OLD VIRGINIA
AND HER NEIGHBOURS

BY

JOHN FISKE

Οὐ λίθοι, οὐδὲ ξύλα, οὐδὲ
Τέχνη τεκτόνων αἱ πόλεις εἶσιν
Ἀλλ’ ὅπού ποτ’ ἂν ὦσιν ἌΝΔΡΕΣ
Αὑτοὺς σώζειν εἰδότες,
Ἐνταῦθα τείχη καὶ πόλεις.
Alcæus

The Riverside Press

IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME II

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge

CONTENTS.

VOLUME II.

CHAPTER X. THE COMING OF THE CAVALIERS.
	PAGE
Virginia depicted by an admirer	1
Her domestic animals, game, and song-birds	2
Her agriculture	2, 3
Her nearness to the Northwest Passage	3
Her commercial rivals	3, 4
Not so barren a country as New England	4
Life of body and soul were preserved in Virginia; Mr. Benjamin Symes and his school	5
Worthy Captain Mathews and his household	5
Rapid growth in population	6
Historical lessons in names of Virginia counties	7
Scarcity of royalist names on the map of New England	8, 9
As to the Cavaliers in Virginia; some popular misconceptions	9, 10
Some democratic protests	10, 11
Sweeping statements are inadmissible	11
Difference between Cavaliers and Roundheads was political, not social	12
Popular misconceptions regarding the English nobility; England has never had a noblesse, or upper caste	13
Contrast with France in this respect	13, 14
Importance of the middle class	14
Respect for industry in England	15
The Cavalier exodus	16
Political complexion of Virginia before 1649	16, 17
The great exchange of 1649	17, 18
Political moderation shown in Virginia during the Commonwealth period	18
Richard Lee and his family	19
How Berkeley was elected governor by the assembly	20
Lee’s visit to Brussels	20
How Charles II. was proclaimed king in Virginia, but not before he had been proclaimed in England	21
The seal of Virginia	22, 23
Significant increase in the size of land grants	23, 24
Arrival of well-known Cavalier families	25
Ancestry of George Washington	25
If the pedigrees of horses, dogs, and fancy pigeons are important, still more so are the pedigrees of men	26
Value of genealogical study to the historian	26
The Washington family tree	27
How Sir William Jones paraphrased the epigram of Alcæus	28
Historical importance of the Cavalier element in Virginia	28
Differences between New England and Virginia were due not to differences in social quality of the settlers, but partly to ecclesiastical and still more to economical circumstances	29, 30
Settlement of New England by the migration of organized congregations	30
Land grants in Massachusetts	31
Township and village	31, 32
Social position of settlers in New England	32
Some merits of the town meeting	33
Its educational value	34
Primogeniture and entail in Virginia	35
Virginia parishes	35
The vestry a close corporation; its extensive powers	36
The county was the unit of representation	37
The county court was virtually a close corporation	38
Powers of the county court	39
The sheriff and his extensive powers	40
The county lieutenant	41
Jefferson’s opinion of government by town meeting	42
Court day	42, 43
Summary	43
Virginia prolific in great leaders	44
CHAPTER XI. BACON’S REBELLION.
How the crude mediæval methods of robbery began to give place to more ingenious modern methods	45
The Navigation Act of 1651	45, 46
Second Navigation Act	46
John Bland’s remonstrance	47
Some direct consequences of the Navigation Act	47
Some indirect consequences of the Navigation Act	48
Bland’s exposure of the protectionist humbug	49, 50
His own proposition	50, 51
Effect of the Navigation Act upon Virginia and Maryland; disasters caused by low price of tobacco	51, 52
The Surry protest of 1673	52
The Arlington-Culpeper grant	53
Some of its effects	54
Character of Sir William Berkeley	55
Corruption and extortion under his government	56
The Long Assembly, 1661-1676	57
Berkeley’s violent temper	57
Beginning of the Indian war	58
Colonel John Washington	59
Affair of the five Susquehannock envoys	60
The killing of the envoys	61
Berkeley’s perverseness in not calling out a military force	62
Indian atrocities	62, 63
Nathaniel Bacon and his family	64
His friends William Drummond and Richard Lawrence	65
Bacon’s plantation is attacked by the Indians, May, 1676	65
Bacon marches against the Indians and defeats them	66
Election of a new House of Burgesses	66
Arrest of Bacon	67
He is released and goes to lodge at the house of “thoughtful Mr. Lawrence”	67
Bacon is persuaded to make his submission and apologizes to the governor	68, 69
In spite of the governor’s unwillingness, the new assembly reforms many abuses	70, 71
How the “Queen of Pamunkey” appeared before the House of Burgesses	72-74
The chairman’s rudeness	74
Bacon’s flight	74
His speedy return	75
How the governor was intimidated	76
Bacon crushes the Susquehannocks while Berkeley flies to Accomac and proclaims him a rebel	76
Bacon’s march to Middle Plantation	77
His manifesto	78
His arraignment of Berkeley; he specifies nineteen persons as “wicked counsellors”	80
Oath at Middle Plantation	81
Bacon defeats the Appomattox Indians	82
Startling conversation between Bacon and Goode	82-86
Perilous situation of Bacon	86
The “White Aprons” at Jamestown	87
Bacon’s speech at Green Spring	88
Burning of Jamestown	89
Persons who suffered at Bacon’s hands	89, 90
Bacon and his cousin	90
Death of Bacon, Oct. 1, 1676	91
Collapse of the rebellion	92
Arrival of royal commissioners, January, 1677	92
Berkeley’s outrageous conduct	93
Execution of Drummond	94
Death of Berkeley	95
Significance of the rebellion	96
How far Bacon represented popular sentiment in Virginia	97
Political changes since 1660; close vestries	98, 99
Restriction of the suffrage	100, 101
How the aristocrats regarded Bacon’s followers	102, 103
The real state of the case	104
Effect of hard times	104, 105
Populist aspect of the rebellion	106
Its sound aspects	106
Bacon must ever remain a bright and attractive figure	107
CHAPTER XII. WILLIAM AND MARY.
A century of political education	108
Robert Beverley, clerk of the House of Burgesses	109
His refusal to give up the journals	110
Arrival of Lord Culpeper as governor	110, 111
The plant-cutters’ riot of 1682	111, 112
Contracting the currency with a vengeance	112
Culpeper is removed and Lord Howard of Effingham comes to govern in his stead	113
More trouble for Beverley	114
For stupid audacity James II., after all, was outdone by George III.	114, 115
Francis Nicholson comes to govern Virginia and exhibits eccentric manners	115
How James Blair founded William and Mary College	116, 117
How Sir Edmund Andros came as Nicholson’s successor and quarrelled with Dr. Blair	118
How young Daniel Parke one Sunday pulled Mrs. Blair out of her pew in church	119
Removal of Andros	119
The Earl of Orkney draws a salary for governing Virginia for the next forty years without crossing the ocean, while the work is done by lieutenant-governors	120
The first of these was Nicholson once more	120
Who removed the capital from Jamestown to Middle Plantation, and called it Williamsburg	121
How the blustering Nicholson, disappointed in love, behaved so badly that he was removed from office	122, 123
Fortunes of the college	123
Indian students	124
Instructions to the housekeeper	125
Horse-racing prohibited	126
Other prohibitions	126
The courtship of Parson Camm; a Virginia Priscilla	127, 128
Some interesting facts about the college	128, 129
Nicholson’s schemes for a union of the colonies	129, 130
CHAPTER XIII. MARYLAND’S VICISSITUDES.
Maryland after the death of Oliver Cromwell	131
Fuller and Fendall	132
The duty on tobacco	133
Fendall’s plot	134
Temporary overthrow of Baltimore’s authority	135
Superficial resemblance to the action of Virginia	136
Profound difference in the situations	137
Collapse of Fendall’s rebellion	138
Arrival of the Quakers	138, 139
The Swedes and Dutch on the Delaware River	139
Augustine Herman	140
He makes a map of Maryland and is rewarded by the grant of Bohemia Manor	141
How the Labadists took refuge in Bohemia Manor	142, 143
How the Duke of York took possession of all the Delaware settlements	143
And granted New Jersey to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret	144
Which resulted in the bringing of William Penn upon the scene	144
Charter of Pennsylvania	145
Boundaries between Penn and Baltimore	145, 146
Old manors in Maryland	146
Life on the manors	147
The court leet and court baron	148
Changes wrought by slavery	148, 149
A fierce spirit of liberty combined with ingrained respect for law	149
Cecilius Calvert and his son Charles	150
Sources of discontent in Maryland	150
A pleasant little family party	151
Conflict between the Council and the Burgesses	151, 152
Burgesses claim to be a House of Commons, but the Council will not admit it	152
How Rev. Charles Nichollet was fined for preaching politics	153
The Cessation Act of 1666	153
Acts concerning the relief of Quakers and the appointment of sheriffs	153, 154
Restriction of suffrage in 1670	154, 155
Death of Cecilius, Lord Baltimore	155
Rebellion of Davis and Pate, 1676; their execution	156
How George Talbot, lord of Susquehanna Manor, slew a revenue collector and was carried to Virginia for trial	157
How his wife took him from jail, and how he was kept hidden until a pardon was secured	158
“A Complaint from Heaven with a Hue and Cry”	159
The anti-Catholic panic of 1689	159
Causes of the panic	160
How John Coode overthrew the palatinate government	161
But did not thereby bring the millennium	162
How Nicholson removed the capital from St. Mary’s to Annapolis	162, 163
Unpopularity of the establishment of the Church of England	163
Episcopal parsons	164
Exemption of Protestant dissenters from civil disabilities	165
Seymour reprimands the Catholic priests	166
Cruel laws against Catholics	167
Crown requisitions	168
Benedict Calvert, fourth Lord Baltimore, becomes a Protestant and the palatinate is revived	168, 169
Change in the political situation	170
Charles Carroll entertains a plan for a migration to the Mississippi Valley	171
How the seeds of revolution were planted in Maryland	171
End of the palatinate	172, 173
CHAPTER XIV. SOCIETY IN THE OLD DOMINION.
How the history of tobacco has been connected with the history of liberty	174
Rapid growth of tobacco culture in Virginia	175
Legislative attempts to check it	176
Need for cheap labour	176
Indentured white servants	177
How the notion grew up in England that Virginians were descended from convicts; Defoe’s novels, a comedy by Mrs. Behn, Postlethwayt’s Dictionary, and Gentleman’s Magazine	178-180
Who were the indentured white servants	181
Redemptioners	182
Distribution of convicts	183
Prisoners of war	184
Summary	185
Careers of white freedmen	186
Representative Virginia families were not descended from white freedmen	187
Some of the freedmen became small proprietors	187
Some became “mean whites”	188, 189
Development of negro slavery; effect of the treaty of Utrecht	190
Anti-slavery sentiment in Virginia	191
Theory that negroes were non-human	192
Baptizing a slave did not work his emancipation	193
Negroes as real estate	194
Tax on slaves	194
Treatment of slaves	195, 196
Fears of insurrection	196
Cruel laws	197, 198
Free blacks a source of danger	199
Taking slaves to England; did it work their emancipation?	200
Lord Mansfield’s famous decision	201
Jefferson’s opinion of slavery	201
Immoralities incident to the system	202, 203
Classes in Virginia society	204
Huguenots in Virginia	204, 205
Influence of the rivers upon society	206
Some exports and imports	207
Some domestic industries	208
Beverley complains of his countrymen as lazy, but perhaps his reproachful tone is a little overdone	210
Absence of town life	210, 211
Futile attempts to make towns by legislation	212
The country store and its treasures	213, 214
Rivers and roads	215
Tobacco as currency	216
Effect upon crafts and trades	217
Effect upon planters’ accounts	218
Universal hospitality	219
Visit to a plantation; the negro quarter	220
Other appurtenances	221
The Great House or Home House	222
Brick and wooden houses	222, 223
House architecture	223, 224
The rooms	224
Bedrooms and their furniture	225
The dinner table; napkins and forks	226
Silver plate; wainscots and tapestry	227
The kitchen	228
The abundance of wholesome and delicious food	228, 229
The beverages, native and imported	229, 230
Smyth’s picture of the daily life on a plantation	230, 231
Very different picture given by John Mason; the mode of life at Gunston Hall	232-234
A glimpse of Mount Vernon	235
Dress of planters and their wives	236
Weddings and funerals	237
Horses and horse-racing	237-239
Fox-hunting	239
Gambling	239, 240
A rural entertainment of the olden time	240, 241
Music and musical instruments	242
The theatre and other recreations	243
Some interesting libraries	243-245
Schools and printing	245, 246
Private free schools	246
Academies and tutors	247
Convicts as tutors	248
Virginians at Oxford	249
James Madison and his tutors	250
Contrast with New England in respect of educational advantages	251
Causes of the difference	252, 253
Illustrations from the history of American intellect	254
Virginia’s historians; Robert Beverley	255
William Stith	255, 256
William Byrd	256-258
Jefferson’s notes on Virginia; McClurg’s Belles of Williamsburg; Clayton the botanist	259
Physicians, their prescriptions and charges	260
Washington’s last illness	260
Some Virginia parsons, their tricks and manners	261, 263
Free thinking; superstition and crime	264
Cruel punishments	265
Lawyers	266
A government of laws	267
Some characteristics of Maryland	267-269
CHAPTER XV. THE CAROLINA FRONTIER.
How South Carolina was a frontier against the Spaniards	270
How North Carolina was a wilderness frontier	271
The grant of Carolina to eight lords proprietors	272
John Locke and Lord Shaftesbury	272, 273
“Fundamental Constitutions” of Carolina	274
The Carolina palatinate different from that of Maryland	275
Titles of nobility	276
Albemarle colony	276
New Englanders at Cape Fear	277
Sir John Yeamans and Clarendon colony	277
The Ashley River colony and the founding of Charleston	278
First legislation in Albemarle	279
Troubles caused by the Navigation Act	280
The trade between Massachusetts and North Carolina	281
Eastchurch and Miller	282
Culpeper’s usurpation	283
How Culpeper fared in London	284
How Charleston was moved from Albemarle Point to Oyster Point	285
Seth Sothel’s tyranny in Albemarle and his banishment	286, 287
Troubles in Ashley River colony	287
The Scotch at Port Royal	288
A state without laws	289
Reappearance of Sothel, this time as the people’s friend	289
His downfall and death	290
Clarendon colony abandoned	290
Philip Ludwell’s administration	290, 291
Joseph Archdale and his beneficent rule	291
Sir Nathaniel Johnson and the dissenters	292
Unsuccessful attempt of a French and Spanish fleet upon Charleston	293
Thomas Carey	294
Porter’s mission to England	295
Edward Hyde comes to govern North Carolina	296
Carey’s rebellion	296, 297
Expansion of the northern colony; arrival of Baron Graffenried with Germans and Swiss; founding of New Berne	297
Accusations against Carey and Porter of inciting the Indians against the colony	297
These accusations are highly improbable and not well supported	298
Survey of Carolina Indians	298-300
Algonquin tribes	298
Sioux tribes; Iroquois tribes	299
Muscogi tribes	300
Algonquin-Iroquois conspiracy against the North Carolina settlements	300
Capture of Lawson and Graffenried by the Tuscaroras; Lawson’s horrible death	301
The massacre of September, 1711	302
Aid from Virginia and South Carolina	302, 303
Barnwell defeats the Tuscaroras	303
Crushing defeat of the Tuscaroras by James Moore; their migration to New York	304
Administration of Charles Eden	304, 305
Spanish intrigues with the Yamassees	305
Alliance of Indian tribes against the South Carolinians and nine months’ warfare	306
Administration of Robert Johnson	306
The revolution of 1719 in South Carolina; end of the proprietary government in both colonies	308
Contrast between the two colonies	308, 309
Interior of North Carolina contrasted with the coast	310, 311
Unkempt life	311
A genre picture by Colonel Byrd	312, 313
Industries of North Carolina	313
Absence of towns	314, 315
A frontier democracy	315
Segregation and dispersal of Virginia poor whites	316
Spotswood’s account of the matter	317
New peopling of North Carolina after 1720; the German immigration	318
Scotch Highlanders and Scotch-Irish	318, 319
Further dispersal of poor whites	319, 320
Barbarizing effects of isolation	321
The settlers of South Carolina, churchmen and dissenters	323
The open vestries	323
South Carolina parish, purely English in its origin, not French like the parishes of Louisiana	324
Free schools	325
Rice and indigo	326
Some characteristics of South Carolina slavery	327, 329
Negro insurrection of 1740	329
Cruelties connected with slavery	330
Social life in Charleston	331
Contrast between the two Carolinas	332, 333
The Spanish frontier and the founding of Georgia	333
James Oglethorpe and his philanthropic schemes	334
Beginnings of Georgia	335, 336
Summary; Cavaliers and Puritans once more	337
CHAPTER XVI. THE GOLDEN AGE OF PIRATES.
The business of piracy has never thriven so greatly as in the seventeenth century	338
Pompey and the pirates	338
Chinese and Malay pirates on the Indian Ocean and Mussulman pirates on the Mediterranean Sea	339
The Scandinavian Vikings cannot properly be termed pirates	339, 340
Sir William Blackstone’s remarks about piracy	340
Character of piracy	341
To call the Elizabethan sea-kings pirates is silly and outrageous	341, 342
Features of maritime warfare out of which piracy could grow	342, 343
Privateering	343
Fighting without declaring war	344
Lack of protection for neutral ships	344
Origin of buccaneering; “Brethren of the Coast”	345
Illicit traffic in the West Indies	346
Buccaneers and filibusters	347
The kind of people who became buccaneers	348
The honest man who took to buccaneering to satisfy his creditors	349
The deeds of Olonnois and other wretches	349, 350
Henry Morgan and his evil deeds	350, 351
Alexander Exquemeling and his entertaining book	352
How Morgan captured Maracaibo and Gibraltar in Venezuela	353
The treaty of America of 1670 for the suppression of buccaneering and piracy	353
Sack of Panama by Morgan and his buccaneers	354
How Morgan absconded with most of the booty	355
How English and Spanish governors industriously scotched the snake	355
How the chief of pirates became Sir Henry Morgan, deputy-governor of Jamaica, and hanged his old comrades or sold them to the Spaniards	356
How the treaty of America caused his downfall	357
Decline of buccaneering	357
Pirates of the South Sea	358, 359
Plunder of Peruvian towns	360
Effects of the alliance between France and Spain in 1701	360
Pirates in the Bahama Islands and on the Carolina coast	361
Effect of the navigation laws in stimulating piracy	362, 363
Effect of rice culture upon the relations between South Carolina settlers and the pirates	363
Wholesale hanging of pirates at Charleston	364
How pirates swarmed on the North Carolina coast	365
Until Captain Woodes Rogers captured the Island of New Providence in 1718	365
The North Carolina waters furnished the last lair for the pirates	365
How Blackbeard, the last of the pirates, levied blackmail upon Charleston	366, 367
Epidemic character of piracy; cases of Kidd and Bonnet	368
Fate of Bonnet and Blackbeard, and final suppression of piracy	369
CHAPTER XVII. FROM TIDEWATER TO THE MOUNTAINS.
Family and early career of Alexander Spotswood	370
He brings the privilege of habeas corpus to Virginia, but wrangles much with his burgesses	371
His energy and public spirit	372
How the Post-Office Act was resisted by the people	373, 375
Disputes as to power of appointing parsons	376
Beginnings of continental politics in America	376
Beginning of the seventy years’ struggle with France	377
How the continental situation in America was affected by the war of the Spanish succession	378, 379
Different views of Spotswood and the assembly with regard to sending aid to Carolina	379, 380
How the royal governors became convinced that the thing most needed in English America was a continental government that could impose taxes	381
Franklin’s plan for a federal union	381, 383
It was the failure of the colonies to adopt Franklin’s plan that led soon afterwards to the Stamp Act	382, 383
How Spotswood regarded the unknown West	383
Attempts to cross the Blue Ridge	384
How the Blue Ridge was crossed by Spotswood	385
Knights of the Golden Horseshoe	386
Spotswood’s plan for communicating between Virginia and Lake Erie	387, 388
Condition of the postal service in the English colonies under Spotswood’s administration	389
Brief mention of Governors Gooch and Dinwiddie	390
Importance of the Scotch-Irish migration to America	390, 391
In 1611 James I. began colonizing Ulster with settlers from Scotland and England	391
In Ulster they established flourishing manufactures of woollens and linens	392
Which excited the jealousy of rival manufacturers in England	393
Legislation against the Ulster manufacturers	393
Civil disabilities inflicted upon Presbyterians in Ulster	393
These circumstances caused such a migration to America that by 1770 it amounted to more than half a million souls	394
Many Scotch-Irish settled in the Shenandoah Valley, and were closely followed by Germans	395
This Shenandoah population exerted a most powerful democratizing influence upon the colony	396
Jefferson found in them his most powerful supporters	396
Lord Fairfax’s home at Greenway Court; Fairfax’s affection for Washington	397
How the surveying of Fairfax’s frontier estates led Washington on to his public career	398
The advance of Virginians from tidewater to the mountains brought on the final struggle with France	398, 399
Advance of the French from Lake Erie	399
Washington goes to warn them from encroaching upon English territory	399
MAPS.
Westward Growth of Old Virginia, from a sketch by the author	Frontispiece
North Carolina Precincts in 1729, after a map in Hawks’s History of North Carolina	276
A Map of y^e most Improved Part of Carolina, from Winsor’s America, vol. v. p. 351	306

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Old Virginia and Her Neighbours, Vol. 2 (of 2)

CONTENTS.

VOLUME II.