Lyon Gardiner Tyler - England in America, 1580 to 1652

L >> Lyon Gardiner Tyler >> England in America, 1580 to 1652

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Delaware next proceeded to settle matters with the Indians. The policy
of the company had been to treat them justly, and after the first
summer the settlers bought Jamestown Island from the Paspaheghs for
some copper,[29] and during his presidency Captain Smith purchased the
territory at the Falls.[30] For their late proceedings the Indians had
incurred the penalties of confiscation, but Lord Delaware did not like
harsh measures and sent to Powhatan to propose peace. His reply was
that ere he would consider any accommodation Lord Delaware must send
him a coach and three horses and consent to confine the English wholly
to their island territory.[31] Lord Delaware at once ordered Gates to
attack and drive Powhatan's son Pochins and his Indians from
Kecoughtan; and when this was done he erected two forts at the mouth
of Hampton River, called Charles and Henry, about a musket-shot
distance from Fort Algernourne.

No precautions, however, could prevent the diseases incident to the
climate, and during the summer no less than one hundred and fifty
persons perished of fever. In the fall Delaware concentrated the
settlers, now reduced to less than two hundred, at Jamestown and
Algernourne fort. Wishing to carry out his instructions, he sent an
expedition to the falls of James River to search for gold-mines; but,
like its predecessor, it proved a failure, and many of the men were
killed by the Indians.[32] Delaware himself fell sick, and by the
spring was so reduced that he found it necessary to leave the colony.
When he departed, March 28, 1611, the storehouse contained only enough
supplies to last the people three months at short allowance; and
probably another "Starving Time" was prevented only by the arrival of
Sir Thomas Dale, May 10, 1611.[33]

From this time till the death of Lord Delaware in 1618 the government
was administered by a succession of deputy governors, Sir Thomas
Gates, Sir Thomas Dale, Captain George Yardley, and Captain Samuel
Argall. For five years--1611-1616--of this period the ruling spirit
was Sir Thomas Dale, who had acquired a great reputation in the army
of the Netherlands as a disciplinarian. His policy in Virginia seemed
to have been the advancement of the company's profit at the expense of
the settlers, whom he pretended to regard as so abandoned that they
needed the extreme of martial law. In 1611 he restored the settlements
at forts Charles and Henry; in 1613 he founded Bermuda Hundred and
Bermuda City (otherwise called Charles Hundred and Charles City, now
City Point), and in 1614 he established a salt factory at Smith Island
near Cape Charles.[34]

In laboring at these works the men were treated like galley-slaves and
given a diet "that hogs refused to eat." As a consequence some of them
ran away, and Dale set the Indians to catch them, and when they were
brought back he burned several of them at the stake. Some attempted to
go to England in a barge, and for their temerity were shot to death,
hanged, or broken on the wheel. Although for the most part the men in
the colony at this time were old soldiers, mechanics, and workmen,
accustomed to labor, we are told that among those who perished through
Dale's cruelty were many young men "of Auncyent Houses and born to
estates of L1000 by the year,"[35] persons doubtless attracted to
Virginia by the mere love of adventure, but included by Dale in the
common slavery. Even the strenuous Captain John Smith testified
concerning Jeffrey Abbott, a veteran of the wars in Ireland and the
Netherlands, but put to death by Dale for mutiny, that "he never saw
in Virginia a more sufficient soldier, (one) less turbulent, a better
wit, (one) more hardy or industrious, nor any more forward to cut them
off that sought to abandon the country or wrong the colony."[36]

To better purpose Dale's strong hand was felt among the Indians along
the James and York rivers, whom he visited with heavy punishments. The
result was that Powhatan's appetite for war speedily diminished; and
when Captain Argall, in April, 1613, by a shrewd trick got possession
of Pocahontas, he offered peace, which was confirmed in April, 1614,
by the marriage of Pocahontas to a leading planter named John Rolfe.
The ceremony is believed to have been performed at Jamestown by Rev.
Richard Buck, who came with Gates in 1610, and it was witnessed by
several of Powhatan's kindred.[37]

Dale reached out beyond the territory of the London Company, and
hearing that the French had made settlements in North Virginia, he
sent Captain Samuel Argall in July, 1613, to remove them. Argall
reached Mount Desert Island, captured the settlement, and carried some
of the French to Jamestown, where as soon as Dale saw them he spoke of
"nothing but ropes" and of gallows and hanging "every one of them." To
make the work complete, Argall was sent out on a second expedition,
and this time he reduced the French settlements at Port Royal and St.
Croix River.[38] On his return voyage to Virginia he is said to have
stopped at the Hudson River, where, finding a Dutch trading-post
consisting of four houses on Manhattan Island, he forced the Dutch
governor likewise to submit by a "letter sent and recorded" in
Virginia. Probably in one of these voyages the Delaware River was also
visited, when the "atturnment of the Indian kings" was made to the
king of England.[39] It appears to have received its present name from
Argall in 1610.[40]

Towards the end of his stay in Virginia, Dale seemed to realize that
some change must be made in the colony, and he accordingly abolished
the common store and made every man dependent on his own labor. But
the exactions he imposed upon the settlers in return made it certain
that he did not desire their benefit so much as to save expense to his
masters in England. The "Farmers," as he called a small number to whom
he gave three acres of land to be cultivated in their own way, had to
pay two and a half barrels of corn per acre and give thirty days'
public service in every year; while the "Laborers," constituting the
majority of the colony, had to slave eleven months, and were allowed
only one month to raise corn to keep themselves supplied for a year.
The inhabitants of Bermuda Hundred counted themselves more fortunate
than the rest because they were promised their freedom in three years
and were given one month in the year and one day in the week, from May
till harvest-time, "to get their sustenance," though of this small
indulgence they were deprived of nearly half by Dale. Yet even this
slender appeal to private interest was accompanied with marked
improvement, and in 1614 Ralph Hamor, Jr., Dale's secretary of state,
wrote, "When our people were fed out of the common store and labored
jointly in the manuring of ground and planting corn, ... the most
honest of them, in a general business, would not take so much faithful
and true pains in a week as now he will do in a day."[41]

These were really dark days for Virginia, and Gondomar, the Spanish
minister, wrote to Philip III. that "here in London this colony
Virginia is in such bad repute that not a human being can be found to
go there in any way whatever."[42] Some spies of King Philip were
captured in Virginia, and Dale was much concerned lest the Spaniards
would attack the settlement, but the Spanish king and his council
thought that it would die of its own weakness, and took no hostile
measure.[43] In England the company was so discouraged that many
withdrew their subscriptions, and in 1615 a lottery was tried as a
last resort to raise money.[44]

When Dale left Virginia (May, 1616) the people were very glad to get
rid of him, and not more than three hundred and fifty-one
persons--men, women, and children--survived altogether.[45] Within a
very short time the cabins which he erected were ready to fall and the
palisades could not keep out hogs. A tract of land called the
"company's garden" yielded the company L300 annually, but this was a
meagre return for the enormous suffering and sacrifice of life.[46]
Dale took Pocahontas with him to England, and Lady Delaware presented
her at court, and her portrait engraved by the distinguished artist
Simon de Passe was a popular curiosity.[47] While in England she met
Captain John Smith, and when Smith saluted her as a princess
Pocahontas insisted on calling him father and having him call her his
child.[48]

It was at this juncture that in the cultivation of tobacco, called
"the weed" by King James, a new hope for Virginia was found. Hamor
says that John Rolfe began to plant tobacco in 1612 and his example
was soon followed generally. Dale frowned upon the new occupation, and
in 1616 commanded that no farmer should plant tobacco until he had put
down two acres of his three-acre farm in corn.[49] After Dale's
departure Captain George Yardley, who acted as deputy governor for a
year, was not so exacting. At Jamestown, in the spring of 1617, the
market-place and even the narrow margin of the streets were set with
tobacco. It was hard, indeed, to suppress a plant which brought per
pound in the London market sometimes as much as $12 in present money.
Yardley's government lasted one year, and the colony "lived in peace
and best plentye that ever it had till that time."[50]

[Footnote 1: Smith, _Works_ (Arber's ed.), 114, 130.]

[Footnote 2: Hotten, _Emigrants to America_, 245; Brown, _First
Republic_, 114.]

[Footnote 3: Smith, _Works_ (Arber's ed.), 121.]

[Footnote 4: Smith, _Works_ (Arber's ed.), 23, 125, 442, 449, 460.]

[Footnote 5: _Breife Declaration_.]

[Footnote 6: Smith, _Works_ (Arber's ed.), 133-147, 154.]

[Footnote 7: _Breife Declaration_.]

[Footnote 8: Smith, _Works_ (Arber's ed.), 159; Brown, _Genesis of the
United States_, I., 343.]

[Footnote 9: Brown, _Genesis of the United States_, I., 250-321.]

[Footnote 10: Brown, _Genesis of the United States_, I., 228.]

[Footnote 11: Hening, _Statutes_, I., 80-98; Brown, _Genesis of the
United States_, I., 206-224.]

[Footnote 12: _True and Sincere Declaration_, in Brown, _Genesis of
the United States_, I., 345.]

[Footnote 13: Purchas, _Pilgrimes_, IV., 1734-1754; _Plain Description
of the Barmudas_ (Force, _Tracts_, III., No. iii.); Brown, _Genesis of
the United States_, I., 346, 347.]

[Footnote 14: Purchas, _Pilgrimes_, IV., 1749.]

[Footnote 15: _Breife Declaration_; Brown, _Genesis of the United
States_, I., 404-406.]

[Footnote 16: Brown, _Genesis of the United States_, I., 330-332.]

[Footnote 17: Smith, _Works_ (Arber's ed.), 480-485; Archer's letter,
in Brown, _Genesis of the United States_, I., 331-332; Ratcliffe's
letter, ibid., 334-335; Brown, _First Republic_, 94-97.]

[Footnote 18: Brown, _First Republic_, 92.]

[Footnote 19: Brown, _Genesis of the United States_, I., 364.]

[Footnote 20: Smith, _Works_ (Arber's ed.), 497.]

[Footnote 21: Brown, _Genesis of the United States_, I., 483-488.]

[Footnote 22: _True Declaration_ (Force, _Tracts_, III., No. i.).]

[Footnote 23: Smith, _Works_ (Arber's ed.), 498.]

[Footnote 24: _Breife Declaration_; Percy, _Trewe Relacyon_, quoted by
Brown, _First Republic_, 94, and by Eggleston, _Beginners of a
Nation_, 39; _The Tragical Relation_, in Neill, _Virginia Company_,
407-411; _True Declaration_ (Force, _Tracts_, III., No. i.).]

[Footnote 25: _Laws Divine, Morall and Martiall_ (Force, _Tracts_,
III., No. ii.).]

[Footnote 26: Brown, _Genesis of the United States_, I., 401-415.]

[Footnote 27: Ibid., 407.]

[Footnote 28: Brown, _Genesis of the United States_, I., 400-415;
Purchas, _Pilgrimes_, IV., 1734-1756; _True Declaration_ (Force,
_Tracts_, III., No. i.).]

[Footnote 29: _True Declaration_ (Force, _Tracts_, III., No. i.).]

[Footnote 30: Spelman, in Brown, _Genesis of the United States_, I.,
483-488.]

[Footnote 31: Purchas, _Pilgrimes_, IV., 1756.]

[Footnote 32: Brown, _Genesis of the United States_, I., 490.]

[Footnote 33: _Breife Declaration_.]

[Footnote 34: Hamor, _True Discourse_, 29-31; Brown, _Genesis of the
United States_, I., 501-508.]

[Footnote 35: _The Tragical Relation_, in Neill, _Virginia Company_,
407-411.]

[Footnote 36: Smith, _Works_ (Arber's ed.), 508.]

[Footnote 37: Hamor, _True Discourse_, 11.]

[Footnote 38: Brown, _Genesis of the United States_, I., 709-725.]

[Footnote 39: _A Description of the Province of New Albion_ (1648)
(Force, _Tracts_, II., No. vii.).]

[Footnote 40: Brown, _Genesis of the United States_, I., 438.]

[Footnote 41: Hamor, _True Discourse_, 17; _Breife Declaration_.]

[Footnote 42: Brown, _Genesis of the United States_, II., 739, 740.]

[Footnote 43: Ibid., 657.]

[Footnote 44: Ibid., 760, 761.]

[Footnote 45: John Rolfe, _Relation_, in _Va. Historical Register_,
I., 110.]

[Footnote 46: Virginia Company, _Proceedings_ (Va. Hist. Soc.,
_Collections_, new series, VII.), I., 65.]

[Footnote 47: Neill, _Virginia Company_, 98.]

[Footnote 48: Smith, _Works_ (Arber's ed.), 533.]

[Footnote 49: Rolfe, _Relation_, in _Va. Historical Register_, I.,
108.]

[Footnote 50: _Breife Declaration_.]

[Illustration: CHART OF VIRGINIA SHOWING INDIAN AND EARLY ENGLISH
SETTLEMENTS IN 1632]

CHAPTER V

TRANSITION OF VIRGINIA

(1617-1640)

During the period of Dale's administration the constitution of the
London Company underwent a change, because the stockholders grew
restless under the powers of the treasurer and council and applied for
a third charter, limiting all important business to a quarterly
meeting of the whole body.

As they made the inclusion of the Bermuda Islands the ostensible
object, the king without difficulty signed the paper, March 12, 1612;
and thus the company at last became a self-governing body.[1] On the
question of governing the colony it soon divided, however, into the
court party, in favor of continuing martial law, at the head of which
was Sir Robert Rich, afterwards earl of Warwick; and the "country," or
"patriot party," in favor of ending the system of servitude. The
latter party was led by Sir Thomas Smith, who had been treasurer ever
since 1607, Sir Edwin Sandys, the earl of Southampton, Sir John
Danvers, and John and Nicholas Ferrar.[2] Of the two, the country
party was more numerous, and when the joint stock partnership expired,
November 30, 1616, they appointed Captain Samuel Argall, a kinsman of
Treasurer Smith, to be deputy governor of Virginia, with instructions
to give every settler his own private dividend of fifty acres and to
permit him to visit in England if he chose.[3]

Argall sailed to Virginia about the first part of April, 1617, taking
with him Pocahontas's husband, John Rolfe, as secretary of state.
Pocahontas was to go with him, but she sickened and died, and was
buried at Gravesend March 21, 1617. She left one son named Thomas, who
afterwards resided in Virginia, where he has many descendants at this
day.[4] Argall, though in a subordinate capacity he had been very
useful to the settlers, proved wholly unscrupulous as deputy governor.
Instead of obeying his instructions he continued the common slavery
under one pretence or another, and even plundered the company of all
the servants and livestock belonging to the "common garden." He
censured Yardley for permitting the settlers to grow tobacco, yet
brought a commission for himself to establish a private tobacco
plantation, "Argall's Gift," and laid off two other plantations of the
same nature.

In April, 1618, the company, incensed at Argall's conduct, despatched
the Lord Governor Delaware with orders to arrest him and send him to
England, but Delaware died on the way over, and Argall continued his
tyrannical government another year. He appropriated the servants on
Lord Delaware's private estates, and when Captain Edward Brewster
protested, tried him by martial law and sentenced him to death; but
upon the petitions of the ministers resident in the colony commuted
the punishment to perpetual banishment.[5]

Meanwhile, Sandys, who had a large share in draughting the second and
third charters, was associated with Sir Thomas Smith in preparing a
document which has been called the "Magna Charta of America." November
13, 1618, the company granted to the residents of Virginia the "Great
charter or commission of priviledges, orders, and laws"; and in
January, 1619, Sir George Yardley was sent as "governor and
captain-general," with full instructions to put the new government
into operation. He had also orders to arrest Argall, but, warned by
Lord Rich, Argall fled from the colony before Yardley arrived. Argall
left within the jurisdiction of the London Company in Virginia, as the
fruit of twelve years' labor and an expenditure of money representing
$2,000,000, but four hundred settlers inhabiting some broken-down
settlements. The plantations of the private associations--Southampton
Hundred, Martin Hundred, etc.--were in a flourishing condition, and
the settlers upon them numbered upward of six hundred persons.[6]

Sir George Yardley arrived in Virginia April 19, 1619, and made known
the intentions of the London Company that there was to be an end of
martial law and communism. Every settler who had come at his own
charge before the departure of Sir Thomas Dale in April, 1616, was to
have one hundred acres "upon the first division," to be afterwards
augmented by another hundred acres, and as much more for every share
of stock (L12 6s.) actually paid by him. Every one imported by the
company within the same period was, after the expiration of his
service, to have one hundred acres; while settlers who came at their
own expense, after April, 1616, were to receive fifty acres apiece. In
order to relieve the inhabitants from taxes "as much as may be," lands
were to be laid out for the support of the governor and other
officers, to be tilled by servants sent over for that purpose. Four
corporations were to be created, with Kecoughtan, Jamestown, Charles
City, and Henrico as capital cities in each, respectively; and it was
announced that thereafter the people of the colony were to share with
the company in the making of laws.[7]

Accordingly, July 30, 1619, the first legislative assembly that ever
convened on the American continent met in the church at Jamestown. It
consisted of the governor, six councillors, and twenty burgesses, two
from each of ten plantations. The delegates from Brandon, Captain John
Martin's plantation, were not seated, because of a particular clause
in his patent exempting it from colonial authority. The assembly,
after a prayer from Rev. Richard Buck, of Jamestown, sat six days and
did a great deal of work. Petitions were addressed to the company in
England for permission to change "the savage name of Kecoughtan," for
workmen to erect a "university and college," and for granting the
girls and boys of all the old planters a share of land each, "because
that in a new plantation it is not known whether man or woman be the
more necessary." Laws were made against idleness, drunkenness, gaming,
and other misdemeanors, but the death penalty was prescribed only in
case of such "traitors to the colony" as sold fire-arms to the
Indians. To prevent extravagance in dress parish taxes were "cessed"
according to apparel--"if he be unmarried, according to his own
apparel; if he be married, according to his own and his wife's or
either of their apparel." Statutes were also passed for encouraging
agriculture and for settling church discipline according to the rules
of the church of England.[8]

Another significant event during this memorable year was the
introduction of negro slavery into Virginia. A Dutch ship arrived at
Jamestown in August, 1619, with some negroes, of whom twenty were sold
to the planters.[9]

A third event was the arrival of a ship from England with ninety
"young maidens" to be sold to the settlers for wives, at the cost of
their transportation--viz., one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco
(equivalent to $500 in present currency).[10] Cargoes of this
interesting merchandise continued to arrive for many years.

It was fortunate that with the arrival of Yardley the supervision of
Virginia affairs in England passed into hands most interested in
colonial welfare. Sir Thomas Smith had been treasurer or president of
the company for twelve years; but as he was also president of four
other companies some thought that he did not give the proper attention
to Virginia matters. For this reason, and because he was considered
responsible for the selection of Argall, the leaders of his party
determined to elect a new treasurer; and a private quarrel between
Smith and the head of the court party, Lord Rich, helped matters to
this end. To gratify a temporary spleen against Smith, Lord Rich
consented to vote for Sir Edwin Sandys, and April 28, 1619, he was
accordingly elected treasurer with John Ferrar as his deputy. Smith
was greatly piqued, abandoned his old friends, and soon after began to
act with Rich in opposition to Sandys and his group of supporters.[11]

Sandys threw himself into his work with great ardor, and scarcely a
month passed that a ship did not leave England loaded with emigrants
and cattle for Virginia. At the end of the year the company would have
elected him again but for the interference of King James, who regarded
him as the head of the party in Parliament opposed to his prerogative.
He sent word to "choose the devil if you will, but not Sir Edwin
Sandys." Thereupon Sandys stepped aside and the earl of Southampton,
who agreed with him in all his views, was appointed and kept in office
till the company's dissolution; and for much of this time Nicholas
Ferrar, brother of John, acted as deputy to the earl.[12] The king,
however, was no better satisfied, and Count Gondomar, the Spanish
minister, took advantage of the state of things to tell James that he
had "better look to the Virginia courts which were kept at Ferrar's
house, where too many of his nobility and gentry resorted to accompany
the popular Lord Southampton and the dangerous Sandys. He would find
in the end these meetings would prove a _seminary for a seditious
parliament_."[13] These words, it is said, made a deep impression upon
the king, always jealous for his prerogatives.

For two years, however, the crown stayed its hand and the affairs of
Virginia greatly improved. Swarms of emigrants went out and many new
plantations sprang up in the Accomack Peninsula and on both sides of
the James. The most striking feature of these settlements was the
steady growth of the tobacco trade. In 1619 twenty thousand pounds
were exported, and in 1622 sixty thousand pounds. This increasing
importation excited the covetousness of the king, as well as the
jealousy of the Spanish government, whose West India tobacco had
hitherto monopolized the London market. Directly contrary to the
provision of the charter which exempted tobacco from any duty except
five per cent., the king in 1619 levied an exaction of one shilling a
pound, equal to twenty per cent. The London Company submitted on
condition that the raising of tobacco in England should be prohibited,
which was granted. In 1620 a royal proclamation limited the
importation of tobacco from Virginia and the Bermuda Islands to
fifty-five thousand pounds, whereupon the whole of the Virginia crop
for that year was transported to Flushing and sold in Holland. As this
deprived the king of his revenue, the Privy Council issued an order in
1621 compelling the company to bring all their tobacco into
England.[14]

Nevertheless, these disturbances did not interfere with the prosperity
of the settlers. Large fortunes were accumulated in a year or two by
scores of planters;[15] and soon in the place of the old log-cabins
arose framed buildings better than many in England. Lands were laid
out for a free school at Charles City (now City Point) and for a
university and college at Henrico (Dutch Gap). Monthly courts were
held in every settlement, and there were large crops of corn and great
numbers of cattle, swine, and poultry. A contemporary writer states
that "the plenty of those times, unlike the old days of death and
confusion, was such that every man gave free entertainment to friends
and strangers."[16]

This prosperity is marred by a story of heart-rending sickness and
suffering. An extraordinary mortality due to imported epidemics, and
diseases of the climate for which in these days we have found a remedy
in quinine, slew the new-comers by hundreds. One thousand people were
in Virginia at Easter, 1619, and to this number three thousand five
hundred and seventy more were added during the next three years,[17]
yet only one thousand two hundred and forty were resident in the
colony on Good Friday, March 22, 1622, a day when the horrors of an
Indian massacre reduced the number to eight hundred and
ninety-four.[18]

Since 1614, when Pocahontas married John Rolfe, peace with the Indians
continued uninterruptedly, except for a short time in 1617, when there
was an outbreak of the Chickahominies, speedily suppressed by Deputy
Governor Yardley. In April, 1618, Powhatan died,[19] and the chief
power was wielded by a brother, Opechancanough, at whose instance the
savages, at "the taking up of Powhatan's bones" in 1621, formed a plot
for exterminating the English. Of this danger Yardley received some
information, and he promptly fortified the plantations, but
Opechancanough professed friendship. Under Sir Francis Wyatt for some
months everything went on quietly; but about the middle of March,
1622, a noted Indian chief, called Nemmattanow, or Jack o' the
Feather, slew a white man and was slain in retaliation. Wyatt was
alarmed, but Opechancanough assured him that "he held the peace so
firme that the sky should fall ere he dissolved it," so that the
settlers again "fed the Indians at their tables and lodged them in
their bedchambers."[20]

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