In the last half of t+ie seventeenth 

 century, a band of men, who could 

 not find under the laws of the Mas- 

 sachusetts Colony that freedom of 

 thought and act which they desired, 

 set forth to found a new town, and to 

 wrest from the wilderness of Carolina 

 homes for themselves and theirfamilies. 



They started from Dorchester, Mas- 

 sachusetts, and in remembrance of 

 this they named the new clearing on 

 the Ashley, Dorchester, also. Little 

 by little the town grew and prospered., 

 They built first some rude homes for 

 themselves, then a church, and then 

 a fort. 



By 17^0, eighteen hundred souls 

 lived here: there were half a dozen 

 plantations, more than one manor- 

 house, a race-track, upon which the 

 aristocrats from Charleston loved to 

 speed their blooded horses, and many 

 evidences of prosperity, including 

 134 ; 



