Colonial America

by Richard Middleton, Anne Lombard

  Figure 10 Pocahontas in London. From John Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia (1624). Courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.

  3 The Charter of Liberties

  Historians face another puzzle in trying to understand why it was so difficult for the Virginia Company to succeed. The Spanish had managed to establish colonies that fulfilled their investors' wildest dreams of wealth. Why was it so difficult for the English to do so? A comparison with the Spanish colonization experience offers a way to answer the question. The Spanish arrived early in the Americas, which allowed them to conquer and then colonize the most densely populated regions with the greatest surplus wealth. For them, colonization amounted to installing themselves at the head of functioning social systems and forcing fully sedentary local populations to provide them with labor and tribute. In order to manage both their newfound wealth along with their new subject populations, the Spanish Crown created bureaucratic and highly centralized systems of colonial administration to implement and enforce Crown policies. It was expensive to send Spanish officials to govern the colonies, but the wealth flowing out of colonial silver mines into the Crown's coffers made the expense worthwhile.

  The English, by contrast, came late to the Americas. By the seventeenth century the only regions left for them to colonize were in far less densely populated areas, mostly along the North American coast north of Florida. The Indian populations here had little surplus wealth for the English to seize. In addition they were highly mobile and difficult to conquer, as the experience with Powhatan showed. When people in an Eastern Woodlands village were threatened, they could pack up their village and move to a new location out of harm's way, a strategy that was usually unavailable to peoples in Mesoamerica. It would be far more difficult for the English to survive along the Atlantic coast using Indian labor than it had been for the Spanish further south. Also, the absence of wealth meant the English Crown had little to gain by creating an expensive governing structure here, so instead it allowed the investors considerable leeway in administering their colonial ventures themselves as they saw fit. Thanks to that freedom, colonial investors sometimes floundered for years before finding ways to create workable economic and governing systems for their colonies.9

  Notwithstanding their early missteps, there were signs by 1616 that the Virginia Company was inching towards a workable model for organizing the venture. One thing the investors had realized was that they could not succeed with a population of temporary adventurers. Instead they would need to find ways to attract a self-sufficient, stable, growing settler population. Up until this point the population had remained obstinately static; in 1616 there were a mere 324 inhabitants, mostly men, at the company's six settlements, as against 450 in 1611. Clearly, few were tempted to endure the harsh rule of Gates and Dale when the rewards were so small. The colony had begun to deal with the problem of retention in 1614, when the surviving servants of the original settlement were due to be released from their obligation to serve the company. Dale realized that unless they were given some inducement to stay, the company's population would be quickly depleted, and the venture would fail. Accordingly, in 1614 he allotted to all those who had settled in the colony prior to 1612 three acres of land to farm for their own use, exempt from all payments except one month's service to the colony and 12 bushels of corn in rent. Still unsolved was the problem of the company's shareholders, who were supposed to receive a dividend of 100 acres of cleared land in 1616. The company had no means of honoring these terms; it could offer the adventurers no more than 50 acres of land, and that only if they subscribed another £12. 10s. in stock.

  By 1619, the investors had begun to understand that the key to a successful colony was to ensure that the settlers themselves had a stake in the venture's survival. Sir Edwin Sandys, who became the head of the company in 1619, began sending large numbers of new colonists to ensure a self-sustaining population. Next he sent groups of respectable, unmarried young women so as to encourage the formation of families. He recruited more artisans to establish the long hoped for silk, glass, brick, iron, salt, naval stores, and shipbuilding enterprises. To encourage investors to emigrate permanently to America, Sandys granted subpatents to groups of subscribers or wealthy individuals in return for special administrative and judicial privileges. Subscribers' lands were now to be held in free and common socage, subject to only a nominal quitrent. The first grant was made to John Martin in 1617, but Sandys now extended the practice. Although many of the subsequent 44 patents were not taken up, including that to the Pilgrims (see Chapter 4), enough were established to accelerate the shift from company to private property.

  Placing property in private hands was a key element of the company's emerging new approach.10 While making arrangements to increase the future profitability of the colony, Sandys sought to keep shareholders committed to the company by announcing that all adventurers would be given 100 acres of land as their lawful dividend. Furthermore, all those who had arrived at their own expense since 1616 would receive 50 acres, plus a similar amount for every dependent who accompanied them. This provision came to be known as the Virginia headright. Lastly, lands were set aside to support the ministry, to build a school for the native peoples in order to encourage their conversion to Christianity, and, more distantly, to establish a university for the settlers.

  Sandys by no means envisioned the creation of a society of independent farmers; like his contemporaries, he envisioned the ideal society as a hierarchical one in which the best sorts of men controlled most of the property, and the poor remained dependent. Accordingly, servants who were recruited to cultivate company lands were expected after seven years of service to become tenants, not landowners, surrendering half their produce to the company so that it could pay a dividend back home. Sandys encouraged the City of London and other towns to finance the departure of some of their surplus poor and orphaned children, in effect helping to create a system of temporary servitude in Virginia that was considerably more coercive than the system then in place in England. While English young people had the option of changing masters yearly, indentured servants in Virginia sold themselves (or were sold) into servitude for a full term of four to seven years. Nevertheless, poor boys and young men continued to sell themselves into service and arrive in Virginia despite the limited freedom they would enjoy once they arrived. A contract of service provided a viable mechanism for paying one's passage across the Atlantic, and with poverty growing in England, many young men believed they had a better chance to prosper in the New World. During the next four years nearly 4,000 persons were dispatched to the colony.

  As part of its administrative reorganization of the colony, the company divided up the existing settled areas into four boroughs: Charles City, Jamestown, Henrico, and Kiccowtan. The company was to retain 3,000 acres in each of these boroughs for its own servants and tenants. Ever mindful of the need to induce investors to emigrate to Virginia, Sandys decided that the settlement needed a different form of government. Gates's code of laws had already been abandoned, but further changes were necessary. Sandys hit on the device of convening an assembly in America. The scheme may have been devised partly to accommodate those adventurers who had gone to claim their land and were in consequence unable to attend the quarterly meetings in London. It had the effect of giving investors and free settlers alike a stake in the colony's future.

  The new governing body was to be composed of the governor, his council, and two burgesses from every hundred or parish elected by the inhabitants. It was to meet once a year and have full power to enact measures on all matters for the colony's good government. Naturally all acts would have to conform where practical to English law and would also be subject to the veto of both the governor and the company in London. Notably, though, laws would not be handed down by the Crown, as they were in the Spanish colonies. The government of Virginia would take place locally, within the colony.

  The new measure was originally intended strictly as a p
rivilege. It was not intended to confer any rights on the settlers as Englishmen, among whom voting was the prerogative of the few. The only right was that of the adventurers to attend company meetings. However, to widen the appeal of the measure, Sandys wisely opened the vote to all free male inhabitants.11 It was a remarkably generous gesture, and one which has rightly been seen as a crucial episode in the development of representative institutions in British North America.

  Document 6

  Formal constitution for a council and assembly in Virginia, July 24, 1621, reprinted in W. Keith Kavenagh, Foundations of Colonial America: A Documentary History (New York, 1973), Vol. 3, 1889

  Although Governor Yeardley called the first meeting of the colonists' representatives in July 1619, the company defined the new body only two years later. One interesting feature was that the company intended to make ratification of its own decrees subject to reciprocal approval by the assembly.Question to consider: Why would the creation of an assembly have helped to induce settlers and investors to come to Virginia?

  Know that we, the said Treasurer, Council and Company, taking into our careful consideration the present state of the said colony in Virginia and intending, by divine assistance, to settle such a form of government there as may be to the greatest benefit and comfort of the people, whereby all injustice, grievance, and oppression may be prevented …

  We therefore … do hereby order and declare that from hence forward there be two supreme councils in Virginia for the better government of the said colony aforesaid. The one of which councils, to be called the Council of State, whose office shall be chiefly assisting with their care and advice and circumspection to the said Governor, shall be chosen, nominated, placed, and displaced from time to time by us, the said Treasurer, Council and Company …

  The other Council, more general, to be called by the Governor, and yearly … and no oftener but for very extraordinary and important occasions, shall consist for the present of the said Council of State and two Burgesses out of every town, hundred and other particular plantation to be respectfully chosen by the inhabitants. Which Council shall be called the General Assembly, wherein, as also in the said Council of State, all matters shall be decided, determined and ordered by the greater part of the voices then present, reserving always to the Governor a negative voice. And this general assembly shall have full power to … make, ordain, and enact such general laws and orders for the behalf of the said colony and good government thereof as shall from time to time appear necessary or requisite. Wherein, as in all things, we require the general Assembly, as also the Council of State, to imitate and follow the policy of the form of government, laws, custom, manners and administration of justice used in the realm of England, as near as may be … provided that no laws or ordinance made in the General Assembly shall be in force and valid unless the same shall be solemnly ratified and confirmed … here in England …

  The news of these momentous changes was brought by a new governor, George Yeardley, who convened the first assembly late in July 1619 at Jamestown in the church. Sitting in the choir stalls were representatives from the four boroughs and eight plantations. A number of laws were passed, many based on previous company ordinances. The first stated that no injury was to be done to the Indians “whereby the present peace might be disturbed and ancient quarrels revived.” Then followed a series of decrees against drunkenness, idleness, gaming, and the wearing of ostentatious clothing; these were not dissimilar to Dale's laws, except for the severity of the punishment to be incurred. Trade with the Indians was permitted, though only with the consent of the governor, but constant care was to be taken since the native inhabitants were in general “a most treacherous people.” Accordingly, no guns were to be sold, and all settlers were to attend church on Sunday bringing their weapons with them.

  Other laws sought to create a more predictable economic environment. The company's future profit was to be limited annually to 25 percent, while private landowners were excused having to sell their produce to the company storehouse. The assembly also addressed the curing of tobacco, demonstrating the crop's importance to the colony, along with the need for the proper regulation of relations between master and servant. Finally, every household was to have one spare barrel of corn, plant six mulberry bushes, and cultivate vines. The lessons of “the starving time” had finally been learned.

  4 The Massacre of 1622 and Fall of the Company

  It seemed that the colony was now set for a period of growth. One visitor, John Pory, noted in 1619 that, although sickness was still prevalent, the colonists also enjoyed the prospect of growing wheat and excellent grapes; he commented that “a few years may bring this colony to perfection,” if the English plow was introduced to improve the preparation of the soil. The only cause for concern was the obsession with tobacco, where one or two planters had made a profit of £1,000. Not surprisingly, John Rolfe reported unqualified contentment the following year. The planters, freed from the company's restrictions, “strive and are prepared to build houses and to clear their ground.”

  Nevertheless the growth expected by Sandys did not take place. One reason was the appalling mortality rate. Barely one-quarter of the 4,000 settlers shipped out between 1618 and 1622 survived. Another was that the company, still harboring the delusion that it could develop manufactures in the colony, sent over hundreds of craftsmen who were quite unsuited to the wilderness conditions. Other colonists were simply physically weak, for no medical examination was ever given, so that even if they survived the voyage, they succumbed during the seasoning period which all newcomers had to undergo. Pory advised that people should be dispatched only in the fall, when the weather was reasonably benign. They could then acclimatize during the winter before planting their first crops. His advice, however, was all too often ignored, and Yeardley's resources were severely strained caring for the sick and destitute.

  Also, the company faced increasing competition for investors' funds. The colony in Bermuda, which had by now separated from the Virginia Company, was prospering. English companies had been organized to trade in West Africa and to explore for gold in Guiana. Then in March 1621 James I revoked the company's right to hold a lottery, a serious blow, since it ended what had been the company's best source of revenue. The likelihood that investors would put more money into the venture after such wretched returns over the past 15 years was minimal.

  As money was still required to meet the operating costs and pay the adventurers' dividends, the company's thoughts turned to the exploitation of tobacco. Although the company had not initially welcomed Rolfe's experiments, attempts to reduce the crop had been to little avail, especially after 1616 when most colonists could do what they wanted with their land. Production soared, reaching nearly 50,000 pounds in 1618, and almost 200,000 pounds by 1622.

  In these circumstances the company reluctantly recognized that it had no alternative but to exploit this unexpectedly profitable commodity. Unfortunately, under the 1609 charter company products were liable to a customs levy. The Crown now proposed a duty of one shilling a pound, twice the anticipated rate. Even worse, the duties were to be collected by tax farmers, who would thus control the crop's distribution. Sandys was not happy at this loss of patronage and proposed that the company itself should import and distribute the tobacco, allowing the Crown in return one-third of the crop. To this James I consented. Many shareholders, however, were appalled at the extravagant fees proposed for those administering the scheme when so few dividends had been paid. Pamphlets were written attacking Sandys, while his opponents, led by the earl of Warwick and Sir Thomas Smith, appealed to the king to intervene. In response the Privy Council ordered the tobacco contract to be suspended while it investigated the company's affairs.

  While this dispute was taking place between the investors and their critics in the government, another crisis suddenly devastated the colony, one that illustrated how deeply the company's new policies were transforming the relationship between the English and the local In
dians. One result of Sandys's liberal land policy was that the settlements had become dispersed along the James River for almost 100 miles. Their farms encroached much further into Indian territory than the Powhatan people could ever have anticipated. English land uses had devastated Indian food supplies. English hogs were allowed to forage in the woods where they trampled and ate Indian corn and consumed the wild plants needed to sustain the local population of deer. Meanwhile, the political leadership of the confederacy had changed, passing from Powhatan (who died in 1618) to Opechancanough. The Powhatans' new leader had come to understand clearly what the continued presence of the English would mean: more plantations, the felling of the forests, the extinction of the game, and the destruction of his people's way of life. Tobacco, not trade, was now the main interest of the settlers. The settlers had become increasingly hostile to the Indians; as one officer of the company noted, “There is scarce any man amongst us that doth so much as afford them a good thought in his heart.” Also troubling to the Indians were English attempts to convert Indian children to Christianity under the guise of educating them.

  Finally, when an Englishman murdered one of the werowances early in 1622, and the company failed to provide redress, members of the Confederacy resolved to end the settlers' presence through a series of coordinated assaults. Since their attack on Friday, March 22, 1622, was not preceded by any overt hostility, local Indians were able to gain access to the settlement on seemingly innocuous business before revealing their true intent. Some even breakfasted with their victims. Jamestown was saved only by a last-minute warning from a native convert to Christianity. In the subsequent attacks some 350 colonists – men, women, and children – were struck down before the rest of the population could respond.