History of Virginia :: :: University of Virginia Library

The Crisis of Colonization. — The real crisis of colonization
had now come. Dale's tyrannical administration and
Argall's rule of robbery and ruin, had given Virginia such
a bad reputation, that emigrants were no longer willing to
go to a land where so many woes were experienced. One
convict, who was offered the choice between transportation
to Virginia and death by hanging, promptly chose hanging.
The organizers of the London Company had hoped that
they would reap large profits, as the stockholders of the
East India Company were doing; but the colony had not
proved a success financially; and it was now seen that
commercial motives would have to become secondary, or
else the whole scheme abandoned.

Triumph of Patriotic Motives. — Higher motives prevailed.
"Divers lords, knights, gentlemen, and citizens
grieved to see this great action fall to nothing"; and patriotic
feeling was deeply stirred. The London Company
passed under the control of a body of liberal statesmen,
who put the founding of a state before the making of
fortunes, and determined to adopt such means as were
necessary to restore credit to the Virginia experiment.

The Great Charter. — Under the influence of such patriotic
men as the Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare's friend,
and Sir Edwin Sandys, the great advocate of popular
liberty, the London Company on November 13, 1618,

granted to Virginia a "Great Charter or Commissions of
Priviledges, Orders, and Lawes." No copy of this charter
is extant, but it is known that it limited the power of the
governor, and provided for a legislative body to be composed
of burgesses elected from the different settlements. This
was the beginning of constitutional government in America;
and the first House of Burgesses met at Jamestown on
July 30, 1619, at the call of Governor Yeardley. The
Great Charter provided also for an allotment of land to all
settlers who were in the colony when Sir Thomas Dale
took his departure; and so the oldest Virginia land titles
date back to it.

Good Results. — In the spring of 1619, the people heard
of the Great Charter and the changes it would bring, and
they were filled with joy, feeling "now fully satisfied for
their long labors, and as happy men as there were in the
world." At the close of Argall's administration, the colony
numbered not more than four hundred, but now emigrants
came in large numbers. Twelve hundred and sixty-one
arrived in the year 1619, and thirty-five hundred more
within three years. All honor to such men as Sir Edwin
Sandys, who founded in Virginia an English state with
a constitution and a representative government, before
England herself was delivered from the tyranny of the
Stuarts.

Homes in the Wilderness. — When the founding of a
state was made the first object, then the London Company
became convinced "that a plantation can never flourish
till families be planted, and the respects of Wives and
Children fix the people on the Soyle." In 1619, Sir
Edwin Sandys stated that the English in Virginia "were
not settled in their mindes to make it their place of rest
and continuance." During the same year, ninety young

women were induced to emigrate to the colony. These
found many suitors, as did others who came in later years.
In 1624, the governor felt it to be his duty to issue a proclamation,
threatening with punishment young ladies who
betrothed themselves to more than one lover at a time.
Happy marriages followed the coming of the women; and
soon men began to look upon Virginia as their home. An

Young Women come to Virginia

interesting feature of these early marriages is that a man
was required, after winning his wife's hand, to pay for
bringing her to the colony in tobacco, which was then a
costly commodity.

Introduction of Negro Slavery. — Almost simultaneously
with the birth of free government came the curse of African
slavery. In August, 1619, a Dutch man-of-war sailed
up the James River, and sold to the settlers twenty negroes,

who became the property of their purchasers and were
made permanent servants. This was the beginning of an
institution that was destined in after years to become
fraught with harm. The traffic in negroes, when it had
once begun, continued, but grew so slowly at first that
thirty years after its introduction, the white population
outnumbered the black fifty to one.

Indented Servants. — There was a class of persons in
the colony known as indented servants. The term was
applied to any one who was bound by a legal agreement
to work for a prescribed time for another person. Some
entered into an arrangement of this kind to defray their expenses
in coming to Virginia, others were prisoners taken
in war and sold by their captors into temporary servitude.
It by no means follows that all persons of this class were
of humble origin. Among them were to be found the
sons of gentlemen. Some convicts were also sent to
the colony, but the number was small compared with the
population; and the offenses committed by many of these
had been of a political nature.

Friendly Intercourse with the Indians. — After Pocahontas
married Rolfe, there had been peace between the
English and the Indians. This had continued for so long
a time that the Indians were no longer looked upon with
distrust, nor did they display any hostility to the whites;
and it seemed probable that the two races would continue
to dwell in amity.

The Massacre of 1622. — In 1618 Powhatan died, and
was succeeded by his brother, Itopatin, and he in a short
time was supplanted by Opechancanough, a chief who was
cunning, artful, and able. He at once formed a plot to exterminate
the English, and for four years he schemed and
planned, bringing tribe after tribe into the conspiracy.

To keep his design from being suspected, just before he
was ready to strike he entered into a treaty of peace with
the English. His plot was well conceived, his plan being
to fall upon all the plantations and settlements at the same
time, and by an unexpected blow to destroy the colony
utterly. The Indians manifested the greatest friendliness
for the whites up to the very time when the murderous
design was to be put into execution; and, even on the

The Massacre of 1622

morning of the fatal day, they came freely among them,
and in some cases took breakfast with the persons they
had planned to kill. At midday on March 22, 1622, they
swarmed out of their hiding places and engaged in a
wholesale butchery, sparing neither men, women, nor
children. By sunset 347 persons had been slain. But
the conspiracy met with only partial success. At some of
the plantations the settlers succeeded in beating off their
assailants. Jamestown and the places next to it received,

through a converted Indian, warning in time to get ready
for the danger that was impending, and when they were
attacked, they easily put the savages to flight.

Effects of the Massacre. — The immediate effects of the
massacre upon the colony were disastrous in the extreme.
Many of the plantations were abandoned, and the alarmed
people were crowded upon a territory so limited that it was
hardly large enough to afford them a bare subsistence,
and much sickness prevailed. In consequence of these
hardships many became disheartened and returned to
England, so that a year after the massacre, the number
of inhabitants had been reduced from about four thousand
to twenty-five hundred.

Retaliation. — The people were at first thrown into a
panic; but they soon realized that they were strong enough
to protect themselves, and entered upon a fierce though
desultory warfare, which lasted for ten years. Before
the massacre, it seemed probable that the Indians would,
for all time, occupy the land along with the English;
but by their treachery they lost the opportunity they
had of retaining a part of their heritage in the territory
of Virginia. They were now regarded by the whites as
unworthy of receiving the treatment shown to enemies in
civilized warfare, and were relentlessly pursued and shot
down whenever opportunity offered. From this time on,
the aboriginal inhabitants of Virginia were forced to retire
from their homes and hunting grounds before the ever-rising
wave of white settlers, and began, tribe after tribe,
to fade out of existence.

QUESTIONS

1. What brought on the crisis of colonization?
2. How was the London Company disappointed in its expectations?
3. What was the character of the statesmen who now obtained control
of the London Company?
4. When was the Great Charter granted to Virginia?
5. What is known of its provisions?
6. When and where did the first House of Burgesses meet?
7. What good result followed the granting of the Great Charter?
8. Why did Sir Edwin Sandys and the men that acted with him
deserve special honor?
9. Of what did the London Company become convinced?
10. In 1619, what was said of the English in Virginia?
11. What was done to help matters?
12. What good results to the colony followed?
13. What was an interesting feature of the early Virginia marriages?
14. When and how was negro slavery introduced into Virginia?
15. What were indented servants?
16. Were all such servants of humble origin?
17. After the marriage of Pocahontas, how had the whites learned to
look upon the Indians?
18. Describe Opechancanough's plot to exterminate the English.
19. Give an account of the massacre of 1622.
20. What were its effects?
21. From this time on, what became of the Indian tribes?