Planters of Colonial Virginia

The Planters of Colonial Virginia The PLANTERS OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA By THOMAS J. WERTENBAKER 9 ^ ") i1 PRINCETON PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1922 * Copyrighted and Published 1922. by Princeton University Press PRINTED AT THE PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, PRINCETON, U. S. A. -9 FEB '23 Q^ ©C1A608238 : CONTENTS •***#S#S<>^*V»^*^#'' CHAPTER i: ENGLAND IN THE NEW WORLD J CHAPTER II : THE INDIAN WEED 21 CHAPTER III : THE VIRGINIA YEOMANRY 38 CHAPTER IV FREEMEN AND FREEDMEN DO CHAPTER V: THE RESTORATION PERIOD 84 CHAPTER VI : THE YEOMAN IN VIRGINIA HISTORY IOI CHAPTER VII : WORLD TRADE 115 CHAPTER VIII : BENEATH THE BLACK TIDE I34 NOTES TO CHAPTERS 1 62 APPENDIX l8l INDEX 249 CHAPTER I England in the New World At the beginning of the Seventeenth century colonial expansion had become for England an economic necessity. Be- cause of the depletion of her forests, which constituted per- haps the most important of her natural resources, she could no longer look for prosperity from the old industries that for centuries had been her mainstay. In the days when the Norman conquerors first set foot upon English soil the virgin woods, broken occasionally by fields and villages, had stretched in dense formation from the Scottish border to Sussex and Devonshire. But with the passage of 'five centuries a great change had been wrought. The growing population, the expansion of agriculture, the increasing use of wood for fuel, for shipbuilding, and for the construction of houses, had by the end of the Tudor period so denuded the forests that they no longer sufficed for the most pressing needs of the country. Even at the -present day it is universally recognized that a certain proportion of wooded land is essential to the prosperity and productivity of any country. And whenever this is lack- ing, not only do the building, furniture, paper and other industries suffer, but the rainfall proves insufficient, spring floods are frequent and the fertility of the soil is impaired by washing. These misfortunes are slight, however, compared with the disastrous results of the gradual thinning out of the forests of Elizabethan England. The woods were necessary 8 THE PLANTERS OF tor three all-important industries, the industries upon which the prosperity and wealth of the nation were largely dependent —shipbuilding, for which were needed timber, masts, pitch, tar, resin; the manufacture of woolens, calling for a large supply of potash; smelting of all kinds, since three hundred years ago wood and not coal was the fuel used in the furnaces. It was with the deepest apprehension, then, that thoughtful Englishmen watched the gradual reduction of the forest areas, for it seemed to betoken for their country a period of declin- ing prosperity and economic decay. "When therefore our mils of Iron and excesse of building have already turned our greatest woods into pasture and champion within these few years," says a writer of this period, "neither the scattered forests of England, nor the diminished groves of Ireland will supply the defect of our navy." 1 From this intolerable situation England sought relief through foreign commerce. If she could no longer smelt her own iron, if she could not produce ship-stores or burn her own wood ashes, these things might be procured from countries where the forests were still extensive, countries such as those bordering the Baltic—Germany, Poland, Russia, Sweden. And so the vessels of the Muscovy Company in the second half of the Sixteenth century passed through the Cattegat in large numbers to make their appearance at Reval and Libau and Danzig, seeking there the raw materials so vitally necessary to England. "Muscovia and Polina doe yeerly receive many thousands for Pitch, Tarre, Sope Ashes, Rosen, Flax, Cordage, Sturgeon, Masts, Yards, Wainscot, Firres, Glasse, and such like," wrote Captain John Smith, "also Swethland for Iron and Copper." 2 But this solution of her problem was obviously unsatisfac- tory to England. The northern voyage was long, dangerous and costly; the King of Denmark, who controlled the entrance COLONIAL VIRGINIA 9 to the Baltic, had it within his power at any moment to exclude the English traders; the Muscovy company no longer enjoyed exemption from customs in Prussia, Denmark and Rus- sia. In case war should break out among the northern nations this trade might for a time be cut off entirely, resulting in strangulation for England's basic industries. "The merchant knoweth," said the author of A True Declaration, "that through the troubles in Poland & Muscovy, (whose eternall warres are like the Antipathy of the Dragon & Elephant) all their traffique for Masts, Deales, Pitch, Tarre, Flax, Hempe, and Cordage, are every day more and more indangered." 3 Moreover, the trade was much impeded by the ice which for several months each year choked some of the northern ports. The most alarming aspect of this unfortunate situation was the effect of the shortage of shipbuilding material upon the merchant marine. Situated as it was upon an island, Eng- land enjoyed communication with the nations of the world only by means of the ocean pathways. Whatever goods came to her doors, whatever goods of her own manufacture she sent to foreign markets, could be transported only by sea. It was a matter of vital import to her, then, to build up and main- tain a fleet of merchant vessels second to none. But this was obviously difficult if not impossible when "the furniture of shipping" such as "Masts, Cordage, Pitch, Tar, Rossen" were not produced imquantity by England itself, and could be had "only by the favor 4 of forraigne potency." Already, it was stated, the decay of shipping was manifest, while large numbers of able mariners were forced to seek employment in other countries. "You know how many men for want of imploi- ment, betake themselves to Tunis, Spaine and Florence," de- clared one observer, "and to serve in courses not warrantable, which would better beseeme our own walks and borders to bee spread with such branches, that their native countrey and io THE PLANTERS OF not forreine Princes might reape their fruit, as being both exquisite Navigators, and resolute men for service, as any the world affords." 5 It must be remembered that the merchant vessel three hundred years ago constituted an important part of the nation's sea defence. The fleet which met the mighty Spanish Armada in the Channel and inflicted upon it so decisive a defeat, was made up in large part of volunteer ships from every English port. And the Britisher knew full well that the merchant marine constituted the "wooden walls" of his country, knew that its decay would leave England almost defenseless. At the moment when one able writer was pointing out that "the Realme of England is an Island impossible to be otherwise fortified than by stronge shippes," another was complaining that there were scarce two vessels of ioo tons belonging to the whole city of Bristol, and few or none along the Severn trom Gloucester to Land's End on one side, and to Mil ford Haven on the other. 6 For this intolerable situation there could be but one remedy —England must secure colonial possessions to supply her with the products for which her forests were no longer sufficient. Her bold navigators had already crossed the Atlantic, return- ing with alluring stories of the limitless resources of the New World, of mighty forests spreading in unbroken array for hundreds of miles along the coast and back into the interior 7 as far as the eye could see. Why, it was asked, should Eng- lishmen be forced to make the hazardous journey to the Baltic in order to procure from other nations what they might easily have for themselves by taking possession of some of the limitless unoccupied areas of America? It was folly to remain in economic bondage while the road to independence stretched so invitingly before them. Long before the Goodspeed, the Discovery and the Sarah COLONIAL VIRGINIA n Constant turned their prows into the waters of the James, able English writers were urging upon the nation the absolute necessity for colonial expansion. In 1584 the farseeing Hak- luyt pointed out that the recent voyage of Sir Humphrey Gil- bert had proved that "pitche, tarr, rosen, sope ashes" could be produced in America in great plenty, "yea, as it is thought, ynoughe to serve the whole realme." 8 Captain Christopher Carleill had the previous year made an effort to persuade the Muscovy Company to divert its energies toward America. Why remain under the power of the King of Denmark, he asked, or other princes who "command our shippes at their pleasure," when all the products of the Baltic regions were to be had from unoccupied territories which so easily could be placed under the English flag? It has often been taken for granted that the statesmen and merchants of three centuries ago pursued always a mistaken and shortsighted economic policy. John Fiske assures us that even at the close of the Eighteenth century the barbarous superstitions of the Middle Ages concerning trade between nations still flourished with scarcely diminished vitality. Yet it requires but a cursory study of the theories and arguments of the Elizabethan economists to realize that they were men of ability and vision, that they knew what was needed and how to procure it, that they were nearer right than many have sup- posed. In fact, they acted upon sound economic principles a century and a half before Adam Smith formulated and ex- pounded them.

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