Virginia under the Stuarts 1607-1688 Part 14

[343] Bruce, Inst. Hist., Vol. I, p. 254.

[344] Bruce, Inst. Hist., Vol. I, p. 254.

[345] Hen., Vol. I, p. 277.

[346] Hen., Vol. I, p. 355.

[347] Hen., Vol. I, p. 360.

[348] Hen., Vol. I, p. 361.

[349] Sp. Dom. Inter., 1-94.

[350] Scobell, Vol. II, p. 132.

[351] Va. Mag., Vol. I., p. 77.

[352] Va. Mag., Vol. I, pp. 75 to 81.

[353] Hen., Vol. I, p. 363.

[354] Hen., Vol. I, pp. 363-365.

[355] Hen., Vol. I, pp. 365-367.

[356] Hen., Vol. I, p. 371.

[357] Hen., Vol. I, pp. 371, 373.

[358] Sp. Dom. Int., 1-75; Hen., Vol. I, p. 510; Bruce, Inst. Hist., Vol. II, p. 302.

[359] Hen., Vol. I, pp. 371, 408.

[360] Wise, p. 139.

[361] Hen., Vol. I, p. 371.

[362] Wise, pp. 114, 115; Hen., Vol. I, p. 380.

[363] Hen., Vol. I, p. 372.

[364] Hen., Vol. I, pp. 377, 378.

[365] Hen., Vol. I, p. 499.

[366] Hen., Vol. I, p. 499.

[367] Hen., Vol. I, p. 500.

[368] Hen., Vol. I, p. 501.

[369] Hen., Vol. I, pp. 502, 503.

[370] Hen., Vol. I, pp. 499, 505.

[371] Hen., Vol. I, p. 510.

[372] Hen., Vol. I, p. 512.

[373] Hen., Vol. I, p. 517.

[374] Hen., Vol. I, p. 537.

[375] Hen., Vol. I, p. 530.

[376] Southern Lit. Mess., Jan. 1845.

[377] Southern Lit. Mess., Jan. 1845.

[378] Campbell, p. 74.

[379] Southern Lit. Mess., Jan., 1845.

[380] Bruce, Ec. Hist., Vol. I, pp. 357-360.

CHAPTER V

THE CAUSES OF BACON'S REBELLION

There were many who hailed the restoration of the monarchy as the dawn of an era of prosperity and happiness for Virginia. The colony, despite the efforts of some of its people, had remained loyal to the Crown until overpowered by force of arms. It might well expect especial favor and care from its prince, now that he was firmly established upon his throne.[381] Of the ability and justice of the Governor Virginia had had ample experience during the ten years of his first administration.

Never was a people doomed to more bitter disappointment. The years which followed the Restoration were crowded with misfortunes greater than any that had befallen the colony since the ghastly days of the Great Sickness. Charles II, far from showing grat.i.tude to his Old Dominion, overwhelmed it with injustice and oppression. The Virginians were crushed with tremendous duties on their tobacco and with ruinous restrictions upon their trade. The t.i.tles to their plantations were threatened by a grant of the entire colony to two unworthy favorites of the King. Governor Berkeley, embittered by the humiliation of the Commonwealth period, and growing avaricious and crabbed with advancing years, soon forfeited that respect and love which his former good conduct had gained him. His second administration was marred by partiality, oppression and inefficiency. The people were deprived of their right of suffrage by continued prorogation of the a.s.sembly. Local government fell into the hands of small aristocratic cliques, while the poor were ground down with unequal and excessive taxes. Two wars with Holland added to the misfortunes of the colonists. Even the Heavens seemed to join with their enemies, for the country was visited by a terrific hurricane which swept over the plantations, destroying crops and wrecking houses. These acc.u.mulated misfortunes brought such deep suffering upon the colony that hundreds of families were reduced to poverty and many were forced into debt and ruin. No wonder that the commons, finally driven to desperation, should have risen in insurrection against the Governor and the King.

First among the causes of distress during this unhappy period must be placed the Navigation Acts. England, in the middle of the 17th century, was engaged in an unsuccessful contest with Holland for the carrying trade of the world. The merchantmen of Amsterdam and Flus.h.i.+ng found their way even to Maryland and Virginia, where their low freight rates and the liberal prices they gave for tobacco, a.s.sured them a hearty welcome. The exports of the colonies to England itself were not infrequently carried in Dutch bottoms. This was a source of much anxiety and annoyance to the British government. It seemed unjust that the American colonies, which had been founded at such tremendous cost, should now prove as great a source of wealth to Holland as to the mother country. And it could not but anger the English s.h.i.+ppers to find themselves elbowed by these foreigners in the ports of the Bermudas or the rivers of Virginia.

In 1651, the British Parliament, thinking it necessary to give their merchants some protection from this lively compet.i.tion, pa.s.sed the first of the Navigation Acts. Under its provisions no goods of the growth or manufacture of Asia, America or Africa should be introduced into England in any but English s.h.i.+ps, of which the owner, master and three-fourths of the sailors were English subjects; and all foreign commodities imported to England should be conveyed directly thither from the place of growth or manufacture.[382] This law injured the Virginians by excluding the Dutch carriers from the tobacco trade with England and thus causing a sharp rise in freight rates. During the early years of the Commonwealth period it was frequently avoided, but before 1660 the English government began to enforce it more strictly.

Nor did the people get relief with the restoration of the monarchy.

Charles II proved more solicitous that Parliament for the welfare of the English merchants; even more indifferent to the complaints of the colonists. A new Navigation Act was pa.s.sed in 1660 which struck a deadly blow at the prosperity of Virginia. Under its provisions all goods sent to the colonies, even though of foreign growth or manufacture, were to be exported from England, and all tobacco, sugar, wool, etc., produced in the colonies, must be s.h.i.+pped only to England or to her dominions.[383]

Thus were the colonies sacrificed upon the altar of greed. The new act injured the Virginia planters in several ways. Since all their tobacco must now be brought to English ports, they could no longer seek the most advantageous markets. Had the demand for the commodity in England been more elastic, the consequences of this provision might not have been disastrous. Declining prices would have so stimulated the demand that the English could have consumed the entire crop. But the King's customs kept up the price to the consumer, and made it impossible for the merchants to dispose of the vast quant.i.ties of the leaf that had formerly gone to Holland and other countries.[384] Moreover, the varieties sold to the Dutch were not popular in England, and could not be disposed of at any price. Soon the market became so glutted that the merchants refused to take more than half the crop, leaving the remainder to rot upon the hands of the planters.

There followed in Virginia a sharp decline in prices. The Dutch had given the colonists three pence a pound for their tobacco.[385] A few years after the Restoration the planters considered themselves fortunate if they could dispose of their crops at a half penny a pound. Much was sold at a farthing.[386] Now since tobacco was the staple product of Virginia and the main support of the people, this rapid decline in its value was disastrous. Frequent complaints were sent to England that the colonists could not maintain themselves and their families upon the meagre returns from their tobacco. "Twelve hundred pounds is the medium of men's yearly crops," wrote Secretary Ludwell in 1667, "and a half penny per pound is certainly the full medium of the price given for it."

This made an average income for each planter of but fifty s.h.i.+llings.

When the poor man had paid his taxes for the necessary support of the government, very little remained to him to clothe his wife and children.