"Heaven forming each on other to depend,
A master, or a servant, or a friend,
Bids each on other for assistance call,
Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all.
Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally
The common interest, or endear the tie.
To these we owe true friendship, love sincere,
Each homefelt joy that life inherits here."
_Essay on Man._
Begirt with love and blessed with contentment, the little family at
Windsor Hall led a life of quiet, unobtrusive happiness. In truth, if
there be a combination of circumstances peculiarly propitious to
happiness, it will be found to cluster around one of those old colonial
plantations, which formed each within itself a little independent
barony. There first was the proprietor, the feudal lord, proud of his
Anglo-Saxon blood, whose ambition was power and personal freedom, and
whose highest idea of wealth was in the possession of the soil he
cultivated. A proud feeling was it, truly, to claim a portion of God's
earth as his own; to stand upon his own land, and looking around, see
his broad acres bounded only by the blue horizon walls,[1] and feel in
its full force the whole truth of the old law maxim, that he owned not
only the surface of the soil, but even to the centre of the earth, and
the zenith of the heavens.[2] There can be but little doubt that the
feelings suggested by such reflections are in the highest degree
favorable to the development of individual freedom, so peculiar to the
Anglo-Saxon race, and so stoutly maintained, especially among an
agricultural people. This respect for the ownership of land is
illustrated by the earliest legislation, which held sacred the title to
the soil even from the grasp of the law, and which often restrained the
freeholder from alienating his land from the lordly but unborn
aristocrat to whom it should descend.
Next in the scale of importance in this little baronial society, were
the indented servants, who, either for felony or treason, were sent over
to the colony, and bound for a term of years to some one of the
planters. In some cases, too, the poverty of the emigrant induced him to
submit voluntarily to indentures with the captain of the ship which
brought him to the colony, as some compensation for his passage. These
servants, we learn, had certain privileges accorded to them, which were
not enjoyed by the slave: the service of the former was only temporary,
and after the expiration of their term they became free citizens of the
colony. The female servants, too, were limited in their duties to such
employments as are generally assigned to women, such as cooking, washing
and housework; while it was not unusual to see the negro women, as even
now, in many portions of the State, managing the plough, hoeing the
maize, worming and stripping the tobacco, and harvesting the grain. The
colonists had long remonstrated against the system of indented servants,
and denounced the policy which thus foisted upon an infant colony the
felons and the refuse population of the mother country. But, as was too
often the case, their petitions and remonstrances were treated with
neglect, or spurned with contempt. Besides being distasteful to them as
freemen and Cavaliers, the indented servants had already evinced a
restlessness under restraint, which made them dangerous members of the
body politic. In 1662, a servile insurrection was secretly organized,
which had well nigh proved fatal to the colony. The conspiracy was
however betrayed by a certain John Berkenhead, one of the leaders in the
movement, who was incited to the revelation by the hope of reward for
his treachery; nor was the hope vain. Grateful for their deliverance,
the Assembly voted this man his liberty, compensated his master for the
loss of his services, and still further rewarded him by a bounty of five
thousand pounds of tobacco. Of this reckless and abandoned wretch, we
will have much to say hereafter.
Another feature in this patriarchal system of government was the right
of property in those inferior races of men, who from their nature are
incapable of a high degree of liberty, and find their greatest
development, and their truest happiness, in a condition of servitude.
Liberty is at last a reward to be attained after a long struggle, and
not the inherent right of every man. It is the sword which becomes a
weapon of power and defence in the hands of the strong, brave, rational
man, but a dangerous plaything when entrusted to the hands of madmen or
children. And thus, by the mysterious government of Him, who rules the
earth in righteousness, has it been wisely ordained, that they only who
are worthy of freedom shall permanently possess it.
The mutual relations established by the institution of domestic slavery
were beneficial to both parties concerned. The Anglo-Saxon baron
possessed power, which he has ever craved, and concentration and unity
of will, which was essential to its maintenance. But that power was
tempered, and that will controlled, by the powerful motives of policy,
as well as by the dictates of justice and mercy. The African serf, on
the other hand, was reduced to slavery, which, from his very nature, he
is incapable of despising; and an implicit obedience to the will of his
master was essential to the preservation of the relation. But he, too,
derived benefits from the institution, which he has never acquired in
any other condition; and trusting to the justice, and relying on the
power of his master to provide for his wants, he lived a contented and
therefore a happy life. Improvident himself by nature, his children were
reared without his care, through the helpless period of infancy, while
he was soothed and cheered in the hours of sickness, and protected and
supported in his declining years. The history of the world does not
furnish another example of a laboring class who could rely with
confidence on such wages as competency and contentment.
In a new colony, where there was but little attraction as yet, for
tradesmen to emigrate, the home of the planter became still more
isolated and independent. Every landholder had not only the slaves to
cultivate his soil and to attend to his immediate wants, but he had also
slaves educated and skilled in various trades. Thus, in this busy hive,
the blaze of the forge was seen and the sound of the anvil was heard, in
repairing the different tools and utensils of the farm; the shoemaker
was found at his last, the spinster at her wheel, and the weaver at the
loom. Nor has this system of independent reliance on a plantation for
its own supplies been entirely superseded at the present day. There may
still be found, in some sections of Virginia, plantations conducted on
this principle, where the fleece is sheared, and the wool is carded,
spun, woven and made into clothing by domestic labor, and where a few
groceries and finer fabrics of clothing are all that are required, by
the independent planter, from the busy world beyond his little domain.
Numerous as were the duties and responsibilities that devolved upon the
planter, he met them with cheerfulness and discharged them with
faithfulness. The dignity of the master was blended with the kind
attention of the friend on the one hand, and the obedience of the slave,
with the fidelity of a grateful dependent, on the other. And thus was
illustrated, in their true beauty, the blessings of that much abused
but happy institution, which should ever remain, as it has ever been
placed by the commentators of our law, next in position, as it is in
interest, to the tender relation of parent and child.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The immense grants taken up by early patentees, in this country,
justifies this language, which might otherwise seem an extravagant
hyperbole.
[2] _Cujus est solum, ejus est usque ad coelum._