New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-08-28

deuted white servants were originally the only
servile class and the laws for their regulation were
brutally severe The influx of negroes reduced
them to insignihcance; their numbers declined
and they lost all Importance both socially and no
litically For the most part they transported
convicts and the scum of the London Streets
though in many cases children were kidnapped and
sold into servltde, either for the sake of the price
or to get them out of the way. They miserably
fed and clothed and barbarousv treated, and the
law enabled INSCRIPTIONS masters to prolong their
term of service punishme for various offences
When their time was out they generally became
"poor whites" idle, shftless, illterate. degraded,
despsed even by the negroes, and forming the tur-
bulent and criminal class which appears to have
been distinctly marked in Virginia than in any
of the other colonies.
The middle class gradually through the ranks
of traders and farmers till it merged in the land
holding aristocracy. Trade was looked upon with
great contempt by the owners of land and slaves.
and young man of family was thought to be dis
graced by enterig counting house. The traders,
however, as we have seen. were very few, and the
middle class consisted chiefly of yeomen and
farmers sturdy and manly race, aristocratc in
feeling despotic (lke all slaveholders), unpublished
uneducated fond of gaming and rude sports, gem
erous, hospitable independent often allied by blood
or marriage with the great planters to whom they
gave strength. support and political power. 1t was
whole society of the colony. They country
gentlemen of the eighteenth century type, many of
them no doubt resembling FIelding's Squire West
ern and none of them differing in any essential
particular except q more intense pride from the
English country gentleman of the period.
They believed themselves to be of different stuff
from other mortals and their pretensions as the sole
governing class readily admitted. The suffrage
indeed was restricted to the of fifty of
land. The patrician feeling was strengthened not
only by the Importance attached to land the only
source of wealth, but by systom of entail and
primogeniture Vain, indolent, imperous,
naughty, impatient of restraint, the planters
Ia / nevertheless many of the virtues of an aris-
tocracy we'll the vices, and in the Revolution
they proved themselves fine soldiers sagacouS pol
iticians. great statesmen and ardent patriots.
They had little education, for there were very few
schools i'll Virginia, and those of the poorest
quality. Sir William Berkeley III 1871 gave thanks
to God that there free schools in Virginia
and probability of any for a hundred years to
come, and his amIabe prediction was substantially
verified. When Nirginians applied for charter for
William and Mary College, urging a reason for
the higher education the salvation of souls by the
clergy, Seymour, the Attorney General, replied
Souls! Damn your souls, grow tobacco" The
college founded, but at the period under review
it had degenerated into poor grammar school, with
incompetent and sometimes dissolute professors and
unruly pupils. Young men sent to England to
study brought back quite much vice as book
learning. To grow tobacco, to sell his crop, to
bring up his slaves, to vestryman, Justice
of the peace and member of the House of Bur
gesses, to talk politics, to command in the militia
were the chef duties OF Virginia gentleman He
lived in reckless profuson, gaming, drinking cock
fighting always in debt borrow wing at eXtortionate
interest, and passing through bankruptcy about
once in generation. Hospitality practised
IL, hat
the category OF virtues and reduced it to vice.
Gentlemen used to send to the nearest tavern and
invite any strangers found there to stay with them
as long as they pleased The roads so bad ana
the inns few and wretched that travellers were
often thrown upon the generosity of private houses
and the planters their part glad of the COM
pany of wayfarers to break the monotony of life in
the wilderness;
The houses of the ruling and representative class
very different from those of the great majority
of Nirgnans When the traveller came to one of
the widely separated gaps in the forest and found
himself upon The borders of a great plantation the
estate presented the appearance OF small village
In the centre stood the house of the planter around
which clustered the offices, all separate from
the main building, the tobacco houses, and the
numerous huts Of the negro quarters; In the fields
clearngs or cultvatng tobacco. Nor far away the
herds of cattle were at pasture and the whole scene
| An amount of style was maintained strangely at
variance with the Ignorance of the people, and the
|
| The most marked display was in carriages and
| horses, due, in some measure doubt to the fact
| that there were no other means of getting from
place to place. but owing still more to the fondnesS
! for show and the love OF horse-racng. Coaches,
| chariots and chaises were all in common uss. In
the year 1889 Colonel Spotswood adv erIses for sale
his coach chariot, chaise and coach-borses' and
the chariot is described as having been /" looked
| upon as one of the best made handsomest and
easiest chariots in London" Every planter had his
| stud, including fine coachhorses. hunters and
racers many had famous stations, and great atte-
ton was paid to breeding In every great house there
was "a handsome service of plate, ana the table was
bountful, although chiefly supplied by the products
| imported and costly; but nevertheless both men
and women dressed handsomely, and in the height
| of the English fashion
A good deal of this spendor crude and rough
| 1t is miserable luxury, said Brissot the famous
| Girondin -" they wear silk stockings and boots y;
and again he says speaking of the snowy dresses of
the women d" 1t IS poor luxury of high prices" In
| many houses, where the tables were beautifully
| spread, and masses OF old plate graced the side
| TORE and still unmended, buildings out of Iepair
and only the stables IN good condition. Even the
| fine coach horses which they prided themselves
! were not always carefully matched. The planters
| lived their noble estates and kept open house
with the splendor and aiiucnce of nabOhs, in the
midst of retinues of slaves and studs of horses; but
| their magniiceuce had certain barbaric element
| was unfinished aud Incomplete and showed here
| and there ragged edges anu coarse linen beneath
| its brOcaded silks.
The home life of the .vrrginian gentleman was
left detailed account of their everyday existence
| "The gentleman of fortune rises about 9 o'clock
| he may perhaps, make an excursion to walk as far
| as his stable to see his horses, which is seldom
moro than fifty yards frou his house he returns to
breakfast between and 10, which is generally tea
coffee, bread and butter, and very thin slices of
venison, ham or hung-becf. He then lies down on "a
| in his shirt and trousers only with negro at his
head and another at his feet, to fan him and keen
OIL the flies; between y aud he takes draught of
bombo or toddy, liquor composed of water, sugar.
| rum and nutmeg, which is made weak and KEPT