Virginia Under Charles I And Cromwell, 1625-1660 Part 1

Virginia Under Charles I And Cromwell, 1625-1660.

by Wilcomb E. Washburn.

VIRGINIA ON THE EVE OF EXPANSION

Woodrow Wilson named the first volume of his _History of the United States_ "The Swarming of the English." We might go further and compare the colonization and expansion in the New World to a fissioning process in which individual atoms are torn loose from a former pattern of coherence and fused into new and strange patterns. The United States, indeed, is still in the process of fusion following the earlier fission process. It has not yet reached the stability that comes to some nations in history, and which is marked by a fixed pattern of population growth, land use, day-to-day habits, and philosophic beliefs. It is, rather, a country in which every generation can look back to a strangely different era that existed before it came of age.

The period 1625-1660 in Virginia history is an important one for the study of the fission-fusion process in America. During those years Virginia's population increased perhaps twenty-five or thirty fold, and the settlements spread from a thin belt along the James River to the whole of Tidewater Virginia. Human atoms were propelled outwards in every direction in an uncontrolled and only feebly directed expansion.

The years 1607 to 1625 had created a base for this expansion. Those had been crucial years and difficult ones. Settlements had resembled military camps and individual colonists had been commanded like soldiers. Rigorous administration of justice, fear of the Indians, and the strict economic regulations imposed by the London Company had served to restrain the potentially expansive nature of the colonists.

The year 1625 saw Virginia under a new King and under a new form of government. The charter of the London Company was made void, and the colony pa.s.sed from the control of a commercial company to the direct control of King Charles I.

The official census of the non-Indian population of Virginia in 1625 showed 1,232 persons in the colony. Nine hundred and fifty-two were males, twelve of them Negroes. Two hundred and eighty were females, eleven of them Negroes. Although the colony had been in existence for eighteen years the fissioning process had hardly begun. But it was beginning. Five years later the population had more than doubled to approximately 3,000. In 1640 the population jumped to 8,000, and by 1670 to 40,000, of whom 2,000 were Negroes. Every aspect of Virginia life--political, physical, economic, social, and moral--was to be affected by this explosive and uncontrolled growth.

Virginia did not develop any cities or even towns during the period 1625-1660. Indeed, the towns, such as Jamestown and Henrico, that had earlier been established, declined in population or were totally abandoned. The immigrants who were funneled into the colony through Jamestown were soon attracted to the ever widening frontier. During the first twenty years colonists had lived in organized farming communities, separated from other such settlements, but strictly supervised by local "plantation commanders." The separate settlements were variously called "colonies," "plantations," "hundreds," and "particular plantations," and sometimes contained hundreds of planters. Frequently the "plantation"

was located within a loop of the James River. The members of the settlement planted their crops within the loop, and set up palisades and forts at the open end for their common defense. Sentinels and guards were provided cooperatively to man the defenses. As the settlers increased in numbers and the power of their governors and of the Indians to restrain them decreased, however, they tended to leave the organized communities and to carve out for themselves individual plantations in the wilderness. Thus, even while the population of the colony grew by leaps and bounds, the population of Jamestown and other areas where population was once concentrated declined. It was a process, one might call it, of de-urbanization.

What was it that reversed the process of urbanization that was going on in the mother country? The attraction was, of course, the land and its fruits. England, with her five or six millions, was not overpopulated by modern standards. Nor was she overpopulated by comparison with the great nations of the Orient such as China which could even in that period count its population in the hundreds of millions. But her few millions seemed at times to oppress the English soil. On the other hand, America was a relatively new home of the human species. Perhaps less than a million Indians lived within the present bounds of the United States, and the Indians with whom the English in Virginia came in contact numbered less than 10,000. "In the beginning all the world was America,"

wrote John Locke, and the English townsmen, villagers, and yeomen who came to America found it natural to revert back to the time when Adam went forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. It would be more truthful to say, however, that the English went not so much in sorrow as in confidence, as the sons of Abraham to whom G.o.d had promised all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession.

Tobacco was the richest fruit of the land. Despite the moral opprobrium in which the "vile, stinking weed" was held by men in England, including King James himself, the public soon developed an insatiable appet.i.te for it. Having for the Europeans the attraction of novelty and utility, it commanded an enormous price in the early years of the settlement. With Spanish tobacco selling at eighteen s.h.i.+llings a pound in 1619, the opportunities for gain from tobacco production seemed unlimited. Here was the "gold" that Virginia had to offer, and soon all hands could think of nothing else. The earliest settlers, hoping to emulate the Spaniards in finding great treasures and living off the labor of the Indians, had suffered bitterly from shortages of food. Later settlers, though they did not hold to the expectations of the first arrivals, still sought the avenue of quickest and greatest gain, and tobacco provided that avenue. Throughout the 1620's many planters neglected to grow corn or wheat, preferring to obtain their food supply by barter or seizure from the Indians, or by purchase from planters who were willing to divert their labor to such crops. Who would bother with grain when tobacco sold for as much per pound as grain did per bushel? Frenchmen, brought over to introduce vine-growing in the colony, neglected their specialty to plant tobacco and had to be restrained by an act of February 1632. An act of February 1633 similarly required all gunsmiths, brickmakers, carpenters, joiners, sawyers, and turners to work at their trades and not to plant tobacco or do other work in the ground.

Another booklet in this series deals with agriculture in Virginia. It is enough to say here that as the total production of tobacco increased so did the price decline. Our present-day farm surplus problem is not new.

Even when the price had plummeted to a penny a pound the planters were not discouraged from planting. Attempts were made on both sides of the Atlantic to fix prices and to control the amount of production in order to restore prosperity to the tobacco farmers. The important questions were whose interests would be served, and how would they be served best?

The death of James I and the dissolution of the Virginia Company occurred almost at the same time. Charles I, his son, a.s.sumed the throne in 1625 and promptly a.s.sured the planters that though the form of Virginia's government had changed, the individual planters could be sure that their rights and property would be respected. Charles informed the colonists, however, that he would take over the buying of their tobacco as a royal monopoly and give them such prices as would satisfy and encourage them. Agreement with the planters, nevertheless, was difficult to obtain. The Virginians were solidly united as a special interest in favoring the highest prices and the greatest production. Their representatives, both in the House of Burgesses and on the Council, were their ardent spokesmen, themselves planters, whose interest lay in fighting the battle of all Virginians. On the other hand the King, and the English merchants and a.s.sociates through whom he dealt, desired to buy Virginia's tobacco at the lowest possible prices and in moderate quant.i.ties. The tug of war between the two sides continued for many years without any clear-cut resolution.

VIRGINIA UNDER WYATT AND YEARDLEY, 1625-1627: TOBACCO AND DEFENSE

Sir Francis Wyatt, who had been the London Company's Governor in the period 1621-1624, was appointed Governor by James I the first year the colony was under royal control. Although the King made no specific provision for the continuation of a representative a.s.sembly, Wyatt and the Council called together representatives of the various settlements to meet in a General a.s.sembly on May 10, 1625, in Jamestown. There they drew up a pet.i.tion complaining of the old Company rule and the miserable state in which it had kept the colony during the previous twelve years, and pleading with the King not to allow a monopoly of the tobacco trade.

The King's advisers, they feared, were those who had formerly oppressed them and who would do so again should the King consent to a "pernitious contract" taking all their tobacco at unfair rates. To present their case against the contract they chose Sir George Yeardley, former Governor, to go to England as their agent. The willingness of Wyatt and the Council to call such an a.s.sembly and the unanimity of views deriving from it, show how single in their economic interests all Virginians were.

Governor Wyatt attempted to prevent disorderly expansion of settlement and to build positions of strength in the colony, but he knew that the "affection" of the planters to "their privat dividents" was too strong a force to resist. Hence he recommended that a palisade be built from Martin's Hundred on the James River to Chiskiack on the York River, with houses s.p.a.ced along it at convenient intervals. In this way the Indians might be kept out of the entire lower portion of the peninsula, the cattle kept in, and the colony provided with a secure base for the development of its economy. After the economy was flouris.h.i.+ng, there would be a chance for finding the riches in the mountains to the west and the longed-for pa.s.sage to the South Sea, so confidently believed to lie just beyond the Appalachians. All these enterprises presupposed the "winning of the Forest" between the York and the James, which Wyatt hoped to accomplish by means of his palisade scheme.

Wyatt's project was not immediately put into effect. In 1626 he was replaced by Sir George Yeardley. Yeardley, like Wyatt, devoted much of his time to devising means to promote the security of the colony against attack by land or by sea.

It is hard for us to realize how desperately concerned with their security were the few thousand Englishmen who inhabited Virginia at this time. Separated from the mother country by 3,000 miles of ocean, a dangerous crossing usually taking two months, the settlers had only a precarious toe hold on a vast continent. From the ocean side the settlers feared possible attack from other European colonizing powers: the Spanish, French, or Dutch. The Spanish amba.s.sador in London in the early period of the Virginia settlement had frequently urged his government to wipe out the struggling colony. But the indecision of Spain's monarch had saved the colony.

The Virginians themselves had engaged in expeditions against the French settled in Maine, and spoke menacingly of the Dutch who had established a settlement on the King's domain in Hudson's River in 1613. The claims of the European monarchs to the American continent conflicted with one another, and there seemed little chance that a resolution would come by any other means than war. So it proved to be, later. In the meantime, at home, Virginia settlers stood on guard. Governor Yeardley appointed Capt. William Tucker, one of the Virginia Council, to check at Point Comfort all s.h.i.+ps entering the James River. Tucker was provided with a well-armed shallop and absolute authority to check all s.h.i.+ps arriving.

He could not do battle with an enemy wars.h.i.+p, of course, but he could give the alarm in case the enemy appeared. A few years later a fort was built at Point Comfort to defend the entrance to Virginia's great river.

Although the channel was too wide ever to be adequately commanded by the cannon of the day, the fort provided some protection to the colony.

Yeardley made similar efforts to strengthen Virginia's position on land against the numerically superior Indians. Like Wyatt he urged the necessity of "planting the forest" rather than jumping beyond it to areas far from existing settlements. As a means of controlling the population Yeardley issued a proclamation requiring that anyone who desired to move his place of residence within the colony must obtain prior permission from the Governor and Council. Even to be absent for a short time from his place of residence, a planter was required to get permission from his "plantation commander." As was pointed out earlier, "plantations" in this early period were usually not the individually-owned, individually-operated plantations of later times, but "private colonies" or "particular plantations," organized on a joint-stock basis, on which more than a hundred men might live.

In keeping with his conception of the colony as a military outpost, Yeardley made plans for an armed settlement on the York at Chiskiack, and devised a project for a surprise attack on all the surrounding Indians on the first day of August 1627. Each "particular plantation"

was to march against an Indian town, kill as many Indians as possible, and seize or cut down what corn it could. The attack was a success, but because of a scarcity of shot the English failed in their desired goal of utterly extirpating the red men.

In November 1627 Yeardley died, and the Council chose one of its number, Captain Francis West, to a.s.sume the role of Governor and Captain General.

VIRGINIA UNDER FRANCIS WEST AND DR. JOHN POTT, 1627-1630

Meanwhile the King had grown increasingly disgusted that Virginia's economy continued to be "built on smoke," and he ordered the Virginians to concentrate on crops and products other than tobacco. Among the products urged on the colonists were iron, salt, pitch and tar, potash, and pipe staves. As his directives went unheeded, the King determined to force a drastic reduction in the planting of the profitable tobacco crop. In instructions sent out in 1627 he directed that no master of a family be allowed to plant above 200 pounds of tobacco and no servant more than 125 pounds. He also ordered that all tobacco was to be consigned to him or his representatives.

Charles directed that a general a.s.sembly of the planters'

representatives be summoned to deal with his proposals, and Governor West and the Council ordered an a.s.sembly to meet on March 10, 1628. The a.s.sembly thanked the King for prohibiting the importation of Spanish tobacco into the English market, but cried that they would be at the mercy of covetous individuals in England if a monopoly on Virginia tobacco was allowed. They proposed, however, that since the King intended to take all their tobacco, he should agree to take at least 500,000 pounds of tobacco at 3 s.h.i.+llings 6 pence the pound delivered in Virginia, or 4 s.h.i.+llings delivered in London. If the King was unwilling to take so much, they desired the right to export again from England to the Low Countries, Ireland, Turkey, and elsewhere. As to the King's proposal to limit tobacco cultivation to 200 pounds for the master of a family and 125 pounds for a servant, "every weake judgment," they a.s.serted, could see that this would not be sufficient for their maintenance. As to the King's desire that the colonists should produce pitch and tar, pipe staves, and iron, they complained that much capital was needed to put such enterprises in operation. Few planters either could or would undertake such schemes when tobacco culture required so little capital and produced such quick and profitable results.

[Ill.u.s.tration: National Portrait Gallery, London

KING CHARLES I

Painting by Daniel Mytens]

The a.s.sembly commissioned Sir Francis Wyatt, then in England, and two Virginians to represent them in negotiations with the King. They were to be allowed to come down six pence on each of the figures insisted upon by Governor, Council, and Burgesses in their answer to the King's letter.

As in 1625, the opportunity to join in a.s.sembly for the purpose of agreeing on regulations for tobacco production allowed the planters to deal with other matters. Wesley Frank Craven has written that "representative government in America owes much in its origins to an attempt to win men's support of a common economic program by means of mutual consent." Had the King been less desirous of taking every planter's tobacco and less concerned with the neglect of staple commodities, he might well have governed the colony without calling the planters together in periodic "a.s.semblies."

Dr. John Pott was elected by the Council on March 5, 1629, to succeed West as Governor, and he governed in Virginia for one year. Few men possess a less savory record than this first representative of the medical profession in America. In 1624 he had been ordered removed from the Virginia Council, at the insistence of the Earl of Warwick, for his part in the attempt to poison the colony's Indian foes. He was later convicted of cattle stealing but spared punishment because he was the only doctor in the colony and therefore in great demand.

Both West and Pott were foes of the Indians, and in numerous orders and proclamations denounced former treaties of peace with them, and directed that perpetual enmity and wars be maintained against them. A pretended peace was, however, authorized to be extended to the Indians in August 1628 until certain captive Englishmen were redeemed; then it was to be broken.

The colonists, too, suffered during the administrations of West and Pott. One man expressed the hope for "an Easterly wind to blow to send in n.o.ble Capt. Harvey, And then I shall have wright for all my wrong."

Capt. John Harvey was known in the colony for the investigation he had conducted in Virginia in 1624-1625, and the King had appointed him Governor on March 26, 1628. Harvey did not actually take up his government in Virginia until two years later. In the meantime West and Pott administered the colony.

VIRGINIA UNDER JOHN HARVEY, 1630-1632: EXPANSION AND DEVELOPMENT

When Harvey arrived in 1630 he found that inadequate restrictions placed on tobacco production in the previous years had created an enormous surplus which had forced the price down to a penny a pound. Harvey found also that because of their "greedie desires to make store of Tobackoe,"

the settlers had neglected to plant sufficient corn, let alone to develop different commodities as instructed by the King. Calling an a.s.sembly, he convinced the representatives to agree to reduce the amount of tobacco planted, and to increase the amount of corn. He also sent s.h.i.+ps into the Chesapeake and southward to Cape Fear to trade for corn with the Indians to make up the deficit left by the negligent planters.

But most important of all, Harvey put into effect the long-dreamed-of plan to secure the entire area between the James and the York by building a palisade between Archer's Hope Creek (now College Creek), emptying into the James River, and Queen's Creek, emptying into the York River. Harvey's plan called also for a settlement on the south side of the York. This outpost would serve as an advance base and point of defense for operations against Opechancanough, King of the Pamunkeys, and his many warriors. Six hundred acres apiece were granted there in 1630 to Capt. John West, brother of Lord Delaware, and to Capt. John Utie, who were made commanders of the settlement. Fifty acres were offered to any person who would settle there during the first year of its existence and twenty-five during the next year. Exactly when the first settlers moved to the York is uncertain, but it was probably in 1631. West and Utie settled on either side of a bay formed by the joining of King's Creek and Felgate's Creek about four miles above modern Yorktown. The tourist who speeds along the Colonial Parkway from Jamestown to Yorktown crosses the bay within sight of the tracts granted West and Utie. Today he may drive from Jamestown to the York with comfort and safety in a few minutes. It took the early settlers twenty-four years to cover the same distance.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map 1]

About the same time, probably in 1630, another distant settlement was established. William Claiborne, Secretary of the Council of State of Virginia, with one hundred men, settled Kent Island 150 miles up Chesapeake Bay. In the a.s.sembly of February 1632 both "Kiskyacke and the Isle of Kent" were represented by Capt. Nicholas Martiau, ancestor of George Was.h.i.+ngton.

The great expansion had now begun. Settlers crossed from the James to the York, and provision was made by an act of the a.s.sembly of February 1633 for building houses at Middle Plantation, situated strategically between College Creek and Queen's Creek, and for "securing" the tract of land lying between the two creeks.

Besides being concerned with questions of defense, Harvey pursued a policy of encouraging trade with other colonies in the New World.

Numerous commissions were issued by the Governor in March and April of 1632 authorizing individuals to trade with New England, Nova Scotia, and the Dutch plantation in Hudson's River, as well as with the West Indies.

Harvey even gave instructions to Nathaniel Ba.s.se, one of the traders and a member of the Council, to encourage people from the other colonies to come to Virginia. "If those of Newe England shall dislike the coldnes of there clymate or the barrenness of the soyle," wrote Harvey, "you may propose unto them the plantinge of Delaware bay, where they shall have what furtherance wee cann afford them, and noe impediment objected against theire owne orders and lawes."

But all was not well in the government of the colony. Harvey found the Council members constantly opposing him, disputing his authority, resisting his attempts to administer equal justice to all men. The royal Governor was not supreme as we now sometimes mistakenly a.s.sume. He was first among equals only. Decisions at this time were made by majority vote, and the Governor was frequently outvoted. Moreover the Councilors, who could devote more of their time to their private affairs, tended to be better off financially than the Governor himself, who found it next to impossible to get his salary from the King, and who was forced to entertain at his own expense all who came to James City. Harvey complained that he should be called the "host" rather than the "Governor" of Virginia. In contrast, Samuel Mathews, one of Harvey's enemies on the Council, owned the finest estate in Virginia. William Claiborne, another of Harvey's enemies on the Council, besides a large estate, had a royal commission and English backers for his powerful trading company.

Harvey made every effort to reconcile the differences which arose between him and the Council members, and on December 20, 1631, all signed an agreement promising to work in harmony and to mend their discontent.