University of Virginia Library

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."