USA > Virginia > Virginia, a history of the people > Part 12
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OUTLINE OF VIRGINIA UNDER JAMES I. 147
As to these new African people with their sooty faces, their introduction is a doubtful good, and about buying and selling people there is a difference of opinion. At home, in England, they cry out against it and go on en- couraging it. There are " many complaints against the governors, captains, and officers in Virginia, for buying and selling men and boys;" and luring them to Virginia is " held in England a thing intolerable" (1620). But then the luring goes on, and the home rulers are going to encourage, nay, take open part in this new African business, -and afterwards denounce the Virginia slave- holders as monsters.
As to the indented servants, no one can find fault with that system. The Company sends them over, and they labor for a term of years to repay the expense. So the Governor is to have one hundred, the Deputy Governor fifty, the Treasurer the same, and the Mar- shal more, which pass, at the end of their terms of office, to their successors. It is an excellent means of paying the salaries of the officials, and " we may truly say, in Virginia, we are the happiest people in the world" (1620). Why, indeed, should we not be ? We have " a country that may have the prerogative over the most pleasant places known, for large and pleasant navigable rivers ; and heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for man's habitation." The colony is now firmly established ; the Church of England, the only true worship ; we are ready to deal summarily with papists and the dissenting people ; law and order prevail, and every freeman, by ancient usage, has a voice in electing the Burgesses, - for which, Virginia House of Burgesses, Heaven be thanked ! How did men live without it once? They were mere slaves
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of the London Council, the King, and the people sent out as Governors. Now these gentlemen know their place. If they attempt to obstruct the laws, or enact laws of their own for the colony, they will do it at their peril ; not his majesty himself shall invade the rights of the Virginians !
If we must leave him the worthy commander offers his barge, and indented or black servants, to row us down the stream. But the west wind will waft us and we continue to float on the James, watching the barges of the planters shooting to and fro, driven by lusty oar- strokes between the landings. These are officers of the government and are rowed by their indented servants, who "ought to be laboring on the public lands." But then Virginia is a long way from England, and their honors, the governors, and the rest, are high dignitaries who are not to be meddled with. As to the indented people, they are little to be considered. They are servants who have no voice in elections. If they run away they will soon (1642) be whipped and branded with the letter R on the cheek, signifying their offense. They are to work in the fields, to take their caps off to their masters ; but if they save their earnings they may become landholders at the expiration of their term ; and then they may have servants of their own.
The stream is ruffled into silver crests by the west wind as we pass on by all the old plantations - Berke- ley, where Master Thorpe was hacked to pieces by the savages, and where a President of the United States will be boru a hundred and fifty years hence; by Dale's plantation, where Captain Butler, the author of the li- bellous " Unmasked Face of Virginia," "plundered Lady Dale's cattle; " by little assemblages of manor-houses,
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OUTLINE OF VIRGINIA UNDER JAMES I.
all defended by palisades, which dot the banks of the great Virginia highway. Here is a group on the shore by the home of a commander. They are whipping a man, and when asked what has been his offense, the reply is grotesque. He has "engaged himself to marry two women at one time;" and the commander is in- flicting the punishment directed by Governor Wyat's proclamation for that offense. The said proclamation includes women in the class of offenders - is even chiefly aimed at them and their doings. It "forbids them to contract themselves to two several men at one time ;" for women are "yet scarce and in much re- quest, and this offense has become very common, where- by great disquiet arose between parties, and no small trouble to the government." Therefore it must cease, and " every minister should give notice in his church that what man or woman soever should use any word or speech tending to a contract of marriage to two sev- eral persons at one time . . . . as might entangle or breed scruples in their consciences, should for such their offense, either undergo corporal correction, or be pun- ished by fine or otherwise, according to the quality of the person so offending."
Thus the law is duly proclaimed, and offenders are to take warning not to cause disquiet, or trouble to the government in that manner, on penalty of being fined or chastised - man or woman. But proper distinctions are to be observed in inflicting the penalty.' If persons of " quality " indulge in this dangerous amusement, they are only to be fined ; all others are to be corporally cor- rected with good lashes on the back. It ought to be added that there is no proof whatever that any Virginia "maid " was ever thus corporally corrected ; and, in
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150 VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
fact, the probability is that his excellency's proclama- tion was suddenly extinguished by a burst of Olympian laughter.
Before us, as we continue to descend the James, are Martin-Brandon and other plantations, and the settle- ments along the Chickahominy, up which Smith went in his barge in the ancient times. A party of horse- men are winding along the bank and disappearing in the woods. They are armed with swords and firelocks, and wear "armor," which is generally used. It is a " coat of mail " of some tough material, made in Lon- don, and sufficient to turn an arrow, even a bullet, perhaps. And the horsemen may need protection. They are going in obedience to the law of the Bur- gesses (1624), to " fall on their adjoining savages as we did the last year" - those "hurt upon service to be cured at the public charge," and the lamed to " be maintained by the country according to his person and quality." This warlike proceeding of harrying the savages is absolutely necessary. They are still danger- ous foes, and the law directs " that every dwelling-house shall be palisaded in for defense against the Indians . . . that no man go or send abroad without a sufficient party well armed . . . and that men go not to work in the ground without their arms, and a sentinel upon them." The danger of indulging a sense of security was seen in 1622, and that ought to teach a lesson.
Now, all such plottings are to be summarily crushed. The Virginians are to "go three several marches on the Indians at three several times of the year : first in November, secondly in March, thirdly in July, and to do all manner of spoil and offense to the Indians that may possibly be effected "- from " Weanocke to fflow-
OUTLINE OF VIRGINIA UNDER JAMES I. 151
erdieu Hundred, down to Warosquoyacke and Nansa- munge; thence to Elizabeth Cittie, Warwicke River, Nutmegg Quarter, and Accawmacke ; thence to Kisky- acke, and places adjoining in Pamunky and the rivers of Chesepeyacke " - once in summer and once " before the frost of Christmas " (1629). If we go with the party of Indian hunters toward Orapax, where Pow- hatan is buried, we shall see them harry the Chicka- hominies, hear volleys in the woods, and witness an onset near Cold Harbour ending in an Indian rout. Then the party will come back home to their anxious fami- lies, and the country will take care that " those of the poorer sort" who are " lamed" are cured in the Guest Houses at the expense of the public.
The low wave-beaten island of Jamestown now ap- pears, with two or three white-sailed ships lying in front of it, and another slowly approaching, a mere speck as yet, from the direction of the home land. The capital is a group of wooden houses, defended by a palisade and cannon, above which rises the church with its two bells. In this church, for want of a State House, sits the worshipful House of Burgesses. As we draw near the famous island the long wash of the waves seems to bring back the old days when Smith and the first ad- venturers landed and slept for months under the bougho of trees - when that good soldier cannonaded the mu- tineers, and the terrible fever wasted the remnant, and the long tragedy of the first years was enacted. All is now changed. In place of the roughly clad soldier going in his boat to explore the Chickahominy, we see commanders in gold-laced clothes passing up and down in their gay barges ; and the ferry yonder is bringing a Burgess and his horse over to the capital. The hardy
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adventurer of the early time is growing gray far off in London, and liis cotemporaries have nearly forgotten him, but this Virginia plantation is " built on his founda- tion."
If we land and enter James Cittie, as they call it now, we shall have an opportunity of seeing the wor- shipful Burgesses in session. They are assembled in the old church, with its cedar pews and chancel, and the bells above to summon them if they disobey the drum-beat. Yonder is the choir where my lord De la Warre used to sit in his velvet chair, with the kneeling- cushion near it ; and in front of the chancel Pocahontas was married to Master Rolfe. Now the Burgesses hold their meetings here; but it wounds their good Church of England consciences thus to profane the sacred edi- fice. They will soon pass a law (1624) that in every plantation where the people meet to worship there shall be " a house or room sequestered for that purpose, and not to be for any temporal use whatsoever."
As we enter, the Burgesses are in full session - a miniature parliament of about twenty members ; bluff planters in silk coats who have come to James Cittie in their sail-boats or on horseback, with valises strapped behind their saddles. The Governor and Council sit in the choir - worshipful personages brilliant with gold lace - with the Speaker, Clerk, and Sergeant-at-Arms facing them and the Assembly. There is very little talk and no filibustering whatever. These ruddy farmers have come to transact business, and they mean to do their duty as promptly as possible and go back to their plantations. They decrce with one voice (1624) "That the Governor shall not lay any taxes or ympositions, upon the colony, their lands or comodities, otherway
OUTLINE OF VIRGINIA UNDER JAMES 1. 153
than by the authority of the General Assembly, to be levyed and ymployed as the said Assembly shall ap- poynt ; " and this is the spirit of the Virginia Burgesses from the earliest times to the Revolution. Then other laws follow. No man in any parish shall "dispose of any of his tobacco before the minister be satisfied." The proclamations " for swearing and drunkenness are con- firmed by this Assembly." And " for scandalous speeches against the Governor and Council, Daniel Cugley shall be sentenced to be pilloryd;" but he will be pardoned that he may go and sin no more.
The pillory is an institution. It is good that vile offenders against the law or the respect due to digni- taries should have arms and head held by it and be jeered at by the passers-by. Often after this public exposure the criminal has his ears cut off. Edward Sharpless, clerk of the Council, is now (1624) con- demned to suffer that punishment. His crime is that he has furnished Master John Pory, of the King's com- mission, with a copy of the public records after the Assembly has resolutely refused to produce the orig- inals. The punishment is inflicted in part only. He stands in the pillory for a season, is taken away to jail, and issues thence with one ear and a half, and so that ends.
From this historic James Cittie, which the Virginians will at length grow tired of, preferring Williamsburg for a capital, we float on the ever-widening stream past the forts, the hundreds, the lingering Indian wigwams, across the bay to Dale's Gift, where Cape Charles, named from unfortunate Charles I., pushes its prow into the Atlantic. This is the ocean entrance to the Mother of Waters, where Smith and his men in the
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barge parted with the Phoenix ; and the adjacent islands still bear his name. They are making salt here, as in other places they are "trying glass," and attempting the manufacture of silk, which the Virginians believe is going to become a source of untold wealth to them.
Crossing the Chesapeake, homeward again, we pass the village of the "laughing king of Accomac," go by Cheskiac, near the present Yorktown, and ascend the York to Werowocomoco, where the Emperor used to live. The glories of the chief place of council have departed. Ichabod is written on its hearth-stones, if it ever had any; on the famous " Powhatan's Chimney," and the mysterious shrine of Uttamussac, standing once on its sand hills, by which the braves darted in their canoes, dropping copper into the stream, to propitiate the " One Alone, called Kiwassa," their terrible deity. Emperor Powhatan is gathered to his fathers and sleeps at Orapax, but his successor, Opechancanough, is still the lord of this country, and is going to assert his rights. He is probably somewhere in the vicinity of Machot, at the head of the river, but to visit him would be an im- prudence. Bonfires have not gone out of fashion, and cords between trees are still ready to hold scalps. There is little hope of succor in this remote region of the York. It is still the nest of the imperial regime, and the Vir- ginians have unpleasant associations with it. A few, adventurous explorers, however, have pushed into the country and gone on toward the Potomac. Traveling northward, we should come on " forts " well defended by palisades, behind which, and looking through loop- holes, keen-eyed hunter-traders, rifle in hand, live on the watch. The life is dangerous, but that is an attrac- tion, as it will continue to be, centuries afterwards, on
OUTLINE OF VIRGINIA UNDER JAMES 1. 155
the slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Love of gold and the wild side of life are strong passions.
Passing from the head of York across the upper Chickahominy, back to the Falls, now Richmond, we have had a glimpse, at least, of what was then Virginia. A little society huddled together in the peninsula be- tween the James and York ; dependencies reaching into the wilds ; on the rivers gold-laced commanders rowed swiftly by indented servants ; on the outposts pioneers watching against attack ; everywhere strong contrasts of white, red, and black ; the society composite but harmo- nious ; the Church of England the only religion, though dissenters will soon intrude ; the test oath against pa- pacy demanded of every new-comer and official ; the Assembly protesting against the claim of the Governor to tax them by proclamation ; men in armor going to harry the Indian settlements in spring and autumn ; public officials losing their ears ; double engagements between men and maids punished with fine or whipping, -this is the queer old society which we have looked at. The whole is English in warp and woof. These Vir- ginians of the early time read English books, wear English clothes, eat from English plates with English knives and forks, and follow England in all things. Their church is the Church of England ; the Governor is the representative of the King of England ; his Coun- cil is the English House of Lords, and the Burgesses the English Parliament.
But if socially aristocratic, the small society is polit- ically republican. The ancient usage holds, that "all freemen " shall have a voice in elections. The Virgin- ians recognize the great truth that the gold lace is only the guinea stamp, - the manhood of the free citizen is
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the real gold. Thus, in this new society which is going to be denounced as an " aristocracy," all free men are equally entitled to say who shall be the law-makers, and what shall be the law. Socially they are unequal, but it is the business of each to see to that. Brains and energy are free to hew out the pathway to fortune. The man who serves the colony shall have two thou- sand acres of good land. Let him build his house, plow the soil, husband his revenue, purchase servants, roll in his coach, sit in the Burgesses - the way is open.
In this old Virginia of the days of James I., the pe- dantic King, there are few institutes of learning. The " University." of the City of Henricus is in fact the only one in operation. Any culture which the Virgin- ians have they brought with them from England, or will obtain from their parents or the minister of the parish. The planters have good books and read them, but few of them essay literary composition. They are much fonder of the pursuits of agriculture and the man- agement of public affairs ; the tongue and sword are more popular instruments than the pen. This arises from their isolated country life and the absence of at- trition. Except Jamestown and the City of Henricus, there are no towns in Virginia. The planters dislike them. Have they not their warehouses at the wharves on the rivers, approached by long shaky trestle-works, running out to unload or load the ships? These ships take away their tobacco to London, and bring them back every article of convenience or luxury. That is enough ; towns are useless ; they are even hateful inventions ; men jostle against each other in streets ; the freedom of life is lost ; it is much better to live on a great planta- tion and be monarch of all. In other words, the Virgin-
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OUTLINE OF VIRGINIA UNDER JAMES I. 157
ian of this time, and of all times, guards his separate individuality, and has the English passion for landed possessions, and the personal rule of the territorial lord. The old historian Beverley described the people in his day as " not minding anything but to be masters of great tracts of land - lords of vast territory." To coop up such men in towns is to do violence to their instincts. So the worshipful House of Burgesses may create towns and cities on paper if they choose ; they will have a hard time getting themselves established.
This is an outline of that old race and time, as the records paint it. With all its faults it is picturesque and attractive. It has its ugly traits, intolerance in re- ligion, class-pride, and strong prejudices ; but it has also the virtues of kindness and courage, of simplicity, good- faith, and hospitality. The Virginians have been cen- sured as men of impulse and a restive pride. Let the other side be seen too. Under the pride and impulse were endurance, moderation, and dignity in the day of calamity. If this is doubted, the history of the people since the year 1865 ought to show its justice.
The rapid likeness here drawn of the Virginians dur- ing the Plantation period will serve for their portrait during the rest of the century. Growth followed, not change. They were simply a society of Englishmen, of the age of Shakespeare, taken out of England, and set down in Virginia. There they worked out the problem of living under new conditions. But they were English- men still, with the vices and virtues of the original stock, and Virginia was essentially what it has been styled, a continuation of England.
II. THE COLONY.
I.
THE NEW ERA.
WITH the death of James I. Virginia enters on a new era. The struggling plantation has become a pros- perous colony. The " hundreds " clustering along the rivers are giving way to "shires " and " counties." Better than all other things, the land has now its Constitution for a Council of State and General As- sembly. His Majesty Charles I. is soon going to greet his " trusty and well-beloved Burgesses of the Grand Assembly of Virginia," having something to gain from them; and the trusty Burgesses are thenceforth officially recognized as a branch of the government.
Thus an enormous change had come. In all the past years a few Englishmen had been struggling to obtain a foot-hold in the new land, under many and great dis- couragements : discouragements of physical conditions, for they were not yet acclimated, and fevers wasted them ; of a conflict of authority, for there was no sure knowledge how they were to be ruled; of Indian on- slaughts, threatening the very life of the colony. Men's minds were thus unsettled, and they knew not what would be the end of all this turmoil. Fearful of the present, doubtful of the future, for a long time without wife or child or the humanizing influences of home, these
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men were not laying the foundations of a new common- wealth after the right fashion. They were wrangling in Virginia and longing for old England again, and that was the worst of all signs for the future.
Now all this had passed away. The old days when the turbulent factions fought at Jamestown had gone into oblivion. The issue of the Virginia business no longer depended on the courage and ability of one man, hampered by ignorant or worthless superiors. The wrangle was over, and the furious combatants were quiet at last. Peace had come and stable rule, fol- lowed by the blessed boon of virtual free government ; and the little band of adventurers, without home ties, and ruled by masters three thousand miles away, had become a society of honest husbands and fathers, gov- erned by laws made by their own representatives in their own capital of Jamestown.
The change was unspeakable, and the new era was otherwise in vivid contrast with the old. The political passions which had been smouldering under the surface in all the years of the past reign gathered hour by hour a fiercer heat. With the reign of Charles I. begins the definite conflict between the jus divinum and popular right, which, dividing England into two great factions, necessarily extended its influence to America. In the New England colonies, by this time established, the people sided generally with the opponents of Church and King; but in the South public sentiment was very different. " Whole for monarchy " was the phrase in which a writer of the time described Virginia ; but the description was only roughly accurate. Men's minds were divided in Virginia, as they were divided in Eng- land. "Cavaliers " as the great majority of the people
160 VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
were, a considerable minority sympathized with the Commonwealth when it came. As the muttering of the English storm swept across the Atlantic, the hearts of men were stirred. In the rising tide the old land- marks of opinion began to totter. The new ideas found advocates even in strait-laced Virginia, and the friends of the new order of things, elsewhere, sought to cheer on the work. This narrative will show the persistent effort made to establish dissent in the colony of Vir- ginia. Puritan New England, sympathizing with the Roundheads, will send her pastors to Church of Eng- land Virginia, sympathizing with the King; dissenters and churchmen will come to hot quarrel; and the odium theologicum will add a new venom to political hatred.
As the days pass on, the great change in public senti- ment becomes clearly defined. Everywhere under the events is the fermentation of new ideas. The old and new seem in conflict, but are really in harmony. The colony is firm for monarchy, but fiercely jealous of its rights. In defense of them it will depose the King's Governor, and train cannon on the Commonwealth's ships. The historians will not see what this means, though it seems they might. Their attention is con- centrated on the singular question, Was Virginia "Cav- alier " or not? Each paints those former Virginians from his own point of view. The shield is silver or it is gold as they look at it from opposite sides. The Virginians were Cavaliers ; they were not Cavaliers at all. They were Roundheads to a man ; there were no Roundheads among them. They were passionate royalists and churchmen ; see how they defied the Commonwealth and persecuted the dissenters! They were republicans and king-haters ; see how they fought
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THE NEW ERA.
for free government, and were ever wrangling with James and Charles, or the viceroys who represented them! One writer, excellent Dr. Hawks, laboriously establishes what is evident, - that the Cavalier element was dominant. Another, worthy Mr. Grigsby, grows angry at the very intimation, and exclaims, "The Cav- alier was essentially a slave, a compound slave, a slave to the King and a slave to the Church. I look with contempt on the miserable figment which seeks to trace the distinguishing points of the Virginia charac- ter to the influence of those butterflies of the British aristocracy."
So the wrangle goes on, and yet there seems to be really nothing to wrangle about. The Virginians were simply English people living in America, who were re- solved to have their rights. They were Cavaliers if the word meant royalists and adherents of the Church of England. They would defend King and Church - the one from liis enemies, and the other from dissent and popery ; but they meant to defend themselves too, - to take up arms against either King or Commonwealth, if that was necessary to protect their rights. It is essen- tial to keep this fact in view, if the reader wishes to understand the history of the people at this period and in all periods. Jealousy of right went before all. The dusty records, often so obscure and complicated with small events, clearly demonstrate that the Virginians were ready to make war on the monarchy and Parlia- ment alike if they were oppressed. An incident about to be related will show the feeling in the reign of Charles I., and Bacon's rebellion in the next generation will paint the Virginians of the time of Charles II. They levied war on his Majesty as the English people had done on his
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