ginia, was introduced; but the eager demand for the article in England, caused for some time a scarcity of food in the colony. 23. About this time, a Dutch ship from the coast of Guinea, having sailed up James River, sold to the planters a part of her negroes; which race has been augmented in Virginia by successive importations and by natural increase, till it forms more than one third part of the population. 24. In 1619, Sir George Yeardly, the governor, impelled by that popular spirit of freedom which has ever been the characteristic of Americans, called the first general assembly which was held in Virginia. At this time eleven corporations sent representatives to the convention, which was permitted to assume legislative power, the natural privilege of man. The supreme authority was lodged, partly in the governor, partly in a council of state appointed by the company, and in a general assembly, composed of representatives of the people. 25. A natural effect of the happy change was an increase of agriculture. The company extended the trade of the colony to Holland and other countries. This measure produced the first difference of sentiment between the colony and the parent state. Jealous at seeing a commodity, (tobacco,) for which the demand was daily increasing, conducted to foreign ports beyond its control, thereby causing a diminution of revenue, the latter endeavored to check this colonial enterprise, without considering that the restraint was a breach of the sacred principles of justice. 26. The suspicion of the monarch James was soon roused, and the charter, by decision of the king's bench was declared forfeit and the company dissolved. Charles I. adopted all his father's maxims in respect to Virginia, which, during a great part of his reign, knew no other law that the royal will. But the colonists resisting, Charles yielded to the popular voice: he recalled Harvey, the obnoxious governor, and appointed Sir William Berkeley, a man of great abilities, prudent, virtuous, and popular; whose influence was directed in finally restoring to the people much the same share in the government, as they had enjoyed previously to the re tion of the charter. revoca 27. After the execution of the king, and the establishment of the commonwealth under Cromwell, through the influence of the governor, the colonists continued to adhere to their loyalty to the king. In 1651, the English commonwealth took vigorous measures to reduce the Virginians to obedience. A numerous squadron, with land forces, was dispatched for this purpose. Berkeley resisted, but was unable to maintain an equal contest, and was soon defeated. The people were, however, allowed to retain the privileges of citizens; but Berkeley retired as a private citizen. 28. Cromwell's parliament framed acts prohibiting all intercourse between the colonies and foreign states, and allowing no trade but in English ships. On the death of Matthews, the last governor appointed by Cromwell, the Virginians burst out in new violence. They called Sir William Berkeley from his retirement, boldly erected the royal ṣtandard, and proclaimed Charles II., son of their late monarch, to be their lawful sovereign. Charles was however soon placed on the throne, and the Virginians were thus saved from the chastisement to which they were exposed by their previous declaration in his favor. But the new king and parliament rewarded their fidelity by increasing the restraints upon colonial commerce! 29. The number of inhabitants in Virginia in 1688, exceeded sixty thousand; and its population in the previous twenty-eight years was doubled. In 1691, the college of William and Mary was founded. To aid in its erection and support, the sovereigns whose name it bears, gave nearly two thousand pounds out of their private purse, and granted twenty thousand acres of land, and a duty on tobacco, for its further encouragement. QUESTIONS. When and by whom was America discovered?" By whom and when was the continent of North America discovered? Who made the first attempt to colonize this part of the continent? To whom did Sir Walter Raleigh afterwards resign his interest in the coun try? From what did James River take its name? On what account did Captain John Smith obtain his first release from the Indians? Who effected his second release from them? On what account was the cultivation of the soil neglected by the first colonists ? What is the history of Pocahontas subesquent to her saving the life of Cap. tain Smith ? Who first brought the African negroes into this part of the country? What part did the Virginians take in relation to the Revolution of the mother country under Cromwell? What was the population of Virginia in 16887 SECTION II. Settlement of Massachusetts. 1. THE partition of the great territory of Virginia into North and South colonies, has already been mentioned. Still more feeble were the operations of the Plymouth company, to whom was assigned the conduct of the northern division, although animated by the zeal of Sir John Popham, chief jus tice of England, Sir Fernando Gorges, and other public spirited gentlemen of the west. 2. In the year 1607, the same in which James Town was founded, a small settlement was commenced on the river Sagadahoc, now called the Kennebec; but this was soon abandoned. Some fishing vessels visited Cape Cod several times; among them, one commanded by Captain' Smith, who returned with a high-wrought description of the coast and country, exhibiting a map of the bays, harbors, &c., on which he inscribed "New England;" the Prince of Wales, delighted with the representations of Smith, immediately confirmed the name. 3. To the operations of religion, rather than to the desire of pecuniary emolument, are the various settlements of New England indebted for their origin. The sacred rights of conscience and of private judgment were not then properly understood; nor was the charity and mutual forbearance taught Christians by their divine Master, practised in any country. Every church employed the hand of power in supporting its own doctrines, and opposing the tenets of another. 4. In reforming the rituals and exterior symbols of the church of England, Elizabeth, lest by too wide a departure from the Romish church, she might alarm the populace, had allowed many of the ancient ceremonies to reman unaltered. With several of these a large number of her subjects being dissatisfied, they wished to address their Creator according to their own opinions, but were subjected to very rigorous penalties. 5. Those who dissented from the established church obtained the general name of Puritans, a term applied to them because they wished for a purer form of discipline and worship. Among the most popular and strenuous declaimers against the established church, were the Brownists, a sect formed about 1581, by Robert Brown, who afterwards renounced his principles of separation, and took orders in the church against which he had so loudly declaimed. The Rev. John Robinson, the father of the first settlement of New England, is said to have been a follower of Brown, but afterwards renounced the principles of the Brownists, and became the founder of a new sect, denominated Independents. 6. Mr. Robinson affirmed that all Christian congregations were so many independent religious societies, that had a right to be governed by their own laws, independent of any foreign jurisdiction. Being persecuted in England, he, with many others embracing his opinions, removed to Holland, where they formed churches upon their own principles. Remaining there some years, the society were desirous to remove to some other place: they turned their thoughts to America, and applied to James, who, though he refused to give them any positive assurance of toleration, seems to have intimated some promise of passive indulgence. 7. They readily procured a tract of land from the Plymouth Company. One hundred and twenty persons sailed from Plymouth in 1620, their destination being Hudson's river: by some treachery of the Dutch, who then contemplated, and afterwards effected a settlement at that place, they were carried to the north, and landed on Cape Cod, the eleventh of November of that year. 8. They chose for their residence a place called by the Indians Patuxet, to which they gave the name of New Plymouth. Before spring, half their number were cut off by famine or disease. In a few days after they landed, Captain Standish was engaged in skirmishing with the Indians; and the many disasters which followed, together with the implacable hostility of the Indians, which always has subsisted, are perhaps more owing to the imprudence of the first settlers, than to the bad disposition of the natives. 9. This colony, like that of Virginia, at first held their goods and property in common; and their progress was retarded as well by this circumstance, as by the impulse of imaginary inspiration, which regulated all their actions. At the end of ten years, these well-meaning people, when they became incorporated with their more powerful neighbors of Massachusetts Bay, did not exceed three hundred. 10. In the year 1629, Mr. White, a non-conformist minister at Dorchester, having formed an association, purchased from the Plymouth company a tract extending in length from three miles north of Merrimac river, to three miles south of Charles river, and in breadth from the Atlantic to the Southern ocean; and obtained a charter from Charles, similar to that given to the two Virginian companies by James. Five ships were fitted out, on board of which were embarked upwards of three hundred souls, amongst whom were several eminent non-conforming ministers. 11. On their arrival, they found the remnant of a small party that had left England the preceding year, under the conduct of Mr. Endicott, who had been appointed by his companions deputy governor. They were settled at a place called by the Indians Naumkeag, to which he had given the scripture name of Salem. The new colonists immediately formed a church, elected a pastor, teacher, and "elder, disre garding the intentions of the king. They disencumbered their public worship of every superfluous ceremony, and reduced it to the lowest standard of Calvinistic simplicity. 12. But much as we respect that noble spirit which enabled them to part with their native soil, we must condemn the persecuting spirit of the colonists themselves. Some of the colonists, retaining a high veneration for the ritual of the church of England, refused to join the colonial state establishment, and assembled separately to worship; Endicott called before him two of the principal offenders, expelled them from the colony, and sent them home in the first ships returning to England." 13. The government of the colony was soon transferred to America, and vested in those members of the company who should reside there. John Winthrop was appointed governor, and Thomas Dudley deputy governor, with eighteen assistants. In the course of the next year, 1630, fifteen hundred persons arrived in Massachusetts from England, amongst whom were several distinguished families, some of them in easy, and others in affluent circumstances; and Boston, Charlestown, Dorchester, Roxbury, and other towns were settled. 14. The first general court, held at Charlestown, ventured to deviate from their charter in a matter of great moment: a law was passed, declaring that none should be freemen, or be entitled to any share in the government, except those who had been received as members of the church. 15. The fanatical spirit continued to increase. A minister of Salem, named Roger Williams, having conceived an aversion to the cross of St. George, a symbol in the English standard, declaimed against it with great vehemence, as a relic of superstition; and Endicott, in a transport of zeal, cut out the cross from the ensign displayed before the governor's gate This frivolous matter divided the colony; but the matter was at length compromised by retaining the cross in the ensigns of forts and vessels, and erasing it from the colors of the militia. QUESTIONS. What was the origin of the Plymouth colony? When was the settlement made ? Of how many persons did the colony at first consist? Of how many did it consist ten years afterwards? How many emigrants came to Massachusetts in the year 1030? |