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Charleston, immediately gained a few inhabitants; and
on the spot where opulence now crowds the wharves of the most prosperous mart on our southern seaboard, among ancient groves that swept down to the rivers' banks, and were covered with the yellow jasmine, which burdened the vernal zephyrs with its per-fumes, the cabins of graziers began the city.
Long afterwards, the splendid vegetation which environs
Charleston, especially the pine, and cedar, and cypress trees along the broad road which is now Meeting street, delighted the observer by its perpetual verdure.
1 The settlement, though for some years it struggled against an unhealthy climate,
2 steadily increased; and to its influence is in some degree to be attributed the love of letters, and that desire of institutions for education, for which
South Carolina was afterwards distinguished.
The institutions of
Carolina were still further modified by the character of the emigration that began to throng to her soil.
The proprietaries continued to send emigrants, who
were tempted by the offer of land
3 at an easy quitrent.
One hundred and fifty acres were granted for ‘every able man-servant, negroes as well as Christians.’
From
Barbadoes arrived
Sir John Yeamans, with
African slaves.
4 Thus the institution of negro slavery is coeval with the first plantations on
Ashley River.
Of the original thirteen states,
South Carolina alone was from its cradle essentially a planting state with slave labor.
In
Maryland, in
Virginia, the custom of employing indented servants long prevailed; and the class of white laborers was always numerous; for no
