The Huguenots were French Protestants who suffered persecution from the Catholics for 200 years.
The first Huguenots to settle in America were a small band who had been induced to emigrate under the charter of the Carolinas granted to Sir Robert Heath in 1630. Upon reaching Virginia their means of transportation failed, so they remained in that colony. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 drove multitudes of Huguenots from France. Other parties went to Virginia about 1700 under Claude Philippe de Richebourg. In Massachusetts they made a settlement at Oxford in 1686, but were massacred and driven away by the Indians. By 1737, they had become an important element in South Carolina, where they founded at Charleston the 'South Carolina Society', a benevolent organization. They also made early settlements in the Middle States, notably in New York. Research Huguenots
Abbreviations
People
Research Huguenots