WHAT HAPPENED AFTER 1638 Governor, Sir John Harvey

EPILOGUE: WHAT HAPPENED AFTER 1638
Governor, Sir John Harvey:
Harvey, whose house is shown at the left in the picture above, was sent back to England in 1635 to
answer charges the settlers had brought against him.
The king, Charles I, was not pleased that the settlers had sent Harvey back to England. The king
had appointed Harvey and he felt that only he had the right to dismiss him. Therefore, Charles I
reinstated Harvey as governor and sent him back to Virginia.
An investigation was held in London into the charges brought against Harvey by the Virginia
colonists.
William Peirce and the others sent to England by Harvey were questioned extensively about
Harvey’s actions as governor of Virginia.
On December 8, 1638 Sir Francis Wyatt, who had been the governor of Virginia in the early 1620’s,
was appointed to replace Harvey.
Harvey went back to England in 1641.
Relations with the Virginia Indians:
Harvey had made peace with the Virginia Indians and built a palisade line, a wall of upright standing
wooden posts such as the one shown above, as a boundary between Indian land and English land.
The Indians were to stay to the north and west of the line and the English to the south and east. The
palisade line opened about 300,000 acres of land for the English to use and settle.
More and more English people arrived in Virginia. Soon they began to cross over the palisade line
to establish their plantations.
Conflict over land caused tension between the two groups of people and in 1644 there was another
Indian uprising led by Opechancanough, who had led the uprising in 1622. Almost 500 English
settlers were killed in the first attack. Virginia Indian casualties are unknown.
The uprising led to another war between the Virginia Indians and English colonists that lasted until the
capture of Opechancanough in 1646.
The governor at that time was Sir William Berkeley. He created separate areas for the Virginia Indians
to live. They were not allowed to enter English territory without wearing an official badge or striped
coat—on pain of being shot.
Englishmen, however, could get permission from the governor to go onto Indian land to cut wood or
grass for their domestic animals.
There was no more armed conflict between the Virginia Indians and English settlers. The Indians now
paid a tribute or tax every year to the governor in return for his protection.
There was one more hostile encounter between settlers and Indians in 1675-1676. Settlers and Indians
on the colony’s frontier exchanged attacks against each other; ironically, the Indians involved lived
outside the territory of Virginia.
These attacks played a role in the outbreak of Bacon’s Rebellion in the colony in 1676. During the
uprising Nathaniel Bacon, the younger, and his followers burned Jamestown.
By the end of the 17th century the Virginia Indians had been overwhelmed by the increasing number of
English settlers. They were pushed from their lands—disease, warfare and malnutrition took their toll
and their numbers decreased.
In 1700, at the turn of the century, there were barely 2000 Virginia Indians left in Virginia.
They did survive as a people and their descendants live among us today and prefer to be called Virginia
Indians and not Native Americans. Seven tribes descended from the original Powhatan Chiefdom are
recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia and tribal leaders act as advisers to the governor on
Virginia Indian affairs.
Development of the Colony:
Harvey had tried his best to introduce new industries in Virginia.
He had started a pottery,
brought in an apothecary to make perfume and experiment with medicines,
established a brewery for making ale and
he encouraged colonists to make wine.
However, none of these industries were successful. Tobacco planting continued to be the most important
industry in Virginia, as colonists used tobacco to pay their taxes, buy their household goods, tools,
luxury items, etc.
Sir William Berkeley, who became governor in 1641, also tried to introduce new industries in the
colony.
At his home at Green Spring, pictured above, he experimented with growing rice and sugar and
producing silk. He discovered that rice and sugar could be raised in Virginia, but required so much
effort that it was not practical.
Silk production, however, was promising. In the late 1660’s Berkeley was successful in persuading
several wealthy planters to produce silk.
However, the king and his ministers discouraged silk production in the colony. The king received a
duty or tax on all tobacco imported into England. He wanted more tobacco produced, not less.
Tobacco remained the only cash crop in Virginia until after the Revolution.
English settlers continued coming to Virginia to seek a better life. By 1670 there were 40,000 English
colonists living in the colony.
Jamestown remained the seat of government in the colony until 1699 when it was moved to Williamsburg,
pictured below.
Jamestown remained the county seat for James City County until 1715 and then the town slowly
disappeared.
Much of Jamestown Island was farmland by the end of the 18th century.
Africans in Virginia:
Tobacco was a crop that required a great deal of labor. Indentured servants from England made up the
majority of the work force in the colony for several years.
Gradually Africans were brought into the colony as workers.
By 1640 a new condition for laborers appeared on the record books—servant for life.
It is not clear how workers were made servants for life. In 1640 we know that an African indentured
servant named John Punch, who ran away from his master, was punished by being made a servant for
life.
Indentured servants—English or African—were available to work for only a short period of time.
Although it is probable that African indentures tended to be longer than indentures for English
servants, all indentured servants would eventually gain their freedom and new laborers would have
to be found.
Servants for life, on the other hand, would provide a steady, reliable source of labor for the tobacco
planter.
Were only Africans made servants for life? We do not know the answer to that question. We do know
that Africans made up the majority of the servants for life.
The status of servant for life had some advantages over that of an enslaved person. Servants could be
easily freed and had rights under the law.
An enslaved person was considered property and had no rights and the emancipation of a slave was
difficult process.
By mid-century there were Africans who came to Virginia as enslaved people.
It was not until the 1660’s that laws began to appear on the books that gradually defined the system of
slavery as it came to be practiced in the 18th century.
The African population in Virginia remained low for most of the 17th century. In 1625 there were
only 23 Africans and their descendants living in Virginia, and by 1648 there were 300 Africans and
their descendents compared to 15,000 English settlers. In 1671 there were 2,000 Africans and their
descendents living in the colony.
By the end of the century the numbers had increased. It is estimated that by 1700 there were anywhere
from 6,000 to 10,000 Africans living in Virginia.
The greatest increase in the African population occurred in the 18th century. At the time of the
Revolution there were 500,000 people living in Virginia—40% of the population—200,000—were of
African descent.