HISTORY 



155 



In 1860, an insurrection broke out in Sicily, and 

 an expedition of volunteers from Piedmont and 

 other Italian provinces under Garibaldi sailed 

 from Genoa to the assistance of the insurgents. 

 The result was that the Neapolitan troops were 

 driven from the island. Garibaldi, following 

 up his success, crossed over to the mainland, 

 where he met little or no opposition; Francis 

 II. fled from Naples; the strong places in his 

 hands were reduced; and by a popular vote 

 the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ceased to 



as such and became an integral part of the 

 Kingdom of Italy. 



Sicilian Vespers, the name given to a 

 massacre of the French in Sicily. March 30, 1282. 

 On the evening of Easter Monday the conspira- 

 were already assembled at Palermo; but 

 the massacre was precipitated by an outrage 

 offered by a Frenchman to a Sicilian bride, who 

 was passing along the street- with her tr.-iin. 

 Instantly the Frenchman was killed, and, the 

 populace being aroused by the conspirators, all 

 the French who could he round in the city were 



^htered. Eight thousand were slain in 

 Palermo alone, and the massacre afterwards 

 spread over the island, the French being even 

 dragged out of the churches to which they had 

 fled for protection. The six hundredth anni- 

 versary of the Sicilian Vespers was celebrated 

 with much enthusiasm at Palermo in 1882. 



Slavery. The establishment of one man's 

 right to control the liberty, property, and even 

 life of another. Slavery probably arose at an 

 early period of the world s history out of the 

 accident of capture in war. Savages, in place 

 of massacring their captives, found it more 

 profitable to Keep them in servitude. All the 

 ancient Oriental nations of whom we have any 

 records, including the Jews, had their slaves. 

 In (Ireece in general, and especially at Athen-. 

 slaves were mildly treated, and enjoved a large 

 share of legal protection; while bv the Roman- 

 they were used with considerable rigor. The 

 English word slave is simply the name of the 

 Sclavonian race. The wars of the Prankish 

 kings and emperors filled Saracenic Spain with 



\onic captives to such an extent that in its 

 language, as well as in those of other European 

 countries, a natural name meaning, in its- own 

 tongue, glorious, became the title of servitude. 

 The African slave-trade was commenced by the 

 Portuguese in I H2; it was, however, of only 

 trifling extent till the Sixteenth Century. But 

 the importation of negroes into the \\ e-t Indies 

 and America having once begun, it gradually 

 increased, until the vastness and importance of 

 the tratlic rivaled its cruelty and guilt. The 

 slave-trade was alioh-hed in Kngland in 1807 

 (nit it was only in 1834 that slavery itself was 

 abolished throughout the British dominion-. 



^ before that time, several of the North 



American States had decreed tin extinction of 

 slavery, Vermont abolished it in 1777. before 

 she had joined the I'liiot: '.vania in 



le Island and Connecticut short ly 

 New York in 1797, and New .1,-r-ey in 

 provided for the gradual emancipation of their 

 -lave-. In Massachusetts the Supreme Court 

 deelared that slavery was aboli-hed 1>\ the act 

 of adopting the State Constitution of 1*780. In 



1820, the I'nited States passed a law declaring 

 the slave-trade to be piracy, but no conviction 

 was obtained under the statute until November, 

 1861, when Nathaniel Gordon, master of a vessel 

 called the "Erie," was convicted and hanged at 

 New York. Finallv, the abolition of slavery, 

 cause and fruit of the gigantic war of secession, 

 was definitively consecrated in 1865 by the 

 Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution'of the 

 United States. The French emancipated their 

 negroes in 1848, and the Dutch in 1863. Slavery 

 I was also partially abolished in Brazil in 1871, 

 ! and gradual emancipation has been adopted in 

 Cuba. 



South Carolina. The first attempt to 

 colonize the territory now included in South 

 j Carolina was made by Jean Ribault, a French- 

 | man, in 1562. The first permanent settlement 

 j was made by English colonists, who planted 

 themselves on the oanks of the Ashley in 1670, 

 1 but removed to the site of Charleston in 1680. 

 j The province was created by Charles II. in 1683. 

 Both the Carolinas were included under a com- 

 mon name and proprietary government till 17i >( .>. 

 when the king formed the province into two 

 royal colonies. Large numbers of French Hugue- 

 nots had arrived in 1685, and subsequently 

 Swiss, Irish, and German colonists. South 

 Carolina suffered severely from Indian depreda- 

 tions, and joined with Georgia, under Oglethorpe. 

 in a contest with Spanish Florida. She took 

 an active part in the Revolution, and the battles 

 of Fort Moultrie, Charleston. Camden. K 

 Mountain, Cowpens, Eutaw Springs, etc., were 

 fought on her soil. The United States Constitu- 

 tion was ratified in 1788. In 1832. the State 

 passed the Nullification Act. which threatened 

 eivil war, then happily averted, but afterward 

 i precipitated in 1861 by the firing on Fort Sum- 

 1 ter. The important military operations were the 

 ', capture of Hilton Head in 1861, the unsuccessful 

 I attack on Charleston in 1863, and the march 

 of General Sherman in 18| '>.">. 

 i readmitted to federal relations in 1868. From 

 I 1865 until 1871 there were reconstruction trou- 

 bles, ending with the election of Wade Hampton 

 las Governor of the State and his recognition by 

 President Hayes. In 1886 Charleston Mil: 

 from a severe earthquake which caused much 

 property loss. A State dispensary* law for the 

 regulation of the liquor traffic was passed in 

 The present State constitution was 

 adopted in 1X97. 



s<> ii th Dakota. South Dakota became 



'ate November J. 1SW. when the Territory 

 of Dakota was divided into tuo St. 

 hi-tory of that part of the country \\ill l>e found 

 under Minnesota, Nebraska, and North Dakota. 



Spain*. the Spanw. // IN/MI n/</ and //-. 

 the Greeks, and known to the Romans by the 

 same names, is supposed to have been originally 

 inhabited by a distinct race called 

 upon whom n Its are supposed to have 



descended from the r\ i i,- n, 1 1. two men 



co.-ilrsreil and fornwd'the mixed nation of tin 

 (Vint., -nan-. About the middle of the Third 



Oanf iginian influence began 



to I..- felt in ll>ena. and a considerabl< 

 territory \\as brought under -objection to 

 Carthage by Hamilcar who founded the city of 



