W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 1976 Turmoil in an orderly society, Colonial Virginia, 1607-1754: a history and analysis Timothy E. Morgan 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 Morgan, Timothy E., "Turmoil in an orderly society, Colonial Virginia, 1607-1754: a history and analysis" (1976). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623698. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-w75z-v556 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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University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 USA St. John's Road, Tyler's Green High Wycombe, Bucks, England HP10 8HR 77-4987 MORGAN, Timothy Everett, 1941- TURMOIL IN AN ORDERLY SOCIETY: COLONIAL VIRGINIA, 1607-1754; A HISTORY AND ANALYSIS The College of William and Mary in Virginia Ph.D., 1976 History, United States I Xerox University Microfilms,Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 I: L TURMOIL IN AN ORDERLY SOCIETY: COLONIAL VIRGINIA, 1607-1754; A HISTORY AND ANALYSIS 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 Timothy E. Morgan 1976 APPROVAL SHEET This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy .uthor (J Approved, July 1976 Professor Richard M. Brown j djU. Professor Thad W. Tate / / p'MBflrlf "J Profepspx_jSohn Selby rofessor Thomas F Dr. Edward M. Riley / Mr. Parke Rouse, Jr. Director, Jamestown Foundation ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................ iv LIST OF A B B R E V I A T I O N S .......................................... v ABSTRACT ........................................................ vi CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .................................... 2 CHAPTER II. CULTURES IN CONFLICT: REDS AND WHITES IN EARLY VIRGINIA .................................. 35 CHAPTER III. VIOLENCE AND THE SHAPING OF EARLY VIRGINIA SOCIETY.......................................... 71 CHAPTER IV. VIOLENCE IN THE FORMATION OF VIRGINIA SOCIETY: 1646-1675 ............................. 112 CHAPTER V. INDIAN WAR AND CIVIL WAR: BACON'S REBELLION, 1675-1677 147 CHAPTER VI. TENSION, VIOLENCE AND THE TRANSITION TO PROVINCIAL SOCIETY: 1677-1705 180 CHAPTER VII. SLAVERY AND PIRACY: VIOLENCE IN THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: 1705-1720 216 CHAPTER VIII. SLAVERY, TOBACCO POLICY, AND VIOLENCE, 1720-1735 ........................................ 238 CHAPTER IX. POLITICS AND OUTLAW GANGS: VIOLENCE IN MID­ EIGHTEENTH- CENTURY VIRGINIA 270 CHAPTER X. CONCLUSION ....................................... 298 BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................... 317 VITA ............................................................. 329 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The writer wishes to acknowledge Professor Richard Maxwell Brown, under whose guidance this investigation was conducted, for his direction throughout this investigation. The author also wishes to acknowledge Professor Thad W. Tate for his patient and careful scrutiny of the manuscript and his suggestions for additional areas of research. Fin­ ally, the author wishes to express his appreciation to his wife, Jane B. Morgan, without whose constant encouragement and devoted work this study would never have been finished. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Throughout this study several works will be used recurrently; works will be abbreviated in the following fashions. W. L. Hall and H. R. Mcllwaine, eds., Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, will be cited as EJC. W. W. Hening, ed., The Statutes-at-Large: Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia From the First Session of the Legislature in the Year 1619, will be cited as Hening, ed., Statutes-at-Large. J. P. Kennedy and H. R. Mcllwaine, eds., Journals of the House of Bur­ gesses, 1619-1776, will be cited as JHB. H. R. Mcllwaine, ed., Legislative Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, will be cited as LJC. H. R. Mcllwaine, ed., Minutes of the Council and General Court of Virginia, 1622-1632, 1670-1676, will be cited as Minutes of the Council and General Court. Public Record Office, Colonial Office Series will be cited as PRO, CO. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography will be cited as VMHB. The William and Mary Quarterly will be cited as WMQ. v ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is the investigation of the history of violent activity in colonial Virginia, paying particular attention to the use of violence as a factor in shaping Virginia's orderly society. Research materials consulted indicate a major pattern of social violence consisting of an early component of Indian-white hostility, a middle component of white social violence derived from severe social stresses, and a later component of violence between white masters and black slaves. A minor pattern of official violence, in which the colonial government used force and punishment to control crime and social deviance, occurred. The government helped shape Virginia society through that official violence. The major pattern of violent activity occurred between 1607 and 1735, with the Indian-white component lasting from 1607 to 1646, when whites succeeded in crushing the power of Virginia Tidewater Indians to resist white expansion. Between 1646 and 1705, a number of stresses within white society helped breed extensive unrest which found fullest expression in Bacon's Rebellion. Imperial relations such as commercial policy, royal land grants, centralization of the Empire, and religious and political upheaval of the 1680s in England encouraged disorder in Virginia. In the colony itself extensive exploitation of land and labor by the elite and a decline of opportunity for political recog­ nition helped produce major discontent. By 1705, however, that unrest had largely dissipated and slavery had replaced white servitude as the principal labor system. The introduction of large numbers of slaves in the first quarter of the eighteenth century exacerbated race rela­ tions and was reflected in violence between blacks and whites. By 1735, threats of major violence between slaves and masters had ended. From 1735 until 1755, violence consisted of criminal activity and a low level of political unrest expressed in election riots and assaults on the families or servants of burgesses. The minor pattern of official violence suggests that, despite the harsh requirements of penal law, by 1755 colonial Virginia courts had found ways to ameliorate criminal punishment. Fines, jail sentences, and pardons or reprieves were often substituted for the whippings or hangings which had been used in the seventeenth century. This study suggests, thus, that early Virginians "used" violence in a number of ways which aided the creation and development of an orderly colonial society. vi TURMOIL IN AN ORDERLY SOCIETY: COLONIAL VIRGINIA, 1607-1754; A HISTORY AND ANALYSIS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In 1950 Henry Steele Commager published The American Mind, a book in which he depicted American characteristics as essentially benevolent. Gregarious, optimistic, confident--these he identified then as typifying the American individual. American