Give Me Liberty: The Struggle for Self-Government in Virginia

by Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker

The small slaveholders were fiercely jealous of their rights, both social and political. From the proud aristocrat they demanded courtesy and respect. And these the aristocrat thought it wise to accord them, for he knew that they constituted an overwhelming majority of the voters. Nor were there anywhere, in the northern colonies or in the West, more ardent upholders of self-government. In the long struggle for liberty it was usually the aristocrats who led the way, but they would have been powerless had they not had the loyal support of the small eastern farmer as well as the western frontiersman.

And the climax of this struggle was not distant. Walpole resigned in 1752, and his successors were not inclined to let the colonies become semi-independent little republics. Had their attention not been diverted by European wars, they would probably have come to grips with the colonial governments sooner than they did.

At the moment, however, the chief differences between Virginia and the mother country seemed to be economic rather than constitutional. The planters had long protested against the Navigation Acts, but they had in time adjusted themselves to them. To the merchants of England they were tied by the bonds of mutual interest, for they were dependent upon them for transporting and disposing of their tobacco, and for bringing them manufactured goods in return.

But there developed various points of difference. And it became a bitter grievance to the planters that when these differences were placed before the British government, the decision always favored the merchants. In fact, so great was the influence of certain traders that at times their recommendations to important posts in the colonies were decisive. Among the best known of these men was Micajah Perry, whose opinion the Board of Trade frequently sought on matters affecting commerce. It was rumored that it was he who persuaded the Auditor General to appoint Philip Ludwell Auditor of Virginia. And when the British government turned down the recommendation of a Governor in filling a vacancy in the Council in favor of one by the merchants, it was deeply resented in the colony. "Your Lordships cannot but be sensible that little regard is likely to be paid a Governor who shall be supposed to have no interest at your Lordships' Board," Gooch wrote in 1747.

The people were even more resentful at the insistence of the merchants in blocking any measure by the Assembly, no matter how beneficial, if they thought it would lessen their profits. Many of them had invested in the Royal African Company, and the slave trade to Virginia was booming. It was stated that black workers were coming in at the rate of 1,500 or 1,600 a year, and at every landing place scores were sold to the highest bidders. In 1730, out of a total population of 114,000, no less than 30,000 were Negroes.[22] With profits piling up, the merchants wanted no interference with this trade, however inhuman it was, and however harmful to the economic and social structure of the colony.

Many thoughtful men in the colony viewed the situation with alarm, not only because the importation of so many blacks was drying up the stream of white immigrants from England, but because it was driving out of the colony poor men who did not want to compete with slave labor. And the planters had reason to dread slave insurrections. Some of the Africans were docile enough, but a few resented their bonds fiercely. In 1710 a conspiracy was discovered in Surry and James City Counties, in which the Negroes planned to rise, kill all who opposed them, and escape out of the colony. Several were tried in the General Court, convicted and executed.[23]

There was much satisfaction when the Assembly, in the revenue act of 1723, tried to stem the tide by placing a duty on the importation of slaves. But when the act came before the Lords of Trade, the merchants opposed it vigorously. John Gary, who had lived in Virginia, and later went to England to enter the tobacco trade, when summoned before the Board, argued against it. It would ruin the poor planters, he said, because it would run up the cost of slaves, and they would not be able to buy enough to cultivate their plantations.[24] This argument, as we have seen, was not entirely misleading, but it ignored the predicament of the thousands who could afford not even one, no matter how cheap, and so sank into great poverty, became "poor white trash." Yet the Board sided with Cary and his fellow merchants, and in January, 1724, advised the King to veto the act.

The Assembly, greatly disappointed, five years later made another attempt, placing a duty of forty shillings a head on the importation of slaves. Gooch gave them his full support. The merchants would not be injured by the law, he argued, since the purchasers had to pay the tax.[25] But the importers did not see it that way, and at their urging the King disallowed the act.

How bitterly these vetoes were resented in Virginia is shown by a statement of Thomas Jefferson in his "A Summary View of the Rights of British America," written in 1774. "The abolition of slavery is the great object of desire in those colonies, where it was, unhappily, introduced in their infant state. But previously to the enfranchisement of the slaves we have, it is necessary to exclude all further importations from Africa. Yet our repeated attempts to effect this, by prohibitions, and by imposing duties which might amount to a prohibition, having been hitherto defeated by his Majesty's negative: thus preferring the immediate advantages of a few British corsairs to the lasting interests of the American States, and the rights of human nature deeply wounded by this infamous practice. Nay, the single interposition of an interested individual against a law was scarcely ever known to fail of success, though, in the opposite scale, were placed the interests of a whole country."[26]

The merchants opposed, not only the duty on slaves, but any other duty which they thought might lessen imports. The Assembly repeatedly passed laws to place duties on rum, brandy, wine, cider, beer, and ale, not because they thought they would debauch the people, but to raise revenue to meet the needs of the government without resorting to the hated poll tax. They finally persuaded the merchants that light duties on liquors would do them no harm. And perhaps the King was persuaded to give his assent by the urgings of Gooch. "The revenue arising from the duty on liquors is the best expedient to raise money for defraying the contingent charges of the government and the chief support of the College of William and Mary," he wrote. "By it most of the public debts are paid and the people eased of an intolerable poll tax, which many of the poorer sort would be unable to pay."