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HILL, Charles. Small archive of autograph letters

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Charleston, SC: v.d. [but 20 March 1711 to 7 June 1715]. Together, 7 letters, lengths vary (318 x 202 mm and smaller). Address panels and docketing on versos. Condition: occasional small tears to old folds, some light browning. an incredible series of letters detailing the vicissitudes of life in early 18th-century carolina -- "the backside of the world" -- including descriptions of the great hurricane of 1713, slavery and the horrors of an indian war. In the first letter (20 March 1711) Hill notes that "I am now heere settled wth my ffamily & a good plantation wth a pretty gang of negros yett soe near the Towne as to gett thare in 2 hours, soe intende to continue my Talent in trade." He continues by offering to represent Dickinson in business in the area if needed, and ends with a listing of prices for various commodities, including rice, pork, pitch, tar, tallow candles (and noting that no beef is slaughtered for want of salt). The second letter (27 August 1712) includes news of mutual acquaintances: Madam Risby left for Kingston having had three children die, Messrs, Pugh, Mitchell and Tudman had left having completed their business. Hill continues: "Observe you were engaged with an undertaking that diverted you from other matters. Hope when your leisure serves I may have a line from you, we have no news here living absolutely on the backside of the world. But are informed Mr. Pen[n] hath Resigned your government to the Queen" and continuing "it's talked about that this province is likewise to be under the Crown. We are easy as to parties & factions now! but God knows how long it will continue, but am afraid here are some violent people & others very ignorant & easily led by the former." Again, Hill ends the letter with commodity prices, noting rum to be scarce. The third letter (6 August 1713) begins with a discussion of business matters and commodity prices, and then continues: "We have no manner of news here except General [Francis] Nicholson is daily expected. Some say he is at Newfound land, others that he is at Roneque [Roanoke] to examine the last distractions there, wither Colonel [Thomas] Cary is at present returned." This is a reference to Cary's Rebellion of 1711, an uprising in North Carolina following the disfranchisement of Quakers. The fourth and fifth letters (8 March 1713/14 and 20 May 1714) include heart-wrenching descriptions of the deaths of his wife and children in a hurricane: "Alas my dear friend you That have Experienced Some misfortunes needs Be Touched with mine when I acquaint you that I have no wife left and but one child, she with my two youngest precious babes were drowned on my plantation . in the Terrible Hurricane when water swept all my houses away except the ribbs of the barn, my self hardly escaping. 12 negros & a great many cattle drowned. So that I broke up the plantation and live in Town now entirely. You may Easily Imagine the Great Trial I am under at present to Lose, So dear, So Prudent and Exemplary, a good wife, my old faithful Companion with 2 Lovely Children, but Hope God will comfort & Support me under it but my misery is very great." He goes on to note that because of the '"dreadful Hurricane" there is very little flour available, advising "The first that come with flour & bread will make a good hand." The 20 May letter repeats nearly verbatim the prior, Hill having assumed the previous to have been lost, though with an additional postscript concerning slavery: "Our country produce continues dear, negros in great demand. Choice men selling from 75 to £80 per head but a good many vessels from Africa expected." The sixth letter (10 March 1714/15) largely concerns business matters, noting shipments of flour from Dickinson, though mentions news of an epidemic in Jamaica, and of mutual friends. The seventh letter (7 June 1715) finds Hill re-married, but again in distress, with a vivid description of the outbreak of the Yamasee Indian War: "It has pleased God to afflict us with an Indian War which broke out suddenly at which time those Barbarians very cruelly cut of[f] many of our white inhabitants . but it is such a nation all & General Combination against us that some people fear we shall not be able to hold the Province or at best be starved; for whites & Blacks are So Harassed towards our frontiers that there is no Planting & for Ships to Supply us. There is no appearance being we have no produce to Give them in Truck nor any but Paper money to Buy it, so we are in a Lamentable Condition, wanting already arms & we Shall be So[o]n out of Powder." Hill continues the letter considering leaving Carolina and inquiring on the terms of hiring slaves in Philadelphia if he chooses to relocate there. Hill, however, would remain in (or briefly leave and return to) South Carolina, becoming the province's Chief Justice from 1722-24.

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