CHAPTER
3
Virginia and Maryland: The
Beginnings of trnglish Arnerica
English colonization differed from the successful Spanish model in that it was fostered by private enterprise. The royal government issued patents, bwt ventures were
entirely planned and financed by joint-stock companies, corporations created for rhe
purplse. Some of these companies were very small groups of wealthy men, but the
Virginia Company, splnslr of the first
swccessfwl colony, set the price of e ach share
relatively low and opened membership to a wide variety of investors across the
c)untry.
Swch innovation was necessary because founding a colony was immensely expensive. Stocking a venture with settlers and supplying them over the years until
they built infrastructure and became able to feed themselves involved clnstant lutlay . Backers expected much more than mere self-sufficiency. They had hazarded their
mlney with the expectation of receiving 6 return on their investment, and settlers
were therefore under overwhelming pressure to find or develop aproduct of value.
The earliest returns came from furs and fish, but neither required an expensive
colony to supplrt it. Settlers and backers qwickly realized that no gold or other easy
wealth existed; if colonies were t0 succeed, they must develop a true clmmldity to be
produced by their own labor. After a decade of hardship, Virginia colonists began to
cultivate tobacco in earnest, and this crop became the Chesapeake's gold. Then the
key need was for labor to till the region's abundant land and this labor was provided by adapting an English institution, tetnporary servitude. In England most
ylung men and women spent their adolescence in a series of annual contracts as servants before marrying and setting up on their own, usually in their mid-twenties.
In America they served a term of several years to pay for their passage. The payoff
was a grant of land of their own when the term was up, something which most
could never attain in England where inflation and population explosion limited
opportunities.
In the course of the later seventeenth century templrary servitude of English
men and wlmen who were destined to become landowners and full members of society was largely replaced by permanent servitude (slavery) of African men and
wlmen who were forever excluded from membersh[p in Chesapeake society, and
thws opportunities available to European servants declined. Historians continue to
58
Major Prohlems in American Colonial History
debate how and why this transition,
history, came tbout.
with implications
so momentous
for American
DOCUMENTS
Captain John Smith is one of the most famous names associated with early colonization.
During Jamestown's first year he explored Chesapeake Bay, in the course of which he
was captured and brought before the region's paramount chief, Powhatan. The famous
episode in which the chief's young daughter Pocahontas saved his life was probably a
symbolic death and rebirth as an Indian. It was fbllowed by his adoption as a sub-chief
or werowance under Powhatan. Smith, who wrote about himself in the third person,
used his capacity to communicate by writing and using examples of European technology Io dazzle his captors. Smith wrote in document I of his accomplishments as President of the colony, especially in forcing the unwilling colonists to work and feed
themselves. Incidentally he wrote of the introduction of destructive rats. and of the
colonists' learning from the lndians how to cope with the new environment. Finally he
described the terible starving time aftel he had been forced out ofthe colony.
By 1620 the Virginia Company. with tobacco established as a cash crop, off'ered
every immigrant a headright-guaranteed land. Walter Woodward offers in document 2
a satire on this campaign, presenting it as a modern condominium oftering. Richard
Frethorne, who went to Virginia as a servant, wrote his parents in 1623 about the
colonists' distress and his desire to come home. Frethorne's letter. document 3. was
written in the attermath of the concerted Indian attack of 1622. Despite reports of suffering, servants continued to immigrate. A Relation of Man'land ( 1635) published a
blank indenture form, document 4, ploviding for a servant to serve "according to the
custom of the countryl" recruits were often illiterate and could not read what they
signed. Document 5 shows George Alsop answering the charge that servitude was almost like slavery in the Chesapeake. Finally, at the beginning of the eighteenth century
in document 6, Robert Beverley leflected on the institution of servitude, temporary and
permanent, on which the English society and economy of the Chesapeake was built.
l. Captain John Smith Analyzes
the Human Scene, Both
English and Indian, in Early Jamestown, 1624
And now the winter approaching, the rivers became so covered with swans, geese,
ducks, and cranes, that we daily feasted with good bread, Virginia peas, pumpkins,
and putchamins [persimmons], fish, fowl, and diverse sorts of wild beasts as fat as we
could eat them: so that none of our Tuftaffaty humorists desired to go for England.
But our Contedies never endured long without a Tragedy; some idle exceptions
being muttered against Captain Smith, for not discovering the head of Chickahamania river, and [being] taxed by the Council, to be too slow in so worthy an attempt.
The next voyage he proceeded so far that with much labour by cutting of trees in-
Some of the spelling in this document has been modernized,
Captain John Smith. "Generall Historie of Virginia, New England. and the Summer Isles" in Edward
Arber and A. G. Bradley. eds., Iralels antl Works oJ Cctprain Joln Snith,lEdinburgh: John Grant.
l9 l0). [. 394402. 47 1473. 498499.
Virginid and Maryland: The Beginnings of Enghsh Americd
59
sunder he made his passage; but when his Barge could pass no farther, he left her in
out ofdanger of shot, commanding none should go ashore til his return:
himself with two English and two Savages went up higher in a Canoe; but he was
not long absent, but his men went ashore, whose want of government gave both occasion and opportunity to the Savages to surprise one George Cassen, whom they
slew, and much failed not to have cut of[fl the boat and all the rest. . . .
Six or seven weeks those Barbarians kept him prisoner, many strange triumphs
and conjurations they made of him, yet he so demeaned himself amongst them, as
a broad bay
he not only diverted them from surprising the Fort, but procured his own liberty,
and got himself and his company such estimation amongst them, that those Savages
admired him more than their own Quiyouckosucks. . . .
He demanding for their Captain, they showed him Opechankanough, King of
Pamavnkee, to whom he gave a round Ivory double compass Dial. Much they marveled at the playing of the Fly and Needle, which they could see so plainly, and yet
not touch it, because of the glass that covered them. But when he demonstrated by
that Globe-like Jewel the roundness of the earth, and skies, the sphere of the Sun,
Moon, and Stars, and how the Sun did chase the night round about the world continually; the greatness of the Land and Sea, the diversity of Nations, variety of complexions, and how we were to them Antipodes, and many other such like matters,
they all stood as amazed with admiration.
Notwithstanding, within an hour after they tied him to a tree, and as many as
could stand about him prepared to shoot him: but the King holding up the Compass
in his hand, they all laid down their Bows and Arrows, and in a triumphant manner
led him to Orapaks, where he was after their manner kindly feasted, and well used.
Their order in conducting him was thus, Drawing themselves all in file, the
King in the middle had all their Pieces and Swords borne before him. Captain Smith
was led after him by three great Savages, holding him fast by each arm: and on each
side six went in file with their Anows nocked. But arriving at the Town lorapaksl
(which was but only thirty or forty hunting houses made of Mats, which they remove as they please, as we our tents) all the women and children staring to behold
him, the soldiers first all in file . . . and on each flank, officers as Sergeants to see
them keep their orders. A good time they continued this exercise, and then cast
themselves in a ring, dancing in such several Postures, and singing and yelling out
such hellish notes and screeches; being strangely painted, every one his quiver of
Arrows, and at his back a club; on his arm a Fox or an Otter's skin, or some such
matter for his vambrace larmor for forearmj; their heads and shoulders painted
red, . . . which Scarlet-like colour made an exceeding handsome show; his Bow in
his hand, and the skin of a Bird with her wings abroad dried, tied on his head, a
piece of copper, a white shell, a long feather, with a small rattle growing at the tails
of their snak[e]s tied to it, or some such like toy. All rhis while Smith atd rhe King
stood in the middest guarded, as before is said: and after three dances they all departed. Smith they conducted to a long house, where thirty or forty tall fellows did
guard him: and ere long more bread and venison was brought him than would have
served twenty men. I think his stomach at that time was not very good; what he left
they put in baskets and tied over his head. About midnight they set the meat again
before him, all this time not one of them would eat a bit with him, till the next
morning they brought him as much more; and then did they eat all the old, and re-
60
Major Prohlems in American Colonidl Histont
served the new as they had done the other, which made him think they would fat
him to eat him. Yet in this desperate estate to defend him fiorn the cold, one Maocctssater brought him his gown, in requital of some beads and toys Smitlt had given
him at his first arrival in Virginio. . . .
. . . [His captors] made all the preparations they could to assault James town,
craving his advice; and for recompence he should have 1ife, liberty, land, and
women. In part of a Table book [tablet] he wrote his mind to them at the Fort, what
was intended, how they should follow that direction to affright the messengers, and
without tail send him such things as he wrote for. And an Inventory with them. The
difficultie and danger, he told the Savages, of the Mines, great guns, and other Engines exceedingly affrighted them, yet according to his request they went to Jantes
town, in as bitter weather as could be of frost and snow, and within three days returned with an answer.
But when they came to Jante[s] town, seeing men sally out as he had told them
they would, they fled: yet in the night they came again to the same place where he
had told them they should receive an answer, and such things as he had promised
them: which they found accordingiy, and with which they returned with no small
expedition, to the wonder of them all that heard it, that he cor-rld either divine, or the
paper could speak. . . .
After this they brought him a bag of gunpowder, which they carefully preserved till the next spring, to plant as they did their corn; because they would be acquainted with the nature of that seed. . . .
At fast they brought him to Werow'ocontoco where was Powhattul their Emperor. Here more than two hundred of those grim Courtiers stood wondering at him,
as he had been a monster; till Powhatun and his train had put themselves in their
greatest braveries. Before a fire upon a seat like a bedstead, he sat covered with a
great robe, made of Rnrorvctut [raccoon] skins, and all the tails hanging by. On either hand did sit a young wench of 16 or 18 years, and along on each side the house,
two rows of men, and behind them as many women, with all their heads and shoulders painted red; many of their heads bedecked with the white down of Birds; but
every one with something: and a great chain of white beads about their necks.
At his entrance before the King, all the people gave a great shout. The Queen of
Appantatuck was appointed to bring him water to wash his hands, and another
brought him a bunch of feathers, instead of a Towel to dry them: having feasted him
after their best barbarous manner they could, a long consultation was held, but the
conclusion was, two great stones were brought betore Po-^hatan: thetT as many as
could laid hands on him, dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head, and being
ready with their clubs, to beat out his brains, Pocallontas the King's dearest daughter, when no entreaty could prevail, got his head in her arms, and laid her own upon
his to save him from death: whereat the Emperour was contented he should live to
make him hatchets, and her bells, beads, and copper; for they thought him aswell of
all occupations as themselves. For the King himself will make his own robes, shoes,
bows, arrows, pots; plant, hunt, or do anything so well as the rest. . . .
Two days after [7 Jan. 16081, Pow'lntut having disguised himself in the most
t'earfulest manner he could, caused Captain Smith to be brought forth to a great
house in the woods, and there upon a mat by the fire to be leli alone. Not long after
fiom behind a mat that divided the house. was made the most dolefulest noise he
Virginia and Maryland: The Beginnings of Englkh America
6l
ever heard; then Powhatan more like a devil than a man, with some two hundred
more as black as himself, came unto him and told him now they were friends, and
presently he should go to James town, to send him two great guns, and a grindstone,
for which he would give him the Country of Capahowosick, and forever esteem him
as his son Nantaquoud. . .
.
Now ever once in four or five days, Pocahontas with her attendants, brought
him so much provision, that saved many of their lives, that else for all this had
slarved with hunger. . .
His relation of the plenty he had seen, especially at Werawocomoco, and of the
state and bounty of Powhatan, (which till that time was unknown) so revived their
.
dead spirits (especially the love
abandoned. . .
of
Pocahontas)
as all men's fear
was
.
What was done in three months having Victuals.
The Store devoured by Rats, how we lived
three months of such natural fruits
as the Country afforded.
Now we so quietly followed our business, that in three months we made three or
four Last of Tar, Pitch, and Soap ashes; produced a trial of Glass; made a Well in
the Fort of excellent sweet water, which till then was wanting; built some twenty
houses; re-covered our Church: provided Nets and Weirs for fishing; and to stop the
disorders of our disorderly thieves, and the Savages, built a Blockhouse in the neck
of our Isle, kept by a Garrison to enterlain the Savages' trade, and none to pass nor
repass Savage nor Christian without the president's order. Thirty or forty Acres of
ground we digged and planted. Of three sows in eighteen months, increased 60 and
odd Pigs. And near 500 chickens brought up themselves without having any meat
given them: but the Hogs were transported to Hog Isle: where also we built a blockhouse with a garison to give us notice of any shipping, and for their exercise they
made Clapboard and wainscot, and cut down trees.
We built also a fort for a retreat near a convenient River upon a high commanding hill, very hard to be assaulted and easy to be defended; but ere it was finished
this defect caused a stay.
In searching our casked corn, we found it half rotten, and the rest so consumed
with so many thousands of Rats that increased so fast, but their original was from
the ships, as we knew not how to keep that little we had. This did drive us a1l to our
wits end, for there was nothing in the country but what nature afforded.
Until this time Kemps and Tassore were fettered prisoners, and did double task
and taught us how to order and plant our fields: whom now for want of victual we
set at liberty, but so well they liked our company they did not desire to go from
us....
And to express their loves, for 16 days continuance, the Country people
brought us (when least) 100 a day, of Squirrels, Turkeys, Deer and other wild
beasts.
But this want of corn occasioned the end of all our works, it being work sufficient to provide victual. . . .
Till this present, by the hazard and endeavors of some thirty or forty, this whole
Colony had ever been fed. We had more Sturgeon, than could be devoured by Dog
62
Major Problems in American Colonial History
and Man, of which the industrious by drying and pounding, mingled with Caviar,
Sor6l and other wholesome herbs would make bread and good meat: others would
gather as much Toclcwhogh roots in a day as would make them bread a week, so that
of those wild fruits, and what we caught, we lived very well in regard of such a diet.
But such was the strange condition of some 150, that had they not beene forced
nolens, rolens, perforce to gather and prepare their victual they would all have
starved or have eaten one another. Ofthose wild fruits the Savages often brought us,
and for that the president would not fulfill the unreasonable desire of those distracted Gluttonous Loiterers, to sell not only our kettles, hoes, tools, and iron,
nayswords, pieces, and the very Ordnance and houses, might they have prevailed to
have been but Idle: for those Savage fruits, they would have had imparted all to the
Savages, especially for one basket of Corn they heard of to be at Powhatans, fifty
miles from our Fort. . . .
. . . [H]e argued the case in this manner.
Fellow soldiers, I did little think any so false to report, or so many to be so simple to be
persuaded, that I either intend to starve you, or that Pon-halcn at this present hath corn
for himself, much less for you; or that I would not have it, if I knew where it were to be
had. Neither did I think any so malicious as now I see a great many; yet it shall not so
passionate me, but I will do my best for my most maligner. But dream no longer of this
vain hope from Powhatan, nor that I will longer forbear to force you from your Idleness, and punish you if you rail. But if I find any more runners for Newfoundland with
the Pinnace, Iet him assuredly look to arive at the Gallows. You cannot deny but that by
the hazard of my lif'e many a time I have saved yours, when (might your own wills have
prevailed) you would have starved; and will do still whether I will or not; But I protest
by that God that made me, since necessity hath not power to force you to gather fbr
yourselves those fruits the earth doth yield, you sha1l not only gather for yourselves, but
those that are sick. As yet I never had more from the store than the worst of you: and all
my English extraordinary provision that I have, you shall see me divide it amongst the
sick.
And this Savage trash you so scornfuliy repine at; being put in your mouths your
stomachs can digest: if you wouid have better, you should have brought it; and therefore
I will take a course you shall provide what is to be had. The sick shall not starve, but
equally share of all our labors; and he that gathereth not every day as much as I do, the
next day shall be set beyond the river, and be banished from the Fort as a drone, till he
amend his conditions or starve. . .
.
Now we all found the loss of Captain Smith, yea his greatest maligners could
now curse his loss: as for corn provision and contribution from the Savages, we had
nothing but mortal wounds, with clubs and arrows; as for our Hogs, Hens, Goats,
Sheep, Horse, or what lived, our commanders, officers and Savages daily consumed
them, some small proportions sometimes we tasted, till all was devouredl then
swords, arms, pieces, or any thing, we traded with the Savages, whose cruel fingers
were so oft imbrewed in our blood, that what by their cruelty, our Governours indiscretion, and the loss of our ships, of five hundred within six months after Captain
Smith's departure, there remained not past sixty men, women and children, most
miserable and poor creatures; and those were preserved for the most part, by roots,
herbs, acorns, walnuts, berries, now and then a little fish: they that had starch in
these extremities, made no small use of it; yea, even the very skins of our horses.
Virginia and Maryland: The Beginnings of English America
63
Nay, so great was our famine, that a Savage we slew and buried, the poorer sort
took him up again and eat him; and so did diverse one another boiled and stewed
with roots and herbs: Ald one amongst the rest did kill his wife, powdered fsalted]
her, and had eaten part ofher before it was known; for which he was executed, as he
well deserved: now whether she was better roasted, boiled or carbonado'd [grilled],
I know not; but of such a dish as powdered wife I never heard of.
This was that time, which still to this day we called the starving time; it were
too vile to say, and scarce to be believed, what we endured: but the occasion was
our own, for want of providence industry and government, and not the barrennesse
and defect of the Country, as is generally supposed; . . . Yet had we been even in
Paradise itselfe with these Governours, it would not have been much better with us;
yet there was amongst us, who had they had the government as Captain Smith appointed, but that they could not maintain it, would surely have kept us from those
extremities of miseries. This in ten days more, would have supplanted us all with
death.. . .
64
Maior Problents in Anrcrican Colotial Historv
2. Jamestown Estates: A Modern Parody,
l99l
t AM'ES TIO WA{,ES-rA'TLS
f or As Littfe As L10 12s. 6[., /ou,'Too,
q
J rom the moment lhe
pentle,
soulhem breezes waft your pinriace to
the verdant. gardenlike shore, you'll
know this is where you belong.
Jamestown Estates. where only a few
are living a life those in England can
hardly imagine.
proud
Jamestown Estates
- another comproject of the Virginia Company
- the
bines the best in colonial living with
excitement, adventure, and opportunity
for which the Virginia Company is famous.
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-which
you will share with congenia-I, adventuresome people just like yourself (specially
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a spectacular
-hasEstates. nature
river view. At Jamestown
itselfinvites you to relax, reflect, converse
with new-found fi-iends. and share stories
of your New World experiences, while becoming the sort of person you've always
Can Outn A Share of ?aralise.
most active labor markets in the New
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Our employment office has many
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No single ad can tell you all the
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o 24-hour security, palisaded grounds.
o Hunting, fishing right on premises. Native guides teach you to hunt like a lord.
.The Sotweed Garden Center-learn how
lo plant like a pro. No exlrrience necessary.
. Regularly scheduled 'Trash For Treasure" excursions to the nearby Pamunkey
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. And, as a special bonus to thosewhovisit
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-yourchance
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- not by aone
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World investment. there is the chance to
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at just tIO I2s. 6d To find
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New
sentative.
Walter Woodward. "Jamestown Estates," William and Ma^, Quurterl\', 3d ser..
Reprinted by permission.
XLVII ( l99l ). I l6-
II7
Virgirtta ttnd Marvlatd: Thc Bellinnings oJ'Euglish
Anrricd
65
3. Richard Frethorne Begs His Parents for Support, 1623
Loving and kind father and mother. my most humble duty remembered to you hopin-e
in God of your good health, as I my self am at the making hereof, this is to let you understand that I your Child am in a most heavy Case by reason of the nature of the
Country is such that it Causeth much sickness, as the scurvy and the bloody flux
ldysenteryl, and divers other diseases, which maketh the body very poor, and Weak,
and when we are sick there is nothing to Comfort us; for since I came out of the ship,
I never ate any thing but peas and loblollie (that is water gruel) as for deer or venison
I never saw any since I came into this land, there is indeed some fowl, but We .rre not
allowed to go and get it, but must Work hard both early and late for a mess of water
gruel, and a mouthful of bread, and beef', a mouthful of bread for a penny loaf r.t.tust
serve for 4 men which is most pitiful if you did know as much as I. when people cry
out day, and night. Oh that they were in England without their limbs and would not
care to lose any limb to be in En-eland again. yea though they beg flom door to door.
for we live in f'ear of the Enemy every hour, yet we have had a Combat with them on
the Sunday befbre Shrovetide. and we took two alive, and make siaves of them. but it
was by policy, fbr we are in great danger, fbr our Plantation is very weak, by reason of
the dearth. and sickness. of our Company. for we calne but Twenty lbr the merchants,
and they half dead Just; as we look every hour When two more should go, yet there
cafire some for other men yet to live with us, of which there is but one alive, and our
Lieutenant is dead, and his father, and his brother, and there was some -5 or 6 of the last
year's 20 of which there is but 3 left, so that we are f'ain to get other men to plant with
us, and yet we are but 32 to fight against 3000 if they should Come, and the nighest
help that We have is ten miles of us, and when the rogues overcame this place last, they
slew 80 persons. How then shall we doe for we lie even in their teeth, they may easily
take us but that God is merciful, and can save with few as well as with many; as he
showed to Gilead and like Gilead's soldiers if they lapped water. we drink water
which is but Weak, and I have nothing to Comfbrt me. nor there is nothing to be gotten here but sickness, and death, except that one had money to lay out in some things
for profit; But I have nothing at all, no not a shirt to my backe. but two Rags nor no
Clothes. but one poor suit, nor but one pair of shoes. but one pair of stockings. but one
Cap, but two bands. my Cloak is stolen by one of my own f'ellows, and to his dying
hour would not tell rne what he did with it but some of my fellows saw him have butter and beef out of a ship, which my Cloak I doubt lthinkl paid for, so that I have not a
penny, nor a half penny Worth to help me to either spice, or sugar, or strong Waters,
without the which one cannot live here, for as strong beer in England doth f'atten and
strengthen them so water here doth wash and weaken these here, only keep lif'e and
soul together. But I am not half a quartef so strong as I was in England, and all is fbr
want of victuals, for I do protest unto you, that I have eaten more in a day at home than
I have allowed me here for a Week. You have given more than my day's allowance to
a beggar at the door; and if Mr. Jackson had not relieved rne, I should be in a poor
Case, but he like a father and she like a loving mother doth still help me, for when we
Some of the spelling in this docunrent has been modernized
Richard Frethorne to his mother and father. Marclr-April. 1623. In Susan M. Kingsbury. ed.. Records of
tlte Virginia Contpcutt, tV (Washington, U.S. Govt. Printing Otfice. 1935). 58-62.
66
Major Problems in American Colonial History
go up to James Town that is 10 miles of us, there lie all the ships that Come ro the land,
and there they must deliver their goods, and when we went up to Town as it may be on
Monday, at noon, and come there by night, then load the next day by noon, and go
home in the afternoon, and unload, and then away again in the night, and be up about
midnight, then if it rained, or blowed never so hard we must lie on the boat on the
water, and have nothing but a little bread, for when we go into the boat we have a loaf
allowed to two men, and it is all if we stayed there 2 days, which is hard, and must lie
all that while in the boat, but that Goodman Jackson pitied me and made me a Cabin
to lie in always when I come up, and he would give me some poor Jacks [fish] home
with me which Comforted me more than peas, or water gruel. Of they be very godly
folks, and love me very well, and will do any thing for me, and he much marveled that
you would send me a servant to the Company. He sayeth I had been better knocked on
the head, and Indeed so I find it now to my great grief and misery, and saith, that if you
love me you will redeem me suddenly, for which I do entreat and beg, and if you cannot get the merchants to redeem me for some little money then for God's sake get a
gathering or entreat some good folks to Iay out some little sum of money, in meal, and
Cheese and butter, and beef, any eating meat will yield great profit, oil and vinegar is
very good, but father there is great loss in leaking, but for God's sake send beef and
Cheese and butter or the more of one soft and none of another, but if you send Cheese
it must be very old Cheese, and at the Cheesemonger's you may buy good Cheese for
two pence farthing or half-penny that will be liked very well, but if you send Cheese
you must have a Care how you pack it in barrels, and you must put Cooper's chips between every Cheese, or else the heat of the hold will rot them, and look whatsoever
you send me be it never so much, look what I make of it. I will deal truly with you. I
will send it over, and beg the profit to redeem me, and if I die before it Come I have entreated Goodman Jackson to send you the worth of it, who hath promised he will. lf
you send you must direct your letter to Goodman Jackson, at James Town, a Gunsmith. . . . Good Father do not forget me, but have mercy and pity my miserable Case.
I know if you did but see me you would weep to see me, for I have but one suit, but it
is a strange one, it is very well guarded, wherefore for God's sake pity me. I pray you
to remember my love to all my friends, and kindred, I hope all my Brothers and sisters
are in good health, and as for my part I have set down my resolution that cerlainly Will
be, that is, that the Answer of this letter will be life or death to me, there good Father
send as soon as you can, and if you send me any thing let this be the mark.
ROT
Rrcuenl FnsrHonNp
Martin's Hundred
Virginia and MaryIand: The Beginnings of Engllsh America
67
4. A Blank Servant Indenture Form, 1635
Tbc fsrme of b ind ing a fcrvant.
This
I
Indennrta
drl of
madett*
in the
leoe of ow Sweraignc Lordri;g Charlesr$c.
betpeene
vartl , ud
-cthir
part1,
of che one
on the
Witncfltth,tht th faid
Ceth herifu ,roenrot promiferard
g?nt,to asdoith the faid
hit Executort nd Afignot, to ferzte him fron
the da1 of the due heieof , tnrill hr frfi ndnext irritrat in Maryland ; end tfter for and
drring the teume of
)ecre\ i; f*ch
fen'ice
nd
implolmentrat lte the
pid
2tcyhim,tccord.ins,':rf :{#::'rf :{r'!:::,f;
-itihe
like kind. In confdlrttinnhereofi the laid
Coth gronilc
pid
udgrant , to andnith the
to pajfor h* y$ing, andtu
fn d h in wi tlt *f at, D rt ir'hi, / p ar ll ai d f dging,dith other neceifariet d*rig the faid tu;c;
tnd t thc end of thc fiid terrrre, so siu: him onc
thole yerct pret'ifen of Corne , nrt fft1 acrer of
Land, ucording rc the order of the corlr,ffef In
e
V
c
o
rit
nclle wh ere of,the fai d
hath' hereontr"pu, ib hand nd leale, thc day *rd
tbore oritten.
'$ereSealed
and delivered in
H
the prefcncc o[
The ufudl tcflnc of binding r
furnt
five yecrs; buc forany artificerrorone that
is
for
ftall
def-erve more then ordiarry, the Adventurer
fhail doewell to fhorren tfialtime, and adde
eocouragemcn$ of anottcr nerwe (as he fhall
lee crufc; /rtbcr then cowant fuch uGfirU meo.
Blank indenture form in Anon. [Father Andrew White], A Relation of Maryland (London, 1635, 1966),
68
Major Problems in American Colonial History
5. George Alsop Argues That Servants in Maryland Have
a Good Deal, 1666
The necessariness of Servitude proved, with the clmmon usage of Servants
in Mary-Land, together with their Pritiledges.
. . . There is no truer Emblem of Confusion either in Monarchy or Domestick Governments, then when either the Subject, or the Servant, strives for the upper hand of
his Prince, or Master, and to be equal with him, from whom he receives his present
subsistance: Why then, if Servitude be so necessary that no place can be governed
in order, nor people Iive without it, this may serve to tell those which prick up their
ears and bray against it, That they are none but Asses, and deserve the Bridle of a
strict commanding power to rein them in: For I'me certainly confident, that there
are several Thousands in most Kingdoms of Christendom, that could not at all live
and subsist, unless they had served some prefixed time, to learn either some Trade,
Art, or Science, and by either of them to extract their present livelihoodThen methinks this may stop the mouths of those that will undiscreetly compassionate them that dwell under necessary Servitudes; for let but Parents of an indifferent capacity in Estates, when their Childrens age by computation speak them
seventeen or eighteen years old, turn them loose to the wide world, without a Seven
years working Apprenticeship (being just brought up to the bare formality of a little
reading and writing) and you shall immediately see how weak and shiftless they'le
be towards the maintaining and supporting of themselves; and (without either steal-
ing or begging) their bodies like a Sentinel must continually wait to see when their
Souls will be frighted away by the pale Ghost of a starving want.
Then let such, where Providence hath ordained to life as Servants, either in England or beyond Sea, endure the pre-fixed yoak of their limited time with patience, and
then in a small computation of years, by an industrious endeavour, they may become
Masters and Mistresses of Families themselves. And let this be spoke to the deserved
praise of Mary-Land, That the four years I served there were not to me so siavish, as a
two years Servitude of a Handicraft Apprenticeship was here in London. . . . Not that
I write this to seduce or clelude any, or to draw them from their native soyle, but out of
a love to my Countrymen, whom in the general I wish well to, and that the lowest of
them may live in such a capacity of Estate, as that the bare interest of their Livelihoods
might not altogether depend upon persons of the greatest extendments. . - .
They whose abilities cannot extend to purchase their own transportation over
into Mary-Land, (and surely he that cannot command so small a sum fbr so great a
matter, his life must needs be mighty low and dejected) I say they may for the debarment of a four years sordid liberty, go over into this Province and there live plen-
to advantage a man all the
remainder of his dayes, making his predecessors happy in his sufficient abilities,
which he attained to partly by the restrainment of so small a time?
Now those that commit themselves unto the care of the Merchant to carry them
over, they need not trouble themselves with any inquisitive search touching their
tiously well. And what's a four years Servitude
"A Characterof the Province of Maryland, 1666." in C. C. Hall, ed.,Narrotives of Earl.t:
Marylarul (New York: charles scribner's Sons. l9l0; copyright renewed Barnes and Nob1e, 1946),
George Alsop,
354-360.
Virgittia and Mdrvland: The Beginnings
o.f
Englislt Atnericd
69
Voyage; for there is such an honest care and provision made fbr them all the time
they remain aboard the Ship, and are sailing over, that they want for nothing that is
necessary and convenient.
The Merchant commonly before they go aboard the Ship, or set themselves in
any forwardness for their Voyage, has Conditions of Agreements drawn between
him and those that by a voluntary consent become his Servants, to serve him, his
Heirs or Assigns, according as they in their primitive acquaintance have made their
bargain, some two, some three, some four years; and whatever the Master or Servant tyes himself up to here in England by Condition, the Laws of the Province will
force a perfbrmance of when they come there: Yet here is this Priviledge in it when
they arrive, lf they dwell not with the Merchant they made their first agreement
withall, they may choose whom they will serve their prefixed time with; and after
their curiosity has pitcht on one whom they think fit for their turn, and that they may
live well withall, the Merchant makes an Assignment of the Indenture over to him
whom they of their free will have chosen to be their Master, in the same nature as
we here in England (and no otherwise) turn over Covenant Servants or Apprentices
from one Master to another. Then let those whose chaps are always breathing tbrth
those filthy dregs of abusive exclamations, . . . against this Country of Mary-Land,
saying, That those which are transported over thither, are sold in open Market for
Slaves, and draw in Carts like Horses; which is so damnable as untruth, that if they
should search to the very Center of Hell, and enquire for a Lye of the most antient
and damned stamp, I confidently beiieve they could not flnd one to parallel this: For
know, That the Servants here in Mary-Land of all Colonies, distant or remote Plantations, have the least cause to complain, either for strictness of Servitude, want of
Provisions, or need of Apparel: Five dayes and a half in the Summer weeks is the
alotted time that they work in; and for two months, when the Sun predominates in
the highest pitch of his heat, they claim an antient and customary Priviledge, to repose themselves three hours in the day within the house, and this is undeniably
granted to them that work in the Fields.
In the Winter time, which lasteth three months (vir.) December, January, and
February, they do little or no work or imployment, save cutting of wood to make
good fires to sit by, unless their Ingenuity will prompt them to hunt the Deer, or
Bear, or recreate themselves in Fowling, to slaughter the Swans, Geese, and
Turkeys (which this Country atTords in a most plentiful manner:) For every Servant
has a Gun, Powder and Shot allowed him, to sport him withall on all Holidayes and
leasurable times, if he be capable of using it, orbe willing to learn. . . .
. . . He that lives in the natule of a Servant in this Province, must serve but fbur
years by the Custom of the Country; and when the expiration of his time speaks him
a Freeman, there's a Law in the Province, that enjoyns his Master whom he hath
served to give him Fifty Acres of Land, Corn to serve him a whole year, three Sutes
of Apparel, with things necessary to them, and Tools to work withall; so that they
are no sooner free, but they are ready to set up for themselves, and when once entred, they live passingly well.
The Women that go over into this Province as Servants, have the best luck here
as in any place of the world besides; for they are no sooner on shoar, but they are
courted into a Copulative Matrimony, which some of them (for aught I know) had
they not come to such a Market with their Virginity might have kept it by them until
70
Maior Problerns in Anterican Colonial History
it had been mouldy. . . . Men have not altogether so good luck as Women in this
kind, or natural preferment, without they be good Rhetoricians, and well vers'd in
the art of perswasion, then (probably) they may ryvet themselves in the time of their
Servitude into the private and reserved favour of their Mistress, if Age speak their
Master deficient.
In shor-t, touching the Servants o1'this Province, they live well in the time of their
Service, and by their restrainment in that time, they are made capable of living much
better when they come to be free; which in several other parts of the world I have observed, That after some servants have brought their indented and limited time to a just
and legal period by Servitude. they have been much more incapable of supporting
themselves from sinking into the Gulf of a slavish, poor, fettered, and intangled lif'e,
then all the fastness of their ore-fixed time did involve them in before. . . .
6. Robert Beverlev Points Out the Benefits
of Seivitude, l7o5
Their Servants, they distinguish by the Names of Slaves for Life, and Servants for
a
time.
Slaves are the Negroes, and their Posterity, following the condition of the
Mother, according to the Maxim, partus seqwitur yentrem fstatus proceeds from the
wombl. They are call'd Slaves, in respect of the time of their Servitude, because it
is for Life.
Servants, are those which serve only for a few years, according to the time of
their Indenture, or the Custom of the Country. The Custom of the Country takes
place upon such as have no Indentures. The Law in this case is, that if such Servants
be under Nineteen years of Age, they must be brought into Court, to have their Age
adjudged; and from the Age they are judg'd to be of, they must serve until they
reach four and twenty: But if they be adjudged upwards of Nineteen, they are then
only to be Servants for the term of five Years.
The Male-Servants, and Slaves of both Sexes, are imployed together in Tilling and
Manuring the Ground, in Sowing and Planting Tobacco, Corn. &c. Some distinction indeed is made between them in their Cloaths, and Food; but the Work of both,
is no other than what the Overseers. the Freemen. and the Planters themselves do.
Sufficient Distinction is also made between the Female-Servants. and Slaves:
for a White Woman is rarely or never put to work in the Ground, if she be good fbr
any thing else: And to Discourage all Planters fiom using any Women so, their Law
imposes the heaviest Taxes upon Female-Servants working in the Ground, while it
suffers all other white Women to be absolutely exempted: Whereas on the other
hand, it is a common thing to work a Woman Slave out of Doors; nor does the Law
make any distinction in her Taxes, whether her Work be Abroad, or at Home.
Because I have heard how strangely cruel, and severe, the Service ofthis Country is represented in some parts of Englund; I can't fbrbear affirming, that the work
Robert Beverly, The Histot-t turl Presert State o.f Virginia, 1705. r'ei'. 1122 (1722. ed. repr.
lottesville: University of Virgi nia Press . 19 4'7 \, 27 -27 4.
1
Char--
Virginia and Maryland: The Beginnings of English Anterica
7l
of their Servants, and Slaves, is no other than what every common Freeman do's.
Neither is any Servant requir'd to do more in a Day, than his Overseer. And I can
assure you with a great deal of Truth, that generally their Slaves are not worked
near so hard, nor so many Hours in a Day, as the Husbandmen, and Day-Labourers
in England. An Overseer is a Man, that having served his time, has acquired the
Skill and Character of an experienced Planter, and is therefore intrusted with the Direction ofthe Servants and Slaves.
But to compleat this account of Servants, I shall give you a short Relation of
the care their Laws take, that they be used as tenderly as possible.
By the Laws of their Country
L All Servants whatsoever,
have their Complaints heard without Fee, or Reward;
but if the Master be found Faulty, the charge of the Complaint is cast upon him,
otherwise the business is done ex Ofricio.
2. Any Justice of Peace may receive the Complaint of a Servant, and order every
thing relating thereto,
4.
5.
8.
o
till
the next County-Court. where
it will be finally
determin'd.
All Masters are under the Correction, and Censure of the County-Courts, to
provide for their Servants, good and wholsome Diet, Clothing, and Lodging.
They are always to appear, upon the first Notice given of the Complaint of their
Servants, otherwise to forfeit the Service of them, until they do appear.
All Servants Complaints are to be receiv'd at any time in Court, without
Process, and shall not be delay'd for want of Form; but the Merits of the Complaint must be immediately inquir'd into by the Justices; and if the Master
cause any delay therein, the Court may remove such Servants, if they see
Cause, until the Master will come to Tryal.
If a Master shall at any time disobey an Order of Court, made upon any Complaint of a Servant; the Court is impower'd to remove such Servant forthwith to
another Master, who will be kinder; Giving to the former Master the produce
only, (after Fees deducted) of what such Servants shall be sold for by Publick
Outcry.
If a Master should be so cruel, as to use his Servant ill, that is faln Sick, or
Lame in his Service, and thereby render'd unfit for Labour, he must be remov'd
by the Church-Wardens out of the way of such Cruelty, and boarded in some
good Planters House, till the time of his Freedom, the charge of which must be
laid before the next County-Court, which has power to levy the same from time
to time, upon the Goods and Chattels of the Master; After which, the charge of
such Boarding is to come upon the Parish in General.
All hired Servants are intituled to these Priviledges.
No Master of a Servant, can make a new Bargain for Service, or other Matter
with his Servant, without the privity and consent of a Justice of Peace, to prevent the Master's Over-reaching, or scareing such Servant into an unreasonable
Complyance.
10.
11.
The properly of all Money and Goods sent over thither to Servants, or carry'd
in with them; is reserv'd to themselves, and remain intirely at their disposal.
Each Servant at his Freedom, receives of his Master fifteen Bushels of Corn,
(which is sufficient for a whole year) and two new Suits of Cloaths, both Lin-
72
Major Problems in American Colonidl Historl,
nen and Woollen; and then becomes as free in all respects, and as much entituled to the Liberties, and Priviledges of the Country, as any other of the Inhabitants or Natives are.
12. Each Servant has then also a Right to take up fifty Acres of Land, where he can
find any unpatented: But that is no great Privilege, for any one may have
good a right for a piece ofEight.
as
This is what the Laws prescribe in favour of Servants, by which you may find,
that the Cruelties and Severities imputed to that Country, are an unjust Reflection.
For no People more abhor the thoughts of such Usage, than the Virginians, nor take
more precaution to prevent it.
ESSAYS
During the first half of the seventeenth century tens of thousands of young English men
and women were willing to emigrate to the colonies because of the -erowth of poverty
and constriction of opportunity at home. They continued to come even after the risks,
particularly the high disease and death rates in the southern colonies. came to be known.
Peopling the colonies with single young servants, many of whom would not live to
complete their terms, had immense consequences. Imbalanced sex ratios, along with
postponement of maniage and childbearing until terms ended, meant that many died
without reproducing and the colonist population was composed largely of immigrants
until almost the end of the century. In the first essay Lois Green Carr, the historian of
Maryland's St. Mary's City Commission, and Lorena S. Walsh, historial researcher at
Colonial Williamsburg, consider the consequences for the women who were recruited
for the Chesapeake. They focus on whether women's status was enhanced in the frontier setting. How does their description compare to William Wood's anger over Indian
women's treatment in Chapter 2?
In the second essay historian James Horn, Director of the International Center for
Jefferson Studies at Monticello, explores the intertwined relationship between the growing tobacco economy and changing forms of servitude in the Chesapeake over the seventeenth century. This interaction produced the society and economy that typified the
region and created its characteristic institutions.
The Experience of White Women in the Chesapeake
LOIS GREEN CARR AND LORENA S. WALSH
Four facts were basic to all human experience in seventeenth-century Maryland.
First, for most of the period the great majority of inhabitants had been born in what
we now call Britain. Population increase in Maryland did not result primarily from
births in the colony before the late 1680s and did not produce a predominantly native population of adults before the first decade of the eighteenth century. Second,
immigrant men could not expect to live beyond age forty-three, and 70 percent
Lois Green Can and Lorena Walsh. "The Planter's Wif'e The Experience of Women in SeventeenthCentury Maryland." William and Man Quurterb, 3d ser. XXXIV (1977). 5,+2-565. Reprinted by permission of the authors and the publisher.
Virginia and Maryland: Tlu Beginnings of Englislt Americn
73
would die before age fifty. Women may have had even shorter lives. Third, perhaps
85 percent of the immigrants, and practically all the unmarried immigrant women,
arrived as indentured servants and consequently manied late. Family groups were
never predominant in the immigration to Maryland and were a significant part for
only a brief time at mid-century. Fourrh, many more men than women immigrated
during the whole period. These f'acts-immigrant predominance, early death, Iate
marriage, and sexual imbalance-created circumstances of social and demographic
disruption that deeply affected family and community life.
We need to assess the eff'ects of this disruption on the experience of women in
seventeenth-century Maryland. Were women degraded by the hazards of servitude
in a society in which everyone had left community and kin behind and in which
women were in short supply? Were traditional restraints on social conduct weakened'l If so, were women more exploited or more independent and powerful than
women who remained in England? Did any differences from English experience
which we can observe in the experience of Maryland women survive the transformation from an immigrant to a predominantly native-born society with its own kinship networks and community traditions? The tentative argument put forward here
is that the answer to all these questions is Yes. There were degrading aspects of
servitude, although these probably did not characterize the lot of most women; there
were f'ewer restraints on social conduct, especially in courtship, than in England;
women were less protected but also more powerful than those who remained at
home; and at least some of these changes survived the appearance in Maryland of
New World creole communities. However, these issues are far from settled, and we
shall offer some suggestions as to how they might be further pursued.
Maryland was settled in 1634, but in 1650 there were probably no more than six
hundred persons and f'ewer than two hundred adult women in the province. After
that time population growth was steady; in 1104 a census listed 30,437 white persons. of whom 7,163 were adult women. Thus in discussing the experience of white
women in seventeenth-century Maryland we are dealing basically with the second
half of the century.
Marylanders of that period did not leave letters and diaries to record their New
World experience or their relationships to one another. Nevertheless, they left trails
in the public records that give us clues. Immigrant lists kept in England and documents of the Maryland courts ofler quantifiable evidence about the kinds of people
who came and some of the problems they faced in making a new life. Especially
valuable are the probate court records. Estate inventories reveal the kinds of activities carried on in the house and on the farm, and wills, which are usually the only
personal statements that remain for any man or woman, show something of personal
attitudes. . .
.
Whatever their status, one fact about immigrant women is certain: many fewer
came than men. Immigrant lists, headright lists, and itemizations of servants in inventories show severe imbalance. On a London immigrant list of 1634-1635 men
outnumbered women six to one. From the 1650s at least until the 1680s most
sources show a ratio of three to one. From then on. all sources show some. but not
great, improvement. Among immigrants from Liverpool over the years 1697-1707
the ratio was just under two and one half to one.
74
Major Prohlems in Arntrit'an Colonial History
Why did not more women come? Presumably, fewer wished to leave family
and community to venture into a wilderness. But perhaps more important, women
were not as desirable as men to merchants and planters who were making fortunes
raising and marketing tobacco, a crop that requires large amounts of labor. The
gradual improvement in the sex ratio among servants toward the end of the century
may have been the result of a change in recruiting the needed labor. In the late
1660s the supply of youn-e men willing to emigrate stopped increasin-e sufficiently
to meet the labor demands of a growing Chesapeake population. Merchants who recruited servants for planters turned to other sources, and among these sources were
women. They did not crowd the ships arriving in the Chesapeake, but their numbers
did increase.
To ask the question another way, why did women come? Doubtless, most came
to get a husband, an objective virtually certain of success in a land where women
were so far outnumbered. The promotional literature, furthermore, painted bright
pictures of the lif'e that awaited men and women once out of their time; and various
studies suggest that for a while, at least, the promoters were not being entirely fanciful. Until the 1660s, and to a less degree the 1680s, the expanding economy of
Maryland and Virginia offered opportunities well beyond those available in England to men without capital and to the women who became their wives.
Nevertheless, the hazards were also great, and the greatest was untimely death.
Newcomers promptly became ill, probably with malaria, and many died. What proportion survived is unclear; so far no one has devised a way of measuring it. Recurrent malaria made the woman who survived seasoning less able to withstand other
diseases, especially dysentery and influenza. She was especially vulnerable when
pregnant. Expectation of life for everyone was low in the Chesapeake, but especially so for women. A woman who had immigrated to Maryland took an extra risk,
though perhaps a risk not greater than she might have suffered by moving from her
village to London instead.
The majority of women who survived seasoning paid their transportation costs
by working for a four- or five-year term of service. The kind of work depended on
the status of the family they served. A female servant of a small planter-who
through about the 1670s might have had a servant-probably worked at the hoe.
Such a man could not afford to buy labor that would not help with the cash crop. In
wealthy families women probably were household servants, although some are occasionally listed in inventories of well-to-do planters as living on the quarters-that
is, on plantations other than the dwelling plantation. Such women saved men the
jobs of preparing food and washing linen but doubtless also worked in the fields. In
middling households experience must have varied. Where the number of people to
feed and wash for was large, female servants would have had little time to tend the
crops. . . .
An additional risk fbr the woman who came as a servant was the possibility of
bearing a bastard. At least 20 percent of the female servants who came to Charles
County between 1658 and 1705 were presented to the county court for this cause. A
servant woman could not marry unless someone was willing to pay her master fbr
the term she had left to serve. If a man made her pregnant, she could not marry him
unless he could buy her time. Once a woman became free, however, marriage was
clearly the usual solution. Only a handful of free women were presented in Charles
Virginia and Maryland: The Beginnings of Englkh
America
75
County for bastardy between 1658 and 1705. Since few free women remained either
single or widowed for long, not many were subject to the risk. The hazard of bearing a bastard was a hazard ofbeing a servant.
This high rate of illegitimate pregnancies among servants raises lurid questions.
Did men import women for sexual exploitation? Does John Barth's whore of
Dorset have a basis outside his fertile imagination? In our opinion, the answers are
clearly No. Servants were economic investments on the part of planters who needed
labor. A female servant in a household where there were unmanied men must have
both provided and faced temptation, for the pressures were great in a society in
which men outnumbered women by three to one. Nevertheless, the servant woman
was in the household to work-to help feed and clothe the family and make tobacco. She was not primarily a concubine. . . .
A female servant paid dearly for the fault of unmarried pregnancy. She was
heavily fined, and if no one would pay her fine, she was whipped. Furthermore, she
served an extra twelve to twenty-four months to repay her master for the "trouble of
his house" and labor lost, and the fathers often did not share in this payment of damages. On top of all, she might lose the child after weaning unless by then she had
become free, fbr the courts bound out bastard children at very early ages. . . .
Were women sold for wives against their wills? No record says so, but nothing
restricted a man from selling his servant to whomever he wished. Perhaps some
women were forced into such mariages or accepted them as the least evil. But the
man who could afford to purchase a wife-especially a new arrival-was usually
already an established landowner. Probably most servant women saw an opportunity in such a marriage. In addition, the shorlage of labor gave women some bargaining power. Many masters must have been ready to refuse to sell a woman who
was unwilling to many a would-be purchaser.
If a woman's time was not purchased by a prospective husband, she was virtually cerlain to find a husband once she was free. . . . In the four counties of the
lower Western Shore only two of the women who left a probate inventory before
the eighteenth century are known to have died single. Comely or homely, strong or
weak, any young woman was too valuable to be overlooked, and most could find a
man with prospects.
The woman who immigrated to Maryland, survived seasoning and service, and
gained her freedom became a planter's wife. She had considerable liberty in making
her choice. There were men aplenty, and no fathers or brothers were hovering to
monitor her behavior or disapprove her preference. This is the modern way of looking at her situation, of course. Perhaps she missed the protection of a father, a
guardian, or kinfolk, and the participation in her decision of a community to which
she felt ties. There is some evidence that the absence of kin and the pressures of the
sex ratio created conditions of sexual freedom in courtship that were not customary
in England. A register of marriages and births for seventeenth-century Somerset
county shows that about one-third of the immigrant women whose marriages are
recorded were pregnant at the time of the ceremony-nearly twice the rate in English parishes. There is no indication of community objection to this freedom so long
as mariage took place. No presentments for bridal pregnancy were made in any of
the Maryland courts.
76
Ma.jor Problems
in American Colonial Historv
The planter's wife was likely to be in her mid-twenties at mariage. . . .
Because of the age at which an immigrant woman married. the number of children she would bear her husband was small. She had lost up to ten years of her
childbearing life-the possibility of perhaps four or five children, given the usual
rhythm of childbearing. At the same time, high mortality would reduce both the
number of children she would bear over the rest of her life and the number who
would live. One partner to a marriage was likely to die within seven yearsr and the
chances were only one in three that a marriage would last ten years. In these cir'cumstances. most women would not bear more than three or four children-not
counting those stillborn-to any one husband, plus a posthumous child were she the
survivor. The best estimates suggest that nearly a quarter, perhaps more, of the children born alive died during their first year and that 40 to 55 percent would not live
to see age twenty. Consequently. one of her children would probably die in infancy,
and another one or two would f'ail to reach adulthood. Wills left in St. Mary's
County during the seventeenth century show the results. In 105 families over the
years 1660 to 1680 only twelve parents left more than three children behind them,
including those conceived but not yet born. The average number was 2.3, nearly always minors, some of whom might die befbre reaching adulthood.
For the immigrant woman, then, one of the major facts of lif'e was that although
she might bear a child about every two years, nearly half would not reach maturity.
The social implications of this fact are far-reaching. Because she married late in her
childbearing years and because so many of her children would die young. the number who would reach maniageable age might not replace, or might only barely replace, her and her husband or husbands as child-producing members of the society.
Consequently, so long as immigrants were heavily predominant in the aduit female
population, Maryland could not grow much by natural increase. It remained a land
of newcomers....
A hazard of marriage for seventeenth-century women everywhere was death in
childbirth, but this hazard may have been greater than usual in the Chesapeake.
Wheleas in most societies women tend to outlive men. in this malaria-ridden area
it is probable that men outlived women. Hazards of childbirth provide the likely
reason that Chesapeake women died so young. Once a woman in the Chesapeake
reached forty-five, she tended to outlive men who reached the same age. Darrett
and Anita Rutman have found malaria a probable cause of an exceptionally high
death rate among pregnant women, who are, it appears, peculiarly vulnerable to that
disease. . .
.
However long they lived, immigrant women in Maryland tended to outlive their
husbands-in Charles County, for example. by a ratio of two to one. This was possible, despite the fact that women were younger than men at death, because women
were also younger than men at marriage. Some women were widowed with no living children, but most were lefi responsible for two or three. These were often tiny,
and nearly always not yet sixteen.
This fact had drastic consequences, given the physical circumstances of lif'e.
People lived at a distance from one another, not even in villages, much less towns.
The widow had left her kin 3,000 miles across an ocean, and her husband's family
was also thele. She would have to feed her children and make her own tobacco
Virginia and Maryland: The Beginnings of Englsh Americd
77
crop. Though neighbors might help, heavy labor would be required of her if she had
no servants, until-what admittedly was usually not difficult-she acquired a new
husband.
ln this situation dying husbands were understandably anxious about the welfare
of their families. Their wills reflected their feelings and tell something of how they regarded their wives. In St. Mary's and Charles counties during the seventeenth century,
little more than one-quarter of the men left their widows with no more than the dower
the law required-one-third of his land for her life, plus outright ownership of onethird of his personal propefty. If there were no children, a man almost always left his
widow his whole estate. Otherwise there were a variety of arrangements'
During the 1660s, when testators begin to appear in quantity, nearly a fifth of
the men who had children left all to their wives, trusting them to see that the children received fair portions. Thus in 1663 John Shircliffe willed his whole estate to
his wife "towards the maintenance of herself and my children into whose tender
care I do Commend them Desireing to see them brought up in the fear of God and
the Catholick Religion and Chargeing them to be Dutiful and obedient to her." As
the century progressed, husbands tended instead to give the wife all or a major part
of the estate for her life, and to designate how it should be distributed after her
death. Either way, the husband put great trust in his widow, considering that he
knew she was bound to remarry. Only a handful of men left estates to their wives
only for their term of widowhood or until the children came of age. When a man did
not leave his wife a life estate, he often gave her land outright or more than her
dower third of his movable property. Such bequests were at the expense of his children and showed his concern that his widow should have a maintenance which
young children could not supply.
A husband usually made his wife his executor and thus responsible for paying
his debts and preserving the estate. Only I 1 percent deprived their wives of such
powers. In many instances, however, men also appointed overseers to assist their
wives and to see that their children were not abused or their propefty embezzled.
Danger lay in the fact that a second husband acquired control of all his wife's property, including her life estate in the property of his predecessor. Over half of the
husbands who died in the 1650s and 1660s appointed overseers to ensure that their
wills were followed. Some trusted to the overseers' "Care and good Conscience for
the good of my widow and fatherless children." Others more explicitly made overseefs responsible for seeing that "my said child . . . and the other fexpected child]
(when pleases God to send it) may have their right Proporlion of my Said Estate and
that the said Chil<lren may be bred up Chiefly in the fear of God." A few men-but
remarkably few-authorized overseers to remove children from households of stepf'athers who abused them or wasted their property. On the whole, the absence of
such provisions for the protection of the chiidren points to the husband's overriding
concern for the welfare of his widow and to his confidence in her management, regardless of the certainty of her remarriage. Evidently, in the politics of family life
women enjoyed great respect. . . .
What happened to widows and children if a man died without leaving a will?
There was great need for some community institution that could protect children
left fatherless or parentless in a society where they usually had no other kin. By the
1660s the probate court and county orphans' courts were supplying this need. If a
78
Major Problems in American Colonial History
man left a widow, the probate court-in Maryland a central government agencyusually appointed her or her new husband administrator of the estate with power to
pay its creditors under court supervision. Probate procedures provided a large measure of protection. These required an inventory of the movable property and careful
accounting of all disbursements, whether or not a man had left a will. William Hollis of Baltimore County, for example, had three stepfathers in seven years, and only
the care ofthejudge ofprobate prevented the third stepfather from paying the debts
of the second with goods that had belonged to William's father. As the judge remarked, William had "an uncareful mother." . . .
. . . Every year the county courts were expected to check on the welfare of orphans of intestate parents and remove them or their property from guardians who
abused them or misused their estates. From 1681, Maryland law required that a special jury be impaneled once a year to report neighborhood knowledge of mistreatment of orphans and hear complaints.
This form of community surveillance of widows and orphans proved quite effective. In 1696 the assembly declared that orphans ofintestates were often better cared
for than orphans of testators. From that time forward, orphans' courts were charged
with supervision of all orphans and were soon given powers to remove any guardians
who were shown false to their trusts, regardless of the arrangements laid down in a
will. The assumption was that the deceased parent's main concern was the welfare of
the child, and that the orphans' court, as "father to us poor orphans," should implement the parent's intent. In actual fact, the courts never removed children-as opposed to their property-from a household in which the mother was living, except to
apprentice them at the mother's request. These powers were mainly exercised over
guardians of orphans both of whose parents were dead. The community as well as the
husband believed the mother most capable of nurturing his children.
Remarriage was the usual and often the immediate solution for a woman who
had lost her husband. The shortage of women made any woman eligible to marry
again, and the difficulties of raising a family while running a plantation must have
made remarriage necessary for widows who had no son old enough to make tobacco. One indication of the high incidence of remarriage is the fact that there were
only sixty women, almost all of them widows, among the 1,,135 people who left
probate inventories in four southern Maryland counties over the second half of the
century. Most other women must have died while married and therefore legally
without property to put through probate.
One result of remariage was the development of complex family structures.
Men found themselves responsible for stepchildren as well as their own offspring,
and children acquired half-sisters and half-brothers. Sometimes a women married a
second husband who himself had been previously maruied, and both brought children of former spouses to the new marriage. They then produced children of their
own. The possibilities for conflict over the upbringing of children are evident, and
crowded living conditions, found even in the households of the wealthy, must have
added to family tensions. Luckily, the children of the family very often had the
same mother. In Charles County, at least, widows took new husbands three times
more often than widowers took new wives. The role of the mother in managing the
relationships of half-brothers and half-sisters or stepfathers and stepchildren must
have been critical to family harmonv.
Virginia and Marylancl: The Beginnings of Englkh America
79
Early death in this immigrant population thus had broad effects on Maryland
society in the seventeenth century. It produced what we might call a pattern of serial polyandry, which enabled more men to maffy and to father families than the
sex ratios otherwise would have permitted. It produced thousands of orphaned children who had no kin to maintain them or preserve their property, and thus gave rise
to an institution almost unknown in England, the orphans' court, which
was
charged with their protection. And early death, by creating families in which the
mother was the unifying element, may have increased her authority within the
household. . . .
So far we have considered primarily the experience of immigrant women. What of
their daughters? How were their lives affected by the demographic stresses of
Chesapeake society?
One of the most important points in which the experience of daughters differed
from that of their mothers was the age at which they married. In this woman-short
world, the mothers had married as soon as they were eligible, but they had not usually become eligible until they were mature women in their middle twenties. Their
daughters were much younger at marriage. A vital register kept in Somerset County
shows that some girls married at age twelve and that the mean age at mamiage for
those born before 1670 was sixteen and a halfyears. . . .
Not only did native girls marry early, but many of them were pregnant before
the ceremony. Bridal pregnancy among native-born women was not as common as
among immigrants. Nevertheless, in seventeenth-century Somerset County 20 percent of native brides bore children within eight and one half months of marriage.
This was a somewhat higher percenrage tha;has been reported fiom seventeenthcentury English parishes.
These facts suggest considerable freedom for girls in selecting a husband. Almost any girl must have had more than one suitor, and evidently many had freedom
to spend time with a suitor in a fashion that allowed her to become pregnant. . . .
Native girls married young and bore children young; hence they had more children than immigrant women. This fact ultimately changed the composition of the
Maryland population. Native-born females began to have enough children to enable
couples to replace themselves. These children, furthermore, were divided about
evenly between males and females. By the mid-1680s, in all probability, the population thus began to grow through reproductive increase, and sexual imbalance began to
decline. In 1104 the native-born preponderated in the Maryland assembly for the first
time and by then were becoming predominant in the adult population as a whole. . . .
Tobacco and the Peopling of Virginia
JAMES HORN
. . . As the numbers of Indians inhabiting the Chesapeake rapidly declined, the
white population grew by leaps and bounds, from 105 men and boys who settled at
Ftom Adapting to a Nere World: English Society in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeafte by James Horn.
Copyright O I 994 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher.
80
Ma.jor Problems in Americdn Colonial Histon,
in 1607 to about 900 in 1620, 8,000 in 1640, 25,000 in 1660, 60,000 in
1680, and 85,000 by 1700. Virginia was the most populous of the mainland
colonies throughout the century. although dwarf-ed by the scale of demographic
growth in the Caribbean. In both Virginia and Maryland the flow of immigrants
surged after 1650. During the 1630s and 1640s immigration averaged about
8,000-9,000 per decade, but from 1650 to 1680, 16,000-20,000 people enteled the
Chesapeake each decade-the equivalent of the population of England's second
city. Bristol. Half the total number of immigrants who settled along the tobacco
coast in the seventeenth century arrived in these three decades.
Despite this impressive growth, immigrants did not enter a healthy environment. Whereas about 120,000 settlers imrnigrated to the Chesapeake over the whole
century, the white population in 1700 was not even 90,000. Unlike the northern
colonies, growth in the South was sustained only by continuous immigration to
compensate for the massive wastage of life and, increasingly after 1675. a significant movement of people out of the region. Contemporaries were well aware of the
deleterious effect of the Chesapeake environment on En-elish settlers. Colonists.
wrote George Gardyner in 1650, were subject to "much sickness or death. For the
air is exceeding unwholesome, insonuch as one of three scarcely liveth the first
year at this time." . . .
. . . Mortality rates in the tidewater, however. were even -qreater. Up to 40 percent of new affivals may have died in their first couple of years, commonly of a variety of ailments associated with malaria and intestinal disorders. Malaria
occasionally reached pandemic proportions among settlers and frequently left survivors in poor health, easy prey to a variety of other diseases. Even if the outcorne
was not fatal, most immigrants experienced a period of sickness (seasoning) in their
first year. Moving to Virginia and Maryland, like moving fiom the provinces to
London, was risky and amounted to a calculated gamble on survival. For those who
survived and lived long enough, the rewards could be considerable, but that very
success was predicated in part on a rapid turnovel'of population caused by the high
Jamestown
death rate.
Natural population growth was retarded also by the considerable sexual imbalance that existed throughout the century. Chesapeake society was dorninated by
males not only in the conventional sense but simply in sheer numbers. At no time in
the century did the sex ratio improve upon two to three men for every woman. Such
an imbalance had far-reaching practical efTects (quite apart from the psychological
stress it must have caused). A shortage of women restricted family fbrmation and
lbrced many males to remain single. More than a quarter of men fiom the lower
Western Shore of Maryland who died leaving estates between 1658 and 1705 were
unmarried. The problern was exacerbated by the relatively late age at which women
married. Since the vast majority of women arrived in the Chesapeake as servants
and were usually obliged to finish their term of service before marying, they were
unable to take a husband until their mid-twenties: about the same age they would
have married in England. . . .
One of the most obvious differences between English and New World society irnmediately apparent to early settlers and. indeed, its main attraction was an "abundance of land and absence of people." Covering about half the land area of England,
Virginia and Maryland: The Beginnings of English America
8l
the Chesapeake had a population at midcentury that could have quite easily been accommodated in a small English county or London suburb. . . . Low population density was a function of both the small size of local populations and a scattered pattern
of settlement. Given the cheapness of land and the nature of the economy, it made
sense for planters to take up large tracts of land (by European standards) and seat
themselves on or near convenient shipping routes. Water carriage not only provided
the best means of transporting bulky tobacco leaf packed in hogsheads, but it was
also favored by English merchants, who prefered to trade directly with individual
producers: manufactured goods, liquor, and servants brought from London, Bristol,
or other outpofts could be exchanged on the spot for tobacco. The system bypassed the need for market towns in the tidewater, because trade was as dispersed as
settlement.
An unfortunate consequence, as commentators never tired of repeating, was
that Chesapeake society failed to develop urban communities. "Townes and Corporations have likewise been much hindred," Anthony Langston wrote of Virginia in
the 1650s,
by our manner of seating the Country; every man having Liberty , . . to take up Land
(untaken before) and there seat, build, clear, and plant without any manner of restraint
fiom the Govemment in relation to their Religion, and gods Service, or security of their
persons, or the peace of the Country, so that every man builds in the midst of his own
Land, and therefore provides beforehand to take up so much at the first Patent, that his
great Grandchild may be sure not to want Land to go forward with any great design they
covet, likewise the conveniency of the River from Transportation of their Commodities,
by which meanes they have been led up and down by these famous rivers . . . to seate in
a stragling distracted Condition leaving the inside of the Land from the Rivers as wast
for after Comers.
Thirty years later, the French Huguenot Durand of Dauphine commented, there was
"neither town nor village in the whole country, save one named Gemston
[Jamestown], where the Council assembles. A11 the rest is made up of single houses,
In 1678, Charles, Lord Baltimore, described St. Mary's
City, the capital of Maryland, as consisting of "not above thirty houses, and these at
considerable distances from each other." No other place in the province was even
worthy of being called a town.
In terms of first impressions, it is worth stressing that to English eyes what was
missing in Virginia's and Maryland's landscape was as significant as what was preeach on its own plantation."
sent. Immigrants, whether from urban or rural backgrounds, were used to living in a
society where there was a hierarchy of interdependent and interrelated communities: village. market town, provincial capital, and city. Few people in England lived
more than a few miles from a local town-an hour, if that, by road or across country. Along the tobacco coast, only the cluster of dwellings and other buildings located in the colonies' capitals resembled small towns, and for most of the century
even they were nearer in size, if not character, to English villages. The absence of
towns inclined English commentators to view the Chesapeake as undeveloped and
uncivilized. Missing, too, was the bustle of fairs and market days, crowded taverns
and inns, and busy roads bringing people and goods to trade. Approximations existed, but nothing that could compare to the crowd of people and places familiar to
82
Major Problems in American Colonial History
English men and women in their native communities. Getting used to the absence
of significant aspects of everyday life that were taken for granted in England was
probably the most difficult part of adapting to conditions in the Chesapeake.
Tobacco and the Chesapeake Economy
Little can be understood of the development of Virginia and Maryland society without reference to tobacco. Considered a luxury in the early seventeenth century. it
could be produced cheaply in the tidewater and sold initially for a handsome profit
in European markets. From the early 1620s, when extensive production began, tobacco governed the character and pace of immigration, population growth, settlement patterns, husbandry and land use, transatlantic trade, the development of the
home market, manufactures, opportunity, standards of living, and government policy. Settlers used leaf as local money, paid their taxes, extended credit, settled
debts, and valued their goods in it. "We have [no] trade at home and abroad," a contemporary stated at the end of the century, "but that of Tobacco . . . titl is our meat,
drink, clothes, and monies." Without tobacco, a very different kind of society would
have evolved.
The advantages of tobacco production were many: its yield per acre was high,
and its keeping qualities were goodt it fetched a better price per pound than English
grains, and the soils and climate of the Chesapeake were, for the most paft, suitable
for its cultivation. A plantation required relatively little capital to set up, and a
man's labor, or that of his family and a couple of servants, was sufficient to run it.
Last, there was a potentially expansive market for tobacco in England, which the
monopoly granted to the Virginia Company in 1619 recognized and protected. The
very success of the "Weede," in fact, would later cause problems in both colonies
owing to overproduction. . . .
. . . The cfeation of a mass market was crucial, because without it Chesapeake
tobacco would have remained a high-priced luxury item in limited demand. Consequently, there would have been no expansion of output and, therefore, no need for
significant population growth. Stagnation set in after 1680 because planters were
unable to lower the costs ofproduction any further: freight charges ceased to fall as
quickly after 1660, the amount oftobacco being produced by each worker reached a
maximum such that increased productivity required more labor (more capital investment), and the price of both land and servants rose steadily in the 1670s and
1680s. Any economies in the costs of transportation and marketing of leaf could no
longer be passed on to the consumer; instead, they helped planters absorb rising
production costs. The result was thirty years of depression until the end of the War
of Spanish Succession and renewed demand after 1715. . . .
Inequality and Opportunity
Chesapeake society differed from that of England in many imporlant respects. Entire sections of English society were missing. There was little in the Chesapeake to
attract men of established for-tune from the parent country, despite the efforls of promotional writers to convince them otherwise. In the absence of towns and industry
and with a relatively small, dispersed population, Virginia and Maryland did not re-
Vir'11irtitr ctnd lvlar.vldrtd: Tlte Beginnirtlls
of Enlllish Anerica
83
quire (and could not support) the range of specialist trades and crafts to be found at
home. Consequently, social status associated with most Old World occupations was
not transfened to the New. Colonial society lacked the complexity and subtlety of
European social hierarchies.
Yet this is not to imply that the Chesapeake developed as a rough-hewn, undifferentiated society. As in England, those with the greatest estates were judged the
fittest to govern, and the precept that political power followed economic power was
generally accepted, if not always placticed. The absence of a traditional ruling class
undoubtedly weakened social cohesion and was exacerbated by the high turnover of
officeholders owing to heavy mortality, the difficulty of establishing ruling dynasties, and the return of gentry to England. In these uncertain conditions, it is hardly
surprising that colonial rulers appealed tirne and time again to English precedents to
justify and legitimize their actions. Assemblies were loosely modeled on Parliament, county courts on quarter sessions, and the church (in Virginia, not Maryland)
on parochial organization in England. Virginiu governors were enjoined in their
oath of office to adhere as closely as possible "to the common law of England, and
equity thereof." Justices were commanded to "do justice as near as may be" to English precedent and were granted extensive powers similar to those of their counterparts in English shires. Injunctions and appeals to the past, to tradition, were
intoned endlessly throughout the century. . . .
. . . Inevitably, colonial officials encountered serious difficulties in trying to
recreate, overnight, governing institutions that had evolved over centuries in Eng-
land. Neither Virginia nor Maryland developed viable manorial structures, and in
both colonies the county court absorbed the functions of English borough, manor,
and church courts, becoming the key governing institution at the local level. The
rich particularity of the past could not be replicated in America; what emerged were
compromises and approxirnations.
Chesapeake society, therefbre, developed as a simplified version of English society, but also a highly abenant one. One of the most obvious social diff'erences was
the presence of slaves. Numerically insignificant throughout most of the century,
the black population increased enormously in the final two decades. From a couple
of thousand in 1670 (6 percent of the total population), numbers shot up to about
thirteen thousand ( l3 percent of the population) by 1700. Half the bound labor fbrce
was enslaved by the beginning of the eighteenth century.
As suggested earlier, English attitudes toward blacks were molded by a similar
ragbag of racial and cultural prejudice adopted against Indians and other alien peoples. They were savage, heathen, lascivious, shifty, lazy, and apelike, in every way
inferior to whites. Apart from emigrants fiom London or Bristol, most settlers probably encountered blacks fbr the first time in the Chesapeake and in this context
made the indelible connection between slavery and race. Yet, like English reactions
to lndians, the everyday response to blacks was more complex than the general
framework of prejudice and institution of slavery might lead one to expect. Especially in the early years of settlement, down to 1660, when numbers were small and
blacks worked alongside servants and masters to bring in the tobacco crop, relations
between the two races may have been relatively relaxed. Occasionally slaves were
freed or purchased their liberty. Some acquired property and were able to live
peaceably side by side with their white neighbors.
84
Major Problems in Anericatr Coloninl History
But one should not exaggerate even the limited opportunities fbr blacks, slave
or fiee, to improve their condition in this period. From the 1660s, Virginia began
legislating "stringent racial laws" designed to regulate white-black relations and
provide planters with greater powers to discipline their slaves. Possibly this development represented an effort by the recentiy restored royal government to tighten
up generally on bound laborers in the colony: to highlight the distinctions between
free and unfiee and clarify their respective rights and privileges. In this fashion, social position was defined and the preeminence of the elite confirn-red. But measures
enacted against slaves had no parallel amon-q the white population, and it is certain
that conditions for blacks began to deteriorate sharply as a consequence. Mass importation after 1680 and the changing origin of slaves (brought directly from Africa
rather than the Caribbean) served only
to intensify discriminatory
legislation.
Chesapeake society took on a new character as planters became irrevocably wedded
to slavery and shifted fiom incoherent racial prejudice to full-blown racism. . . .
In terms of social development, however, the crucial issue was whether the huge
numbers of young men and women who ended up laboring in Virginia and Maryland
could be absorbed into society once they had completed their period of service.
. . . Like the lotteries that initially helped flnance the settlement of Virginia,
poor men and women who immigrated under indentures entered a gigantic human
lottery themselves. Losers met an early death or lived in poverty for the rest of their
lives. Winners secured a comfortable income and independence and in a f'ew cases
attained a level of wealth and social standing unthinkable fbr rnen and women of
humble origins at home. The logic of the lottery, however, dictated that for every
ex-servant who made it into the ranks of the middlin-e or upper classes, tens of others, who left barely a trace in the records. died in poverty and obscurity.
Opportunity for all planters was closely attuned to the ebb and flow of the tobacco economy. Durin-u the early 1660s the price of leaf dipped below two pennies
per pound and then hovered just above one penny fbr the rest of the decade. There
was no improvement in the years that followed; if anything, conditions worsened.
English officials were bombarded by at chorus of complaints. Sir William Berkeley
wrote in 1662 that prices had fallen so low that tobacco would not "bear the charge
offieight and customs, answer the adventure, give encouragement to the traders and
subsistence to the inhabitants." A few years later. Thomas Ludwell told Lord Ar-
lington that tobacco was "worth nothing." He elaborated to one of Sir William's
kinsmen, Lord John Berkeley, in 1667. "Twelve hundred pounds of tobacco is the
medium of men's crops," he wrote, "and half a penny per pound is certainly the full
medium of the price given for it, which is fifiy shiliings out of which when the
taxes . . . shall be deducted, is very little to a poor man who hath perhaps a wife and
children to cloath and other necessities to buy. Truly so much too little that I can attribute it to nothing but the great mercy of God . . . that keeps them from mutiny and
confusion." . . .
. . . Poverty in the Chesapeake had its own distinctive character, expressed by
severe material deprivation (poor housing and low standards of living), the inability
of many small planters in Virginia after 1660 and Maryland after 1680 to escape
fiom a living of bare subsistence, and the movement out of the region after 1675 of
thousands of ex-servants for whom the Chesapeake held no future. As the price of
tobacco spiraled downward, the transition tiom servant to smallholder brought nei-
Virgirtta and Maryland: The Beginnings
o.f
English America
85
ther the well-being nor economic independence anticipated. At the level of the individual holding, landowners, big and small, had cornplete freedom to manage their
affairs as they felt fit, perhaps limiting the amount of tobacco grown and turning to
other products. But economic opportunities fbr smallholders were considerably lim-
ited by the grip of tobacco on the economy and low returns fiom leaf. The stint
placed on Virginia tobacco production in 1668, for example, meant that planters
"not able to remove from their ould and over worne grounds, are Kepte by the Limitacon of a certen nomber of plants per poll in Perpetuall poverty." Hedged in by
meager profits and dependence on merchants and wealthy planters for credit to buy
essentials, the world of the small planter became increasingly constricted as the
going got tougher in the last third of the century. . . .
. . . As economic conditions worsened throughout the Chesapeake in the 1670s
and opportunities for the poor and middling planters declined, so social divisions
and attitudes hardened. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that many of those at
the pinnacle of coloniai society viewed the majority of planters as merely a source
of revenue to mulct dry. Unable to command the labor of the poor indefinitely,
elites devised numerous strategies for siphoning off the small profits of planters into
their own coffers. . . . Culpeper, the new governor, wrote from Virginia in 1680 that
the "low price of tobacco staggers . . . the continuance of it will be the fatal and
speedy ruin of this noble Colony without the application of a remedy." "Our most
tbrmidable enemy, poverty," Colonel Nicholas Spencer observed, "is falling violently on us through the low value, or rather no value, of tobacco." A few years
later, the colony was described as "a Barbarous and Malancholy part of the world."
If rebellion had tempered the worst excesses of government corruption, it did nothing to alleviate the poor planter's problem of making a living. The last two decades
of the century were locust years.
Chesapeake society underwent profound changes during the course of the seventeenth century. Evolving from fragile fiontier outposts in the early years, the adoption of plantation agriculture and subsequent massive immigration ensured the
survival of the Chesapeake Bay colonies and led to the spread of English settlement
across thousands of square miles of the tidewater. Gradually the landscape was
transfbrrr-red. The first colonists had envisioned a land of limitless promise where
towns and cities would push back the fbrest, manufactures would thrive, and wellcultivated farms would tap the natural abundance of the earth. The outcome, however, was very diff'erent. Plentiful cheap land and plantation agriculture led to the
evolution of a form of husbandry excoriated as slovenly and wasteful by English
commentators who misunderstood its advantages, the tobacco trade retarded the development of urban centers because marketing and distribution took place in Europe, and no important manuf'actures took root. These shortcomings were a constant
source of frustration and disappointment to colonial officials, who blamed planters'
slavish dependence on tobacco fbr Virginia's and Maryland's failings.
If the Chesapeake did not live up to the expectations of early settlers or projectors, nevertheless during the middle decades of the century the region provided opportunities for poor immigrants who survived the disease environment and the
rigors of servitude to earn a modest livelihood and perhaps move a few rungs up the
social ladder. With hard work, or perhaps a good marriage, male and female
86
Ma.jor Problems
in American Colonial H[story
servants might themselves eventually become smallholders and employ their own
servants. Potentially, even greater rewards were to be had: a fbrtunate few enjoyed
spectacular success and moved from servitude into the ranks of the local gentry
within a few years, a degree of social mobility unthinkable in England. But opportunities for the poor should not be exaggerated. During the 1660s and 1670s, first in
Virginia and then in Maryland, opportunities for the poor declined. Ex-servants experienced increasing difficulty in establishing themselves as independent planters,
and many smallholders were relentlessly pushed to the brink of poverty by the
steady decline in income as the price of tobacco fell. The distinctive features of the
Chesapeake's social structure slowly took shape. About half the population was
made up of servants, slaves, and recently freed men and women (dependents of established planters): the equivalent of servants in husbandry, day laborers, and domestics in England, although, of course, there was no equivalent of the slave field
hand. Small and middling planters, including tenant farmers, who used their own
family labor to work their holding or who possessed a f'ew servants, made up about
40 percent of the population, while the rest were wealthy planters, merchants, gentry, and a small group of artisans.
From the 1660s, especially in older-settled regions, the social order became increasingly articulated and social distinctions increasingly visible. Social rank became more predictable and rigid, more like that in England. At the same time, and
probably related, settlers' tolerance of nonwhite elements of the population declined. Indian peoples were marginalized, and conditions for blacks rapidly deterio-
rated. By the turn of the century, the political and economic consolidation of
colonial elites in both Maryland and Virginia and the switch from white to slave
labor heralded the emergence of the "slave-based, gentry-dominated society" characteristic of the Chesapeake's golden age.
FURTHER
READING
T. H. Breen and Stephen Innes, "Mlne Owne Gror.md": Race and Freedom on Virginia's
Eastern Shore, 1610-1676 (1980).
Kathleen M. Brown, Good Wives, Nasry Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race
and Power in Colonial Virginia (1996).
Lois G. Carr, Russell R. Menard, and Lorena S. Walsh, Robert Cole's World: Agriculture
and Society in Ear\, Maryland (1991).
Lois Green Can, Philip D. Morgan, and Jean B. Russo, eds., Colonial Chesapeake Societl'
( I 988).
David Galenson, White Servitttde in Coktnial America: An Economic Anal.ysls ( l98l ).
Ivor Noel Htme, The Virginia AdventLu'e, Roanoke to Jameston*n: An Archaeological curd
H isto rical O dy s sey ( 1 994).
Ann Kussmaul, Servants in Husbandry in Earl.t Modern England (1981).
Gloria L. Main,Tobacco Colon\': Lile in Earb, Maryland, 1650-1720 (1982).
Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery-, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Cobnial Virginict
(r975\.
Peny,The Formation of a Sociery onVirginia's Ettstern Shore, 1615-1655 (1990).
Darrett C. Rutman and Anita Rutman, A PIerce in Time: Middlesex Cctr.ur4', Virginia,
I6s0-1750 (1984\.
Thad W. Tate and David L. Ammerman, eds., The Chesapettke in tlte Seventeenth Centun':
Essays on Anglo-American Society and Politit's (19'79).
James R.