  1 It is reprinted in Force’s Tracts, vol. ii.; and in Maxwell’s Virginia Historical Register, ii. 61-78. The original, of which there is one in the library of Harvard University, was priced by Rich, in 1832, at £1 10 s., and by Quaritch, in 1879, at £20. See Winsor, Narr. and Crit. Hist. iii. 157. 2 The following list of Virginia counties bearing royal names, founded between 1689 and 1765, is interesting:—
3 Jewett’s History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, ii. 30. Charlestown was named from the river at the mouth of which it stands. 4 W. H. Whitmore, The Cavalier Dismounted, Salem, 1864. 5 William and Mary College Quarterly, i. 53. In the same connection we are told that Beverley Tucker apologized for putting on record a brief account of his family, saying “at this day it is deemed arrogant to remember one’s ancestors. But the fashion may change,” etc. 6 See Cooke’s Virginia, p. 161. 7 Doyle’s Virginia, etc. p. 283. 8 Written in 1771 by his great-grandson William Lee, alderman of London, and quoted in Edmund Lee’s Lee of Virginia, Philadelphia, 1895, p. 49. 9 “The petition of John Jeffreys, of London,” in Sainsbury’s Calendar of State Papers, 1574-1660, p. 430; Lee of Virginia, p. 61. 10 Compare L. G. Tyler’s remarks in William and Mary College Quarterly, i. 155. 11 See the testimony of John Gibbon, in Lee of Virginia, p. 60. 12 Beverley, History and Present State of Virginia, London, 1705, p. 56; Robertson, History of America, iv. 230. 13 Hening’s Statutes, i. 526. 14 The document is given in William and Mary College Quarterly, i. 158, where the bill of items quoted in the next paragraph may also be found. Mr. Philip Malory was an officiating clergyman. 15 Meade’s Old Churches, ii. 137. 16 The claim to the French crown set up by Edward III. in 1328 led to the so-called Hundred Years’ War, in the course of which Henry VI. was crowned King of France in the church of Notre Dame at Paris in 1431. His sway there was practically ended in 1436, but the English sovereigns continued absurdly to call themselves Kings of France until 1801. 17 See above, vol. i. p. 250. 18 See the able paper by Dr. L. G. Tyler on “The Seal of Virginia,” William and Mary College Quarterly, iii. 81-96. 19 For my data regarding land grants I am much indebted to the very learned and scholarly work of Mr. Philip Bruce, Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, i. 487-571. 20 Letters and Times of the Tylers, i. 41. 21 He is mentioned by Pepys in his Diary, Oct. 12, 1660: “Office day all the morning, and from thence with Sir W. Batten and the rest of the officers to a venison party of his at the Dolphin, where dined withal Colonel Washington, Sir Edward Brett, and Major Norwood, very noble company.” 22 Waters, An Examination of the English Ancestry of George Washington, Boston, 1889. 23 Sir William Jones’s Works, ed. Lord Teignmouth, London, 1807, x. 389. 24 The change was somewhat gradual, e. g. in Massachusetts at first the eldest son received a double portion. See The Colonial Laws of Massachusetts, reprinted from the edition of 1660, ed. W. H. Whitmore, Boston, 1889, pp. 51, 201. 25 See Howard, Local Constitutional History of the United States, i. 122. 26 A few of the oldest Virginia counties, organized as such in 1634, had arisen from the spreading and thinning of single settlements originally intended to be cities and named accordingly. Hence the curious names (at first sight unintelligible) of “James City County” and “Charles City County.” 27 Edward Channing, “Town and County Government in the English Colonies of North America,” Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, vol. ii. 28 For an excellent account of local government in Virginia before the Revolution, see Howard, Local Const. Hist. of the U. S. i. 388-407; also Edward Ingle in Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, iii. 103-229. With regard to the county lieutenant’s honorary title, Mr. Ingle suggests that it may help to explain the super-abundance of military titles in the South, and he quotes from a writer in the London Magazine in 1745: “Wherever you travel in Maryland (as also in Virginia and Carolina) your ears are astonished at the number of colonels, majors, and captains that you hear mentioned.” 29 Jefferson’s Works, vii. 13. 30 Id. vi. 544. 31 Ingle, in J. H. U. Studies, iii. 90. 32 “The humble Remonstrance of John Bland, of London, Merchant, on the behalf of the Inhabitants and Planters in Virginia and Mariland,” reprinted in Virginia Historical Magazine, i. 142-155. 33 Bruce, Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, i. 394. 34 Papers from the Records of Surry County, William and Mary College Quarterly, iii. 123-125. 35 Pepys, Diary, Nov. 29, Dec. 3, 1664. 36 Diary, Jan. 19 and 28, 1661. 37 Neill, Virginia Carolorum, p. 341. 38 In describing this affair I have relied chiefly upon the affidavits from the records of Westmoreland County, reprinted by Dr. L. G. Tyler, in his admirable William and Mary College Quarterly, ii. 39-43. The affidavits were taken by Nicholas Spencer and Richard Lee, son of the Richard Lee mentioned in the preceding chapter. In Browne’s Maryland, p. 131, an attempt is made to throw the blame for killing the envoys upon the Virginians, but the affidavits seem to me trustworthy and conclusive. It is not likely that there was or is any discernible difference between human nature in Virginia and in Maryland, and public opinion in both colonies condemned Truman’s conduct. 39 “Cittenborne Parish Grievances, reprinted from Winder Papers, Virginia State Library,” in Virginia Magazine, iii. 35. 40 “Charles City County Grievances,” Virginia Magazine, iii. 137. 41 The following abridged table shows the relationship (see Virginia Magazine, ii. 125):— Robert Bacon, of Drinkstone, Suffolk. " +------------+--------------------+ " " " Thomas Sir Nicholas James Bacon, Bacon. Bacon, Lord alderman of Keeper of the London, d. 1573. Great Seal, " b. 1510, d. 1579. " " " Francis Bacon, Sir James Bacon, Viscount St. Albans of Friston Hall, and Lord Chancellor, d. 1618. b. 1561, d. 1626. " +-------+----------+ " " Nathaniel Bacon, Rev. James Bacon, b. 1593, d. 1644. Rector of Burgate, " d. 1670. " " Thomas Bacon, " m. Elizabeth Brooke. Nathaniel Bacon, " of King’s Creek, Nathaniel Bacon, b. 1620, d. 1692; the Rebel, came to Virginia b. 1648, d. 1676. cir. 1650, and settled at King’s Creek, York County. 42 Drummond Lake, in the Dismal Swamp, was named for him. 43 For the picturesque details of this narrative I have followed the well-known document found by Rufus King when minister to Great Britain in 1803, and published by President Jefferson in the Richmond Enquirer in 1804; since reprinted in Force’s Tracts, vol. i., Washington, 1836, and in Maxwell’s Virginia Historical Register, vol. iii., Richmond, 1850. The original manuscript was written in 1705, and addressed to Robert Harley, Queen Anne’s secretary of state, afterward Earl of Oxford. The writer signs himself “T. M.,” and speaks of himself as dwelling in Northumberland County and possessing a plantation also in Stafford County, which he represented in the House of Burgesses. From these indications it is pretty certain that he was Thomas Mathews, son of Governor Samuel Mathews heretofore mentioned. His account of the scenes of which he was an eye-witness is quite vivid. 44 Bruce, Economic History, ii. 455. 45 T. M. goes on to remark that “the two chief commanders ... who slew the four Indian great men” were present among the burgesses. This may seem to implicate Colonel Washington and Major Allerton in the killing of the envoys; but T. M.’s recollection, thirty years after the event, is of not much weight when contradicted by the sworn affidavits above cited. The facts that, while Truman was impeached in Maryland, no such action seems to have been undertaken in Virginia against Washington and Allerton, and that, after the governor’s strong words regarding the slaying, the friendly relations between him and these gentlemen continued, would indicate that their skirts were clean. 46 Beverley (History and Present State of Virginia, London, 1705, bk. iv. p. 3) tells us that before 1680 the council and burgesses sat together, like the Scotch parliament, and that the separation occurred under Lord Culpeper’s administration; and his statement is generally repeated by historians without qualification. Yet here in 1676 we find the two houses sitting separately, and the discussion cited shows that it had often been so before; otherwise the sending of two councillors to sit with the burgesses could not have been customary. Beverley’s date of 1680 was evidently intended as the final date of separation; not as the date before which the two houses never sat separately, but as the date after which they never sat together. 47 The acts of this assembly, known as “Bacon’s Laws,” are given in Hening’s Statutes, ii. 341-365. 48 “It is still their boast that they are the descendants of Powhatan’s warriors. A good evidence of their present laudable ambition is an application recently made by them for a share in the privileges of the Hampton schools. These bands of Indians are known by two names: the larger band is called the Pamunkeys (120 souls); the smaller goes by the name of the Mattaponies (50). They are both governed by chiefs and councillors, together with a board of white trustees chosen by themselves.” Hendren, “Government and Religion of the Virginia Indians,” Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, xiii. 591. 49 In 1656 a tribe called Ricahecrians, about 700 in number, from beyond the Blue Ridge, had advanced eastward as far as the falls of the James River, where they encountered and defeated Hill and Totapotamoy. After this the Ricahecrians may have retraced their steps westward; we hear no more of them on the Atlantic seaboard. 50 The original MS. of the manifesto is in the British State Paper Office. It is printed in full in the Virginia Magazine, i. 55-61. 51 The original is in the Colonial Entry Book, lxxi. 232-240. It is printed in G. B. Goode’s Virginia Cousins; a Study of the Ancestry and Posterity of John Goode, of Whitby, Richmond, 1887, pp. 30A-30D. A brief summary is given in Doyle’s Virginia, p. 251. 52 Bacon’s neighbour and adherent, William Byrd, purchaser of the Westover estate, and father of William Byrd the historian. 53 Bacon’s allusion is to the troubles in North Carolina which broke out during the governorship of George Carteret and were chiefly due to the Navigation Act. See below, p. 280; and as to Maryland, see p. 156. 54 One of these ladies is said to have been the wife of the elder Nathaniel Bacon! 55 “A True Narrative of the Rise, Progresse, and Cessation of the Late Rebellion in Virginia, most humbly and impartially reported by his Majestyes Commissioners appointed to enquire into the Affairs of the said Colony,” [Winder Papers, Virginia State Library], reprinted in Virginia Magazine, iv. 117-154. 56 “Persons who suffered by Bacon’s Rebellion; Commissioners Report,” [Winder Papers], reprinted in Virginia Magazine, v. 64-70. See, also, the extracts from the Westmoreland County records, in William and Mary College Quarterly, ii. 43. 57 See F. P. Brent, “Some unpublished facts relating to Bacon’s Rebellion on the Eastern Shore of Virginia,” and Mrs. Tyler, “Thomas Hansford, the First Native Martyr to American Liberty,” in Virginia Historical Society’s Collections, vol. xi. 58 Some interesting information about the Cheesmans may be found in William and Mary College Quarterly, vol. i. 59 Neill’s Virginia Carolorum, p. 379. 60 See above, p. 35. 61 Hening’s Statutes, i. 290. 62 Hening’s Statutes, ii. 45. In the same statute it was further enacted “that none shall be admitted to be of the vestry that doth not take the oath of allegiance and supremacy to his Majesty and subscribe to be conformable to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England.” This effectually excluded Dissenters from taking a part in local government. 63 See Channing, “Town and County Government in the English Colonies of North America,” J. H. U. Studies, ii. 484; Howard, Local Constitutional History of the United States, i. 388-404. 64 “We have not had liberty to choose vestrymen wee humbly desire that the wholle parish may have a free election.” “Surry County Grievances,” Virginia Magazine, ii. 172. 65 See e. g. Hening’s Statutes, ii. 402, 411, 412, 419, 421, 443, 445, 478, 486. 66 Hening’s Statutes, ii. 396. 67 Laws in Force in 1769, p. 2. 68 Hening’s Statutes, ii. 425. 69 Sherwood to Sir Joseph Williamson, June 28, 1676, Virginia Magazine, i. 171. Sherwood was a gentleman, probably educated as a lawyer, who had been convicted of robbery in England and pardoned through the intercession of Sir Joseph Williamson, secretary of state. (As to gentlemen robbers, compare the reference to Sir John Popham, above, vol. i. p. 81 of the present work.) Sherwood became attorney-general of Virginia in 1677, and was for thirty years an esteemed member of society. 70 Ludwell to Sir Joseph Williamson, June 28, 1676, Virginia Magazine, i. 179. 71 In other words, they entertained communistic ideas. I have italicised the statement, to mark its importance. 72 The same letter, Virginia Magazine, i. 183. 73 T. M.’s Narrative, Virginia Historical Register, iii. 126. It will be remembered that Masaniello’s insurrection occurred in 1647, and was thus fresh in men’s memories. Masaniello was twenty-four years of age, and was murdered in his hour of apparent triumph. 74 “A True Narrative, etc.” Virginia Magazine, iv. 125. 75 Virginia Magazine, i. 433. 76 See Miss Rowland’s admirable Life of George Mason, 1725-1792, New York, 1892, i. 17. 77 From the list of Surry grievances we may cite “6. That the 2 s per hhd Imposed by ye 128th act for the payment of his majestyes officers & other publique debts thereby to ease his majestyes poore subjects of their great taxes: wee humblely desire that an account may be given thereof.... 10. That it has been the custome of County Courts att the laying of the levy to withdraw into a private Roome by wch meanes the poore people not knowing for what they paid their levy did allways admire how their taxes could be so high. Wee most humbly pray that for the future the County levy may be laid publickly in the Court house.” From the Isle of Wight grievances, “21. Wee doe also desire to know for what purpose or use the late publique leavies of 50 pounds of tobacco and cask per poll and the 12 pound per polle is for and what benefit wee are to have for it.” Virginia Magazine, ii. 171, 172, 389. 78 Isle of Wright grievances, “16. Also wee desire that evrie man may be taxed according to the tracks [tracts] of Land they hold.” Virginia Magazine, ii. 388. 79 “One proclamation commanded all men in the land on pain of death to joine him, and retire into the wildernesse upon arrival of the forces expected from England, and oppose them untill they should propose or accept to treat of an accomodation, which we who lived comfortably could not have undergone, so as the whole land must have become an Aceldama if god’s exceeding mercy had not timely removed him.” So says T. M., whose narrative is by no means unfriendly to Bacon. 80 Bruce, Economic History of Virginia, i. 402. 81 Bruce, Economic History of Virginia, i. 405; Hening’s Statutes, ii. 562. 82 Doyle’s Virginia, p. 261. 83 Hening’s Statutes, iii. 10. 84 Doyle’s Virginia, pp. 259-265; Stanard, “Robert Beverley and his Descendants,” Virginia Magazine, ii. 405-413; Hening’s Statutes, iii. 41, 451-571. 85 William and Mary College Quarterly, i. 66. 86 From time to time there had been futile attempts to take up the matter afresh; see, for example, Hening’s Statutes, ii. 30. 87 Dr. Blair held the presidency for fifty years, until his death in 1743. 88 William and Mary College Quarterly, i. 65. 89 I leave this as it was first written a few years ago, and take pleasure in adding to it the following quotation from Mr. Bruce: “That the entire site of the town will not finally sink beneath the waves of the river will be due to the measures of protection which the National Government have adopted at the earnest solicitation of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. This organization is performing a noble and sacred work in rescuing so many of the ancient landmarks of the state from ruin, a work into which it has thrown a zeal, energy, and intelligence entitling it to the honour and gratitude of all who are interested in the history, not merely of Virginia, but of America itself.” Economic History of Virginia, ii. 562. 90 Hening’s Statutes, iii. 122. 91 William and Mary College Quarterly, i. 66. 92 William and Mary College Quarterly, ii. 65. 93 Id. i. 187. 94 Cooke’s Virginia, p. 306. 95 William and Mary College Quarterly, iii. 263. 96 William and Mary College Quarterly, ii. 55, 56. 97 See my American Revolution, i. 18, 19. 98 This charming story is only one of many good things for which I am indebted to President L. G. Tyler; see William and Mary College Quarterly, i. 11. 99 Partonopeus de Blois, 1250, ed. Crapelet, tom. i. p. 45. “She acts like a woman, and so does well, for under the heavens there is nothing so daring as the woman who loves, when God wills to turn her that way: God bless the ladies all!” 100 William and Mary College Annual Catalogue, 1894-95. 101 See Sparks, “Causes of the Maryland Revolution of 1689,” Johns Hopkins University Studies, vol. xiv. p. 501, a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the subject. 102 See above, p. 20. 103 For this description of Herman I am much indebted to E. H. Vallandigham’s paper on “The Lord of Bohemia Manor,” reprinted in Lee Phillips, Virginia Cartography, Washington, 1896, pp. 37-41. 104 To enable him to hold real estate in Maryland, Herman received letters of naturalization, the first ever issued in that province, and he is supposed by some writers to have been the first foreign citizen thus naturalized in America. 105 See Browne’s Maryland, p. 137. 106 Johnson, “Old Maryland Manors,” Johns Hopkins University Studies, vol. i. 107 Johnson, op. cit. p. 21. 108 F. E. Sparks, op. cit. p. 65. 109 Archives of Maryland: Assembly, ii. 64. 110 Archives of Maryland: Council, ii. 18. 111 MSS. Archives of Maryland, Liber R. R. and R. R. R. and Council Books 1677-1683, of the Council Proceedings: Maryland Historical Society. 112 See Greene’s History of Rhode Island, ii. 490-494. 113 The petition and answer are given in Scharf’s History of Maryland, i. 345-348. 114 Probably in honour of Princess Anne, the heiress presumptive, afterward Queen Anne. 115 Every bearskin paid 9d., elk 12d., deer or beaver 4d., raccoons 3 farthings, muskrats 4d. per dozen, etc. Scharf, i. 352. 116 Meade’s Old Churches, ii. 352. Bishop Meade adds: “My own recollection of statements made by faithful witnesses ... accords with the above.” 117 Alexander Graydon tells us that in his early days any jockeying, fiddling, wine-bibbing clergyman, not over-scrupulous as to stealing his sermons, was currently known as a “Maryland parson.” Graydon’s Memoirs, Edinburgh, 1822, p. 102. This was in Pennsylvania, and any sneering remark or phrase current in any of our states with reference to its next neighbours is entitled to be taken cum grano salis. But there was doubtless justification for what Graydon says. 118 Scharf, i. 368. 119 Scharf, i. 370, 383. 120 The following estimate of the population of the twelve colonies in 1715 (from Chalmer’s American Colonies, ii. 7) may be of interest:—
121 Scharf, i. 390. 122 Knapp and Baldwin, Newgate Calendar, ii. 385-397; Pelham, Chronicles of Crime, i. 213-220. 123 Doyle’s Virginia, p. 192. 124 For runaways additional terms of from two to seven years were sometimes prescribed. The birth of a bastard was punished by an additional term of from one and a half to two and a half years for the mother and a year for the father. See Ballagh, “White Servitude in the Colony of Virginia,” Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, xiii. 315. 125 “Among the rest, she often told me how the greatest part of the inhabitants of that colony came thither in very indifferent circumstances from England; that, generally speaking, they were of two sorts: either, 1st, such as were brought over by masters of ships to be sold as servants; or, 2nd, such as are transported after having been found guilty of crimes punishable with death. When they come here ... the planters buy them, and they work together in the field till their time is out.... [Then] they have a certain number of acres of land allotted them by the country, and they go to work to clear and cure the land, and then to plant it with tobacco and corn for their own use; and as the merchants will trust them with tools and necessaries upon the credit of their crop before it is grown, so they again plant every year a little more [etc.].... Hence, child, says she, many a Newgate-bird becomes a great man, and we have ... several justices of the peace, officers of the trained bands, and magistrates of the towns they live in, that have been burnt in the hand.... You need not think such a thing strange; ... some of the best men in the country are burnt in the hand, and they are not ashamed to own it; there’s Major ——, says she, he was an eminent pickpocket; there’s Justice B—— was a shoplifter, ... and I could name you several such as they are.” Moll Flanders, p. 66. 126 Plays written by the late Ingenious Mrs. Behn, London, 1724, iv. 110-112. 127 Postlethwayt’s Dictionary of Commerce, 3d ed., London, 1766, vol. ii. fol. 4 M, 2 recto, col. 1. 128 Boswell’s Life of Johnson, ed. Birkbeck Hill, ii. 312. Professor James Butler, in an excellent paper on “British Convicts shipped to American Colonies,” American Historical Review, ii. 12-33, suggests that Johnson’s impression may have been derived from his long connection with the Gentleman’s Magazine, wherein the lists of felons, reprieved from the gallows and sent to America were regularly published. 129 Whitmore, The Cavalier Dismounted, p. 17. 130 Pike, History of Crime in England, ii. 447. 131 American Historical Review, ii. 25. 132 Penny CyclopÆdia, xxv. 138. 133 Report of Royal Historical MSS. Commission, xiii. 605. 134 The only specific mention which Professor Butler has been able to find of a criminal sent to New England is that of Elizabeth Canning, who was sent out for seven years under penalty of death if she returned to England during that time. She was brought to Connecticut in 1754, married John Treat two years afterward, and died in Wethersfield in 1773. American Historical Review, ii. 32. 135 Massachusetts Acts and Resolves, i. 452; ii. 245. 136 Bruce, Economic History of Virginia, i. 609; Gardiner, History of the Commonwealth, i. 464. It is commonly said that many of the prisoners condemned for taking part in Monmouth’s rebellion, 1685, were sent to Virginia (see Bancroft, Hist. of U. S. i. 471; Ballagh, J. H. U. Studies, xiii. 293). But an examination of the lists shows that nearly all were sent to Barbadoes, and probably none to Virginia. See Hotten, Original Lists of Persons of Quality, Emigrants, Religious Exiles, Political Rebels, etc., pp. 315-344. 137 Hening’s Statutes, ii. 50. 138 Mr. Bruce has well said that in the seventeenth century the white servant was “the main pillar of the industrial fabric” of Virginia, and “performed the most honourable work in establishing and sustaining” that colony. “There can be no doubt, as he goes on to say, that the work of colonization which has been performed by the people of England surpasses, both in extent and beneficence, that of any other race which has left an impression upon universal history, and the part the manual labourers have taken in this work is not less memorable than the part taken by the higher classes of the nation.” Economic History of Virginia, i. 573, 582. 139 Neill’s Virginia Carolorum, p. 279; Hotten’s Original Lists, pp. 207, 233, 254; Hening’s Statutes, i. 386. 140 In the absence of detailed specific knowledge it is unsafe to base inferences upon the word “servant,” inasmuch as in the seventeenth century it included not only menials but clerks and apprentices, even articled students in a lawyer’s or doctor’s office, etc. See William and Mary College Quarterly, i. 22; Bruce, Economic History, i. 573-575; ii. 45. 141 “Tour through the British Plantations,” London Magazine, 1755. 142 Hugh Jones, Present State of Virginia, 1724, p, 114. 143 Meade’s Old Churches, i. 366. 144 Before the Revolution this grievance had come to awaken fierce resentment. A letter printed in 1751 exclaims: “In what can Britain show a more sovereign contempt for us than by emptying their gaols into our settlements, unless they would likewise empty their offal upon our tables?... And what must we think of those merchants who for the sake of a little paltry gain will be concerned in importing and disposing of these abominable cargoes!”—Virginia Gazette, May 24, 1751. 145 Lecky, History of England, i. 127. 146 Smyth’s Tour in the United States, London, 1784, i. 72. In 1748 Maryland had 98,357 free whites, 6,870 redemptioners, 1,981 convicts, and 42,764 negroes. See Williams, History of the Negro Race in America, i. 247. 147 See above, vol. i. p. 16. 148 At the famous meeting in the Tabernacle at New York, in May, 1850, when Isaiah Rynders and his ruffians made a futile attempt to silence Garrison, one of the speakers maintained “that the blacks were not men, but belonged to the monkey tribe.” William Lloyd Garrison: the Story of his Life, told by his Children, iii. 294. Defenders of slavery at that time got much comfort from Agassiz’s opinion that the different races of men had distinct origins. It was perhaps even more effective than the favourite “cursed be Canaan” argument. 149 Bruce, Economic History, ii. 94. About 1854 (I am not quite sure as to the date) it was reported in Middletown, Conn., that the “horrid infidel,” Rev. Theodore Parker, had, on a recent Sunday in the Boston Music Hall, brought forward sundry cats and dogs and baptized them in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!!! I shall never forget the chill of horror which ran through the neighbourhood at this tale of wanton blasphemy. In 1867 I found the belief in the story still surviving among certain persons in Middletown with a tenacity that no argument or explanation could shake. The origin of the ridiculous tale was as follows: The famous abolitionist, Parker Pillsbury, made a speech in which he quoted what the lady said to Godwyn, that “he might as well baptize puppies as negroes.” In passing from mouth to mouth the report of this incident underwent an astounding transformation. First the speaker’s name was exchanged for that of another famous abolitionist, the strong and lovely Christian saint, Theodore Parker; and then the figure of speech was developed into an act and clothed with circumstance. Thus from the true statement, that Parker Pillsbury told a story in which an allusion was made to baptizing puppies, grew the false statement that Theodore Parker actually baptized cats and dogs. A great deal of what passes current as history has no better foundation than this outrageous calumny. 150 Bruce, op. cit. ii. 96-98. 151 Hening’s Statutes, ii. 260. 152 Hening, iii. 333-335. 153 For many of these details concerning slavery I am indebted to Bruce’s Economic History of Virginia, chap, xi.,—a book which it would be difficult to praise too highly. 154 Bruce, op. cit. ii. 107. 155 Beverley, History and Present State of Virginia, London, 1705, part iv. pp. 36-39. The historian was son of Major Robert Beverley mentioned above, on pages 109-114 of the present volume. 156 Burk’s History of Virginia, Petersburg, 1805, ii. 300. 157 Hening’s Statutes, iii. 537. For the loss of this slave by emancipation his master was indemnified by a payment of £40 from the colonial treasury. 158 Hening, iii. 461; vi. 111. In England in the Middle Ages such mutilation was a common punishment for rape; sometimes, in addition, the culprit’s eyes were put out. See Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law before the Time of Edward I. ii. 489. 159 Hening, iii. 210. 160 Hening, vi. 105. 161 Hening, vi. 107. 162 Hening, v. 558. 163 Hening, vi. 112. 164 Hening, iii. 87, 88. 165 Bruce, op. cit. ii. 129. 166 Hening, iv. 133, 134. 167 Hening, iii. 448, act of 1705. 168 See Larned’s excellent History for Ready Reference, iv. 2921, where the case is ably summed up. 169 Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia, 1782, Query xviii. 170 Hening, iii. 87, 454. 171 Hening, iii. 87. 172 Hening, ii. 170, act of 1662. 173 See Bruce, Economic History, ii. 109, where we are told that Jamestown was sorely scandalized by the loose behaviour of “thoughtful Mr. Lawrence.” 174 “The gain from the African labour outweighed all fears of evil from the intermixture.” Foote’s Sketches of Virginia, i. 23. 175 Baird, History of the Huguenot Emigration to America, ii. 178. 176 Brock, Documents relating to the Huguenot Emigration to Virginia, Va. Hist. Soc. Coll. N. S. v.; cf. Hayden’s Virginia Genealogies, Wilkes-BarrÉ, 1891. 177 Chesapeake Bay, says Rev. Francis Makemie, is “a bay in most respects scarce to be outdone by the universe, having so many large and spacious rivers, branching and running on both sides; ... and each of these rivers richly supplied, and divided into sundry smaller rivers, spreading themselves ... to innumerable creeks and coves, admirably carved out and contrived by the omnipotent hand of our wise Creator, for the advantage and conveniency of its inhabitants; ... so that I have oft, with no small admiration, compared the many rivers, creeks, and rivulets of water ... to veins in human bodies.” A Plain and Friendly Perswasive, London, 1705, p. 5. “One receives the impression in reading of colonial Virginia that all the world lived in country-houses, on the banks of rivers. And the Virginia world did live very much in this way.” Miss Rowland’s Life of George Mason, i. 90. 178 The Huguenots seem to have preferred a French wine, for one of the first things they did (in 1704) was to “begin an essay of wine, which they made of the wild grapes gathered in the woods; the effect of which was noble, strong-bodied claret, of a curious flavour.” Beverley, History of Virginia, London, 1705, part iv. p. 46. This has the earmark of truth. American clarets are to this day strong-bodied, with a curious flavour! 179 Bruce, Economic History of Virginia, ii. 340-342. 180 Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, ii. 501. 181 Bruce, op. cit. ii. 471, where we are also told that “in many cases the wealthy planters imported from England the clothes worn by these servants and slaves.” 182 Bruce, op. cit. ii. 395, 399, 403, 405. 183 Beverley, History and Present State of Virginia, book iv. pp. 58, 83. 184 Hening, ii. 172-176. 185 Hening, ii. 471-478; iii. 53-69. 186 There was much strong feeling and vehement writing on the subject by those who were disgusted at the prevalent state of things: “I always judged such as are averse to towns to be three sorts of persons: 1. Fools, who cannot, neither will see their own interest and advantage in having towns. 2. Knaves, who would still carry on fraudulent designs and cheating tricks in a corner or secret trade, afraid of being exposed at a public market. 3. Sluggards, who rather than be at labour and at any charge in transporting their goods to market, though idle at home, and lose double thereby rather than do it. To which I may add a fourth, which are Sots, who may be best cured of their disease by a pair of stocks in town.” Makemie’s Plain and Friendly Perswasive, London, 1705, p. 16. 187 Present State of Virginia, 1697, p. 12. 188 A kind of cleaver. 189 Bruce, Economic History, ii. 382-383. 190 Conway, Barons of the Potomack and the Rappahannock, p. 116. 191 Though the attempts to stimulate shipbuilding met with little success, the manufacture of barges, pinnaces, and shallops was sustained by imperative necessity. See Bruce, op. cit. ii. 426-439. 192 Elkanah Watson, Men and Times of the Revolution, 2d ed., New York, 1856, chap. ii. 193 See Ripley’s Financial History of Virginia, pp. 119-124. 194 Bruce, op. cit. ii. 411-416. 195 Ripley, Financial History of Virginia, p. 122; cf. Bruce, op. cit. ii. 368. 196 McMaster, History of the People of the United States, i. 273. 197 Hening, ii. 192. An old satirical writer mentions the same custom at a Maryland inn, where, however, he did not seem in all respects to relish his supper:— So after hearty Entertainment Of Drink and Victuals without Payment; For Planters Tables, you must know, Are free for all that come and go. While Pon and Milk, with Mush well stoar’d, In Wooden Dishes grac’d the Board; With Homine and Syder-pap, (Which scarce a hungry dog would lap) Well stuff’d with Fat from Bacon fry’d, Or with Mollossus dulcify’d. Then out our Landlord pulls a Pouch As greasy as the Leather Couch On which he sat, and straight begun To load with Weed his Indian Gun.... His Pipe smoak’d out, with aweful Grace, With aspect grave and solemn pace, The reverend Sire walks to a Chest;... From thence he lugs a Cag of Rum. The night had for our traveller its characteristic American nuisance:— Not yet from Plagues exempted quite, The Curst Muskitoes did me bite; Till rising Morn and blushing Day Drove both my Fears and Ills away; but the morning-meal seems to have made amends:— I did to Planter’s Booth repair, And there at Breakfast nobly Fare On rashier broil’d of infant Bear: I thought the Cub delicious Meat, Which ne’er did ought but Chesnuts eat. Ebenezer Cook, The Sot-Weed Factor; or, a Voyage to Maryland, London, 1708, pp. 5, 9. 198 For the description of the planter’s house and its surroundings I am much indebted to the admirable work of Mr. Bruce, chap. xii. 199 Beverley, History and Present State of Virginia, book iv. p. 56. 200 One often hears it said, of some old house or church in Virginia, that it was built of bricks imported from England; but, according to Mr. Bruce, all bricks used in Virginia during the seventeenth century seem to have been made there. Bricks were 8 shillings per 1,000 in Virginia when they were 18s. 8¼d. in London, to which the ocean freight would have had to be added. It is not strange, therefore, that Virginia exported bricks to Bermuda. As early as the Indian massacre of 1622 some of the Indians were driven away with brickbats. See Bruce, Economic History, ii. 134, 137, 142. 201 See above, vol. i. p. 212. 202 The Marquis de Chastellux, who visited Monticello in 1782, says: “We may safely aver that Mr. Jefferson is the first American who has consulted the fine arts to know how he should shelter himself from the weather.” See Randall’s Life of Jefferson, i. 373. 203 Lee of Virginia, p. 116. 204 Larousse, Dictionnaire universel, viii. 668. 205 A double entendre, either “fork-bearer” or “gallows-bird.” 206 Meercraft.—Have I deserved this from you two, for all Gilthead.—For what? Meercraft.—Upon my project o’ the forks. Sledge.—Forks? what be they? Meercraft.—The laudable use of forks, 207 Lee of Virginia, p. 116. 208 Lee of Virginia, loc. cit. For Planters’ Cellars, you must know, Seldom with good October flow, But Perry Quince and Apple Juice Spout from the Tap like any Sluce. 210 A minute account of the beverages and their use is given in Bruce, op. cit. ii. 211-231. 211 Smyth’s Tour in the United States, London, 1784, i. 41. 212 Samuel Peters, a Tory refugee, published in London, in 1781, an absurd “History of Connecticut,” in which he started the story of the “Blue Laws” of the New Haven Colony, which most people allude to incorrectly as “Blue Laws of Connecticut.” These “Blue Laws” were purely an invention of the mendacious Peters. There never were any such laws. See my Beginnings of New England, p. 136. 213 Miss Rowland’s Life of George Mason, i. 101, 102. This Mason, author of the Virginia Bill of Rights, and member of the Federal Convention of 1787, was great-grandson of the George Mason who figured in Bacon’s rebellion. His son John, whose narrative I here quote, was father of James Murray Mason, author of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, and one of the Confederacy’s commissioners taken from the British steamer Trent by Captain Wilkes in 1861. 214 Meade’s Old Churches, i. 98. 215 A rich Oriental silk, usually watered, first made in the Attabiya quarter of Bagdad, whence its name. 216 Mr. Bruce gives many inventories taken from county records, of which the following may serve as a specimen: “The wardrobe of Mrs. Sarah Willoughby, of Lower Norfolk, consisted of a red, a blue, and a black silk petticoat, a petticoat of India silk and of worsted prunella, a striped linen and a calico petticoat, a black silk gown, a scarlet waistcoat with silver lace, a white knit waistcoat, a striped stuff jacket, a worsted prunella mantle, a sky-coloured satin bodice, a pair of red paragon bodices, three fine and three coarse holland aprons, seven handkerchiefs, and two hoods.” Economic History, ii. 194. 217 The following specimen of a bill of funeral expenses is given in Bruce, op. cit. ii. 237:—
218 Virginia Magazine, ii. 294; cf. William and Mary College Quarterly, iii. 136. 219 Jones’s Present State of Virginia, London, 1724, p. 48. 220 Mr. W. G. Stanard, in an admirable paper on this subject, gives some names of famous horses then imported, “many of them being ancestors of horses on the turf at the present day;” such as “Aristotle, Bolton, Childers, Dabster, Dottrell, Fearnaught, Jolly Roger, Juniper, Justice, Merry Tom, Sober John, Vampire, Whittington, James, Sterling, Valiant, etc.” Virginia Magazine, ii. 301. 221 Smyth’s Tour in the United States, i. 20. 222 Ford, The True George Washington, pp. 194-198. 223 Hening, v. 102, 229-231; vi. 76-81. Washington was very fond of playing at cards for small stakes, also at billiards; and he sometimes bet moderately at horse-races. See Ford, loc. cit. 224 About four dollars. 225 Virginia Gazette, October, 1737, cited in Rives’s Life of Madison, i. 87, and Lodge’s History of the English Colonies, pp. 84, 85. 226 The recorder was a member of the flute family, and its name may be elucidated by Shakespeare’s charming lines (Pericles, act iv., prologue):— To the lute She sang, and made the night-bird mute That still records with moan. Mr. Bruce (op. cit. ii. 175) mentions cornets as in use in Old Virginia, but this of course means an obsolete instrument of the hautboy family, not the modern brass cornet, which has so unhappily superseded the noble trumpet. 227 The inventory is printed in William and Mary College Quarterly, iii. 251. 228 The full list is given in William and Mary College Quarterly, iii. 170-174. 229 See Lyman Draper, in Virginia Historical Register, iv. 87-90. 230 William and Mary College Quarterly, iii. 247-249. 231 Hening, ii. 517. 232 Hening, ii. 518. 233 Virginia Magazine, i. 326, 348; William and Mary College Quarterly, v. 113. Allusion has already been made, on page 5 of the present volume, to the school founded by Benjamin Symms, or Symes. 234 Hening, i. 336. 235 President Tyler cites from the vestry-book of Petsworth Parish, in Gloucester County, an indenture of October 30, 1716, wherein Ralph Bevis agrees to “give George Petsworth, a molattoe boy of the age of 2 years, 3 years’ schooling, and carefully to Instruct him afterwards that he may read well in any part of the Bible, also to Instruct and Learn him ye sd molattoe boy such Lawfull way or ways that he may be able, after his Indented time expired, to gitt his own Liveing, and to allow him sufficient meat, Drink, washing, and apparill, until the expiration of ye sd time, &c., and after ye finishing of ye sd time to pay ye sd George Petsworth all such allowances as ye Law Directs in such cases, as also to keep the aforesd Parish Dureing ye aforesd Indented time from all manner of Charges,” etc. William and Mary College Quarterly, v. 219. 236 Miss Rowland’s Life of George Mason, i. 97. 237 Butler’s “British Convicts Shipped to American Colonies,” American Historical Review, ii. 27. 238 The worthy pastor even goes so far as to exclaim, with a groan, that two thirds of the schoolmasters in Maryland were convicts working out a term of penal servitude! Boucher’s Thirteen Sermons, p. 182. But in such declamatory statements it is never safe to depend upon numbers and figures. In the present case we may conclude that the number of such schoolmasters was noticeable; we are not justified in going further. 239 From the excellent papers by W. G. Stanard, on “Virginians at Oxford,” William and Mary College Quarterly, ii. 22, 149, I have culled a few items which may be of interest:— John Lee, armiger (son of 1st Richard, see above, p, 19), educated at Queens, B. A. 1662, burgess. Rowland Jones, cler., Merton, matric. 1663, pastor Bruton Parish. Ralph Wormeley, armiger, of Rosegill (see above, p. 243), Oriel, matric. 1665, secretary of state, etc. Emanuel Jones, cler., Oriel, B. A. 1692, pastor Petsworth Parish. Bartholomew Yates, cler., Brasenose, B. A. 1698, Prof. Divinity W. & M. Mann Page, armiger, St. John’s, matric. 1709, member of council. William Dawson, plebs., Queens, matric. 1720, M. A. 1728, D. D. 1747, Prof. Moral Phil. W. & M. 1729, Pres. W. & M. 1743-52. Henry Fitzhugh, gent., Christ Church, matric. 1722, burgess. Christopher Robinson, gent., Oriel, matric. 1724, studied at Middle Temple. Christopher Robinson, gent., Oriel, matric. 1721, M. A. 1729, Fellow of Oriel. Musgrave Dawson, plebs., Queens, B. A. 1747, pastor Raleigh Parish. Lewis Burwell, armiger, Balliol, matric. 1765. 240 Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, i. 282, 412, 419; ii. 861. For neglecting to “set up school” for the year, a town would be presented by the grand jury of the county, and would then try to make excuses. “In February, 1744, the usual routine was repeated. The farmers were summoned ‘to know what the Town’s Mind is for doing about a School for the insuing year.’ The school of the previous year having cost £55 old tenor, which may have been equivalent to 55 Spanish dollars, and it being necessary to raise this sum by a general taxation, the Town’s Mind was for doing nothing; and not until the following July did it consent to have a school opened.” Bliss, Colonial Times on Buzzard’s Bay, p. 118. 241 In my Beginnings of New England, pp. 148-153. 242 Of the numbers in The Federalist, 51 were written by Hamilton, 29 by Madison, and 5 by Jay. But the frame of government which the book was written to explain and defend was not at all the work of Hamilton, whose part in the proceedings of the Federal Convention was almost nil. It was very largely the work of Madison, and while The Federalist shows Hamilton’s marvellous flexibility of intelligence, it is Madison who is master and Hamilton who is his expounder. 243 See above, vol. i. p. 221. 244 Stith, History of Virginia, preface, vi., vii. 245 Byrd’s History of the Dividing Line, with his Journey to the Land of Eden, and A Progress to the Mines, remained in MS. for more than a century. They were published at Petersburg in 1841, under the title of Westover Manuscripts. A better edition, edited by T. H. Wynne, was published in 1866 under the title of Byrd Manuscripts. 246 Byrd MSS. i. 5. 247 Bruce, Economic History, ii. 234. 248 See the history of the case, in Washington’s Writings, ed. W. C. Ford, xiv. 255-260. According to Mr. Paul Ford, “there can scarcely be a doubt that the treatment of his last illness by the doctors was little short of murder.” The True George Washington, p. 58. The question is suggested, if Washington had lived a dozen years longer, would there have been a second war with England? 249 Meade’s Old Churches, i. 18, 361, 385. 250 It is difficult to obtain exact data. My impression is derived from study of the statutes and from general reading. 251 It is authoritatively stated in the Virginia Magazine, i. 347, that from the time of the Company down to the time of the Revolution, “there is no record of any duel in Virginia.” In the thirteen volumes of Hening I find no allusion to duelling; for the mention of “challenges to fight” in such a passage as vol. vi. p. 80, clearly refers to chance affrays with fisticuffs at the gaming table, and not to duels. Yet in 1731 Rodolphus Malbone, for challenging Solomon White, a magistrate, “with sword and pistol,” was bound over in £50 to keep the peace: see Virginia Magazine, iii. 89. 252 Virginia Magazine, i. 128. A woman named Eve was burned in Orange County in 1746 for petty treason, i. e. murdering her master. Id. iii. 308. For poisoning the master’s family a man and woman were burned at Charleston, S. C., in 1769. Id. iv. 341. For petty treason a negro woman named Phillis was burned at the stake in Cambridge, Mass., Sept. 18, 1755: see Boston Evening Post, Sept. 22, 1755; Paige’s History of Cambridge, p. 217. For riotous murder in the city of New York 21 negroes were executed in 1712, several of whom were burned and one was broken on the wheel; and again in 1741, in the panic over an imaginary plot, 13 negroes were burned at the stake: see Acts of Assembly, New York, ann. 1712; Documents relating to Colonial History of New York, vol. vi. ann. 1741. There may have been other cases. These here cited were especially notable. 253 Prof. M. C. Tyler (History of American Literature, i. 90) quotes a statement of Burk (History of Virginia, Petersburg, 1805, vol. ii. appendix, p. xxx.), to the effect that in Princess Anne County a woman was once burned for witchcraft. But Burk makes the statement on hearsay, and I have no doubt he refers to Grace Sherwood, who between 1698 and 1708 brought divers and sundry actions for slander against persons who had called her a witch, but could not get a verdict in her favour! She was searched for witch marks and imprisoned. It is a long way from this sort of thing to getting burned at the stake! Mrs. Sherwood made her will in 1733, and it was admitted to probate in 1741. See William and Mary College Quarterly, i. 69; ii. 58; iii. 96, 190, 242; iv. 18.—There is a widespread popular belief that the victims of the witchcraft delusion in Salem were burned; scarcely a fortnight passes without some allusions to this “burning” in the newspapers. Of the twenty victims at Salem, nineteen were hanged, one was pressed to death; not one was burned. See Upham’s History of Witchcraft and Salem Village, Boston, 1867, 2 vols. 254 Winsor, Narr. and Crit. Hist. v. 286. 255 Fox-Bourne’s Life of John Locke, i. 203. 256 The Fundamental Constitutions are printed in Locke’s Works, London, 1824, ix. 175-199. An excellent analysis of them is given by Prof. Bassett, “The Constitutional Beginnings of North Carolina,” J. H. U. Studies, xii. 97-169; see, also, Whitney, “Government of the Colony of South Carolina,” Id. xiii. 1-121. 257 Hening, i. 380. 258 He is commonly called a Quaker, but the tradition is ill supported. See Weeks, Southern Quakers and Slavery, p. 33. 259 See my Discovery of America, i. 167-169. 260 Hawks, History of North Carolina, ii. 72. 261 Lawson, A Description of North Carolina, London, 1718, p. 73. 262 Rivers, Early History of South Carolina, Charleston, 1856, p. 96. 263 Williamson, History of North Carolina, Philadelphia, 1812, p. 120. 264 Williamson, op. cit. i. 121. 265 Moore’s History of North Carolina, Raleigh, 1880, i. 18. 266 I am glad to find this opinion corroborated by Professor Bassett in his able paper above cited, J. H. U. Studies, xii. 109. 267 Hawks, History of North Carolina, ii. 470. 268 See above, p. 85 of the present volume. 269 Dr. Hawks, in his History of North Carolina, ii. 463-483, gives a detailed and very entertaining account of the Culpeper rebellion, to which I am indebted for several particulars. 270 Hawks, op. cit. ii. 489. 271 Rivers, Early History of South Carolina, p. 145. 272 Id. p. 153. 273 Records of General Court of Albemarle, 1697; Hawks, op. cit. ii. 491. 274 Spotswood’s Official Letters (Va. Hist. Soc. Coll.), Richmond, 1882, i. 106. Several other passages in Spotswood’s letters of the summer and autumn of 1711 express a similar belief. The opinion of Spotswood is adopted in Hawks, History of North Carolina, ii. 522-533, who is followed by Moore, History of North Carolina, i. 35. I am glad to find that my opinion of the inadequacy of the evidence is shared by so great an authority as Professor Rivers, in Winsor, Narr. and Crit. Hist. v. 298. 275 See the learned essay by James Mooney, The Siouan Tribes of the East (Bureau of Ethnology, Bulletin 22), Washington, 1894. Until recent years it was not known that there were ever any Sioux in the Atlantic region. The Catawbas, etc., were supposed to be Muskogi. 276 Lawson, The History of Carolina; containing the Exact Description and Natural History of that Country; together with the Present State thereof. And a Journal of a Thousand Miles travelled through several Nations of Indians, giving a particular Account of their Customs, Manners, etc. London, 1709, small quarto, 258 pages. 277 For this and other atrocities see the letter of November 2, 1711, from Major Christopher Gale to his sister, printed in Nichols’s Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, iv. 489-492. 278 In Professor Rivers’s version of the story there was either no general conspiracy or only a sudden one conceived after the murder of Lawson. He suggests that “being fearful of the consequences” of that act, the Indians “were hurried into the design of a widespread massacre,” etc. Early History of South Carolina, p. 253. It may be so. Questions relating to concert between Indian tribes are apt to be hard to settle. I think, however, that in this case the simultaneity of attack at distant points is in favour of the generally accepted view of a conspiracy arranged before Lawson’s death. 279 Spotswood to the Lords of Trade and to Lord Dartmouth, December 28, 1711, Official Letters, i. 129-138. This was one of the early instances of the extreme difficulty of obtaining money from “whimsical” legislatures for the common defence, which in later years led Parliament to the attempt to cure the evil by means of the Stamp Act. Even in what he did accomplish on the border, Spotswood had to depend upon voluntary contributions, just as money was raised by Franklin in 1758 for the expedition against Fort Duquesne, and by Robert Morris in the great crisis of Washington’s Trenton-Princeton campaign. 280 See my Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, ii. 200. 281 Dr. Hugh Williamson, in his History of North Carolina, Philadelphia, 1812, ii. 173-211, gives a very interesting account of these malarial swamps, their geological causes, and their effects upon the people. 282 For a sprightly account of the Alpine region of North Carolina and its inhabitants, see Zeigler and Grosscup, The Heart of the Alleghanies, Raleigh, 1883. 283 Lawson’s History of Carolina, London, 1718, p. 79. 284 Byrd MSS. i. 59, 65. 285 Byrd MSS. i. 56. 286 Byrd MSS. i. 59. 287 See above, p. 188 of the present volume. 288 William and Mary College Quarterly, ii. 146. 289 Spotswood to the Lords of Trade, April 5, 1717, Official Letters, ii. 227. 290 Olmsted’s Slave States, p. 507. 291 Cf. Ramage, “Local Government and Free Schools in South Carolina,” Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, vol. i. 292 Ramage, op. cit. 293 The remarks of Herbert Spencer on state education, in his Social Statics, revised ed., London, 1892, pp. 153-184, deserve most careful consideration by all who are interested in the welfare of their fellow-creatures. 294 Bruce, Economic History of Virginia, ii. 108. 295 Americans are apt to forget how much nearer the equator the familiar points in this country are than familiar points in Europe. Although every family has an atlas, many persons are surprised when their attention is called to the facts that Great Britain is in the latitude of Hudson Bay, that Paris and Vienna are further north than Quebec, that Montreal is nearly opposite to Venice, Boston to Rome, Charleston to Tripoli, etc. 296 Simms, History of South Carolina, p. 106; Williams, History of the Negro Race in America, i. 299. 297 Whitney, “Government of the Colony of South Carolina,” Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, xiii. 95; Statutes of South Carolina, iii. 395-399, 456-461, 568-573. 298 The story is told by St. John de CrÈvecoeur, in his Letters from an American Farmer, Philadelphia, 1793, pp. 178-180. CrÈvecoeur was on his way to dine with a planter when he encountered the shocking spectacle. He succeeded in passing a shell of water through the bars of the cage to the lips of the poor wretch, who thanked him and begged to be killed; but the Frenchman had no means at hand. 299 Statutes of South Carolina, vii. 410, 411. 300 “La plupart des riches habitans de la Caroline du Sud, ayant ÉtÉ ÉlevÉs en Europe, en ont apportÉ plus de gout, et des connaissances plus analogues À nos moeurs, que les habitans des provinces du Nord, ce qui doit leur donner gÉnÉralement sur ceux-ci de l’avantage en sociÉtÉ. Les femmes semblent aussi plus animÉes que dans le Nord, prennent plus de part À la conversation, sont davantage dans la sociÉtÉ.... Elles sont jolies, agrÉables, piquantes; mais ... les hommes et les femmes vieillissent promptement dan ce climat.” La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Voyage dans les États-Unis, Paris, 1799, iv. 13. 301 Boswell has a characteristic anecdote of Oglethorpe, who was very high-spirited, but extremely sensible. When a lad of nineteen or so, he was dining one day with a certain Prince of WÜrtemberg and others, when the insolent prince fillipped a few drops of wine into his face. “Here was a nice dilemma. To have challenged him instantly might have fixed a quarrelsome character upon the young soldier; to have taken no notice of it might have been considered as cowardice. Oglethorpe, therefore, keeping his eye upon the prince and smiling, ... said, ‘That’s a good joke, but we do it much better in England,’ and threw a whole glass of wine in the prince’s face. An old general, who sat by, said, ‘Il a bien fait, mon prince, vous l’avez commencÉ,’ and thus all ended in good humour.” Life of Johnson, ed. Birkbeck Hill, ii. 180. 302 See the charter, in Jones’s History of Georgia, i. 90. 303 Blackstone’s Commentaries, bk. iv. chap. 5. 304 See above, vol. i. p. 24. 305 Burney, History of the Buccaneers of America, p. 52. 306 Exquemeling was sent to Tortuga in 1666, in one of the Dutch West India Company’s ships, and on his arrival was sold for thirty crowns into three years’ servitude. He says very neatly: “Je ne dis rien de ce qui a donnÉ lieu À mon embarquement, suivi d’un si fÂcheux esclavage, parce que cela seroit hors de propos, et ne pourroit estre qu’ennuyeux.” He was cruelly treated. After gaining his freedom he joined the buccaneers, apparently because there was nothing else to do. He went home in 1674 in a Dutch ship, “remerciant Dieu de m’avoir retirÉ de cette miserable vie, estant la premiÈre occasion de la quitter que j’eusse rencontrÉ depuis cinq annÉes.” Oexmelin, Histoire des Avanturiers, Paris, 1686, i. 13; ii. 312. The English version of his book is entitled “History of the Bucaniers of America” (London, 1684). The Spanish version is known as “Los Piratas.” Not only do the titles thus differ, but each translator has added more or less material from other sources, in order to exalt the fame of the rascals of his own nation. 307 “Le capitaine ... du vaisseau submergÉ Était un pirate hollandais; c’Était celui-lÀ mÊme qui avait volÉ Candide. Les richesses immenses dont ce cÉlÉrat s’Était emparÉ furent ensevelies avec lui dans la mer, et il n’y eut qu’un mouton de sauvÉ. Vous voyez, dit Candide À Martin, que le crime est puni quelquefois; ce coquin de patron hollandais a en le sort qui’il mÉritait. Oui, dit Martin; mais fallait-il que les passagers qui Était sur son vaisseau pÉrissent aussi? Dieu a puni ce fripon, le diable a noyÉ les autres.” Voltaire, Œuvres, Paris, 1785. tom, xliv. p. 294. 308 Histoire des avanturiers, ii. 216. 309 Exquemeling says: “A l’heure que je parle il est ÉlevÉ aux plus Éminentes dignitez de la Jamaique; ce qui fait assez voir qu’un homme, tel qu’il soit, est toujours estimÉ & bien receu par tout, pourveu qu’il ait de l’argent.” Histoire des avanturiers, ii. 214. 310 Ringrose’s MS. Narrative, British Museum, Sloane collection, No. 3820. 311 See Hughson, “The Carolina Pirates and Colonial Commerce,” Johns Hopkins University Studies, xii. 241-370. 312 See Watson’s Annals of Philadelphia, ii. 222. 313 In Kidd’s case there were many extenuating circumstances; he was far from being such a scoundrel as most of the pirates. 314 See the cases of Mary Read and Anne Bonny, in Johnson’s History of the Pirates, London, 1724, 2 vols. 315 Burton’s History of Scotland, vi. 403. 316 In writing to James Stanhope, secretary of state, Spotswood says: “Such is the unaccountable temper of the People that they have generally chosen for their Representatives Persons of the meanest Estates and Capacitys in their Countys, And as if the House of Burgesses were resolved to copy after the patern of their Electors, of the few Gentlemen that are among them, they have expelled two for having the Generosity to serve their Country for nothing, w’ch they term bribery.” Official Letters, ii. 129. This reminds one of the language applied by Sherwood and Ludwell to Bacon’s followers (see above, p. 102); and suggests the presence among the burgesses of a considerable party which felt it necessary to contend against aristocratizing tendencies. To establish the principle that representatives might serve without pay would tend to disqualify poor folk from serving in that capacity. 317 There is evidently a slip of the pen here; Letters must have been the word intended. 318 Spotswood to the Lords of Trade, June 24, 1718. Official Letters, ii. 280, 281. 319 The 58th birthday of George I., May 28, 1718. 320 Spotswood, Official Letters, ii. 284. 321 His feelings find temperate expression in his letters to the Lords of Trade and to the secretary of state, James Stanhope; e. g., in October, 1712: “This Unhappy State of her Maj’t’s Subjects in my Neighbourhood is ye more Affecting to me because I have very little hopes of being enabled to relieve them by our Assembly, which I have called to meet next Week.... No arguments I have used can prevail on these people to make their Militia more Serviceable;” and in July, 1715: “I cannot forbear regretting yt I must always have to do w’th ye Representatives of ye Vulgar People, and mostly with such members as are of their Stamp and Understanding, for so long as half an Acre of Land ... qualifys a man to be an Elector, the meaner sort of People will ever carry ye Elections, and the humour generally runs to choose such men as are their most familiar Companions, who very eagerly seek to be Burgesses merely for the Lucre of the Salary, and who, for fear of not being chosen again, dare in Assembly do nothing that may be disrelished out of the House by ye Common People.... However, as my general Success hitherto with this sort of Assemblys is not to be Complained of, and as I have brought them, in some particulars, to place greater Trust in me than ever they did in any Governor before, and seeing their Confidence in Me has encreased with their Knowledge of me, I have great hopes to lead even this new Assembly into measures that may be for the hon’r and safety of these parts of his Maj’t’s Dominions.... Ye Assembly of No. Carolina has already faulted their Governor for dispatching away to ye relief of his next Neighbours a small reinforcement of Men, they alledging that their own danger requir’d not to weaken themselves.... None of ye Provinces on ye Continent have yet sent any Assistance of Men to So. Carolina, except this Colony alone, and No. Carolina, and by w’t I understand from Govern’r Hunter [of New York] I am afraid they may be diverted from it, he writing me word yt their Indians are grown very turbulent and ungovernable. We are not here without our dangers, too, but yet I judg’d it best, and ye readiest way to save ourselves, to run immediately to check the first kindling Flames, and even to stretch a point to succour Carolina with Arms and ammunition; and I made such dispatch in ye first Succours of Men I sent thither yt they pass’d no more than 15 days between the Day of ye Carolina Comm’rs coming to me and ye day of my embarking 118 Men listed for their Service. I have since sent another Vessel with 40 or 50 Men more; and hope in a short time to have ye Complem’t raised w’ch this Government has engag’d to furnish.... I need not offer, for my justification, to wound his Maj’t’s Ears with particular relation of the miserys his Subjects in Carolina labour under, and of ye Inhuman butchering and horrid Tortures many of them have been exposed to.” So in Oct. 1715: “Such was the Temper and Understanding [of the House of Burgesses] that they could not be reason’d into Wholesome Laws, and such their humour and principles yt they would aim at no other Acts than what invaded ye Prerogative or thwarted the Government. So that all their considerable Bills Stopt in the Council.... On ye 8 of Aug’st ... they plainly declar’d they would do nothing ... till they had an Answer from his Maj’tie to their Address about the Quitt rents. I need not repeat to you, S’r, what I have formerly represented of the inconveniency a Governm’t without money is expos’d to, especially in any dangerous Conjuncture.... The bulk of the Ellectors of Assembly Men concists of the meaner sort of People, who ... are more easily impos’d upon by persons who are not restrain’d by any Principles of Truth or Hon’r from publishing amongst them the most false reports, and have front enough to assert for truth even the grossest Absurdities. [How well this describes the blatant demagogues who thrive and multiply in the cesspool of politics to-day, like maggots in carrion!] ... These mobish Candidates always outbid the Gent’n of sence and Principles, for they stick not to vow to their Electors that no consideration whatever shall engage them to raise money, and some of them have so little shame as publickly to declare that if, in Assembly, anything should be propos’d w’ch they judg’d might be disagreeable to their Constituents, they would oppose it, tho’ they knew in their consciences yt it would be for ye good of the Country.” Spotswood’s Official Letters, ii. 1, 2, 124, 125, 130, 132, 164. 322 The expression is suggested by a famous passage in Lord Macaulay, who seems to think that it all happened in order that Frederick the Great might keep his hold upon Silesia! 323 See above, vol i. p. 27. 324 See above, vol. i. p. 61. 325 See above, vol. i. p. 116. 326 Hening’s Statutes, i. 381. 327 These were Kaskaskia and Cahokia in 1700, Detroit in 1701, Mobile in 1702, and Vincennes in 1705; and Bienville was just about to found New Orleans, which he did in 1718. 328 “I have often regretted that after so many Years as these Countrys have been Seated, no Attempts have been made to discover the Sources of Our Rivers, nor to Establishing Correspondence w’th those Nations of Indians to ye Westw’d of Us, even after the certain Knowledge of the Progress made by French in Surrounding us w’th their Settlements.” Spotswood, Official Letters, iii. 295. A reconnoissance was made in 1710, which reported that the Blue Ridge was not, as had been supposed, impassable. Id. i. 40. 329 Fontaine’s journal of the expedition shows that the crossing was not at Rockfish Gap, as formerly supposed. Cf. Peyton’s History of Augusta County, Staunton, 1882, pp. 24, 29. 330 “Thus it is a pleasure to cross the mountains.” 331 Jones, Present State of Virginia, London, 1724, p. 14. 332 Spotswood, Official Letters, ii. 297. 333 He understood that from Swift Run Gap it was but three days’ march to a tribe of Indians living on a river which emptied into Lake Erie; also that from a distant peak, which was pointed out to him, Lake Erie was distinctly visible; so he estimated the total distance as five days’ march. The river route thus vaguely indicated was probably down the Youghiogheny or the Monongahela to the site of Pittsburgh, then up the Alleghany and so on to the site of Erie, distant in a straight line about 300 miles from Swift Run Gap. Braddock in 1755 was a month in getting over less than one fourth of the actual route. But, in spite of the false estimate, Spotswood’s general idea was sound. 334 William and Mary College Quarterly, i. 7. 335 In this respect one of his family in the days of our great Civil War was like him. The noble statue at the entrance of Forest Park in St. Louis stands there to remind us that it was chiefly the iron will of Francis Preston Blair that in 1861 prevented the secessionist government of Missouri from dragging that state over to the Southern Confederacy. 336 George Washington’s elder brother, Lawrence, served in this expedition, and named his estate Mount Vernon after the admiral. 337 In 1781 the mansion at Temple Farm was known as the Moore House. 338 In my next following work, entitled “The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America,” I hope to give a more detailed and specific account of the Scotch-Irish and their important work in this country. 339 Conway’s Barons, p. 213; Kercheval’s History of the Valley of Virginia, Winchester, 1833, p. 65. 340 Cf. Winsor, Narr. and Crit. Hist. v. 276. 341 Greene’s Antiquities of Worcester, p. 273. Obvious printer errors corrected silently. Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original. |
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