Discovery and Settlement of the New World 17did not swarm into Maryland as the proprietor had hoped. Instead
many more Protestants took advantage of his liberal land grants, and
by the end of the century they outnumbered Catholics ten to one. In
1649 the Maryland assembly accepted Lord Baltimore’s proposal and
passed a Toleration Act, stating that no person who believed in Christ
would be persecuted for practicing his or her religion. But since
non-Christians were excluded from the colony, this legislation had only
limited claim to toleration.
Thus, over a relatively short period of time, there developed in the
English colonies in America three forms of government: royal, corpo-
rate, and proprietary.
Another proprietary colony was formed when Charles II paid off a
series of debts to a group of eight men who had helped him regain the
throne in 1660 after the Puritan Revolution that executed his father,
Charles I, in 1649 , and established a dictatorship under Oliver Crom-
well. This colony lay between Virginia and Spanish Florida, and the
charter was granted in 1663. The proprietors expected to attract set-
tlers from Barbados, Virginia, and New England and profit from a
trade in rice, ginger, and silk. The area was named Carolina after
Charles’s wife, Queen Caroline. One distinctive feature of this propri-
etary colony was the plan of government drawn up by one of the pro-
prietors, Anthony Ashley Cooper, the earl of Shaftesbury, and his
secretary, John Locke. It was called the Fundamental Constitutions of
Carolina, and it attempted to engraft in America a feudal system with
a sharply defi ned social structure, including titles, and a similar hier-
archical judicial system. Although it recognized and legalized
slavery—Carolina was the first colony to do so openly—it did provide
for religious freedom and a representative assembly. Settlers were
drawn to this inviting area, but they disregarded the feudal aspects—
which could never take root in America, because of the vastness of the
land—and enjoyed the more liberal attractions of the Fundamental
Constitutions. By the end of the century some 50 , 000 colonists popu-
lated the region. But they tended to concentrate in two areas: one to
the north around Albemarle Sound, in what is presently North Caro-
lina; and one 300 miles to the south around a community named after
the king, Charles Town, today’s Charleston. Both areas prospered and
enjoyed increased migration from other parts of the English colonies.