CHAPTER V.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN THE SOUTH IN 1700.
39. References.
Bibliographies.—Same as § [27], above.
General Accounts.—Doyle, Colonies, I. ch. xiii.; Cooke, Virginia, ch. xxiv.
Special Histories.—Eggleston, Beginners of a Nation; Bruce, Social Life of Virginia, and Economic History of Virginia; S. Fisher, Men, Women, and Manners in Colonial Times, I. ch. i.; T. Page, Old Dominion, ch. iii.; A. Earle, Colonial Dames and Good Wives, and Home Life in Colonial Days; M. Goodwin, Colonial Cavalier; A. Wharton, Colonial Days and Dames; Hall, Lords Baltimore, lecture vi.; Channing, Town and County Government; J. Ballagh, Slavery in Virginia; S. Weeks, Quakers; G. Bernheim, German Settlements; many publications in Johns Hopkins University Studies. See also, biographies of prominent men.
Contemporary Accounts.—W. Hening, Statutes; narratives enumerated in § 27, above. Reprints in American History told by Contemporaries, I. chs. ix., xiii.; publications of historical societies and commissions.
40. Land and People in the South.
Traits common to the Southern colonies.
Although of dissimilar origin, developed along somewhat different lines, and having striking individual characteristics, the Southern colonies possessed in common so many traits—climatic, geographical, social, and economic—that we may conveniently treat them as a distinct group.
Geography.
Virginia and Maryland, topographically similar, have numerous large and safe harbors, and the area of cultivation extends to the coast. In the Carolinas there are scarcely any good harbors; along the sea-shore are great sand-fields and pine-barrens, interspersed by swamps, but the country gradually slopes up to the Alleghany foot-hills, the soil improving with the rise in elevation. Throughout the Southern colonies the country is drained by broad rivers running down to the sea.
Population.
It is estimated that in 1688 there were but twenty-five thousand persons, white and black, in Maryland, sixty thousand in Virginia, and four thousand in the Carolinas. The English were dominant in all the colonies, but their supremacy was more strongly marked in Virginia and Maryland than in the Carolinas, where foreign elements (1700-1750) increased rapidly in numbers and variety. The North Carolina lumbering industry attracted many immigrants,—in the main French Huguenots, Moravians, and Germans, with some Swiss and Scotch-Irish interspersed. The Huguenots, a particularly desirable class, were stronger in South Carolina than in any other American colony. While Virginia and Maryland were chiefly settled by colonists direct from England, the Carolinas were largely peopled from the other English colonies in North America, the Bahamas, and the West Indies.
Unimportant character of the villages.
In the South the rich soil was widely distributed, the rivers served as convenient highways, and the climate was mild; except for protection from the Indians, there was no necessity in colonial times for the massing of the people. Villages were few, and the plantations were strung along the streams, often many miles apart and separated by dense forests. The legislatures of the Southern provinces from time to time endeavored to create trading and manufacturing towns by statute; but with few exceptions these remained, down to the Revolution, merely places of resort for elections and courts, with perhaps an inn, a jail, a court-house, and two or three dwellings. What trade there was at these cross-roads hamlets was of the most petty retail character, and the traders themselves were deemed of small consequence in the community. Jamestown remained the Virginia capital until late in the century, and during the sessions of the legislature and at gubernatorial inaugurations was a favorite resort for the wealthy and fashionable from all parts of the province; but it was a small, untidy village, with few of the characteristics of a modern town except for its public buildings. Williamsburg, its successor, was but little better. The original capital of Maryland, St. Mary's, was not worthy the name of town; but when, in the last decade of the century, Providence, rechristened Annapolis, became the seat of government, the new capital soon grew into an improvement on the old, several sightly public buildings were erected, and trade expanded with the increase of fashion. Charleston, the capital of South Carolina, was the most important town in the South; the wealthiest planters in the colony lived there, leaving their estates to the care of overseers; and trade, fashion, and politics centred in the village, which was well-built and handsome.
41. Slavery and Servants.
Negro slaves.
Society was divided into four classes, social distinctions being sharply drawn.The lowest stratum was composed of the negro slaves, first introduced in 1619. For many years the number of blacks was comparatively small, servile labor being mainly performed by convicts and indented servants. At first the African slave was looked upon as but an improved variety of indented servant, whose term of labor was for life instead of a few years. In 1650 there were but three hundred negroes in Virginia and fifteen thousand whites. The slave system fast extended, after this date, so that in 1661 Virginia had two thousand blacks, and by the close of the seventeenth century they nearly equalled the whites in number; in South Carolina, in 1708, two thirds of the population were of the negro race. It was not until the blacks had become a numerous class that we find the laws regarding them savoring of harshness. They were especially severe after 1687, when a negro insurrection in Virginia inspired the whites with fear. The statutes for the repression of the slaves now became fairly ferocious. In the eye of the law they were simply chattels, being hardly granted the rights of human beings. A master might kill his slave, for he was but destroying his own property. Runaways could be slain at sight by any one, the owner being reimbursed from the public treasury. The laws against racial amalgamation were savage, but the actual treatment of the slave by his owner was not so barbarous as the laws suggest,—especially in the two northern colonies of the Southern group. He was there comfortably housed, clothed, and fed, and indulged in many amusements. The raising of tobacco required constant care at certain seasons of the year, but there was much leisure, and the occupation was healthful. Work in the rice-swamps and indigo-fields, in the fierce summer heat of South Carolina, was extremely exhausting, and the negroes rapidly wore out; for this reason there was a tendency on the part of the planters of that province to work them to their full capacity while still in their prime. Nowhere else in the South was slave life so burdensome, and nowhere was the slave trade so active.
Indented white servants.
Removed from the slaves by the impassable gulf of color, but nevertheless almost as much despised by the upper and middle class whites as the blacks, were the indented white servants. While here and there among them were men capable, when freed from their bonds, of rising to the middle and indeed the upper class, they were of low character frequently, such as transported convicts, the riff-raff of London, and in some cases children who had been kidnapped by lawless adventurers in the streets of the English cities. As servants they were under no gentle bonds. The laws concerning them were harsh. They might not marry without the consent of their masters; an assault on the latter was heavily punished; to run away was but to lengthen the term of service, and for a second offence to be branded on the cheek. For numerous petty offences their service could be prolonged, and masters might thus retain them for years after the term fixed in the bond.
42. Middle and Upper Classes.
Middle class.
The middle class—small farmers and tradesmen—merged into each other, so that it was often difficult to draw the line between them. In South Carolina there was practically no middle class, and indented servants were few; there existed in this colony a perfect oligarchy,—lords and their slaves. In all the Southern colonies the trader was despised by the upper class, which was composed of officials and wealthy planters. The men of the middle class were uneducated, rude, and addicted to gambling, hard-drinking, and rough sports; they were, however, a sturdy set, manly and liberty-loving, and gave strong political support to the planters.
Upper class.
The upper class, in dress, manners, and political thought, resembled the English country gentlemen of their time. Here and there among them were men of fair scholarship, with degrees from Oxford and Cambridge, but the majority had but slight education, such as was picked up haphazard from the parish parson, an occasional tutor, or a freed servant of more than ordinary attainments. The speech and manners of the young were badly affected by being reared among slaves. The life of both men and women in these "good old colony days" was exceedingly monotonous; the chief charge of the former being the care of their plantation and negroes, and of the latter the superintendence of their domestic affairs and the training of house servants. There was much visiting to and fro among the county families, and dancing was a favorite evening amusement; and there were annual visits to the capital, where horse-racing, gambling, cock-fighting, and wrestling were favorite recreations. The Crown officers did much to keep the English fashions alive, and the inauguration of a governor was a brilliant social event.
The manners of the gentry were better than those of the middle class; nevertheless they drank overmuch, had a passion for gaming, and sometimes engaged in brawls at the polling-places. The fist, especially in Virginia and Maryland, was preferred to the duel as a means of settling controversies. The landed gentlemen, born aristocrats, were indolent, vain, haughty, arrogant, and sensitive to restraint,—a natural outgrowth of the social conditions of the times. But they had great virtues as well as great faults. There was a keen sense of honor among them, and great pride of ancestry. They were of good, vigorous English stock, especially those who came after the Restoration, and in the struggle for independence, two generations later, furnished to the patriot cause a high class of soldiers, diplomats, and statesmen.
Scarcity of professional men.
There were practically no professions in Virginia and North Carolina. In Maryland and South Carolina a litigious spirit prevailed, and there arose a small body of lawyers fairly well equipped. Medicine was in a crude state. The clergymen of the English Established Church—except in South Carolina, to which colony the London Society for the Propagation of the Gospel sent out good material—were as a rule sadly deficient in manners and education, although there were among them many men of superior attainments and noble character. This was especially noticeable in Maryland. The dissenting ministers were often of quite inferior calibre.
Agriculture.
Agriculture was the mainstay of the people, tobacco being the one great crop; although in the Carolinas rice and indigo came to be close rivals. Naval stores were also a staple export. In South Carolina there was a greater area devoted to mixed tillage than elsewhere in the South, and corn and cotton were raised in considerable quantities. In both the Carolinas cattle-raising was an important industry, the large branded herds roaming the glades and forests at will.
Economic independence of the planter.
A great plantation, with its galleried manor-house, its rows of negro quarters, and group of barns and shops, was in a large measure a self-sustained community. The planter needed little that could be obtained elsewhere in his own colony or in the South, and conducted his commercial operations direct with England, the West Indies, and the Northern colonies. Vessels came to his landing, bringing the supplies which he had ordered of his correspondents, and loading for the return trip with such material as he had for export. Under this independent system, whereby the rural magnate was his own merchant, and negro slaves his only workmen, neither general trade nor industries could flourish. Manufactures of every sort—even tables, chairs, stools, wooden bowls, and birchen brooms—were, along with many necessaries of life, imported from England and neighboring colonies. There were a few negroes on every plantation who were trained to the mechanic arts; and a small number of white craftsmen found work in travelling around the country, doing such jobs as were beyond the capacity of the slaves.
Commerce.
There was a considerable trade with the other continental colonies, as well as with sister colonies in the West Indies and with England. Small vessels were built in Virginia and Maryland for the coasting traffic, though Englishmen, New Englanders, and Dutchmen were the principal carriers. The independent methods of the planters, with their systems of barter and direct importations, suited the lordly notions prevalent among them; but the luxury was an expensive one, for it placed them quite at the mercy of their foreign correspondents. Tobacco was the chief export, and barter was based upon its value, which, despite legal restrictions, was subject to great fluctuation. The importance of the crop, as the basis of exchange, led to governmental supervision of its quality, which was uniformly excellent except in North Carolina, where public spirit was at a low stage. The importance attached by the government to this industry is illustrated by a famous remark of Attorney-General Seymour. In 1692, when a delegation from Virginia were soliciting a charter for the College of William and Mary, on the ground that a higher education was necessary as a step towards the salvation of souls by the clergy, he blurted out: "Souls! Damn your souls; grow tobacco!" The Southern colonies had also a large and profitable export of lumber, tar, turpentine, and furs; from the Carolinas beef was shipped in great quantities to the West Indies; and rice, indigo, and cotton were sent to the Northern colonies and England. The trade with the Indians grew to considerable proportions in Virginia and Maryland, but was long neglected in the Carolinas.
44. Navigation Acts.
Early attempts to protect English shipping.
All manner of trade, however, was more or less hampered by the Parliamentary Acts of Navigation and Trade. In the time of Richard II. (1377-1399) it had been enacted that "None of the king's liege people should ship any merchandise out of or into the realm, except in the ships of the king's ligeance, on pain of forfeiture." Under Henry VII. (1485-1509) only English-built ships manned by English sailors were permitted to import certain commodities; and in the reign of Elizabeth (1558-1603) only such vessels could engage in the English coasting trade and fisheries.
The Commonwealth Acts.
The earliest English colonies were exempted by their charters from these restrictions, but under James I. (1603-1625) the colonies were included. For many years the colonists did not heed the Navigation Acts; in consequence, the Dutch, then the chief carriers on the ocean, obtained control of the colonial trade, and thereby amassed great wealth. Jealous of their supremacy, the statesmen of the Commonwealth sought to upbuild England by forcing English trade into English channels; and this policy succeeded. Holland soon fell from her high position as a maritime power, and England, with her far-spreading colonies, succeeded her. The Act of 1645 declared that certain articles should be brought into England only by ships fitted out from England, by English subjects, and manned by Englishmen; this was amended the following year so as to include the colonies. In exchange for the privilege of importing English goods free of duty, the colonists were not to suffer foreign ships to be loaded with colonial goods. In 1651, a stringent Navigation Act was passed by the Long Parliament, the beginning of a series of coercive ordinances extending down to the time of the American Revolution: it provided that the rule as to the importation of goods into England or its territories, in English-built vessels, English manned, should extend to all products "of the growth, production, or manufacture of Asia, Africa, or America, or of any part thereof, ... as well of the English Plantations as others;" but the term "English-built ships" included colonial vessels, in this and all subsequent Acts.
Under the Restoration.
Under the Restoration the Commonwealth law was confirmed and extended (1660). Such enumerated colonial products as the English merchants desired to purchase were to be shipped to no other country than England; but those products which they did not wish might be sent to other markets, provided they did not there interfere in any way with English trade. In all transactions, however, "English-built ships," manned by "English subjects" only, were to be patronized. Three years later (1663) another step was taken. By an Act of that year, such duties were levied as amounted to prohibition of the importation of goods into the colonies except such as had been actually shipped from an English port; thus the colonists were forced to go to England for their supplies,—the mother-country making herself the factor between her colonies and foreign markets.
Repression of intercolonial trade.
A considerable traffic had now sprung up between the colonies. New England merchants were competing with Englishmen in the Southern markets. At the behest of commercial interests in the parent isle, an Act was passed in 1673 seriously crippling this intercolonial trade; all commodities that could have been supplied from England were now subjected to a duty equivalent to that imposed on their consumption in England. From 1651 to 1764 upwards of twenty-five Acts of Parliament were passed for the regulation of traffic between England and her colonies. Each succeeding ministry felt it necessary to adopt some new scheme for monopolizing colonial trade in order to purchase popularity at home. It was 1731 before the home government began to repress the manufacture in the colonies of goods that could be made in England; thereafter numerous Acts were passed by Parliament having this end in view.
England's coercive commercial policy a cause of the Revolution.
In brief, the mother-country regarded her American colonies merely as feeders to her trade, consumers of her manufactures, and factories for the distribution of her capital. Parliament never succeeded in satisfying the greed of English merchants, while in America it was thought to be doing too much. The constant irritation felt in the colonies over the gradual application of commercial thumb-screws—turned at last beyond the point of endurance—was one of the chief causes of the Revolution. Had it not been that colonial ingenuity found frequent opportunities for evading these Acts of Navigation and Trade, the final collision would doubtless have occurred at a much earlier period.
45. Social Life.
Travel and roads.
The system of agriculture throughout the South was vicious. Few crops so soon exhaust the soil as tobacco; and as this staple was the main reliance of the planters, it was usual to seek fresh fields as fast as needed, leaving the old planting grounds to revert to wilderness. From this, as well as from other causes already stated, the settlements became diffuse, and great belts of forest often separated the holdings. The far-reaching rivers were fringed with plantations, and the waterways were the paths of commerce. The cross-country roads were very bad, often degenerating into mere bridle-paths; there was little travel, and that largely restricted to saddle or sulky,—the former preferred; for there were numerous streams to ford or swim. It was not uncommon for travellers to lose their way and to be obliged to pass the night in the thicket. Inns were few and wretched; but the hospitality of the planters was unstinted, every respectable wayfarer being joyfully welcomed as a guest to the manor-houses.
Life at the plantations.
Some glowing pictures of life in these "baronial halls," with their great open fireplaces, rich furnishings imported from England, crowds of negro lackeys, bounteous larders, and general air of crude splendor, have come down to us in the journals of pre-Revolutionary travellers. But the wealth of the large planters was more apparent than real. Their wasteful agricultural and business methods fostered a speculative spirit, their habits were reckless, their tastes expensive, and their hospitality ruinous; they were generally steeped in debt, and bankruptcy was frequent. The South Carolina planters, however, were more prosperous and independent than those to the north of them.
Education.
The means of education were limited. Governor Berkeley, in his famous report on the state of the Virginia colony (1670), said: "I thank God there are no free schools, nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best of governments. God keep us from both!" Berkeley told the truth. There were not only no free schools, but scarcely any that were not free. Settlers were supposed to be capable of teaching their own children all that it was necessary for them to know. At the wealthiest homes tutors were kept, some of these being younger sons of good families in England who had come to America in an adventurous spirit, while now and then a freed servant who had seen better days was employed in this capacity, as was, a little later, the case in the family of the Washingtons; occasionally the parish clergyman, when fitted for the task, instructed the youth of the district, and here and there a young man was sent to England to take a collegiate course. The upper class as a rule had but meagre scholastic training and few intellectual recreations, the middle class had even a scantier mental equipment, while the poor whites were densely ignorant. Berkeley's bluntly expressed opposition to the education of the masses, as tending to foster political and social independence, perhaps reflected the sentiments of the majority of the ruling order.
Religion.
In Virginia there was manifested throughout the century an intolerant spirit towards dissenters by both the ruling sects, Puritans and Churchmen. Catholics and Quakers were persecuted, pilloried and fined; but the sturdy Scotch-Irish Presbyterians made a bold stand, and were finally tolerated after a fashion. In Pennsylvania and Maryland there was more religious toleration than elsewhere in the colonies,—the Catholics were in political control until the triumph of William and Mary, when the Protestants came to the front and harassed the Catholics with exorbitant taxes. The turbulent population of North Carolina paid little attention to religious matters throughout the seventeenth century, although there were some flourishing congregations. There was no settled Episcopal minister there until 1701, and no church until 1702. The majority in South Carolina dissented from the Church of England, the Puritan element holding political power, and it was 1681 before an Episcopal church was built in Charleston; the Huguenots were not at first tolerated, but in 1697 all Protestant sects were guaranteed equal rights.
Crime.
The negroes and the poor whites formed the criminal class,—a not inconsiderable element in the Southern colonies. The pillory or stocks, whipping post, and ducking-stool were maintained at every county seat, and were familiar objects to all. Paupers, and indeed all persons receiving public relief, were compelled to wear conspicuous badges.
46. Political Life, and Conclusions.
Political life.
The colonists, like their brothers across sea, were eager politicians, and their political methods were much the same as in the mother-country. Attempts upon the part of England to regulate the raising and selling of tobacco, in connection with the general policy of commercial and industrial control, led to frequent quarrels with the home government, which were harassing enough to the Americans, but served their purpose as a school of legislative resistance. The gentlemen controlled colonial affairs, but found efficient support in the middle class; to these two classes suffrage was for the most part restricted.
Administration.
The political organization throughout the South was closely patterned after that of England, the governor standing for the king, the council for the House of Lords, and the assembly or house of burgesses for the Commons. There were four sources of revenue: (1) quit-rents, payable to the king or the proprietors; (2) export and port duties, for the benefit of the provincial government; (3) any duties levied by and for the assembly; (4) regular parish, county, and provincial levies. The last mentioned were payable in tobacco, and the others as might be specified. The system of taxation was simple, and was based chiefly on lands and negroes; it was moderate in extent, but not always paid cheerfully,—in North Carolina, especially, there was chronic objection to taxes in any form.
Official rapacity.
The salaries of the government officials were small; but the governor—who was the executive officer, and might lawfully have ruled his little realm in most despotic fashion, had not the assembly, as the holder of the purse-strings, continually kept him in check—considered the salary a small part of his income. By farming the quit-rents, taking fees for patenting lands, and assessing office-holders, he reaped a rich harvest. Broken-down court favorites considered an appointment to the colonies as governor a means of retrieving fallen fortunes, and made little attempt to conceal their sordid purpose. The members of the council were often admitted to a share of the spoils, and official morality was much of the time in a low condition.
Summary.
Thus we see that in the Southern colonies, in the year 1700, there were three sharply-defined social grades among the whites,—the upper class, the middle class, and the indented servants; with a caste still lower than the lowest of these, the negro slaves. The status of the bondsmen, both white and black, was morally and socially wretched, and from them sprang the criminal class: the former were the basis of the "poor white trash," which remains to-day a degenerating influence in the South. The presence of degraded laborers made all labor dishonorable, and trade was held in contempt by the country gentleman. The economic condition was bad, there were practically no manufactures, the methods of the planters were wasteful, there prevailed a wretched system of barter based on a fluctuating crop, and finances were unsettled. The manners even of the upper class were often coarse, while those of the lowest whites were not seldom brutal. The people were clannish and narrow, having little communication or sympathy with the outer world. Political power was for the most part in the hands of the aristocratic planters, backed by the middle class; the people at large exercised but slight control over public affairs. Religion was at a low ebb, especially in the established church; Bishop Meade says, "There was not only defective preaching, but, as might be expected, most evil living among the clergy." The professions of law and medicine were scarcely recognized. In looking back upon the life of the Southern colonists at this time we cannot but consider their social, economic, and moral condition as poor indeed; but it must be remembered that there was latent in them a sturdy vitality; these men were of lusty English stock, and when the crisis came, a half century later, they were of the foremost in the ranks and the councils of the Revolution.