The Planters of Colonial VirginiaWertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson
History
The Planters of Colonial Virginia
Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson
Slavery -- Virginia; Virginia -- Economic conditions; Virginia -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
It is evident, then, that throughout the entire reign of Charles II the
unhappy effects of the trade restrictions made of Virginia, which
formerly had been the land of opportunity for the poor man, a place of
suffering, poverty and discontent. The indentured servant who came over
after 1660 found conditions in the colony hardly more favorable for his
advancement than in England. The price of tobacco was now so low that it
was not possible for a man, by his unassisted efforts, to make a profit
by its cultivation. If Thomas Ludewell is correct in estimating the
return from the average crop at fifty shillings, the lot of the poor
man must have been hard indeed. Hungry he need not be, for food
continued to be abundant and easy to obtain, but of all that the
merchants gave him in return for his tobacco--clothing, farm implements,
household furnishings--he had to content himself with the scantiest
supply. And only too often his pressing needs brought him into hopeless
debt. As for imitating his predecessors of the earlier period in saving
money, purchasing land and servants and becoming a substantial citizen,
the task was well nigh impossible of accomplishment.
It would be expected, then, that even the most exhaustive investigation
could reveal but a few indentured servants, coming over after 1660, who
succeeded in establishing themselves in the Virginia yeomanry. And such,
indeed, is the case. Fortunately we have at hand for the period in
question the means of determining this matter with an exactness
impossible for the first half of the century. Nicholson's rent roll of
1704 supplies a complete list, with the exception of those in the
Northern Neck, of every landowner in Virginia. At the same time we have
in the Land Office at Richmond, the names of many thousands of persons
listed as headrights, constituting almost all the immigrants who came in
during the years from 1666 to the end of the century. Thus by comparing
the two lists and trying to identify on the rent roll the names found in
the patents, it is possible to fix the proportion of servants who won
for themselves at this time places among the landowning class.
Selecting the year 1672 as typical of the Restoration period, we find
that an examination of 672 of the names which are listed as headrights,
eleven only can be identified with any degree of certainty upon the rent
roll. Of 1116 names examined in the years from 1671 to 1674 inclusive,
only 26 are positively those of persons listed as landowners in 1704.
After making due allowance for the fact that uncertainty exists in a
number of other cases, and that some who prospered must have died in the
intervening years, it is safe to say that not more than five or six per
cent of the indentured servants of this period succeeded in establishing
themselves as independent planters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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