USA > Virginia > Highland County > Highland County > A history of Highland County, Virginia > Part 4
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Scotland, then a sister kingdom, and Wales and Ireland, dependencies of England, contributed to the stream of emigra- tion, but as the interests of the Scotch, Welsh, and Irish in the new continent were identical with those of the more numerous English, these people did not seek to form colonies of their own.
Holland, though small, was then the first commercial coun- try of Europe, and owned as many ships as all the rest of the continent. With respect to civil and religious liberty, Holland was also the freest of the European lands. Being quite exempt from persecution and having a keen eye to business, we would expect the Hollanders to found a single colony, and primarily for the purpose of trade rather than agriculture. This is pre- cisely what took place, and the metropolitan city of New York bears witness to their good judgment.
Germany and Scandinavia had taken no interest in Amer- ican exploration. The former was not then a united country. From 1618 to 1648 it was in the throes of the most terrible war that ever desolated Europe. Germany, therefore, had no time to think of founding colonies of her own. Sweden was then a great military power. To find a haven for persecuted Protes- tants, her king started a little colony on Delaware Bay.
France, Spain, and Portugal had been very active in the exploration of America. But the French are not emigrants by temperament or inclination, and they had made no resolute effort to colonize our Atlantic seaboard. As for Spain and Portugal, they took little interest in lands which lay outside the tropics.
Yet in an indirect way, both France and Germany sent many of their people to our shores. A bigoted king undertook
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to crush the strong foothold the Reformation had secured in France. His Protestant subjects, known as Huguenots, were the most intelligent and enterprising of his people. They were the mainstay of French commerce and industry. The tolera- tion extended to them by a former king was revoked, and it was made difficult for a Huguenot to escape with his life. Yet to the number of 300,000 they did get away, and they found a refuge in England and Germany. In England they joined the Puritans and in many instances adopted English surnames. In Germany they became in a large degree a German-speaking people. In both countries they joined very numerously the emigration to America. In New England and South Carolina they were particularly numerous.
Unhappy Germany continued to be desolated by war after war. An incident in one of these was the devastation of the Palatinate, a province on the Rhine and bordering France. This was done by order of the French king, and the fine prov- ince was made a temporary desert. Villages and farmhouses were burned to the ground, orchard trees were destroyed, and wells were filled up. But William Penn, the founder of Penn- sylvania, invited the now homeless people to join his colony, and many of them complied. This early German emigration was almost wholly from the valley of the Rhine and from Switzerland.
Until the second decade of the eighteenth century, America was more homogeneous than it has ever been since. The vol- ume of immigration had become relatively small, and notwith- standing the institutional differences among the colonies, the people were predominantly of English blood and character. The country was now a century old, and the inhabitants thought of themselves as Americans and not as Englishmen. They viewed with considerable disfavor the heavy volume of Scotch-Irish and German immigration which now set in. This was because of the alien appearance and in part the alien speech of the newcomers. While events did not justify the fears of the older population, the future of America was pro- foundly influenced by the new arrivals and very particularly by the Scotch-Irish. As this is the very element which led in
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History of Highland County
the settlement of Highland, it becomes necessary to look into the prior history of these people.
Before doing so it is well worth while to sketch the pecu- liarities of the European stocks from which the colonial Amer- icans are derived. The English, the Lowland Scotch, the Saxon Irish, the Hollanders, the Germans, and the Swedes were of the Germanic stock, which is cool-blooded and per- sistent. The Welsh, the Highland Scotch, and the native Irish were of the Celtic stock, which is more turbulent than the other and more impatient of restraint. The Huguenots were of the Latin stock, which, like the native Irish, is of warm sensibilities.
The English people had come from the North German coast eleven centuries before, and in this time had grown much away from their German cousins. The Englishman is earnest, dig- nified, and strong-willed. He is also enterprising, industrious, and a lover of order. Wherever he settles, he never fails to hold his ground.
The Lowland Scotch are shrewd and thrifty, and much less under the influence of aristocratic ideas than their English kinsmen. The Highland Scotch were at the outset of the sev- enteenth century a cluster of disorderly clans, each one much given to fighting its neighbors and stealing their cattle. The Welch were industrious and prosperous, living on good terms with the English. The Celtic Irish have been much oppressed by their English masters because of their Catholic faith. To this circumstance is largely due their quick wit and their incli- nation to use words of flattery. The Saxon Irish are derived from the English who settled around Dublin in the twelfth century. They developed a difference from the English, just as the English developed a difference from the Germans. Ed- mund Burke, the friend of America in the quarrel with Britain, was one of these people.
The Hollanders resembled both the English and the Ger- mans. They were industrious, thrifty, and progressive. The Germans from the Rhine had lived under very repressive rule, and because of this fact they were a little slow in getting used to the ways of colonial self-government. These people came
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History of Highland County
almost wholly from the farming and industrial classes. They were peaceable and industrious, yet clannish. The Huguenots differed from the English in being less stern in disposition, more active in mind, more intense in their affections, more chivalrous to woman, more flexible and hospitable to men and ideas, and more keen and enterprising in matters of business. The Swedes, an excellent people, were few and were soon ab- sorbed in the population around them.
We now return to the people known as the Scotch-Irish. During the colonial era they were spoken of as Irish because they arrived from Ireland. Yet they were quite distinct from the Celtic Irish. They were fundamentally Scotch, especially the Scotch of the Highlands. There was also a considerable admixture from the north of England and a slight sprinkling of Huguenots. They were thus a composite people, and such a stock is usually forceful.
In consequence of rebellion and famine at the close of the sixteenth century, the north of Ireland had become almost depopulated. The few native inhabitants were in a most wretched condition. The English government confiscated a great amount of the land, and took measures to repeople this province of Ulster, the natives being treated with slight con- sideration. Already a wild and lawless class of people from the Scottish Highlands had begun to flock in. But the later comers, who crossed over to secure allotments of land, were of a more promising sort. At first, according to Waddell, "a great many of them were openly profane and immoral. But in the course of time, pious and zealous ministers came over from Scotland and England, and through their efforts a great religious reformation occurred. The intelligence, industry, and thrift of the Scotch soon transformed the face of the country."
The new settlers did not mingle with the native element. Between the Presbyterian immigrants and the Irish Catholics lay an antagonism too deep for intermarriage. In fact, the natives, who had taken to the forest, committed depredation whenever they could. In 1641, they rose in rebellion, and the war which followed was one of dreadful ferocity.
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Although the English government had invited these immi- grants to Ireland, it scarcely ceased, between 1625 and 1782 to make life a burden to them. This oppression was both religious and industrial.
The Church of England was made the established church in Ireland, and as Presbyterians were included among the Non- conformists, they were made to feel the displeasure of the government. The Scotch-Irish ministers were deposed, im- prisoned, or made to flee the country. Many of the people had to cross to Scotland to enjoy the ordinance of communion. In 1639, all the Protestants of Ulster above the age of sixteen were required to take an oath binding them to an explicit obedience to all royal commands. The penalties were so severe that mul- titudes, both of men and women, fled to Scotland or hid them- selves in the woods, leaving their homes to go to ruin.
During the civil war in England and the rule of Cromwell, there was a respite from persecution. In 1660 the eighty Pres- byterian congregations included a population of 100,000. But in that year the infamous Charles II became king and trouble returned. The ministers of Ulster were liable to fine or im- prisonment. At times their meetinghouses were closed and they had to preach by night in barns. According to the bishops of the Established Church, the marriages solemnized by the Presbyterian ministers were illegal and the children resulting from them were pronounced illegitimate.
Even under the milder rule following the English Revolu- tion of 1688, there were times when no Presbyterian could hold civil or military office or teach anything above a primary school. Religious books could not legally be sold by them. Liberty of worship was conceded to the Ulster people, but there were grievances which still remained unredressed. Not until 1782, and then only because of the American Revolution, did the British government acknowledge the validity of mar- riages sanctioned by dissenting preachers.
During the war of 1689, following the expulsion of the detestable Stuart kings, the Irish rose in behalf of the de- posed monarch, Ulster was invaded by a large army, and Londonderry and Enniskillen were besieged. Both places were
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defended with a desperation unsurpassed in history. Without help from the English, without trained officers, without suffi- cient food or ammunition, and in the face of fever and cholera, the Ulster men beat off the besiegers with great loss. This staunch support of the English cause would seem to have en- titled the Scotch-Irish to much consideration. Yet with blind obstinacy, the British Parliament enforced its anti-popery laws against the Presbyterians as well as the Catholics.
The persecution of these people was industrial as well as religious. Their thrift and diligence had created an important trade in woolen and linen fabrics. The jealousy of the English merchants was aroused, and grievously repressive laws were enacted, one result of which was the destruction of the woolen industry in 1698.
After enduring oppression almost a century, the Scotch- Irish began flocking to America in 1718. The movement was at first slow, but in 1729, 6,000 arrived at Philadelphia. In some of the years following the number rose to 12,000, and by 1775, 200,000-a full half of the Ulster people-had crossed the Atlantic. The standpatters of the British government finally got their eyes open, but not until it was too late. The emigrants from Ulster were among the hottest foes of King George during the crisis of the American Revolution. By throwing their heavy weight into the scale against him, it is scarcely too much to say that the loss of the American colonies was the round price which England had to pay for her persist- ent hostility toward the Scotch-Irish.
In general, and as a matter of course, the emigrants to America in the colonial period represented the pick of the European nations. In intelligence, progressiveness, and in- dustry, they were well above the mass of the people they left behind. Oftentimes, they brought some degree of wealth. But with a certain large class of immigrants these remarks are only partially true. In part this class was indigent, and in part it was criminal. Much of it, however, was of good quality, yet poor with respect to worldly substance. These immigrants were of two-sub-classes; the redemptorists and the convicts. The one was voluntary and the other was involuntary. The
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redemptorists were people more than willing to come to Amer- ica, yet unable to pay their passage. They were given this name because they could redeem the cost of fare by a term of labor. Many were from Germany, where wages were low and a living scanty. Traveling agents wearing jewelry and fine clothes toured the country in the interest of the shipmas- ters. They made the uninformed people believe the day la- borer could soon become a rich farmer, and the servant girl a fashionable lady attired in silks and satins. They almost made them believe America was a land where it rained gold dollars and where roasted pigeons would flow into their mouths. Thus the stimulated immigration from the south and east of Europe in our own day had its parallel in the eighteenth century.
The agent promised to advance the cost of passage, which was usually $80 to the adult and $40 to the half-grown child. To small children no charge was made. But in the long run there was a heavy profit to the ship owners in these transac- tions. Articles of agreement were signed before leaving Eu- rope. The ships were crowded, the hard bread was often mouldy and the water bad. In one year 2,000 of these redemp- torists died at sea or soon after landing at Philadelphia. There the surviving people were advertised to be sold for a term of years, and purchasers flocked to the port much as people now congregate at a county fair. The young and the single were soon disposed of, but widows and elderly or infirm people were dull of sale. But if such persons had children, their own pas- sage was charged to the children's account, and thus the chil- dren had to serve extra time. Until the children were sold, the parents could not leave the ship. Trunks were taken on another vessel, and were often broken into during the voyage. When the term of servitude was over, the newcomer was a free man. But if in the meantime he ran away and was caught and returned, his term was extended. Yet in the long run these people usually fared better in America because of its broader opportunities.
The other, or involuntary immigrants, were not wholly made up of British jailbirds. Some had been kidnapped from the British seaports. Some were married consorts, whom the
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History of Highland County
other party, whether husband or wife, contrived to have sent out of the country. Some were homeless children. Still others were ne'er-do-wells and other derelicts, sent here by their re- lations in order to be out of sight if not out of mind. The actual cost of transportation was about $25 to each person, and the average price paid by the planter-usually in Vir- ginia-was about $150. After serving their time, yet perhaps still carrying on the hand the mark of a branding iron, some of these people became good citizens. But there were others who did not acquire any relish for steady work and orderly life. Such persons drifted into the coves of the Blue Ridge, so as to get away from the plantation owners. They remained shiftless, and their mode of life was little better than that of the savage. In 60 years 10,000 convicts were sent here from the famous "Old Bailey" prison of London. With the Revo- lution this practice had to come to an end, and England then proceeded to unload her trash upon Australia.
Though familiar with white servitude, the colonists had seen nothing of negroes in Europe and were slow to take up with African slavery. Although "twenty negars" were brought to Jamestown in 1619, the number of such in the colony had in forty years grown to only 300. Yet by 1745, the negroes were almost one-fifth of the colonial population.
With respect to religious faith, practically all the colonials were Protestant, excepting the English Catholics in Maryland. As to opinions on society and government, their differences were largely on the surface. Having so very much in com- mon, it was quite inevitable that in the course of time all the white elements we have sketched should blend into an Amer- ican nation very distinct from any of the mother nations of Europe.
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CHAPTER IV
AMERICA IN 1745
Relation of the Colonies to one another - Their Small Population - Industries - Institutions - Character of the Colonials.
THE white settlement of Highland begins in 1745. It will be interesting at this point to take a general look at the country which had not yet assumed the name of the United States of America.
It comprised thirteen colonies, all owning a certain degree of allegiance to the British crown. Two of these, Pennsyl- vania and Delaware, were under the authority of the same governor. With this partial exception, the thirteen colonies were with respect to one another thirteen independent, Eng- lish-speaking nations. Nine-tenths of the white people were of British origin, and their laws and institutions were conse- quently much alike. Nevertheless, each colony was jealous of its own rights and more or less distrustful of its neighbors.
Georgia, the youngest of the colonies, had been established only thirteen years. Virginia, the first founded, was not so old by thirty years as is the settlement of the Bullpasture Val- ley to-day. The occupied area of the colonies extended a thousand miles along the coast. On an average it reached inland scarcely more than a hundred miles.
By the terms of their charters, some of the colonial grants extended clear across the continent. But west of the Alle- ghanies no settlement had yet been made. The entire Mis- sissippi Valley was claimed by the French, and in a slight de- gree had been colonized by them. To all intents and purposes, what is now Highland County lay directly on the frontier of the British domain.
In all the British colonies there were not one-third as many people as there are now in the two Virginias. The growth was
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History of Highland County
everywhere rapid, both by natural increase and immigration, yet large portions of the settled area were thinly occupied. Towns were very few and very small, and even villages were scarce except in the New England section. Boston had 15,000 people, Philadelphia had 12,000, and New York only about 10,000, or substantially the same number as is found in Staun- ton to-day. The only other places of size were Salem, New- port, Norfolk, and Charleston. The negroes were scarcely one-fifth of the population, and not 20,000 of them were to be found north of Maryland. The estimated population in 1745 is as follows:
New Hampshire.
26,000
Pennsylvania and Dela-
Massachusetts
168,000
ware.
125,000
Rhode Island
29,000
Maryland
120,000
Connecticut .
84,000
Virginia . 237,000
New York.
71,000
North Carolina.
65,000
New Jersey
58,000
South Carolina.
56,000
Georgia
6,000
TOTAL
1,045,000
Roads being bad and bridges few, there was no journeying by land when it was possible to travel by rowboat or sailing vessel on the bays and rivers. The active commerce with Eng- land and the West Indies required several hundred of the small ships of that day. There was no intercourse with South America, Africa was known only along its coast, Australia was uncolonized, and the lands east of Russia or beyond our own Mississippi were little else than blank space on the map. The great Pacific was less known than is the Arctic to-day, and nearly every sea was infested with pirate vessels. The trav- eler was still suspected of being a liar and sometimes he was.
In the cities and towns and along the navigable waters, the houses of people esteemed well-to-do were substantially built and quite roomy, yet within they would seem less cozily fur- nished than the better class of homes in any American village of the present century. Away from the coast, the log house was almost the only dwelling.
Farming was the one great industry, and it was carried on in a crude, laborious, and wasteful way. The Middle and
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History of Highland County
Southern colonies contributed the greater share of the agri- cultural exports. Tobacco, the leading staple of Maryland and Virginia, afforded a surplus of 70,000 hogsheads. 200 ships were engaged in this service, and the revenue it yielded to the British treasury was more than a million dollars yearly. By reason of their climate and soil, the New England colonies turned their very active attention to commerce and fishing. As for manufacture, this branch of industry was severely hand- icapped by British jealousy. England wished to use the co- lonial domain as a market for the products of its own work- shops.
In all America there were but three colleges: Harvard, Yale, and William and Mary. Outside of New England there was no system of public schools, and illiteracy was common. Yet in every colony were not a few persons who were well versed in the higher education of that day. It was little else than a classical training, and it conduced to a style of discourse that was heavy, stilted, and full of Greek and Latin names and allusions. The men of best education were the ministers and lawyers. The daily newspaper was yet in the future. The very few weeklies were in size about like our Sunday School papers. The mails were few, slow, and irregular, and the frontier settlement did well if it received its letters once a month.
Religion was free only in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. Elsewhere a state church was supported by general taxation, and all people were expected to attend a certain number of times in the course of the year. In Virginia this church was the Episcopalian, known also as the Church of England.
It was a very dark age with respect to medical knowledge. Hygiene was little understood or practiced. Quacks were numerous, and in the South physicians were held in low es- teem. As to legal procedure, its methods are always conserva- tive, and even yet they have undergone no radical change. With respect to society, it was colored by aristocratic ideas more than is the case at present. Even when the Federal Government went into operation in 1789, only one person in twenty-five was a qualified voter.
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A HOUSE OF THE INDIAN PERIOD
Phot'd by A. C. Suddarth Old Wiley house, Jackson's River. Loopholes are under the weatherboarding
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History of Highland County;
Taverns were in every county, and they always kept liquor, the use of which was general. Southern taverns were poor, but the traveler was sure of free entertainment in the homes of the planters. His visit was an appreciated break in the sameness of life in a sparsely settled country.
The life of every community was very local in its spirit and sympathies and was comparatively sluggish in its movement. This was because of the slowness and difficulty of travel, the meager amount of general news in the journals of the day, and the prejudice shown toward the stranger. Each neighbor- hood was a little world in itself. It was interested in little else than its own petty affairs, and was rather content in its narrowness.
The differences between the colonies were due in part to. denominational opinions and in part to social and economic conditions. But as yet an immense majority of the people! were of English derivation, and whether Cavalier, Puritan, Quaker, or Catholic, their English ancestors had lived side by . side as actual neighbors. In all the colonies there ivas a con -. siderable though unequal sprinkling of Irish, Welch, and French. The French were exclusively Huguenots, but unlike the Hollanders and Germans, and even unlike the French Catholics of Canada, they did not perpetuate their mother tongue. Neither were the few Swedes of Pennsylvania and : Delaware very long in becoming amalgamated with their Eng- lish neighbors. The same fact was far less true of the Hol- landers of New York, a colony not founded by the English.
In 1745 England was, therefore, in a very broad sense the mother-country of the colonies. Not only their language, but : their laws and usages were derived from England. And yet the causes which have made the American a very different person from the Englishman had begun to operate with the coming of the first immigrant ships.
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History of Highland County
CHAPTER V
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COLONIAL VIRGINIA
Settled Area in 1727 - Structure of Society - The Planter - Currency - Mode of Government. - Church and School - Early Distinction between Tide- water and Upper Virginia.
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