Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina

The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina were adopted in March 1, 1669 by the eight Lords Proprietors of the Province of Carolina, which included most of the land between what is now Virginia and Florida. It replaced the Charter of Carolina and the Concessions and Agreements of the Lords Proprietors of the Province of Carolina (1665). The date March 1, 1669 was the date that proprietors confirmed the Constitutions and sent them to the Colony, but later on two other versions were introduced in 1682 and in 1698. Moreover, the proprietors suspended the Constitutions in 1690. Despite the claims of proprietors on the valid version of the Constitution, the colonists officially recognized the July 21, 1669 version, claiming that six proprietors had sealed the Constitutions as “the unalterable form and rule of Government forever” on that date. The earliest draft of this version in manuscript is believed to be the one found at Columbia, South Carolina archives.

The Colonists, settlers and the British Crown kept themselves at a distance to the Constitutions from the beginning. In fact, the provisions of the Fundamental Constitutions were neither fully employed nor recognized. The main concern over the document were its exaltation of proprietors as noblemen at the apex of the hierarchically designed society. Second, the Constitutions had rules that were hard to implement by settlers for practical reasons. Thus, the proprietors had to amend the rules five times, before finally repealing them forty years from the drafting.

Because the Fundamental Constitutions were drafted during John Locke’s service to one of Province of Carolina proprietors, Anthony Ashley Cooper, who was much more involved in the process than the others, it is widely accepted that Locke had a major role in the making of the Constitutions. For historian David Armitage and political scientist Vicki Hsueh, the Constitutions were co-authored by Locke and his patron Cooper, known also as 1st Earl of Shaftesbury.

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