CHAPTER IX
THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE SOUTHERN AND MIDDLE COLONIES
The southern colonies in their geographical formation, their soil and climate, were of a uniform character; nor were there any decidedly marked religious differences. In the middle colonies this was by no means the case, but even here the style of life in such states as Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey had many points of resemblance. In all the colonies except Maryland and Virginia there was a heterogeneous population of English, Irish, Scots, Dutch, Huguenots, and Germans, but in New York State mixed nationalities were most apparent.
The distinction between the grades of society was well-marked in both the southern and middle colonies. In South Carolina in early times there was practically no middle class, but at the end of the seventeenth century a few Ulster Protestants settled in the colony as small farmers and remained in spite of economic conditions. In Maryland there were yeomen farmers and tradesmen, who were for the most part rude and uneducated. A professional middle class was unknown until the eighteenth century; doctors, for example, were not licensed in New York till 1760. In New Jersey there was a tendency to insist on democratic principles, though there is every reason to think that the gentleman farmer was treated with the same respect accorded to the Quaker squire of Pennsylvania, or the Dutch patroon of New York. In the South the upper classes resembled their contemporaries in England. Some were indolent, haughty, and vain, showing the greatest contempt for honest toil; many were confirmed gamblers and horse-racers. The bottle and the dice were the household deities of not a few; but they were nevertheless bountiful, generous, and patriotic, and proved themselves good specimens of England's manhood in time of peril.
Below these classes were the indentured servants and negro slaves. The former were composed of paupers and criminals sent out from England, the earliest instance being in 1618, when Ambrose Smythe, a felon, was transported to America, as a servant bound for a limited period. The life in Virginia on the tobacco plantations must have been of the hardest, but it was evidently preferable to that in the West Indian islands, as Penruddock, the conspirator against Cromwell, petitioned in 1656 to be sent to Virginia rather than to the Barbadoes. The evil of the system of indentured servants lay for the most part in the ease with which inconvenient people were got rid of, and in the kidnapping of harmless children. Fugitives from justice, guilty husbands or wives, the felon and the innocent were all to be found on those ships that sailed from Bristol. The scandal increased from year to year, so that in 1661 the new Colonial Board was obliged to make an effort to regulate indentured servants, while three years later a commission under the Duke of York was appointed to look into the whole matter. The outcome of this was a most salutary enactment by which kidnapping was made a capital offence. The inquisitorial system necessary for the proper enforcement of this Act soon came to be burdensome, as proved by a complaint of the merchants in 1682, concerning vexatious prosecutions; but that it was absolutely essential is shown by a fresh Order in Council, four years later, against kidnappers. The one great advantage possessed by the indentured servant over the negro slave was that no hereditary disqualification attached to the children of such servants, whereas in the case of the blacks the stigma of slavery passed from the parents to their offspring.
The system of binding servants for so many years tended to check the growth of slavery; but there is little doubt that during the first hundred years of American colonisation the influx of negro slaves reached alarming proportions. In 1620 a Dutch ship landed twenty negroes from the Guinea coast at the recently established Jamestown. From this small beginning the cursed traffic grew, and so rapidly that in 1637, and on many later occasions, enactments were passed to check all intercourse between whites and blacks. Within twenty years of the introduction of slavery there were in Virginia about three hundred blacks, while twelve years later the number had reached one thousand. It is not to be wondered at that the growth was so rapid, for the trade was a lucrative one,[228] and it was difficult to check when the first in the land participated in its spoils. Thus in 1662 the Royal African Company was founded with James, Duke of York, at its head, and with his brother Charles II. as a large shareholder. The negroes were in theory regarded as mere chattels, and to check risings such as those of 1678, 1712, and 1741, barbarous laws were passed against them. On the other hand, as individuals they were as a general rule comfortably clothed, fed, and housed; they had many amusements, and their work was not as arduous as has so often been described. At one time it was an understood thing in the colonies that the lord had the jus vitae necisque over his slaves, but at the beginning of the eighteenth century the Crown made the murder of a negro a capital offence, a decision vigorously upheld by Governor Spotswood. The number of slaves on each plantation varied very much; the average may, perhaps, be placed at thirty. But the largest owner in Virginia possessed 900; while in Maryland this was easily beaten by an owner with 1300. In the eighteenth century the negroes far outnumbered the whites in South Carolina; but in New York they only formed about one-sixth the total population. In Maryland and Virginia they were as one to three, while in the middle colonies it is calculated that a ratio of one to seven would give a rough estimate of their numbers.
Figures and statistics with regard to the white population can only be surmised. In 1650, Virginia, as the oldest of the colonies, may possibly have had 15,000 inhabitants. Stuyvesant's calculation for New York fourteen years later was probably exaggerated when he placed that cosmopolitan people at 10,000. At the time of the Revolution the total population of Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas was about 90,000; but the two first colonies had by far the largest proportion, for although Shaftesbury and Locke had worked so hard, the Carolinas had only 4000 settlers all told. The population of East Jersey at the beginning of the eighteenth century was, according to Governor Lewis Morris, "about eight thousand souls";[229] while that of Pennsylvania and Delaware may have been 20,000, at least one-half of whom were English Quakers. Later in the century more exact figures are ascertainable. Virginia in 1724 was still the largest with 65,000; Maryland ran it close with 53,000. Pennsylvania and Delaware had steadily increased owing to immigration to 32,000; and New York, which in 1705 had had 25,000 people, had by 1724 increased to 30,000. New Jersey came next with 26,000, while North and South Carolina lagged behind with 14,000 and 9000 respectively.
With so large a population it is only natural that there were various kinds of trade. Tobacco was the staple of Virginia and of Maryland; but by 1701 Virginia tobacco was acknowledged as far superior to that from the Baltimore plantations. South Carolina for the first ninety years of its history relied mainly upon rice, the export of which was encouraged by Sir Robert Walpole in 1730. The colony was now allowed to export rice to any port in Europe, south of Finisterre, provided it was sent in British ships, manned by British seamen. "The result was that the rice of the American plantations beat the rice of Egypt and Northern Italy out of the markets of Europe."[230] After 1741 or 1742, indigo planting became an important industry in the colony, for the seed which was then introduced was found to flourish in the swamps of the South. Iron was worked in Virginia to a small extent. Its value was pointed out by the Company in defence of their charter in 1623: "during these 4 last years that hath been expended in setting up of iron works (the oar whereof is there in great plenty and excellent) above five thousand pounds, which work being brought in a manner to perfection was greatly interrupted by the late massacre."[231] The industry continued throughout the century, but never on a large scale. In Philadelphia a more profitable iron industry existed, while in Maryland in 1749 seventeen iron furnaces were regularly employed. New Jersey made some slight profit from working her minerals, such as iron and copper, but her chief exports were cattle and tanned hides. The exports of Pennsylvania were even more varied, consisting of horses, pipe staves, salted pork and beef, bread-flour, peas, beans, tobacco, potashes and wax; while from Germantown in particular there was paper, glass, and coarse cloth. New York carried on a small linen and woollen manufacture, but the chief industry, until checked by the policy of Andros, was tanning. After the revolution New York was famous for its fur trade, particularly that in beaver. Busy as most of the settlers were, yet almost every necessary of life was brought from England, including such common articles as wooden bowls. In a list of the imports of Pennsylvania at the end of the seventeenth century we find rum, sugar, molasses, silver, salt, wine, linen, household goods, and negroes. In 1733, to the annoyance of the colonists, a heavy duty was imposed on all molasses imported from foreign countries. Tobacco, at the same time, was not allowed to be exported to any European ports, save those of Great Britain. This, however, was easily evaded, for the numerous rivers and private landing-stages in the southern colonies made effective supervision impossible.
As in the case of the New England colonies, the main check to commerce lay in the serious want of money. The steady influx of coin was prevented by the lack of retail trade, and also by the fact that the planter was nearly always in debt to the merchant. In Virginia and Maryland the scarcity of specie was overcome by the use of tobacco, which, "as the staple product of the country, established itself as the accepted medium of exchange."[232] But even in these colonies a desire for good money was shown on various occasions. The Virginia Assembly, in 1645, tried to fix the legal value of the Spanish coins which were in common use, and also proposed a copper coinage of their own. Cecil Calvert, as a careful proprietor, attempted to assist his Maryland settlers by establishing a coinage, but nothing came of it. In the eighteenth century, therefore, most of the southern and middle colonies fell under the fascinating influence of paper money; New York and Virginia being the only two to escape this economic evil.
Brief reference has been made to the educational indifference of the southern settlers. As has already been shown, Governor Berkeley thanked God that there were no schools in Virginia.[233] To the rich planter this was not so disastrous, as his sons were either provided with a tutor or sent to England. But this absence of schools for the small freeholders presented a great difficulty. Certainly in the Carolinas the lack of education was not so marked, for there, as society was more urban, the opportunities of a school training were more numerous. "Their cohabiting in a town has drawn to them ingenious people of most sciences, whereby they have tutors amongst them that educate their youth à la mode."[234] South Carolina was particularly famous for its educational advantages, and in one year there were no fewer than four hundred educational advertisements in the South Carolina Gazette. Although William and Mary College in Virginia was founded by Blair at the end of the seventeenth century, it remained for many years nothing more than a rather superior boarding school. In Philadelphia there was some attempt to instruct the young, not only in several German and Moravian seminaries, but also, after 1698, in the Penn Charter School. New York had its first Church of England School in 1704, but it was not until fifty years later that King's College, afterwards Columbia College, was established. A college was founded in New Jersey in 1746, but two years later Governor Belcher complained that "they are a very rustical people and deficient in learning."[235] Owing to the energies of the indefatigable Benjamin Franklin an academy was built in Philadelphia in 1750 in which the Quaker youth of the colony had the greater part of their training.
There can be no doubt that the lack of education in the southern and middle colonies was reflected in the absence of any vigorous literary development. Virginia is easily first in its possession of three writers of repute: Robert Beverley, who wrote the history of his own colony; or the Rev. William Stith, whose work though fragmentary is never dull, and "might have been produced by a learned, leisurely, and somewhat pompous English clergyman";[236] or finally, Colonel William Byrd, a man of education and wealth, who has left on record a witty and interesting account of his travels. New York was not without two famous names, those of William Smith, author of The History of New York, and Cadwallader Colden, who has left to posterity a chronicle of the Five Nations, filled with picturesque descriptions. Pennsylvania, unlike the other colonies, has to revere the name, not of an historian, but a poet and tragedian, in Thomas Godfrey, whose short life lasted only from 1736 to 1763.
The religion of the southern and middle colonies was not of the harsh character of the northerners. The Church of England had more power than in the Puritan settlements, though its position was a peculiar one. In New York and New Jersey up to 1693 it was supported owing to orders from the Crown. From that date its preponderance over other sects was due to the habit of the governors to appoint Church of England clergymen. In Maryland and Virginia the Church was established by acts of the colonial legislature; while in the Carolinas it owed its position to the Proprietary Charter. In the southern colonies the clergy for the most part shared the vices of the planters, and "drunkenness is the common vice"[237] is not an unusual complaint. In North Carolina the people seem to have been at first utterly indifferent; they were a lawless population and cared for none of these things. In 1703 there was no episcopalian minister, nor was there a church until 1705. Six years later Governor Spotswood reported that there was only one clergyman in the whole colony. Nor did South Carolina evince a more ardent religious spirit, for at the beginning of the eighteenth century there were only two Episcopalian churches, the one at Charlestown, the other at Goose Creek. Virginia and Maryland seem to have been better than this, for from quite early times the clergy were readily supported and paid in so many pounds of tobacco. In Virginia George Whitefield's preaching had some little effect, but on the whole he failed to arouse any great religious enthusiasm in the other southern colonies. Maryland and Pennsylvania were the most tolerant of all the colonies. In the first Roman Catholics and Protestants had lived together, though not always peaceably, since its foundation; while in the latter colony there were Quakers, Lutherans, and Presbyterians tolerating each other. After the capture of New York by Nicolls, everyone was supposed to conform to the Church of England; each township was commanded to maintain its own church and minister. At first the New York authorities were strongly against Jesuits and Popish priests, but as the eighteenth century grew in years, there is every reason to believe that within this state there were Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, and Lutherans living happy lives and seeing much that was good in their religious antagonists.
Church life was in no way connected with town life as in New England, for the simple reason that towns were very uncommon, having "no place in the social and industrial economy of the south."[238] They consisted for the most part of scattered houses, an inn, a gaol, and a court-house. They were visited by the planters nominally for business, but mostly for pleasure, and the tavern, which was in some cases enforced by law, became the meeting-place for gossip. Jamestown and Williamsburg in Virginia, St Mary's and Annapolis in Maryland, are not worth considering as busy centres of trade. They were rather the meeting-places of pleasure parties who came for balls and horse races, and when these gaieties were over they slumbered until again roused for the next joyous gathering. Charlestown in South Carolina had always been somewhat different; from its foundation it had taken upon itself the position of the most important town in the south, and it proved that it was ready to progress with the times by being the first town to possess a theatre, which was built in 1735. In the middle colonies the towns played a very considerable part in the social and economic life of the settlers, and in this way resembled the northern corporate communities. New York and Philadelphia were both good towns with wide streets lined with trees; along the edge were the orchards and gardens surrounding stone or brick houses with overhanging gables. The two other towns of importance were Germantown which was very busy, and Newport which is described as ill-built.
Such in brief were the towns, industries, and style of living of the southern and middle colonists. The English-born planter depended upon slave labour or indentured servants; he lived upon a large estate in a magnificent and often too lavish manner. But they were men of as much grit as the New Englanders; certainly they were descended from a different stock, and they looked upon the present life and the future with very different eyes, but that was all. The settlers of the middle colonies plunged with readiness into the intricacies of trade, and the merchant and tradesman were far more conspicuous figures in daily life than in either Virginia or Maryland. The colonists were, too, far more cosmopolitan than in the north. In the Carolinas there were a few Huguenots, Swiss, and German Palatines, but in Virginia and Maryland there was little trace of any foreign element. But in the middle colonies there were regular waves of aliens from Germany and Switzerland intermixed with the earlier Dutch and English settlers. They all helped to play their little parts in the world's history, and they all came to look upon England as the home country. Then by the middle of the eighteenth century they were called upon to resist the aggressions of France; and during those years of struggle they partly learnt their power. United at last, English settler and foreigner, Northern Puritan and Southern planter, they made the one supreme effort, throwing off the yoke of England, and became no longer colonists, but Americans.
FOOTNOTES:
[228] So lucrative did the slave trade become that, even after the Abolition Act of 1807, slave dealers realised an enormous profit if one ship out of three with its living cargo reached an American port.
[229] New Jersey Historical Society, Proceedings (1850), iv. p. 118.
[230] Morley, Walpole, Twelve English Statesmen (1896), p. 168.
[231] A Declaration of the Present State of Virginia, etc.
[232] Doyle, The English in America, Virginia, etc. (1882), p. 525.
[233] See p. 46.
[234] Lawson, p. 3.
[235] Quoted by Thwaites, op. cit., p. 221.
[236] Doyle, Colonies under the House of Hanover (1907), p. 289.
[237] Meade, Old Churches of Virginia (1861), i. p. 385.
[238] Doyle, The Colonies under the House of Hanover (1907), pp. 42-43.