The Noble Ruling Class
When Carolina was first established its founders had the aim of reproducing English society with, of course, nobles such as themselves at the top while all other people ranked in various degrees below them. To establish just such a society the founders selected John Locke to prepare the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina. This constitution was the basis for constructing a "strictly aristocratic way of life in a sparsely settled wilderness."
High Society Rule Rejected
For the next twenty years the noblemen proprietors of Carolina attempted to enforce their aristocratic system on this area of settlers living mostly in crude frontier cabins. But these good hardworking folks had left England to get away from just such a system and refused to bow to such a ridiculous situation.
After several unsuccessful attempts farther north to create settlements, Charles Town was established in 1670, to be relocated ten years later at the present-day location of Charleston.
No Taxation Without Representation
In the northern portion of Carolina there was no structured development; somehow it just grew. The people that settled there were mainly farmers on a small scale. They were extremely rugged and independent people and had a deep distrust of the feudal society that was developing to the south of them. So different in economy and its people were these two areas of Carolina with the south developing into plantations of politically conservative people. While, at the same time, to the north the poor farmers there strongly objected to any taxation imposed upon them without any say in the matter.
In essence, a distant bell of liberation was peeling out a soon familiar tune. One phrase of the song began with no "Taxation without Representation."
Sources:
Athearn, Robert G. The New World: American Heritage New Illustrated History of the United States, Volume 2, Colonial America. Dell Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1963.
Carson, Clarence B. A Basic History of the United States, volume 1: The Colonial Experience, 1607-1774. American Textbook Committee, Wadley, Alabama, 1987.
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