THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE SOUTHERN AND MIDDLE COLONIES
The southern colonies in their geographical formation, their soil and
climate, were of a uniform character; nor were there any decidedly
marked religious differences. In the middle colonies this was by no
means the case, but even here the style of life in such states as
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey had many points of resemblance.
In all the colonies except Maryland and Virginia there was a
heterogeneous population of English, Irish, Scots, Dutch, Huguenots, and
Germans, but in New York State mixed nationalities were most apparent.
The distinction between the grades of society was well-marked in both
the southern and middle colonies. In South Carolina in early times there
was practically no middle class, but at the end of the seventeenth
century a few Ulster Protestants settled in the colony as small farmers
and remained in spite of economic conditions. In Maryland there were
yeomen farmers and tradesmen, who were for the most part rude and
uneducated. A professional middle class was unknown until the eighteenth
century; doctors, for example, were not licensed in New York till 1760.
In New Jersey there was a tendency to insist on democratic principles,
though there is every reason to think that the gentleman farmer was
treated with the same respect accorded to the Quaker squire of
Pennsylvania, or the Dutch patroon of New York. In the South the upper
classes resembled their contemporaries in England. Some were indolent,
haughty, and vain, showing the greatest contempt for honest toil; many
were confirmed gamblers and horse-racers. The bottle and the dice were
the household deities of not a few; but they were nevertheless
bountiful, generous, and patriotic, and proved themselves good specimens
of England's manhood in time of peril.
Below these classes were the indentured servants and negro slaves. The
former were composed of paupers and criminals sent out from England, the
earliest instance being in 1618, when Ambrose Smythe, a felon, was
transported to America, as a servant bound for a limited period. The
life in Virginia on the tobacco plantations must have been of the
hardest, but it was evidently preferable to that in the West Indian
islands, as Penruddock, the conspirator against Cromwell, petitioned in
1656 to be sent to Virginia rather than to the Barbadoes. The evil of
the system of indentured servants lay for the most part in the ease with
which _inconvenient_ people were got rid of, and in the kidnapping of
harmless children. Fugitives from justice, guilty husbands or wives, the
felon and the innocent were all to be found on those ships that sailed
from Bristol. The scandal increased from year to year, so that in 1661
the new Colonial Board was obliged to make an effort to regulate
indentured servants, while three years later a commission under the Duke
of York was appointed to look into the whole matter. The outcome of this
was a most salutary enactment by which kidnapping was made a capital
offence. The inquisitorial system necessary for the proper enforcement
of this Act soon came to be burdensome, as proved by a complaint of the
merchants in 1682, concerning vexatious prosecutions; but that it was
absolutely essential is shown by a fresh Order in Council, four years
later, against kidnappers. The one great advantage possessed by the
indentured servant over the negro slave was that no hereditary
disqualification attached to the children of such servants, whereas in
the case of the blacks the stigma of slavery passed from the parents to
their offspring.
The system of binding servants for so many years tended to check the
growth of slavery; but there is little doubt that during the first
hundred years of American colonisation the influx of negro slaves
reached alarming proportions. In 1620 a Dutch ship landed twenty negroes
from the Guinea coast at the recently established Jamestown. From this
small beginning the cursed traffic grew, and so rapidly that in 1637,
and on many later occasions, enactments were passed to check all
intercourse between whites and blacks. Within twenty years of the
introduction of slavery there were in Virginia about three hundred
blacks, while twelve years later the number had reached one thousand. It
is not to be wondered at that the growth was so rapid, for the trade was
a lucrative one,[228] and it was difficult to check when the first in
the land participated in its spoils. Thus in 1662 the Royal African
Company was founded with James, Duke of York, at its head, and with his
brother Charles II. as a large shareholder. The negroes were in theory
regarded as mere chattels, and to check risings such as those of 1678,
1712, and 1741, barbarous laws were passed against them. On the other
hand, as individuals they were as a general rule comfortably clothed,
fed, and housed; they had many amusements, and their work was not as
arduous as has so often been described. At one time it was an understood
thing in the colonies that the lord had the _jus vitae necisque_ over
his slaves, but at the beginning of the eighteenth century the Crown
made the murder of a negro a capital offence, a decision vigorously
upheld by Governor Spotswood. The number of slaves on each plantation
varied very much; the average may, perhaps, be placed at thirty. But the
largest owner in Virginia possessed 900; while in Maryland this was
easily beaten by an owner with 1300. In the eighteenth century the
negroes far outnumbered the whites in South Carolina; but in New York
they only formed about one-sixth the total population. In Maryland and
Virginia they were as one to three, while in the middle colonies it is
calculated that a ratio of one to seven would give a rough estimate of
their numbers.
Figures and statistics with regard to the white population can only be
surmised. In 1650, Virginia, as the oldest of the colonies, may
possibly have had 15,000 inhabitants. Stuyvesant's calculation for New
York fourteen years later was probably exaggerated when he placed that
cosmopolitan people at 10,000. At the time of the Revolution the total
population of Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas was about 90,000;
but the two first colonies had by far the largest proportion, for
although Shaftesbury and Locke had worked so hard, the Carolinas had
only 4000 settlers all told. The population of East Jersey at the
beginning of the eighteenth century was, according to Governor Lewis
Morris, "about eight thousand souls";[229] while that of Pennsylvania
and Delaware may have been 20,000, at least one-half of whom were
English Quakers. Later in the century more exact figures are
ascertainable. Virginia in 1724 was still the largest with 65,000;
Maryland ran it close with 53,000. Pennsylvania and Delaware had
steadily increased owing to immigration to 32,000; and New York, which
in 1705 had had 25,000 people, had by 1724 increased to 30,000. New
Jersey came next with 26,000, while North and South Carolina lagged
behind with 14,000 and 9000 respectively.
With so large a population it is only natural that there were various
kinds of trade. Tobacco was the staple of Virginia and of Maryland; but
by 1701 Virginia tobacco was acknowledged as far superior to that from
the Baltimore plantations. South Carolina for the first ninety years of
its history relied mainly upon rice, the export of which was encouraged
by Sir Robert Walpole in 1730. The colony was now allowed to export rice
to any port in Europe, south of Finisterre, provided it was sent in
British ships, manned by British seamen. "The result was that the rice
of the American plantations beat the rice of Egypt and Northern Italy
out of the markets of Europe."[230] After 1741 or 1742, indigo planting
became an important industry in the colony, for the seed which was then
introduced was found to flourish in the swamps of the South. Iron was
worked in Virginia to a small extent. Its value was pointed out by the
Company in defence of their charter in 1623: "during these 4 last years
that hath been expended in setting up of iron works (the oar whereof is
there in great plenty and excellent) above five thousand pounds, which
work being brought in a manner to perfection was greatly interrupted by
the late massacre."[231] The industry continued throughout the century,
but never on a large scale. In Philadelphia a more profitable iron
industry existed, while in Maryland in 1749 seventeen iron furnaces were
regularly employed. New Jersey made some slight profit from working her
minerals, such as iron and copper, but her chief exports were cattle and
tanned hides. The exports of Pennsylvania were even more varied,
consisting of horses, pipe staves, salted pork and beef, bread-flour,
peas, beans, tobacco, potashes and wax; while from Germantown in
particular there was paper, glass, and coarse cloth. New York carried on
a small linen and woollen manufacture, but the chief industry, until
checked by the policy of Andros, was tanning. After the revolution New
York was famous for its fur trade, particularly that in beaver. Busy as
most of the settlers were, yet almost every necessary of life was
brought from England, including such common articles as wooden bowls. In
a list of the imports of Pennsylvania at the end of the seventeenth
century we find rum, sugar, molasses, silver, salt, wine, linen,
household goods, and negroes. In 1733, to the annoyance of the
colonists, a heavy duty was imposed on all molasses imported from
foreign countries. Tobacco, at the same time, was not allowed to be
exported to any European ports, save those of Great Britain. This,
however, was easily evaded, for the numerous rivers and private
landing-stages in the southern colonies made effective supervision
impossible.
As in the case of the New England colonies, the main check to commerce
lay in the serious want of money. The steady influx of coin was
prevented by the lack of retail trade, and also by the fact that the
planter was nearly always in debt to the merchant. In Virginia and
Maryland the scarcity of specie was overcome by the use of tobacco,
which, "as the staple product of the country, established itself as the
accepted medium of exchange."[232] But even in these colonies a desire
for good money was shown on various occasions. The Virginia Assembly, in
1645, tried to fix the legal value of the Spanish coins which were in
common use, and also proposed a copper coinage of their own. Cecil
Calvert, as a careful proprietor, attempted to assist his Maryland
settlers by establishing a coinage, but nothing came of it. In the
eighteenth century, therefore, most of the southern and middle colonies
fell under the fascinating influence of paper money; New York and
Virginia being the only two to escape this economic evil.
Brief reference has been made to the educational indifference of the
southern settlers. As has already been shown, Governor Berkeley thanked
God that there were no schools in Virginia.[233] To the rich planter
this was not so disastrous, as his sons were either provided with a
tutor or sent to England. But this absence of schools for the small
freeholders presented a great difficulty. Certainly in the Carolinas the
lack of education was not so marked, for there, as society was more
urban, the opportunities of a school training were more numerous. "Their
cohabiting in a town has drawn to them ingenious people of most
sciences, whereby they have tutors amongst them that educate their youth
_à la mode_."[234] South Carolina was particularly famous for its
educational advantages, and in one year there were no fewer than four
hundred educational advertisements in the _South Carolina Gazette_.
Although William and Mary College in Virginia was founded by Blair at
the end of the seventeenth century, it remained for many years nothing
more than a rather superior boarding school. In Philadelphia there was
some attempt to instruct the young, not only in several German and
Moravian seminaries, but also, after 1698, in the Penn Charter School.
New York had its first Church of England School in 1704, but it was not
until fifty years later that King's College, afterwards Columbia
College, was established. A college was founded in New Jersey in 1746,
but two years later Governor Belcher complained that "they are a very
rustical people and deficient in learning."[235] Owing to the energies
of the indefatigable Benjamin Franklin an academy was built in
Philadelphia in 1750 in which the Quaker youth of the colony had the
greater part of their training.
There can be no doubt that the lack of education in the southern and
middle colonies was reflected in the absence of any vigorous literary
development. Virginia is easily first in its possession of three writers
of repute: Robert Beverley, who wrote the history of his own colony; or
the Rev. William Stith, whose work though fragmentary is never dull, and
"might have been produced by a learned, leisurely, and somewhat pompous
English clergyman";[236] or finally, Colonel William Byrd, a man of
education and wealth, who has left on record a witty and interesting
account of his travels. New York was not without two famous names, those
of William Smith, author of _The History of New York_, and Cadwallader
Colden, who has left to posterity a chronicle of the Five Nations,
filled with picturesque descriptions. Pennsylvania, unlike the other
colonies, has to revere the name, not of an historian, but a poet and
tragedian, in Thomas Godfrey, whose short life lasted only from 1736 to
1763.
The religion of the southern and middle colonies was not of the harsh
character of the northerners. The Church of England had more power than
in the Puritan settlements, though its position was a peculiar one. In
New York and New Jersey up to 1693 it was supported owing to orders
from the Crown. From that date its preponderance over other sects was
due to the habit of the governors to appoint Church of England
clergymen. In Maryland and Virginia the Church was established by acts
of the colonial legislature; while in the Carolinas it owed its position
to the Proprietary Charter. In the southern colonies the clergy for the
most part shared the vices of the planters, and "drunkenness is the
common vice"[237] is not an unusual complaint. In North Carolina the
people seem to have been at first utterly indifferent; they were a
lawless population and cared for none of these things. In 1703 there was
no episcopalian minister, nor was there a church until 1705. Six years
later Governor Spotswood reported that there was only one clergyman in
the whole colony. Nor did South Carolina evince a more ardent religious
spirit, for at the beginning of the eighteenth century there were only
two Episcopalian churches, the one at Charlestown, the other at Goose
Creek. Virginia and Maryland seem to have been better than this, for
from quite early times the clergy were readily supported and paid in so
many pounds of tobacco. In Virginia George Whitefield's preaching had
some little effect, but on the whole he failed to arouse any great
religious enthusiasm in the other southern colonies. Maryland and
Pennsylvania were the most tolerant of all the colonies. In the first
Roman Catholics and Protestants had lived together, though not always
peaceably, since its foundation; while in the latter colony there were
Quakers, Lutherans, and Presbyterians tolerating each other. After the
capture of New York by Nicolls, everyone was supposed to conform to the
Church of England; each township was commanded to maintain its own
church and minister. At first the New York authorities were strongly
against Jesuits and Popish priests, but as the eighteenth century grew
in years, there is every reason to believe that within this state there
were Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, and Lutherans living
happy lives and seeing much that was good in their religious
antagonists.
Church life was in no way connected with town life as in New England,
for the simple reason that towns were very uncommon, having "no place in
the social and industrial economy of the south."[238] They consisted for
the most part of scattered houses, an inn, a gaol, and a court-house.
They were visited by the planters nominally for business, but mostly for
pleasure, and the tavern, which was in some cases enforced by law,
became the meeting-place for gossip. Jamestown and Williamsburg in
Virginia, St Mary's and Annapolis in Maryland, are not worth considering
as busy centres of trade. They were rather the meeting-places of
pleasure parties who came for balls and horse races, and when these
gaieties were over they slumbered until again roused for the next joyous
gathering. Charlestown in South Carolina had always been somewhat
different; from its foundation it had taken upon itself the position of
the most important town in the south, and it proved that it was ready to
progress with the times by being the first town to possess a theatre,
which was built in 1735. In the middle colonies the towns played a very
considerable part in the social and economic life of the settlers, and
in this way resembled the northern corporate communities. New York and
Philadelphia were both good towns with wide streets lined with trees;
along the edge were the orchards and gardens surrounding stone or brick
houses with overhanging gables. The two other towns of importance were
Germantown which was very busy, and Newport which is described as
ill-built.
Such in brief were the towns, industries, and style of living of the
southern and middle colonists. The English-born planter depended upon
slave labour or indentured servants; he lived upon a large estate in a
magnificent and often too lavish manner. But they were men of as much
grit as the New Englanders; certainly they were descended from a
different stock, and they looked upon the present life and the future
with very different eyes, but that was all. The settlers of the middle
colonies plunged with readiness into the intricacies of trade, and the
merchant and tradesman were far more conspicuous figures in daily life
than in either Virginia or Maryland. The colonists were, too, far more
cosmopolitan than in the north. In the Carolinas there were a few
Huguenots, Swiss, and German Palatines, but in Virginia and Maryland
there was little trace of any foreign element. But in the middle
colonies there were regular waves of aliens from Germany and Switzerland
intermixed with the earlier Dutch and English settlers. They all helped
to play their little parts in the world's history, and they all came to
look upon England as the home country. Then by the middle of the
eighteenth century they were called upon to resist the aggressions of
France; and during those years of struggle they partly learnt their
power. United at last, English settler and foreigner, Northern Puritan
and Southern planter, they made the one supreme effort, throwing off the
yoke of England, and became no longer colonists, but Americans.
FOOTNOTES:
[228] So lucrative did the slave trade become that, even after the
Abolition Act of 1807, slave dealers realised an enormous profit if one
ship out of three with its living cargo reached an American port.
[229] New Jersey Historical Society, _Proceedings_ (1850), iv. p. 118.
[230] Morley, Walpole, _Twelve English Statesmen_ (1896), p. 168.
[231] _A Declaration of the Present State of Virginia_, etc.
[232] Doyle, _The English in America, Virginia, etc._ (1882), p. 525.
[233] See p. 46.
[234] Lawson, p. 3.
[235] Quoted by Thwaites, _op. cit._, p. 221.
[236] Doyle, _Colonies under the House of Hanover_ (1907), p. 289.
[237] Meade, _Old Churches of Virginia_ (1861), i. p. 385.
[238] Doyle, _The Colonies under the House of Hanover_ (1907), pp.
42-43.