CAUSES OF ALIENATION FROM GREAT BRITAIN 791

was not long before the college was able to justify its existence, becoming in process of time the Alma Mater of Jefferson and of Marshall.

A further proof that the people of Virginia were not devoid of culture is the existence of private libraries throughout the colony. Numerous special bequests of books in wills show the value that was attached to them from the earliest times. Research into the records proves that there were numerous owners of books in every county; and the whole number of volumes in the colony must have amounted to many thousands. To possess books does not always mean the reading of them. Still the existence of a library is a manifest recognition of the things of the mind. Moreover a further argument can be adduced in proof of the general culture prevalent. Except in the case of W. FitzHugh and the elder W. Byrd complete collections of letters have not been preserved, but such as have come down to us point to the intellectual capacities of their writers; and the State Papers issued by the House of Burgesses are on the same level as those of the mother of parliaments. At the time of the Revolution it was men of Virginia who were the leading asserters of the American claims; but it was the training received from generation to generation in their ancestral homes that fitted them for the task. In the presence of slave labour the haughty self-sufficiency of the Virginian planter no doubt recoiled from a position of subordination; but without an intellectual training the indignation could only have found an outlet in the field of action.

It is true that the Virginian aristocracy did not for the most part express themselves in published writings; but their attitude is sufficiently illustrated by what happened at the time of the Revolution. It might have been thought that the close connection between their staple crop, tobacco, and the mother country would have been a bond of union, but the Virginian grower always acted through the intermediary of merchants, so that no personal communication was involved, whilst the low price of tobacco was a continual cause of friction.

Undoubtedly, however, the main cause of alienation was indignation aroused in the Virginian aristocracy by the cavalier treatment accorded them by the British authorities. Yet Virginia itself was no exception to the general rule of the advance of democracy. Bacon's rebellion in 1676 was a protest of the small landholders against the control of Church and State being absorbed in the hands of the wealthy planters, and when in the next generation we find Spotswood lamenting the disinclination of the Virginian voters to return gentlemen to the Assembly, his struggle was with a new democracy of frontier farmers, consisting of indentured servants, who had served their time, and of new immigrants, to whom a very extended suffrage gave political power. Nor were the growing pains of democracy the

only trouble with which the British governor had to cope. On paper his powers were autocratic; but in fact he had to contend with a powerful colonial oligarchy which was able largely to keep in its own hands the sweets of office. Unlike its Canadian successor, the Virginian "family compact" was such literally, no less than six members of the council being related to Ludwell, the Auditor-General. That the governing clique was not an alien body, but one purely the production of Virginian soil, added to its power and influence.

In this state of things British governors failed in securing adherents to the interests of Great Britain from among the Virginian aristoc racy, and so, when the catastrophe came, the old dominion which had once been a byword for loyalty to the Crown was one of the colonies wherein loyalism was weakest. That, however, there was of necessity no strong social antagonism between an English governor and the colonists is shown by the fact that Spotswood, when his period of office had come to an end, elected to found a new home in Virginia.

The life of South Carolina was in many ways a replica of Virginian life. There was the same love of English field sports and the same jealous cultivation of English ideals. As in Virginia, a "plantation" was a community in itself, with the artisans necessary for its purposes. On the other hand, the physical circumstances of South Carolina emphasised the necessity for the development of negro slavery, though it seems that the slaves received their fair share of the prosperity caused by the cultivation of the new rice fields. South Carolina, however, possessed one great advantage over Virginia, in that it had a capital city, Charleston, which greatly helped to develop the new colony. For many years there was a colonial aristocracy which grouped itself around the governor, and it was the gradual supersession of its members in offices of trust by impecunious nominees from England that helped to impair the loyalty of the colony to the Crown. For a long time communication with England was constant and frequent. The voyage took about six weeks, and it seems that there were few gentlemen in South Carolina who had not been to Europe. The merchants of Carolina were prosperous and the planters were rich. These men were tolerably well contented with things as they were, but when their sons arrived home from England their disgust was great in finding the seats in the governor's council, in which their fathers and grandfathers had served, no longer within their reach. "We none of us", Josiah Quincey quotes several of them as saying, "when we grow old and expect the honours of the State receive them, they are all given away to worthless poor sycophants." The grievance was all the more felt because the social life of Charleston was more developed, perhaps, than even that of Philadelphia. Of all the American towns, Charleston is said to have approached most nearly to the social refinement of a great European capital.

SOCIAL LIFE IN THE CAROLINAS

793

We do not associate the Carolinas with the idea of religious enthusiasm, but, according to George Whitefield, a glorious work had been begun and was carried on in Charleston. Many souls had been awakened to a sense of the divine life. The alteration in the people since his first coming had been surprising.1 But, whilst in these critical years the canker of disunion was beginning to work, and slowly, but surely, the ties of union between the South Carolina aristocracy and the mother country were beginning to be unloosed, a formidable insurrection in North Carolina showed how weak were the bonds of union among the colonists themselves. The war of the "regulation" was an uprising among the people of the western part of North Carolina. They complained that they did not receive proper representation in the colonial Assemblies, that they were unjustly taxed, and that they were refused justice at the hands of the provincial officers. The "Regulators" were put down by force of arms, but little or nothing was done to remedy their just grievances. Thus in the revolutionary war the sympathies of these men, in spite of their democratic prejudices, were with the British authorities because the colonial aristocracy had taken the other side. The story further illustrates our main thesis that the most important causes working for the change were the democratic tendencies that were everywhere developing.

Little need be said about the social life of North Carolina. It resembled that of South Carolina, though on a less civilised and in every way rougher scale. A recently discovered manuscript in the British Museum2 gives a singularly vivid description of what was seen by a woman of great intelligence though of strong prejudices. Miss Schaw arrived in North Carolina in the beginning of the Revolution and the indignation of a perfervid loyalist at the treachery surrounding her detracts from her value as an impartial witness; nevertheless she was a most shrewd observer of men and nature. Her opinion of the common people of North Carolina was not high. Nature, she maintained, held out to them everything that could contribute to conveniency or tempt to luxury, yet the inhabitants resisted both, and if they could raise as much corn and pork as to subsist them in the most slovenly manner they asked no more; and, as a very small proportion of their time served for that purpose, the rest was spent in sauntering through the woods with a gun, or sitting under a rustic shade drinking New England rum made into grog, a most shocking liquor. By this manner of living their blood was spoilt and rendered thin beyond all proportion, so that it was constantly on the fret, like bad small beer, and hence the constant slow fevers that wore down their constitutions, relaxed their nerves and enfeebled the whole frame. They were tall and lean, with sallow complexions and languid 1 Whitefield, George, Works (1771), I, 199.

2 Andrews, É. W. and C. M., Journal of a Lady of Quality, 1774-1776.

eyes, when not inflamed by spirits. Their feet were flat, their joints loose and their walk uneven. Miss Schaw was careful to explain that she was only speaking of the peasantry, as hitherto she had seen nothing else, and she was sure that when she came to see the better sort they would be far from this description. "For though there is a most disgusting equality, yet I hope to find an American gentleman a very different creature from an American clown. Heaven forfend else.'

A very unpleasant picture of the temper of the people of North Carolina as reflected by their political representatives is drawn by the despatches of Governor Dobbs to Pitt in 1760. They refused any aid for public services except during the war against the Cherokee Indians. For their pretended aid of men they raised no tax but expected the governor to issue £12,000 in notes without a sinking fund. When Dobbs refused to assent to such a measure, they formed themselves into a Committee of the whole House, and locked their doors and bound themselves to secrecy under the penalty that if any should divulge their resolutions they should be expelled the House and for ever rendered incapable of being re-elected a member of any future Assembly.2 The fact that Lord Granville owned at least a third of the colony may not have conduced to social content.

Interesting as was the foundation of Georgia from several points of view, it could not be expected that a colony, started as a refuge for men bankrupt or in extreme poverty, should add much to the intellectual or social life of the eighteenth century. A melancholy account of its condition is given in a despatch of Lieutenant-Governor Ellis to Pitt of 1 August 1757. The colony had been settled for twentyfive years. "It was originally intended to be a receptacle for the poor of our parishes and gaols", and for many years the bulk of the people had their provisions served to them out of the public store. For a long time slaves were excluded, but even after their introduction the white population of some 4500 were so very poor that they could barely obtain a living.3

In striking contrast with the social conditions prevailing in Virginia were those which took root in New England. In one respect, indeed, there was some similarity. If among the men who settled in Massachusetts there were fewer with aristocratic connections than was the case in Virginia, they were upon the whole of good stock, representing the squirearchy and bettermost yeomen of the eastern counties. But here the resemblance ended: whereas in Virginia the nature of the soil and the inclinations of the immigrants had promoted isolation, in New England, on the other hand, everything centred in the town community. It was intolerable that people should be allowed to live "lonely and in a heathenish way, from good societie”.

1 Andrews, E. W. and C. M., p. 153.

2 Correspondence of Pitt with Colonial Governors (ed. Kimball, G. S.), п, 297–300.
3 Kimball, 1, 91-2.
4 Plymouth Records, v, 169.

SOCIAL ORGANISATION IN NEW ENGLAND

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No community ever undertook with more success the work of expansion than did the men of New England. It was not allowed that pioneers should advance into the wilderness to lead an isolated life. A group was organised, consisting of members whose holdings were about the same. On application from a body of men for leave to found a new community, the General Court appointed a committee to view the land and report. The amount granted varied in area but was generally about six square miles. In no case were the individual farms of any large extent. Town lots were usually reserved for the support of free schools and ministers. The provision of a church was necessitated by the presence of a minister. In the seventeenth century no sales were made to individuals or to companies with the reservation of quit-rents, nor was there any system similar to the fifty-acre grants in Virginia. The lands were given to groups under nominated proprietors for the purpose of establishing communities. These proprietors were intended to hold the lands in trust to be assigned to inhabitants under such restraints as would secure the persistence of Puritan ideals.

We have here the keynote to the Puritan system: the creation and maintenance of a Bible commonwealth wherein Church and State should be fused into a common whole. Unfortunately this ideal could never be realised. Church-membership was necessary to obtain a vote; but it seems that at no time under the first charter would the numbers of voters have amounted to more than one-fourth of the possible voting population, had this condition been enforced. With the political consequences we have here nothing to do, but undoubtedly these reacted on the social life, rendering it narrow, exclusive and arrogant, those outside the social ring being regarded as mere hewers of wood and drawers of water, pariahs so far as the life of the community was concerned.

The development of agriculture in Massachusetts began with the planting of Indian corn, which had been known to the Indians, the needed fertiliser being provided by the plentiful supply of fish. Thus, though it was preceded in time by the fur trade, fishing became the most important commercial interest and the corner stone of New England prosperity, inasmuch as by its means an effective exchange was provided for goods received from the West Indies and the Roman Catholic countries of Europe.1 Of great importance was the influence of the fishing industry upon the development of the independent character of the New England population, that influence being as a rule hostile to Congregational orthodoxy.

It must always be remembered that there was at first, even in New England, no approach in social life to democratic equality. The aim of the new society was to maintain the English traditions of rank and station, so far as they could be adapted to the needs of a new 1 Weeden, W. B., Economic and Social History of New England, 1620-1729, 1, 88–90.