that he spent in the colony, and he was free of any charges. Back in 1732, King George the II gave the permission for the Trustees the right to operate the colony for 21 years, after that, the Colony would become a colony with a royal governor. Georgia's first royal governor was John Reynolds, who served from 1754 to 1757. Georgia had a two housed legislative Assembly. Upper house members were elected by the king, and the lower, called Commons House, were elected by Georgians, like always, since the Upper house was elected by the king, it had a lot more power. The Georgia colony at 1751 only had 6,000 people, which was even less than the little Delaware state, but it grew a lot from 1754-1775, which were the first 21 years that it was a royal colony. By 1760, Georgia population was 10,000 non-indians, Delaware (the smallest) had 33,000 people, and Virginia, the biggest, had 340,000 people.
Q- What did King George the II mean when he said "kill three birds with one stone"?
1) The land in America was magical. 2) He didn't need to do a lot of work. 3) He would resolve several problems with one action.