Summary

Isenberg begins this chapter by describing the birth of the English settlement of Carolina in 1663. Eight proprietors were given rights to the territory. Enlightenment intellectual John Locke along with the help of these proprietors drafted a plan for the territory called “Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina” in 1669. In Locke’s Carolina, land is passed hereditarily and is reserved for titled elites. The eight founding proprietors controlled not only one-fifth of the land in each county, but were also given absolute authority of the law. Isenberg credits Locke with creating a new class in his plan, the servant class. The Leet-men, as he called them, would be contributing members to a productive society despite being of a lower class. They were inherently tied to the land and their lord, and their condition was hereditary. The term Leet-men...