and half that price for the inferior grade. | sacrifice. In order to aid the husbands in Provision was also made for “the erecting of a university and college" for the proper education of the children who should be born to the planters. It was designed to extend to the Indians the benefit of these institutions, and it was ordered that the "most towardly (Indian) boys in wit and graces of nature should be brought up in the first elements of literature, and sent from college to the work of converting the natives to Christianity." The measures of the assembly were put in force without waiting the approval of the London Company, and the good effects of them were quickly visible in the colony. The principles of free government having been planted in the community, the settlers, who had been thereby transformed from the mere creatures of the governor into freeborn Englishmen once more, began to regard Virginia as their permanent home, and set to work with a will to build houses and plant fields. One thing only was lacking to give the settlers homes in the truest sense of the word; and to supply that need Sir Edwin Sandys induced ninety young and virtuous women to emigrate to America, that the colonists might be able to marry and form domestic ties which alone could permanently attach them to America. Wives Imported. The young women were sent over to the colony in 1619, at the expense of the company, and were married to the tenants of the corporation or to men who were well enough to do to support them. The next year sixty more were sent over, and quickly found husbands. In all cases the husbands were required to repay to the company the cost of the passage of their wives from England. This was paid in tobacco, and was regarded as a debt of honor, to be discharged at any these payments, as well as in their general matters, the company, in employing labor, gave the preference to the married men. The colony now increased in a marked degree, emigrants coming out so rapidly from England that by 1621 there were four thousand persons in Virginia. It having become understood that the colony had passed the stage at which failure was possible, and had become a permanent state, the new emigrants were largely men of family, who brought their households with them. Virginia's Written Constitution. In July, 1621, the London Company, which was now controlled by the patriot party in England, granted to Virginia a written constitution, which gave to the colony a form of government similar to that of England herself. A governor and permanent council were to be appointed by the company. The house of burgesses was to have the power of enacting such laws as should be needed for the general good, but no law so enacted was to be valid unless approved by the company, On the other hand, no orders of the court in London were to be binding in Virginia unless ratified by the house of burgesses. Courts of justice were established and ordered to be administered according to the law and forms of trial in use in England. Thus the common law of England was firmly established in Virginia, and under its beneficent protection the colony advanced steadily in prosperity. The colonists were to be no longer merely the subjects of a commercial corporation, and as such to hold their liberties and property at the pleasure of their masters; but were definitely accorded the right to govern themselves, and to take such measures for their safety and prosperity as in their judgment should seem best. Such were the provisions of the constitution. CHAPTER VII Progress of the Virginia Colony introduction of Negro Slavery Into Virginia-Efforts of the Assembly to Restrict Slavery-The Indians Attempt the ⚫ Destruction of the Colony-Terrible Sufferings of the Whites-Aid from England-The Indian War Begun-King James Revokes the Charter of the London Company-Charles I. Desires a Monopoly of the Tobacco Trade-Action of the Assembly-Sir William Berkeley's First Administration-Severe Measures Against Dissenters-Close of the Indian War-Death of Opechancanough-Emigration of Royalists to Virginia-Virginia and the Commonwealth-Treaty with England-The Assembly Asserts Its Independence of the Governor-The Restoration-Berkeley Chosen Gov ernor by the Assembly-His Hypocrisy. I N August, 1619, a few months after the meeting of the first colonial legislature, there occurred an event which was destined to influence the history of Virginia and of America for remote generations, perhaps forever. A Dutch vessel of war entered the James River and offered twenty negroes for sale as slaves. These were purchased by the planters, and negro slavery was thus established in Virginia. Laborers were in demand, and the necessity for them blinded the planters to the evil they were fastening upon the colony. The first importation was followed by others, the infamous business being principally in the hands of the Dutch at this period. Still the blacks increased very slowly. The legislature from the first discouraged the traffic by a heavy tax upon female slaves. Sir Francis Wyatt, the first governor appointed under the new constitution, reached Virginia in 1621, and the new laws were soon in successful operation. Soon after his arrival a terrible misfortune befell the colony, and almost caused its destruction. For some time there had been bad blood between the whites and the Indians. Powhatan, the friend of the English, was dead, and Opechancanough, the veteran chief, who, since the death of Powhatan, had become the leader of the nation, was bitterly hostile to the English, and not without reason. The savages origi nally held the best lands in the colony, but the whites, when these lands were wanted, took possession of them without regard to the rights of their dusky owners. The Indians, unable to contend with the whites in open. conflict, saw themselves driven steadily away from their accustomed homes, and menaced with total destruction by the superior race. Opechancanough, though outwardly friendly to the colonists, now secretly resolved upon their destruction, and sought to accomplish this by treachery. There were about five thousand Indians, of whom fifteen hundred were warriors, within sixty miles of Jamestown, and the whites in the same region numbered in all about four thousand. These were scattered in fancied safety along both sides of the James and for some distance into the interior. A plot was organized by the Indian leader for the extermination of every settler in the colony. At noon on a designated day every settlement was to be surprised and all the inhabitants murdered. The savages in the meantime kept up their pretence o friendship. Opechancanough declared with fervor, "Sooner shall the sky fall than my friendship for the English should cease." So unsuspicious were the English that to the very last moment they received the savages amongst them without fear of harm, and in many places the latter were then in the houses of the people they meant to destroy. On the twenty-second of March, 1622, a gene al attack was made by the savages upon all the settlements of the colony. On the previous night the plot had been revealed to a converted Indian named Chauco, who at once hastened to Jamestown and gave warning of the danger. The alarm spread rapidly to the nearest settlements, but those at a distance could not be reached in time to avert their fate. Those settlements which had been warned were able to offer a successful resistance to their assailants, and some of those which were surprised beat off the Indians; but the number of victims, men women and children, who fell this day amounted to three hundred and forty-seven. All these were slain, and their fate would have been shared by the whole colony but for the warning of the friendly Indian. Terrible Destruction. The effect upon the colony was appalling. The distant plantations had been destroyed by the savages, and out of eighty settlements eight alone survived. These, and especially These, and especially Jamestown, were crowded beyond their capacity with fugitives who had fled to them for shelter. Sickness soon began to prevail, the public works were discontinued, and private industry was greatly diminished. A gloom rested over the entire colony, and the population fell off. At the end of two years after the massacre, the number of inhabitants had been reduced to two thousand. Much sympathy was manifested for the suffering colonists by the people of England. The city of London sent them liberal assistance, and private individuals subscribed to their need. King James was aroused into an affectation of generous sympathy, and sent over to the colony a supply of muskets which had been condemned as worthless in England. The whites recovered from their gloom, and on their part began to form plans for the extermination of their foes. During the next ten years expeditions were sent against the Indians at frequent intervals. The object kept sternly in view was to either destroy the savages altogether, or force them back from the seaboard into the interior. As late as 1630 it was ordered by the general assembly that no peace should be made with the Indians. Virginia's Charter Revoked. An important change now occurred in the fortunes of the colony. The London Company was bankrupt, and its stockholders having abandoned all hope of gain from the colony, held on to their shares merely as a means of exercising political power. The company was divided between two parties. One of these favored the direct rule of the colony by the sovereign, the other maintained the independent government of the province by its own legislature under the constitution. granted to it. The debates between these factions greatly annoyed the king, who could never tolerate the expression of an independent opinion by any of his subjects. endeavored in various ways to silence these disputes, and to regain the powers he had relinquished to the company, but the latter firmly refused to surrender their charter, and the colonists, who feared that the king might. seek to impose his own arbitrary will upon them in the place of their constitution and the laws of England, sustained the company in its refusal. He In spite of this opposition, however, James carried his point. The charter of the com pany was revoked, and Virginia was made a royal province. The company appealed to the courts, but these being under the influence of the crown sustained the king. Their decision was rendered in June, 1624. James did not interfere with any of the liberties or privileges of Virginia, however. Sir Francis Wyatt was retained in his office of governor, prepare a code of laws for the government of Virginia, but fortunately for that province he died before he could execute his design. Charles I. succeeded his father on the English throne on the twenty-seventh of March, 1625. He was favorably disposed toward the colony, for he did not suppose the principles of civil liberty had taken so deep a root in it, and, moreover, he wished to secure for the crown the monopoly of the tobacco trade. He carried his condescension to the extent of recognizing the house of burgesses as a legislative body and requesting it to pass a bill restricting the sales of tobacco to the crown. The house answered him respectfully, but firmly, that to grant his majesty's request would be to injure the trade of the colony. Defeated in this effort to secure this monopoly the king continued throughout his reign to seek to get the tobacco trade into his hands. He declared London to be the sole market for the sale of tobacco, and endeavored in many ways, and in vain, to regulate the trade. FLIGHT OF THE INDIANS AFTER THE MASSACRE. and the colony was left under the laws and in possession of the privileges secured to it in 1621. James announced his intention to |