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INSTITUTIONS, GOVERNMENT AND LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 425 



which ensued, need not be given in detail. It was bloodless but decisive. 

 The colonists organized a convention, appointed a new governor, and 

 announced their intention of casting off " the confused, helpless, and 

 negligent government of the Lords Proprietors," and putting themselves 

 directly under that of the British crown. In 1721 the government of 

 George I. decided in their favor, and in 1729, in the reign of George II., 

 the Province was purchased by the crown from the Lords Proprietors, 

 and was divided into North and South Carolina. The form of govern- 

 ment conferred on the colony was modeled upon the English Constitution. 

 It consisted of a Governor, Council and an Assembly. To them the 

 power -of making laws was committed. The King appointed the Gov- 

 ernor and Council ; the Assembly was elected by the people. 



During the next half century the population of South Carolina steadil}'- 

 increased. Many inducements were offered to emigrants. Bounties were 

 given, free lands assigned, and the door was thrown open to settlers of 

 every description. Parties of emigrants arrived constantly from Great 

 Britain and the various countries of Europe. Between the years 1730 

 and 1750 a large number of settlers from Great Britain and Ireland, 

 Germany and the Palatinate, Switzerland and Holland, found homes in 

 South Carolina. The Germans established themselves chiefly in that 

 portion of the country around Orangeburg and along the Congaree and 

 Wateree Rivers ; the Scotch-Irish settled in Williamsburg ; the Welsh 

 along the Pee Dee River, in what are now the counties of Marlboro and 

 Marion, and the Swiss along the banks of the Savannah River. After 

 the Scotch rebellions of 1715 and 1745 many of the expatriated High- 

 landers came to Carolina. The population, which had hitherto been con- 

 fined to a radius of about eighty miles from the coast, now began to 

 spread into the interior of the State. A large territory was acquired from 

 the Indians, embracing the present counties of Edgefield. Abbeville, 

 Laurens, Newberry, Union, Spartanburg, York, Chester, Fairfield and 

 Richland, and settlements were soon made all through those fertile por- 

 tions of the country. Fifteen hundred French arrived from Nova Scotia, 

 and in 1704 a French Protestant colony settled in Abbeville District, and 

 gave the names of Bourdeaux and New Rochelle to their settlements. 

 The cultivation of wheat, hemp, flax and tobacco was introduced by col- 

 onists wdio came from Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and that 

 of the vine and of silk by emigrants from the Palatinate. Indigo, also, 

 was for some years profitably cultivated. When the War of Independ- 

 ence began, the population of South Carolina amounted to forty tliousand 

 souls. It is needless to dwell upon the part played by South Carolina in 

 the Revolutionary War. It belongs to the history of the whole country, 

 and cannot be treated of here. During the war, of course, the growth 

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