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The decline in the price of tobacco and the increased cost of manufactured goods bore with telling effect on the small farmers. It was customary for them to sow the greater part of their fields with tobacco, and the enormous decline in the price of that plant brought many to the verge of ruin. Whenever the overproduction was so great that the English traders left part of the crop in Virginia, it was the planter of the middle class that was apt to suffer most, for the merchants could not afford to affront the wealthy and influential men of the colony, by refusing to transport their crops. Had it not been for the ease with which the common people could obtain support from Indian corn and from their hogs and cattle, many might have perished during these years.

But, in addition to the causes of distress that were brought about by the unjust policy of England, there were forces at work within the colony, that were scarcely less potent for harm. Chief among these was the attempt of Governor William Berkeley to make his government independent of the people. Berkeley had, during the reign of Charles I, made a good governor, and had won the respect of the people, but as he became old there was a decided change for the worse in his nature. He is depicted in his declining years, as arbitrary, crabbed and avaricious.

He had for the populace the greatest contempt. To him they seemed a mere rabble, whose sole function in life was to toil and whose chief duty was to obey strictly the mandates of their rulers. He discouraged education because it bred a spirit of disobedience. "I thank God," he wrote, "there are no free schools and printing and I hope we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best governments." That the common people should have a share in the government seemed to him, even more than it had seemed to Charles I, a thing absurd and preposterous. After the Restoration, therefore, he resolved to free himself as far as practicable from all restraint, and to assume an arbitrary and almost absolute power.

Berkeley was far better qualified for this task than had been his royal masters the Stuarts. He possessed remarkable vigor and determination, and despite his quick temper was not lacking in tact and diplomacy. With a discrimination and care that marked him as a master in the art of corruption, he tried to make the Assembly dependent upon himself, by bribing the members of both houses. Selecting men that he thought he could most easily manage, he gave to them places of honor and emolument in the colony, some being made collectors, some sheriffs, some justices. The House of Burgesses was entirely corrupted, and so far from seeking to defend the rights of the people they represented, they proved willing instruments to the governor in his attempt to establish absolute power. Nor could the colony correct this evil by returning to the Assembly new burgesses, for Berkeley would not permit an election, and having once won over the House, continued to prorogue it from year to year. For nine years before Bacon's Rebellion there had been no election of burgesses. "In this way," complained the commons of Charles City county, "Berkeley hath soe fortifyed his power over us, as himselfe without respect to our laws, to doe what soever he best pleased."

His power over the Council became even more marked. The men composing this important body looked to the governors for appointment to lucrative offices and endeavored usually to keep their favor. Berkeley, more than any other governor, made use of this power over the Council to make its members submissive to his will. When vacancies occurred he took pains to appoint none whom he thought would be at all refractory. Moreover, "he very often discountenanced and placed his frowns on such as he observed in the least to thrust or cross his humor, soe that if by chance he had at any time choice of a person of honor, or conscience, that durst like a noble patriot speake his mind freely ... such person by some means or other was soone made weary of coming to councelle, and others overawed from the like boldness." In making his selections for high offices, Berkeley had recourse at times to men that had recently settled in the colony, hoping, doubtless, to secure persons submissive to his will. "It has been the common practice," it was stated, "to putt persons that are mere strangers into places of great honor, profitt and trust who unduly officiating therein, do abuse and wrong the people." These men proved parasites upon the colony and many enriched themselves at the public expense. Bacon, in his proclamation, called attention to this evil. "Wee appeale," he said, "to the country itselfe what and of what nature their oppressions have bin or by what caball and mistery the designs of those whom we call great men in authority and favour to whose hands the dispensation of the countries wealth has been committed; let us observe the sudden rise of their estates compared with the quality in which they first entered this country, or the reputation they have held here amongst wise and discerning men, and lett us see wither their extraction and education have not bin vile, and by what pretence of learning and vertue they could soe soon come into employments of so great trust and consequence ... let us see what spounges have suckt up the publique treasures, and wither it hath not bin privately contrived away by unworthy favorites and juggling parasites whose tottering fortunes have been repaired and supported at the publique charge."

These evils were aggravated by excessive taxation. The government at Jamestown added each year something more to the great burden that the poor were bearing. With utter recklessness they appropriated large quantities of tobacco for the repairing of forts, for stores and ammunition, for the construction of ships, the support of ministers, the establishment of new industries, the building of towns, and for other purposes, in addition to the usual expenses of maintaining the government itself. On all sides the people protested with bitterness. They declared the taxes excessive and unnecessary, and in more than one instance the approach of the collectors precipitated a riot. The fact that much of the money was appropriated, not to the purposes to which it was intended, but to the private use of individuals, was galling in the extreme to the poor people of the colony. This abuse was especially notorious in the fort bill of 1672. The people of Charles City county declared after the Rebellion that large sums had been levied "for building and erecting forts which were never finished but suffered to go to ruine, the artillery buried in sand and spoyled with rust and want of care, the ammunition imbezzled...." They complained also of mismanagement and fraud in connection with the bills passed for fostering manufacture in the colony. "Great quantities of tobacco have been raised on us," they said, "for building work houses and stoure houses and other houses for the propogating and encouragement of handicraft and manufactury ... yet for want of due care the said houses were never finished or made useful ... and noe good ever effected ... save the particular profitt of the undertakers, who were largely rewarded for thus defrauding us."

The expense of maintaining the Assembly itself was very heavy. This body not only added to the distress of the people by its corrupt and unwise legislation, but drained their resources by frequent and extended meetings, the cost of which was defrayed by taxation. The people of Surry county stated "that ye last Assembly continued many years and by their frequent meeting, being once every yeare, hath been a continuall charge and burthen to the poore inhabitants of this collony; and that the burgesses of the said Assembly had 150lb tobacco p day for each member, they usually continueing there three or 4 weeks togither, did arise to a great some."

This taxation would have been oppressive at any time, but coming as it did at a period when the colony was suffering severely from the Navigation Acts, and when the price of tobacco was so low that the smaller planters could hardly cultivate it with profit, the effect was crushing. The middle class during this period lost greatly in material prosperity. Many that had been well-to-do and happy before the Restoration, were reduced to poverty.

Politically, however, the evils of this period proved finally to be of benefit to the middle class, for when their burdens had become unbearable they rushed to arms and, striking out blindly at their oppressors, showed in no uncertain way that they would submit no longer to tyranny and injustice. It is true that Bacon's Rebellion was put down amid the blood of those that were its chief promoters, but the fury and horror of that outburst were not forgotten, and never again did governors or aristocracy drive to despair the commons of the colony by unjust taxation and arbitrary assumption of all power. Moreover, the misfortunes that preceded the Rebellion stirred in the breasts of the poor farmers a feeling of brotherhood, causing them to realize that their interests were common, and that by common action alone could they guard their interests. After 1676 we find that the middle class had become a self-conscious body, watching jealously every action of the Council or of the governors and resisting with energy and success all measures that seemed to them detrimental to their interests.

Before the end of the 17th century it was rare indeed to find freemen in the colony living in poverty. There were none whose condition was at all comparable for misery and want to the vast body of paupers that crowded the English cities and eked out an existence as laborers upon the farms. Robert Beverley, who wrote in 1705, called Virginia the best poor man's country in the world. He declared that the real poor class was very small, and even these were not servile. As early as 1664 Lord Baltimore had written that it was evident and known that such as were industrious were not destitute. Although this was certainly an exaggeration, when applied to the period succeeding the Restoration, it became strictly true after Bacon's Rebellion, when the people were no longer oppressed with burdensome taxation. Hugh Jones, writing during Governor Spotswood's administration, stated that the common planters lived in "pretty timber houses, neater than the farm houses are generally in England." "They are such lovers of riding," he adds, "that almost every ordinary person keeps a horse." So favorable were the conditions in which the small farmers found themselves that a fair degree of prosperity was often obtained by them even though they were lacking in industry. Hugh Jones says, "The common planters leading easy lives don't much admire labour, except horse-racing, nor diversion except cock-fighting, in which some greatly delight. This easy way of living, and the heat of the summer makes some very lazy, who are said to be climate-struck."

The more prosperous and capable members of the middle class shared to some extent the benefits resulting from negro labor. Many that had been unable to secure servants now bought slaves and thus were able to increase very much the output of their plantations. The shortness of the time that the servants served, the great cost of transporting them to the colony and the risk of losing them by death or by flight, had made it impossible for the small farmers to use them in cultivating their fields. Since negro labor was not attended with these objections, many planters of humble means bought slaves and at one step placed themselves above the class of those that trusted to their own exertions in the tilling of their fields. When once a start had been made, the advance of their prosperity was limited only by the extent of their ability and industry. Some became quite wealthy. Smythe, writing in 1773, stated that many of them formed fortunes superior to some of the first rank, despite the fact that their families were not ancient or so respectable.

Those members of the middle class who were unable, through poverty or incapacity, to share the prosperity of the early years of the 18th century were injured by the general use of slave labor in the colony. Since they could not purchase negroes, they were in a sense thrown into competition with them. The enormous increase in the production of tobacco brought down the price and made their single exertions less and less profitable. They were deprived of the privilege of working for wages, for no freeman could toil side by side with negroes, and retain anything of self-respect. Thus after the year 1700, the class of very poor whites became larger, and their depravity more pronounced. A Frenchman, travelling in Virginia at the time of the Revolution, testified that the condition of many white families was pitiful. "It is there," he said, "that I saw poor people for the first time since crossing the ocean. In truth, among these rich plantations, where the negro alone is unhappy, are often found miserable huts, inhabited by whites, whose wan faces and ragged clothes give testimony of their poverty." It is certain that this class was never large, however, for those that were possessed of the least trace of energy or ambition could move to the frontier and start life again on more equal terms. Smythe says that the real poor class in Virginia was less than anywhere else in the world.

The introduction of slavery into the colony affected far more profoundly the character of the middle class farmer than it did that of the aristocrat. The indentured servants, upon whose labor the wealthy planters had relied for so many years, were practically slaves, being bound to the soil and forced to obey implicitly those whom they served. The influence that their possession exerted in moulding the character of the aristocracy was practically the same as that of the negro slave. Both tended to instil into the master pride and the power of command. Since, however, but few members of the small farmer class at any time made use of servant labor, their character was not thus affected by them. Moreover, the fact that so many servants, after the expiration of their term of indenture, entered this class, tended to humble the poor planters, for they realized always the existence of a bond of fellowship between themselves and the field laborers. When the negro slave had supplanted the indentured servant upon the plantations of the colony a vast change took place in the pride of the middle class. Every white man, no matter how poor he was, no matter how degraded, could now feel a pride in his race. Around him on all sides were those whom he felt to be beneath him, and this alone instilled into him a certain self-respect. Moreover, the immediate control of the negroes fell almost entirely into the hands of white men of humble means, for it was they, acting as overseers upon the large plantations, that directed their labors in the tobacco fields. This also tended to give to them an arrogance that was entirely foreign to their nature in the 17th century. All contemporaneous writers, in describing the character of the middle class in the 18th century, agree that their pride and independence were extraordinary. Smythe says, "They are generous, friendly, and hospitable in the extreme; but mixed with such an appearance of rudeness, ferocity and haughtiness, which is, in fact, only a want of polish, occasioned by their deficiencies in education and in knowledge of mankind, as well as their general intercourse with slaves." Beverley spoke of them as being haughty and jealous of their liberties, and so impatient of restraint that they could hardly bear the thought of being controlled by any superior power. Hugh Jones, John Davis and Anbury also describe at length the pride of the middle class in this century.

Thus was the middle class, throughout the entire colonial period, forming and developing. From out the host of humble settlers, the overflow of England, there emerged that body of small planters in Virginia, that formed the real strength of the colony. The poor laborer, the hunted debtor, the captive rebel, the criminal had now thrown aside their old characters and become well-to-do and respected citizens. They had been made over--had been created anew by the economic conditions in which they found themselves, as filthy rags are purified and changed into white paper in the hands of the manufacturer. The relentless law of the survival of the fittest worked upon them with telling force and thousands that could not stand the severe test imposed upon them by conditions in the New World succumbed to the fever of the tobacco fields, or quitted the colony, leaving to stronger and better hands the upbuilding of the middle class. On the other hand, the fertility of the soil, the cheapness of land, the ready sale of tobacco combined to make possible for all that survived, a degree of prosperity unknown to them in England. And if for one short period, the selfishness of the English government, the ambition of the governor of the colony and the greed of the controlling class checked the progress of the commons, the people soon asserted their rights in open rebellion, and insured for themselves a share in the government and a chance to work out their own destiny, untrammelled by injustice and oppression. At the outbreak of the Revolution, the middle class was a numerous, intelligent and prosperous body, far superior to the mass of lowly immigrants from which it sprang.

FOOTNOTES:

Abstracts of Proceedings of Va. Company of London, Vol. II, p. 164.

Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 17 and 18; Bruce, Econ. Hist. of Va., Vol. I, p. 597.

Abstracts of Proceedings of Va. Company of London, Vol. I, pp. 26 and 34; Bruce, Econ. Hist. of Va., Vol. I, pp. 599-600.

Abstracts of Proceedings of Va. Company of London, Vol. I, pp. 162-164.

Bruce, Econ. Hist. of Va. Vol. I, p. 51.

Abstracts of Proceedings of Va. Company of London, Vol. I, pp. 130 and 138.

Abstracts of Proceedings of Va. Company of London, Vol. I, p. 12.

Bruce, Econ. Hist. of Va., Vol. I, p. 286.

Bruce, Econ. Hist. of Va., Vol. I, pp. 576-584.

Ibid., Vol. VI, p. 251.

Ibid., Vol. VI, p. 251.

Bruce, Econ. Hist. of Va., Vol. I, pp. 378, 477 and 480.

Va. Maga. of Hist. and Biog., Vol. VI, p. 251.

Sainsbury Abstracts, year 1638, p. 8.

Abstracts of Proceedings of Va. Company of London, Vol. I, p. 92.

Neill, Virginia Carolorum.

Virginia Hist. Register, Vol. I, p. 63.

Neill, Virginia Carolorum; Hening's Statutes, Vol. II, p. 510.

Hening's Statutes, Vol. II, p. 510.

Bruce, Econ. Hist. of Va., Vol. I, pp. 576-584.

Ibid., Vol. I, p. 573.

Ibid., Vol. I, p. 574.

Bruce, Econ. Hist. of Va., Vol. I, p. 574.

Ibid., Vol. I, p. 608.

Ibid., Vol. I, p. 609.

Ibid., Vol. I, p. 610.

Beverley, Hist. of Va., p. 57.

Bruce, Econ. Hist. of Va., Vol. I, p. 611.

Hening's Statutes, Vol. II, p. 510.

Strachey's Historie of Travaile into Va., p. 63.

Percy's Discourse, p. lxxii.

Narratives of Early Va., pp. 21 and 22.

Ibid., p. 200.

Ibid., p. 220.

Abstracts of Proceedings of Va. Company of London, Vol. II, p. 171.

Neill, Va. Carolorum.

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