The Social System of Virginia [pp. 65-81]

The Social System of Virginia.
which labor and capital almost universally assumed
at that time in the colony-the laborer was a slave
and the capitalist was his master, and thus the relation of master and slave became almost universal. At all events, if this relation was not so nearly universal as we believe it to have been, it was
certainly so general as to prevail over all other relations and constitute a controlling element in the
social system of the colony.
The relation, thus established between these two
classes, was confirmed by the fact, that almost every
slave owner was, at the same time, a landed proprietor, and the laborer, therefore, became a serf
of the soil. Most of the colonists of Virginia were
men of Anglo-Saxon descent, and love for the soil
is said to be an Anglo-Saxon passion. On the
shores of the Chesapeake and its tributaries, this
passion had ample room for indulgence. Land was
cheap and large tracts could be procured at low
prices. Not only so, but, for the purpose of encouraging immigration, the government of the colony had provided, at a very early period, that each
planter should receive fifty acres of land for every
person whom he should transport into the plantations. Thus the Virginia planter, by the same
operation, increased the number of his serfs and
tion was voluntary, undertaklen, for the most part,
to repair their broken fortunes, and, not unfrequently, with intentions of ultimately returning to the
land of their nativity. It is not wonderfil, therefore, that the affections of the first colonists should
have clung, as we know they (lid, for a long time,
to England, and that, in the wild forests of Virginia, they should have pined fortheir homes across
the ocean. They could not divest themselves of
the idea that they were sojourners here, and were
ever looking forward to the time when, their pilgrimage being over, they would return to their
country and their friends. The consequence was
that society in Virginia was, as far as circumstances would admit, a continuation of English society. From the beginning, a decided preference for
England and her institutions manifested itself every
where, and there was a disposition among all classes
to conform the infant colony to the model of the
mother country. So strong was this partiality for
old England, and so loyal were the colonists to her
ancient institutions, that they never manifested the
slightest sympathy with Cromwell in his effort to
erect a commonwealth on the ruins of monarchy.
The Virginians were always true to the Stuarts,
and, through all the vicissitudes of that ill-starred
enlarged his territorial possessions. The result house, they never, for a moment, abandoned its
was, as we learn from authentic documents, that fortunes. They did, it is true, submit, for about
there existed in the colony, from a very early pe- eight years, to the dominion of Cromwell; but it
riod, a body of wealthy landed proprietors, who was through necessity, and, immediately upon the
cultivated large tracts of country with African restoration of Charles II., the fact was proclaimed
slaves, or European serfs. Along the banks of in Virginia, which heartily responded to the pasJames river, York river and its tributaries, the sionate joy manifested by England on that memoRappahannock, Potomac and other water courses rable occasion. Berkeley, who then governed the
of the country, there resided, in almost baronial colony by virtue of powers delegated by the peostate, the Gentry of Virginia-as they were styled pie, noxv, by common consent, issued writs for a
in the language of those times-a class of men new Assembly in the name of the King, and the
holding vast landed possessions, rivalling in extent royalists carried the elections every where. The
and fertility the estates of many of the English first Assembly which convened after the restoranobility, and controlling, with absolute despotism, tion was composed of royalists and cavaliers-men
a body of serfs, which a feudal lord of the middle loyal to the house of Stuart and devoted to Engages might have envied. land and her ancient institutions. And this As And here the question naturally suggests itself- sembly was the type of those which succeeded it
who were these lords of the soil and masters of for many years.
slaves, whom we find, in those early times, stand- We thus discover, in the very infancy of the
ing on the summit of society, and controlling the colony, the elements of a Landed Aristocracy.
social and political destinies of the colony? Our There existed(l, from the first, a class of men, desrecords furnish satisfactory information upon this cended from the nobility of England-imbued with
point. A considerable portion, in point of num- the tastes, feelings and principles of their order,
bers, and a much larger portion in point of wealth, and confirmed in power by their superior culture,
education and influence, were Cavaliers, and youn- the extent of their possessions, and the character
ger branches of noble English houses. As was of the laboring classes. These men naturally asto be expected, they brought with them, into the pired to the government of the colony, and we accolony, the feelings, habits and principles in which cordingly find that all the important offices were
they had been educated at home. Nothing had filled from their ranks. They were made Counoccurred to wean them from the mother country. cillors, returned as members of the Assembly,
The colonists of Virginia, were not, like the Puri- commissioned as officers in the militia, and appointtans of New England, fugitives from persecution. ed by the Governor to be justices of the peace.
They embarked, upon the contrary, under the aus- In this latter capacity, their powers were large
pices of the crown and the nobility-their emigra- and anomalous, as are to this day the powers of
71
1848.]