University of Virginia Library

MISCELLANIES,

HISTORICAL, STATISTICAL, AND DESCRIPTIVE.

The annexed concise geographical and statistical description of Virginia, is abridged
from Sherman & Smith's Gazetteer of the United States, and contains the results of the
statistics and census of 1840, published by the general government.

Virginia is 370 miles long, and 200 broad at its greatest width, containing 64,000
square miles, or 40,960,000 acres. The population in 1790, was 747,610 in 1800,
886,149; in 1810, 974,622; in 1820, 1,065,366; in 1830, 1,211,272; in 1840, 1,239,797,
of which 448,987 were slaves. Of the free white population, 371,223 were white
males; 369,745 ditto, females; 23,814 were colored males; 26,020 ditto, females.
Employed in agriculture, 318,771; in commerce, 6,361; in manufactures and trades,
54,147; navigating the ocean, 582; ditto, canals, rivers, and lakes, 2,952; learned professions,
&c., 3,866.

The state is divided into 123 counties and 2 districts—Eastern and Western. The
Eastern district comprises that part of the state east of the Blue Ridge, and has 67
counties. Population in 1840: whites, 369,398; free colored, 42,294; slaves, 395,250;
total, 806,942. The Western district comprises that part of the state west of the Blue
Ridge, and has 56 counties. Population: whites, 371,570; free colored, 7,548; slaves,
53,737; total, 432,855.

Richmond is the capital of the state, situated on the north side of James River, at
the head of tidewater, and just below its lower falls. This state has a great variety

of surface and soil. From the Atlantic to the lower falls on the river, which includes a
tract of from 110 to 130 miles in width, the country is low and flat, in some places
marshy, but extensively sandy, covered with the pitch-pine. On the margin of the rivers,
the soil is often rich. This is denominated the low country, and is unhealthy from
August to October. Between the head of tidewater and the Blue Ridge, the country
becomes uneven and hilly, and more so as it approaches the mountains. The soil in
this region is some of it sandy and poor; some of it is fertile, particularly on the margins
of the rivers. Towards the mountains the country is stony and broken, though the soil
is often rich. The first ridge of mountains in this state is generally about 150 miles
from the ocean. Beyond this the country is mountainous, traversed by successive
ridges of the Alleghany, which occupies a greater breadth of country in Virginia than
in any other state. Between the various ridges, however, there are long valleys or tablelands,
parallel with them, often of considerable breadth, and containing some of the
best and most pleasant land in Virginia. The farms are here smaller than in other parts
of the state, better cultivated, and there are fewer slaves. The climate in this region
is very healthy.

The soil in the tidewater country is generally poor, producing Indian corn, oats, and
peas. Wheat is raised in some parts of it, and a little rice in the swamps in its southern
part. Between tidewater and the mountains is the tobacco-country; but in the northern
upland counties wheat has extensively superseded tobacco; and south of James River,
sufficient cotton is raised for home consumption. The southeastern counties produce
apples and peaches in great abundance. Among the mountains, the farmers raise large
numbers of cattle and hogs. Indian corn is cultivated throughout the state. The
country west of the mountains, towards the Ohio, is rough and wild—sometimes, but not
generally, fertile; but very rich as a mineral region.

There were in this state in 1840, 326,438 horses and mules; 1,024,148 neat cattle;
1,293,772 sheep; 1,992,155 swine; poultry to the value of $754,698. There were
produced 10,109,716 bushels of wheat; 87,430 of barley; 13,451,062 of oats; 1,482,799
of rye; 243,822 of buckwheat; 34,577,591 of Indian corn; 2,538,374 pounds of
wool; 10,597 of hops; 65,020 of wax; 2,944,660 bushels of potatoes; 364,708 tons of
hay; 25,594 of hemp and flax; 75,347,106 pounds of tobacco; 2,956 of rice; 3,494,483
of cotton; 3,191 of silk cocoons; 1,541,833 of sugar. The products of the dairy
were valued at $1,480,488; of the orchard $705,765; value of lumber produced
$538,092; 13,911 gallons of wine were made.

The mineral wealth of Virginia is very great. Gold, copper, lead, iron, coal, salt, limestone,
and marble are found, together with a number of valuable mineral springs. An attention
to the business of mining has recently been excited, and in 1840, 2,000 persons
were employed in it. The belt of country in which gold is found, extends through
Spotsylvania county and the adjacent country, and in a southwest direction passes
into North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. The gold in this state is not
sufficiently concentrated to render it profitable, excepting in a few places, to engage in
mining it. The coal fields in Virginia are very extensive, and afford both the bituminous
and anthracite. Large quantities have been obtained and exported from the vicinity
of Richmond. Salt springs have been found in various places, and salt has been extensively
manufactured on the Great Kanawha River, near Charleston. The state
abounds in mineral springs, which are much resorted to; the principal are, the White
and Blue Sulphur, in Greenbriar; the Salt and Red Sulphur, and Sweet, in Monroe;
Hot and Warm, in Bath; Berkeley, in Morgan; Fauquier White Sulphur, in Fauquier;
Shannondale, in Frederick; Alum, in Rockbridge; Jordan's White Sulphur, in Frederick;
Red, in Alleghany; Grayson, in Carroll; Bottetourt, in Roanoke; Holston, in
Scott; Augusta Springs; and Daggers Springs, in Bottetourt.

The staple productions of the state are wheat and tobacco. The Potomac River
separates this state from Maryland. James River is the largest which belongs to this
state. It is 500 miles in length, and flows from the mountains in the interior, behind
the Blue Ridge, through which it passes. It is navigable for sloops 120 miles, and for
boats much further, and enters into Chesapeake Bay. The Appomattox is 130 miles
long, and enters James River 100 miles above Hampton Roads, and is navigable 12 miles,
to Petersburg. The Rappahannock rises in the Blue Ridge, is 130 miles long, is navigable
110 miles for sloops, and enters into the Chesapeake. York River enters the
Chesapeake 30 miles below the Rappahannock, and is navigable 40 miles for ships. The
Shenandoah enters the Potomac just before its passage through the Blue Ridge. Of the
rivers west of the mountains, the Great Kanawha rises in North Carolina, passes through
this state, and enters the Ohio. The Little Kanawha also enters the Ohio. The Monongahela
rises in this state, though it runs chiefly in Pennsylvania.

The lower part of Chesapeake Bay lies wholly in this state, is 15 miles wide at its
mouth, and enters the Atlantic between Cape Charles and Cape Henry. Norfolk, 8
miles from Hampton Roads, has a fine harbor, much the best in the state, spacious, safe,
and well defended; and it is the most commercial place in Virginia; but Richmond and
Petersburg are more populous, and have an extensive trade. Besides these, Wheeling,
Lynchburg, Fredericksburg, and Winchester, are the principal places.

The exports of this state, in 1840, amounted to $4,778,220; and the imports to
$545,685. There were 31 commercial and 64 commission houses engaged in foreign
trade, with a capital of $4,299,500; 2,736 retail drygoods and other stores, with a capital
of $16,684,413; 1,454 persons employed in the lumber trade, with a capital of
$113,210; 931 persons engaged in internal transportation, who, with 103 butchers,
packers, &c., employed a capital of $100,680; 556 persons employed in the fisheries,
with a capital of $28,383.

The manufactures of Virginia are not so extensive as those of some states inferior to
it in territory and population. There were, in 1840, domestic or family manufactures to
the amount of $2,441,672; 41 woollen manufactories and 47 fulling-mills, employing
222 persons, producing articles to the amount of $147,792, with a capital of $112,350;
22 cotton manufactories, with 42,262 spindles, employing 1,816 persons, producing articles
to the amount of $446,063, with a capital of $1,299,020; 42 furnaces producing
18,810 tons of cast-iron, and 52 forges &c., producing 5,886 tons of bar-iron, the whole
employing 1,742 persons, and a capital of $1,246,650; 11 smelting houses employed
131 persons, and produced gold to the amount of $51,758, employing a capital of
$103,650; 5 smelting houses employed 73 persons, and produced 878,648 pounds of lead,
employing a capital of $21,500; 12 paper manufactories, producing articles to the
amount of $216,245, and other paper manufactories producing $1,260, the whole employing
181 persons, and a capital of $287,750; 3,342 persons manufactured tobacco to
the amount of $2,406,671, employing a capital of $1,526,080; hats and caps were
manufactured to the amount of $155,778, and straw bonnets to the amount of $14,700,
the whole employing 340 persons, and a capital of $85,640; 660 tanneries employed
1,422 persons, and a capital of $838,141; 982 other leather manufactories, as saddleries,
&c., produced articles to the amount of $826,597, and employed a capital of $341,957;
4 glass-houses and 2 glass-cutting establishments employed 164 persons, producing articles
to the value of $146,500, with a capital of $132,000; 33 potteries employed 64
persons, producing articles to the amount of $31,380, with a capital of $10,225; 36
persons produced drugs, paints, &c., to the amount of $66,633, with a capital of
$61,727; 445 persons produced machinery to the amount of $429,858; 150 persons
produced hardware and cutlery to the amount of $50,504; 262 persons manufactured
9,330 small-arms; 40 persons manufactured granite and marble to the amount of
$16,652; 1,004 persons produced bricks and lime to the amount of $393,253; carriages
and wagons were manufactured to the amount of $647,815, employing 1,592
persons, and a capital of $311,625; 1,454 distilleries produced 865,725 gallons, and 5
breweries produced 32,960 gallons, employing 1,631 persons, and a capital of $187,212;
764 flouring-mills produced 1,041,526 barrels of flour, and with other mills employed
3,964 persons, producing articles to the amount of $7,855,499, with a capital of
$5,184,669; ships were built to the amount of $136,807; 675 persons manufactured
furniture to the amount of $289,391; 402 brick or stone, and 2,604 wooden houses
were built, employing 4,694 persons, and cost $1,367,393; 50 printing offices, and 13
binderies, 4 daily, 12 semi-weekly, and 35 weekly newspapers, and 5 periodicals, employed
310 persons, and a capital of $168,850. The whole amount of capital employed
in manufactures in the state was $11,360,861.

William and Mary College, at Williamsburg, is the oldest in the state, and one of the
oldest in the country, and was founded in 1691. Hampden Sidney College, in Prince
Edward county, was founded in 1783, and is flourishing. Washington College, at
Lexington, was founded in 1812. Randolph Macon College, was founded at Boydton
in 1832. Emory and Henry College, Washington county, was founded in 1839. Rector
College, Prunty Town, Taylor county, was founded in 1839. Bethany College,
Brooke county, was founded in 1841. There are theological schools at Richmond, in
Prince Edward county, and in Fairfax county. But the most important literary institution
in the state, is the University of Virginia, at Charlottesville, founded in 1819. Its
plan is extensive, its endowment has been munificent, and it is a prosperous institution.
In all these, with a few smaller institutions, there were in 1840, 1,097 students; there
were in the state, also, 382 academies, with 11,083 students; 1,561 common and primary
schools, with 35,331 scholars; and 58,787 white persons over 20 years of age who
could neither read nor write.

The Baptists, the most numerous religious denomination, have about 437 churches;
the Presbyterians 120; the Episcopalians, 65 ministers; the Methodists 170. There
are also a few Lutherans, Catholics, Unitarians, Friends, and Jews.

In January, 1840, there were in this state 8 banks and branches, with a capital of
$3,637,400, and a circulation of $2,513,412. At the close of the same year the public
debt amounted to $6,857,161. There is a state penitentiary located at Richmond.

The first constitution of Virginia was formed in 1776. This was altered and amended
by a convention assembled for that purpose, in 1830. The executive power is vested
in a governor, elected by the joint vote of the two houses of the General Assembly. He
is chosen for three years, but is ineligible for the next three. There is a council of state,
elected in like manner for three years, the seat of one being vacated every year. The
senior councillor is lieutenant-governor. The senators can never be more than 36, and
the delegates than 150; and both are apportioned anew among the counties every 10
years, commencing with 1841. The senators were elected for 4 years, and the seats of
one fourth of them are vacated every year. The delegates are chosen annually. All
appointments to any office of trust, honor, or profit, by the legislature, are given openly,
or viva voce, and not by ballot. The judges of the supreme court of appeals, and of
the superior courts, are elected by the joint vote of both houses of the general assembly,
and hold their offices during good behavior, or until removed by a joint vote of two-thirds
of the legislature.

The right of suffrage is extended to every resident white male citizen of 21 years of
age, entitled to vote by the former constitution; or who owns a freehold valued at $25;
or a joint interest in a freehold to that amount; or who has a life-estate, or a reversionary
title to land valued at $50, having been so possessed for 6 months; or who shall own,
or be in occupation of, a leasehold estate, having been recorded 2 months, for a term not
less than 5 years, to the annual value or rent of $200; or who for 12 months shall have
been a housekeeper and head of a family, and paid the taxes assessed by the commonwealth.

Virginia has undertaken several important works of internal improvement, by chartering
private companies, several of which have been liberally aided by the state. The
Dismal Swamp Canal connects Chesapeake Bay with Albemarle Sound, extending from
Deep Creek to Joyce's Creek, 23 miles, at a cost of $879,864. It has branches of 11
miles. The Alexandria Canal extends 7¼ miles, from Georgetown to Alexandria. The
James River and Kanawha Canal extends 146 miles, from Richmond to Lynchburg.
The Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad extends 75 miles, to
Aquia Creek. Louisa branch, 25 miles from Richmond, proceeds 49 miles, to Gordonsville.
Richmond and Petersburg Railroad, from Richmond, extends 23 miles, to Petersburg.
Petersburg and Roanoke Railroad extends from Petersburg, 59 miles, to Weldon.
Greensville Railroad extends from near Hicksford, for 18 miles, to Gaston, N. C.
City Point Railroad extends from Petersburg, 12 miles, to City Point. Chesterfield
Railroad extends from Coal Mines, 13½ miles, to Richmond. Portsmouth and Roanoke
Railroad extends from Portsmouth, 8 miles, to Weldon, N. C. Winchester and Potomac
Railroad extends from Harper's Ferry, 32 miles, to Winchester.

ORIGIN OF THE APPELLATION "OLD DOMINION."[1]

There is in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, a coin of the following
description: on one side is a head, and the words "Georgius III. Rex.;" on the
other side is a shield, on which are quartered the arms of England, Scotland, Ireland,
and Virginia. The whole surmounted by a crown, and encircled with the word, "Virginia,
1773."

A similar coin was dug up a few years since, and the following statement was published
with the description of it: During the usurpation of Cromwell, the colony of Virginia
refused to acknowledge his authority, and declared itself independent. Shortly
after, finding that Cromwell threatened to send a fleet and an army to reduce Virginia
to subjection, and fearing the ability of this feeble state to withstand this force, she
sent, in a small ship, a messenger to Charles II., then an exile in Breda, Flanders.
Charles accepted the invitation to come over, and be king of Virginia, and was on the
eve of embarking when he was recalled to the throne of England. As soon as he was
restored to the crown of England, in gratitude for the loyalty of Virginia, he caused her
coat of arms to be quartered with those of England, Scotland, and Ireland, as an independent
member of the empire.

The above coin is clearly confirmatory of these facts. Hence the origin of the phrase
"Old Dominion," frequently applied to Virginia.

History does not confirm all these statements, though it establishes some, and sufficiently
discloses, in the conduct of Virginia during the Protectorate of Cromwell, a cause
for the origin of the name Old Dominion, frequently applied to Virginia. The facts, as
gathered from a variety of creditable historians, appear to be these:

After the death of king Charles I., and the installation of Oliver Cromwell as Protector,
the colony of Virginia refused to acknowledge his authority; and Parliament having
subdued opposition elsewhere, were not disposed to submit to such a resistance of its
authority by the 20,000 inhabitants of Virginia. It issued an ordinance declaring them
notorious robbers and traitors; prohibited all intercourse with the refractory colonists,
either by the people of England, the inhabitants of the other American settlements, or
with foreign nations; and finally, sent over a fleet, under Sir George Ayscue, to overpower
the provincial royalists, and extinguish the last traces of monarchial authority
that still lingered in extremities of the empire. The commissioners appointed to accompany
this expedition were empowered to try, in the first instance, the efficacy of pardons
and other conciliatory propositions, in reducing the colonists to obedience; but if
their pacific overtures should prove ineffectual, they were then to employ every species
of hostile operations.

From Barbadoes, Captain Ayscue dispatched Capt. Dennis with a small squadron to
the Chesapeake, to land his forces, and drive Sir William Berkeley out of Virginia; for
during the whole preceding struggle of Charles I. and the Parliament, the Virginians
were firm on the side of their king, and enacted a declaration, "that they were born under
a monarchy, and would never degenerate from the condition of their birth, by being
subject to any other government." After the king was beheaded, they acknowledged
the authority of the fugitive prince, and actually continued the provincial government
under a commission which he sent to Sir William Berkeley from his retreat at Breda.
The young prince was not, however, actually invited over to establish a kingdom in
Virginia; though, according to Clarendon, Sir William Berkeley was so assured of the
loyalty of the inhabitants, and so impressed with confidence of ultimate success, that he
wrote to him, "almost inviting him to America!" In these acts consisted the enmity
of the Parliament to the governor; and for this open defiance of its power, Virginia
was to be ravaged by a fleet in her waters, and insidious assassins on her soil. Historians
differ greatly as to the proceedings of Sir William, after the arrival of the fleet
within the Capes of Virginia. Several, as Beverly, (p. 45;) Oldmixon, (i. 375;) Burke,
(European Settlements, ii. 223;) Graham, (i. 99,) have asserted that he made a great
show of resistance, assisted by the Dutch ships in the harbor, and the royalists, who
were a majority of the population.

Bancroft, (i. 223,) citing contemporary authorities of the highest value, says, no
sooner had the Guinea frigate entered within the waters of the Chesapeake, than (quoting
from Clarendon) all thoughts of resistance were laid aside. It marks, continues
Bancroft, the character of the Virginians; that they refused to surrender to force, but
yielded by a voluntary deed and mutual compact." "By the articles of surrender a complete
indemnity was stipulated for all past offences; and the colonists recognising the
authority, were admitted into the bosom of the English commonwealth, and expressly
assured of an equal participation in all the privileges of the free people of England. In
particular, it provided that the Provincial Assembly should retain its wonted functions,
and that the people of Virginia should have as free trade as the people of England to
all places and all nations," and "shall be free from all taxes, customs, and impositions
whatsoever, without the consent of their own Assembly." Berkeley disdained to make
any stipulation for himself, with those whom his principles of loyalty taught him to regard
as usurpers. Without leaving Virginia, he withdrew to a retired situation, where
he continued to reside as a private individual, universally beloved and respected till a
new revolution was to summon him once more to defy the republican forces of England
and restore the ascendancy of royalty in the colony.

This was in March, 1652: and affairs continued much in this state until 1660. In
the mean time, Richard Bennet, Edward Digges, and Samuel Matthews, had been severally
elected by the Burgesses, Governor of Virginia, under allegiance to Oliver Cromwell,
and on his death, 1658, to Richard Cromwell. But in 1660, Gov. Matthews died;
and the people, discontented with some commercial restrictions imposed by the Protectorate,
did not wait for a new commission from England, but elected Sir William Berkeley,
and "by an obliging violence compelled him to accept the government." He, however,
refused to act under the usurpation of the Cromwells, and would not consent, unless they
joined with him in joining their lives and fortunes for the king who was then an exile.

"This," says Beverly, "was their dearest wish, and therefore, with a unanimous
voice, they told him that they were ready to hazard all for the king." Now, this was
actually before the king's return to England, and proceeded from a broad principle of
loyalty for which they had no example. Sir William Berkeley embraced their choice,
and forthwith proclaimed Charles II. king of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Virginia,
and caused all processes to be issued in his name. Thus his majesty was actually
king in Virginia before he was in England. On the restoration of the king he
sent Sir William a new commission, and granted him permission to visit England.

He was received by the monarch with much kindness; and there is recorded a tradition,
that the king, in compliment to that colony, wore at his coronation a robe made of
the silk which was sent from thence. Such is a condensed narration of the causes and
incidents which gave to Virginia the honored title of the "Old Dominion."

SLAVERY AND TOBACCO.

The following relates to the introduction of slaves, and the cultivation of tobacco,
with their influence on the character and condition of the inhabitants of Virginia. It is
drawn from the Life of Jefferson, by Prof. George Tucker, of the University of Virginia;
a work written with perspicuity and candor, and incidentally elucidating important points
in the civil and political history of the state.

In 1744, at the period of the birth of Mr. Jefferson, the settlements had extended about
200 miles from the sea-coast, and in the northern part of the colony, had passed the Blue
Ridge. The population was then about 200,000, of whom from a quarter to a third were
slaves.

The cultivation of tobacco, and the introduction of slaves, soon after Virginia was settled,
have had a marked influence upon the habits, character, and fortunes of the country.
The introduction of tobacco, in England, about 20 years before the settlement of
Jamestown, led to a rapid extension of its use. A demand being thus created, and a
heavy price paid, encouraged the first settlers of Virginia to cultivate it for market, to
the neglect of other crops. It long continued the sole article of export, and from the inadequate
supply of the precious metals, it became the general measure of value, the principal
currency of the colony. In 1758, the quantity exported had increased to about 70
millions of pounds, since which time the product has somewhat diminished.

"As this plant requires land of the greatest fertility, and its finer sorts are produced
only in virgin soil, which it soon exhausts, its culture has been steadily advancing westwardly,
where fresh land is more abundant, leaving the eastern region it has impoverished
to the production of Indian corn, wheat, and other grain. Its cultivation has thus
generally ceased in the country below the falls of the great rivers, and in its progress to
the west, the centre of the tobacco region is now two hundred miles from the coast.

"The business of cultivating tobacco, and preparing it for market, requires such continual
attention, and so much, and so many sorts of handling, as to allow to the planter little
time for any of the other useful processes of husbandry; and thus the management of his
dairy and orchard, and the useful operations of manuring, irrigation, and cultivating artificial
grasses, are either conducted in a slovenly way, or neglected altogether. The tobacco
district nowhere exhibits the same external face of verdure, or marks of rural
comfort and taste, as are to be seen in those countries in which its culture has been
abandoned.

"But the most serious consequence of the tobacco cultivation is to be found in the increase
of slaves; for though it did not occasion their first introduction, it greatly encouraged
their importation afterwards. It is to the spirit of commerce, which in its undistinguished
pursuit of gain, ministers to our vices no less than to our necessary wants,
that Virginia owes this portentous accession to her population. A Dutch ship from the
coast of Guinea entered James River, in 1620, thirteen years after the first settlement of
Jamestown, and sold twenty of her slaves to the colonists.

"The large profits which could be made from the labor of slaves, while tobacco sold at
three shillings sterling a pound, equal to about ten times its ordinary price now, greatly
encouraged their further importation, by giving to the planters the means of purchasing as
well as the inclination; and the effect would have been much greater, if they had not
been continually supplied with labor from the paupers, and sometimes the convicts, who
were brought from England and sold to the planters for a term of years, to defray the
expenses of their transportation.

"This supply of English servants, together with the gradual fall in the price of tobacco,
had so checked the importation of slaves, that in the year 1671, according to an official
communication from the governor, Sir William Berkeley, while the whole population
was but 40,000, the number of indented servants was 6,000, and that of the slaves was
but 2,000. The importations of the latter, he says, did not exceed two or three cargoes in
seven years, but that of servants, of whom he says, `most were English, few Scotch, and
fewer Irish,' he estimates at 1,500 annually.

"But in process of time, slave labor was found preferable to that of indented white servants,
partly because the negro slaves were more cheaply fed and clothed than the laborers
who were of the same race as the masters, but principally because they were less able
to escape from bondage, and were more easily retaken. The colonial statute book affords
abundant evidence of the frequency and facility with which the indented servants
ranaway from their masters; and the extent of the mischief may be inferred from the severity
of its punishment. In 1642, runaway servants were liable, for a second offence, to
be branded on the cheek; though fifteen years afterwards the law was so far mitigated as
to transfer this mark of ignominy to the shoulder. In 1662, their term of service, which
did not often exceed four or five years, might, for the offence of running away, be prolonged,
at the discretion of a magistrate, and the master might superadd `moderate corporeal
punishment.' In the following year, this class of persons, prompted by the convicts
who had been sent over after the restoration of Charles the Second, formed a conspiracy
of insurrection and murder, which was discovered just in time to be defeated.
Seven years afterwards, in 1670, the governor and council took upon themselves to prohibit
the further importation of convicts, whom they call `jail birds;' and they assign
this conspiracy as one of their motives for the order. The privilege, too, enjoyed by the
servant of complaining to the magistrate for the harsh treatment of his master, either as
to food, clothing, or punishment, formed, no doubt, a further ground of preference for
slaves, who had no such inconvenient rights.

"Under the united influence of these circumstances the number of negro slaves so increased,
that in 1732, the legislature thought proper to discourage their further importation
by a tax on each slave imported; and not to alarm the commercial jealousy of England,
the law, conforming to the notions of the age, formally provided for what no mode
of levying the tax could have prevented, that the duty should be paid by the purchaser.
This duty was at first five per cent. on the value of the slave, but in a few years afterwards,
(1740,) it was increased to ten per cent., from which it was never reduced. It did
not, however, prevent large importations, for we find the number to have increased in 119
years, in the ratio of 1 to 146; that is, from 2,000 in the year 1671, to 293,427 in 1790;
while in the same period the whites had increased only as 1 to 12, or from 38,000 to
454,881. In the forty years which have elapsed, from the first to the last census, it is
gratifying to perceive that the increase of the free population in Virginia has been somewhat
greater than that of the slaves, in the proportion of 63 per cent. to 60, and that this
comparative gain seems to be gradually increasing.

"As Eastern Virginia is everywhere intersected by navigable rivers, which are skirted
on either side by rich alluvial lands, the early settlers, whose plantations were principally
along the margins of the rivers, were able to carry on a direct intercourse with foreign
countries, from their separate dwellings. Thus commerce, by the very diffusion of its
most important natural facilities, did not here concentrate in a few favorable spots, and
foster the growth of towns, as in most of the other colonies; and at the beginning of the
revolution, Williamsburg, the seat of government, and the largest town in Virginia, itself
the most populous of the colonies, did not contain 2,000 inhabitants. But as the bees
which form no hive, collect no honey, the commerce, which was thus dispersed, accumulated
no wealth. The disadvantages of this dispersion were eventually perceived by
the colonists, and many efforts were made by the legislature to remedy the mischief by
authorizing the establishment of towns on selected sites, and giving special privileges and
immunities to those who built, or those who resided on them. Their purpose was also
favored, and even stimulated by the government, from fiscal considerations. But most
of these legislative efforts failed, and none were very successful. Thus in 1680, as many
as twenty towns were authorized by act of assembly, being one for each county; yet at
not more than three or four of the designated spots is there even a village remaining to
attest the propriety of the selection.

"There were indeed wanting in the colony all the ordinary constituents of a large
town. Here were no manufactories to bring together and employ the ingenious and industrious.
The colonists, devoting themselves exclusively to agriculture, owned no shipping,
which might have induced them to congregate for the sake of carrying on their
foreign commerce to more advantage: here was no court, which by its splendor and

amusements might attract the gay, the voluptuous, and the rich: there was not even a
class of opulent landlords, to whom it is as easy to live on their rents in town as in the
country, and far more agreeable. But the very richest planters all cultivated their own
land with their own slaves; and while those lands furnished most of the materials of a
generous, and even profuse hospitality, they could be consumed only where they were
produced, and could neither be transported to a distance, nor converted into money.
The tobacco, which constituted the only article of export, served to pay for the foreign
luxuries which the planter required; yet, with his social habits, it was barely sufficient
for that purpose, and not a few of the largest estates were deeply in debt to the Scotch
or English merchants, who carried on the whole commerce of the country. Nor was
this system of credit more eagerly sought by the improvident planter, than it was given
by the thrifty and sagacious trader; for it afforded to him a sure pledge for the consignment
of the debtor's crop, on the sales of which his fair perquisites amounted to a liberal
profit, and if he was disposed to abuse his trust, his gains were enormous. The merchants
were therefore ready to ship goods, and accept bills of exchange on the credit of
future crops, while their factors in the colony took care in season to make the debt safe
by a mortgage on the lands and slaves of the planter. Some idea of the pecuniary
thraldom to which the Virginia planter was formerly subjected may be formed from the
fact, that twice a year, at a general meeting of the merchants and factors in Williamsburg,
they settled the price of tobacco, the advance on the sterling cost of goods, and
the rate of exchange with England. It can scarcely be doubted that the regulations
were framed as much to the advantage of the merchants as they believed it practicable
to execute. Yet it affords evidence of the sagacious moderation with which this delicate
duty was exercised, that it was not so abused as to destroy itself.

"This state of things exerted a decided influence on the manners and character of the
colonists, untrained to habits of business and possessed of the means of hospitality.
They were open-handed and open-hearted; fond of society, indulging in all its pleasures,
and practising all its courtesies. But these social virtues also occasionally ran into
the kindred vices of love of show, haughtiness, sensuality—and many of the wealthier
class were to be seen seeking relief from the vacuity of idleness, not merely in the allowable
pleasures of the chase and the turf, but in the debasing ones of cock-fighting,
gaming, and drinking. Literature was neglected, or cultivated by the small number
who had been educated in England, rather as an accomplishment and a mark of distinction,
than for the substantial benefits it confers.

"Let us not, however, overrate the extent of these consequences of slavery. If the habitual
exercise of authority, united to a want of steady occupation, deteriorated the character
of some, it seemed to give a greater elevation of virtue to others. Domestic slavery,
in fact, places the master in a state of moral discipline, and according to the use he
makes of it, is he made better or worse. If he exercises his unrestricted power over the
slave, in giving ready indulgence to his humors or caprice—if he habitually yields to
impulses of anger, and punishes whenever he is disobeyed, or obeyed imperfectly, he is
certainly the worse for the institution which has thus afforded aliment to his evil propensities.
But if, on the other hand, he has been taught to curb these sallies of passion,
or freaks of caprice, or has subjected himself to a course of salutary restraint, he is continually
strengthening himself in the virtues of self-denial, forbearance, and moderation,
and he is all the better for the institution which has afforded so much occasion for the
practice of those virtues.[2] If, therefore, in a slave-holding country, we see some of the
masters made irascible, cruel, and tyrannical, we see many others as remarkable for their
mildness, moderation, and self-command; because, in truth, both the virtues of the one
and the vices of the other are carried to the greater extreme by the self-same process of
habitual exercise."

INDIANS OF EASTERN VIRGINIA.[3]

According to the account of Captain John Smith, that part of Virginia that lies between
the sea and the mountains, was inhabited by forty-three different tribes of Indians.
Thirty of these were united in a grand confederacy under the emperor Powhatan. The
dominions of this mighty chief, who was long the most powerful rival, and most implacable

foe, with whom the English had to contend, extended over that part of the country
that lies south of the Potomac, between the coast and the falls of the rivers.

In comparison with civilized countries, this extensive territory contained but a scanty
population. The Powhatan confederacy consisted of but about eight thousand inhabitants.

Indian in a summer dress.

Indian Priest.

Besides this confederacy, there were two others which were combined against that of
Powhatan. These were the Mannahoacks and Manakins; the former of whom, consisting
of eight tribes, occupied the country lying between Rappahannock and York
rivers; and the latter, consisting of five tribes, was settled between York and James
rivers, above the falls. Besides these, were the Nottoways, the Meherricks, the Tuteloes,
and several other scattering and independent tribes.

The hereditary dominions of Powhatan lay on James River, which originally bore
his name.[4] He had a seat on this river, about a mile below the falls, where Richmond
now stands, and another at Werowocomoco on the north side of York River, within the
present county of Gloucester.

This monarch was remarkable for the strength and vigor of his body, as well as for
the energies of his mind. He possessed great skill in intrigue and great courage in battle.
His equanimity in the career of victory, was only equalled by his fortitude in the
hour of adversity. If he had many vices incident to the savage life, he had some virtues
seldom found among the civilized. He commanded a respect rarely paid by savages
to their werowance, and maintained a dignity and splendor worthy the monarch of
thirty nations. He was constantly attended by a guard of forty warriors, and during
the night a sentry regularly watched his palace. Though unlimited by custom in the
number of his wives, his seraglio exhibited the apathy of the Indian character. When he

slept, one of his women sat at his head and another at his feet. When he dined they
attended him with water, or brought him a bunch of feathers to wipe his hands. His
regalia, free from the glitter of art, showed only the simple royalty of the savage. He
wore a robe composed of skins, and sat on a throne spread with mats, and decked with
pearls and with beads. The furniture of his palace, like the qualities of his mind, was
adapted to war, and the implements of death, rather than of pleasure, garnished his
halls.

The figures in the annexed engraving, representing an Indian in his summer dress,
and an Indian priest, were copied from those given in Beverly's History of Virginia,
published in London, in 1722. The figure on the left, (the Indian in his summer dress,)
is thus described:

The upper part of his hair is cut short to make a ridge, which stands up like the
comb of a cock, the rest is either shorn off or knotted behind his ear. On his head are
stuck three feathers of the wild turkey, pheasant, hawk, or such like. At his ear is
hung a fine shell, with pearl drops. At his breast is a tablet or fine shell, smooth as polished
marble, which also hath sometimes etched on it a star, half-moon, or other figure,
according to the maker's fancy; upon his neck and wrists hang strings of beads, peak,
and roenoke. His apron is made of a deer skin, gashed around the edges, which hang
like tassels or fringe; at the upper end of the fringe is an edging of peak, to make it
finer. His quiver is of a thin bark; but sometimes they make it of the skin of a fox, or
young wolf, with the head hanging to it, which has a wild sort of terror in it; and to
make it yet more warlike they tie it on with the tail of a panther, buffalo, or such like,
letting the end hang down between their legs. The pricked lines on his shoulders, breast,
and legs, represent the figures painted thereon. In his left hand he holds a bow, and in
his right an arrow. The mark upon his shoulder-blade, is a distinction used by the
Indians in travelling, to show the nation they are of—and perhaps is the same with
that which Baron Lahontan calls the arms and heraldry of the Indians. Thus, the
several lettered marks are used by several other nations about Virginia, when they make
a journey to their friends and allies.

The habit of the Indian priest, is a cloak made in the form of a woman's petticoat;
but instead of tying it about their middle, they fasten the gatherings about their neck,
and tie it upon the right shoulder, always keeping one arm out to use upon occasion.
This cloak hangs even at the bottom, but reaches no lower than the middle of the
thigh; but what is most particular in it is, that it is constantly made out of a skin dressed
soft, with the pelt or fur on the outside, and reversed; insomuch that when the cloak
has been a little worn, the hair falls down in flakes, and looks very shagged and
frightful.

The cut of their hair is likewise peculiar to their function; for 'tis all shaved close,
except a thin crest, like a cock's comb, which stands bristling up, and runs in a semicircle
from the forehead up along the crown to the nape of the neck. They likewise
have a border of hair over the forehead, which, by its own natural strength, and by the
stiffening it receives from grease and paint, will stand out like the peak of a bonnet.

The face of the Indian, when arrived at maturity, is a dark brown and chesnut. By a
free use of bear's grease, and a continual exposure to the sun and weather, it becomes
harder and darker. This, however, is not the natural complexion. In infancy they are
much fairer.[5] Their hair is almost invariably of a coal black, straight, and long; their
cheek bones are high, and their eyes black and full of a character of wildness and ferocity
that mark their unappeasable thirst of vengeance, and their free and uncontrolled indulgence
of every fierce and violent passion. But the education of an Indian, which commences
almost with his birth, teaches him that dissimulation, which masks the thought
and smooths the countenance, is the most useful of virtues; and there is a continual effort
to check the fierce sallies of the eye, and keep down the consuming rage of his bosom.
His eye, therefore, is generally averted or bent downwards. The terrible complacency
of the tiger is no inapt illustration of an Indian visage.

The figure of an Indian is admirably proportioned beyond any thing that has hitherto
been seen of the human form. Tall, straight; their muscles hardened by the continual
action of the weather; their limbs supple by exercise, and perhaps by the use of oil, they

outstrip the bear, and run down the buck and the elk. No such thing is to be found as a
dwarfish, crooked, bandylegged, or otherwise misshapen Indian.

The power and qualities of their minds are such as we should expect from their state
of society. In a state of nature the mind of man differs but little from the animals
around him. Occupied in supplying his wants or gratifying his resentments, he has but
little time or inclination for the labors of calculation or the refinements of abstraction.
The sensible objects with which he is most conversant, impress themselves on his memory
in the order and degrees of their importance; but their classification, and the faculty
of generalizing them by an idea and term that shall take in all the particulars and
classes, are the result of deep thought and intense reflection. For this, leisure and application
are necessary. But the time of the Indian, after returning successful from the
chase, or victorious from the battle, is too valuable to be employed in such trifles. His
duty it is to spread the feast; to hear the praises of the old men, and the congratulations
of the women; to attend the great council of the nation, and to sing the history of
his own exploits. If any time remain after discharging those duties, he exercises himself
in shooting the arrow or throwing the tomahawk; or stretched at length along the
grass, enjoys that luxury of indolence which constitutes the supreme blessing of his existence.

The idea of numbers is, therefore, very limited among the tribes. Some of them can
reckon a thousand, while others cannot exceed ten; to express any greater number they
are compelled to resort to something indefinite. As numerous as the pigeons in the
woods, or the stars in the heavens, is a mode of expression for any greater number. For
the same reason, their language has no term for the abstract ideas of time, space, universal,
&c. There is, however, a conjecture, which, if true, will prove that the Indians of
Virginia had a more copious arithmetic. It is suggested that Tomocomoco or Uttomaccomac
was sent to England by Powhatan, for the purpose of procuring an exact account
of the number of the people of England. Tomocomoco made the attempt till his arithmetic
failed; but before he would be sent on such an errand, he must have been able to
reckon the Powhatans, and these, according even to the lowest estimates, amounted to
eight thousand.

It has been said that the Indian is the most improvident of animals; that, satisfied
with his present enjoyments, he wastes no thought on the morrow, and that repeated
calamities have added nothing to his care or foresight. This may have been true of
some of the tribes in South America, or in the islands. The North American, and more
especially the Virginian, always had their public stock hoarded. Powhatan and the
other sachems carried on a continual trade with the first colonists for corn, and we find
that Raleigh, Baltimore, and Penn, derived their principal support from similar sources.
But the quantity of labor and industry required for raising this superfluity was comparatively
nothing. A few did not, as in established societies, work for the support of the
whole, and for the purpose of enabling the rich to vend their surplus commodities in foreign
markets. Here every man labored for himself, or for the common stock, and a few
days in every year were sufficient for the maintenance of each man, and by consequence,
of all the members of the tribe.

The Indians of Virginia have no written laws, but their customs, handed down from
age to age in the traditions of their old men, have all the force of the best-defined and
positive institutions. Nor is this respect acquired by the fear of punishment. The
aborigines of Virginia, whatever may be pretended, enjoyed complete freedom. Their
sachems made their own tools and instruments of husbandry. They worked in the
ground in common with the other Indians. They could enter into no measure of a public
nature without the concurrence of the matchacomoco or grand council; and even
after this body had decided on the merits of the question, the consent of the people at
large was necessary to sanction their proceedings. If the voice of this council be in
favor of war, the young men express their approbation by painting themselves of various
colors, so as to render their appearance horrible to their enemies. In this state they
rush furiously into the council: they begin the war dance, accompanying their steps
with fierce gestures, expressive of their thirst of vengeance; and describing the mode in
which they will surprise, wound, kill, and scalp their enemies. After this they sing
their own glories; they recount the exploits of their ancestors, and the ancient glories of
their nation.

The Indian festival dance, says Beverly, is performed by the "dancers themselves
forming a ring, and moving round a circle of carved posts, that are set up for that purpose;
or else round a fire, made in a convenient part of the town; and then each has
his rattle in his hand, or what other thing he fancies most, as his bow and arrows, or his
tomahawk. They also dress themselves up with branches of trees, or some other strange

accoutrements. Thus they proceed, dancing and singing, with all the antic postures
they can invent; and he is the bravest fellow that has the most prodigious gestures."

Indian Festival Dance

When any matter is proposed in the national council, it is common for the chiefs of
the several tribes to consult thereon apart with their counsellors, and when they have
agreed, to deliver the opinion of the tribe at the national council, and as their government
seems to rest wholly on persuasion, they endeavor, by mutual concessions, to obtain
unanimity. Their only controls are their manners and their moral sense of right and
wrong, which, like tasting and smelling, in every man makes part of his nature.

An offence against these is punished by contempt, by exclusion from society, or when
the case is serious, as in murder, by the individuals whom it concerns.

The Indians of Virginia had no idea of distinct and exclusive property; the lands were
in common, and every man had a right to choose or abandon his situation at pleasure.
Their mode of computation, as with us, was by units, tens, and hundreds. There is no
light on the records by which we may discover its limits or extent. Analogy affords no
helps on this occasion. The Iroquois could reckon a thousand, while other tribes, almost
in their neighborhood, could count no further than ten.

They reckon their years by winters, or cohonks, as they call them, which was a name
taken from the note of the wild geese, intimating so many times of the wild geese coming
to them, which is every winter.

They distinguish the several parts of the year by five seasons, viz.: the budding or
blossoming of the spring; the earing of the corn, or roasting ear time; the summer, or
highest sun; the corn-gathering, or fall of the leaf; and the winter, or cohonks.

They count the months by the moons, though not with any relation to so many in a
year as we do; but they make them return again by the same name, as the moon of
stags, the corn moon, the first and second moon of cohonks."

They have no distinction of the hours of the day, but divide it only into three parts,
the rise, the power, and lowering of the sun; and they keep their accounts by knots on
a string, or notches on a stick, not unlike the Peruvian Quippoes.

If we believe the accounts of Smith and Beverly, the Indians of Virginia were grossly
superstitious, and even idolatrous. The annexed engraving is a representation of their
idol Okee, Quioccos, or Kiwasa, copied from one in Beverly's History. "They do not
look upon it as one single being, but reckon there are many of the same nature; they
likewise believe that there are tutelar deities in every town."

Although they have no set days for performing the rites of religion, they have a number
of festivals, which are celebrated with the utmost festivity. They solemnize a day
for the plentiful coming of their wild fowl, such as geese, ducks, teal, &c.; for the returns
of their hunting seasons; and for the ripening of certain fruits. But the greatest
annual festival they have is at the time of their corn-gathering, at which they revel
several days together. To these they universally contribute, as they do to the gathering
of the corn: on this occasion they have their greatest variety of pastimes, and more
especially of their war dances and heroic songs; in which they boast that their corn
being now gathered, they have store enough for their women and children, and have
nothing to do but go to war, travel, and to seek for new adventures.

There is a second annual festival, conducted with still greater solemnity. It commences
with a fast, which exceeds any thing of abstinence known among the most mortified
hermits. This fast is succeeded by a feast. The old fire is put out, and a new fire,
called the drill fire, elicited by the friction of two pieces of wood. They sprinkle sand
on the hearths, and, to make the lustration complete, an emetic is taken by the whole
nation. At this meeting all crimes, except murder, are pardoned, and the bare mention
of them afterwards is considered as disreputable. At the close of this festival, which
continues four days, a funeral procession commences, the signification of which is that
they bury all the past in oblivion, and the criminals having tasted of the decoction of
casina, are permitted to sit down by the men they have injured.

The ceremony of huskanawing returns after an interval of fourteen or sixteen years,
or more frequently, as the young men happen to arrive at maturity. This is intended
as a state of probation, preparatory to their being initiated into the class of warriors and
counsellors. The candidates are first taken into the thickest part of the forest, and kept
in close and solitary confinement for several months, with scarcely any sustenance
besides an infusion or decoction of some intoxicating roots. This diet, added to the
severity of the discipline, invariably induces madness, and the fit is protracted for
eighteen days. During the paroxysms they are shut up in a strong enclosure, called an
huskanaw pen, "one of which," says Beverly, "I saw belonging to the Pamaunkie
Indians, in the year 1694. It was in shape like a sugar-loaf, and every way open like
a lattice for the air to pass through." When their doctors suppose they have drunk a

Indian Idol.

sufficient portion of the intoxicating juice, they gradually restore them to their senses by
lessening the quantity of the potion, and before they recover their senses they are
brought back to the town. This process is intended to operate like Lethe on their memory:
"To release the youth from all their childish impressions, and from that strong
partiality to persons and things which is contracted before reason takes place. So that
when the young men come to themselves again, their reason may act freely without being
biased by the cheats of custom and education. Thus they also become discharged
from any ties by blood; and are established in a state of equality and perfect freedom, to
order their actions and dispose of their persons as they think proper, without any other
control than the law of nature."

Marriage, or the union of husband and wife, stood precisely on the same footing as
among the other American tribes. A man might keep as many wives as he could
support: but in general they had but one, whom, without being obliged to assign any
reason, they might at any time abandon, and immediately form a new engagement.
The rights of the woman are the same, with this difference, that she cannot marry
again until the next annual festival.

Courtship was short, and, like their marriage, unembarrassed by ceremony. If the
presents of a young warrior are accepted by his mistress, she is considered as having
agreed to become his wife, and without any further explanations to her family, she goes
home to his hut. The principles that are to regulate their future conduct are well understood.
He agrees to perform the more laborious duties of hunting and fishing; of felling
the tree, erecting the hut, constructing the canoe, and of fighting the enemies of the
tribe. To her, custom had assigned almost all the domestic duties; to prepare the food;
to watch over the infancy of the children. The nature of their lives and circumstances
added another, which, with more propriety, taking in a general view, should have been
exercised by the male. It belonged to the women to plant the corn, and attend all the
other productions of an Indian garden or plantation. But the labor required for raising
these articles was trifling, and the warriors, being engaged in hunting and war, had
neither leisure nor inclination to attend to objects of such inferior consideration.

To compensate for this seeming hardship or neglect, the women had several valuable
privileges, that prove their importance, and the respect entertained for them by the
men. All the honors of an Indian community are maternal, and the children, in the
event of a separation, belong to the wife. The husband is considered only as a visitor;
and, should any difference arise, he takes up his gun and departs. Nor does this separation
entail any disgrace upon the parties.

If any credit be due to the accounts of our early historians, the women in the Powhatan
confederacy had considerable weight. Some of the tribes had even female
sachems, a regulation which could not have been tolerated by freemen and warriors, if,
as has been imagined by some historians, they had been regarded only as objects of contempt
and ill-usage. What agitation and sorrow were not excited by the death of Pocahontas,
and how anxious the inquiries of her family respecting her health and her feelings,
her content and her return!

It was no uncommon spectacle to see groups of young women, almost naked, frisking
with wanton modesty in the wild gambols of the dance. Even the decent Pocahontas
did not disdain to mingle in those pastimes. Crowned with a wreath of leaves and
flowers, she sometimes led the chorus and presided in the dance. Nor should this be
regarded as a deviation from the rules of modesty and innocence. They acted agreeably
to the usage of their country and the dictates of nature. Every object inspired happiness
and content, and their only care was to crowd as many pleasures as possible into
the short span of a fleeting existence.

The following summary account of the Indians in Virginia, as they were about the
year 1700, is from Beverly's History of Virginia.

The Indians of Virginia, east of the Blue Ridge, are almost wasted, but such towns
or people as retain their names and live in bodies, are hereunder set down; all which
together cannot raise five hundred fighting men. They live poorly, and much in fear of
the neighboring Indians. Each town, by the articles of peace, 1677, pays three Indian
arrows for their land, and twenty beaver-skins for protection, every year.

In Accomack are eight towns, viz: Matomkin is much decreased of late by the smallpox,
that was carried thither. Gingoteque; the few remains of this town are joined
with a nation of the Maryland Indians. Kiequotank is reduced to a very few men.
Matchopungo has a small number yet living. Occahanock has a small number yet
living. Pungoteque; governed by a queen, but a small nation. Oanancock has but
four or five families. Chiconessex has very few, who just keep the name. Nanduye:
a seat of the empress; not above twenty families, but she hath all the nations of the
shore under tribute. In Northampton, Gangascoe, which is almost as numerous as all
the foregoing nations put together. In Prince George, Wyanoke is extinct. In Charles
City, Appamattox, extinct. In Surry, Nottaways, which are about a hundred bowmen,
of late a thriving and increasing people. By Nansamond: Menheering, has about
thirty bowmen, who keep at a stand. Nansamond: about thirty bowmen: they
have increased much of late. In King William's county, Pamunkie has about forty
bowmen, who decrease. Chickahomonie, which had about sixteen bowmen, but lately
increased. In Essex: Rappahannock, extinct. In Richmond: Port Tabago, extinct.
In Northumberland: Wiccomocco has but few men living, which yet keep up their
kingdom, and retain their fashion; yet live by themselves, separate from all other Indians,
and from the English.

The following able article, from Tucker's Life of Jefferson, relates to the "Abolition
of Entails.—Primogeniture.—Their effects considered.—Church establishment in Virginia—its
gradual abolition.—Entire freedom of religion."

On the 11th of October, 1776, three days after Mr. Jefferson had taken his seat in
the legislature, he brought in a bill for the establishment of Courts of Justice, which
was subsequently approved by the House and passed. Three days afterwards, he introduced
a bill to convert estates in tail into fee-simple. This, he avows, was a blow at
the aristocracy of Virginia.

In that colony, in the earlier periods of its history, large grants of land had been obtained
from the crown by a few favored individuals, which had been preserved in their
families by means of entails, so as to have formed, by degrees, a patrician class among
the colonists. These modes of continuing the same estates in the same family, found a
protection here which they could not obtain in the mother country; for, by an act passed
in the year 1705, the practice of docking entails, which had previously prevailed in
Virginia as in England, was expressly prohibited; and whenever the peculiar exigencies
of a family made it necessary that this restraint or alienation should be done away,
it could be effected only by a special act of Assembly.

The class which thus provided for the perpetuation of its wealth, also monopolized
the civil honors of the colony. The counsellors of the state were selected from it, by
reason of which the whole body commonly had a strong bias in favor of the crown, in
all questions between popular right and regal prerogative. It is but an act of justice to
this class to state, that although some of them might have been timid and hesitating in
the dispute with the mother country—disposed to drain the cup of conciliation to the
dregs—yet, others were among the foremost in patriotic self-devotion and generous sacrifices;
and there was but a small proportion of them who were actually tories, as those
who sided with Great Britain were then denominated.

Mr. Jefferson was probably influenced less by a regard to the conduct of the wealthy
families in the contest, than by the general reason which he thus gives: "To annul
this privilege, and instead of an aristocracy of wealth, of more harm and danger than
benefit to society, to make an opening for the aristocracy of virtue and talent, which
nature has wisely provided for the direction of the interests of society, and scattered
with an equal hand through all its conditions, was deemed essential to a well-ordered
republic."

The repeal of this law was effected, not without a struggle. It was opposed by Mr.
Pendleton, who, both from age and temper, was cautious of innovation; and who, finding
some change inevitable, proposed to modify the law so far as to give to the tenant
in tail the power of conveying in fee-simple. This would have left the entail in force,
where the power of abolishing it was not exercised; and he was within a few votes of
saving so much of the old law.

This law, and another subsequently introduced by Mr. Jefferson, to abolish the preference
given to the male sex, and to the first-born, under the English common law, have
effectually answered their intended purpose of destroying the gross inequality of fortunes
which formerly prevailed in Virginia. They have not merely altered the distribution
of that part of the landed property, which is transmitted to surviving relatives by the
silent operation of the law, but they have also operated on public opinion, so as to influence
the testamentary disposition of it by the proprietors, without which last effect the
purpose of the Legislature might have been readily defeated. The cases are now very
rare, in which a parent makes, by his will, a much more unequal distribution of his property
among his children than the law itself would make. It is thus that laws, themselves
the creatures of public opinion, often powerfully react on it.

The effects of this change in the distribution of property are very visible. There is
no longer a class of persons possessed of large inherited estates, who, in a luxurious and
ostentatious style of living, greatly exceed the rest of the community; a much larger
number of those who are wealthy, have acquired their estates by their own talents or
enterprise; and most of these last are commonly content with reaching the average of
that more moderate standard of expense which public opinion requires, rather than the
higher scale which it tolerates.[6]

Thus, there were formerly many in Virginia who drove a coach and six, and now

such an equipage is never seen. There were, probably, twice or three times as many
four-horse carriages before the revolution, as there are at present; but the number of
two-horse carriages may now be ten, or even twenty times as great, as at the former
period. A few families, too, could boast of more plate than can now be met with; but
the whole quantity in the country has now increased twenty, if not fifty fold.

Some nice but querulous observers, have thought that they perceived a correspondent
change in the manners and intellectual cultivation of the two periods; and, while they
admit that the mass of the people may be less gross, and more intelligent than the backwoodsman,
the tobacco-roller,[7] or the rustic population generally under the regal government,
yet they insist that we have now no such class as that which formerly constituted
the Virginia gentleman of chivalrous honor and polished manners—at once high-minded,
liberal, delicate, and munificent; and that as to mental cultivation, our best educated
men of the present day cannot compare with the Lees, the Randolphs, the Jeffersons,
Pendletons, and Wythes, of that period.

This comparison, however, cannot easily be made with fairness; for there are few
who have lived long enough to compare the two periods, and those few are liable to be
biased on one side or the other, according to their early predilections and peculiar
tastes. But apart from these individual influences, there is a general one to which we
are all exposed. Time throws a mellow light over our recollections of the past, by
which their beauties acquire a more touching softness, and their harsher parts are thrown
into shade. Who that consults his reason can believe, if those scenes of his early days,
to which he most fondly looks back, were again placed before him, that he would again
see them such as memory depicts them? His more discriminating eye, and his less
excitable sensibility, would now see faults which then escaped his inexperience, and he
would look tranquilly, if not with indifference, on what had once produced an intoxication
of delight. Yet such is the comparison which every one must make between the
men and things of his early and his later life; and the traditionary accounts of a yet
earlier period are liable to the same objection, for they all originate with those who describe
what they remember, rather than what they actually observed. We must, therefore,
make a liberal allowance for this common illusion, when we are told of the superior
virtues and accomplishments of our ancestors.

The intellectual comparison may be more satisfactorily made. While it is admitted
that Virginia could, at the breaking out of the Revolution, boast of men that could hold
a respectable rank in any society; yet, after making allowance for the spirit-stirring
occasion, which then called forth all their talents and faculties, there seems to be no
reason to suppose that there is any inferiority in the present generation. It must be recollected,
that by the more general diffusion of the benefits of education, and the continued
advancement of mental culture, we have a higher standard of excellence in the
present day than formerly, and in the progressive improvement which our country has
experienced in this particular, the intellectual efforts which in one generation confer distinction,
would in that which succeeds it scarcely attract notice. It may be safely said,
that a well-written newspaper essay would then have conferred celebrity on its author,
and a pamphlet would then have been regarded as great an achievement in letters as an
octavo volume at present. Nor does there pass any session of the legislature, without
calling forth reports and speeches, which exhibit a degree of ability and political information,
that would, forty years ago, have made the author's name reverberate from one
end of British America to the other. The supposed effect of this change in the distribution
of property, in deteriorating manners, and lowering the standard of intellectual
merit, may then well be called in question.

Another law, materially affecting the polity of the state, and the condition of society,
owes its origin in part to Mr. Jefferson. This was the act to abolish the church
establishment, and to put all religious sects on a footing. The means of effecting this
change were very simple. They were merely to declare that no man should be compelled
to support any preacher, but should be free to choose his sect, and to regulate his
contribution for the support of that sect at pleasure.

From the first settlement of Virginia, the Church of England had been established

in the colony. The inhabited parts were laid off into parishes, in each of which was a
minister, who had a fixed salary in tobacco, together with a glebe and a parsonage
house. There was a general assessment on all the inhabitants, to meet the expenses.
Mr. Jefferson thus explains the success of rival sects:—

"In process of time, however, other sectarisms were introduced, chiefly of the Presbyterian
family; and the established clergy, secure for life in their glebes and salaries,
adding to these generally the emoluments of a classical school, found employment
enough in their farms and school rooms for the rest of the week, and devoted Sunday
only for the edification of their flock, by service and a sermon, at their parish church.
Their other pastoral functions were little attended to. Against this inactivity, the zeal
and industry of sectarian preachers had an open and undisputed field; and by the time
of the Revolution, a majority[8] of the inhabitants had become dissenters from the established
church, but were still obliged to pay contributions to support the pastors of the
minority. This unrighteous compulsion, to maintain teachers of what they deemed
religious errors, was grievously felt during the regal government and without a hope of
relief."

The successive steps by which an institution, which was deeply rooted in the affections
of many of the principal citizens, was deprived of its power and property, without
disturbing the public tranquillity, may be not unworthy of notice.

In the bill of rights which was drawn by George Mason, June 12, 1776, the principle
of religious freedom is distinctly asserted in the last article, which declares, "that religion,
or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can
only be directed by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and, therefore, all
men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience."
But the constitution itself, passed June 29th, is silent on the subject of religion,
except that it renders "all ministers of the Gospel" incapable of being members of
either House of Assembly, or of the Executive Council.

At the first session of the legislature, in the same year, under the new constitution,
numerous petitions were received for abolishing the general assessment for the established
church; and at this session, Mr. Jefferson drafted and supported a law for the
relief of the dissenters, which, he says, brought on the severest contests in which he
was ever engaged. Here, too, he encountered the formidable opposition of Mr. Pendleton
and Mr. R. C. Nicholas, both zealous churchmen. The bill finally passed, but
modified by its opponents. It declared all acts of Parliament, which proscribe or punish
the maintenance of any opinions in matters of religion, the forbearing to repair to
church, or the exercising any mode of worship whatsoever, to be of no validity within
the commonwealth; it exempts dissenters from all contributions for the support of the
established church; and, as this exemption might in some places make the support of
the clergy too burdensome on the members of the church, it suspends, until the end of
the succeeding session, all acts which provide salaries for the clergy, (except as to arrears
then due,) and leaves them to voluntary contributions. But, at the same time, it
reserves to the established church its glebe lands and other property, and it defers "to
the discussion and final determination of a future Assembly," the question, whether
every one should not be subjected by law to a general assessment for the support of the
pastor of his choice; or, "every religious society should be left to voluntary contributions."
The church party had previously succeeded so far as to obtain a declaration in
committee, "that religious assemblies ought to be regulated, and that provision ought to
be made for continuing the succession of the clergy, and superintending their conduct."

In the following years, the question of providing for the ministers of religion by law,
or leaving it to individual contributions, was renewed; but the advocates of the latter
plan were only able to obtain, at each session, a suspension of those laws which provided
salaries for the clergy—the natural progress in favor of liberal sentiments being
counterbalanced by the fact, that some of the dissenting sects, with the exception of
the Baptists, satisfied with having been relieved from a tax which they felt to be both
unjust and degrading, had no objection to a general assessment; and, on this question,
voted with the friends of the church. But the advocates of religious freedom finally
prevailed, and after five suspending acts, the laws for the support of the clergy were, at
the second session of 1779, unconditionally repealed. And although Mr. Jefferson was
not then a member of the legislature, it is probable that his influence, as governor of
the commonwealth, was sufficiently exerted towards its repeal. But to protect the
rights of conscience, it was not deemed enough to remove past injustice, it was thought
also prudent to prevent its recurrence. Among the bills, therefore, reported by the revisers,

was the celebrated act of religious freedom, drawn by Mr. Jefferson; which not
merely reasserts the principles of religious liberty contained in the bill of rights, but aims
to give them permanence, by an argument equally clear, simple, and conclusive.

This bill, with many others, was not acted upon by the legislature for several years;
but in the mean time, the friends of the Episcopal church prepared to make one more
effort to recover a portion of its ancient privileges, by a general assessment. Their first
object was to get an act of incorporation for the church, to enable it the better to retain
and defend the large property it held, as well as to facilitate further acquisitions. A resolution
having passed by a large majority, in favor of incorporating "all societies of
the Christian religion" which desired it, leave was immediately given to bring in a bill
"to incorporate the Protestant Episcopal Church," by which the minister and vestry
in each parish were made a body corporate, for holding and acquiring property, and regulating
the concerns of the church, and which finally passed into a law. The plan of
a general assessment met with more difficulty. The petitions which had been got up
among the people gave it the show of popularity, and it received the powerful aid of
Patrick Henry's eloquence. Thus supported, it seemed likely to obtain a majority, when
those who were opposed to the measure on principle, for the purpose of gaming time,
proposed to refer the matter to the people before the legislature acted upon it, and they
succeeded in postponing it. George Mason, George Nicholas, and others of this party,
then proposed to Mr. Madison to prepare a remonstrance to the next legislature against
the assessment, to be circulated through the state for signatures. This was done, and
the paper which he prepared exhibited the same candid, dispassionate, and forcible reasoning,
which had ever characterized the productions of his pen, convincing those who
before doubted, so that there was a general disapprobation of the measure among all
sects and parties; and, at the next session, the table could scarcely hold the petitions
and remonstrances against the proposed assessment. Such a manifestation of the public
will was not to be resisted. The measure was abandoned, and Mr. Jefferson's bill,
with some slight alterations, was then passed without difficulty.

To conclude this history of religious establishments in Virginia: the law could not
fairly claim the praise of impartiality, so long as a single church had the benefits of incorporation;
and the injustice was the greater, if, as the other sects maintained, most
of the large property it held it owed to the public bounty. In two years afterwards the
act allowing religious incorporations was repealed, but with a saving to all religious societies
of the property they possessed, with the right of appointing trustees for its management.
In 1799, all these laws, as well as those made for the benefit of the dissenters
and the church, were repealed, as inconsistent with the bill of rights and the
principles of religious freedom; and lastly, in 1801, the overseers of the poor in each
county were authorized to sell all its glebe lands, as soon as they shall become vacant
by the death or the removal of the incumbent for the time; but reserving the rights of
all private donations before 1777. By the execution of this act, the last vestige of legal
privilege which this church had over other sects, was completely eradicated.

LISTS OF VIRGINIANS WHO HAVE HELD HIGH PUBLIC STATIONS.

List of Governors of the State of Virginia.

                                                             

June 29, 1776	Patrick Henry.
June 1, 1779	Thomas Jefferson.
June 12, 1781	Thomas Nelson.
Nov. 30, 1781	Benj. Harrison.
Dec., 1784	Patrick Henry.
Dec., 1786	Edmund Randolph.
Dec., 1788	Beverley Randolph.
Dec., 1791	Henry Lee.
Dec., 1794	Robert Brooke.
Dec., 1796	James Wood.
Dec., 1799	James Monroe.
Dec., 1802	John Page.
Dec., 1805	Wm. H. Cabell.
Dec., 1808	John Tyler.
Jan. 4, 1811	James Monroe.
Dec. 5, 1811	Geo. W. Smith, burnt in the theatre, Dec. 26.
Jan. 3, 1812	James Barbour.
Dec., 1814	Wilson Carey Nicholas
Dec., 1816	James P. Preston.
Dec., 1819	Thomas M. Randolph.
Dec., 1822	James Pleasants.
Dec., 1825	John Tyler. (late Pres. of U. S.)
March, 1827	Wm. B Giles.
March, 1830	John Floyd.
March, 1834	Littleton W. Tazewell; resigned 30th April, 1836.
April, 1836	Wyndham Robertson, Lieut.-Governor—acting Governor.
March, 1837	David Campbell.
March, 1840	Thomas W. Gilmer; resigned, March, 1841.
March, 1841	John Rutherford, Lieut.-Governor and acting Governor.
March, 1842	John M. Gregory, Lieut.-Governor and acting Governor.
Jan., 1843	James McDowell.

The following are lists of Virginians who have held high public stations under the general government.
They are complete only to the year 1842.

Presidents of the United States.—George Washington, elected 1789; died Dec. 14, 1799, aged 67.
Thomas Jefferson, elected 1801; died July 4, 1826, aged 83. James Madison, elected 1809; died June
28th, 1836, aged 84. James Monroe, elected 1817; died July 4, 1831, aged 72. William Henry Harrison,
elected in 1841; died April 4, 1841, aged 68. John Tyler, 1841.

Vice-Presidents of the United States.—Thomas Jefferson, elected 1797. John Tyler, elected 1841.

Secretaries of State.—Thomas Jefferson, 1789. Edmund Randolph, 1794; died Sept. 12, 1813. John
Marshall, 1800; died July 6, 1835, aged 79. James Madison, 1801. James Monroe, 1811. Henry Clay,
(born in Va.,) 1825. Abel P. Upshur, 1843; died Feb. 28, 1844. John Forsyth, (born in Va.,) 1834; died
Oct. 22, 1841, aged 61.

Secretaries of War.—James Monroe, 1814. James Barbour, 1825; died June 8, 1842, aged 66.

Secretaries of the Navy.—Abel P. Upshur, 1841. Thomas W. Gilmer, 1843; died Feb. 28, 1844. John
Y. Mason, 1844.

Postmasters-General.—Edmund Randolph, 1789. Charles Lee, 1795; died June 24, 1815, aged 58.
William Wirt, (D. C.,) 1817; died Feb. 18, 1834, aged 61. Peter V. Daniel, appointed in 1833, but de
clined.

Chief-Justices of the Supreme Court.—John Marshall, 1801 to 1835.

Associate do.—John Blair, 1789 to 1796; died Aug. 31, 1800, aged 68. Bushrod Washington, 1798 to
1829; died June 14, 1832, aged 73. Thomas Todd, 1807 to 1826; died Feb. 1826. Philip P. Barbour, 1836
to 1841; died Feb. 25, 1841, aged 60. Peter V. Daniel, 1841.

Foreign Ministers.—James Monroe, Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain in 1803, 1806, and 1808.
James Barbour, do. to do. in 1828. Andrew Stevenson, do. to do. in 1836. William Short, Chargé de Affaires
to France in 1790. James Monroe, Minister Plenipotentiary to do. in 1794. Patrick Henry, Min.
Plen. to do. in 1799; did not accept. Wm. C. Rives, Min. Plen. and Envoy Extraordinary to do. in 1829.
Wm. Short, Minister Resident in Spain, 1794. James Monroe, Min. Plen. to Spain, 1804. John Forsyth,
(born in Va.,) Min. Plen. 1819. Hugh Nelson, Min. Plen. and En. Ex. to Spain, 1823. Wm. Short, Min.
Res. to Netherlands, 1792. John Graham, Min. Plen. to Brazil, 1819. Thomas L. L. Brent, Chargé de
Affaires to do., 1825. Henry Clay, (born in Va.,) to Prussia, 1823. John Randolph, about 1831, Min. Plen.
to Russia. Richard C. Anderson, Min. Plen. to Colombia, 1823. Wm. Boulware, Chargé de Affaires
Two Sicilies, 1841. Wm. Brent, Chargé d'Affaires to Buenos Ayres, 1844. Henry A. Wise, Minister to
Brazil in 1844. Wm. M. Blackford, Chargé d'Affaires to New Grenada, 1842. Wm. Crump, Chargé
d'Affaires to Chili, 1844.

U. S. Senators, from the adoption of the Constitution.—Wm. S. Archer, 1842 to 1847. James Barbour,
1815 to 1825. Richard Brent, 1809 to 1815. John W. Eppes, 1817 to 1819; died Sept. 1830, aged 50. Wm.
B. Giles, 1804 to 1816; died Dec. 8, 1830. William Grayson, 1789 to 1790; died March 12, 1790. Richard
H. Lee, 1789 to 1792; died 19th June, 1794, aged 62. Benjamin Watkins Leigh, 1834 to 1838. A. T.
Mason, 1815 to 1817; died 6th Feb. 1819, aged 33. James Monroe, 1790 to 1794. Andrew Moore, 1804 to
1809. Wilson C. Nicholas, 1799 to 1804; died 10th Oct. 1820. James Pleasants, 1819 to 1822. John Randolph,
1825 to 1827; died 24th May, 1833, aged 60. William C. Rives, 1832 to 1834, 1836 to 1839, 1842 to
1845. John Taylor, about 1803 Henry Tazewell, 1794 to 1799. Littleton W. Tazewell, 1824 to 1833.
John Tyler, 1827 to 1836. Abraham B. Venable, 1803 to 1804; perished in the Richmond Theatre, 26th
Dec. 1811. John Walker, 1790.

Members of the Old Congress from 1774 to 1788, inclusive.—Thomas Adams, 1778 to 1780. John Banister,
1778 to 1779. Richard Bland, 1774 to 1776; died in 1778. Theodorick Bland, 1780 to 1783; died in
1790, aged 48. Carter Braxton, 1776; died 1797, aged 61. Edward Carrington, 1785 to 1786; died 1810,
aged 61. John Fitzhugh, 1779 to 1780; died in 1809, aged 83. Wm. Grayson, 1784 to 1787. Cyrus Griffin,
1778 to 1781, 1787 to 1788; died in 1810, aged 62. Samuel Hardy, 1783 to 1785. John Harvie, 1778 to
1779. Benjamin Harrison, 1774 to 1778; died in 1791. James Henry, 1780 to 1781; died in 1805. Patrick
Henry, 1774 to 1776. Thomas Jefferson, 1775 to 1777, 1783 to 1785. Joseph Jones, 1777 to 1778, 1780
to 1783. Arthur Lee, 1781 to 1784; died 14th Dec. 1782, aged 42. Francis L. Lee, 1775 to 1780; died
1797, aged 63. Henry Lee, 1785 to 1788; died in 1818, aged 62. Richard H. Lee, 1774 to 1780, 1784 to
1787; died in 1794, aged 62. James Madison, jr., 1780 to 1783, 1786 to 1788; died in 1836. James Mercer,
1779 to 1780 James Monroe, 1783 to 1786; died July 4, 1831. Thomas Nelson, 1775 o 1777, 1779 to
1780; died April, 1833, aged 88. Mann Page, 1777. Edmund Pendleton, 1774 to 1775; died in 1823, aged
82. Edmund Randolph, 1779 to 1782; died in 1813. Peyton Randolph, 1774 to 1775; died 22d Oct. 1775,
aged 52. Meriwether Smith, 1778 to 1782. George Washington, 1774 to 1775. George Wythe, 1775 to
1777; died 6th June, 1806, aged 80.

Members of the Convention from Va. which formed the Constitution of the United States.—John Blair,
James Madison, Jr., George Mason, James M'Clurg, Edmund Randolph, George Washington, and George
Wythe. Messrs. Mason, M'Clurg, Randolph, and Wythe, did not sign the constitution.

List of members from Virginia, of the U. S. House of Representatives, from the adoption of the Federal
Constitution to the 4th of March, 1845.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Alexander, Mark	1819-33
Allen, John J.	1833-35
Allen, Robert	1827-33
Archer, Wm. S.	1820-33
	1833-35
Armstrong, Wm.	1825-33
Atkinson, A.	1843-45
Austin, Archibald	1817-19
Baker, John	1811-13
Ball, Wm. L.	1817-24
Banks, Linn	1837-43
Barbour, John S.	1823-33
Barbour, Philip P.	1814-25
	1827-30
Barton, Richard W.	1841-43
Bassett, Burwell	1805-13
	1815-19
	1821-31
Bayley, T. H.	1843
Bayley, Thomas M.	1813-15
Beale, J. M. H.	1833-37
Beirne, Andrew	1837-41
Bland, Theodore	1789-90
Botts, John M.	1839-43
Bouldin, Thomas T.	1829-33
Bouldin, J. W.	1833-39
Breckenridge, James	1809-17
Brent, Richard	1795-99
	1801-03
Browne, John	1789-92
Burwell, Wm. A.	1806-21
Cabell, Samuel J.	1795-03
Caperton, Hugh	1813-15
Cary, George B.	1841-43
Chapman, A. A.	1843
Chinn, Joseph W.	1831-35
Chilton, Samuel	1843
Claiborne, John	1805-08
Claiborne, Nathaniel H.	1825-37
Claiborne, Thomas	1793-99
	1801-05
Clark, Christopher	1804-06
Clay, Matthew	1797-13
Clopton, John	1795-99
	1801-16
Coke, Richard	1829-33
Coles, Isaac	1789-91
	1793-97
Coles, Walter	1835-45
Colston, Edward	1817-19
Craig, Robert B.	1829-33
Craig, Robert	1835-41
Crump, John	1826-27
Davenport, Thomas	1825-35
Dawson, John	1797-14
Doddridge, Philip	1829-32
Draper, Joseph	1830-31
	1833-33
Dromgoole, Geo. C.	1835-41
	1843-45
Eggleston, John	1798-01
Eppes, John W.	1803-11
	1813-15
Estill, Benjamin	1825-27
Evans, Thomas	1797-01
Floyd, John	1817-29
Fulton, John H.	1833-35
Garland, David S.	1809-11
Garland, James	1835-41
Garnett, James M.	1805-09
Garnet, Robert S.	1817-27
Gholson, Thomas	1808-16
Gholson, James H.	1833-35
Giles, Wm. B.	1790-98
	1801-02
Gilmer, Thomas W.	1841-43
Goggin, Wm. L.	1839
Goode, Samuel	1799-01
Goode, W. O.	1841-43
Goodwin, Peterson	1803-18
Gordon, Wm. F.	1829-35
Gray, Edwin	1799-13
Gray, John C.	1820-21
Griffin, Samuel	1789-95
Griffin, Thomas	1803-05
Hancock, George	1793-97
Harrison, Carter B.	1793-99
Harris, Wm. A.	1841-43
Hawes, Aylett	1811-17
Hays, Samuel L.	1841-43
Heath, John	1793-97
Hill, John T.	1839-41
Holleman, Joel	1839-41
Holmes, David	1797-09
Hopkins, G. W.	1835
Hubard, Edm. W.	1841
Hungerford, John P.	1813-17
Hunter, R. M. T.	1837-43
Jackson, Edward B.	1820-23
Jackson, John George	1795-97
	1799-10
	1813-17
Johnson, James	1813-20
Johnson, Joseph	1823-27
	1835-41
Johnson, Chas. C.	1831-32
Jones, James	1819-23
Jones, John W.	1835-45
Jones, Walter	1797-99
	1803-11
Kerr, John	1813-17
Lee, Henry	1799-01
Lee, Richard Bland	1789-95
Leffler, Isaac	1827-29
Leftwich, Jabez	1821-25
Lewis, Joseph	1803-17
Lewis, Wm. J.	1817-19
Love, John	1807-11
Lucas, Edward	1833-37
Lucas, Wm. F.	1839-41
	1843-45
Loyall, George	1831-37
Machir, James	1797-99
Madison, James	1789-97
Mallory, Francis	1837-39
	1841-43
Marshall, John	1799-00
Mason, John Y.	1831-37
Mason, James M.	1837-39
Maxwell, Lewis	1827-33
McCarty, Wm. M.	1839-41
McComas, Wm.	1833-37
M'Coy, Wm.	1811-33
M'Kinley, Wm.	1810-11
Mercer, Chas. Fenton	1817-39
Moore, Andrew	1789-97
	1803-04
Moore, Thomas L.	1820-23
Moore, S. McD.	1833-35
Morgan, Daniel	1797-99
Morgan, Wm. S.	1835-39
Morrow, John	1805-09
Nelson, Hugh	1811-23
Nelson, Thomas M.	1816-19
Nevel, Joseph	1793-95
New, Anthony	1793-05
Newton, Thomas	1801-29
	1831-33
Newton, W.	1843-45
Nicholas, Wilson Carey	1807-09
Nicholas, John	1793-01
Page, John	1789-97
Page, Robert	1799-01
Parker, Josiah	1789-01
Parker, Severn E.	1819-21
Patton, John M.	1830-37
Pennybacker, I. S.	1837-39
Pegram, John	1818-19
Pindall, James	1817-20
Pleasants, James	1811-19
Powell, Alfred H.	1825-27
Powell, Cuthbert	1841-43
Powell, Levin	1799-01
Preston, Francis	1793-97
Randolph, John	1799-13
	1815-17
	1819-25
	1827-29
Randolph, Thomas M.	1803-07
Rives, Francis E.	1837-41
Rives, William C.	1823-29
Roane, John	1827-31
	1835-37
Roane, John J.	1831-33
Roane, John T.	1809-15
Roane, Wm. H.	1815-17
Robertson, John	1833-39
Rutherford, Robert	1793-97
Samuel, Green B.	1839-41
Sheffey, Daniel	1809-17
Smith, Arthur	1821-25
Smith, Ballard	1815-21
Smith, John	1801-15
Smith, Wm.	1821-27
Smyth, Alexander	1817-25
	1827-30
Steenrod, Lewis J.	1839-45
Stephenson, James	1803-05
	1809-11
	1822-25
Steuart, Archibald	1837-39
Stuart, Alex. H. H.	1841-43
Stevenson, Andrew	1821-33
Stratton, John	1801-03
Strother, George F.	1817-20
Summers, George W.	1841-45
Swearingin, Thomas V.	1819-22
Swoope, Jacob	1809-11
Taliaferro, John	1801-03
	1811-13
	1824-31
	1835-43
Tate, Magnus	1815-17
Taylor, Robert	1825-27
Taylor, Wm. P.	1833-35
Taylor, Wm.	1843
Tazewell, Littleton W.	1800-01
Thompson, Philip R.	1801-07
Trezvant, James	1825-31
Trigg, Abram	1797-09
Trigg, John	1797-04
Tucker, Henry St. George	1815-19
Tyler, John (late President of U. S.)	1816-21
Venable, A. B.	1791-99
Walker, Francis	1793-95
White, Alexander	1789-93
White, Francis,	1813-15
Williams, Jared	1819-25
Wilson, Alexander	1804-09
Wilson, Edgar C.	1833-35
Wilson, Thomas	1811-13
Wise, Henry A.	1833-43

List of persons who have lived 110 years and over.

                                       

	Place.	When died.	Age.
William M'Kim,	Richmond,	1818	130
John de la Somet,		1766	130
Wonder Booker, (a negro,)	Prince Edward co.	1819	126
Eleanor Spicer,	Accomac co.	1773	121
Charles Lauge,	Campbell co.	1821	121
Charles Roberts,	Bullskin,	1796	116
Philip Crull,	Fairfax co.	1813	115
Wm. Taylor,	Pittsylvania co.	1794	114
Frank, (a negro,)	Woodstock,	1820	114
Alex. Berkley,	Charlotte co.	1825	114
Priscilla Carmichael,	Surry co.	1818	113
Sarah Carter,	Petersburg,	1825	112
Mrs. A. Berkley,	Charlotte,	1826	111
Wm. Wootten,		1773	111
A negro,	Richmond,	1818	136
Mrs. Harrison,	Brunswick co.	1805	110
John Cuffee, (a slave,)	Norfolk,	1836	120
John, (a negro,)	Washington, D. C.	1838	115
Gilbert, (a negro,)	Augusta co.	1844	112

OBITUARY.

Below are obituary notices, drawn from the Obituary in the American Almanac,
of public individuals, natives and residents of Virginia and the District of Columbia,
who have died within the last ten or twelve years. The perusal will create retrospections,
too often lost amid the engrossing scenes of the present, and the demands of the
future.

1832.

Oct. 13.—At Norfolk, John E. Holt, nearly twenty years mayor of that borough.

Nov. 19.—At Washington city, aged 60, Philip Doddridge, a member of Congress, a distinguished
lawyer, and one of the ablest men in the body of which he was a member.

1833.

Jan. 29.—At Warrenton, N. C., in his 64th year, John Hall, recently judge of the Supreme Court of
N. Carolina. He was born in Staunton, Va., and when a young man removed to N. C. His life was
pure, and his integrity unspotted.

May 24.—At Philadelphia, aged 60, John Randolph of Roanoke.

Nov. 17.—At Columbus, S. C., aged about 90, Colonel Thomas Taylor. He was born in Amelia co.,
Va., in 1743. He has been styled "the patriarch of the states-right party of South Carolina."

Dec. 21.—At Twiford, in Westmoreland co., Va., in his 74th year, John P. Hungerford. He was an
officer in the revolutionary war, and afterwards a member of Congress.

1834.

Feb. 11.—In the Capitol at Washington, Thomas Tyler Bouldin, M. C. Before he was elected a member
of Congress, he had been a lawyer of high rank, an able and upright judge; and he was highly
respected for his integrity.

Feb. 18.—At Washington city, in his 62d year, the Hon. William Wirt, the author of the Life of
Patrick Henry, and of the British Spy.

April 13.—At Norfolk, Gen. Robert B. Taylor, an eminent lawyer, and a judge of the General or
District Court of Va.; a man greatly respected, and much lamented.

Oct.—At Petersburg, of cholera, aged about 48, Gen. William H. Brodnax, of Dinwiddie Co., Va.,
distinguished as a lawyer and a philanthropist, and for several years a very prominent member of the
House of Delegates. He signalized himself in the debates on the abolition of slavery in 1831, advocating
a gradual and cautious abolition; and also, in opposition to the doctrines of President Jackson's Proclamation
of Dec., 1832.

Near Monongahela, Va., aged 97, Col. John Evans; a commander of a regiment of militia in the
revolution, and a member of the convention that formed the first constitution.

1835.

March 2.—In Bath co., Va., aged about 77, Gen. Samuel Blackburn, a soldier of the revolution, an
eminent lawyer, and for many years a conspicuous member of the legislature. At his death he liberated
his slaves, forty-six in number, charging his estate with the expense of transporting them to Liberia.

April 7.—At Philadelphia, in his 73d year, James Brown, who was born in Virginia in Oct. 1766. In
1812, he was elected a member of the U. S. Senate from Louisiana, and in 1823 appointed minister to
France. He was distinguished as a lawyer and a statesman.

April 25.—Aged about 40, Jonathan P. Cushing, President of Hampden-Sidney College, which office
he had held for fourteen years. He was born in New Hampshire. The institution over which he presided
was greatly indebted to his well-directed zeal, talents, and influence, and he was highly esteemed
for his virtues. By his will he emancipated his slaves, sixty in number, providing amply for their
removal to Liberia; and also gave about $40,000 to establish schools in Albemarle, and the adjoining
county.

May 13.—In Brunswick county, in his 84th year, Rev. Edward Dromgoole, father of the Hon. George
C. Dromgoole; a minister of the gospel sixty-three years, and a magistrate and member of the county
court forty-five years.

July 1.—At Richmond, in his 77th year, Maj. James Gibbon, collector of customs of the port of Richmond,
and a gallant officer of the revolutionary army, known as "the hero of Stony-Point." Col. Gibbon,
on the 16th of July, 1779, then a lieutenant, led one of the two "forlorn hopes," of twenty men,
when Gen. Wayne carried the fortress of Stony-Point by storm. Of his twenty men, seventeen were
killed or wounded. He was greatly respected and esteemed, and his remains were interred with the
highest honors.

July 6.—At Philadelphia, in his 80th year, John Marshall, Chief-Justice of the United States.

June 28.—At Baltimore, Md., aged about 50, of a fractured skull, from the fall of a chimney, Thomas
Marshall, of Fauquier Co., the eldest son of Chief-Justice Marshall, being on a journey to attend the
death-bed of his father. He graduated in Princeton in 1803; was distinguished as a scholar, a lawyer,
and a member of the legislature; and was highly esteemed for his talents, his many virtues, and his
exemplary and useful life.

May 26.—At Columbia, S. C., aged 70, Gen. Francis Preston, of Washington Co., Va., a member of
Congress from 1793 to 1797, and father of the Hon. William C. Preston.

Nov.—At Lexington, Va., George Baxter, a distinguished lawyer.

Nov.—In Caroline co., aged about 48, John Dickenson, an eminent lawyer.

Oct. 7.—In Alabama, Charles Tait, in his 68th year. He was born in Louisa county, but removed at an
early age to Georgia, where he was, for several years, a judge of the Superior Court, and a senator in
Congress, from 1809 to 1819.

Dec. 3.—At Washington city, aged 47, Richard Wallack, a distinguished lawyer.

1836.

March 22.—At Washington, D. C., in his 82d year, Gen. Mountjoy Baily, an officer of the revolution.

Jan. 28.—At Abingdon, John H. Fulton, a respected member of the 23d Congress.

April 29.—In Logan co., Ohio, Gen. Simon Kenton, aged 82, a native of Virginia. He was a companion
of Col. Boone, in exploring the west, and in commencing its settlement, and he endured many hardships.

March 25.—At Belmont, Loudon co., Va., aged 76, Ludwell Lee, second son of Richard Henry Lee, a
gentleman highly respected.

Nov. 9.—At his residence, in Goochland co., Va., aged 67, James Pleasants, M. C. from 1811 to 1819;
U. S. Senator from 1819 to 1822: governor of Virginia from 1822 to 1825, and a member of the convention
for 1829-30, for amending the state constitution. He was twice appointed to the bench, but declined,
from a distrust of his own qualifications. He was a man of rare modesty, greatly respected and
esteemed for public and private virtues.

Oct. 10.—In Albemarle co., Va., aged upwards of 70, Mrs. Martha Randolph, widow of Gov. Thomas
M. Randolph, and the last surviving daughter of Thomas Jefferson; a lady distinguished for her talents
and virtues.

1837.

Jan. 8.—At his seat in Culpeper co., aged 63, Dabney Carr, a judge of the Virginia Court of Appeals;
a man much respected and esteemed for his amiable character, his talents, learning, industry,
solidity of mind, and uncommonly fine colloquial powers.

Aug. 16.—At the Sweet Springs, John Floyd, M. C. from 1817 to 1819, and governor of Virginia from
1829 to 1834.

April 12.—In Beaver co., Penn., Gen. Abner Lacock, in his 67th year. He was born in Virginia, removed
early in life to Pennsylvania, and was, from 1813 to 1819, a member of the U. S. Senate.

June 28, 1836.-At Montpelier, Orange co. Va. in his 86th year, James Madison, the 4th President of the
United States.

March 18, 1836.—In Albemarle, Va, Hugh Nelson, formerly speaker of the House of Delegates, a judge
of the General Court, a member of Congress from 1811 to 1823, and afterwards U. S. Minister to Spain.

June 3.—In Virginia, in his 53d year, Allen Taylor, judge of the General Court, 17th Circuit.

Jan. 7.—At Needham, in his 70th year, Creed Taylor, late chancellor of the Richmond and Lynchburg
District.

Nov. 5.—Aged 57, David Briggs, an eminent attorney, formerly mayor of Fredericksburg, and counsellor
of state.

Nov. 20.—At his father's residence, in Bedford co., John Thompson Brown, of Petersburg, Va., aged
36. He was for several years a very distinguished member of the legislature, was rising rapidly at the
bar, and was regarded as one of the most eminent men of his age in the state.

Oct. 7.—At Yorktown, aged 64, Major Thomas Griffin, second in command at the battle of Hampton,
and M. C. in 1803-5.

Nov. 30, 1836.—At Bellegrove, Major Isaac Hite, an officer in the revolutionary war.

Dec. 15.—At Gosport, in his 85th year, Capt. John Cox, who, early in the revolution, was commissioned
as a captain in the naval service of Virginia, and was one of the most distinguished and efficient patriots
in the contest.

Dec. 2.—In Goochland co., aged 62, Dr. Andrew Kean, one of the most eminent physicians of Virginia.

Sept. 8.—In Albemarie co., aged 85, Mrs. Lucy Marks, the mother of Meriwether Lewis, who, with
William Clarke, explored the Rocky Mountains; a woman of uncommon energy and strength of mind.

Sept. 19.—At Clinton, Fauquier co., aged 83, Capt. William Payne, who commanded the Falmouth
Blues for several years in the early part of the revolution; and a company of volunteers at the siege
of Yorktown.

July 22.—In Kanawha co., aged 71, Philip R. Thompson, M. C. from Virginia in 1801-7.

1838.

March 26.—In Missouri, Gen. William H. Ashley, first lieutenant-governor of that state, and a native
of Powhatan co., Va.

May 7.—At Washington, D. C., Abraham Bradley, for many years assistant postmaster-general.

Feb. 2.—In Stafford co., John Coulter, formerly a judge of the Circuit Court and Court of Appeals.

Jan. 9.—At Staunton, aged 36, John J. Cruig, a man much respected; distinguished for his talents as
a lawyer, and a member of the legislature.

Feb. 6.—At Charlotte, C. H., aged 40, Nash Le Grand, for several years a member of the state
council.

Jan. 6.—At Richmond, Va., suddenly, aged about 35, Edward V. Sparhawk, editor of the Petersburg
Intelligencer; a gentleman of fine talents, extensive acquirements, and a highly respectable and useful
member of society.

Dec.—At Richmond, aged 60, John Brockenbrough, judge of the Court of Appeals.

Sept. 1.—At St. Louis, in his 69th year, William Clarke, a native of Virginia, companion of Meriwether
Lewis in the expedition across the Rocky Mountains, and governor of Missouri Territory, from
1813 to 1820.

Sept. 15.—At Huntsville, Ala., Col. William Lindsay, a native of Va., and a highly respectable man
and officer of the U. S. army.

Dec. 21.—At Alexandria, D. C., Thompson F. Mason, judge of the Criminal Court of the District of
Columbia.

1839.

April 8.—At Wheeling, Alexander Caldwell, judge of the U. S. Court in the Western District of Va.

Nov. 3.—In Hanover co., in his 72d year, suddenly, while feeling the pulse of a dying patient, Dr.
Carter Berkeley, a lineal descendant of Sir William Berkeley, a graduate of the Edinburgh Medical
School, a distinguished physician, and much respected for his upright, benevolent, and religious
character.

Nov. 20.—At Lynchburg, in his 69th year, William Daniel, a conspicuous member of the legislature
in 1798-99; and, for the last twenty-three years, a judge of the General and Circuit Courts; a man
much respected for his talents and legal knowledge.

Nov.—At New Orleans, Capt. Gilbert T. Francis, a native of Va. His life was romantic and eventful,
and he passed through surprising adventures in foreign countries. Though of defective education, his
great energy of character and extensive travels made him the most entertaining of companions.

Oct. 2.—In Culpeper co., in his 88th year, Col. David Jameson, an active militia officer of the revolution;
afterwards a member of the House of Delegates, a respected magistrate, and a member of the
county court.

1840.

May 20.—At Richmond, aged about 75, Daniel Call, brother-in-law to Chief-Justice Marshall, an able
and eminent lawyer, author of 6 vols. of law reports, known as "Call's Reports."

Jan.—At Richmond, aged about 88, Chas. Shirley Carter, an eminent lawyer and advocate, attorney
of the state in the Circuit Court of Henrico co.; formerly a distinguished member of the legislature.

Oct.—At the University of Virginia, aged about 48, Chas. Bonnycastle, Prof. of Mathematics. He was

a native of England, and a son of John Bonnycastle, the author of a celebrated algebra. He was a man
of profound and vigorous mind, and author of a valuable work upon Inductive Geometry.

Nov. 14.—At the University of Va., (of a pistol-shot discharged by a disguised student,) aged 39, John
A. G. Davis, Prof. of Law in the University. He was a man of a high order of intellect, of untiring industry,
of amiable and philanthropic character, and he was an exemplary member of the Episcopal
church. He published, in 1838, a valuable law-book—"A Treatise on Criminal Law, and a Guide to
Justices of the Peace." As a successful instructor, he could hardly be surpassed; and it is thought,
since graduates of his law-school have taken their places at the bar, the profession in Virginia has
breathed a more enlarged spirit. and displayed a wider and a higher tone.

Dec.—At Nashville, Tenn., Felix Grundy, a native of Berkeley co., Va., and a distinguished member of
the U. S. Senate from Tennessee.

Nov.—In Va., aged about 63, Richard E. Parker, a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals.

Jan. 19.—At Morven, Loudon co., in his 75th year, Thomas Swan, an eminent lawyer, and formerly
attorney of the U. S. for the Dist. of Columbia. "He attained the highest rank in his profession, uniting
to the most extensive learning the most effective eloquence as a pleader. His influence over juries, arising
from this cause, and partly from the universal confidence in the purity of his character, is believed to
have been seldom, if ever, surpassed, in the instance of any other American advocate."

1841.

Feb. 25.—At Washington, D. C., aged about 60, Philip P. Barbour, of Orange co., an associate judge of
the Supreme Court of the U. S.

April 24.—In Va., aged 77, George Baxter, D.D., Prof. in the Union Theo. Sem. in Prince Edward co.;
formerly president of Wash. College, at Lexington, and one of the most eminent and respected Presbyterian
clergymen in Virginia.

Oct. 22.—At Washington, D. C., (of bilious fever,) aged 61, John Forsyth, of Georgia, a man of talents
and eloquence, and secretary of state in Mr. Van Buren's administration. He was born in Fredericksburg,
Va., in 1781.

April 4.—At Washington city, in his 69th year, William Henry Harrison, President of the U. States.
He was born in Charles City co., Va., on the 9th of Feb. 1773.

June 10.—At Washington city, in his 92d year, Richard Harrison, late auditor of the treasury, and a
man highly respected.

April 27.—At Washington city, aged about 80, Rev. Andrew T. McCornish, a respected clergyman, for
23 years minister of the first Episcopal church formed in Washington.

June.—At Washington city, George Washington Montgomery, who was born in Valencia, in Spain, of
a distinguished Irish family, and a man of superior talents and education. He came in early life to this
country, and was long employed in the department of State. He was the author of Bernardo del Carpio,
"an exquisite historical novel of the 8th century, and the translation of Irving's Conquest of Granada."

Sept. 1.—Near Georgetown, D. C., in his 88th year, Joseph Nourse, register of the U. S. Treasury from
1789 to 1829, and one of the vice-presidents of the American Bible Society, and a man much respected.
He was born in London in 1754; emigrated with his family to Virginia, and entered the revolutionary
army in 1776, and served in different departments connected with it till the close of the war.

1842.

Feb. 24.—In Madison co., Hon. Linn Banks, from 1818 to 1838 speaker of the House of Delegates.

June 8.—In Orange co., Hon. James Barbour, ex-governor of Virginia, aged 66.

Aug. 13.—John P. Emmett, Esq., Prof. of Chem. in the University of Va. He was the son of the late
Thomas Addis Emmett, and a man of talents and learning.

Jan. 5.—At Savannah, Ga., Col. Thomas Haynes, aged 55, who was born in Va. He was treasurer of
Georgia, and commanded respect and great public influence.

1843.

Nov. 23.—In Fauquier co., Thomas Fitzhugh, aged 81. He was a highly respected citizen, and had been
for many years presiding judge of the County Court.

Dec. 14.—In Washington city, Chas. W. Goldsborough, chief of the bureau of provisions and clothing
of the navy department, and author of a naval history of the U. S. He was one of the oldest and most
respected inhabitants of the city.

Nov. 30.—In Rappahannock co., Maj. John Roberts, aged 85. He served in the revolutionary army,
and negotiated the exchange for the prisoners obtained by the convention at Saratoga in 1777. Afterwards
he was a member of the legislature for 13 successive years, and had great influence in its deliberations.

Aug. 27.—At the White Sulphur Springs, Hon. Lewis Summers, of Kanawha, aged 65, for 24 years one
of the judges of the General Court of Va.

1844.

Feb. 10.—At Fredericksburg, Carter Beverley, Esq., aged 72.

Feb. 28.—By the accident on board the U. S. steamer Princeton, Thomas W. Gilmer, of Charlottesville,
secretary of the navy. His various public trusts he discharged with great ability. He was respected in
public, and beloved in private life.

March 29.—At Norfolk, Com. E. Pendleton Kennedy, of the U. S. N., aged 65. At the time of his death,
he was commander of the line-of-battle ship Pennsylvania.

Feb. 28.—By the accident on board the steamer Princeton, Com. Beverley Kennon, chief of the bureau
of construction, repairs, and equipment, in the navy department. He had long been attached to the naval
service, in which he had attained a distinguished reputation.

Feb. 28.—By the accident on board the Princeton, Hon. A. P. Upshur, secretary of state, aged 54. He
was born in Northampton co. in 1790.

EXTRACTS FROM THE ANCIENT LAWS OF VIRGINIA.

1662.—Every person who refuses to have his child baptized by a lawful minister,
shall be amerced 2000 lbs. of tobacco; half to the parish, half to the informer.

The whole liturgy of the Church of England shall be thoroughly read at church or
chapel, every Sunday; and the canons for divine service and sacraments duly
observed.

Church-wardens shall present at the county court, twice every year, in December

and April, such misdemeanors of swearing, drunkenness, fornication, &c., as by their
own knowledge, or common fame, have been committed during their being churchwardens.

To steal, or unlawfully to kill any hog that is not his own, upon sufficient proof, the
offender shall pay to the owner 1000 lbs. of tobacco, and as much to the informer; and
in case of inability, shall serve two years, one to the owner, and one to the informer.

The man and woman committing fornication, shall pay each 500 lbs. of tobacco, and to
be bound to their good behavior. If either of them be a servant, the master shall pay
the 500 lbs. of tobacco, and the servant shall serve half a year longer than his time.
If the master shall refuse to pay, then the servant to be whipped. If a bastard be got
and born, then the woman to serve her master two years longer than her time, or pay
him 2000 lbs. of tobacco; and the reputed father to give security to keep the child.

No marriage shall be reputed valid in law but such as is made by the minister, according
to the laws of England. And no minister shall marry any person without a
license from the governor or his deputy, or thrice publication of bans, according to the
rubrick in the common-prayer book. The minister that doth marry contrary to this
act, shall be fined 10,000 lbs. of tobacco.

All persons keeping tipling-houses without license, shall be fined 2000 lbs. of tobacco;
half to the county, and half to the informer.

No master of any ship, vessel, &c., shall transport any person out of this colony
without a pass, under the secretary's hand, upon the penalty of paying all such debts
as any such person shall owe at his departure, and 1000 lbs. of tobacco to the
secretary.

The court in every county shall cause to be set up near the court-house, a pillory, a
pair of stocks, a whipping-post, and a ducking-stool, in such place as they shall think
convenient: which not being set up within six months after the date of this act, the
said court shall be fined 5000 lbs. of tobacco.

In actions of slander occasioned by a man's wife, after judgment passed for damages,
the woman shall be punished by ducking, and if the slander be such as the damages
shall be adjudged at above 500 lbs. of tobacco, then the woman shall have ducking for
every 500 lbs. of tobacco adjudged against her husband, if he refuse to pay the
tobacco.

Enacted that the Lord's Day be kept holy, and no journeys be made on that day,
unless upon necessity. And all persons inhabiting in this country having no lawful excuse,
shall every Sunday resort to the parish church or chapel, and there abide orderly
during the common prayer, preaching, and divine service, upon the penalty of being
fined 50 lbs. of tobacco by the county court.

This act shall not extend to Quakers, or other recusants, who totally absent themselves,
but they shall be liable to the penalty imposed by the stat. 23 Eliz., viz. £20
sterling for every month's absence, &c.; and all Quakers assembling in unlawful conventicles,
shall be fined, every man so taken, 200 lbs. of tobacco, for every time of such
meeting.

All ministers officiating in any public cure, and six of their family, shall be exempted
from public taxes.

1663.—If any Quakers, or other separatists whatsoever, in this colony, assemble
themselves together to the number of five or more, of the age of sixteen years, or upwards,
under the pretence of joining in a religious worship not authorized in England
or this country, the parties so offending, being thereof lawfully convicted by verdict,
confessions, or notorious evidence of the fact, shall, for the first offence, forfeit and pay
200 lbs. of tobacco; for the second offence, 500 lbs. of tobacco, to be levied by warrant
from any justice of the peace, upon the goods of the party convicted; but if he be
unable, then upon the goods of any other of the separatists or Quakers then present.
And for the third offence, the offender being convicted as aforesaid, shall be banished
the colony of Virginia.

Every master of a ship or vessel, that shall bring in any Quakers to reside here, after
the 1st of July next, shall be fined 5000 lbs. of tobacco, to be levied by distress and
sale of his goods, and enjoined to carry him, her, or them, out of the country again.

Any person inhabiting this country, and entertaining any Quaker in or near his house,
to preach or teach, shall, for every time of such entertainment, be fined 5000 lbs. of
tobacco.

1668.—The 27th of August, appointed for a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer,
to implore God's mercy; if any person be found upon that day gaming, drinking, or
working, (works of necessity excepted,) upon presentment by the church-wardens, and

proof, he shall be fined 100 lbs. of tobacco, half to the informer, and half to the poor
of the parish.

1670.—None but freeholders and housekeepers shall have any voice in the election of
Burgesses—every county not sending two Burgesses to every session of the Assembly,
shall be fined 10,000 lbs. of tobacco, to the use of the public.

1676.—The allowance of every Burgess for the future, shall be 120 lbs. of tobacco
and cask, per day; to commence two days before every Assembly, and continue two
days after. And for their travelling charges, there shall be allowed to those that come
by land, 10 lbs. of tobacco per day for every horse so used. And for water passage,
they shall be allowed proportionably.

1679.—The first offence of hog stealing, shall be punished according to the former
law; upon a second conviction, the offender shall stand two hours in the pillory, and
lose his ears; and for the third offence, he shall be tried by the laws of England, as in
case of felony.

1680.—No licensed attorney shall demand or receive, for bringing any cause to
judgment in the general court, more than 500 lbs. of tobacco and cask; and in the
county court, 150 lbs. of tobacco and cask; which fees are allowed him without any
pre-agreement.

If any attorney shall refuse to plead any cause in the respective courts aforesaid, for
the aforesaid fees, he shall forfeit as much as his fees should have been.

LIFE IN WESTERN VIRGINIA.

Much of Western Virginia is yet a new country, and thinly settled; and in some of
the more remote and inaccessible counties, the manner of living and the habits of the
people are quite primitive. Many of these mountain counties are so far from markets,
that it is a common saying among the inhabitants that they can only sell those things
which will "walk away"—meaning cattle, horses, swine, &c. Of the latter, immense
droves are sent to the east annually from this country, and Tennessee, Kentucky, and
Ohio. The feeding of the swine, as they pass through the country in the autumn of
each year, supplies a market for much of the corn which is produced. Aside from this,
there is but little inducement for each one to raise more grain than his own family will
consume; and consequently, there is but little room for enterprise on the part of the agriculturist.
His products, when they sell at all, bring but a trivial sum. For instance,
corn, the chief product, brings but from 17 to 25 cents per bushel; oats, 12 1-2 cts. do.;
pork, beef, and venison, $2 to $2 50 neat per 100 lbs.; and other things in proportion.
This pay, too, is frequently in store-goods, on which the merchant, owing to his small
amount of custom, charges heavy profits. For foreign luxuries, the agriculturist pays
the highest prices,—the expense of transportation from the north—where they are usually
purchased by the merchant—to the wild parts of Western Virginia, being 3 or 4
cents per pound: so for bulky articles, as sugar, coffee, &c., the consumer is obliged to
pay several cents a pound more than an inhabitant of the older portions of the state.
He, however, graduates his wants to his means; and although he may not have the
fine house, equipage, dress, &c., of the wealthy planter, yet he leads a manly life, and
breathes the pure air of the hills with the contented spirit of a freeman. Living

The inhabitants of the mountain counties are almost perfectly independent. Many a
young man with but a few worldly goods, marries, and, with an axe on one shoulder
and a rifle on the other, goes into the recesses of the mountains, where land can be had
for almost nothing. In a few days he has a log-house and a small clearing. Visit him
some fine day thirty years afterwards, and you will find he has eight or ten children—
the usual number here—a hardy, healthy set; forty or fifty acres cleared, mostly cultivated
in corn; a rude square log bin, built in cob-house fashion, and filled with corn in
the cob, stands beside his cabin; near it is a similar structure, in which is a horse; and
scattered about are half a dozen hay-ricks; an immense drove of hogs, and some cattle,
are roaming at large in the adjoining forest. And if it is what is called "mast year"
—that is, if the forests abound in nuts, acorns, &c.—these animals will be found to be
very fat, and display evidence of good living.

LIFE IN EASTERN VIRGINIA.

The Home of the Planter.

LIFE IN WESTERN VIRGINIA.

The Home of the Mountaineer.

Enter the dwelling. The lady of the house, and all her children, are attired in homespun.
Her dress is large, of convenient form, and entirely free from the fashionable
lacing universal elsewhere. It is confined together with buttons, instead of hooks and
eyes. She looks strong and healthy—so do her daughters—and as rosy and blooming as
"flowers by the way-side." Her sons, too, are a sturdy-looking set, who soon (if not
now) will be enabled to fell a tree or shoot a deer with facility. The house and furniture
are exceedingly plain and simple, and, with the exception of what belongs to the
cupboard, principally manufactured in the neighborhood. The husband is absent, hunting.
At certain seasons of the year, what time he can spare from his little farm he
passes in the excitement of the chase, and sells the skins of his game.

Soon he enters with a buck or bear he has shot, (for he is a skilful marksman,) or perhaps
some other game. He is fifty years of age, yet in his prime—a stout, athletic man;
his countenance is bronzed by exposure, and his frame seems almost of iron; he is
robed in a hunting-shirt of picturesque form, made, too, of homespun, and ornamented
with variegated fringe; and a pair of moccasins are on his feet. He receives you with
a blunt, honest welcome, and as he gives you his hand, his heart goes with it; for
he looks upon you as a friend; he has passed his life among the mountains, in the midst
of a simple-hearted people, who have but little practical knowledge of the deceit which
those living in densely-populated communities, among the competitive avocations of society,
are tempted to practice. His wife prepares dinner. A neat white cloth is spread,
and soon the table is covered with good things. On it is a plate of hot corn-bread, preserves
of various kinds, bacon, venison, and more than probable three varieties of meat.
Your host may ask a blessing—thanks to the itinerating system of the Methodists,
which has even reached this remote spot—his wife pours you out a "dish of coffee,"
the great luxury of the country, and frequently used at every meal: it is thickened with
cream—not milk—and sweetened with sugar from the maple grove just front of the
house. The host bids you help yourself, and, if not squeamish, you "go into it," and
enjoy that plain, substantial meal better than you ever did a dinner at Astor's.

Now mount your nag and be off! As you descend the mountain-path faintly discerned
before you, and breathe the pure, fresh air of the bills, cast your eyes upon the
most impressive of scenes, for Nature is there in all her glory. Far down in the valley,
to the right, winds a lovely stream; there hid by the foliage overarching its bright waters
—anon it appears in a clearing—again, concealed by a sweep of the mountain you are
descending—still beyond, it seems diminished to a silvery thread. To the right and
front is a huge mountain, in luxuriant verdure, at places curving far into the plain,—and
at those points, and at the summits, bathed in a sea of golden light,—at others, receding,
thrown into dark, sombre, forbidding shades. Beyond are mountains piled on mountains,
like an uptossed sea of ridges, until they melt away in distance, and imagination
fancies others still farther on. High in blue ether float yon clouds of snowy white, and
far above them, in majestic flight, sails the bird of the mountain, with an air as wild, as
free, as the spirit of liberty. How every thing is rejoicing all around! Innumerable
songsters are warbling sweetest music; those wild flowers, with scarce the morning dew
from off their lips, are opening their bright cheeks to the sun; and even the tiny insects
flitting through the air, join in the universal hallelujah! Now fast losing the scene,
you are entering the dark, solemn forest, densely matted above with vines, almost excluding
the light of day. You are soon at the base of the mountains, and from the copse
before you out starts a deer! the graceful animal pricks up its ears, distends its nostrils
in fear, and, gathering its slender limbs ready for a spring, then bounds away, over hillocks
and through ravines, and is seen no more. The stream, broad and shallow, is
wending its way across your road with gentle murmurings,—splash! splash! goes your
horse's feet into the water; forty times in ten miles does it cross your road, and in various
places for many hundred yards your course is directly through it. There are no
bridges upon it: there are comparatively few in Western Virginia.

* * * * * * * * * * 

The above picture of a mountaineer, with a sketch of the wild and romantic scenery
among which he lives, is a common, though not a universal one; but between him and
the wealthy inhabitant of a large village, who lives in the enjoyment of every blessing,
are all grades. Many cannot read or write, and many that can, know nothing of geography
and other branches. The country is too thinly settled to carry out a system of
common schools, although the state makes liberal appropriations for that purpose. The
mountaineer who lives not within half a day's travel of a school-house, cannot afford,
like the wealthy lowland planter, to hire a private instructor, and pay him a heavy
salary.

Among these mountain fastnesses is much latent talent, which requires only an opportunity
for its development. Many of the people are of Scotch-Irish descent, and
possess the bravery and other noble traits of their ancestry. Almost entirely isolated
from the world, fashion, with her iron sway, has not stereotyped manners, modes of
thought, and expression; and, therefore, an amusing originality and ingenuity in metaphor
is frequently displayed. The educated of this mountain region are often men of
high intelligence, fine address, and are possessed of all that which gives zest to social
intercourse.

To further illustrate the subject we are upon, the manners and customs of the mountaineers,
we will introduce an article—already elsewhere published by us—giving our adventures
in one of the wildest counties in the state:

A Religious Encampment in a Forest.

Towards the close of an autumnal day, while travelling through this thinly-settled region,
I came up with a substantial looking farmer, leaning on a fence by the road-side.
I accompanied him to his house to spend the night. It stood in a field, a quarter of a
mile from the road, and was one of the better sort of log-dwellings, inasmuch as it had
two stories and two or three small windows. In its rear was a small log structure, about
fifteen feet square, the weaving-shop of the family. On entering the house, I found a
numerous family, all clothed in substantial garments of their own manufacture. The
floor was unadorned by a carpet, and the room devoid of superfluous furniture; yet all
that necessity required to make them comfortable. One needs but little experience like
this to discover how few are our real wants, how easily most luxuries of dress, equipage,
and furniture can be dispensed with. After my arrival, two or three chickens were
knocked down in the yard, and ere long supper was ready. It consisted of chickens,
bacon, hoe-cake, and buckwheat cakes. Our beverage was milk, which is used at all
meals in Virginia, and coffee thickened with cream and sweetened by maple sugar.

Soon as it grew dark, my hostess took down a small candle-mould for three candles,
hanging from the wall on a frame-work just in front of the fire-place, in company with
a rifle, long strings of dried pumpkins, and other articles of household property. With
this, she "run" her lights for the evening. On retiring, I was conducted to the room
overhead, to which I ascended by stairs out of doors. My bed-fellow was the county
sheriff, a young man of about my age; and as we lay together, a fine field was had for
astronomical observations through the chinks of the logs. On my informing him that
this was one of the first log dwellings in which I had ever spent a night, he regarded
me with astonishment, and proceeded to enlighten me upon life in the backwoods, giving

me details I could scarcely credit, but which subsequent experience fully verified. The
next morning, after rising, I was looking for the washing apparatus, when he tapped me
on the shoulder as a signal to accompany him to a brook just back of the house, in whose
pure, crystal waters we performed our morning ablutions, and wiped ourselves dry with
a coarse towel.

After breakfast, through the persuasion of the sheriff, who appeared to have taken a
sort of fancy to me, I agreed to go across the country by his house. He was on horseback—I
on foot. For six miles, our route lay through a pathless forest, on leaving which
we passed through "the Court-House," the only village in the county, composed of
about a dozen houses, mostly log, and a brick court-house. A mile beyond, my companion
pointed to a small log structure as the place where he was initiated into the mysteries
of reading and writing. It was what is called, in Virginia, "an old field schoolhouse,"
an expression, originating in the circumstance that these buildings, in the older
portions of the state, are erected upon worn-out lands. Soon after, we came to a Methodist
encampment. The roads are here too rude to transport tents, hence the Methodists
and Baptists, in this country, build log structures which stand from year to year, and
afford much better shelter than tents. This encampment was formed of three continuous
lines, each occupying a side of a square, and about one hundred and fifty feet in
length. Each row was divided into six or eight cabins, with partitions between. The
height of the rows on the inner side of the enclosed area, was about ten feet; on the
outer about six, to which the roof sloped shed-like. The door of each cabin opened on
the inner side of the area, and at the back was a log chimney, which came up even
with the roof. At the upper extremity of the enclosure formed by these three lines of
cabins, was a shed, say thirty by fifty feet, in which was a coarse pulpit and log seats;
a few tall trees were standing in the area, and many stumps scattered here and there.
The whole establishment was in the depth of a forest, and wild and rude as can well be
imagined. Religious pride would demand a more elegant temple; but where could the
humble more appropriately worship? We read that

In many of these sparsely-inhabited counties, there are no settled clergymen, and rarely
do the people hear any other than the Methodist and Baptist preachers. Here is the
itinerating system of Wesley exhibited in its full usefulness. The circuits usually are of
three weeks duration, in which the clergymen preach about every day: so it rarely happens,
in some neighborhoods, when they have public worship, that it is on the Sabbath.
Most of these preachers are men of indefatigable energy, and often endure great privations.

After sketching the encampment, I came in a few minutes to the dwelling of the
sheriff. Close by it, were about a dozen mountaineers, and several highland lassies,
seated around a log corn-bin, twelve feet square, ten high, and open at the top, into
which these neighbors of my companion were casting ears of corn, fast as they could
husk them. Right merrily did they perform the task. The men were large and hardy,
—the damsels plump and rosy, dressed in good, warm, homespun garments, which, instead
of being hooked and eyed, were buttoned up behind. The sheriff informed me
that he owned about two thousand acres of land around his dwelling, and that its whole
value was about one thousand dollars, or fifty cents per acre! I entered his house, which
was of logs, one story in height, about twenty feet square, and divided into two small
rooms, without any windows or openings for them, and no place to let in light, except
by a door in its front, and one in the rear. I soon partook of a meal, in which we had
quite a variety of luxuries, among which was bear's meat. A blessing was asked at
table by one of the neighbors. After supper, the bottle, as usual at corn-huskings, was
circulated. The sheriff learning I was a Washingtonian, with the politeness of one of
nature's gentlemen, refrained from urging me to participate. The men drank very moderately.
Indeed, in my travels over nearly the whole of Virginia, I have seen far less
intemperance than in my similar wanderings at the north. We all drew around the
fire, the light of which was the only one we had. Hunting stories, and kindred topics,
served to talk down the hours until bed-time. There were in the room two beds. One
was occupied by a married couple the other by myself; but there were no curtains between.

On awaking in the morning, I saw two ladies cooking breakfast in my bed-room, and
three gentlemen seated over the fire, watching that interesting operation.

Having completed my toilet, my host, from a spring hard by, dipped a pitcher and
poured the water into my hands, for me to wash myself. After breakfast, I bade the
sheriff farewell, buckled on my knapsack, and left. He was a generous, warm-hearted
man, and on my offering a remuneration, he replied, "you are welcome; call again
when this way."

In the course of two hours, I came to a cabin by the way-side. There being no gate,
I sprang over the fence, entered the open door, and was received with a hearty welcome.
It was a humble dwelling, the abode of poverty. There was a neatness in the arrangement
of the few articles of furniture extremely pleasing. In a corner stood two beds,
one hung with curtains, and both spread with coverlets of snowy white, forming a contrast
to the dingy log walls, rude furniture, and rough boarded floor of this, the only
room of the dwelling. Around a cheerful fire was seated an interesting family group.
In one corner, on the hearth, sat the mother, who had given up her chair to me, smoking
a pipe. Next to her was a little girl, in a little chair, holding a little kitten. In the
opposite corner sat the father, a venerable old man of Herculean stature, robed in a
hunting-shirt, and with a countenance as majestic and impressive as a Roman senator.
In the centre of the group was a young maiden, about eighteen, modest and retiring,
not beautiful, except in that moral beauty virtue gives. She was reading to them from
a little book. She was the only one in the family who could read, and she could do so
but imperfectly. In that book, which cost perhaps two shillings, was the whole secret
of the neatness and happiness found in this lowly cot. That little book was the New
Testament!

I conversed with the father. He was, he said, "a poor mountaineer, ignorant of the
world." He was, it is true; but he had the independence of a man—the humility of a
Christian. As I left the cottage, the snow-flakes were slowly falling, and I pursued my
lonely way through the forest, with buoyant feelings, reflecting upon this beautiful exhibition
of the religion of the meek and lowly One. How exquisite are these lines, as applied
to a similar scene:

LIFE IN EASTERN VIRGINIA.

In the foreground of the engraving illustrating the Home of the Planter, is a colored
woman strutting across the yard with a tub of water on her head. Near her is a group
of white and black miniature specimens of humanity, playing in great glee. In the
middle ground is the mansion of the planter, pleasantly embowered in a grove of locusts.
The mansion itself has the chimneys on the outside, a peculiar feature in the domestic
architecture of the southern states. Under the shade of the porch sits the planter, with
a pail of water by his side, from which, in warm weather, he is accustomed to take
frequent draughts. At the door are a gentleman and lady, about making a social visit.
On the right are the quarters of the blacks, where is seen the overseer, with some
servants. In the distance is shown a river; the finest plantations being generally on
the fertile banks of some calm, flowing stream. This completes the picture, which we
trust will prove a familiar one to most of our readers.

It is, perhaps, unnecessary to describe in detail the life of a planter, as it is incidentally
illustrated in several places in this volume. The term planter, originally applied in
this state to those who cultivated the tobacco-plant, is now an expression commonly
used in reference to all agriculturists of the lowlands. This class forms the great bulk
of the inhabitants, and from it have arisen most of the distinguished statesmen who
have shed such lustre upon the name of Virginia. Settled, as this portion of the state
was, by old English cavaliers, their descendants have many of the same traits of character.
The introduction of slaves has given them the leisure to cultivate the elegancies
of life, to mix much in social intercourse, and to become familiar with all current political
topics. From this, too, has arisen much of the hospitality for which the planter is
proverbial. Nowhere are the wishes and wants of the stranger guest more regarded,
and nowhere is the character of a true gentleman held more sacred. The planter is also

noted for his frankness and sincerity. And why should he not be? He does not engage
in the strife and turmoil of trade. He has no business secrets. His better nature
has not been shocked, and his feelings blunted, by familiarity with the devices of the
business world. Hence, his address is frank and free, and there is often a child-like
simplicity and ingenuousness of manner that charms the stranger, and wins his strongest
affections. The current of the planter's life runs smooth; and if possessed of a sufficiency,
none can live more independently, more free from the distracting cares which
often cut short the days of the man of business, and render his pilgrimage here one
constant scene of struggle and perplexity.

We herewith present a description of the condition of the slaves. It is from the
pen of a judge of one of the Virginia courts, and was published in a work a few years
since. It is in the form of answers to certain queries made by the author of that
work:

"I am not certain that I understand the scope of the first inquiry: `The laws for the
government of the master and the slave in Virginia.' Properly speaking, there are no
laws affecting this relation. Both are under the protection of the law to a certain extent.
The master would be punished for any mayhem or felony committed on the slave; but
it has been decided that no prosecution will lie against him, even for excessive beating,
not amounting to mayhem or felony. It has never been found necessary to enact laws
for the government of the master in his treatment of the slave, for reasons that will
appear hereafter.

"We have many laws respecting slaves, controlling them in certain particulars.
Thus, they are not allowed to keep or carry military weapons—nor to leave home without
a written permission—nor to assemble at any meeting-house or other place in the
night, under pretence of religious worship—nor at any school, for the purpose of being
taught to read or write—nor to trade and go at large as freemen—nor to hire themselves
out—nor to preach or exhort. Some of the penalties for a violation of these laws are
imposed upon the master, for permitting his slave to do certain acts; in other cases, the
slave is liable to be taken before a justice of the peace, and punished by stripes, never
exceeding thirty-nine.

"Slaves emancipated by their masters, are directed to leave the state within twelve
months from the date of their emancipation.

"These laws, and every other having the appearance of rigor towards the slave, are
nearly dead letters upon our statute book, unless during times of excitement, or since
the efforts of the abolitionists have reanimated them. I have, until lately, scarcely
known an instance in which they have been enforced.

"It is equally rare to witness the trial of a slave for any except very serious crimes.
There are many offences committed by them, for which a freeman would be sent to the
penitentiary, that are not noticed at all, or punished by a few stripes under the directions
of the master.

"When tried for a crime, it is before a court of at least five magistrates, who must
be unanimous to convict. They are not entitled to a trial by jury, but it is acknowledged
on all hands that this is a benefit, and not a disadvantage. The magistrates are
more respectable than common jurors; and, being generally slave-holders themselves,
they feel a certain sympathy with the prisoner, or, at all events, an absence of that prejudice
to which common jurors are very subject.

"Slaves may be taught, and many of them are taught, in their owner's family. They
are allowed to attend religious worship conducted by white ministers, and to receive
from them religious instruction. In point of fact, they go where they please on Sundays,
and at all other times when they are not engaged in labor.

"2. `The rights and duties of slaves,' as a distinct class, are not defined by law.
They depend upon usage or custom, which controls the will of the master. Thus, the
law does not recognise their right to hold property, but no instance is known of the
master's interfering with their little acquisitions; and it often happens, that they are
considerable enough to purchase themselves and family. In such cases I have never
known the master to exact from the slave the full price that he might have obtained
from others. In the same manner, the quantity and quality of food and clothing, the
hours of labor and rest, the holidays, the privileges, &c., of the slave, are regulated by
custom, to depart materially from which, would disgrace the master in public opinion.

"3. `The domestic relations of the master and slave.' On this subject the grossest
misrepresentations have been made. It seems to be imagined at the North that our
society is divided horizontally. All above the line, tyrants—all below it, trembling,
crouching slaves. Nothing can be more unlike the real picture. The intercourse between

the master and slave is kind, respectful, and approaching to intimacy. It must
be recollected, that they have been brought up together, and often form attachments
that are never broken. The servants about the house are treated rather as humble
friends than otherwise. Those employed differently have less intercourse with the
white family; but, when they meet, there is a civil, and often cordial greeting on both
sides. The slaves generally look upon their masters and mistresses as their protectors
and friends. Born slaves, and familiarized with their condition, they have no wish to
change it when left to themselves. When they compare it with that of the poor laboring
whites in their own neighborhood, no envy is excited, but an opposite sentiment.
The slave of a gentleman, universally considers himself a superior being to `poor white
folks.' They take pride in their master's prosperity; identify his interest with their
own; frequently assume his name, and even his title, and speak of his farm, his crops,
and other possessions, as their own; and well, indeed, may they employ this language,
for they know that the greater part of the profits is liberally devoted to their use.

"In their nature the slaves are generally affectionate; and particularly so to the
children of the family, which lays the foundation of the attachments I have spoken of,
continuing through life. The children are always favorites, and the feeling is reciprocated.
It is a great mistake to suppose that the children are permitted to tyrannize over the
slaves, young or old; and that they learn in this way domineering habits. Some may,
but more frequently there is rather too much familiarity between the white females and
children of a family, and the slaves of the same description. The children play together
on terms of great equality; and if the white child gives a blow, he is apt to have it returned
with interest. At many tables you will find the white children rising from them, with
their little hands full of the best of every thing, to carry to their nurses or playmates;
and I have often known them to deny themselves for the sake of their favorites. These
propensities are encouraged, and every thing like violence or tyranny strictly prohibited.
The consequence is, that when the young master (or mistress) is installed into his full
rights of property, he finds around him no alien hirelings, ready to quit his service upon
the slightest provocation, but attached and faithful friends, known to him from his infancy,
and willing to share his fortunes, wherever they may carry him. The connection
is more that of the Scottish clansman, than of the English serf in times past;
and it influences all their future intercourse. The old gray-headed servants are addressed
by almost every member of the white family as uncles or aunts. The others are
treated with at least as much respectful familiarity as if they were white laborers, and
I should say with more. Fully aware of their standing and consequence, they never
hesitate to apply to their masters and mistresses in every difficulty. If they have any
want, they expect to be relieved—if they are maltreated, they ask redress at their
hands. Seldom or never are appeals of this kind made in vain. Injury to the slave
from any quarter, is regarded as an injury to the master. On no subject is a Virginian
more sensitive; for he considers himself bound, by every moral obligation, to protect
and defend his slave. If he is carried before a justice for any offence, the master accompanies
him; if he is arraigned before the courts, the master employs counsel, and
does every thing in his power to see that he has justice. In fact, the disposition is to
screen the slave by every possible means, even when his guilt is apparent, and I have
known this carried to very unjustifiable lengths. In short, as far as my observation has
extended, and I have been in free as well as slave states, I do not hesitate to affirm,
that the domestic relations of the master and slave are of a more familiar, confidential,
and even respectful character, than those of the employer and hireling elsewhere.

"4. `The usual duration of the labor of the slave,' is from sunrise to sunset, with the
exception of about one hour and a half allowed for breakfast, and from 12 to 2 o'clock
for dinner. In harvest-time they get out somewhat earlier. But any extraordinary diligence
during this period is more than made up by their being allowed, at its termination,
a few days to labor for themselves, or for others who have not finished, and from whom
they receive wages. The women in this part of the state do very little field-work.
They are engaged in spinning, cooking for the out-hands, and taking care of the children.
Few women are worth their victuals and clothes. Their labors are very light
and profitless. A white laboring woman will do double as much.

"5. `The liberty usually allowed him, his holidays and amusements, the manner in
which they usually pass their evenings and holidays.' Under these heads may be classed
various privileges enjoyed by the slave. When he is not at work he is under no
restriction or surveillance. He goes where he pleases, seldom taking the trouble to ask
for a pass; and if he is on the farm at the appointed hours, no inquiry is made how he
has employed the interval. The regular holidays are two at Easter, two at Whitsuntide,

and a week at Christmas. These he enjoys by prescription; and others, such as
Saturday evenings, by the indulgence of his master. He passes them in any way he
pleases. Generally, they are spent in visiting from house to house, and in various
amusements. His favorite one, if he can raise a violin, is dancing. But this, unfortunately,
is going out of fashion, both with whites and blacks, and no good substitute
has been found for it. They, however, assemble at their cabins to laugh, chat, sing,
and tell stories, with all imaginable glee. No present care seems to annoy, no anticipated
sorrow to deject them, but they surrender themselves fully and entirely to the enjoyment
of the passing moments. They know that, under all circumstances, their
masters must provide for them. Of course they have no anxiety about their families,
or the failure of crops, or the course of the seasons, or the horrors of debt, or any other
of the many circumstances which embitter the life of the freeman, and render sad or
thoughtful the gayest disposition.

"Other of the slaves, who are more provident, employ a portion of their holidays and evenings in
working for themselves. Each head of a family, or married man or woman, has a cabin allotted for his
or her accommodation. These cabins are usually made of logs, chinked and plastered, with plank or
dirt floors. Some proprietors build them of brick or stone, or framed wood, but I do not believe the
slaves generally prefer them. They like the large, open fireplace of the cabin, where a dozen or more
can sit round the blazing hearth, filled with as much wood as would supply a patent stove for ten days.
Stoves they abominate, and small Rumfordized fireplaces. Near their cabins they have ground allotted
for their garden and patch of corn. In their gardens they have every vegetable they choose to cultivate,
besides raising pumpkins, broom-corn, &c. in their masters' corn-fields. Most of them are permitted to
raise a hog, to dispose of as they please; and these hogs are invariably the largest and fattest on the
farm. They also raise fowls of every description, and sell them for the most part to their owners, at a
fair price. Their allowance of food is never diminished on these accounts. Their hog, their fowls, their
vegetables, their brooms, and baskets, and flag-chairs, and many other articles, they are allowed to sell,
for the purpose of purchasing Sunday clothes and finery, to show off at meetings and other public occasions.
In this way, those who are at all industrious, are enabled to appear as well dressed as any peasantry
in the world.

"6. `The provision made for their food and clothing, for those who are too young or too old to labor.'
The slaves always prefer Indian corn-meal to flour. Of this, the old and young, in this part of Virginia,
are allowed just as much as they can eat or destroy. They have, besides, a certain quantity of bacon
given out every week, amounting to about half a pound a day for each laborer or grown person. When
they have beef or fish, the allowance of bacon is less; but, as it is the food they love best, they have
always a portion of it. Besides this, they have milk and vegetables on most farms in abundance, without
touching their own stores. The old and infirm fare like the rest, unless their situation requires
coffee, sugar, &c., which are always provided. The young slaves have also their meats, but less
in quantity, and they depend more upon bread, milk, and vegetables. To look at them, you would see at
once they are well fed. On small farms the slaves fare better than on large ones, there being little difference
in the food of the whites and blacks, except in articles of mere luxury. But, on the largest,
their usual allowance is that which I have mentioned. They have three meals a day, and it is rare to
see them eating what they call dry bread at any one.

"Their allowance of clothing is quite uniform; and consists of a hat, a blanket, two suits of clothes,
three shirts or shifts, and two pairs of shoes, a year. The winter suit is of strong linsey cloth; the summer,
of linen for the men, and striped cotton for the women. The men's cloth is dressed and fulled.
The children have linsey and cotton garments, but no shoes or hat, until they are ten or eleven years
old, and begin to do something. Their beds are sometimes of feather, generally of straw, and are well
furnished; some prefer to lie like the Indians, on their blankets.

"Comparing their situation with respect to food and clothing with our own white laborers, I would say
that it is generally preferable. In each case, much depends on the industry and management of the
party; but there is this difference, that the slave, however lazy or improvident, is furnished with food
and clothing at regular periods, which the white man of the same temperament is unable to procure.
When the white man, too, is so old and infirm that he can no longer labor, his situation is truly deplorable,
if he has laid up nothing for support. Bt the old and infirm slave is still supported by his master,
with the same care and attention as before. He cannot even set him free without providing for his
maintenance, for our law makes his estate liable.

"7. `Their treatment when sick.' Being considered as valuable property, it might naturally be concluded
that they would be properly attended to when sick. But better feelings than any connected with
their value as property, prompt the white family to pay every attention to the sick slave. If it is deemed
at all necessary, a physician is immediately called in. On large farms he is frequently employed by the
year; but, if not, he is sent for whenever there is occasion for his services. If the slave is a hireling,
our law compels the owner, not the hirer, to pay the physician's fees, so that the latter has every motive
of interest to send for a physician, without being liable for the expense. Where there are many slaves
together, the proprietor sometimes erects an hospital, provided with nurses and the usual accommodations.
In all cases coming under my observation, whatever is necessary for the comfort of the sick is
furnished, as far as the master has means. They are frequently visited by the white family, and whatever
they wish to have is supplied. Such indulgence, and even tenderness, is extended to them on these
occasions, that it sometimes induces the lazy to feign sickness; but I have never known them, in these
suspected cases, to be hurried to their work until their deception became manifest, or the report of the
physician justified it. It is my decided conviction, that the poor laborers of no country under heaven are
better taken care of than the sick slaves in Virginia. There may be, and no doubt are, exceptions to
many of these observations; but I speak of their general treatment as I have known it, or heard it
reported.

"8. `Their rewards and punishments.' Of rewards, properly speaking, the slaves have few—of indulgences
they have many; but they are not employed as rewards, for all usually partake in them without
discrimination. The system of rewards has not, to my knowledge, been fairly tried. Sometimes
slaves who have conducted themselves well, or labored diligently, are allowed more time than others to
attend to their own affairs, or permitted to trade on their own account, paying some small sum; and they
are treated, of course, with greater respect and confidence than the idle and worthless. But I know of

no instance in which specific rewards have been offered for specific acts of good conduct. In this respect
they are treated much like soldiers and sailors.

"As to their punishments, they are rare, and seldom disproportioned to the offence. Our laws are
mild, and make little discrimination between slaves and free whites, except in a few political offences.
The punishments inflicted by the master partake of the same character. The moral sense of the community
would not tolerate cruelty in a master. I know of nothing that would bring him more surely
into disgrace. On a farm where there may be one hundred slaves, there will not, perhaps, be one punished
on account of his work during the year, although it is often done in a careless, slovenly manner,
and not half as much as a white laborer would do. For insolent and unruly conduct to their overseers,
for quarrelling and fighting with each other, for theft and other offences, which would send the white
man to the whipping-post or penitentiary, they are punished more frequently, but always with moderation.
Very often they escape altogether, when the white man would certainly be punished. I have lived
in different parts of Virginia for more than 30 years, since my attention has been directed to such subjects;
and I do not recollect half a dozen instances in which I ever saw a grown slave stripped and
whipped. Such a spectacle is almost as rare as to see a similar punishment inflicted on a white man.
When it is considered that, except for the highest grade of crimes, the punishment of the slave is left
pretty much (practically) to his master's discretion, I am persuaded it will be found that they are in this
respect in no worse condition than laborers elsewhere. No other punishment is inflicted except stripes
or blows. They are not unprisoned, or placed upon short allowance, or condemned to any cruel or unusual
punishments from which white persons are exempted.

"The worst feature in our society, and the most revolting, is the purchase and sale of slaves; and it
is this which renders their situations precarious and uncomfortable, and occasions them more uneasiness
than all other causes combined. On this subject I will submit a few observations before I close this letter.
So far as the traffic is confined to the neighborhood, it is of little consequence, and is often done for
the accommodation of the slave. It breaks no ties of kindred, and occasions only a momentary pang,
by transferring the slave from the master who, perhaps, is no longer able to keep him, to one as good,
who is able, or who purchases because he owns his wife or child, &c. It is the sale to negro-buyers by
profession, which is in general so odious to the slave, although there are instances in which these artful
men prevail with them to apply to their owners to be sold. Such sales, except in the rare instance just
alluded to, are never voluntarily made of slaves whose conduct and character are good. Masters will not
part with their slaves but from sheer necessity, or for flagrant delinquencies, which in other countries
would be punished by deportation at least. Thousands retain them when they know full well that their
pecuniary condition would be greatly improved by selling, or even giving them away. It is the last property
the master can be induced to part with. Nothing but the dread of a jail will prevail with him.
Negro-traders although there are many among us, are universally despised by the master, and detested
by the body of the slaves. Their trade is supported by the misfortunes of the master, and the crimes or
misconduct of the slave, and not by the will of either party, except in a few instances. Sometimes the
slave, after committing a theft or other crime, will abscond, for fear of detection; or will be enticed away
from his master's service by holding out to him false hopes; and perhaps the negro-buyer himself is the
decoy. If caught, he is generally sold, for the sake of the example to other slaves. From these sources
the negro-buyers are supplied; but it does not happen, in one case out of a thousand, that the master
willingly sells an honest, faithful slave. The man doing so would be looked upon as a sordid, inhuman
wretch; and be shunned by his neighbors and countrymen of respectable standing.

"I believe, if any plan could be fallen upon to remove our slaves to a place where they would be
willing to go, and where their condition would be probably improved, that many, very many masters
would be ready to manumit them. An opinion is entertained by increasing numbers, that slave labor is
too expensive to be continued in a grain-growing state, if its place can be supplied by freemen. In other
words, that the free laborer would cost less, and work harder, than the slave. But the slaves themselves
are unwilling to go to Liberia, and very few would accept their freedom on that condition. Some,
already emancipated, remain in the state, incurring the constant risk of being sold as slaves. To send
them to any part of our own country without worldly knowledge or capital, is deemed by most masters
false humanity; and to retain them here in the condition of free negroes is impossible.

"Until some plan can be suggested to remove these difficulties, under the guidance and direction of
the constituted authorities, we are averse to all agitation of the subject. We know it will be attended
with danger to one class, and will increase the burdens and privations of the other. Hence our indignation
at the movements of the Northern abolitionists, who are meddling with a subject they know nothing
about. Let them come among us, and see the actual condition of the slaves, as well as of the whites,
and I am persuaded that all whose intentions are really good, would, on their return, advise their deluded
co-operators to desist from agitation."

STATISTICS AND CENSUS OF THE COUNTIES OF VIRGINIA.

The subjoined statistical table of the various counties of Virginia, is from the U. S.
statistics and census of 1840. It presents a view of the relative agricultural, manufacturing,
and mercantile wealth of the various counties.

Explanation of the Table.—The columns of neat cattle, sheep, and swine, show the
number of thousands of those animals. The columns of wheat, rye, Indian corn, oats,
and potatoes, give the number of thousand bushels annually produced. The columns
of tobacco and cotton, give the number of thousand pounds produced. The columns
of capital in stores, and in manufactures, give the number of thousand dollars thus
invested. The column of scholars in schools and academies, as well as those of the
slaves and population, are carried out in full.

It will be observed there are some blanks. These are left so, either from the fact
that there are no statistics of sufficient amount for record, or that the marshals employed
to take them, made no returns to the general government.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Counties.	Neat cattle.	Sheep.	Swine.	Wheat.	Rye.	Indian corn.	Oats.	Potatoes.	Tobacco.	Cotton.	Capital in stores.	Cap. in manufactories.	Scholars in schools.	Slaves.	Population.
Accomac	14	10	27	14		643	453	113			125	73	751	4,630	17,096
Albemarle	15	21	35	327	117	712	216	29	2409		302	261	786	13,809	22,924
Alleghany	3	4	5	25	9	71	59	9	42		2	29	88	547	2,749
Amelia	6	8	13	51		245	106	58	1871	6	42	21	206	7,023	10,320
Amherst	8	6	17	113	11	381	145		2106	2	78	112	674	5,577	12,576
Augusta	21	20	34	324	92	384	245	48			117	138	693	4,145	19,628
Bath	9	11	8	31	27	118	79	32			32	40	196	347	4,300
Bedford	16	15	31	206	7	537		22	3442		70	11	197	8,864	20,203
Berkley	9	13	25	287	38	391	136				123	356	727	1,919	10,972
Botetourt	9	13	21	197	22	299	185		708		152	23		2,925	11,679
Braxton	3	3	6	9		67	21		4		11	21		064	2,575
Brooke	5	34	11	140	5	135	144	63			83	450	746	091	7,948
Brunswick	11	6	19	27		329	116		2141	13	56	25	282	8,805	14,346
Buckingham	12	15	22	169	1	439	227	21	2453	11	191	226	656	10,014	18,786
Cabell	9	10	20	39	½	379	96	17	6		67	32	339	567	8,163
Campbell	11	14	21	178		482	228	23	3257	4	1690	398	585	1,045	21,030
Caroline	10	9	19	81	13	576	120	19	774	20	132	5	589	9,314	17,813
Charles City	2	2	6	36		118	45	4		2	16	11	140	2,433	4,774
Charlotte	10	15	22	65		509	247	15	4181	19	134	44	585	9,260	14,595
Chesterfield	7	7	17	34		285	156	10	680	6	20	935	420	6,781	17,148
Clarke	6	8	15	258	17	267	91	20				60	281	3,325	6,353
Culpeper	11	15	20	122	14	390	128	21	29		126	78	769	6,069	11,393
Cumberland	6	10	10	61		247	122		2896	23	163	107	263	6,781	10,399
Dinwiddie	10	8	20	37		284	137	18	2219	71	1921	781	894	9,947	22,558
Elizabeth City	2	1	5	19		80	14	11		½	46	23	274	1,708	3,706
Essex	7	7	13	74	¼	419	40	15	4	15	140	53	378	6,756	11,309
Fairfax	13	6	10	27	6	158	67	8	13				265	3,453	9,370
Floyd	6	8	13	24	13	73	77	20	18		11	4	160	321	4,453
Fauquier	26	35	37	362	35	670	307	57	55		381	126	1521	10,708	21,897
Fluvanna	5	6	9	62		182	71	8	1279		126	97	418	4,146	8,812
Franklin	12	12	32	97	7	430	184	18	2508	3	119	74	367		15,832
Frederick	7	13	13	173	31	300	135	37			237	226	274	2,302	14,242
Fayette	4	5	7	11	4	105	64	15			20	30		133	3,924
Giles	7	10	13	45	35	163	69	17	13		34	33	223	574	5,307
Gloucester	8	5	14	56		307	62	13	8		87	28	314	5,791	10,715
Goochland	6	5	11	80		259	170	10	4501	5	80	2	139	5,500	9,760
Grayson	14	18	22	28	17	219	143	34			40	5	252	492	9,087
Greene	3	3	7	40	15	124	33	8	490	1	21	24	372	1,740	4,232
Greenbrier	14	19	12	69	43	207	198	32			112	69	231	1,214	8,695
Greensville	5	4	16	9		230	93	11	346	573	39	27	200	4,102	6,366
Halifax	14	17	31	78		598	281	16	6209	22	171	209	809	14,216	25,936
Hampshire	15	27	18	179	52	471	174	71			158	63	577	1,403	12,295
Hanover	10	9	14	48	18	350	177	26	615	23	20	36	417	8,394	14,968
Hardy	24	15	13	87	18	411	41	32			69	75	218	1,131	7,622
Harrison	5	3	33	136	7	421	226	62	23		99	131	436	693	17,699
Henrico	5	2	12	39	3	248	138	12	33	1	5340	1384	1862	13,237	33,076
Henry	6	5	16	40		206	74	12	1623	3	33	14	466	2,852	7,335
Isle of Wight	6	½	23	4		291	29	77		31	67	36	397	3,786	9,972
Jackson	5	3	11	28		117	40	5	5		16	2	153	87	4,890
James City	3	1	5	17		86	35	3	8	6	21	6	129	1,947	3,779
Jefferson	12	67	72	517	43	99	72	151			320	344	737	4,157	14,082
Kanawha	7	4	8	14		203	23	8			117	50	408	2,560	13,567
King and Queen	8	3			3	343	36	14	8	42	21	60	548	5,937	10,862
King George	5	5	7	38	4	254	37	6	23	4	21		189	3,382	5,927
King William	6	5	13	59	6	350	45	17	11	56	54	51	349	5,780	9,258
Lancaster	3	2	8	26			44	7		10	30	2	140	2,478	4,628
Lee	10	10	34	37	7	446	103	23	23		17	31	138	580	8,441
Lewis	12	15	20	47	5	253	80	24	12		59	31	219	124	8,151
Logan	5	2	10	7		871	28	11	9		28		370	150	4,309
Loudon	27	32	39	573	82	892	225	53	1		275	196	1274	5,273	20,431
Louisa	11	13	20	221	1		158	15	2431		111	70	591	9,010	15,433
Lunenburg	7	9	16	27		275	138	10	2640	19	111		230	6,707	11,055
Madison	7	9	13	101	24	272	33	13	149	9	48	133	397	4,308	8,107
Mason	8	9	17	70	2	299		20	9		33	8	241	808	6,777
Marshall	5	7	9	83	2	146	103	30			19	13	70	46	6,937
Matthews	4	2	9	9		171	54	17		25	34	35	349	3,309	7,442
Mecklenburg	14	14	32	77		472	224	25	4124	19	303	50	520	11,915	20,724
Mercer	3	4	5	13	5	56	28	8	3		4	65	24	98	2,233
Middlesex	4	3	7	17	1	122	21	8	1	3	26	29	202	2,209	4,392
Monongalia	16	29	20	166	6	381	320	62	15		66	43	653	260	17,368
Monroe	12	20	14	68	39	209	124	23			229	65	179	868	8,422
Montgomery	10	13	17	106	21	209	114	18	241		126	59	442	1,473	7,405
Morgan	3	4	6	38	14	63	42	17	1		44	9	347	134	4,253
Nansemond	7	4	23	5		316	34	80		154	157	70	424	4,530	10,795
New Kent	4	3	9	22		140	51	8		4	21		287	3,385	6,230
Nicholas	4	5	5	4	3	56	38	11	4		40	7	77	72	2,515
Norfolk	8	3	19	3		260	35	35		1	1985	250	1085	7,845	21,092
Northampton	4	5	12	¼		297	197	52		6	39	41	186	3,620	7,715
Northumberl'nd	6	4	12	28		179	55	20		12	56	10	180	3,243	7,924
Nottoway	6	7	10	42		249	70	8	2213	21	55	49	195	7,071	9,719
Nelson	8	8	20	128	36	327	91	19	2229	1	258	50	345	5,967	12,287
Ohio	4	27	10	125	2	254	146	43			465	520	1089	212	13,357
Orange	7	11	15	98	8	395	92	21	416	2	95	115	348	5,364	9,125
Page	5	5	13	105	30	156	29	15	7		99	87	257	781	6,194
Patrick	7	6	24	28	3	223	69	13	618		21	14	120	1,842	8,032
Pendleton	14	21	13	66	36	130	51	36			63	51	235	462	6,940
Pittsylvania	19	19	42	142	6	679	334	24	6439	18	200	222	1012	11,588	26,398
Pocahontas	7	10	5	18	21	41	50	21			12	28	133	219	2,922
Powhatan	5	7	9	54		189	138	7	1850		28	43	219	5,129	7,924
Preston	7	12	9	3	18	43	130	35	4		109	45		91	6,866
Prince Edward	8	12	15	57		304	129	13	3107	11	124	204	517	8,576	14,069
Princess Anne	11	7	21	7		299	85	37		1	2	10	238	3,087	7,285
Prince William	7	8	9	47	4	180	105	6	5		66	22	118	2,767	8,144
Prince George	3	3	6	31		177	35	6	115	23	5	12	117	4,004	7,175
Pulaski	7	10	12	46	17	144	80	15			54	32	136	954	3,739
Randolph	10	14	9	27	7	151	87	30	7		65	27	108	216	6,208
Rappahannock	9	13	18	180		310	94	24	5		93	35	502	3,663	9,257
Roanoke	5	6	11	141	14	182	98	6	599		47	40	196	1,553	5,449
Rockbridge	13	20	26	264	70	505	249	36	294		169	131	883	3,510	14,284
Rockingham	20	24	39	375	91	470	248	41	37		304	174	844	1,899	17,344
Russell	14	15	27	59	8	294	142	21			29	29	41	700	7,878
Scott	10	14	24	40	2	294	112	17	7		31	22	206	344	7,303
Shenandoah	11	12	16	164	32	298	105	35			186	178	355	1,033	11,618
Smythe	9	11	16	52	7	221	178	34			29	8	298	838	6,522
Southampton	10	8	44	10	3	554	71	88	25	851	56	6	449	6,555	14,525
Spottsylvania	8	8	12	58		303	102	10	353	4	395	153	649	7,590	15,161
Stafford	5	5	9	31	4	212	68	12	34	760	18	2	195	3,596	8,454
Surrey	4	4	13	9		185	36	34	5	64	47	7	186	2,853	6,480
Sussex	9	8	24	19		405	104		176	477	36	6	363	6,384	11,229
Tazewell	10	11	15	34	13	150	126	16		45	41	11		786	6,290
Tyler	6	12	13	53	2	223	58	35	1		29	42	416	85	6,954
Warwick	2	1	4	11		46	9	2		1	63	218	52	831	1,456
Warren	5	7	13	148	17	219	58	16			83	115	234	1,434	5,627
Washington	14	19	32	107	8	397	296	60			304	43	551	2,058	13,001
Westmoreland	5	4	6	60	1	244	28	7	1	5	67	10	163	3,590	8,019
Wood	8	14	12	71		204	85	22	87		99	17	626	624	7,923
Wythe	14	18	23	86	47	234	152	38			173	72	309	1,618	9,375
York													170		4,720