The Virginia Colonists

The price of a wife was at first fixed at one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco, then the currency of the colony. The money value was about ninety dollars. It finally arose to one hundred and fifty dollars. A debt incurred for a wife was regarded as a "confidential" one. It took precedence of all others. To encourage wedding, the Company gave preference to married men in conferring employments. The salutary effects of the scheme and of this policy were soon visible in the colony. HOMES-fire-sides-family altars-the purest and strongest elements in the foundations of a virtuous and prosperous state, were established. Domestic ties so created, promoted personal virtue and habits of thrift. Men no longer talked of returning to England, but called Virginia their home. Emigration rapidly swelled the population, and before the close of 1621, fifty patents had been granted for land, and there were three thousand five hundred inhabitants of European blood in Virginia. Settlements had been already made so remote from the capital as the Falls of the James River, where Richmond now stands. Below there, at what is known as Dutch Gap (so called because Germans were employed to cut a new channel for the river across a narrow isthmus there), a town had been founded which was named Henricopolis, and there a church had been built and a grammar-school established for the education of Indian children. When the school was endowed with money and thousands of acres of land, the dignified title of The University of Henrico was given to it. The church, the college and the town have long ago crumbled into ruins, which no longer attract the eye of the curious or the scrutiny of the antiquary.

The blessings of marriage created the necessity for making provision for the education of children. English Bishops and other philanthropists collected money for the purpose. The colonists bore a share of the burden. Other schools beside that of Henrico were established in which Indian children were also taught. Finally, in the reign of William and Mary, more than seventy years after the emigration of the maidens, a college was established at Williamsburg, the new capital of Virginia, which still flourishes, and yet bears the names of those sovereigns.

In the year 1621, the London Company granted a written constitution to the Virginia colonists, modelled after that of England, but exceedingly simple; the Pilgrims in the May-Flower, more democratic, gave to themselves a written constitution at about the same time, fashioned to meet the circumstances of their case, and still more simple. A century and a half afterward, as we shall discover, the inhabitants of these two colonies, then founded, were leaders in the great struggle for that political independence which these early constitutions foreshadowed. The Virginia constitution provided for a governor and council to be appointed by the Company, and a popular legislative body to be chosen by the people, and called the House of Burgesses. Each settlement was allowed two burgesses, and these, with the governor and council, composed the General Assembly. That Assembly exercised full legislative power, but none of its acts were valid until they received the sanction of the Company in London. With unexampled justice, it was also provided that no orders from the Company should be binding on the colonists, unless they should be, in like manner, ratified by the General Assembly. This was the work of the Earl of Southampton (the bosom friend of Shakespeare), Sir Edwin Sandys and the patriotic party in England, who were careful to imbue public life in Virginia with the principles of popular freedom. It was at the dawn of that eventful day of political disputes in England which resulted in the beheading of her king and the abolition of monarchy for a season.

When Sir Francis Wyatt came to Virginia, bringing with him the new constitution, he was pleased with the aspect of everything around him; and the colonists rejoiced in the prospect of long years of peace and prosperity before them. The atmosphere of their daily life appeared perfectly serene. There was no cloud in the firmament. But at that moment a fearful tempest was brooding, in restraint, in the forests around them. Powhatan, the friend of the English, was dead, and his younger brother, the subtle, treacherous and truly savage Opechancanough (the captor of Smith in the forest), was then wielding the sceptre of his empire. He could command fifteen hundred warriors to do his bidding. He hated the English intensely, and inspired his followers with the same passion; yet he feigned the warmest friendship for them, and deceived them with Satanic smiles. He believed that the English intended to seize the lands of his empire and exterminate his race, and his patriotism impelled him to strike a blow for his country and countrymen.