The American People (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 edition. Excerpt: ...to the Christian faith doth not make free." For an owner to kill his slave "from extremity of correction," was not a felony, "since it cannot be presumed that prepensed malice, which alone makes murther felony, should induce any man to destroy his own estate." In 1700 there were probably 6000 negroes and 60,000 whites, but it was not until after the Asiento article of the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 gave to England a monopoly of the African slave trade that the kidnapping of black men became a recognized and respectable business; and so profitable had the trade become and so great was the demand for servile labor, that in 1750 there were believed to be 250,000 negro slaves in Virginia, and an equal number of whites. It is not necessaiy at this time to deal further with the subject of slavery or the political, social and moral effect of the institution and the psychological influence which it exercised, as in the logical development of the theme we shall see how powerful that influence became and how momentous its consequences. CHAPTER XV VIRGINIA AN ARISTOCRATIC OLIGARCHY We have already shown that the men who first settled Virginia were not substantially different from those who exiled themselves to Massachusetts, and Virginia, like the northern colony, built a social system on the feeble foundation laid by men who were deficient in those qualities that are necessary for nation building. The strength of Massachusetts was the Puritan, not the Pilgrim. The character of Virginia was made by the Cavalier, not by the men who followed John Smith, but here the parallel ends. The Pilgrims, too gentle and unresisting to oppose the force of stronger wills, were merged in the Puritans, to the advantage of the latter. The...