Jefferson in 1790 owned two hundred slaves and ten thousand acres of very rich land on the James River. (Jefferson to Van Staphorst, Feb. 28, 1790; _Works_: Ford, vi, 33.) Washington owned enormous quant.i.ties of land, and large numbers of slaves. His Virginia holdings alone amounted to thirty-five thousand acres. (Beard: _Econ. I. C._, 144.)
[67] Burnaby, 54.
[68] In the older counties the slaves outnumbered the whites; for instance, in 1790 Westmoreland County had 3183 whites, 4425 blacks, and 114 designated as "all others." In 1782 in the same county 410 slave-owners possessed 4536 slaves and 1889 horses. (_Va. Mag. Hist. and Biog._, x, 229-36.)
[69] Ambler, 11. The slaves of some planters were valued at more than thirty thousand pounds sterling. (Fithian, 286; and Schoepf, ii, 38; also, Weld, i, 148.)
[70] Robert Carter was a fine example of this rare type. (See Fithian, 279-80.)
[71] Burnaby, 53-54 and 59. "The Virginians ... are an indolent haughty people whose thoughts and designs are directed solely towards p[l]aying the lord, owning great tracts of land and numerous troops of slaves. Any man whatever, if he can afford so much as 2-3 [two or three] negroes, becomes ashamed of work, and goes about in idleness, supported by his slaves." (Schoepf, ii, 40.)
[72] "Notes on Virginia"; _Works_: Ford, iv, 82-83. See La Rochefoucauld, iii, p. 161, on Jefferson"s slaves.
[73] Jefferson to Chastellux, Sept. 2, 1785; _Thomas Jefferson Correspondence_, Bixby Collection: Ford, 12; and see Jefferson"s comparison of the sections of the country, _ib._ and _infra_, chap. VI.
[74] "Many of the wealthier cla.s.s were to be seen seeking relief from the vacuity of idleness, not merely in the allowable pleasures of the chase and the turf, but in the debasing ones of c.o.c.k-fighting, gaming, and drinking." (Tucker, i, 18; and see La Rochefoucauld, iii, 77; Weld, i, 191; also _infra_, chap. VII, and references there given.)
[75] Jones, 48, 49, and 52; Chastellux, 222-24; also, translator"s note to _ib._, 292-93. The following order from the Records of the Court of Rappahannock County, Jan. 2, 1688 (_sic_), p. 141, is ill.u.s.trative:--
"It having pleased Almighty G.o.d to bless his Royall Mahst. with the birth of a son & his subjects with a Prince of Wales, and for as much as his Excellency hath sett apart the 16th. day of this Inst. Janr"y. for solemnizing the same. To the end therefore that it may be don with all the expressions of joy this County is capable of, this Court have ordered that Capt. Geo. Taylor do provide & bring to the North Side Courthouse for this county as much Rum or other strong Liquor with sugar proportionable as shall amount to six thousand five hundred pounds of Tobb. to be distributed amongst the Troops of horse, Compa. of foot and other persons that shall be present at the Sd. Solemnitie. And that the said sum be allowed him at the next laying of the Levey. As also that Capt. Samll. Blomfield provide & bring to the South side Courthouse for this county as much Rum or other strong Liquor Wth. sugar proportionable as shall amount to three thousand five hundred pounds of Tobb. to be distributed as above att the South side Courthouse, and the Sd. sum to be allowed him at the next laying of the Levey."
And see Bruce: _Econ._, ii, 210-31; also Wise, 320, 327-29. Although Bruce and Wise deal with a much earlier period, drinking seems to have increased in the interval. (See Fithian, 105-14, 123.)
[76] As in Ma.s.sachusetts, for instance. "In most country towns ... you will find almost every other house with a sign of entertainment before it.... If you sit the evening, you will find the house full of people, drinking drams, flip, toddy, carousing, swearing." (John Adams"s _Diary_, describing a New England county, in 1761; _Works_: Adams, ii, 125-26. The Records of Ess.e.x County, Ma.s.sachusetts, now in process of publication by the Ess.e.x Inst.i.tute, contain many cases that confirm the observation of Adams.)
[77] Meade, i, 52-54; and see Schoepf, ii, 62-63.
[78] Wise, 317-19; Bruce: _Inst._, i, 308-15.
[79] Bruce: _Inst._, i, 317-22; and see especially, _Va. Mag. Hist. and Biog._, ii, 196 _et seq._
[80] _Ib._, 323-30; also Fithian, 50 _et seq._
[81] Bruce: _Inst._, i, 331-42.
[82] _Ib._, 452-53.
[83] _Ib._, 456-57. Bruce shows that two thirds of the women who joined in deeds could not write. This, however, was in the richer section of the colony at a much earlier period. Just before the Revolution Virginia girls, even in wealthy families, "were simply taught to read and write at 25/ [shillings] and a load of wood per year--A boarding school was no where in Virginia to be found." (Mrs. Carrington to her sister Nancy; MS.) Part of this letter appears in the _Atlantic Monthly_ series cited hereafter (see chap. V); but the teacher"s pay is incorrectly printed as "pounds" instead of "shillings." (_Atlantic Monthly_, lx.x.xiv, 544-45.)
[84] Bruce: _Inst._, i, 402-42; and see Wise, 313-15. Professor Tucker says that "literature was neglected, or cultivated, by the small number who had been educated in England, rather as an accomplishment and a mark of distinction than for the substantial benefits it confers." (Tucker, i, 18.)
[85] Fithian, 177.
[86] See catalogue in _W. and M. C. Q._, x and xi.
[87] See catalogue in Appendix A to Byrd"s _Writings_: Ba.s.sett.
[88] See catalogue of John Adams"s Library, in the Boston Public Library.
[89] Ambler, 9; and see Wise, 68-70.
[90] Trustworthy data on this subject is given in the volumes of the _Va. Mag. Hist. and Biog._; see also _W. and M. C. Q._
[91] Wertenbaker: _P. and P._, 14-20. But see William G. Stanard"s exhaustive review of Mr. Wertenbaker"s book in _Va. Mag. Hist. and Biog._, xviii, 339-48.
[92] "One hundred young maids for wives, as the former ninety sent. One hundred boys more for apprentices likewise to the public tenants. One hundred servants to be disposed among the old planters which they exclusively desire and will pay the company their charges." (_Virginia Company Records_, i, 66; and see Fithian, 111.)
[93] For the understanding in England at that period of the origin of this cla.s.s of Virginia colonists see Defoe: _Moll Flanders_, 65 _et seq._ On transported convicts see _Amer. Hist. Rev._, ii. 12 _et seq._ For summary of the matter see Channing, i, 210-14, 226-27.
[94] Fithian to Greene, Dec. 1, 1773; Fithian, 280.
[95] Fithian to Peck, Aug. 12, 1774; Fithian, 286-88; and see Professor Tucker"s searching a.n.a.lysis in Tucker, i, 17-22; also see Lee, in Ford: _P. on C._, 296-97. As to a genuinely aristocratic _group_, the New York patroons were, perhaps, the most distinct in the country.
[96] Wertenbaker: _P. and P._, 14-20; also _Va. Mag. Hist. and Biog._, xviii, 339-48.
[97] For accounts of brutal physical combats, see Anburey, ii, 310 _et seq._ And for dueling, though at an earlier period, see Wise, 329-31.
The practice of dueling rapidly declined; but fighting of a violent and often repulsive character persisted, as we shall see, far into the nineteenth century. Also, see La Rochefoucauld, Chastellux, and other travelers, _infra_, chap. VII.
[98] Schoepf, i, 261; and see references, _infra_, chap. VII.
[99] After Braddock"s defeat the Indians "extended their raids ...
pillaging and murdering in the most ruthless manner.... The whole country from New York to the heart of Virginia became the theatre of inhuman barbarities and heartless destruction." (Lowdermilk, 186.)
[100] Although the rifle did not come into general use until the Revolution, the firearms of this period have been so universally referred to as "rifles" that I have, for convenience, adopted this inaccurate term in the first two chapters.
[101] "Their actions are regulated by the wildness of the neighbourhood.
The deer often come to eat their grain, the wolves to destroy their sheep, the bears to kill their hogs, the foxes to catch their poultry.
This surrounding hostility immediately puts the gun into their hands,... and thus by defending their property, they soon become professed hunters; ... once hunters, farewell to the plough. The chase renders them ferocious, gloomy, and unsociable; a hunter wants no neighbour, he rather hates them.... The manners of the Indian natives are respectable, compared with this European medley. Their wives and children live in sloth and inactivity.... You cannot imagine what an effect on manners the great distance they live from each other has....
Eating of wild meat ... tends to alter their temper.... I have seen it."
(Crevecoeur, 66-68.) Crevecoeur was himself a frontier farmer.
(_Writings_: Sparks, ix, footnote to 259.)
[102] "Many families carry with them all their decency of conduct, purity of morals, and respect of religion; but these are scarce."
(Crevecoeur, 70.) Crevecoeur says his family was one of these.
[103] This bellicose trait persisted for many years and is noted by all contemporary observers.
CHAPTER II
A FRONTIER EDUCATION
"Come to me," quoth the pine tree, "I am the giver of honor." (Emerson.)
I do not think the greatest things have been done for the world by its bookmen. Education is not the chips of arithmetic and grammar.
(Wendell Phillips.)