Brad, Thanks for your lead to a Stroman -type researcher!
I think other SC German Swiss researchers have stated that the ships that carried settlers oftimes were turned away if they didn't (wouldn't) pay a "per head fee" so they had to deliver their person cargo to another port and SC offered to give the settlers free land - so much per head. However, to get off the ship settlers had to get money from port families to pay the ship's owners who would not let anyone off unless they got money for transporting each settler. Most times the settlers had already paid for the trip but they had no recourse. One such ship in the Charleston harbor lost most of the passengers to illnesses and hunger after months of waiting for a second payment!! Terrible things transpired by the combining of greed and "legality". People in the city of Charleston were horrified by what went on but had no powwer to stop the carnage except by buying the passage of specific passengers
which a few did who had the necessary money!
Dick Matteson College Park, MD