Their ship, a large, slow trader, plying between English and Scottish
ports and Norfolk, Virginia, sailed from Greenock on the twenty-seventh
day of August. She belonged to the Colonial Merchant Marine and was
owned and operated by three rich planters, whose exports of tobacco and
imports of plantation supplies and labor guaranteed half a cargo for
each voyage.
The usual passenger list from America consisted of planters with their
families visiting the "Old Country;" or their children coming over to be
educated in European universities. The list and cargo of the return
trip, as usual, consisted of emigrants, slaves and supplies for the
plantations, a few merchants, adventurers and travelers. There were
twenty-five cabin and sixty-three steerage passengers. The majority of
the steerage were indentured servants and slaves; though there were
perhaps as many as twenty emigrants, artisans, trades people and petty
farmers who traveled in that manner, husbanding their small capital to
purchase lands in the new country. Of the cabin passengers, ten were
returning planters and members of their families; the other fifteen
consisted of five gentlemen and their families, who, like Archibald
Campbell and his wife, followed kindred or friends and expected to enjoy
better material conditions and greater freedom in the New World.
Among these were David Clark and his family, natives of Argyllshire and
the only persons aboard Mr. and Mrs. Campbell had known prior to the
voyage. Mrs. Clark, who was Mrs. Campbell's sister, had expected to make
the trip to America with the McDonald Colony, but had been prevented by
a serious illness.
The voyage proved slower than usual, owing to the prevalent light winds.
The ocean was as placid as an inland lake, the weather quite warm and
sultry; and nearly every day there was a light shower or thunder storm.
A friendly spirit, such as exists in isolated rural communities pervaded
the ship. Class distinctions were eliminated. Even those sailing as
steerage passengers were allowed greater deck privileges because of the
extreme heat of their quarters; and thus made the acquaintance of the
planters and their families and shared in the general cordial spirit.
Each planter became a zealous emigrant agent for his community and
plantation, promising employment to such of the passengers as might
settle in his neighborhood. Their efforts induced quite a few to change
their original plans, and decision as to location rather than social
cast finally grouped the passengers, those becoming intimates who
expected to be neighbors in the new country.
There were three distinct groups. Those destined for the Northern Neck
and for the York and James river plantations headed by the three
planters, made the most numerous and affluent party. Those crossing the
Blue Ridge into the Virginia Valley, intending to settle at the McDonald
Settlement on the headwaters of Jackson river, nearly all Presbyterians
from Ulster or Dissenters from Scotland, made a second, nearly as strong
numerically, though not so rich a party. A third group of twenty-two
persons consisting of four former small land owners who had lost their
holdings, three recently released political prisoners and their
families, with a Baptist preacher, William Hickman, driven from home by
misfortune or persecution, intended settling where class and religious
restrictions were unknown or disregarded; and therefore were headed for
the extreme frontier settlements on the Ohio.
One cabin passenger was treated as a pariah by all. Mrs. Campbell asking
her husband about him was told: "O that Spaniard, Carlo Sebastian! 'He's
a spirit,' that is, one who lives in a seaport town and lures young
people to his tavern, where they are kidnapped and held prisoners until
they can be sold and transported to the colonies as indentured servants.
He started in that way and still continues the practice, though his
business has grown until now he contracts with the government and buys
at first hand political prisoners and criminals. Under the English code
there are three hundred offences punishable with death; sometimes the
judge trying the case deems this too severe; and having the option,
sentences such prisoners to transportation. Sebastian buys and resells
them to the planters. He has a third source of supply from rural or
peasant laborers who find conditions of life almost impossible at home
and yet have no means of getting away. Under the law, such can only
labor in the fields of their own parish. When they find it impossible to
subsist on the very small wage they earn at home they indenture
themselves to him, willing to pay five years of service for
transportation to the Colony; where labor is the only thing that is
high. At the end of their bondage, they emigrate to the frontier, take
out a patent for land and start in for themselves as landed proprietors,
usually becoming substantial citizens.
"Yesterday, telling him that I expected to buy a slave or two, he showed
me his stock. He has seven men, three grown women, a girl of fourteen
and three boys about Richard's age, all of whom are indentured. He also
has four black slaves, three men and a clean looking young negro wench.
He holds the indentured servants at prices ranging from twelve to
eighteen guineas delivered at Norfolk and the slaves at twenty-five to
thirty-five guineas. The young white girl seems quite frail, but is
refined looking. I believe she will die during the voyage, confined in
the foul air of her quarters and with such food as Sebastian provides.
We better buy the negro wench at twenty-five guineas to help you; and if
he will shave his price to thirty-three guineas, I will pay that for my
choice of the negro men. Father says the slaves are better investments
than the indentured servants; they stand the climate of the lowlands and
are your absolute property; by the time the indentured servants are
broken in and acclimated they have formed, and are only interested in,
their own plans; and it is almost impossible to hire them after they are
freed."
"Oh, Archibald! We must not buy any slaves. It is wrong. One person
should not be sold to another as a cow or a horse. It is bad enough to
own the right to the services of another for a term of years, even
though he voluntarily sells himself, or is so punished by the law. I
should like to talk with the poor women and the sick girl. Can we not go
down and see them?"
"Not unless Sebastian asks us to do so."
"Here he comes. If you ask, he will show us his servants, the indentured
ones."
"Sebastian, my wife desires to see your indentured women servants. It is
possible we might make you an offer for one."
"Very well, come this way. I am not responsible for their filthy
condition; I offer them clean clothing and water, but they prefer their
dirt."
Mrs. Campbell, when she saw the little girl, was deeply moved and
inclined to express her indignation, but controlling herself, said:
"This girl must have attention at once. She is quite ill."
"No. She is sea sick."
"What do you ask for her? She might help me with the baby and the
housework."
"She is to be bound for seven years and her price is fifteen guineas."
"But Sebastian, you offered her to me yesterday for twelve. I will give
you that for her."
"Yes, but your wife needs the girl."
The girl, roused from the lethargy of her fever by the talking, held out
her hands to Mrs. Campbell and in a voice broken by fear and sickness,
pleaded:
"O, Lady! Take me away! You do not know what I am forced to endure. This
man dragged me aboard and will sell me as a slave. I am very ill and so
dirty. I cannot eat the food. Do not leave me in this place and with
him. I am afraid."
"Dear, we have made him an offer and if he will sell, will give you a
good home. He sees our hearts are moved and has raised the price he
asked. Mr. Sebastian, the girl is ill and you will lose her if she is
not given immediate attention. My husband will give you twelve guineas
and we will move her at once."
"No. If you want her you must pay fifteen."
"Come Mary, that will do. Let the trafficker in human flesh keep her and
bear the loss. Let him have the burden of her murder on his conscience."
"O, Lady! If you do not take me I shall not try to live. I would rather
die than complete the voyage and be sold as a beast of burden. If you
buy me I shall get well and be a faithful and willing servant."
Mrs. Campbell, stooping down, kissed the dirty face of the sick girl and
whispered: "We have every intention of buying you. Refuse to eat
anything except what I send you. I will send Richard down today with
clean clothing and something nice to eat."
Within the hour Richard was sent to the hold with clean clothing, bed
linen and some broth. The Spaniard took the articles saying:
"Hand them to me; you cannot go to my quarters."
As soon as Richard was out of sight he drank the broth; calling it
sloppy stuff; and that evening sold the clothing and bedding to the wife
of an emigrant.
The next day he told the girl: "Your fine friends have forgotten you.
That is the way people do. Some old bachelor or an Indian chief will be
glad to get you."
Each day Mrs. Campbell sent food to the girl and asked to see her, but
Sebastian would not permit it. He ate the food himself or threw it away.
Several days later when he was showing his stock to one of the planters,
he found the girl raving in delirium. Believing that she would die
within a day or two, he hunted up Mr. Campbell and offered to sell her
for twelve guineas.
Mr. Campbell looked at the girl. She was quiet at the moment and
conscious, though her face was flushed, her hands twitched and her
breathing was labored. He believed she would die and regretted not
having bought her for fifteen guineas. To punish the Spaniard for his
inhumanity, he told him the girl was dying; then after some delay
offered eight guineas for her. This he accepted, after much swearing at
his ill luck, complaining that he had paid four guineas for her
transportation and two to her aunt.
Mrs. Campbell immediately arranged for more comfortable quarters and
when she had been moved, removed her filthy clothing and sponged to
cleanliness and comfort her hot, dirty body. With a sigh of exhaustion
she dropped into a deep sleep which lasted several hours. Within a few
days she was convalescent; then she gained strength and flesh rapidly
and before the voyage ended had completely recovered.
One of Sebastian's servants had voluntarily indentured himself for five
years to obtain transportation to America, with the design to become a
landed proprietor at the end of his service. He had seen Mr. Campbell
purchase Ruth Crawford and judging by the act that he would make a
considerate master sent a note to him, stating that he was a farm hand
of experience and proposed to serve his master faithfully until the end
of his service.
Mr. Campbell looked him over; and satisfied with his physical appearance
and appreciating that an experienced and willing servant was a better
investment than a stubborn and inexperienced one; for seventeen guineas,
became the master of John Mason.
Mr. Clark purchased the negro wench and a black man slave. He would not
invest in the indentured servants, giving as his reason that he did not
care to drill a servant five years and lose him just when he was most
needed or had become efficient.
The ship came to anchor in Elizabeth river, off Norfolk, at noon on the
twenty-second day of September. The next day those bound for the
Virginia Valley chartered a river boat to carry them to Ricketts, just
below Richmond, and shifting their belongings to it, sailed up the James
River, making their first landing at Williamsburg.
At Williamsburg, while their wives were shopping, the men called upon
Peyton Randolph and presented the letter which Mr. Campbell's father had
given him. At the time he had more influence than any other man in the
colony.
He read the letter and turning to Mr. Campbell said:
"I recall the very pleasant visit I made your father. We were great
friends and were at the Temple together. He says you desire my advice in
the selection of a location. If you were a man of considerable means you
might buy a plantation on the York or James River or in the Northern
Neck; but he says you have less than a thousand pounds. I therefore
advise that you ascend the James River in boats or canoes to Balcony
Falls and then proceed overland into the Valley. There you and your wife
as Scotch-Presbyterians will feel more at home than with the Conformist
planters of Tidewater, Virginia. You know Virginia was settled by rural
Englishmen, who brought their church and class distinctions with them.
Class distinctions are more closely drawn in the Colony than in England;
and in eastern Virginia it would be some time before you would be
treated as a neighbor. Even though you are a kinsman of the Duke of
Argyll, the women would never forget that your wife is the daughter of
Dissenter McDonald.
"Since 1745 Irish and Scotch Presbyterians have been pouring into the
colony and traveling westward have settled in the valley between the
Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies, where they engage in raising cattle and
growing wheat and Indian corn. They are democratic in their ideals,
insisting upon religions freedom and self-government. On the other hand
planters of the Tidewater country are satisfied with things as they are;
as the law recognizes their church and they as social and political
leaders rule the colony insofar as Parliament has delegated authority to
the colonists. They live in great plantation houses conveniently near to
navigable streams; so as to have access and a highway to the ocean. The
streams swarm with small craft which furnish a way of social intercourse
between plantations and a gateway to salt water.
"About fifteen years ago eastern Virginia was very prosperous. It was
the golden age of the planter. In 1758 the colony exported seventy
thousand hogsheads of tobacco; but its culture is declining, labor is
dearer, the land is becoming impoverished and there are threatened
embargoes and even a prospect of war with the mother country; which
would destroy the industry and bankrupt the planters, as its growing is
almost wholly for export. The labor in its production is severe, the
initial outlay is great and the plantations growing it buy all their
food and forage. Its almost exclusive cultivation and facilities for
water transportation has given a fictitious value to land along
navigable streams and created the slave and bond-servant market, which
in my opinion is a curse to Virginia.
"I therefore advise that you cross the mountains into the Virginia
Valley and there buy a considerable acreage, if possible partly
improved, and engage in raising cattle and growing wheat and Indian
corn, for which products there is always a demand and a local market."
His visitors were not only grateful for, but were impressed by the
advice he gave them and told him they intended to follow it. Then after
an exchange of invitations and pleasant farewells, they joined their
wives in the capitol grounds as had been arranged and returned by
carriage to the landing; where, hailing their boat, they were taken
aboard and the voyage resumed.
A short while after re-embarking they passed Jamestown, where the first
English colony in America maintained an almost futile effort for
existence against starvation, the lowland fevers and, worse still, the
dissensions and jealousies of their leaders. Little was left of the old
settlement. On the low ground a few tumbling ruins washed by the tide
marked the town-site; and on a point above, some ivy grown walls and
moss covered, weather stained tombstones with half obliterated
inscriptions marked the site of a once pretentious church.
They knew the history of those first colonists; how landing they spread
an old sail overhead from the trees, "to shadow them from the sunne,"
and all, one hundred and five, gave thanks to God. How in a few days,
they had a more substantial place of worship, where they held "daily
common prayer, morning and evening, every Sunday two sermons and every
three months holy communion." Here also in 1612 they built "an hospital
with four score lodgings--for the sick and wounded or lame, with keepers
to attend them for their comfort and recoverie."
How in that first winter, when their food was exhausted, Pocahontas came
with burden bearers, bringing hampers of venison and corn, which "saved
many of their lives, that else, for all this had starved of hunger." How
years later, Captain John Smith writing of her to the Queen said:
"During the time of two or three years, she next to God, was still the
instrument to preserve this colony from death, famine and utter
confusion, which if in those days had once been dissolved, Virginia
might have lain as it was at our first arrival to this day."
During the voyage from Norfolk to Richmond, the party learned much of
the country and the people. Archibald Campbell wrote his father
describing people and country:
"The shores of the broad, sluggish, brackish river are a succession of
tobacco and corn fields or marshy overflowed land. The plantation
houses, usually of lumber, have a dozen rooms; and as the family grows
in size or importance, wings are added to the main building to meet
demands. The houses are furnished in such style as to indicate that
tobacco, if not now, has been a paying crop.
"The men and women of the planter class dress in clothing imported from
England or France. The men wear camlet coats, lace ruffles, blue
waistcoat and trousers of broadcloth or velvet; and their shoes are
adorned with silver buckles. You should see the women! They wear
gorgeous silk and satin gowns of bright colors; their bonnets and
petticoats are trimmed with silver and gold lace; their stomachers and
mantles are ornate and gorgeously colored.
"They seem to have everything to eat. Food is cheap and abundant. Great
flocks of duck and geese feed in the salt marshes; they get fish and
oysters from the shallows and inlets; deer and wild turkey are common in
the swamps and in the interior. Their orchards furnish fruit; and they
have such vegetables as we grow in England and also native melons,
cymlins, pumpkins and Indian corn.
"At the public gatherings and entertainments the planters and small
farmers are inclined to a spirit of carousal, but not more so than the
English country gentleman.
"Dancing is commonly engaged in; cards and dice are the gambling games;
the livelier outdoor sports are horse and boat racing, wolf drives, fox
hunting, turkey shooting and at night coon hunts; while fishing, gigging
or striking by torchlight, nine pins and competitive marksmanship are
the quieter outdoor sports.
"Weddings, muster and court days are general holidays. A wedding is a
season of extravagant and protracted gayety, lasting a week. Guests in
the main come from considerable distances, in their private barges or in
carriages, or on horseback, with their wives and daughters riding behind
on pillions. All are entertained at the plantation house, usually
remaining for several days.
"The law requires all to attend church. Thus great crowds gather and
mingle, not alone for worship, but before and after the service, for
social and business intercourse. Many bring their dinners in hampers and
friends gathering in groups share a common spread. The women thus
exhibit their latest gowns and the men talk politics, trade horses and
barter for tobacco.
"The plantation house is the community center and from it a lavish
hospitality is dispensed. The planters are jealous of their social and
political honors, which seem attached as prerogatives to the plantation.
They even object to the establishment of a church in the neighborhood of
the one supported by the plantation. They intermarry with the
neighboring planter's family; and are slow to take up a stranger, though
of good family.
"At Curles landing, at the site of the old Nathaniel Bacon plantation,
we were given and accepted an invitation to spend the night. The house
was a ten room structure, built upon an eminence overlooking distant
reaches of the river. Its white stuccoed walls and commodious pillared
porch, made it very distinguishable in contrast with the background of
green timbered hills. Four less pretentious buildings flanked each
corner and back of all were the whitewashed cabins of the 'quarters.'
"The dining room walls were decorated with English hunting scenes and a
great sideboard held the silver and pewter ware. The library had many
shelves of books, quite a few of which were Elzevir editions. The walls
of the hall were covered with portraits of a cavalier ancestry. All the
furniture of the lower floor was of solid mahogany and imported.
"Two sons of the family are attending Cambridge and have not been home
for a year. The daughter who is at home is to be married before the
Christmas holidays.
"Judging by Mr. Lee and his visitor, the planters are essentially
English; having all of the Englishman's pride of race and love for home.
They spoke of England as home, until the conversation turned to
England's right to tax the colony and the law requiring tobacco to be
exported in British bottoms; then they flared up, declaring: 'We of the
colony will never submit to such unjust and arbitrary laws; and if
necessary will fight before submitting to such tyranny.'
"We are now at Richmond, which was first called 'None Such,' then Forte
Charles, then was known as Byrd's Warehouse. The town, founded by
Colonel Byrd, was incorporated in 1742."