INTRODUCTION OF NEGRO SLAVERY.

4 one apartment, and there transacted the public business of the colony. The laws which they then enacted were sent to England for the approbation of the London company.

Hitherto but a small number of females had emigrated to Virginia. The colonists, therefore, could hardly be said to have their home in the country. Those domestic ties, which attach men most firmly to the soil they inhabit, did not exist; and each man directed his thoughts towards the mother country as the retreat of his old age. A new state of things now ensued by the arrival of a large number of females, ninety of whom were sent out from England in 1620, and sixty more the next year. Being persons of irreproachable character, they were married by the planters; and the colony thus acquired the best of all guarantees of permanence in its institutions and patriotism in its citizens.

The necessity of establishing seminaries of learning was now apparent, and preparations were made for founding a college afterwards established by William and Mary.

The colonial assembly, convened by Sir George Yeardley, had not yet received the express sanction of the London company. This was granted July 24th, 1621, by an ordinance which may be considered as the written constitution of the colony. This constitution was brought over by Sir Francis Wyatt, who had been appointed to succeed Governor Yeardley.

Thus the Virginians had acquired civil freedom. The rights secured by this, their fourth charter, were sufficient to form the basis of complete political liberty. Repre sentative government and trial by jury are justly regarded as the elements of freedom; and when a community has acquired these, its future destinies depend, in great measure, on the virtue, intelligence, and patriotism of

its citizens.

The year 1620, so fruitful in interesting events, was marked by one which will long exert a momentous influence on our destinies. This was the introduction of negro slavery. The commerce of Virginia, which had before been entirely monopolised by the London company, was now thrown open to free competition; and in

Who sanctioned their laws?-What gave the Virginians homes ?What provision for education was made ?-When were colonial assemblies sanctioned by the London company?-Who succeeded Yeardley? -What had the Virginians now acquired }

THE GREAT MASSACRE.

39

the month of August, a Dutch man-of-war sailed up the James river, and landed twenty negroes, for the purpose of having them sold into slavery. Although domestic slavery was thus introduced into the colony, its increase was very slow; the traffic in slaves was almost entirely confined to the Dutch; and laws of the colony discouraged its progress by taxation.

At this period the colony was in a highly flourishing state. The inhabitants enjoyed civil rights, free commerce, peace, and domestic happiness. The cultivation of tobacco and cotton, hereafter to become so important to the southern country, had already been introduced; and the Indians, their most powerful neighbours, were their friends and allies. Indeed, they had never regarded the Indians with much apprehension.

Security is too often the parent of danger. In the present instance it was the cause of a terrible calamity. The Indians had secretly become hostile to the colonists. Powhatan, the old king, had died in 1618; and his son, Oppaconcanough, did not inherit the friendly dispositions of his father. A deliberate plan was concerted for annihilating the colony at a blow, and it nearly succeeded.

Keeping their design secret till the last moment, the Indians visited the English on the evening before the appointed day; and the next morning came among them in an apparently friendly manner. At the precise hour of noon, on a preconcerted signal, they fell upon the colonists, while engaged in their usual peaceful occupations of agriculture and trade, and in one fatal hour three hundred and forty-seven men, women, and children fell victims to their cruelty. A part of the settlements were saved in consequence of the disclosure of the design, made by a domesticated Indian to his master a few hours before the attack.

The effects of this massacre were highly disastrous to the colony. It restricted the pursuits of agriculture, and occasioned the abandonment of most of the settlements; so that from eighty they were reduced to six or seven in number. Sickness was the consequence of crowding many people into a few small settlements; and some of the colonists were so far discouraged as to return to England.

How was slavery introduced into Virginia?-Did it increase rapidly? -Was it encouraged ?-What was the state of the colony-What is said of the Indians ?-What was their disposition ?-What plan did they form?-How was it executed-What prevented its complete success?-To what number were the settlements reduced }

40

DISSOLUTION OF THE LONDON COMPANY.

CHAPTER VII.

INDIAN WAR-DISSOLUTION OF THE LONDON COMPANY.

THIS treachery of the Indians was terribly revenged. The whole people were intent on the means of destroying so merciless an enemy. The men took arms. A war of extermination was commenced against the Indians, in which neither old nor young were spared.

"On the approach of harvest, when they knew a hostile attack would be most formidable and fatal, they fell suddenly upon all the Indian plantations, murdered every person on whom they could lay hold, and drove the rest to the woods, where so many perished with hunger, that some of the tribes nearest to the English were totally extirpated. This atrocious deed, which the perpetrators laboured to represent as a necessary act of retaliation, was followed by some happy effects. It delivered the colony so entirely from any dread of the Indians, that its settlements began again to extend, and its industry to revive.'

While these events were passing in Virginia, the London company was rapidly hastening towards its final dissolution. This body had become quite numerous, and its meetings furnished occasion for discussions on government and legislation, which were by no means pleasing to so arbitrary a sovereign as King James I. Having sought in vain to give the court party the ascendency in the company, he began to charge the disasters and the want of commercial success in the colony to the mismanagement of the corporation.

Commissioners were appointed by the privy council to inquire into the affairs of Virginia from its earliest settlement. These commissioners seized the charters, books, and papers of the company, and intercepted all letters from the colony. Their report was unfavourable to the corporation, who were accordingly summoned by the king to surrender their charter. This being declined, the cause was brought before the court of king's bench, and decided against them. The company was dissolved, and its powers reverted to the king.

How was the treachery of the Indians revenged,?-What was the state of the colony after this?-What rendered James I hostile to the London company ?-Relate the circumstances of its dissolution.

DEATH OF OPPOCONCANOUGH.

41

James I, although solicited by the colonists, did not think proper to relinquish the entire controul of the province until his death, which took place in 1625.

His successor, Charles I, inherited the arbitrary disposition and despotic principles of his father. He paid little attention, however, to the political condition of the Virginians, but sought chiefly to derive profit from their industry by means of a royal monopoly of their trade.

During the second administration of Yeardley, (1626,) and that of Francis West, (1627,) little transpired, except an unsuccessful attempt of the king to monopolize the tobacco trade.

John Harvey succeeded West in 1629. He has been stigmatized by the old historians as a tyrant, but he does not appear to have deprived the colonists of any of their civil rights.

In 1644, during the administration of Sir William Berkeley, the Indians made a sudden attack upon the frontier settlements, and killed about three hundred persons, before they were repulsed. An active warfare was immediately commenced against the savages; and their king, the aged Oppoconcanough, was made prisoner, and died in captivity. The country was soon placed in a state of perfect security against further aggressions from this quarter. In 1648, the population had increased to 20,000.

In the dispute between Charles I and the parliament of England, Virginia espoused the cause of the king; and when the republicans had obtained the ascendency, a fleet was fitted out from England for the purpose of reducing the colony to submission.

On the arrival of the fleet, such terms were offered to the Virginians as induced them readily to submit to the parliamentary government. Their governor, Berkeley, retired to private life, where he remained until shortly before the Restoration, when he was again elected governor; and on his refusing to act under the authority of Cromwell, the colonists boldly raised the royal standard, and proclaimed Charles II as their lawful sovereign. This was an act of great temerity, as it fairly challenged the whole power of Great Britain. The distracted state of that country saved the Virginians from its conse

What is said of James I?-Of Charles I?-Of Yeardley and West's administrations ?-Of Harvey 1-Of the Indian war?-Of the popula Lion ?

quences, until the restoration of Charles to the British throne gave them a claim to his gratitude, as the last among his subjects to renounce, and the first to return to their allegiance.

CHAPTER VIII.

VIRGINIA AFTER THE RESTORATION.

THE intelligence of the Restoration was received with enthusiasm in Virginia. It naturally excited high hopes of favour, which were increased by the expressions of esteem and gratitude, which Charles found no difficulty in addressing to the colonists. These hopes they were, for a short time, permitted to indulge. The assembly introduced many important changes in judicial proceedings; trial by jury was restored; the Church of England, which of course had lost its supremacy during the protectorate, was again established by law; and the introduction of Quakers into the colony was made a penal offence.

The principles of government which prevailed in England, during the reign of Charles II, were extended to the colonies, which were now considered as subject to the legislation of parliament, and bound by its acts. The effects of this new state of things were first perceived in the restrictions on commerce. Retaining the commercial system of the Long Parliament, the new house of commons determined to render the trade of the colonies exclusively subservient to English commerce and navigation. One of their first acts was to vote a duty of five per cent. on all merchandise exported from, or imported into, any of the dominions belonging to the crown. This was speedily followed by the famous Navigation Act,' the most memorable statute in the English commercial code.

6

By this law, among other things, it was enacted, that no commodities should be imported into any British settlement in Asia, Africa, or America, or exported from them, but in vessels built in England, or the plantations,

How did the Virginians regard the Restoration in England?-What was done by the assembly ?-What was now the policy of the British government-What act of parliament was passed?