WEBVTT NOTE 3. The Virginia Company 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.720 Volume 1, Part 2, The Southern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century 2 00:00:05.720 --> 00:00:09.440 Chapter 3, The Virginia Company 3 00:00:09.440 --> 00:00:15.680 The Virginia colony did not enter existence as a new entity in a new world devoid of the 4 00:00:15.680 --> 00:00:17.840 shackles of tradition. 5 00:00:17.840 --> 00:00:24.360 The two key areas of policy, land and commerce, were already clearly established before the 6 00:00:24.360 --> 00:00:29.920 Virginia Company was planned and before the Virginia colony was established. 7 00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:36.040 In the period immediately preceding the formation of the Virginia Company and Colony, a policy 8 00:00:36.040 --> 00:00:43.280 toward colonial land, commerce, government, natives and colonists became well established. 9 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:50.160 A primary purpose for colonization was the belief that England was highly overpopulated 10 00:00:50.160 --> 00:00:56.100 and that colonies were a suitable outlet for the surplus poor of England. 11 00:00:56.100 --> 00:01:03.140 In 1603, the government issued an order for the forcible transportation of sturdy beggars, 12 00:01:03.140 --> 00:01:10.700 vagrants and other troublesome persons to the English plantations across the sea in Ireland. 13 00:01:10.700 --> 00:01:16.900 During the preceding decade, Ireland had suffered the ravages of the English army battling against 14 00:01:16.900 --> 00:01:23.140 a movement of national liberation seeking self-government, freedom of religion and abandonment 15 00:01:23.140 --> 00:01:28.180 of the Plantation of English Colonists on Irish Lands. 16 00:01:28.180 --> 00:01:36.500 The defeat of the Irish in 1603 by the studied English policy of destruction of crops, cattle, 17 00:01:36.500 --> 00:01:43.500 homes and people opened Ireland to renewed colonization by the English government. 18 00:01:43.500 --> 00:01:45.740 The Irish had no land rights. 19 00:01:45.740 --> 00:01:49.660 They were mere tenants at the will of their lords. 20 00:01:49.660 --> 00:01:55.500 The system of plantations in Ireland provided the pattern for establishing plantations in 21 00:01:55.500 --> 00:02:03.780 America. Grants of land were made to courtiers, privileged companies, and purchasers of feudal 22 00:02:03.780 --> 00:02:10.660 domains with feudal powers. Like the American Indians, the Irish were subjected to raids 23 00:02:10.660 --> 00:02:16.780 whose purpose was to destroy their subsistence in shelter and to drive them out of the proposed 24 00:02:16.780 --> 00:02:23.180 Area of Plantation. These new feudal domains were settled by the poor of England who were 25 00:02:23.180 --> 00:02:30.660 subjected to feudal disabilities. In consequence, these poor not only did not own their own 26 00:02:30.660 --> 00:02:38.300 lands, they barely owned themselves. The colonial government of Ireland remained the despotism 27 00:02:38.300 --> 00:02:43.840 that was established by the Tudors. Since the English government was deeply engaged 28 00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:49.360 in the development of a program for Irish colonization when the Virginia Company was 29 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:51.240 being organized. 30 00:02:51.240 --> 00:02:56.240 There were complaints that the proposals for American colonies would interfere with the 31 00:02:56.240 --> 00:02:58.880 plantation of Ulster. 32 00:02:58.880 --> 00:03:04.640 It was absurd folly to run over the world in the search of colonies in Virginia or Guiana 33 00:03:04.640 --> 00:03:07.840 whilst Ireland was lying desolate. 34 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:25.840 However, colonies in Virginia or Guyana would not only contribute to the decrease of the burden of overpopulation, they would also be a source of important tropical or semi-tropical products that were objectives of the privileged trading companies of London. 35 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:38.840 The London financiers purchased from the government the right to retain general customs as well as tobacco duties, since tobacco was becoming a significant imported commodity. 36 00:03:38.840 --> 00:03:52.840 Spanish America, especially the lands and islands about the Caribbean, was the source of tobacco, and its use in England grew rapidly once trade was established with Spain in 1604. 37 00:03:52.840 --> 00:03:59.760 However, the use of tobacco was much disliked by James I because it not only was a drain 38 00:03:59.760 --> 00:04:06.880 of money from England to Spain, but also was considered poisonous and a sign of intemperance 39 00:04:06.880 --> 00:04:13.480 and vice by which Englishmen allowed themselves to be debased by the barbaric practices of 40 00:04:13.480 --> 00:04:20.640 the Indians, but the habit became widespread and an important source of tax revenue. 41 00:04:20.640 --> 00:04:28.240 In 1604, the English government initiated new increases in the customs duties, making 42 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:32.560 the farming of the duties even more profitable. 43 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:37.000 Tax farming was the sale by government of the right to tax. 44 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:42.560 At the same time, the increases in tariffs made smuggling such a profitable business that 45 00:04:42.560 --> 00:04:46.240 it became organized on a professional basis. 46 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:51.580 The smuggling business was a well-organized system of purchase, transportation, delivery 47 00:04:51.580 --> 00:04:57.760 and distribution in which the free trader was not only sailor and merchant but also 48 00:04:57.760 --> 00:05:03.220 policeman to protect his property from attacks by government officials. 49 00:05:03.220 --> 00:05:07.720 Tobacco became one of the most important of the basic items for smuggling. 50 00:05:07.720 --> 00:05:14.560 Besides increasing direct taxation, the government, in effect, encouraged smuggling through indirect 51 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:23.360 Taxes via Sale of Monopoly Privileges. James I's first parliament in 1604 established 52 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:30.220 the tone for the future parliaments of the 17th century, opposition to the government. 53 00:05:30.220 --> 00:05:35.760 The parliament of 1604 strongly stated the grievances felt against the government and 54 00:05:35.760 --> 00:05:41.720 among the fiscal reforms demanded by the House of Commons was the abolition of the foreign 55 00:05:41.720 --> 00:05:57.720 A committee under the chairmanship of Sir Edwin Sandys presented a bill for all merchants to have free liberty of trade into all countries as is used in all other nations. 56 00:05:57.720 --> 00:06:12.720 Sandy said, all free subjects are born inheritable as to their land, as also to the free exercise of their industry in those trades whereto they apply themselves and whereby they are to live. 57 00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:21.720 The Parliament of 1605 continued to state the grievances of the people against the monopolies of London financiers. 58 00:06:21.720 --> 00:06:31.720 After the closing of parliament, the government sought to quiet opposition by co-opting provincial capitalists into the monopoly privileges. 59 00:06:31.720 --> 00:06:40.720 However, the desire for the advantages of freedom of trade outweighed the advantages of monopoly privileges, 60 00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:50.720 and the attempt to force the investors of the West Country ports such as Plymouth and Bristol into the London monopolies proved unsatisfactory. 61 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:57.040 Thus, the colonization activities of the West Country promoters had to be separated from 62 00:06:57.040 --> 00:07:00.500 those of the London colonial promoters. 63 00:07:00.500 --> 00:07:07.720 This resulted in the creation of two Virginia companies and charters, September 1605 and 64 00:07:07.720 --> 00:07:10.460 April 1606. 65 00:07:10.460 --> 00:07:16.000 In 1606, the Parliament declared void the charters of the monopoly companies trading 66 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:23.320 with Southern Europe, which action freed and opened that trade to all English merchants. 67 00:07:23.320 --> 00:07:28.680 In response, the government refused to call parliament for almost three years, hoping 68 00:07:28.680 --> 00:07:35.120 to raise money by prerogative power, by increasing the duties on imports and exports without 69 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:41.020 parliamentary consent, and by the creation or extension of monopolies. 70 00:07:41.020 --> 00:07:46.940 The Parliament of 1610 protested the imposition of increased taxes and deprivation of civil 71 00:07:46.940 --> 00:07:53.220 liberties by the prerogative courts and refused to vote any taxes. 72 00:07:53.220 --> 00:07:59.660 The government continued to gain its income by prerogative power, granting increased privileges 73 00:07:59.660 --> 00:08:07.380 in 1612 to such companies as the Virginia Company and the East India Company. 74 00:08:07.380 --> 00:08:13.000 Despite the financial manipulations of the government, its debt more than doubled, and 75 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:19.780 it sought to gain taxes by controlling elections to the House of Commons. But a House opposed 76 00:08:19.780 --> 00:08:26.140 to the government was elected, and by a unanimous vote, it criticized the imposition of taxes 77 00:08:26.140 --> 00:08:32.980 by the government. Sir Edwin Sandys said of the monopolies in taxes imposed by the government 78 00:08:32.980 --> 00:08:39.340 that what in the past had been done only temporarily and in emergencies was now being claimed by 79 00:08:39.340 --> 00:08:45.820 right. The Parliament refused to pass any legislation or approve any taxation until 80 00:08:45.820 --> 00:08:51.500 the grievances of the people were redressed by the Government. The Government dissolved 81 00:08:51.500 --> 00:08:57.140 the Parliament and over a dozen members were punished by the Government by imprisonment 82 00:08:57.140 --> 00:09:01.860 or House Arrest, including Sir Edwin Sandys. 83 00:09:01.860 --> 00:09:06.940 Although the government continued to create and enlarge its inspections, regulations, 84 00:09:06.940 --> 00:09:13.020 controls and monopolies, the rationalization of government power was further undermined 85 00:09:13.020 --> 00:09:19.480 in 1614 by common law court decisions against monopolies. 86 00:09:19.480 --> 00:09:25.220 During the constitutional struggle of the 17th century, the common law was often used 87 00:09:25.220 --> 00:09:32.000 against the government's positive laws. An important aspect of the struggle was the provision 88 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:39.000 of Magna Carta, guaranteeing complete freedom of trade as part of the protection of liberty 89 00:09:39.920 --> 00:09:46.600 and property. Any interference in economic activity by the government or by any group 90 00:09:46.600 --> 00:09:53.600 privileged by the government constituted restraint of trade contrary to the principles of common 91 00:09:53.600 --> 00:09:58.660 and the Common Law. It became evident that there could not be any restraint of trade 92 00:09:58.660 --> 00:10:05.660 without government action and the common law courts refused to enforce the monopolies whenever 93 00:10:05.660 --> 00:10:11.020 the government did not interfere with the freedom of the courts. Among the bills failing 94 00:10:11.020 --> 00:10:18.020 passage in 1614 was one for a navigation act. Following the peace of April 1609 between 95 00:10:18.020 --> 00:10:24.320 In 1609, between Spain and the Netherlands, the Dutch were able to compete favorably with 96 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:30.020 English shipowners in the fishing, coastal and distant trades because of cheaper costs 97 00:10:30.020 --> 00:10:33.140 due to more efficient construction. 98 00:10:33.140 --> 00:10:38.280 The English government occasionally harassed Dutch shipping at the insistence of English 99 00:10:38.280 --> 00:10:44.380 shippers by intermittently enforcing old laws and collecting fines. 100 00:10:44.380 --> 00:10:50.060 Although in 1602 the English government had insisted to Denmark that the law of nations 101 00:10:50.060 --> 00:10:56.500 alloweth the fishing in the seas everywhere, the increased competitive ability of the Dutch 102 00:10:56.500 --> 00:11:03.660 caused the English government to issue a contrasting proclamation in May 1609. 103 00:11:03.660 --> 00:11:09.660 This proclamation claimed that the English government had dominance and political authority 104 00:11:09.660 --> 00:11:16.260 over those high seas in which England possessed exclusive fishing rights. Therefore the Dutch 105 00:11:16.260 --> 00:11:22.500 should withdraw from these seas or pay taxes to the English government. To the Dutch the 106 00:11:22.500 --> 00:11:27.580 fishing industry was highly important and thus the English sought to strike at the basis 107 00:11:27.580 --> 00:11:36.240 of Dutch prosperity. After 30 years the fantasies of the magician Dr. John Dee had become the 108 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:38.780 The Program of the English Government 109 00:11:38.780 --> 00:11:43.660 A program for which Englishmen would be forced to sacrifice their lives. 110 00:11:43.660 --> 00:11:49.620 In place of that spirit of freedom and mutual advantage of the intercursus magnus, which 111 00:11:49.620 --> 00:11:55.640 had guided English maritime policy for over one hundred years and would remain the letter 112 00:11:55.640 --> 00:12:01.100 of the law for another several decades, there was entering into the policy of the English 113 00:12:01.100 --> 00:12:31.100 in the 17th century, aimed especially at the Dutch. In opposition to the claims of exclusive control of the high seas by England in the North Sea, and the North Atlantic, and by Spain and Portugal in the East and West Indies, the Dutchman Hugo Grotius, who was a member of the Dutch government in the 17th century, was also a member of the Dutch government in the 17th century. 114 00:12:31.100 --> 00:12:38.100 contended for the freedom of the seas in his work, Mare Liberum, 1609. 115 00:12:38.100 --> 00:12:48.100 That the seas were to be open to all and free from government control was an idea that Grotius, the founder of international law, 116 00:12:48.100 --> 00:12:55.100 derived from Spanish philosophical thought, especially from the work of Francisco Suarez. 117 00:12:55.100 --> 00:13:02.460 Sures had established the basis for international law by deducing from the variety of peoples 118 00:13:02.460 --> 00:13:09.780 and states that the unity of the human race can only be represented by a general, rational 119 00:13:09.780 --> 00:13:16.800 international law and not by a general political organization or domination, whether over the 120 00:13:16.800 --> 00:13:19.620 lands or over the seas. 121 00:13:19.620 --> 00:13:28.060 In 1613, a Dutch diplomatic delegation, including Hugo Grotius, came to London to negotiate 122 00:13:28.060 --> 00:13:34.620 for improved commercial relations, and one of the matters raised was the possibility 123 00:13:34.620 --> 00:13:40.740 of greater cooperation between the Dutch and English East India companies, which had traded 124 00:13:40.740 --> 00:13:44.300 together in the Indies in Amity. 125 00:13:44.300 --> 00:13:49.600 There was heavy Dutch investment in England because of the higher interest rates there, 126 00:13:49.600 --> 00:13:54.880 The English East India Company was one of the businesses in which the Dutch had invested 127 00:13:54.880 --> 00:14:01.200 heavily. Because of the adoption of a permanent joint stock, similar to that of the more advanced 128 00:14:01.200 --> 00:14:07.960 Dutch business organization, and the common concern of defense against Portuguese fleets, 129 00:14:07.960 --> 00:14:14.880 there was increased Dutch interest in the English East India Company. A merger of the 130 00:14:14.880 --> 00:14:19.880 was proposed that would have maintained the autonomy of the English body. 131 00:14:19.880 --> 00:14:24.880 Although the English would have benefited from the superior Dutch capacity, 132 00:14:24.880 --> 00:14:28.880 trading experience in the Indies and technical competence, 133 00:14:28.880 --> 00:14:33.880 the English East India directors rejected this proposal 134 00:14:33.880 --> 00:14:39.880 and engaged in armed conflict with the merchants and ships of the Dutch East India Company. 135 00:14:39.880 --> 00:14:45.720 Apparently, the English preferred the returns of hostile conflict to the profits of peaceful 136 00:14:45.720 --> 00:14:47.940 cooperation. 137 00:14:47.940 --> 00:14:52.880 This hostility would have been increased and generalized by the proposed Navigation Act 138 00:14:52.880 --> 00:14:59.240 of 1614 that would have imposed upon English merchants the requirement to ship English 139 00:14:59.240 --> 00:15:02.720 goods on English ships. 140 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:09.240 The English ship owners had maintained that English regulations forced them to use uneconomical 141 00:15:09.240 --> 00:15:23.240 The regulations required that ships be built so that they could be transformed into auxiliary warships built for speed and maneuverability rather than for carrying cargoes at low operational cost. 142 00:15:23.240 --> 00:15:36.240 The English shippers desired compensation in the form of a Navigation Act forcing English merchants to use the uneconomical English ships rather than the more efficient Dutch ships. 143 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:55.240 In reply to the ship owners and the monopoly companies, the merchants said the navigation acts were poison that would destroy the competitive position of the English merchants in foreign trade and reduce the standard of living of the English public as consumers of imports and producers of exports. 144 00:15:55.240 --> 00:16:01.240 In other words, to use English ships with their much larger crews and smaller capacities, 145 00:16:01.240 --> 00:16:07.360 the merchants insisted, would greatly raise their cost and thus reduce English competitive 146 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:10.320 ability in the world market. 147 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:16.400 The monopoly companies headed by Sir Thomas Smith became the focus of increasing popular 148 00:16:16.400 --> 00:16:24.040 criticism leveled against the government's attempt to expand further the system of privileges. 149 00:16:24.040 --> 00:16:45.040 The representative of the literate attacks on monopoly and the Navigation Acts in the Commons was The Trades Increase, 1615, which centered its attack upon the power nucleus of the London financiers headed by Thomas Smith and the East India Company. 150 00:16:45.040 --> 00:16:51.840 The pamphlet declared that monopoly privileges were contrary to the freedom of Englishmen, 151 00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:58.720 and that no one should be barred from carrying on trade equally in all parts of the world. 152 00:16:58.720 --> 00:17:04.360 The East India Company directors considered the pamphlet particularly dangerous, even 153 00:17:04.360 --> 00:17:10.880 treasonable, and commissioned the writing of an answer, the defense of trade. 154 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:16.080 The trades increase favored the establishment of colonies in America, but charged that 155 00:17:16.080 --> 00:17:21.440 the growth of colonies there had been stunted by the grants of monopoly privileges that 156 00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:23.840 discouraged settlement. 157 00:17:23.840 --> 00:17:30.120 In fact, the Virginia colony was not doing very well in drawing off England's surplus 158 00:17:30.120 --> 00:17:31.120 poor. 159 00:17:31.120 --> 00:17:36.120 Besides transporting vagrants and criminals to Virginia, the London Company and the City 160 00:17:36.120 --> 00:17:42.900 of London agreed to transport poor children from London to Virginia. However, the poorest 161 00:17:42.900 --> 00:17:48.800 refused the proffered boon and the company moved to obtain warrants to force the children 162 00:17:48.800 --> 00:17:55.280 to migrate. It seemed indeed that the Virginia colony, failing also to return profits to 163 00:17:55.280 --> 00:18:01.840 the company investors, was becoming a failure on every count. The survival of the Virginia 164 00:18:01.840 --> 00:18:12.840 The economy hung, in fact, for years by a hair-breath. The colonists were not accustomed to the labor required of a pioneer, and malaria decimated the settlers. 165 00:18:12.840 --> 00:18:26.840 Of the 104 colonists who reached Virginia in May 1607, only 30 were still alive by that fall, and a similar death rate prevailed among new arrivals for many years. 166 00:18:26.840 --> 00:18:36.840 As late as 1616, only 350 colonists remained of a grand total of over 1,600 immigrants. 167 00:18:36.840 --> 00:18:44.840 One major reason for the survival of this distressed colony was the changes that the company agreed to make in its social structure. 168 00:18:44.840 --> 00:18:52.840 The bulk of the colonists had been under indenture contracts and were in servitude to the company for seven years 169 00:18:52.840 --> 00:19:02.840 in exchange for passage money and maintenance during the period, and sometimes for the prospect of a little land at the end of their term of service. 170 00:19:02.840 --> 00:19:14.840 The contract was called an indenture because it was originally written in duplicate on a large sheet, the two halves separated by a jagged line called an indent. 171 00:19:14.840 --> 00:19:21.680 While it is true that the original contract was generally voluntary, it is also true that 172 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:28.440 a free society does not enforce even temporary voluntary slave contracts, since it must allow 173 00:19:28.440 --> 00:19:33.640 for a person to be able to change his mind and for the inalienability of a person's 174 00:19:33.640 --> 00:19:37.040 control over his will and his body. 175 00:19:37.040 --> 00:19:43.080 While a man's property is alienable and may be transferred from one person to another, 176 00:19:43.080 --> 00:19:50.480 A person's will is not. The creditor in a free society may enforce the collection of 177 00:19:50.480 --> 00:19:57.120 payment for money he may have advanced, in this case, passage and maintenance money, 178 00:19:57.120 --> 00:20:04.360 but he may not continue to enforce slave labor, however temporary it may be. Furthermore, 179 00:20:04.360 --> 00:20:10.860 many of the indentures were compulsory and not voluntary. For example, those involving 180 00:20:10.860 --> 00:20:17.940 Political prisoners imprisoned debtors and kidnapped children of the English lower classes. 181 00:20:17.940 --> 00:20:25.660 The children were kidnapped by professional spirits or crimps and sold to the colonists. 182 00:20:25.660 --> 00:20:31.820 In the concrete conditions of the colony, slavery, as always, robbed the individual 183 00:20:31.820 --> 00:20:38.820 of his incentive to work and save and thereby endangered the survival of the settlement. 184 00:20:38.820 --> 00:20:46.140 The new charter granted in 1609 by the Crown to the Company, now called the Virginia Company, 185 00:20:46.140 --> 00:20:52.500 added to the incentives of the individual colonist by providing that every settler above 186 00:20:52.500 --> 00:20:57.340 the age of ten be given one share of stock in the Company. 187 00:20:57.340 --> 00:21:02.980 At the end of seven years, each person was promised a grant of one hundred acres of land 188 00:21:02.980 --> 00:21:09.000 and a share of assets of the company in proportion to the shares of stock held. 189 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:14.140 The new charter also granted the company more independence and more responsibility to its 190 00:21:14.140 --> 00:21:20.580 stockholders by providing that all vacancies in the governing royal council be filled by 191 00:21:20.580 --> 00:21:25.180 the company, which would thus eventually assume control. 192 00:21:25.180 --> 00:21:32.180 The charter of 1609 also stored up trouble for the future by adding wildly to the grant 193 00:21:32.180 --> 00:21:38.880 of Land to the Virginia Company. The original charter had sensibly confined the grant to 194 00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:45.880 the coastal area to 100 miles inland, the extent of English sovereignty on the continent. 195 00:21:46.380 --> 00:21:53.380 But the 1609 charter grandiosely extended the Virginia Company from sea to sea, that 196 00:21:53.880 --> 00:22:00.400 is westward to the Pacific. Furthermore, its wording was so vague as to make it unclear 197 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:18.360 The Charter of 1612 added the island of Bermuda to the vast Virginia domain, but this was 198 00:22:18.360 --> 00:22:22.480 soon farmed out to a subsidiary corporation. 199 00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:29.160 The incentives provided by the Charter of 1609, however, were still only future promises. 200 00:22:29.160 --> 00:22:34.800 The colony was still being run on communist principles. Each person contributed the fruit 201 00:22:34.800 --> 00:22:40.800 of his labor according to his ability to a common storehouse run by the company. And 202 00:22:40.800 --> 00:22:47.800 from this common store, each received produce according to his need. And this was a communism 203 00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:54.400 not voluntarily contracted by the colonists themselves, but imposed upon them by their 204 00:22:54.400 --> 00:23:20.500 The result of this Communism was what we might expect. Each individual gained only a negligible amount of goods from his own exertions, since the fruit of all these went into the common store, and hence had little incentive to work, or to exercise initiative or ingenuity under the difficult conditions in Virginia. And this lack of 205 00:23:20.500 --> 00:23:26.980 under the difficult conditions in Virginia, and this lack of incentive was doubly reinforced 206 00:23:26.980 --> 00:23:32.900 by the fact that the colonist was assured, regardless of how much or how well he worked, 207 00:23:33.620 --> 00:23:40.500 of an equal share of goods from the common store. Under such conditions, with the motor of incentive 208 00:23:40.500 --> 00:23:46.660 gone from each individual, even the menace of death and starvation for the group as a whole, 209 00:23:46.660 --> 00:23:54.480 and even a veritable reign of terror by the governors could not provide the necessary spur 210 00:23:54.480 --> 00:23:57.320 for each particular man. 211 00:23:57.320 --> 00:24:03.300 The communism was only an aspect of the harshness of the laws and the government suffered by 212 00:24:03.300 --> 00:24:05.460 the colony. 213 00:24:05.460 --> 00:24:11.380 Absolute power of life and death over the colonist was often held by one or two counselors 214 00:24:11.380 --> 00:24:12.780 of the company. 215 00:24:12.780 --> 00:24:20.140 Thus, Captain John Smith, the only surviving royal council member in the winter of 1609, 216 00:24:20.140 --> 00:24:24.260 read his absolute powers to the colonist once a week. 217 00:24:24.260 --> 00:24:31.820 There are no more councils to protect or curb my endeavors, he thundered, and every violator 218 00:24:31.820 --> 00:24:37.020 of his decrees would assuredly expect his due punishment. 219 00:24:37.020 --> 00:24:42.780 Professor Thomas Gates, appointed Governor of Virginia in 1609, was instructed by the 220 00:24:42.780 --> 00:24:49.780 company to proceed by martial law as of most dispatch and tenor and fittest for this government 221 00:24:50.460 --> 00:24:56.820 of Virginia. Accordingly, Gates established a code of military discipline over the colony 222 00:24:56.820 --> 00:25:03.820 in May 1610. The code ordered strict religious observance, among other things. Some twenty 223 00:25:03.820 --> 00:25:22.820 Some twenty crimes were punishable by death, including such practices as trading with Indians without a license, killing cattle and poultry without a license, escape from the colony, and persistent refusal to attend church. 224 00:25:22.820 --> 00:25:31.820 One of the most heinous acts was apparently running away from this virtual prison to the supposedly savage Indian natives. 225 00:25:31.820 --> 00:25:39.820 Captured runaway colonists were executed by hanging, shooting, burning or being broken on the wheel. 226 00:25:39.820 --> 00:25:49.820 It is no wonder that Gates' instructions took the precaution of providing him with a bodyguard to protect him from the wrath of his subjects. 227 00:25:49.820 --> 00:25:57.820 For, as the succeeding governor wrote in the following year, the colony was full of mutiny and treasonable inhabitants. 228 00:25:57.820 --> 00:26:09.820 The directors of the Virginia Company decided, unfortunately, that the cure for the grave ailments of the colony was not less, but even more disciplined. 229 00:26:09.820 --> 00:26:14.820 Accordingly, they sent Sir Thomas Dale to be governor and ruler of the colony. 230 00:26:14.820 --> 00:26:39.820 Dale increased the severity of the laws in June 1611. Dale's laws, the laws divine, moral and martial, became justly notorious. They provided, for example, that every man and woman in the colony be forced to attend divine service, Anglican, twice a day or be severely punished. 231 00:26:39.820 --> 00:26:45.740 For the first absence, the culprit was to go without food, for the second to be publicly 232 00:26:45.740 --> 00:26:51.820 whipped, and for the third to be forced to work in the galleys for six months. 233 00:26:51.820 --> 00:26:53.500 This was not all. 234 00:26:53.500 --> 00:26:59.260 Every person was compelled to satisfy the Anglican minister of his religious soundness 235 00:26:59.260 --> 00:27:03.640 and to place himself under the minister's instructions. 236 00:27:03.640 --> 00:27:10.340 of this duty was punished by public whipping each day of the neglect. 237 00:27:10.340 --> 00:27:16.160 No other offence was more criminal than any criticism of the 39 articles of the Church 238 00:27:16.160 --> 00:27:17.800 of England. 239 00:27:17.800 --> 00:27:23.040 Torture and death were the lot of any who persisted in open criticism. 240 00:27:23.040 --> 00:27:29.120 This stringent repression reflected the growing movement in England of Puritans and other 241 00:27:29.120 --> 00:27:44.920 Dale's Laws also provided that no man speak impiously against the Holy and Blessed Trinity 242 00:27:44.920 --> 00:27:51.560 or against the known articles of the Christian faith upon pain of death, that no man shall 243 00:27:51.560 --> 00:27:59.560 No man shall use any traitorous words against his majesty's person or royal authority upon pain of death. 244 00:27:59.560 --> 00:28:10.560 No man shall dare to detract, slander, culminate, or utter unseemly speeches, either against counsel or against committees, assistants, and others. 245 00:28:10.560 --> 00:28:18.560 First offense to be whipped three times, second offense to be sent to galleys, third offense, death. 246 00:28:18.560 --> 00:28:24.720 Offenses such as obtaining food from the Indians, stealing food, and attempting to return to 247 00:28:24.720 --> 00:28:29.360 England were punishable by death and torture. 248 00:28:29.360 --> 00:28:34.920 Lesser offenses were punished by whipping or by slavery and irons for a number of years. 249 00:28:34.920 --> 00:28:41.340 Governor Dale's major constructive act was to begin slightly the process of dissolution 250 00:28:41.340 --> 00:28:44.460 of communism in the Virginia colony. 251 00:28:44.460 --> 00:28:49.540 To stimulate individual self-interest, he granted three acres of land and the fruits 252 00:28:49.540 --> 00:28:52.020 thereof to each of the old settlers. 253 00:28:52.020 --> 00:29:01.020 Dale's successor, Captain Samuel Argle, a relative of Sir Thomas Smith, arrived in 1617 254 00:29:01.020 --> 00:29:06.860 and found such increased laxity during the interim administration of Captain George Yardley 255 00:29:06.860 --> 00:29:11.220 that he did not hesitate to re-impose Dale's laws. 256 00:29:11.220 --> 00:29:17.120 Ergold ordered every person to go to church Sundays and holidays or suffer torture and 257 00:29:17.120 --> 00:29:24.380 be a slave the week following. He also imposed forced labor more severely. Fortunately for 258 00:29:24.380 --> 00:29:29.980 the success of the Virginia Colony, the Virginia Company came into the hands of the Puritans 259 00:29:29.980 --> 00:29:37.380 in London. Sir Thomas Smith was ousted in 1619 and his post as Treasurer of the Company 260 00:29:37.380 --> 00:29:43.300 was assumed by Sir Edwin Sandys, a Puritan leader in the House of Commons who had prepared 261 00:29:43.300 --> 00:29:46.500 the draft of the amended Charter of 1609. 262 00:29:46.500 --> 00:29:51.660 Sandys, one of the great leaders of the liberal descent in Parliament, had helped to grow 263 00:29:51.660 --> 00:29:58.500 up the remonstrance against the conduct of James I in relation to the King's First Parliament. 264 00:29:58.500 --> 00:30:03.500 Sir Edwin had urged that all prisoners have benefit of counsel, had advocated freedom 265 00:30:03.500 --> 00:30:09.040 The regime of trade and opposed monopolies and feudalism had favored religious toleration, 266 00:30:09.040 --> 00:30:13.780 and generally had espoused the grievances of the people against the crown. 267 00:30:13.780 --> 00:30:19.500 For Virginia, Sandys wanted to abandon the single-company plantation and to encourage 268 00:30:19.500 --> 00:30:24.700 private plantations, the ready acquisition of land and speedy settlement. 269 00:30:24.700 --> 00:30:31.220 The relatively liberal Puritans removed and attempted to arrest Argyle, and sent Sir George 270 00:30:31.220 --> 00:30:36.980 Yardley to Virginia's Governor. Yardley at once proceeded to reform the despotic laws 271 00:30:36.980 --> 00:30:43.980 of the colony. He substituted a much milder code in November 1618, called by the colonists 272 00:30:43.980 --> 00:30:49.820 the Great Charter. Everyone was still forced to attend Church of England services, but 273 00:30:49.820 --> 00:30:55.080 only twice each Sunday, and the penalty for absence was now reduced to the relatively 274 00:30:55.080 --> 00:31:02.040 Innocuous Three Shillings for Each Offense, Yardley also increased to 50 acres the allotment 275 00:31:02.040 --> 00:31:08.160 of land to each settler, thereby speeding the dissolution of communism and also beginning 276 00:31:08.160 --> 00:31:13.560 the process of transferring land from the company to the individual settler who had 277 00:31:13.560 --> 00:31:19.940 occupied and worked it. Furthermore, land that had been promised to the settlers after 278 00:31:19.940 --> 00:31:25.020 for a seven-year term was now allotted to them immediately. 279 00:31:25.020 --> 00:31:30.060 The colonists themselves testified to the splendid effects of the yearly reforms in 280 00:31:30.060 --> 00:31:33.100 a declaration of 1624. 281 00:31:33.100 --> 00:31:38.660 The reforms gave such encouragement to every person here that all of them followed their 282 00:31:38.660 --> 00:31:45.180 particular labors with singular alacrity and industry, so that within the space of three 283 00:31:45.180 --> 00:31:51.420 In the years our country flourished with many new erected plantations. The plenty of these 284 00:31:51.420 --> 00:31:58.020 times likewise was such that all men generally were sufficiently furnished with corn and 285 00:31:58.020 --> 00:32:05.020 many also had plenty of cattle, swine, poultry and other good provisions to nourish them. 286 00:32:05.700 --> 00:32:10.860 In his greater charter, Yearley also brought to the colonists the first representative 287 00:32:10.860 --> 00:32:19.180 The governor established a General Assembly, which consisted of six counselors appointed 288 00:32:19.180 --> 00:32:24.460 by the company and burgesses elected by the freemen of the colony. 289 00:32:24.460 --> 00:32:31.220 Two burgesses were to be elected from each of eleven plantations, four general plantations 290 00:32:31.220 --> 00:32:38.300 denoting sub-settlements that had been made in Virginia, and seven private or particular 291 00:32:38.300 --> 00:32:44.620 Plantations, also known as hundreds. The four general plantations, or sub-settlements, 292 00:32:44.620 --> 00:32:53.180 each governed locally by its key town or city, were the city of Henrico, Charles City, James 293 00:32:53.180 --> 00:33:02.460 City, the capital, and the borough of Kecoughton, soon renamed Elizabeth City. The assembly 294 00:33:02.460 --> 00:33:08.700 was to meet at least annually, make laws, and serve as the highest court of justice. 295 00:33:08.700 --> 00:33:14.100 The governor, however, had veto power over the assembly, and the company's edicts continued 296 00:33:14.100 --> 00:33:17.160 to be binding on the colony. 297 00:33:17.160 --> 00:33:24.220 The first assembly met at Jamestown on July 30, 1619, and it was this assembly that ratified 298 00:33:24.220 --> 00:33:30.420 the repeal of Dale's laws and substituted the milder set. 299 00:33:30.420 --> 00:33:36.100 The introduction of representation thus went hand in hand with the new policy of liberalizing 300 00:33:36.100 --> 00:33:43.400 the laws. It was part and parcel of the relaxation of the previous company tyranny. 301 00:33:43.400 --> 00:33:48.620 The other major factor in the survival of the colony was the discovery by John Rolfe 302 00:33:48.620 --> 00:33:55.020 about 1612 that Virginia tobacco could be grown in such a way as to make it acceptable 303 00:33:55.020 --> 00:34:01.540 to European Tastes. Previously, Virginia tobacco had been regarded as inferior to the product 304 00:34:01.540 --> 00:34:08.540 that had been introduced to the old world by the Spanish colonies in America. By 1614, 305 00:34:09.420 --> 00:34:15.740 Rolfe was able to ship a cargo of tobacco to London and meet a successful market. Very 306 00:34:15.740 --> 00:34:22.120 rapidly Virginia possessed a staple and an important economic base. Tobacco could be 307 00:34:22.120 --> 00:34:27.640 was very readily exported to Europe and exchanged for other goods needed by the colonists. 308 00:34:27.640 --> 00:34:34.040 By 1617, tobacco was being planted even in the streets of Jamestown. 309 00:34:34.040 --> 00:34:39.120 An index to the extremely rapid rate of growth of the tobacco production is the quantity 310 00:34:39.120 --> 00:34:46.120 of Virginia tobacco imported by England, two and a half thousand pounds in 1616, fifty 311 00:34:46.120 --> 00:35:03.060 1616, 50,000 pounds in 1618, 119,000 pounds in 1620, and 203,000 pounds in 1624. 312 00:35:03.060 --> 00:35:08.520 Even though tobacco was truly the lifeblood of the little colony, the government of Britain 313 00:35:08.520 --> 00:35:13.540 and of Virginia could not keep from trying to cripple its growth. 314 00:35:13.540 --> 00:35:20.260 King James was aesthetically offended by the spread of the fashion for that idle vanity, 315 00:35:20.260 --> 00:35:27.820 smoking, and so placed a heavy duty on tobacco to limit its import. In that way, presumably, 316 00:35:27.820 --> 00:35:34.300 Englishmen would only smoke with moderation to preserve their health. Sir Thomas Dale, 317 00:35:34.300 --> 00:35:41.320 alarmed at the prospects of monoculture, decreed it a crime for a planter not to raise an additional 318 00:35:41.320 --> 00:35:48.320 two acres of corn for himself and each servant. Presumably, no person was to be trusted with 319 00:35:48.320 --> 00:35:54.120 the far more efficient procedure of raising tobacco and with the proceeds buying his own 320 00:35:54.120 --> 00:36:01.400 corn from whomever he desired. Even the patron saint of Virginia tobacco, John Rolfe, was 321 00:36:01.400 --> 00:36:06.960 appalled at its rapid spread, thus showing a far skimpier knowledge of economics than 322 00:36:06.960 --> 00:36:15.120 of the Technology of Tobacco. Even the liberal Sir Edwin Sandys took this position and deplored 323 00:36:15.120 --> 00:36:22.040 the spread of tobacco and the de-emphasis on corn. Only Captain John Smith showed economic 324 00:36:22.040 --> 00:36:27.680 sense by pointing out that the reason for the colonists' seemingly peculiar emphasis 325 00:36:27.680 --> 00:36:56.680 The first General Assembly added to the regulations on tobacco. Every settler was forced to plant each year a certain quota of other plants and crops. The price of tobacco was fixed by law, and any tobacco judged inferior by an official government committee was ordered burned. 326 00:36:56.680 --> 00:37:12.680 The latter regulation was the first of continuing attempts by tobacco planters to restrict the supply of tobacco, in this case low-priced inferior leaf, in order to raise the price received from the buyers and ultimately from the consumers. 327 00:37:12.680 --> 00:37:25.680 If tobacco was partly responsible for the survival of the colony, it was also indirectly responsible for the introduction into America of grievous and devastating problems. 328 00:37:25.680 --> 00:37:32.120 For one thing, the natural process of transferring the land from a ruling company to the individual 329 00:37:32.120 --> 00:37:38.440 settler, roughly to the extent to which he brought the land into use, was sharply altered 330 00:37:38.440 --> 00:37:40.440 and blocked. 331 00:37:40.440 --> 00:37:45.720 Tobacco farming required much larger estates than truck or other individual farms. 332 00:37:45.720 --> 00:37:52.360 Hence, the wealthier tobacco planters sought and obtained very large land grants from the 333 00:37:52.360 --> 00:37:53.920 company. 334 00:37:53.920 --> 00:38:00.240 One method of obtaining land was distributing to the colonist by head-right. That is, each 335 00:38:00.240 --> 00:38:05.980 immigrant received 50 acres and anyone who paid for an immigrant's passage received 336 00:38:05.980 --> 00:38:12.980 50 acres of land per immigrant from the company. As a result, the wealthier planters could 337 00:38:12.980 --> 00:38:20.240 acquire vast tracts by accumulating numerous head-rights. Furthermore, large grants of 338 00:38:20.240 --> 00:38:25.880 Each land was made to leading stockholders of the company. For one thing, each individual 339 00:38:25.880 --> 00:38:31.300 planter received a grant of 100 acres for each share of stock he held in the company. 340 00:38:31.300 --> 00:38:38.100 To raise cash for its hard-pressed finances, the company also sold bills of adventure, 341 00:38:38.100 --> 00:38:45.100 entitling the holders not to stock, but specifically to 100 acres of Virginia land per bill. Each 342 00:38:45.100 --> 00:38:54.100 Each bill was the same denomination as a company share, 12 pounds 10 shillings. 343 00:38:54.100 --> 00:39:00.100 Often bill holders joined together to take up allotments of lands to be held for speculation. 344 00:39:00.100 --> 00:39:07.100 As a result of these practices, several particular plantations emerged as settlements in large land grants, 345 00:39:07.100 --> 00:39:11.100 presided over by the private government of the grantee. 346 00:39:11.100 --> 00:39:29.100 The largest particular plantation was Berkley's 100, 4,500 acres on the north side of the upper James River, granted as a first dividend to five prominent stockholders headed by the Berkley's and settled in 1619. 347 00:39:29.100 --> 00:39:37.100 Other plantations were Smith's 100, Martin's 100, Bennett's Plantation and Martin's Brandon. 348 00:39:37.100 --> 00:39:44.100 Brandon. Arbitrary land allocations were also made by the governor and the assembly, thus 349 00:39:44.420 --> 00:39:51.420 3,000 acres in the capital and three other general plantations were reserved to the company, 350 00:39:51.900 --> 00:39:57.800 with the settlers being confined to tenants. The proceeds were to go toward the expenses 351 00:39:57.800 --> 00:40:03.820 of government. Land was also reserved for support of the local officials and ministers 352 00:40:03.820 --> 00:40:11.220 and as a subsidy for local artisans. A substantial grant was given to Governor Yeardley and 10,000 353 00:40:11.220 --> 00:40:18.940 acres was reserved for a proposed university at Henrico. The crucial point, however, is 354 00:40:18.940 --> 00:40:24.780 that the planters would not have been able to cultivate these large tobacco plantations 355 00:40:24.780 --> 00:40:31.980 and therefore would not have been moved to acquire and keep so much land if they had 356 00:40:31.980 --> 00:40:36.260 had to rely on free and independent labor. 357 00:40:36.260 --> 00:40:42.580 So scarce was such labor in relation to land resources that the hiring of free labor would 358 00:40:42.580 --> 00:40:46.020 not have been economically feasible. 359 00:40:46.020 --> 00:40:51.940 But the planters then turned to the use of forced labor to render their large plantations 360 00:40:51.940 --> 00:40:58.740 profitable, specifically the labor of the indentured servants and of the even more thoroughly 361 00:40:58.740 --> 00:41:01.900 coerced negro slaves. 362 00:41:01.900 --> 00:41:08.380 In slavery, the laborer is coerced not only for a term of years or for life, but for the 363 00:41:08.380 --> 00:41:12.620 lives of himself and all his descendants. 364 00:41:12.620 --> 00:41:19.820 It was an ironic commentary on the later history of America that 1619, the very year of the 365 00:41:19.820 --> 00:41:27.500 yearly reforms, saw the first slave vessel arrive at Jamestown with twenty negroes aboard 366 00:41:27.500 --> 00:41:31.980 to be sold as slaves to the tobacco planters. 367 00:41:31.980 --> 00:41:38.580 Until the mid-seventeenth century, the planters preferred to rely on indentured serf labor. 368 00:41:38.580 --> 00:41:43.260 These white servants, once their term had expired, could obtain their land, generally 369 00:41:43.260 --> 00:41:49.740 fifty acres each, on the western fringe of the settlement and become independent settlers. 370 00:41:49.740 --> 00:41:55.820 But Negro slavery, unlike indentured service, had no means of dissolving into the general 371 00:41:55.820 --> 00:42:02.780 Social Society. Once introduced, it became the backbone of the Virginian and other southern 372 00:42:02.780 --> 00:42:10.640 labor system. It could only remain as a continual canker on the American body social. 373 00:42:10.640 --> 00:42:16.100 The tiny colony was apparently not too young to have foreign affairs, and indeed it learned 374 00:42:16.100 --> 00:42:22.080 all too quickly the ways of interstate relations. French settlers had the temerity to found 375 00:42:22.080 --> 00:42:32.080 in the colony of their own, at Mount Desert, in what was later to be Maine, and on the banks of the Bay of Fundy, in what was later to become Nova Scotia. 376 00:42:32.080 --> 00:42:42.080 This trespassed upon the land that King James had arbitrarily granted to the Plymouth Company, which had not yet made any settlement in North America. 377 00:42:42.080 --> 00:42:45.080 It also trespassed on the greater glory of England. 378 00:42:45.080 --> 00:43:05.080 and so Southern Virginia did the honors. Captain Samuel Argyle, disguising his ship as a fishing vessel, sailed from the colony up to Mount Desert in 1613, eradicated the French settlement and kidnapped 15 French settlers, including two Jesuit priests. 379 00:43:05.080 --> 00:43:11.740 Hauled to Virginia, the prisoners were badly treated. Over a dozen of the hapless French 380 00:43:11.740 --> 00:43:17.760 settlers were turned loose by Argaud on the Atlantic in an open boat, but they had the 381 00:43:17.760 --> 00:43:24.020 good fortune to be rescued by fishing vessels. Later in the year, Argaud returned north and 382 00:43:24.020 --> 00:43:29.280 expanded his work of destruction, putting to the torch the settlements of St. Croix in 383 00:43:29.280 --> 00:43:35.520 in Port Royal, the latter in Nova Scotia, and driving the settlers into the woods. 384 00:43:35.520 --> 00:43:42.480 A few years later, Captain Argyle, now governor of Virginia, continued the tradition by participating 385 00:43:42.480 --> 00:43:49.400 in piratical activities against Spanish shipping. He sailed under the aegis of the king's favorite 386 00:43:49.400 --> 00:43:56.400 among the company stockholders, the Earl of Warwick.