Patrician and Plebeian / Or The Origin and Development of the Social Classes of the Old Dominion

by Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker

Fithian, Philip Vickers.—Journal and Letters, 1767-1774. Edited for the Princeton Historical Association, by John Rogers Williams. One volume. Fithian was tutor at Nomini Hall, the home of Col. Robert Carter, during the years 1773 and 1774. His observations upon the life in the midst of which he was thrown, the life of the highest class of Virginians, are intensely interesting and very instructive. The author was a young theologian, who had received his education at Princeton, and who seemed strangely out of place in the gay society of aristocratic Westmoreland. For this very reason, however, his journal and letters are interesting, for he dwells with especial emphasis upon what was new or strange to him and has thus unconsciously given an excellent account of all that was unique or distinctive in the Virginia aristocracy.

Force, Peter.—Tracts and other Papers, Relating Principally to the Origin, Settlement and Progress of the Colonies in North America. Printed in 1836. Four volumes. By the preservation of these valuable documents Mr. Force has done a great service to the history of the colony of Virginia. The papers relating to Bacon's Rebellion are of especial interest, while Virginia's Cure, A Description of New Albion and Leah and Rachel are hardly less important.

Goodwin, Maud Wilder.—The Colonial Cavalier or Southern Life before the Revolution. Lowell, Coryell and Company, New York, 1894. One volume. This little work is well written and is in the main accurate. It offers an interesting picture of the Southern planter and the unique life that he led in the second half of the 18th century.

Hening, W.W.—The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619. In thirteen volumes covering the period up to October, 1792. In 1836 Samuel Shepherd published three more volumes, covering the period from 1792 to 1806. In addition to the collection of laws the work contains many historical documents of great value. The Statutes at Large are invaluable to the student of Virginia history and they throw much light upon periods otherwise obscured in gloom. It is to Hening chiefly that the historian is indebted for his knowledge of the years covered by the first administration of Sir William Berkeley, while his information of what occurred during the Commonwealth Period would be slight indeed without The Statutes at Large. Since the Journals of the House of Burgesses have been copied, and thus made available to the investigator, the work is not so indispensable for some periods, but it constitutes a valuable adjunct to these papers and no historian can afford to neglect them. The work shows throughout the greatest care even in the minutest details and will remain a monument to the indefatigable energy and patience of Mr. Hening.

Howe, Henry.—Historical Collections of Virginia; containing a collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, etc., relating to its history and antiquaries, etc. One volume. Published by Babcock and Company, 1845. In his preface the author says: "The primary object of the following pages is to narrate the most prominent events in the history of Virginia, and to give a geographical and statistical view of her present condition." In accomplishing the latter of these tasks Mr. Howe has done a real and lasting service to the history of the state. His description of the various counties in 1843 and the life of their people was the fruit of personal observation and as a consequence is usually accurate and trustworthy.

Howison, Robert R.—A History of Virginia, from its Discovery and Settlement by Europeans to the Present Time. Two Volumes. Carey and Hart, Philadelphia, 1846. The preface of the work has the following: "In writing the Colonial History, the author has endeavored to draw from the purest fountains of light the rays which he has sought to shed upon his subject." And throughout the book there is abundant evidence to show that Mr. Howison had studied the sources of Virginia history then available and had picked out as best he could the truth whenever his authorities differed. So much has been learned of the events he treats since 1846, however, that his work is today of little value.

Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science. The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore. A number of these studies touch upon colonial Virginia history and they have done much in bringing order out of the mass of facts to be found in old books, in documents and in journals. Some of the papers are: Justice in Colonial Virginia, O.P. Chitwood; History of Suffrage in Virginia, J.A.C. Chandler; Representation in Virginia, J.A.C. Chandler; White Servitude in the Colony of Virginia, H.R. McIlwaine, and Virginia Local Institutions, Edward Ingle.

Jones, Hugh.—The Present State of Virginia. Printed for J. Clark, at the Bible under the Royal-Exchange, 1724. Reprinted for Joseph Sabin, New York. This work gives an entertaining and valuable picture of Virginia during the administration of Governor Spotswood. Those chapters are most useful which treat of the pursuits, the religion, the manners and the government of the colonists. The descriptions given are drawn largely from the personal observations of the author. This, together with the sincere and straightforward manner in which the book is written, leaves the impression of accuracy and trustworthiness.

Journals of the Council of Virginia as Upper House. Manuscript copies made of incomplete records in the State Library at Richmond, in the Library of the Virginia Historical Society. Arranged in three volumes as follows: I, 1685-1720; II, 1722-1747; III, 1748-1767. These journals are by no means so important as those of the House of Burgesses. They are devoted quite largely to routine matters and reflect but little of the political life of the colony. The historian, if he gives careful study to their pages, will be rewarded by passages here and there which draw aside the veil, and give fleeting pictures of the strife between the Council and the Burgesses.

Journals of the House of Burgesses.—In the State Library. Session of 1619; manuscript copies of sessions from 1680 to 1718, and from 1748 to 1772. These journals, so many of which have been buried for centuries in English archives, throw a flood of light upon the political life of the colony. They constitute by far the most important source of information upon the long and tireless struggle of the middle class in Virginia for a share in the conducting of the government. Something of this, of course, may be gleaned from the official correspondence of the governors, but this evidence is partisan in spirit and does injustice to the commons of Virginia. Hening gives in the main only bare statutes, and the discussions, the quarrels and the passions of the sessions are omitted. The journals are to Hening's work what the living person is to the stone image. It is a matter of the deepest regret that the journals from 1619 to 1680 are missing, for they leave a gap in Virginia history that it is impossible to fill.