The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-16

mapping MNN RNI0 NJ Nnht III oANINtiNDAL NnI
ticed IN England. Young girls and boys, us
ually but not always OF the lowest class of
society, werc seized by press gangs on tho
streets OF London and other English s%oaports.
hurried on board ship, and carried over 10 vir-
ginia TO work on the plantations or ms house
s~ervants. They were not sold, indeed, into hope
less slavery. but they passed into n state of
servitude which might be prolonged indefinitely
by avarlcious or cruel masters. Nominally. tho
period OF their indenture was short. usually not
moro than four years; but tho ordinary pom
atty for such offences as woro very likely to
DO committed was q lengthening Of tho timo
during which they were to serve. In England
the notion presently became current that the
aristocracy Of Virginia was recruited from the
ranks Of these kidnapped paupers and convicts.
Statements to this effect based on real but mis-
construed facts wero to DO found in Defoe's
widely road stories and in the comedies Of Mrs.
Behn. It was not only in novels and plays,
however, that such assertions are met with. Mr..
Flske points out that Postlethwayt. the author
ofseveral valuable ~troatises on commerce. avors:
EVEN your transported felons sent to Virginia
instead of Tyburn. thousands OF them II We are
not mIslnformed. have. by turning their hands
to Industry and Improvement and (which Is best
Of ALL to honesty. become substantial planters
and merchants, settled largo families and been
famous In tho country; nay. we have seen many
Of them made magistrates, officers OF militia,
captains OF good ships, and masters OF good
estates" Mr.. Fiske suggests that It might have
been from the study Of Postlethwayt, or per-
haps from reading Defoe's story. "Moll Flan-
ders." that DR.. johnson got the notion to which
ho gave vent In 1853 when the Ministry seemed
ready to make some concessions to tho Ameri.
cans. "Why. they are q race OF convicts,"
cried the doctor. and ought to DO thankful for
ANYTHING ~ oll0vy than ahorf Of HANGING Aa
lately as the time OF our civil war European
newspapers occasionally informed thcir readers
that tho citizens of tho United States are tho
Offspring of tho vagabonds and felons Of Eu-
rope" Mr.. Fiske undertakes to demonstrate
that tho differences drawn from Postlethwayt's
statement have been much moro sweeping than
the facts will sustain. He begins by distinguish
ing between the questions. first. What sort of
people on the whole were the indontured white
servants Of virginia. and, secondly. How far did
they ever succeed in attaining to high social
position in the coloniesi The former question
is Examined at some length, and the conclusion
drawn from the evidence Is that in the class of
indentured white servants there was q wide
range of graduation. from thrifty redemptioners
and gallant rebels at the one extreme down
to rufflans and pickpockets at the other. Pass
ing to the second question. How far did white
freedmen succeed In attaining high social po-
sltion In Virginia we find no doubt expressed
by Mr.. Fiske that, as Postlethwayt declared,
some of the best Of them did work their way up
to the ownership of plantations. In the seven-
teenth century they were occasionally elected
to tho House of Burgesses. The composition
OF that assembly for 1854 affords three ex-
amples. One of tho four members for Charles
City was Major Abraham Wood, who as
O child Of 10 years had been brought
from England In 1920 and had been q servant;
John Trussel. the member for N~orthumber-
land. and William Worlidge. one Of the two
members for Elizabeth City. had been SER
wants brought over in 1922. II the word ser
want IL to be understood in the ordinary
sense. it was much to their credit that
they rose to be Burgesses. Cases. however,
of ordinary indentured servants thus rising
arc pronounced certainly exceptional in the
seventeenth century. and still more so in
the eighteenth. In Mr.. Fiske's opinion nothing
can be more certain than that the representa-
tive families Of Virginia were not descendants
from convicts or from indentured servants Of
any sort. We are assured that although family
records were, until of late, less carefully pre-
served than they were in New England, yet the
registered facts prove abundantly that the lead
ing families of Virginia had precisely the Same
sort of origin as tho leading families in New
England. For tho most part they were either
SoahsAJ ~ SSAbS " -
men from the numerous guilds, and. alike in
Virginia and in New England. there was q
similar proportion of persons connected with
English families ennobled or otherwise eminent
for public service.
As for the white freedmen, those of tho better
sort often acquired small estates. while some
became overseers of white servants and black
slaves. The class of small proprietors always
remained in Virginia and included many other
persons besides freedmen. With the increasing
tendency, however, toward the predominance of
great estates in the dewate country. there was
a tendency on the part of the smaller proprietors
to move westward into The Piedmont region or
southwark into North Carolina. 1t Is. at tho
same time, admitted by Mr.. Fiske. on the score
of contemporary testimony. that while 1t was
true that 1.-The convicts sometimes proved
very worthy people and entirely forsook
their former follies," 1t was also true
that many Of them "have been and are
the poorest, idlest. and worst of mankind.
the refuse Of Great Britain and ireland. and tho
outcast Of the people" These degraded freedmen
were apt to be irreclaimable vagabonds. Bishop
Meade, writing In 1857. testified that they gave
the vestrymen a great deal Of trouble. and that
" there are many negroes who look upon poor
white folk as much beneath themselves; and. in
truth. they are 30 in many respects" II the
negro were like a Sudra. the mean whites were
simply Pariahs; crimes against person and
property were usually committed by persons of
this class. Mr.. Fiske thinks that in these
people may be recognized a strain of the
English race. which has not even yet become ex-
tinct or absorbed on American soil. There is in
his judgment little doubt that the white freed
men of degraded type were the progenitors of
a considerable portion Of what is often called
the white trash" Of the South. Originating In
Virginia and Maryland. tho greater part of 1t
seems to have boon gradually sifted out by mi.
grafton to wilder regions westward and south
ward. much to the relief of those two colonies.
The author recurs to this subject in another
chapter. in which he describes tho settlers Of
North Carolina, which long swarmed with ruff
fans of all sorts who had fed thither from Vir-
ginia. OF the exodus thither of white freedmen,
the Governor of Virginia wrote in 17l7: Tho
of our frontiers are composed gen.
arnlly nf annh N a haua haan -