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The Planters of Colonial Virginia

1923; Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture; Volume: 3; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1921514

1933-7698

Thomas J. Wertenbaker,

American Constitutional Law and Politics

IEngland in the New World At the beginning of the Seventeenth century colonial ex- pansion 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 ex- pansion 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 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 coun- tries 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 neces- sary 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 15 Thus, when Captain Newport returned in 1607 to report that the colony of Virginia had been safely launched, manyEnglishmen were aroused to a high pitch of hope and expecta- tion.Now at last a province had been secured which could supply the raw materials which England so greatly needed.The active supporters of the undertaking were lavish in their promises.Virginia would yield better and cheaper timber for shipping than Prussia or Poland, she would furnish potash in abundance, and since wood could there be had for the cutting, her copper and iron ore could be smelted on the spot.Wine could be made there, as excellent as that of the Canaries, they boasted, while it was hoped soon to manufacture silk rivalling in fineness that of Persia or of Turkey.The waters of the colony were full of "Sturgion, Caviare and new land fish of the best," her fields could produce hemp for cordage and flax for linen.As for pitch, tar, turpentine and boards, there was a certainty of a rich return. 11 In February 1608, the Council of Virginia wrote to the corporation of Plymouth:"The staple and certain Comodities we have are Soap-ashes, pitch, tar, dyes of sundry sorts and rich values, timber for all uses, fishing for sturgeon and divers other sorts . . .making of Glass and Iron, and no improbable hope of richer mines." 12 And no sooner had the infant colony been established than the Company turned with enthusiasm to the production of these highly desired commodities.A number of foreigners, Dutchmen and Poles skilled in the manufacture of ship-stores, were sent over to make a start with pitch, tar, turpentine and potash.They were to act as instructors, also, and it was ex- pected that within a few years the Virginia forests would be filled with workers in these trades.Unfortunately their efforts met with ill success, and save for a few small samples of pitch and tar which were sent to England, nothing of value was produced. THE PLANTERS OFFor this failure the reason is apparent.All the able econ- omists and statesmen who had predicted that the colony would become an industrial center had overlooked one vitally im- portant factor-the lack of cheap labor.No matter how rich in natural resources, Virginia could not hope to compete with the long-established industries of Europe and Asia, because she lacked the abundant population requisite to success.It had been imagined by Hakluyt and others that the colony could avail herself of the surplus population of England, could drain off the upper stratum of the idle and unemployed.What more feasible than to set these men to work in the forests of the New World to produce the raw materials the want of which was responsible for unemployment in England itself !THE PLANTERS OF development of an industrial community and for many dec- ades, perhaps for centuries, could not hope to attain it.Her future lay in the discovery and exploitation of one staple commodity for which she was so preeminently adapted that she could, even with her costly labor, meet the competition of other lands.The future history of Virginia was to be built up around the Indian plant tobacco. CHAPTER IIThe Indian Weed History is baffling in its complexity.The human mind instinctively strives for simplicity, endeavors to reproduce all things to set rules, to discover the basic principles upon which all action is based.And in various lines of research much success has attended these efforts.We know the laws under- lying the movements of the planets, of various chemical re- actions, of plant and animal life.It is inevitable, then, that attempts should be made to accomplish similar results in history, to master the vast multitude of facts which crowd its pages, many of them seemingly unrelated, and show that after all they obey certain fundamental laws.Despite the vaunted freedom of the human will, it is maintained, mankind like the planets or the chemical agents, cannot escape the operation of definite forces to which it is subjected.And if these forces are studied and understood, to some extent at least, the course of future events may be predicted.Thus it may be accepted as practically established that in any country and with any people a condition of continued dis- order and anarchy must be succeeded by one of despotism.History records, we believe, no exception to this rule, while there are many instances which tend to confirm it.The abso- lute rule of the Caesars followed the anarchy of the later Roman republic, the Oliverian Protectorate succeeded the British civil wars, the first French Empire the Reign of Terror, the Bolshevik despotism the collapse of the old regime in Russia.Such will always be the case, we are told, because mankind turns instinctively to any form of government in quest of 21 THE PLANTERS OF fancy, its development, its days of misfortune, its era of pros- perity, its peculiar civilization, the nature of its relations to England, unless one knows the history of tobacco.As though they had a prophetic vision of its future impor- tance, the Virginia Indians revered the plant.To them it was an especial gift direct from the Great Spirit, and as such was endowed with unusual properties for doing good.When the fields of maize were dried and parched for lack of rain they powdered the tobacco and cast it to the winds that the evil genii might be propitiated ; their priests on great occasions fed it to the sacrificial fires; when the usual catch of fish failed it was scattered over the water. 1 Smoking was considered a token of friendship and peace.When the white men first visited the native villages they soon found that to reject the proffered pipe was to offend their savage hosts and incur their hostility.It was John Rolfe, celebrated as the husband of Pocahontas, who first experimented with the native leaf.This gentleman was himself fond of smoking, but he found the Virginia to- bacco as it came from the hands of the savages, decidedly in- ferior to that of the West Indies.The leaf itself was small, and although the flavor was weak it was biting to the tongue. 2Rolfe's efforts proved entirely successful.In 1614, two years after his first attempt, he had obtained a product which Ralph Hamor declared to be as "strong, sweet and pleasant as any under the sun." 3 Thus, early in its history, Virginia had found a commodity for which she was preeminently suited, in the production of which she could compete successfully with any country in the world.And for her tobacco she had a ready market.During the reign of Queen Elizabeth the habit of smoking had spread rapidly among the upper classes of English, until at the end of the sixteenth century, it was almost universal.When COLONIAL VIRGINIA 25 James I ascended the throne, although feeling a strong aversion to tobacco, he was forced to take up its use in order not to appear conspicuous among his courtiers, for the dictates of custom seem to have been as strong three hundred years ago as at present. 4 At the time that Rolfe was making his experiments England was spending yearly for the Spanish product many thousands of pounds.It is not surprising, then, that the colonists turned eagerly to tobacco culture.The news that Rolfe's little crop had been pronounced in England to be of excellent quality spread rapidly from settlement to settlement, bringing with it new hope and determination.Immediately tobacco absorbed the thoughts of all, became the one topic of conversation, and every available patch of land was seized upon for its cultiva- tion.The fortified areas within the palisades were crowded with tobacco plants, while even the streets of Jamestown were utilized by the eager planters. 5In 161 7 the George set sail for England laden with 20,000 pounds of Virginia leaf, the THE PLANTERS OF many of Monmouth's followers taken at Sedgemour, who were fortunate enough to escape the fury of Jeffreys and Kirk, were forced to work in the plantations.But the bulk of the servants were neither criminals nor po- litical prisoners, but poor persons seeking to better their con- dition in the land of promise across the Atlantic.They constituted the vanguard of that vast stream of immigrants which for three centuries Europe has poured upon our shores.The indentured servant differed in no essential from the poor Ulsterite or German who followed him in the Eighteenth cen- tury, or the Irishman, the Italian or the Slav in the Nineteenth.Like them he found too severe the struggle for existence at home, like them he sought to reach a land where labor, the only commodity he had to sell, would bring the highest re- turn.The fact that his passage was paid for him and that he was bound by contract to work it out after reaching America, in no wise differentiates him from the newcomers of later THE PLANTERS OF ter, finding no doubt that he could not put under cultivation so much land, cut it up into small parcels and sold it off to various planters.Of these transactions we have, most for- tunately, a fairly complete record.