Patrician and Plebeian: Or The Origin and Development of the Social Classes of the Old DominionWertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson
History
Patrician and Plebeian: Or The Origin and Development of the Social Classes of the Old Dominion
Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson
Virginia -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Virginia -- Social life and customs -- To 1775
In 1682 Lord Culpeper was instructed to do everything in his power to
develop Jamestown into a city. Charles II told him to announce to the
members of the Council that he would regard with special favor those
that built houses there and made it their permanent residence.
Culpeper seems to have recognized the uselessness of the attempt, for
he wrote, "I have given all encouragement possible for the rebuilding
of James Citty, ... as to the proposall of building houses by those of
the Counsell and the cheefe inhabitants, it hath once been attempted
in vaine, nothing but profitt and advantage can doe it, and then there
will be noe need of anything else."[55]
The Act of 1680 was never enforced. The planters complained that the
places selected for ports were too few in number and that they were
put to great expense in bringing their tobacco to them for shipment.
The English government then directed the Assembly so to change the Act
that it could be put into practical operation, but an attempt, in
1685, to follow these instructions proved futile. The Burgesses were
willing to pass a bill providing for ports in each county, but this
was not what the king wanted and so the whole matter came to
nothing.[56]
These failures were attributed by many to the obstinacy of the
Virginians. Men at that time understood but dimly the supremacy of
economic laws, and could not realize that so long as the planters
found it profitable to do their shipping from their private wharves so
long would there be no seaports in Virginia, no matter what laws were
enacted. In 1701 a pamphlet was published entitled, "A Plain and
Friendly Perswasive to the Inhabitants of Virginia and Maryland for
promoting Towns and Cohabitation." The author tried to prove that
towns would be an unmixed blessing to the colony, that they would
promote trade, stimulate immigration, build up manufacture and aid
education and religion.[57] A similar pamphlet, called Virginia's
Cure, had been written in 1661, complaining that the scattered mode of
life was the cause of the decline of religion in Virginia and
advocating the building of towns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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