Volume 2 — VOLUME II.
Reading edition
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 ye most Improved Part of Carolina, from Winsor’s America, vol. v. p. 351 306