USA > Virginia > Virginia, a history of the people > Part 17
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So the exile of Greenspring, after all his ups and downs, comes back to his Jamestown "State House," and will remain there in peace until Bacon marches to thrust him out, and put the torch to it.
XI.
VIRGINIA ON THE EVE OF THE REBELLION.
VIRGINIA had thus come back to the royal fold, not suspecting that she was about to be fleeced. As yet, however, there were no heart-burnings, and the only event which disturbed the harmony of the time was without significance.
This was the "Oliverian Plot," as it was called at the time, in September, 1663. A number of indented servants conspired to "anticipate the period of their
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THE EVE OF THE REBELLION.
freedom," and made an appointment to assemble at Poplar Spring in Gloucester, with what precise designs it is now impossible to discover. They were betrayed by one of their number ; and Berkeley promptly ar- rested all who had assembled, four of whom were duly hanged. No men of any consideration were engaged in the plot, and its only result was that the Burgesses or- dered that thenceforth twenty guardsmen and an officer should attend upon the House and the Governor (1663).
The stigma of the time was tlie merciless intolerance towards the Friends, or Quakers. Here as elsewhere in America they were treated with a harshness which dis- graces the epoch. They were denounced as "turbulent people teaching lies, miracles, false visions and prophe- cies," as disorganizers and enemies of society. They were to be fined for non-attendance on the services of the Established Church. They were not to attend their own conventicles, and no ship-master was to bring them into the colony. No person was to receive them into his house ; and Mr. John Porter, Burgess from Lower Norfolk, charged with being "loving to the Quakers,' was dismissed from the Assembly as one unworthy to sit in it. The poor Quakers were to go out of Virginia and no more were to come in. If they insisted on re- turning they were to be treated as felons.
There were other classes of people, also, who were looked upon with the same evil eye; among them the new sect of Baptists, "schismatical persons so averse to the established religion, and so filled with the new- fangled conceits of their heretical inventions as to refuse to have their children baptized." Their own ceremony was, of course, a mockery, and all refusing "in con tempt of the divine sacrament of baptism to carry
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their child to a lawful minister to have them baptized, shall be amerced two thousand pounds of tobacco" (1662). It is scarce worth while to take up further space with these unhappy persecutions. The poor apology of the Virginians was that other people were no better.
For about ten years now the Colony goes on its way in a humdrum fashion, passing laws for the regulation of its internal affairs. The King's pardon is not to ex- tend to such persons as plant tobacco contrary to the Virginia statute (1661). In each county are to be built houses for " educating poor children in the knowledge of spinning, weaving, and other useful occupations" (1668). Rogues are to be lield in awe, and "women causing scandalous suits " are to be "ducked." To ac- complish these just ends "a pillory, a pair of stocks, a whipping-post, and a ducking-stool" shall be set up "neere thie court house in every county." The duck- ing-stool is a pole with a seat upon one end so balanced on a pivot, near some convenient pond or stream, that the offender, placed on the seat, may be once, twice, or thrice dipped down and "ducked" for her offense. This dire punishment is not for the mere harmless circulators of interesting personal gossip, but for "brabling women who often slander and scandalize their neighbours, for which their poore husbands are often brought into chargeable and vexatious suits and cast in great dam- ages." These are to be "punished by ducking "-a melancholy proof that even in these Arcadian days the tongue required control.
A single event of political importance marks this period : the restriction of the elective franchise to " ffree- holders and housekeepers " (1670). This is attributed
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THE EVE OF THE REBELLION.
as usual to the perverse King's-men as an original in- vention of theirs to abridge human freedom; and yet a glance at the record might have shown the historians that the Commonwealth's-men first "cut down the sacred right of suffrage " in Virginia. The record is plain and brief. From the first years to 1655 all the settlers had a voice in public affairs : first in the daily matters of the hundreds, and after 1619 in electing Burgesses. No proposition was ever made to change this " ancient usage." But in 1655 it was changed by the men of the Commonwealth. In that year the Burgesses de- clared that none but "housekeepers, whether freehold- ers, leaseholders, or otherwise tenants," should be "cape- able to elect Burgesses." One year afterwards (1656) the ancient usage was restored, and all " freemen " were allowed to vote, since it was "something hard and un- agreeable to reason that any person shall pay equal taxes, and yet have no vote in elections ; " but the free- men must not vote "in a tumultuous way." Such was the record of the Commonwealth. In 1670 the King's- men restored the first act, restricting the suffrage again. The reason is stated. The "usual way of choosing bur- gesses by the votes of all persons who, having served their time, are freemen of this country," produced "tu- mults at the election." Therefore it would be better to follow the English fashion and "grant a voyce in such election only to such as by their estates, real or personal, have interest enough to tye them to the en- deavour of the publique good." So, after this time none but "ffreeholders and housekeepers " were to vote.
The reason for this invasion of the "sacred right," first by the Commonwealth's-men, then by the King's- men, lies on the surface. The persons who had "served
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their time" as indented servants, had "little interest in the country ;" they were making disturbances at the elec- tions. Voters ought to be men of good character, and have such a stake in the colony as would tie them to the endeavor of the public good. This was thence- forth the determinate sentiment, and the law remained settled, with the exception of one year (1676), when Bacon's Assembly changed it, and declared that " free- men " should again vote. This was swept away by the general repeal of all " Bacon's laws;" and the freehold restriction remained the law of Virginia nearly to the present time.
Thus this enormous question, which convulses the modern world, already convulsed those old Virginians. First, all freemen vote; then only freeholders; then the freemen again ; then the freeholders only, again ; then freemen once more; and finally, only the free- holders.
We have now reached the year 1670, and a great civil convulsion is at hand. Virginia is about to be shaken as by an earthquake; to writhe under intes- tine war; and it is interesting to know the condition of the country. This is ascertainable from Governor Berkeley's response to the inquiries of the Lords Com- missioners of Foreign Plantations, a document which has fortunately been preserved. Virginia, he states, is ruled by a Governor and sixteen Councillors, commis- sioned by his Majesty ; and a Grand .Assembly, consist- ing of two Burgesses from each county, meets annually, which levies taxes, hears appeals, and passes laws of all descriptions, which are to be sent to the Lord Chancel- lor for his approval, as in accordance with the laws of the realm. There are forty thousand people in Vir-
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ginia now, of whom six thousand are white servants and two thousand negro slaves. Since 1619, when they first came, the negroes have grown an hundred-fold ; chiefly by natural increase, since but two or three ships bring- ing new slaves have come in seven years. About fif- teen hundred white servants, mostly English, a few Scotch, and fewer Irish, came yearly.
The freemen of Virginia number more than "eight thousand horse," and are bound to muster monthly in every county, to be ready for the Indians; but the In- dians are " absolutely subjected, so that there is no fear of them." There are five forts in Virginia, mounted with thirty cannon : two on James River, and one on the three other rivers of York, Rappahannock, and Potomeck, " but God knows we have neither skill or ability to make or maintain them." As to ships trading to Virginia, near eighty come out yearly from England and Ireland, and a few "ketches " from New England. Virginia has never yet had, at one time, more than two small ones, of not more than twenty tons burden. The cause of this deplorable fact is that Virginia is ground down by the " mighty and destructive obstructions " of the navigation law which crushes her. Neither "small or great vessels are built here, for we are most obedient to all laws, whilst the New England men break through and trade to any place that their interest leads them to."
As to the Church, there are forty- eight parishes, and the ministers are well paid. They are not always ex- emplary people : "The worst are sent us, and we have had few that we could boast of since Cromwell's tyranny drove divers men hither." It would be better " if they would pray oftener and preach less."
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VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
There is no public system of education ; every man teaches his own children ; but this is not so lamentable. And then Sir William Berkeley winds up his account of the Virginia colony with the famous expression of his private opinion on education and the vile invention of printing : "I thank God there are no free schools, nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these hun- dred years ; for learning has brought disobedience into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best governments. God keep us from both." This venomous tirade was the outburst of a man who worshiped the monarchic idea, and had the acu- men to see that free thought was its enemy. He seems to have held his views conscientiously. The man was not a truckler, fitting liis opinions to promote his for- tunes. He was a bigot in politics as other men were in religion.
A notable feature of this report is the statement of the large increase in the population. In 1650 there were only about fifteen thousand people in Virginia ; in 1670 there were forty thousand. Thus, in twenty years the population had nearly trebled, a remarkable rate of increasc. What was the explanation of it? The reply is easy. The execution of Charles I. in 1649 had driven great numbers of his friends to Virginia. It was the promised land of "distressed Cavaliers," as the old narratives called them, and they flowed to Virginia in a steady stream during the Commonwealth period. This might have been expected. In England was the fierce struggle of the factions, friends of the army and friends of the Parliament, who agreed at least upon one point : that all adherents of Charles Stuart, the tyrant, were to be crushed. Thus England was no
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place for the King's-men. The pleasant fields were no longer pleasant. The old home was no longer home. At any moment the tramp of a Roundhead detacliment, coming to arrest them, might intrude on the silence of the manor-houses. There was no safety for them in the home-land, and it was natural to go and look for it in Virginia. Good Cavaliers like themselves abounded there. The land was cheap and the climate delightful ; the Church in which they worshiped was still open ; on the banks of the great rivers they might acquire landed estates, if they could pay the small price for them, and hunt the fox, and toast the King, and talk with old comrades who had preceded them of Marston Moor, and the fearful Naseby, and how the good cause had gone down in blood. In Virginia there were no ene- mies to lurk, and eavesdrop, and betray them. The Commonwealth's-men were in power, but they interfered with nobody. They might look sidewise at Sir William Berkeley, who had no right to remain longer in the Colony, but they did not order him out of it. They might hate the Book of Common Prayer, which was to be used for only a year after the surrender; but it was still used in the churches, and the Commonwealth's-men turned their eyes in another direction, refusing to notice the fact.
Thus, Virginia, " the last country belonging to Eng- land that submitted to obedience to the Commonwealth," was the place for the Cavalier people. It was a haven of refuge in the pitiless storm ; and all through the feverish years of the Commonwealth, when the home- land was so dreary, the "distressed" fugitives were stealing out of the country, and sailing with sad or glad hearts Virginiaward. Some were penniless, but had
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friends or relations there. Others had saved something from the wreck. Many of them were persons of rank, since that class of people ran special danger in England, and Virginia narrowly escaped becoming a place of refuge for a person of the highest rank of all, - Queen Henrietta Maria herself. She is said to have resolved to sail for Virginia in a fleet commanded by Sir William .Davenant, in 1651, not long after the King's execution. She did not do so; but the poet set out, and was cap- tured by the ships of the Parliament. The intercession of his brother poet, Milton, is said to have alone saved his life. Thus, Virginia came near seeing on her soil the "Little Queen " of Charles I., and the author of "Gondibert," "rare Sir William Davenant," who boasted that he was the son of Shakespeare.
Of the extent of the Cavalier immigration between 1650 and 1670 there can be no doubt whatever. It was so large and respectable in character that the King's-men speedily took the direction of social and political affairs. Few Commonwealth's-men came to a country where the air was full of Church and King in- fluences ; and the Cavaliers were completely in the as- cendency. The fact would seem to be unmistakable on the face of the record, but it has been called in ques- tion ; it has even been said that the old society was largely made up of servants and felons. The statement is wholly unfounded. It is true that in 1670 there were two thousand slaves and six thousand white servants in Virginia, but there were thirty-two thousand free peo- ple; and the servants were merely servants, a class dis- franchised by law. As to the number of " felons," Jef- ferson placed the whole number sent over, from the time of the settlement to the year 1787, at less than
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THIE EVE OF THE REBELLION.
two thousand ; and the whole number of such persons and their descendants in that year at four thousand, which, he said, was " little more than one thousandth part of the whole inhabitants." Nothing in fact is plainer than that the servant or felon element-in Vir- ginia society counted socially and politically for noth- ing.
The character of the King's-men who came over dur- ing the Commonwealth period has also been a subject of discussion. They have been called, even by Vir- ginia writers, as we have seen, “ butterflies of aristoc- racy," who had no influence in affairs or in giving its coloring to Virginia society. The facts entirely con- tradict the view. They and their descendants were the leaders in public affairs, and exercised a controlling influence upon the community. Washington was the great-grandson of a royalist who took refuge in Vir- ginia during the Commonwealth. George Mason was the descendant of a colonel who fought for Charles II. Edmund Pendleton was of royalist origin, and lived and died the most uncompromising of Churchmen. Richard Henry Lee, who moved the Declaration, was of the fam- ily of Richard Lee, who had gone to invite Charles II. to Virginia. Peyton, and Edmund Randolph, President of the First Congress, and Attorney-General, were of an old royalist family. Archibald Cary, who threat- ened to stab Patrick Henry if he was made dictator, was a relative of Lord Falkland, and heir apparent at his death to the barony of Hunsdon. Madison and Monroe were descended from royalist families, - the first from a refugee of 1653, the last from a captain in the army of Charles I. And Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, afterwards the great leaders of demo-
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cratic opinion, were of Church and King blood, since the father of Henry was a loyal officer who "drank the King's health at the head of his regiment ; " and the mothers of both were Church of England women, de- scended from royalist families.
The point may seem unduly elaborated. But it is well to establish the disputed questions of history, and this one has been disputed. One of the highest autliori- ties in American history has described the Cavalier ele- ment in Virginia as only "perceptible." It was really so strong as to control all things, - the forms of soci- ety, of religion, and the direction of public affairs. The fact was so plain that he who ran might read it.
XII.
THE HIDDEN FIRES.
THE "Great Rebellion in Virginia " burst forth in 1676, just one hundred years before another great re- bellion of which it was the prophecy. Nothing succeeds like success, and history is polite to victors ; to those who fail it is merciless. The English and American rebellions of 1640, 1688, and 1776, are the English and American " revolutions." The rising of the Virginians in 1676, which was precisely similar, is the great "re- bellion," since it met with disaster.
What led to this political revolution ending in an open defiance of the Crown, may seem insufficient to account for it. The two main grievances were the English navi- gation acts, and the grant of authority to two English noblemen to sell land-titles and manage other matters in Virginia. But under these apparently mild causes of
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complaint was a vast mass of real oppression and a whole world of misery and suppressed rage.
The trade laws were the prime grievance. When Charles II. returned to his own again, the old law of the Commonwealth (1651) was reenacted : that the English colonies, including Virginia, should only trade with England in English ships manned by Englishmen. There was this vital difference however : the law of the Commonwealth seems not to have been enforced, and the law of the Restoration was enforced without mercy. Cromwell had apparently respected the terms of the Virginia surrender of 1652, or, for reasons of his own, chose to shut his eyes to the fact that Virginia was trad- ing with all the world. Charles II. and his advisers kept their eyes wide open, and would neither permit this foreign trade, nor even any trade with the other colonies without a heavy excise. The whole commerce of Virginia was thus held in the inexorable clutch of England. It was a huge and grinding monopoly. The great staple, tobacco - the very currency of the colony, - and all other produce, came to the one market, Eng- land, to humbly ask the one purchaser what he would be good enough to pay for them.
This was not only a political wrong, - it was an enor- mous blunder. The system crippled the colony, and by discouraging production decreased the English revenue. The first principles of political economy seemed to be unknown to the statesmen of the time. To profit from Virginia they ground down Virginia. Instead of friends they were enemies who caught her by the throat and cried " pay that thou owest." Exports were loaded with a heavy duty both in Virginia and England. Be- fore the outward-bound ship could sail past Point Com.
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fort to the ocean there was the " castle duty " to pay, and, if she did not stop, the thunder of cannon brought her to. When the ship reached England there was the English duty, too, - and matters were so arranged that all this burden fell on the Virginia producer. Even the trade with the other colonies was hampered with the same fetters; and, crowning outrage of all, a great swarm of collectors and other officials received the money and put it in their own pockets.
Virginia was thus loaded with a weight which brought her to her knees; but unfortunately that humble attitude did not disarm her English friends. Charles II., and his ministers would hear of no change in the law. What the officials in England and Virginia wanted was money, and Virginia was ground down to the earth to supply it. 'At last a sort of despair came. The planters resorted to " stints " and "plant cutting " to diminish or destroy the tobacco crop, and thus enhance the price. This did not effect the object. In 1670 and the years following the price fell almost to nothing, and still the crushing duty was subtracted from this nothing. Then the Vir- ginia planter found himself a beggar. Tobacco was his source of revenue. It clothed himself, his wife and children, and defrayed all his expenses beyond mere subsistence. When the inexorable London merchant under the inexorable English law snatched it away from him, he and his family were to go in rags.
This was enough to exasperate a people as restive as the Virginians ; but unfortunately this was not all. In the dark days following the execution of Charles I., his wandering son on the continent, who was theoretically King of England, had granted to some " distressed cav. aliers" of the time, the region of country called the
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"Northern Neck," between the Rappahannock and the Potomac, as a place of refuge from the ire of the Com- monwealth's-men. This grant was afterward recalled ; but in 1673 the King granted to the Earl of Arlington and Lord Culpeper, two of his favorites, "all that entire tract, territory, region, and dominion of land and water commonly called Virginia, together with the territory of Accomack," to be held by the said noble- men for the space of thirty-one years, at a yearly rent of forty shillings to be paid on " the feast day of St. Michael the Arch Angell." They were to have all the quit-rents and lands escheated to the crown; to make conveyances in fee simple ; and manage all things after their pleasure. No holder of land by valid title was to be disturbed, but with this single exception they were to be the masters in Virginia.
This portentous grant raised a great outcry. The two foreign lords had become the owners of Virginia with her forty thousand people. All the honest men honestly in possession of escheated lands were liable to be turned out of their houses at a moment's warning. The revenues of the colony were to be received by the new owners of it. They were to appoint public offi- cers, to lay off new counties, and present to the par- zshes. In broad sweep and minute detail, the King's patent was an enormity. By a scratch of the royal pen, Virginia, which had been so faithful to him, was conveyed away, as a man conveys away his private estate, to two of the trickiest courtiers of the English court.
The Burgesses promptly sent commissioners to pro- test against this outrage. There was a long wrangle with the King's officials, but Charles II. was too care.
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234 VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
less to feel ill-humor. He had no desire to wrong his faithful Virginians : " Those quit rents had never come into the royal exchequer," he said ; he had meant them for "the benefit of that our colony." . He was "gra- ciously inclined to favor his said subjects of Virginia," and would grant them a new charter for "the settle- ment and confirmation of all things " after their wishes. But suddenly the perverse Virginians took matters into their own hands. The new charter was drafted and then "passing through the offices," when "the news of Bacon's rebellion stopped it in the Hamper Office," which was the Destruction Office.
To these grievances were added the confinement of the suffrage to freeholders (1670), which disfranchised a large number of persons; and the failure of Gover- nor Berkeley to protect the frontier from the Indians. These " heathen," as they were then styled, had begun to threaten the colony. Their jealousy had probably been aroused by an expedition made by Captain Henry Batte beyond the Alleghanies, probably as far as the New River country (about 1670). To this was added intense resentment, the result of a collision in the sum- mer of 1675. A party of Doegs attacked the frontier in Stafford and committed outrages; were pursued into Maryland by a large force of Virginians; and stood at bay in an old palisaded fort on the present site of Washington. Here six Indian chiefs were killed in defiance of a flag of truce, and the rest on a moonlight night made a rush and escaped to the Blue Ridge Moun- tains. Here they inflamed all the border tribes by an account of their wrongs; committed barbarous outrages on the frontier families; and the men of the lowland rose in their wrath and demanded to be led against
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