England in America, 1580-1652 Part 9

The houses throughout the colony were generally of wood, a story and a half high, and were roofed with shingles. The chimneys were of brick, and the wealthier people lived in houses constructed wholly of home-made brick.[42] "They had, besides, good English furniture" and a "good store of plate." By ordinary labor at making tobacco any person could clear annually 20 sterling, the equivalent of $500 to-day. The condition of the servants had greatly improved, and their labor was not so hard nor of such continuance as that of farmers and mechanics in England. Thefts were seldom committed, and an old writer a.s.serts that "he was an eye-witness in England to more deceits and villanies in four months than he ever saw or heard mention of in Virginia in twenty years abode there."[43]

The plenty of everything made hospitality universal, and the health of the country was greatly promoted by the opening of the forests.

Indeed, so contented were the people with their new homes that the same writer declares, "Seldom (if ever) any that hath continued in Virginia any time will or do desire to live in England, but post back with what expedition they can, although many are landed men in England, and have good estates there, and divers wayes of preferments propounded to them to entice and perswade their continuance."

In striking contrast to New England was the absence of towns, due mainly to two reasons--first, the wealth of watercourses, which enabled every planter of means to ship his products from his own wharf; and, secondly, the culture of tobacco, which scattered the people in a continual search for new and richer lands. This rural life, while it hindered co-operation, promoted a spirit of independence among the whites of all cla.s.ses which counteracted the aristocratic form of government. The colony was essentially a democracy, for though the chief offices in the counties and the colony at large were held by a few families, the people were protected by a popular House of Burgesses, which till 1736 was practically established on manhood suffrage. Negro slavery tended to increase this independence by making race and not wealth the great distinction; and the ultimate result was seen after 1792, when Virginia became the headquarters of the Democratic-Republican party--the party of popular ideas.[44]

Under the conditions of Virginia society, no developed educational system was possible, but it is wrong to suppose that there was none.

The parish inst.i.tutions introduced from England included educational beginnings; every minister had a school, and it was the duty of the vestry to see that all poor children could read and write. The county courts supervised the vestries and held a yearly "orphans' court,"

which looked after the material and educational welfare of all orphans.[45]

The benevolent design of a free school in the colony, frustrated by the ma.s.sacre of 1622, was realized in 1635, when--three years before John Harvard bequeathed his estate to the college near Boston which bears his name--Benjamin Syms left "the first legacy by a resident of the American plantations of England for the promotion of education."[46] In 1659 Thomas Eaton established[47] a free school in Elizabeth City County, adjoining that of Benjamin Syms; and a fund amounting to $10,000, representing these two ancient charities, is still used to carry on the public high-school at Hampton, Virginia. In 1655 Captain John Moon left a legacy for a free school in Isle of Wight County; and in 1659 Captain William Whittington left two thousand pounds of tobacco for a free school in Northampton County.

[Footnote 1: Hening, _Statutes_, I., 224.]

[Footnote 2: _Cal. of State Pap., Col._, 1574-1660, pp. 201, 231, 268.]

[Footnote 3: _William and Mary Quarterly_, IV., 173-176, V., 40.]

[Footnote 4: _Virginia's Cure_ (Force, _Tracts_, III., No. xv.).]

[Footnote 5: De Vries, _Voyages_ (N.Y. Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 2d series, III., 34).]

[Footnote 6: Smith, _Works_ (Arber's ed.), 887.]

[Footnote 7: _Cal. of State Pap., Col._, 1574-1660, p. 288. In 1639 Alexander Stonar, brickmaker, patented land on Jamestown Island "next to the brick-kiln," Tyler, _Cradle of the Republic_, 46, 99.]

[Footnote 8: Ma.s.s. Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 4th series, IX., 108.]

[Footnote 9: De Vries, _Voyages_ (N.Y. Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 2d series, III., 37)]

[Footnote 10: _William and Mary Quarterly_, VII., 66, 114.]

[Footnote 11: _Cal. of State Pap., Col._, 1574-1660, p. 117.]

[Footnote 12: Hening, _Statutes_, I., 225.]

[Footnote 13: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 67.]

[Footnote 14: Ma.s.s. Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 4th series, IX., 110.]

[Footnote 15: _Cal. of State Pap., Col._, 1574-1660, p. 184.]

[Footnote 16: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 228.]

[Footnote 17: _Va. Magazine_, V., 123-128.]

[Footnote 18: _Virginia and Maryland, or the Lord Baltimore's Printed Case, uncased and answered_ (Force, _Tracts_, II, No. ix.).]

[Footnote 19: _Va. Magazine_, II., 281-288.]

[Footnote 20: Hening, _Statutes_, I., 230-235.]

[Footnote 21: _Ma.n.u.script Collection of Annals relating to Virginia_ (Force, _Tracts_, II., No. vi.).]

[Footnote 22: Latane, _Early Relations between Maryland and Virginia_ (_Johns Hopkins University Studies_, XIII., Nos. iii. and iv.).]

[Footnote 23: Winthrop, _New England_, III, 198, 199].

[Footnote 24: Ibid.; Beverley, _Virginia_, 48.]

[Footnote 25: _Va. Magazine_, VIII., 71-73.]

[Footnote 26: _A Perfect Description of Virginia_ (Force, _Tracts_, II., No. viii.); Beverley, _Virginia_, 49.]

[Footnote 27: Hening, _Statutes_, I., 323-326.]

[Footnote 28: Latane, _Early Relations_ (_Johns Hopkins University Studies_, XIII.).]

[Footnote 29: _William and Mary Quarterly_, VIII., 239.]

[Footnote 30: Hammond, _Leah and Rachel_ (Force, _Tracts_, III., No.

xiv.).]

[Footnote 31: _Perfect Description_ (ibid., II., No. viii.).]

[Footnote 32: Neill, _Virginia Carolorum_, 238; Tyler, _Cradle of the Republic_, 90.]

[Footnote 33: Hening, _Statutes_, I., 359-361.]

[Footnote 34: _Cal. of State Pap., Col._, 1574-1660, p. 343.]

[Footnote 35: _Md. Archives_, III., 265-267.]

[Footnote 36: _Cal. of State Pap., Col._, 1574-1660, p. 393.]

[Footnote 37: See report of the commissioners, _Va. Magazine_, XI., 32.]

[Footnote 38: Hening, _Statutes_, I., 363, 371.]

[Footnote 39: Virginia Land Grants, _MSS_.]

[Footnote 40: _Md. Archives_, IV., 268, 315.]

[Footnote 41: Bancroft, _United States_ (22d ed.), II, 134.]

[Footnote 42: Tyler, "Colonial Brick Houses," in _Century Magazine_, February, 1896.]

[Footnote 43: Hammond, _Leah and Rachel_ (Force, _Tracts_, III., No.

xiv.).]