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

by Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker

The Coventry papers relating to Virginia, Barbados, and other colonies, at Longleat, the magnificent residence of the Marquess of Bath, which have been microfilmed by the American Council of Learned Societies, throw a flood of light on Virginia history, especially upon Bacon's Rebellion. They contain letters from Bacon to Berkeley, from Berkeley to Bacon, and from Philip Ludwell to Lady Berkeley, reports from the Virginia agents who were seeking a charter for the colony, Berkeley's account of the evacuation of Jamestown, and many other valuable documents. They give new and overwhelming evidence that Bacon and his followers rose in arms, not only to protect the people from the Indians, but to right their wrongs under Berkeley's government.

The American Council of Learned Societies was also responsible for the microfilming of the Sackville manuscripts belonging to the Earl of Dorset. They contain letters to the British Government from the Virginia House of Burgesses and from the Council in 1631, and throw a gleam of light on an obscure period.

The correspondence of Lord Dunmore and Lord Dartmouth, in the British Public Record Office, is vital to any account of the early years of the Revolution in Virginia. In his letters Dunmore reports on the committees of correspondence, the boycott, the plight of the Tories, his conflict with the Assembly, the arming of the patriots, his flight from Williamsburg, his seizure of Norfolk, etc. This correspondence is available to scholars in microfilm in the Library of Congress.

W. W. Hening (ed.), The Statutes at Large (1809-1823), in thirteen volumes, are indispensable to the historian. In addition to the Virginia laws it publishes a few extremely important documents.

The county records throw light on local government and the use of the patronage by the governors to control the Assembly. It is unfortunate that many documents in the county courthouses were destroyed in the Revolution and the War between the States. Yet the records of Surry, York, Essex, Rappahannock, Accomac, Elizabeth City, and other counties have been preserved.

Peter Force (ed.), Tracts and Other Papers (1836), has many valuable documents relating to early Virginia history. The accounts of Bacon's Rebellion are of especial interest. Edward Arber (ed.), The Works of Captain John Smith (1910), is a main source for the founding and early history of Jamestown. But Smith's tendency to glorify himself and the probability that he colored his account to further the designs of King James I and the court party have caused many historians to distrust much that he has written.

Alexander Brown, Genesis of the United States (1890), gives many documents on early Virginia history which had long been inaccessible to scholars. Other publications of documents or early histories are Susan M. Kingsbury (ed.), The Records of the Virginia Company of London (1906-1935); J. C. Hotten (ed.), Original Lists of Emigrants to America, 1606-1700 (1874); Lower Norfolk County Antiquary; Lyon G. Tyler (ed.), Narratives of Early Virginia (1907); Charles M. Andrews (ed.), Narratives of Insurrections (1915); Clayton C. Hall (ed.), Narratives of Early Maryland (1910); and Edmund Goldsmid (ed.), Hakluyt's, The Principal Navigations (1885-1890).

R. A. Brock (ed.), The Official Records of Robert Dinwiddie (1883-1884); while of great value, is incomplete, since many letters in the British Public Record Office have been omitted. R. A. Brock (ed.), The Original Letters of Alexander Spotswood (1882-1885), from the manuscript collection in possession of the Virginia Historical Society, is also far from complete.

Among the historical magazines which have published documents relating to Virginia the most important are The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, William and Mary College Quarterly, Tyler's Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine, and the Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings.

Three narratives, Henry Hartwell, James Blair, and Edward Chilton, The Present State of Virginia and the College; Robert Beverley, The History and Present State of Virginia; and Hugh Jones, The Present State of Virginia, have all the value of primary sources. The Hartwell, Blair, and Chilton history was written in 1697 and first published by John Wyat at the Rose, in St. Paul's churchyard, London, in 1727. It was republished in 1940, with an able introduction by Hunter D. Farish. Beverley's volume appeared in 1705, and a new edition was published in 1947. Hugh Jones' history came out in 1724, was reprinted in 1865 in a limited edition, and republished in 1956. The last edition, edited by Richard L. Morton, has a valuable introduction, and more than a hundred pages of illuminating notes.