Volume 13 , Issue 10

Colonial Virginia

I am assuming that there are many Oklahoma citizens with Ancestors that settled around the Colonial Virginia's. As we explore the history of Virginia, maybe it will give you some insight into "Who You Think You Are!"

In Chapter V, on page 50, of A History of Highland County, Virginia, by Oren F. Morton, we learn more of the settled area in 1727; the structure of its society; the planter; currency; mode of government; church and school; and the early distinction between Tidewater and Upper Virginia.

In 1727, the population of the colony was about 150,000, a third being negro slaves, while a very large share of the remaining 2/3 were made up of Redemptorists or their descendants.

The Redemptorists were people more than willing to come to America, 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.

The capital, Williamsburg, was no more than a straggling village, no larger than McDowell. Norfolk was a very small place, and Richmond was yet to be founded.

The ruling element of the Virginia people did not like towns and did not encourage them. At a county seat was little else than the little courthouse and jail, a tavern, or ordinary as it was then called, perhaps two or three dwelling houses, and probably a church.

The white inhabitants were derived entirely from the British Isles and nearly all of them were English.

As in England itself the people were grouped into classes. At the top of the social structure were the comparatively few planters, owning most of the land and wealth and consequently controlling the government.

Next were the pretenders, or "half-breeds," really equal to the planters in birth and culture, yet inferior in influence. These people had enterprise and energy but no wealth.

Third of grouped classes were the "Yeoman," a free person, yet very poor and very often illiterate. Fourth were the indentured white servants, living in a form of bondage, usually to the planters. Fifth were the negroes, nearly all of whom were slaves to the same class.

The structure of society being aristocratic in a marked degree, class terms were in constant use.

The planter, and in great degree the pretender, was called "gentleman." This term was not primarily a mark of culture but of social rank. In theory, but not always fact, the gentleman was a person whose ancestors had always been free. Any man who became a Justice had a recognized right to the title.

In court proceedings the yeoman, servant, or slave was mentioned according to his class. The freed servant became a yeoman, but it was not at all easy for him to pass still upward into the favored planter circle.

The sole industry in Virginia was agriculture on the planter system, with tobacco as the sole money crop, yet some flour was shipped to the West Indies. In Tidewater, which was the only well-peopled section, nearly all the land was held in great estates, usually tilled by servants or slaves. Although little tracts would be leased to yeoman.

The Planter of Virginia was what the Country Squire was to England. His tastes were entirely rural and he had slight use of towns. He wanted land and in this new country he could gratify his desire. He built his "great house" remote from the public road and as far from neighbors as possible.

The planter's intimate associates were among the other people of his own class. The customs saw the other elements of the population looking up the the planter and in local affairs his authority was nearly supreme.

The planter was dictatorial, conservative, yet he was generous, courteous, honorable and high-minded. He had high sense of family pride that gave him a contempt for baseness, though it also gave him a contempt for manual labor. He was public-spirited, jealous of his rights, and not slow to assert them. He was fond of outdoor sports, fine horses, handsome furniture, and elegant table ware.

To the other extreme, many of the ex-servants were not only ignorant and uncouth, disorderly, troublesome and lived in untidy cabins. They subsisted mainly on corn bread and the flesh of razor-backed hogs.

The habits of the people and the geography of the country explained the absence of towns and villages. Navigable rivers that were not far apart reached from the coast half way to the Blue Ridge.

The planter could roll his hogsheads of tobacco by horsepower to the very ship that took them away, and from that ship he received in return, the supplies ordered from England. He could get along without the middleman. Yet the roads were mere lanes through the woods, and were very poor, unless in dry weather. Travel was by horseback, and streams were crossed by fording or by boats.

As I said earlier, Tobacco overshadowed everything else, but it did not make the colony rich. Merchants were the most prosperous people. Money was scarce. Spanish and French coins were in general use, but a large share of them found their way into Pennsylvania, where their purchasing power was greater. The Spanish piece of eight, the French crown, and the Dutch dollar were each rated at five shillings. The scarcity of money caused tobacco to come into general use as currency. County levies were reckoned in pounds of tobacco.

The King's proxy, the Royal Governor, lived in pomp and dignity. he was appointed by the King from among his British subjects. His salary and perquisites of $10,000 a year came out of the colonial treasury. BUT ... he was no figurehead. He would dodge the instructions of the King, and through his use of patronage he would often control the House of Burgesses.

The Governor's Council was the equivalent of our State Senate and also our Supreme Court. The members held office by appointment. The House of Burgesses was elective, each of the 36 counties of 1743 sending two members. The towns of Norfolk, Yorktown, and Williamsburg, and the one college of William and Mary also sent two members each. Yet the voting privilege was very much restricted. Late as 1829, more than 2/5 of the white male adults could not vote.

When a new county was organized, the governor appointed a number of men to act as "worshipful justices." Individually or by group these men were magistrates, and with a quorum present they were the equivalent of our board of supervisors. Vacancies were filled by men recommended to the governor by the court.

The county court was self-perpetuating. It remained a close corporation until 1852, and it appointed the clerk of the court, the jailor, and the constables. The county court represented the more influential families. It was inclined to provide for its own favorites, and it was within its power to be tyrannical.

A sheriff was a senior justice, appointed by the governor on the court's recommendation. The sheriff did not act himself, but sublet his profitable office to another man. After his term of two years was up, the Sheriff resumed his place as justice, and filled the position a second time.

The military commandant was an official knowns as the county lieutenant within the county. He had the honorary title of "Colonel." He was in some degree a deputy governor.

Within the county was another system of local government. This was ecclesiastical in its origin. The county contained 1 to 3 parishes, each supporting by public taxation one minister of the Church of England. His salary was 16,000 pounds of tobacco. In each parish was a board of twelve men called the vestry, which like the county court was self-perpetuating. The vestry was presided over by the minister. It appointed a clerk and also two executive officers called church wardens.

The justices and the church wardens were conservators of the peace and looked into the morals of the people, though none too effectually. The church wardens watched the sinners, and bound out apprentices as well as the bastards, of whom there was never any lack.

The vestry provided the minister with a farm (glebe) and laid tithes for his further support and collected from heads of families. Glebes, churches and ministers' salaries were paid out of the public treasury. The parish levy was laid by the vestry, the county levy by the county court and the public levy by the colonial council.

The colonial Council source of income consisted of a quitrent of one shilling for each 50 acres, an export tax of two shillings on each hogshead of toabacco, and a port tax of 15 pence per ton on all moneys, except when the parish levy was collected by the church wardens.

In 1692, Virginia established one post office for each county. For a letter of a single sheet, the postage was 4 cents for a distance of not more than 80 miles, and 6 cents for a greater distance. When there were two sheets, the rates were 7 cents and 12-1/2 cents. But until after 1738 there was only one weekly mail to Pennsylvania.

All crimes and chancery matters (unless too large or grave a nature) were tried before the county court. Otherwise, they were brought before the governor and Council or quarterly courts of four or more members.

Because of the confusion of as to the laws, the county courts often made blunders through their ignorance in the matter. The grand jury of 24 members, sworn for an "inquest on the body of the county," was selected by the sheriff from the freeholders.

The Church of England was supported by law and until 1748 no other was tolerated. To a limited degree, attendance on public worship was compulsory. The clergy were at the mercy of the planters and trimmed to suit their humor. Often times the parish would be without a minister. The Clergy were of sporting tendency to choose or do something regularly, intemperate and sometimes immoral.

Education was not regarded as a matter of public concern. The well-to-do had their children educated by tutors, and there were some good schools taught by members of the clergy. college education was supplied by the one college of William and Mary at the capital and by the larger colleges of England.

If the planter usually had a good library for their studious habits for the day. The education of the mass of the people was quite neglected, except where some philanthropic person maintained in his own neighborhood and at his own expense what was then known as a free school.

The lands of the Tidewater were usually in the hands of the planters. The small farmer became more numerous in the uplands byend the head of deep water navigation in the rivers. The great farm was less profitable in the uplands because of the greater distance to navigable water. As there was more opportunity for the small farmer, this upper section of the colony was less aristocratic than the Tidewater and had a larger percentage of white people. It formed a middle zone between the Eurpoean Virginia of the Tidewater and the more democratic society that was to appear beyond the Blue Ridge.

Bacon's rebellion of 1676 was an armed ports of the small farmers of the upland against the policy of the planters of the lowland. And near half a century later, Governor Spottswood made this aristocratic complaint: "The inclinations of the country are rendered mysterious by a new and unaccountable humor, which hath obtained in several counties, of excluding gentlemen from being burgesses, and choosing only persons of mean figure and character."

The Tidewater area soil was light and the system of farming was bad. Fertilization was almost unthought of. When the stumps were gone, the soil had lost its virgin strength and was left to cover itself with a pine thicket, a new field being cleared to take its place. The pillage of the soil was already causing the Virginians to look toward the stronger lands of the interior.

A half century later, George Washington was telling his countrymen that if this ruinous policy were continued it would drive the people of the lowlands into the mountains for support.

The colonial civilization of Tidewater was picturesque and contained elements of strength and value. It developed strong leadership. It bred the statesmen of the American Revolution. BUT ... It was fatally weak in an industrial and social sense.

The European aristocratic structure set up in the wilderness with small alterations was fore doomed to decay. The whole tendency of America was toward the unfolding of democratic ideas and practices. It was a losing fight to expect men to put up with tenant farming or to work for wages so long as there was an unoccupied wilderness in the interior.

The occupation of the Virginia interior was destined to overturn the aristocratic edifice, as the clashing of interest between the eastern and western districts of Virginia prior to 1861. The system of indentured servitude was not long in giving way. The resort to African slavery was an instinctive effort to prolong the old era.

This was the colonial Virginia east of the blue Ridge, because it was the Virginia which opened to settlement the country beyond the mountains. It was also the Virginia which framed the laws under which the new settlers were to live and gave an impress to their customs and political thought.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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