Carolina ~ 1663

     IIn 1663 King Charles II granted the Province of Carolina to eight Proprietors, the Earl of Clarendon, the Duke of Albemarle, Lord Craven, Lord Berkeley, Lord Ashley (later Earl of Shaftesbury), Sir George Carteret, Sir William Berkeley, and Sir John Colleton. After a later addition the Province extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean between 29° and 36°31´N.
     Later in the same year an expedition under the leadership of Captain William Hilton explored the coast of the new colony. At the same time the Barbadian promoters of the expedition negotiated for permission to purchase land from the Indians with certain powers of self-government. The explorations were successful and the Proprietors granted favorable conditions for settlement, so that the “Adventurers” from Barbados produced many people to settle in Carolina.

Barbados ~ 1751

     In 1751 George Washington, who was 19 years old at the time, accompanied his half-brother, Lawrence, who was recuperating from tuberculosis to Barbados. Lawrence died the following year. George contracted small pox on the island and had scars from it for the rest of his life. Barbados is the only foreign country Washington visited.
     The map shows the town of Bridgetown, in the parish of St. Michael’s on the south-west coast of the island, where Washington stayed. He wrote in his diary, “In the cool of the evening we rode in the country and were perfectly enraptured with the beautiful scenery which every side presented our view. The fields of cane, corn, fruit trees in a delightful green….”