"Bonds of Friendship and Mutual Interest": Virginia's Waterways Improvement Companies, 1784--1828
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W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2000 "Bonds of friendship and mutual interest": Virginia's waterways improvement companies, 1784--1828 Lawrence Jeffrey Perez College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Perez, Lawrence Jeffrey, ""Bonds of friendship and mutual interest": Virginia's waterways improvement companies, 1784--1828" (2000). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623975. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-bef5-8b81 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with with permission permission of the of copyright the copyright owner. owner.Further reproductionFurther reproduction prohibited without prohibited permission. without permission. "BONDS OF FRIENDSHIP AND MUTUAL INTEREST": VIRGINIA’S WATERWAYS IMPROVEMENT COMPANIES 1784-1828 A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by L. Jeffrey Perez 2000 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number 9982017 Copyright 2000 by Perez, Lawrence Jeffrey All rights reserved. UMI UMI Microform9982017 Copyright 2000 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPROVAL SHEET This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy erez Approved, March 2000 J\/\AJUaAJ Carol Sheriff H-V) James Whittenburg Hyde Haulman Depiftment of Economics Kevin Kelly Colonial Williamsburg FoundatSjof' Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To Vanya iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v ABSTRACT vi INTRODUCTION 2 CHAPTER I. "...ALREADY FULL LARGE FOR VIGOROUS GOVERNMENT." 15 CHAPTER B. "...BONDS OF FRIENDSHIP AND MUTUAL INTEREST." 48 CHAPTER DI. "IT IS A WORK SO BIG, THAT THE INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES CANNOT TAKE IT AT A VIEW." 91 CHAPTER IV. "PUBLIC EXPENSE WHEN UNCONNECTED WITH PUBLIC ADVANTAGE VIOLATES THE MOST VALUABLE PRINCIPLES OF REPUBLICANISM..." 148 CHAPTER V. "AN ODIOUS MONOPOLY" 196 CONCLUSION 241 BIBLIOGRAPHY 258 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writer wishes to express his appreciation to Professor John Selby, under whose guidance this investigation was conducted, for the considerable patience he exercized, and for his many keen insights and well-directed criticisms. The author is also indebted to Professors Carol Sheriff and Clyde Haulman for their careful reading and criticism of the manuscript. While a dissertation marks the culmination of an educational process, I also want to take this opportunity to credit the non-academic individuals in my life, and what I learned from each of them: My father, who taught me the elegance of the simple solution. My mother, who taught me the power of learning. My father-in-law, who taught me writing is just putting one word next to the other. My mother-in-law, who taught me there isn't anything a good Italian dinner can’t cure. My children, Amanda and Joshua, who taught me the preciousness of life. My wife, Vanya, who taught me the meaning of love. This last is certainly not least. Without Vanya’s devotion to this dissertation, it would never have been completed. She accepted the plight of the thesis widow — the weekends and evenings spent alone while I researched and wrote, the untold number of typographic corrections she made so quickly and efficiently, and the patience she exercised without limit. Getting here took ten years, two children, three jobs, and four residences. But, somehow, only one wife. She never lost faith. If I’m lucky, she never will. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to review the creation and progress of the four Virginia waterways improvement companies which had their origins in the 1780s: the Potowmack Company, the James River Company, the Upper Appomattox Company, and the Dismal Swamp Canal Company. Primary research focused on company journals and family papers, legislative petitions, the annual reports of the Virginia Board of Public Works, and contemporary periodicals. This study reveals that Virginians’ approach to waterways improvements was simultaneously classical and liberal. The improvement advocates clung to an Opposition belief that a healthy republican polity depended on the existence of a class of small land owners who embodied the civic virtue a republic required of its citizenry. However, they also demonstrated a liberal understanding that commerce was the most effective means for cultivating in each individual the industriousness, frugality, and community concern on which virtuous behavior rested. Waterways improvements held out the promise of making undeveloped western land a more inviting option for prospective farmers, while extending commerce and its benefits out along with them. Actually clearing the rivers, or in the case of the Dismal Swamp Canal Company, creating an entirely new waterway, proved far more difficult and expensive than the improvement advocates anticipated. The scale of waterways improvements prompted Virginia’s leaders to provide an increasingly greater role for central authority, but only when situated in the state government, and to blur the distinction between public and private investment. Once completed, the improved waterways dramatically increased traffic, as anticipated, but there were unanticipated consequences as well. The improvements inspired regional competition to capture the benefits of economic growth. White Virginians were deeply troubled by the increased number of black boatmen who were suspected of perpetrating crimes and abetting runaway slaves. And the companies appeared more interested in profits than well-maintained navigation. If measured purely by profitability and corporate longevity, the companies were, by and large, failures. But such an evaluation is too simplistic. They were generally successful vehicles for advancing the state’s internal improvement policy. Lawrence Jeffrey Perez Department of History The College of William and Mary in Virginia Advisor: John Selby “BONDS OF FRIENDSHIP AND MUTUAL INTEREST’: VIRGINIA’S WATERWAY IMPROVEMENT COMPANIES, 1784-1828. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ~~ !r) r I I I Reproduced with with permission permission of the of copyright the copyright owner. owner.Further reproductionFurther reproduction prohibited without prohibited permission. without permission. THE RIVER The copious stream of Powhatan descends— Whose crystal wave beneath the burden bends Of every varied product of the sod, That make the merchant rich — or pays the planters’ toil... COMMERCE OF RICHMOND Hence Richmond draws support, augments in size, And drains from half the State, those rich supplies Which Commerce wafts to Eastern ports afar; To Europe’s seats of trade, or scenes of war— Hence grows the Merchant’s wealth, whose ample stores Can scarce contain the double tide that pours,