Like the aristocracy the middle class in Virginia developed within the
colony. It originated from free families of immigrants of humble means
and origin, and from servants that had served their term of indenture,
and its character was the result of climatic, economic, social and
political conditions. There is no more interesting chapter in the
history of Virginia than the development of an intelligent and
vigorous middle class out of the host of lowly immigrants that came to
the colony in the 17th century. Splendid natural opportunities, the
law of the survival of the fittest, and a government in which a
representative legislature took an important part coöperated to
elevate them. For many years after the founding of Jamestown the
middle class was so small and was so lacking in intelligence that it
could exercise but little influence in governmental affairs, and the
governors and the large planters ruled the colony almost at will.
During the last years of the 17th century it had grown in numbers, had
acquired something of culture and had been drilled so effectively in
political affairs that it could no longer be disregarded by governors
and aristocracy.
In the development of the middle class four distinct periods may be
noted. First, the period of formation, from 1607 to 1660, when, from
the free immigrants of humble means and from those who had entered the
colony as servants and whose term of indenture had expired, was
gradually emerging a class of small, independent farmers. Second, a
period of oppression, extending from 1660 to 1676. In these years,
when William Berkeley was for the second time the chief executive of
the colony, the poor people were so oppressed by the excessive burdens
imposed upon them by the arbitrary old governor and his favorites that
their progress was seriously retarded. Heavy taxes levied by the
Assembly for encouraging manufactures, for building houses at
Jamestown, for repairing forts, bore with great weight upon the small
farmers and in many cases brought them to the verge of ruin. During
this period the evil effects of the Navigation Acts were felt most
acutely in the colony, robbing the planters of the profit of their
tobacco and causing suffering and discontent. This period ends with
Bacon's Rebellion, when the down-trodden commons of the colony rushed
to arms, striking out blindly against their oppressors, and bringing
fire and sword to all parts of Virginia. The third period, from 1676
to 1700, was one of growth. The poor people still felt the effects of
the unjust Navigation Acts, but they were no longer oppressed at will
by their governors and the aristocracy. Led by discontented members of
the wealthy planter class, they made a gallant and effective fight in
the House of Burgesses for their rights, and showed that thenceforth
they had to be reckoned a powerful force in the government of the
colony. The representatives of the people kept a vigilant watch upon
the expenditures, and blocked all efforts to impose unjust and
oppressive taxes. During this last quarter of the 17th century the
middle class grew rapidly in numbers and in prosperity. The fourth
period, from 1700 to the Revolution, is marked by a division in the
middle class. At the beginning of the 18th century, there was no
lower class corresponding with the vast peasantry of Europe. All
whites, except the indentured servants and a mere handful of freemen
whose indolence doomed them to poverty, lived in comparative comfort
and ease. After the introduction of slaves, however, this state of
affairs no longer existed and there grew up a class of poor whites,
that eked out a wretched and degraded life. On the other hand planters
of the middle class that had acquired some degree of prosperity
benefited greatly by the introduction of slaves, for it lowered the
cost of labor to such an extent that they were able to cultivate their
fields more cheaply than before. At the time of the Revolutionary War
the distinction had become marked, and the prosperous middle class
farmers were in no way allied to the degraded poor whites.
During the first seventeen years of the colony's existence the
character of immigration was different from that of succeeding
periods. Virginia was at this time ruled by a private trading company.
This corporation, which was composed largely of men of rank and
ability, kept a strict watch upon the settlers, and excluded many
whom they thought would make undesirable colonists.[139] As a
consequence, the class of people that came over before 1624 were more
enlightened than the mass of the settlers during the remainder of the
century. The London Company looked upon the whole matter as a business
affair, and they knew that they could never expect returns from their
enterprise if they filled their plantations with vagabonds and
criminals. Those that were intrusted with the selection of settlers
were given explicit instructions to accept none but honest and
industrious persons. When it was found that these precautions were not
entirely effective, still stricter measures were adopted. It was
ordered by the Company in 1622 that before sailing for Virginia each
emigrant should give evidence of good character and should register
his age, country, profession and kindred.[140] So solicitous were they
in regard to this matter that when, in 1619, James I ordered them to
transport to Virginia a number of malefactors whose care was
burdensome to the state, they showed such a reluctance to obey that
they incurred the king's displeasure.[141]
What tended strongly to attract a desirable class of men in the
earliest years of the colony was the repeated attempt to establish
manufactures. Until the charter of the London Company was revoked,
that body never ceased to send over numbers of skilled artisans and
mechanics. In 1619, one hundred and fifty workmen from Warwickshire
and Stafford were employed to set up iron works on the James.[142]
Repeated attempts were made to foster the silk industry, and on more
than one occasion men practiced in the culture of the silk worm came
to Virginia.[143] An effort was made to start the manufacture of
glass,[144] while pipe staves and clapboards were produced in
considerable quantities.[145] Moreover, numerous tradesmen of all
kinds were sent to the colony. Among the settlers of this period were
smiths, carpenters, bricklayers, turners, potters and husbandmen.[146]
With the year 1624 there came a change for the worse in the
immigration, for the lack of the Company's paternal care over the
infant colony was keenly felt after the king undertook personally the
direction of affairs. James I and, after his death, Charles I were
desirous that Virginia should undertake various forms of manufacture,
and frequently gave directions to the governors to foster industrial
pursuits among the settlers, for they considered it a matter of
reproach that the people should devote themselves almost exclusively
to the cultivation of tobacco, but neither monarch was interested
enough in the matter to send over mechanics and artisans as the
Company had done, and we find after 1624 few men of that type among
the newcomers.[147] The immigration that occurred under the London
Company is, however, not of great importance, for the mortality among
the colonists was so great that but a small percentage of those that
came over in the early years survived the dangers that they were
compelled to face. In 1622, after the memorable massacre of that year,
there were but 1258 persons in the colony and during the next few
years there was no increase in the population.[148]
The immigration to Virginia of free families of humble means began in
the early years of the colony's existence, and continued throughout
the 17th century. The lowness of wages and the unfavorable economic
conditions that existed in England induced many poor men to seek their
fortunes in the New World.[149] The law which allotted to every
settler fifty acres of land for each member of his family insured all
that could pay for their transportation a plantation far larger than
they could hope to secure at home.[150] Thus it was that many men of
the laboring class or of the small tenant class, whose limited means
barely sufficed to pay for their passage across the ocean, came to
Virginia to secure farms of their own. The number of small grants in
the first half of the 17th century is quite large. Frequently patents
were made out for tracts of land varying from fifty to five hundred
acres in extent to immigrants that had entered the colony as
freemen.[151] The law allowed them to include in the head-rights of
their patents their wives, children, relatives, friends or servants
that came with them, and some immigrants in this way secured
plantations of considerable size. Thus in 1637 three hundred acres in
Henrico County were granted to Joseph Royall, "due: 50 acres for his
own personal adventure, 50 acres for the transportation of his first
wife Thomasin, 50 acres for the transportation of Ann, his now wife,
50 for the transportation of his brother Henry, and 100 for the
transportation of two persons, Robt. Warrell and Jon. Wells."[152]
These peasant immigrants sometimes prospered in their new homes and
increased the size of their plantations by the purchase of the
head-rights of other men, and the cheapness of land in the colony made
it possible for them to secure estates of considerable size. It is
probable that the average holding of the small farmers of this period
was between three and four hundred acres.[153]
Owing to the demand for servants and the cost of transporting them to
the colony, it was seldom that any other than wealthy planters could
afford to secure them. The wills of the first half of the 17th century
show that few of the smaller planters even when they had attained a
fair degree of prosperity made use of servant labor. Thus there was in
Virginia at this period a class of men who owned their own land and
tilled it entirely with their own hands. This condition of affairs
continued until the influx of negroes, which began about the year
1680, so diminished the cost of labor that none but the smallest
proprietors were dependent entirely upon their own exertions for the
cultivation of their fields.[154]
These men, like the wealthy planters, raised tobacco for exportation,
but they also planted enough corn for their own consumption. Their
support was largely from cattle and hogs, which were usually allowed
to wander at large, seeking sustenance in the woods or upon
unpatented land. The owners branded them in order to make
identification possible.[155] Some of the small farmers owned but one
cow and a few hogs, but others acquired numbers of the animals. The
testament of Edward Wilmoth, of Isle of Wight County, drawn in 1647,
is typical of the wills of that period. "I give," he says, "unto my
wife ... four milch cows, a steer, and a heifer that is on Lawns Creek
side, and a young yearling bull. Also I give unto my daughter Frances
a yearling heifer. Also I give unto my son John Wilmoth a cow calf,
and to my son Robert Wilmoth a cow calf."[156]
The patent rolls, some of which have been preserved to the present
day, show that the percentage of free immigrants to the colony was
quite appreciable during the years immediately following the downfall
of the London Company. There are on record 501 patents that were
issued between the dates 1628 and 1637, and in connection with them
are mentioned, either as recipients of land or as persons transported
to the colony, 2,675 names. Of these 336 are positively known to have
come over as freemen, and most of them as heads of families. There are
245 others who were probably freemen, although this has not yet been
proved. The remainder are persons whose transportation charges were
paid by others, including indentured servants, negroes, wives,
children, etc. Thus it is quite certain that of the names on this list
over one fourth were those of free persons, who came as freemen to
Virginia and established themselves as citizens of the colony.[157]
Although the patent rolls that have been preserved are far from
complete, there is no reason to suspect that they are not fairly
representative of the whole, and we may assume that the percentage of
free families that came to the colony in this period was by no means
small. As, however, the annual number of immigrants was as yet small
and the mortality was very heavy, the total number of men living in
Virginia in 1635 who had come over as freemen could not have been very
large. The total population at that date was 5,000, and it is probable
that at least 3,000 of these had come to the colony as servants.
After 1635 the percentage of free settlers became much smaller. This
was due largely to the fact that at this time the immigration of
indentured servants to Virginia increased very much. Secretary Kemp,
who was in office during Governor Harvey's administration, stated that
of hundreds of people that were arriving nearly all were brought in as
merchandise.[158] So great was the influx of these servants, that the
population tripled between 1635 and 1649. It is certain, however, that
at no period during the 17th century did freemen cease coming to the
colony.
With the exception of the merchants and other well-to-do men that
formed the basis of the aristocracy, the free immigrants were ignorant
and crude. But few of them could read and write, and many even of the
most prosperous, being unable to sign their names to their wills, were
compelled to make their mark to give legal force to their
testaments.[159] Some of them acquired considerable property and
became influential in their counties, but this was due rather to rough
qualities of manhood that fitted them for the life in the forests of
the New World, than to education or culture.
The use of the indentured servant by the Virginia planters was but the
result of the economic conditions of the colony. Even in the days of
the London Company the settlers had turned their attention to the
raising of tobacco, for they found that the plant needed but little
care, that it was admirably suited to the soil, and that it brought a
handsome return. Naturally it soon became the staple product of the
colony. The most active efforts of the Company and all the commands of
King James and King Charles were not sufficient to turn men from its
cultivation to less lucrative pursuits. Why should they devote
themselves to manufacture when they could, with far greater profit,
exchange their tobacco crop for the manufactured goods of England? It
was found that but two things were essential to the growth of the
plant--abundance of land and labor. The first of these could be had
almost for the asking. Around the colony was a vast expanse of
territory that needed only the woodman's axe to transform it into
fertile fields, and the poorest man could own a plantation that in
England would have been esteemed a rich estate. Labor, on the other
hand, was exceedingly scarce. The colony itself could furnish but a
limited supply, for few were willing to work for hire when they could
easily own farms of their own. The native Americans of this region
could not be made to toil in the fields for the white man, as the
aborigines of Mexico and the West Indies were made to toil for the
Spanish, for they were of too warlike and bold a spirit. Destruction
would have been more grateful to them than slavery. Their haughtiness
and pride were such that in their intercourse with the English they
would not brook the idea of inferiority. No thought could be
entertained of making them work in the fields. So the planters were
forced to turn to the mother country. As early as 1620 they sent
urgent requests for a supply of laborers, which they needed much more
than artisans or tradesmen. The Company, although it did not
relinquish its plan of establishing manufactures, was obliged to yield
somewhat to this demand, and sent to the planters a number of
indentured servants.[160] Thus early began that great stream of
laborers, flowing from England to Virginia, that kept up without
interruption for more than a century.
From the first the indenture system was in vogue. Circumstances made
this necessary, for had no obligations been put upon the immigrants to
work for a certain number of years in servitude, they would have
secured tracts of ground for themselves and set themselves up as
independent planters, as soon as they arrived in the country. It was
found to be impossible to establish a class of free laborers. Also the
system had its advantages for the immigrant. The voyage to the colony,
so long and so expensive, was the chief drawback to immigration.
Thousands of poor Englishmen, who could hardly earn enough money at
home to keep life in their bodies, would eagerly have gone to the New
World, had they been able to pay for their passage. Under the
indenture system this difficulty was removed, for anyone could secure
free transportation provided he were willing to sacrifice, for a few
years, his personal freedom.
And, despite the English love of liberty, great numbers availed
themselves of this opportunity. There came to Virginia, during the
period from 1635 to 1680, annually from 1000 to 1600 servants. The
immigration in the earlier years seems to have been nearly if not
fully as great as later in the century. During the year ending March
1636 sixteen hundred people came over, most of whom were undoubtedly
servants.[161] In 1670 Governor Berkeley estimated the annual
immigration of servants at 1500.[162] But we need no better evidence
that the stream at no time slackened during this period than the fact
that the demand for them remained constant. So long as the planter
could obtain no other labor for his tobacco fields, the great need of
the colony was for more servants, and able-bodied laborers always
brought a handsome price in the Virginia market. Col. William Byrd I
testified that servants were the most profitable import to the
colony.[163] The fact that the term of service was in most cases
comparatively short made it necessary for the planter to repeople his
estate at frequent intervals. The period of indenture was from four to
seven years, except in the case of criminals who sometimes served for
life, and without this constant immigration the plantations would have
been deserted. Thus in 1671, when the population of the colony was
40,000, the number of servants was but 6,000.[164] Nor was there any
sign of slackening in the stream until the last years of the century,
when there came a great increase in the importation of negro slaves.
As soon as it became practicable to secure enough Africans to do the
work of the servants, the need for the latter became less pressing.
For many reasons the slave was more desirable. He could withstand
better the heat of the summer sun in the fields, he was more
tractable, he served for life and could not desert his master after a
few years of service as could the servant. We find, then, that after
1680, the importation of servants decreased more and more, until, in
the middle of the 18th century, it died out entirely.
Thus it will be seen that the number of indentured servants that were
brought to the colony of Virginia is very large. The most conservative
estimate will place the figure at 80,000, and there is every reason
to believe that this is much too low. Now, if we consider the growth
of population in conjunction with these facts, it becomes evident that
the indentured servant was the most important factor in the settlement
of the colony. In 1671, according to the statement of Governor
Berkeley, there were but 40,000 people in the colony.[165] The
immigration of servants had then been in progress for fifty years, and
the number brought over must have exceeded the total population at
that date. Even after making deductions for the mortality among the
laborers in the tobacco fields, which in the first half of this
century was enormous, we are forced to the conclusion that the
percentage of those that came as freemen was small.
We have already seen that the larger part of the servants were men
that came over to work in the tobacco fields. Great numbers of these
were drawn from the rural districts of England, where the pitiful
condition of thousands of laborers made it easy to find recruits ready
to leave for Virginia. So low were the wages given the farm hands at
this period that their most excessive labor could hardly insure
enough to support life, and, after years of hard work, they were often
compelled to throw themselves upon charity in their old age. The
pittance that they received seldom made it possible for them to secure
food enough to sustain properly their arduous labors. Many worked for
fourteen pence a day, and those that were most favored earned two
shillings. The condition of the poorer class of workmen in the cities
was, if possible, worse than that of the agricultural laborers, for
economic conditions had combined with unwise laws to reduce them to
the verge of starvation. Those that had not some recognized trade were
compelled to labor incessantly for insufficient wages, and many were
forced into beggary and crime. They were clothed in rags and their
dwellings were both miserable and unsanitary. The number of those
dependent upon charity for subsistence was enormous. In Sheffield, in
1615, a third of the entire population was compelled to rely in part
on charity. No wonder these poor wretches were willing to sell their
liberty to go to the New World! They had the assurance that whatever
happened to them, their condition could not be altered much for the
worse. In Virginia there was a chance of improvement, at home they
were doomed to live lives of drudgery and misery.[166]
But not all the indentured servants came from this class. Some were
persons of culture, and, on rare occasions, of means. The word
"servant" did not at that time have the menial signification that it
has acquired in modern times, for it was applied to all that entered
upon a legal agreement to remain in the employment of another for a
prescribed time.[167] There are many instances of persons of gentle
blood becoming indentured servants to lawyers or physicians, in order
to acquire a knowledge of those professions.[168] All apprentices were
called servants. Tutors were sometimes brought over from England under
terms of indenture to instruct the children of wealthy planters in
courses higher than those offered by the local schools. Several
instances are recorded of gentlemen of large estates who are spoken of
as servants, but such cases are very rare.[169] What was of more
common occurrence was the entering into indenture of persons who had
become bankrupt. The severe English laws against debtors forced many
to fly from the country to escape imprisonment, and there could be no
surer way for them to evade their creditors than to place themselves
under the protection of some planter as a servant and to sail for
Virginia. How numerous was the debtor class in the colony is shown by
an act of the Assembly in 1642, which exempted from prosecution
persons that had fled from their creditors in England. The colonial
legislators declared openly that the failure to pass such a law would
have hazarded the desertion of a large part of the country.
At intervals large numbers of political prisoners were sent to
Virginia. During the civil wars in England, when the royal forces were
meeting defeat, many of the king's soldiers were captured, and many of
these were sold to the planters as servants. A large importation took
place after the defeat of Charles II at Worcester.[170] From 1653 to
1655 hundreds of unfortunate Irishmen suffered the consequence of
their resistance to the government of Cromwell by banishment to the
plantations.[171] After 1660, when the tables had been turned, and the
royalist party was once more in power, there set in a stream of
Commonwealth soldiers and nonconformists.[172] These were responsible
for a rising in the colony in 1663, that threatened to anticipate
Bacon's Rebellion by thirteen years.[173] The Scotch rebellion of 1678
was the occasion of another importation of soldiers. Finally, in 1685,
many of the wretches taken at the battle of Sedgemoor were sent to
Virginia, finding relief in the tobacco fields from the harshness of
their captors.[174]
These immigrations of political prisoners are of great importance.
They brought into Virginia a class of men much superior to the
ordinary laborer, for most of them were guilty only of having resisted
the party in power, and many were patriots in the truest sense of the
word, suffering for principles that they believed essential to the
welfare of their country.
We have already seen that under the London Company of Virginia few
criminals were sent to the colony. After the dissolution of that body
there was quite as great strictness in regard to the matter. As the
Company had feared to fill the country with malefactors, knowing that
it would ruin the enterprise in which they had expended so much time
and money, so, in later years, the Virginia people were solicitous of
the character of those that were to be their neighbors. They were firm
in demanding that no "jailbirds" be sent them. On more than one
occasion, when persons of ill repute arrived, they at once shipped
them back to England. There existed, however, in the mother country a
feeling that it was but proper to use Virginia as a dumping ground for
criminals, and the magistrates from time to time insisted on shipping
objectionable persons. But it is certain that the percentage of felons
among the servants was not large. At one period only were they sent
over in numbers great enough to make themselves felt as a menace to
the peace of the colony. After the Restoration, when England was just
beginning to recover from the convulsions of the preceding twenty
years and when the kingdom was swarming with vicious and criminal
persons, a fresh attempt was made to seek an outlet for this class in
Virginia. A sudden increase in lawlessness in the colony aroused the
people to the danger, and in 1670 the General Court prohibited the
introduction of English malefactors into the colony.[175] Although in
the 18th century criminals were sent to Virginia at times, their
numbers were insignificant and their influence small.
Having examined the various types of men that entered Virginia as
indentured servants, it now remains to determine to what extent these
types survived and became welded into the social life of the colony.
The importation of starving laborers and even of criminals was of
vital importance only in proportion to the frequency with which they
survived their term of service, acquired property, married and left
descendants. The law of the survival of the fittest, which is so great
a factor in elevating the human race, operated with telling effect in
Virginia. The bulk of the servants were subjected to a series of tests
so severe, that, when safely passed through, they were a guarantee of
soundness of body, mind, and character.
The mortality among the laborers in the tobacco fields was enormous.
Scattered along the banks of the rivers and creeks and frequently
adjacent to swamps and bogs, the plantations were unhealthful in the
extreme. Everywhere were swarms of mosquitoes,[176] and the colonists
were exposed to the sting of these pests both by night and day, and
many received through them the deadly malaria bacteria. Scarcely three
months had elapsed from the first landing at Jamestown in 1607, when
disease made its appearance in the colony. The first death occurred in
August, and so deadly were the conditions to which the settlers were
subjected that soon hardly a day passed without one death to record.
Before the end of September more than fifty were in their graves. Part
of the mortality was due, it is true, to starvation, but "fevers and
fluxes" were beyond doubt responsible for many of the deaths.[177]
George Percy, one of the party, describes in vivid colors the
sufferings of the settlers. "There were never Englishmen," he says,
"left in a forreigne countrey in such miserie as wee were in this new
discovered Virginia, Wee watched every three nights, lying on the
bare ground, what weather soever came; ... which brought our men to be
most feeble wretches, ... If there were any conscience in men, it
would make their harts to bleed to hears the pitifull murmurings and
outcries of our sick men without reliefe, every night and day for the
space of six weekes: some departing out of the World, many times three
or foure in a night; in the morning, their bodies trailed out of their
cabines like dogges, to be buried."[178] Of the hundred colonists that
had remained at Jamestown, but thirty-eight were alive when relief
came in January, 1608.
Nor were the colonists that followed in the wake of the Susan
Constant, the Godspeed and the Discovery more fortunate. In the summer
of 1609, the newcomers under Lord Delaware were attacked by fever and
in a short while one hundred and fifty had died. It seemed for a while
that no one would escape the epidemic and that disease would prove
more effective than the Indians in protecting the country from the
encroachment of the Englishmen.[179] How terrible was the mortality in
these early years is shown by the statement of Molina in 1613, that
one hundred and fifty in every three hundred colonists died before
being in Virginia twelve months.[180]
In 1623 a certain Nathaniel Butler, who had been at one time governor
of the Bermuda Islands, testified to the unhealthfulness of the
colony. "I found," he says, "the plantations generally seated upon
meer salt marishes full of infectious boggs and muddy creeks and
lakes, and thereby subjected to all those inconveniences and diseases
which are soe commonly found in the most unsounde and most unhealthy
parts of England whereof everie country and clymate hath some." Butler
asserted that it was by no means uncommon to see newcomers from
England "dying under hedges and in the woods." He ended by declaring
that unless conditions were speedily redressed by some divine or
supreme hand, instead of a plantation Virginia would shortly get the
name of a slaughter house.[181]
The mortality was chiefly among the newcomers. If one managed to
survive during his first year of residence in the colony, he might
reasonably expect to escape with his life, being then "seasoned" as
the settlers called it. The death rate during this first year,
however, was frightful. De Vries said of the climate "that during the
months of June, July and August it was very unhealthy, that then
people that had lately arrived from England, die, during these months,
like cats and dogs, whence they call it the sickly season."[182] So
likely was it that a newcomer would be stricken down that a "seasoned"
servant was far more desirable than a fresh arrival. A new hand,
having seven and a half years to serve, was worth not more than
others, having one year more only. Governor William Berkeley stated in
1671, "there is not oft seasoned hands (as we term them) that die now,
whereas heretofore not one of five escaped the first year."[183]
Robert Evelyn, in his Description of the Province of New Albion,
printed in 1648, gives a vivid picture of the unhealthful climate of
Virginia. He declared that formerly five out of every six men
imported from Europe fell speedy victims to disease. "I," he said, "on
my view of Virginia, disliked Virginia, most of it being seated
scatteringly ... amongst salt-marshes and creeks, whence thrice worse
than Essex, ... and Kent for agues and diseases ... brackish water to
drink and use, and a flat country, and standing waters in woods bred a
double corrupt air."[184]
Much of the ill health of the immigrants was undoubtedly due to the
unwholesome conditions on board the ships during their passage from
Europe. The vessels were often crowded with wretched men, women and
children, and were foul beyond description. Gross uncleanliness was
the rule rather than the exception. William Copps, in a letter to
Deputy Treasurer Ferrar, says, "Betwixt decks there can hardlie a man
fetch his breath by reason there arisith such a funke in the night
that it causes putrifacation of blood and breedeth disease much like
the plague." Often the number of persons that died at sea was
frightful. One vessel lost one hundred and thirty persons out of one
hundred and eighty. The disease started in this way was often spread
in Virginia after the settlers had reached their new homes, and
terrible epidemics more than once resulted.
If the assertion of Berkeley that four out of five of the indentured
servants died during the first year's residence in the colony, or
Evelyn's statement that five out of six soon succumbed, be accepted as
correct, the number of deaths must have been very large indeed. Among
the hundreds of servants that were brought to the colony each year a
mortality of over eighty per cent would have amounted in a few years
to thousands. Statements made in regard to early Virginia history are
so frequently inaccurate, and the conditions here described are so
horrible that one is inclined to reject this testimony as obviously
exaggerated. However, a close examination of the number of persons
that came to Virginia from 1607 to 1649, and of the population between
those dates forces us to the conclusion that the statements of
Berkeley and Evelyn were not grossly incorrect. When, however, Evelyn
adds that "old Virginians affirm, the sicknesse there the first thirty
years to have killed 100,000 men," it is evident that this rumor was
false.[185] Yet even this is valuable because it shows in an
indefinite way that the mortality was very large.
When we consider the fact that it was the lowest class of immigrants
that were chiefly exposed to these perils it becomes evident how great
a purifying force was exerted. The indentured servants more than any
others had to face the hot sun of the fields, and upon them alone the
climate worked with deadly effect.
But disease was not the only danger that the indentured servant faced
in those days. At times starvation carried off great numbers. Even
after the colony had attained a certain degree of prosperity famines
occurred that bore with fearful weight upon the servants. In 1636
there was great scarcity of food and in that year 1,800 persons
perished. A servant, in 1623, complained in a letter to his parents
that the food that was given him would barely sustain life, and that
he had often eaten more at home in a day than was now allowed him for
a week.[186]
But if the servant survived all these dangers, if he escaped disease,
starvation and the tomahawk, his task was not yet finished. He had
then to build for himself a place in society. When the servant was
discharged, upon the expiration of his term, he was always given some
property with which to start life as a freeman. In the days of the
Company, each was granted 100 acres of land, and, when this was
seated, each was probably entitled to an additional tract of the same
extent. After 1624 the servant received, at the end of his term of
indenture, no allotment of land, but was given instead enough grain to
sustain him for one year. Also he was to receive two sets of apparel,
and in Berkeley's time a gun worth twenty shillings.[187] The
cheapness of land made it easy for these men to secure little farms,
and if they were sober and industrious they had an opportunity to
rise. They might acquire in time large estates; they might even become
leaders in the colony, but the task was a hard one, and those that
were successful were worthy of the social position they obtained.
It is of importance to note that of the servants that came to the
colony but a small number married and left descendants. Women were by
no means plentiful. During the earlier years this had been a drawback
to the advancement of the colony, for even the most prosperous
planters found it difficult to secure wives. It was this condition of
affairs that induced the Company to send to Virginia that cargo of
maids that has become so famous in colonial history. As years went on,
the scarcity of women became a distinct blessing, for it made it
impossible for the degraded laborer, even though he ultimately secured
his freedom, to leave descendants to perpetuate his lowly instincts.
Of the thousands of servants whose criminal instincts or lack of
industry made it impossible for them to become prosperous citizens,
great numbers left the colony. Many went to North Carolina. As
Virginia had served as a dumping ground for the refuse of the English
population, so did this new colony furnish a vent for undesirable
persons from Virginia. William Byrd II, who had an excellent
opportunity to observe conditions in North Carolina while running the
dividing line, bears testimony to the character of the immigrants to
that colony from Virginia and Maryland. "It is certain," he says,
"many slaves shelter themselves in this obscure part of the world, nor
will any of their righteous neighbors discover them. Nor were the
worthy borderers content to shelter runaway slaves, but debtors and
criminals have often met with the like indulgence. But if the
government of North Carolina has encourag'd this unneighbourly policy
in order to increase their people, it is no more than what ancient
Rome did before them."[188] Again he says, "The men ... just like the
Indians, impose all the work upon the poor women. They make their
wives rise out of their beds early in the morning, at the same time
that they lye and snore, til the sun has run one third of his
course.... Then, after stretching and yarning for half an hour, they
light their pipes, and, under the protection of a cloud of smoak,
venture out into the open air; tho' if it happens to be never so
little cold, they quickly return shivering into the chimney corner....
Thus they loiter away their lives, like Soloman's sluggard, with their
arms across, and at the winding up of the year scarcely have bread to
eat. To speak the truth, tis a thorough aversion to labor that makes
people file off to North Carolina, where plenty and a warm sun confirm
them in their disposition to laziness for their whole lives."[189] The
gangs of outlaws that infested North Carolina during the early years
of the 18th century and defied the authority of the governors, were
composed largely of runaway servants from Virginia. The laxness and
weakness of the government made it an inviting place for criminals,
while the numerous swamps and bogs, and the vast expanse of dense
woods offered them a safe retreat.[190]
Many freed servants took up in Virginia unpatented land, trusting that
their residence upon it might give to them in time a legal title.
Others settled upon tracts that had been deserted. In some instances,
where these people, or their descendants, had prospered and had built
homes and barns and stables on the property, or had otherwise improved
it, their claims to the land were confirmed by law. In other cases,
when patents were made out to land already occupied by "squatters,"
the lowly settlers were forced to leave their farms and to seek homes
elsewhere, probably on unclaimed territory in remote parts of the
colony. This gave rise to that fringe of rough humanity upon the
frontier, that spread continually westward as the colony grew. Many of
the servants that escaped from their masters fled to the mountains,
seeking refuge among the defiles and woods of the Blue Ridge or the
more distant Alleghanies. The descendants of these wretched people
still exist in the mountains of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee
and Kentucky, exhibiting in their ignorance, their disregard for law,
their laziness and even in their dialect the lowness of their origin.
The facts presented in the preceding paragraphs lead us inevitably to
the conclusion that that portion of the vast body of indentured
servants that were brought to Virginia which made its lasting imprint
on the character of the population of the eastern countries was
composed of men of sterling qualities, and was rather an element of
strength than of weakness to the middle class into which they went.
That many did rise to places of trust and influence is well
established. There are numerous instances of servants, who, after
serving their term of indenture, became burgesses, justices, etc. Thus
John Trussell, who came over in 1622 as a servant, became a burgess in
1654.[191] The Assembly of 1629 included in its members William
Warlick, William Poppleton, Richard Townsend and Anthony Pagett, all
of whom had come to the colony under terms of indenture.[192] Gatford,
a puritanical preacher of the Commonwealth period, wrote that at that
time some of the former servants were still filling offices of trust
in the colony. The author of Virginia's Cure asserted, in 1662, that
the burgesses "were usuall such as went over as servants thither; and
though by time, and industry, they may have obtained competent
estates, yet by reason of their poor and mean condition, were
unskilful in judging of a good estate, either of church or
Commonwealth."[193] This, however, is undoubtedly an exaggeration.
Yet, in 1651, Governor Berkeley, in an address to the Assembly, stated
that hundreds of examples testified to the fact that no man in the
colony was denied the opportunity to acquire both honor and wealth.
The chief occupation to which the freed servant turned was
agriculture. During their term of indenture it was as field laborers
that most of them had spent their time, and many were ignorant of any
other means of earning a living. Moreover, farming was almost the only
occupation open to them in the colony. Some, who had been trained upon
the plantations as artisans, doubtless made use of their skill after
becoming free to increase their incomes, but even these were forced to
turn their attention chiefly to farming. With the payment that was
made by the former master, and the land which it was so easy to
obtain, the new freeman, if he were sober and industrious, was sure to
wrest from the soil an abundant supply of food and perhaps enough
tobacco to make him quite prosperous. He must first plant corn, for
were he to give all his land to tobacco, he would starve before he
received from it any returns. If things went well with him, he would
buy hogs and cattle, and thereafter these would constitute his most
valuable possession.
Some of the servants upon the expiration of their terms of indenture
secured work as overseers, if they found it impossible to obtain
patents to estates of their own. Throughout the greater part of the
colonial period the position occupied by the overseer was preferable
to that of the poorest class of independent farmers. His usual
remuneration was a part of the crop. Sometimes he received only
one-tenth of what was produced, but often his share was much greater,
for cases are on record where he was to keep one half. Later the pay
was regulated by the number of persons under his management, slaves as
well as hired and indentured servants forming the basis of the
calculation. Under both systems of payment he was liberally rewarded
for his services.[194] The control of many laborers, the necessity for
a knowledge of all the details of farming, the contact with his
employer in matters of business made requisite in the overseer both
intelligence and the power of command. Many were men of much ability
and were trusted by the planters with the entire management of their
estates. When the overseer worked upon the "home" plantation, he
usually dwelt either in the mansion itself or in one of the group of
houses nearby, in which were sleeping rooms used by members of the
household or guests. He was treated always with courtesy and was
accorded some social recognition by his aristocratic employer.
Sometimes the overseer through ability and care accumulated property
and became an independent planter.
Occasionally the servants upon the close of their term of indenture
earned a subsistence as hired laborers. This, however, was not very
common, for the opportunities for an independent existence were so
great that few would fail to grasp them. There could be no necessity
for laboring for others when land could be had so cheaply. Those that
did hire themselves out were tempted usually by the excessive wages
that could be obtained from wealthy planters. Throughout the 17th
century, the difficulty of obtaining a sufficient supply of servants
to keep in cultivation the tobacco fields of the colony, created a
lively demand for labor and made wages higher than in England. Even
in the early years of the century this state of affairs prevailed, and
we find planters complaining of the excessive cost of hired labor and
making urgent requests for indentured servants.[195] Despite the high
price of tobacco that prevailed before 1660, it was the general
opinion that no profit could be made from it when hired laborers were
used in its cultivation, and it is probable that they were never
employed except when the supply of servants fell far short of the
demand. In the 18th century, when the importation of many thousands of
slaves had lowered the price of labor in the colony, the employment of
hired hands became still less frequent.
The existence of high wages for so many years accelerated the
formation of the middle class, for the hired laborer could, if he were
economical, save enough to purchase land and to become an independent
farmer. So crude were the agricultural methods then in use in the
colony that very little capital was needed by the small planters, and
tobacco and corn could be raised by them almost as economically as
upon the large plantations. Moreover, since men of the middle class
could seldom afford to employ laborers to till their fields, they were
in a sense brought into competition with the wage earner. The price of
tobacco was dependent in large measure upon the cost of production,
and could not, except upon exceptional occasions, fall so low that
there could be no profit in bringing servants from England to
cultivate it, and this fact reacted favorably upon those that tilled
their fields with their own hands. On the other hand this very
circumstance made it hard for the small farmer to enlarge the scope of
his activities. Unless he had obtained a fair degree of prosperity, it
would be impossible for him to purchase servants or hire laborers and
the output of his plantation was limited to his own exertions, or
those of the members of his family.
By 1660, the middle class was fully formed. From the thousands of
indentured servants that had been brought to the colony numerous
families had emerged which, though rough and illiterate, proved
valuable citizens and played an important rôle in the development of
the country. Added to the free immigrants of humble means they formed
a large body that needed only organization and leaders to wield a
powerful influence in governmental affairs.
In the second period, from 1660 to 1676, the prosperity of the middle
class was seriously impaired by oppression by England and
misgovernment and tyranny in the colony. The Navigation Acts, which
were designed by the English to build up their commerce, regardless of
the consequences to their colonies, injured Virginians of all classes,
but bore with telling weight upon the poor independent planters.
Moreover, the arbitrary rule of Governor William Berkeley, the
corruption of the Assembly, the heavy and unjust taxes and the
frequent embezzlement of public funds conspired to retard the
advancement of the middle class and to impoverish its members.
The beginning of England's oppressive policy towards the commerce of
her colonies must date from 1651, when Parliament passed a stringent
Navigation Act, forbidding the importation of any commodities into
England or its territories except in English vessels or vessels of the
nation that produced the goods.[196] This law was aimed chiefly at
the Dutch carrying trade, which was so extensive that it had aroused
England's jealousy, but it came as a serious blow to Virginia. A large
part of her exports had for many years been transported by the Dutch,
and the entire exclusion of the "Hollanders" could not fail to react
unfavorably upon her prosperity. The immediate effect, since it
relieved the English ship owners of much of the competition with which
they had contended, was to raise the cost of transportation.
The Virginians protested strongly. In a speech to the Assembly,
Governor Berkeley, fairly foaming with rage, denounced the act. "We,"
he said, "the Governor, Councell and Burgesses of Virginia, have seene
a printed paper ... wherein (with other plantations of America) we are
prohibited trade and commerce with all but such as the present power
shall allow of: ... we think we can easily find out the cause of this
the excluding us the society of nations, which bring us necessaries
for what our country produces: And that is the averice of a few
interested persons, who endeavour to rob us of all we sweat and labor
for."[197]
But the evil was to some extent avoided during the Commonwealth
period, owing to constant evasions of the law. There is abundant
evidence to show that the Dutch trade, although hampered, was by no
means stamped out, and Dutch vessels continued to carry the Virginia
tobacco just as they had done during the reign of Charles I. In the
year 1657, there was a determined effort to enforce the law, and the
advance in the charges of transporting the crop of that year,
indicates that this effort was partly successful. The freight rate
rose from £4 a ton to £8 or £9, and in some cases to £14.[198]
A more serious blow came in 1660. A bill was passed prescribing that
no goods of any description should be imported into or exported from
any of the king's territories "in Asia, Africa, or America, in any
other than English, Irish, or plantation built ships."[199] It was
also required that at least three-fourths of the mariners of these
ships should be Englishmen. Moreover, another feature was added to the
law which was far more oppressive than the first provision. It was
enacted that "no sugar, tobacco, cotton, wool, indigo, ginger, justic,
and other dying woods, of the growth or manufacture of our Asian,
African, or American colonies, shall be shipped from the said colonies
to any place but to England, Ireland, or to some other of his
Majesty's plantations."
The results of this law were ruinous to Virginia. At one blow it cut
off her trade with all countries but England and her colonies, and
raised enormously the cost of transportation. Although England was the
largest purchaser of tobacco, Holland and other countries had taken a
large part of the crop each year. The colonists were now forced to
bring all their crop to England, and an immediate glut in the market
followed. The English could neither consume the enormously increased
supply of tobacco, nor rid themselves of it by exportation to
continental countries, and it piled up uselessly in the warehouses. An
alarming decline in the price followed, which reacted on the planters
to such an extent that it brought many to the verge of ruin. The
profit from tobacco was almost entirely wiped out.
The effects of this law are clearly shown in a paper by a London
merchant named John Bland, which was presented to the authorities in
England, protesting against the injustice done to the colonies. "If,"
he says, "the Hollanders must not trade to Virginia how shall the
planters dispose of their tobacco? the English will not buy it, for
what the Hollander carried thence was a sort of tobacco, not desired
by any other people, nor used by us in England but merely to transport
for Holland. Will it not then perish on the planters' hands?... the
tobacco will not vend in England, the Hollanders will not fetch it
from England; what must become thereof? even flung to the
dunghil."[200]
The people of Virginia were reduced almost to despair. They made
desperate efforts to raise the price of their staple product.
Communications were entered into with Maryland and North Carolina to
restrict the planting of tobacco in order to relieve the
overproduction, but negotiations failed, giving rise to much
bitterness and contention.[201] Similar proposals were made by
Virginia from time to time, but the effort was never successful. In
1664, the whole tobacco crop of Virginia was worth less than £8.15s
for each person in the colony. In 1666 a large portion of the crop
could not be sold at any price and was left on the hands of the
planters.[202]
Moreover, the strict enforcement of the law placing all carrying trade
in the hands of Englishmen created a monopoly for the English ship
owners, and raised enormously not only the freight rates, but the cost
of all imported goods. The planter, while he found his income greatly
decreased by the low price of tobacco, was forced to pay more for all
manufactured goods. The cost of clothing rose until the colony was
almost in nakedness.
At this crisis an attempt was made to turn the energies of the people
to manufacture. The Assembly offered rewards for the best pieces of
linen and woolen cloth spun in the colony,[203] and put a bounty on
the manufacture of silk. A law was passed requiring each county to
erect tan-houses, while encouragement was given to a salt works on the
Eastern Shore. Bounties were also offered for ship-building. In 1666 a
bill was passed making it compulsory for the counties to enter upon
the manufacture of cloth. The reading of this act shows that the
Assembly understood fully the causes of the distress of the people. It
begins: "Whereas the present obstruction of trade and the nakedness of
the country doe sufficiently evidence the necessity of providing
supply of our wants by improving all means of raysing and promoteing
manuffactures amonge ourselves.... Be it enacted by the authority of
this grand assembly that within two yeares at furthest after the date
of this act, the commissioners of each county court shall provide and
sett up a loome and weaver in each of the respective counties."[204]
The corruption and mismanagement that attended these measures made
them unsuccessful, and as time went on the planters became more and
more impoverished. The Virginians chafed bitterly under the harsh
enforcement of the law of 1660. Governor Berkeley when asked by the
Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations in 1671 what obstructions
there were to the improvement of trade and commerce in Virginia,
answered with his accustomed vigor, "Mighty and destructive, by that
severe act of Parliament which excludes us the having any commerce
with any other nation in Europe but our own.... If this were for his
majesty's service, or the good of his subjects, we should not repine,
whatever our sufferings are for it; but on my soul, it is the contrary
of both."[205]
Berkeley had gone to England in 1661, and while there exerted his
influence for the repeal of the act, but had been able to accomplish
nothing. The desire of the English to crush the Dutch trade was so
strong that they could not be induced to consider at all the welfare
of the colonies. The powerful and logical appeal of Bland also was
unheeded. This remarkable man, who seems to have understood fully the
operation of economic laws that were only established as truths many
years later, explained clearly the harmful consequences of the act
and demanded that justice be done the colonists. "Then let me," he
says, "on behalf of the said colonies of Virginia and Maryland make
the following proposals which I hope will appear but equitable:
"First, that the traders to Virginia and Maryland from England shall
furnish and supply the planters and inhabitants of those colonies with
all sorts of commodities and necessaries which they may want or
desire, at as cheap rates and prices as the Hollanders used to have
when the Hollander was admitted to trade thither.
"Secondly, that the said traders out of England to those colonies
shall not only buy of the planter such tobacco in the colonies as is
fit for England, but take off all that shall be yearly made by them,
at as good rates and prices as the Hollanders used to give for the
same....
"Thirdly, that if any of the inhabitants or planters of the said
colonies shall desire to ship his tobacco or goods for England, that
the traders from England to Virginia and Maryland shall let them have
freight in their ships at as low and cheap rates, as they used to have
when the Hollanders and other nations traded thither."
Bland, of course, did not expect these suggestions to be followed, but
he did hope that the evils that he so clearly pointed out would be
done away with by the repeal of the act. So far from heeding him,
however, Parliament passed another bill, in 1673, taking away the last
vestige of freedom of trade. The colonists, when the Navigation Acts
began to be strictly enforced, in seeking an outlet for their
commodities turned to each other, and a considerable traffic had
sprung up between them. The New Englanders, tempted by the high price
of manufactured goods in the south, were competing with Englishmen for
the market of the tobacco raising colonies. The British merchants
brought pressure to bear on Parliament, and a law was passed
subjecting all goods that entered into competition with English
commodities to a duty equivalent to that imposed on their consumption
in England. This act crippled the new trade and deprived Virginia of
even this slight amelioration of her pitiful condition.
The decline in the price of tobacco and the increased cost of
manufactured goods bore with telling effect on the small farmers. It
was customary for them to sow the greater part of their fields with
tobacco, and the enormous decline in the price of that plant brought
many to the verge of ruin. Whenever the overproduction was so great
that the English traders left part of the crop in Virginia, it was the
planter of the middle class that was apt to suffer most, for the
merchants could not afford to affront the wealthy and influential men
of the colony, by refusing to transport their crops. Had it not been
for the ease with which the common people could obtain support from
Indian corn and from their hogs and cattle, many might have perished
during these years.
But, in addition to the causes of distress that were brought about by
the unjust policy of England, there were forces at work within the
colony, that were scarcely less potent for harm. Chief among these was
the attempt of Governor William Berkeley to make his government
independent of the people. Berkeley had, during the reign of Charles
I, made a good governor, and had won the respect of the people, but as
he became old there was a decided change for the worse in his nature.
He is depicted in his declining years, as arbitrary, crabbed and
avaricious.
He had for the populace the greatest contempt. To him they seemed a
mere rabble, whose sole function in life was to toil and whose chief
duty was to obey strictly the mandates of their rulers. He discouraged
education because it bred a spirit of disobedience. "I thank God," he
wrote, "there are no free schools and printing (in Virginia) and I
hope we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought
disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has
divulged them, and libels against the best governments."[206] That the
common people should have a share in the government seemed to him,
even more than it had seemed to Charles I, a thing absurd and
preposterous. After the Restoration, therefore, he resolved to free
himself as far as practicable from all restraint, and to assume an
arbitrary and almost absolute power.
Berkeley was far better qualified for this task than had been his
royal masters the Stuarts. He possessed remarkable vigor and
determination, and despite his quick temper was not lacking in tact
and diplomacy. With a discrimination and care that marked him as a
master in the art of corruption, he tried to make the Assembly
dependent upon himself, by bribing the members of both houses.
Selecting men that he thought he could most easily manage, he gave to
them places of honor and emolument in the colony, some being made
collectors, some sheriffs, some justices.[207] The House of Burgesses
was entirely corrupted, and so far from seeking to defend the rights
of the people they represented, they proved willing instruments to the
governor in his attempt to establish absolute power.[208] Nor could
the colony correct this evil by returning to the Assembly new
burgesses, for Berkeley would not permit an election, and having once
won over the House, continued to prorogue it from year to year.[209]
For nine years before Bacon's Rebellion there had been no election of
burgesses. "In this way," complained the commons of Charles City
county, "Berkeley hath soe fortifyed his power over us, as himselfe
without respect to our laws, to doe what soever he best pleased."[210]
His power over the Council became even more marked. The men composing
this important body looked to the governors for appointment to
lucrative offices and endeavored usually to keep their favor.[211]
Berkeley, more than any other governor, made use of this power over
the Council to make its members submissive to his will. When vacancies
occurred he took pains to appoint none whom he thought would be at all
refractory.[212] Moreover, "he very often discountenanced and placed
his frowns on such as he observed in the least to thrust or cross his
humor, soe that if by chance he had at any time choice of a person of
honor, or conscience, that durst like a noble patriot speake his mind
freely ... such person by some means or other was soone made weary of
coming to councelle, and others overawed from the like boldness."[213]
In making his selections for high offices, Berkeley had recourse at
times to men that had recently settled in the colony, hoping,
doubtless, to secure persons submissive to his will. "It has been the
common practice," it was stated, "to putt persons that are mere
strangers into places of great honor, profitt and trust who unduly
officiating therein, do abuse and wrong the people." These men proved
parasites upon the colony and many enriched themselves at the public
expense. Bacon, in his proclamation, called attention to this evil.
"Wee appeale," he said, "to the country itselfe what and of what
nature their oppressions have bin or by what caball and mistery the
designs of those whom we call great men in authority and favour to
whose hands the dispensation of the countries wealth has been
committed; let us observe the sudden rise of their estates compared
with the quality in which they first entered this country, or the
reputation they have held here amongst wise and discerning men, and
lett us see wither their extraction and education have not bin vile,
and by what pretence of learning and vertue they could soe soon come
into employments of so great trust and consequence ... let us see what
spounges have suckt up the publique treasures, and wither it hath not
bin privately contrived away by unworthy favorites and juggling
parasites whose tottering fortunes have been repaired and supported at
the publique charge."
These evils were aggravated by excessive taxation. The government at
Jamestown added each year something more to the great burden that the
poor were bearing. With utter recklessness they appropriated large
quantities of tobacco for the repairing of forts, for stores and
ammunition, for the construction of ships, the support of ministers,
the establishment of new industries, the building of towns, and for
other purposes, in addition to the usual expenses of maintaining the
government itself. On all sides the people protested with bitterness.
They declared the taxes excessive and unnecessary, and in more than
one instance the approach of the collectors precipitated a riot. The
fact that much of the money was appropriated, not to the purposes to
which it was intended, but to the private use of individuals, was
galling in the extreme to the poor people of the colony.[214] This
abuse was especially notorious in the fort bill of 1672. The people of
Charles City county declared after the Rebellion that large sums had
been levied "for building and erecting forts which were never finished
but suffered to go to ruine, the artillery buried in sand and spoyled
with rust and want of care, the ammunition imbezzled...." They
complained also of mismanagement and fraud in connection with the
bills passed for fostering manufacture in the colony. "Great
quantities of tobacco have been raised on us," they said, "for
building work houses and stoure houses and other houses for the
propogating and encouragement of handicraft and manufactury ... yet
for want of due care the said houses were never finished or made
useful ... and noe good ever effected ... save the particular profitt
of the undertakers, who (as is usually in such cases) were largely
rewarded for thus defrauding us."
The expense of maintaining the Assembly itself was very heavy. This
body not only added to the distress of the people by its corrupt and
unwise legislation, but drained their resources by frequent and
extended meetings, the cost of which was defrayed by taxation. The
people of Surry county stated "that ye last Assembly (before the
rebellion) continued many years and by their frequent meeting, being
once every yeare, hath been a continuall charge and burthen to the
poore inhabitants of this collony; and that the burgesses of the said
Assembly had 150lb tobacco p day for each member, they usually
continueing there three or 4 weeks togither, did arise to a great
some."
This taxation would have been oppressive at any time, but coming as it
did at a period when the colony was suffering severely from the
Navigation Acts, and when the price of tobacco was so low that the
smaller planters could hardly cultivate it with profit, the effect was
crushing. The middle class during this period lost greatly in material
prosperity. Many that had been well-to-do and happy before the
Restoration, were reduced to poverty.
Politically, however, the evils of this period proved finally to be of
benefit to the middle class, for when their burdens had become
unbearable they rushed to arms and, striking out blindly at their
oppressors, showed in no uncertain way that they would submit no
longer to tyranny and injustice. It is true that Bacon's Rebellion was
put down amid the blood of those that were its chief promoters, but
the fury and horror of that outburst were not forgotten, and never
again did governors or aristocracy drive to despair the commons of the
colony by unjust taxation and arbitrary assumption of all power.
Moreover, the misfortunes that preceded the Rebellion stirred in the
breasts of the poor farmers a feeling of brotherhood, causing them to
realize that their interests were common, and that by common action
alone could they guard their interests. After 1676 we find that the
middle class had become a self-conscious body, watching jealously
every action of the Council or of the governors and resisting with
energy and success all measures that seemed to them detrimental to
their interests.
The period from 1676 to 1700 was marked by the growth of the middle
class both in material prosperity and in political power. It is true
that the Navigation Acts were still in force and that the price of
tobacco continued for a while so low that little profit could be made
from it, but the people were no longer so dependent on the plant as in
former times. The poor farmers had been forced by absolute necessity
to produce upon their own estates nearly all the articles necessary
for their maintenance and comfort, and could no longer be put so
completely at the mercy of the English merchants. Although the
attempts of the Assembly to establish public industries proved futile,
the end that had been held in view was in some measure attained by the
petty manufacture upon the little plantations. The farmers' wives
became expert spinners and weavers and supplied themselves and their
husbands with coarse cloth sufficient for their humble needs. By
planting less tobacco and more corn they could be sure of a plentiful
supply of bread, while their cattle and hogs furnished them with milk
and meat. The planting of apple or peach trees assured them not only
fruit in abundance, but made it possible for them to make cider or
brandy that were excellent substitutes for imported liquors. Their
furniture could be fashioned with their own hands, while, except in
rare cases, even household utensils might be made upon the farm. Thus
the small farmer to some extent prospered.
Before the end of the 17th century it was rare indeed to find freemen
in the colony living in poverty. There were none whose condition was
at all comparable for misery and want to the vast body of paupers that
crowded the English cities and eked out an existence as laborers upon
the farms. Robert Beverley, who wrote in 1705, called Virginia the
best poor man's country in the world. He declared that the real poor
class was very small, and even these were not servile.[215] As early
as 1664 Lord Baltimore had written that it was evident and known that
such as were industrious were not destitute. Although this was
certainly an exaggeration, when applied to the period succeeding the
Restoration, it became strictly true after Bacon's Rebellion, when the
people were no longer oppressed with burdensome taxation. Hugh Jones,
writing during Governor Spotswood's administration, stated that the
common planters lived in "pretty timber houses, neater than the farm
houses are generally in England."[216] "They are such lovers of
riding," he adds, "that almost every ordinary person keeps a horse."
So favorable were the conditions in which the small farmers found
themselves that a fair degree of prosperity was often obtained by them
even though they were lacking in industry. Hugh Jones says, "The
common planters leading easy lives don't much admire labour, except
horse-racing, nor diversion except cock-fighting, in which some
greatly delight. This easy way of living, and the heat of the summer
makes some very lazy, who are said to be climate-struck."
The fourth period in the development of the middle class extends from
1700 to the Revolution. It is marked by a split in the class, some of
the small planters becoming wealthy, others failing to advance in
prosperity, while still others degenerated, falling into abject
poverty. This was almost entirely the result of the substitution of
slave labor for the labor of the indentured servant. The importation
of negroes had begun early in the 17th century, but for many years
their numbers were so few that the vast bulk of the work in the fields
had been performed by white men. In 1625 there were about 465 white
servants in Virginia and only 22 negroes.[217] In 1649, when the
population of the colony was 15,000, there were but 300 slaves.[218]
In 1671, Governor Berkeley stated that there were only 2,000 slaves in
Virginia, although the population was at that date about 40,000.[219]
Near the end of the century, the number of negroes brought to the
colony increased very much. The Royal African Company, which had
obtained the exclusive right to trade in slaves with the English
possessions, stimulated this human traffic to such an extent that
negroes were soon found in every part of Virginia. By the year 1700
the number of slaves was about 6,000.[220] The negroes proved more
suited to the needs of the planters than the white servants, for they
served for life, were docile and easy to manage, stood well the
unhealthful conditions in the tobacco fields, and, most important of
all, they cheapened vastly the cost of production. The wealthy
planters who had for so many years been limited in the amount of land
they could place under cultivation by the number of servants they
could procure, now found it possible to extend the scope of their
operations. Before the end of the century such men as Byrd and Carter
and Fitzhugh owned scores of slaves. It was this circumstance more
than any thing else that accounts for the increased prosperity of the
colony which is so noticeable during the first quarter of the 18th
century.[221]
The more prosperous and capable members of the middle class shared to
some extent the benefits resulting from negro labor. Many that had
been unable to secure servants now bought slaves and thus were able to
increase very much the output of their plantations. The shortness of
the time that the servants served, the great cost of transporting them
to the colony and the risk of losing them by death or by flight, had
made it impossible for the small farmers to use them in cultivating
their fields. Since negro labor was not attended with these
objections, many planters of humble means bought slaves and at one
step placed themselves above the class of those that trusted to their
own exertions in the tilling of their fields. When once a start had
been made, the advance of their prosperity was limited only by the
extent of their ability and industry. Some became quite wealthy.
Smythe, writing in 1773, stated that many of them formed fortunes
superior to some of the first rank, despite the fact that their
families were not ancient or so respectable.
Those members of the middle class who were unable, through poverty or
incapacity, to share the prosperity of the early years of the 18th
century were injured by the general use of slave labor in the colony.
Since they could not purchase negroes, they were in a sense thrown
into competition with them. The enormous increase in the production of
tobacco brought down the price and made their single exertions less
and less profitable. They were deprived of the privilege of working
for wages, for no freeman could toil side by side with negroes, and
retain anything of self-respect. Thus after the year 1700, the class
of very poor whites became larger, and their depravity more
pronounced.[222] A Frenchman, travelling in Virginia at the time of
the Revolution, testified that the condition of many white families
was pitiful. "It is there," he said, "that I saw poor people for the
first time since crossing the ocean. In truth, among these rich
plantations, where the negro alone is unhappy, are often found
miserable huts, inhabited by whites, whose wan faces and ragged
clothes give testimony of their poverty."[223] It is certain that this
class was never large, however, for those that were possessed of the
least trace of energy or ambition could move to the frontier and start
life again on more equal terms. Smythe says that the real poor class
in Virginia was less than anywhere else in the world.
The introduction of slavery into the colony affected far more
profoundly the character of the middle class farmer than it did that
of the aristocrat. The indentured servants, upon whose labor the
wealthy planters had relied for so many years, were practically
slaves, being bound to the soil and forced to obey implicitly those
whom they served. The influence that their possession exerted in
moulding the character of the aristocracy was practically the same as
that of the negro slave. Both tended to instil into the master pride
and the power of command. Since, however, but few members of the small
farmer class at any time made use of servant labor, their character
was not thus affected by them. Moreover, the fact that so many
servants, after the expiration of their term of indenture, entered
this class, tended to humble the poor planters, for they realized
always the existence of a bond of fellowship between themselves and
the field laborers. When the negro slave had supplanted the indentured
servant upon the plantations of the colony a vast change took place in
the pride of the middle class. Every white man, no matter how poor he
was, no matter how degraded, could now feel a pride in his race.
Around him on all sides were those whom he felt to be beneath him, and
this alone instilled into him a certain self-respect. Moreover, the
immediate control of the negroes fell almost entirely into the hands
of white men of humble means, for it was they, acting as overseers
upon the large plantations, that directed their labors in the tobacco
fields. This also tended to give to them an arrogance that was
entirely foreign to their nature in the 17th century. All
contemporaneous writers, in describing the character of the middle
class in the 18th century, agree that their pride and independence
were extraordinary. Smythe says, "They are generous, friendly, and
hospitable in the extreme; but mixed with such an appearance of
rudeness, ferocity and haughtiness, which is, in fact, only a want of
polish, occasioned by their deficiencies in education and in knowledge
of mankind, as well as their general intercourse with slaves."
Beverley spoke of them as being haughty and jealous of their
liberties, and so impatient of restraint that they could hardly bear
the thought of being controlled by any superior power. Hugh Jones,
John Davis and Anbury also describe at length the pride of the middle
class in this century.
Thus was the middle class, throughout the entire colonial period,
forming and developing. From out the host of humble settlers, the
overflow of England, there emerged that body of small planters in
Virginia, that formed the real strength of the colony. The poor
laborer, the hunted debtor, the captive rebel, the criminal had now
thrown aside their old characters and become well-to-do and respected
citizens. They had been made over--had been created anew by the
economic conditions in which they found themselves, as filthy rags are
purified and changed into white paper in the hands of the
manufacturer. The relentless law of the survival of the fittest worked
upon them with telling force and thousands that could not stand the
severe test imposed upon them by conditions in the New World succumbed
to the fever of the tobacco fields, or quitted the colony, leaving to
stronger and better hands the upbuilding of the middle class. On the
other hand, the fertility of the soil, the cheapness of land, the
ready sale of tobacco combined to make possible for all that survived,
a degree of prosperity unknown to them in England. And if for one
short period, the selfishness of the English government, the ambition
of the governor of the colony and the greed of the controlling class
checked the progress of the commons, the people soon asserted their
rights in open rebellion, and insured for themselves a share in the
government and a chance to work out their own destiny, untrammelled by
injustice and oppression. At the outbreak of the Revolution, the
middle class was a numerous, intelligent and prosperous body, far
superior to the mass of lowly immigrants from which it sprang.