Settlers in early colonial South Carolina divided into partisan groups according to their class, economic and political interests, much as people do today. The most powerful faction at that time was a group called the Goose Creek Men.
These were Englishmen with Barbadian roots (as were at least half of the Carolina colonists between 1670 and 1690) who wanted to see the colony function according to the model they had established and profited from in the Caribbean. Opposed to the Barbadians was a motley collection of religious dissenters who had been recruited by the colony’s proprietors. The dissenters, as Thomas J Little writes in his essay ‘The South Carolina Slave Laws Reconsidered, 1670-1700′ (originally published in the South Carolina Historical Magazine, April 1993 and recently republished in South Carolina and Barbados Connections: Selections from the South Carolina Historical Magazine), included ‘Huguenots, English Baptists, English and Scottish Presbyterians, and Quakers.’ The two factions, the Goose Creek Men and the pro-proprietary group, engaged in bitter political struggles throughout the first several decades of the colony’s existence.
Then, in 1686, a foreign invasion was thrust upon the Carolinians. Partisan divisions were set aside in the face of this attack, which originated from Spanish Florida. The Spanish troops came up through disputed Georgia to reach the South Carolina Lowcountry, but were fatefully set back by the sudden appearance of a hurricane. Little writes:
Also see: Establishing the Carolinas, Colonial struggle for Georgia and Fort St Andrew & the Scots in colonial North America
Source: War between South Carolina & Florida in 1686
Then, in 1686, a foreign invasion was thrust upon the Carolinians. Partisan divisions were set aside in the face of this attack, which originated from Spanish Florida. The Spanish troops came up through disputed Georgia to reach the South Carolina Lowcountry, but were fatefully set back by the sudden appearance of a hurricane. Little writes:
Party strife was soon forgotten when the Spanish launched a surprise attack on the exposed southern frontier in 1686. While moving toward Charleston, the invaders were forced to retreat after a hurricane ripped through their path. Nevertheless, the Spanish force managed to carry off ten slaves before heading home.
A counter-attack was immediately planned by the Carolinians. Four hundred men were armed and two vessels were fitted out. This expedition was aborted when a new governor, James Colleton, arrived in the province. Colleton, who had recently come to the colony from Barbados, argued that the expedition could not be legally carried out because Spain had not formally declared war. To prevent another attack, he reopened communications with the governor of Florida and persuaded him to pay for the slaves who had been carried off.[Footnote: The local historic site of the early Charleston settlement, Charles Towne Landing, has the wooden palisades laid out as they would have appeared in that period as a defense against the Spanish...CV]
Also see: Establishing the Carolinas, Colonial struggle for Georgia and Fort St Andrew & the Scots in colonial North America
Source: War between South Carolina & Florida in 1686
