Читать книгу Voices; Birth-Marks; The Man and the Elephant - Mathew Joseph Holt - Страница 13

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Their ship, a large, slow trader, plying between English and Scottish ports and Norfolk, Virginia, sailed from Greenock on the twenty-seventh day of August. She belonged to the Colonial Merchant Marine and was owned and operated by three rich planters, whose exports of tobacco and imports of plantation supplies and labor guaranteed half a cargo for each voyage.

The usual passenger list from America consisted of planters with their families visiting the “Old Country;” or their children coming over to be educated in European universities. The list and cargo of the return trip, as usual, consisted of emigrants, slaves and supplies for the plantations, a few merchants, adventurers and travelers. There were twenty-five cabin and sixty-three steerage passengers. The majority of the steerage were indentured servants and slaves; though there were perhaps as many as twenty emigrants, artisans, trades people and petty farmers who traveled in that manner, husbanding their small capital to purchase lands in the new country. Of the cabin passengers, ten were returning planters and members of their families; the other fifteen consisted of five gentlemen and their families, who, like Archibald Campbell and his wife, followed kindred or friends and expected to enjoy better material conditions and greater freedom in the New World.

Among these were David Clark and his family, natives of Argyllshire and the only persons aboard Mr. and Mrs. Campbell had known prior to the voyage. Mrs. Clark, who was Mrs. Campbell’s sister, had expected to [pg 77] make the trip to America with the McDonald Colony, but had been prevented by a serious illness.

The voyage proved slower than usual, owing to the prevalent light winds. The ocean was as placid as an inland lake, the weather quite warm and sultry; and nearly every day there was a light shower or thunder storm.

A friendly spirit, such as exists in isolated rural communities pervaded the ship. Class distinctions were eliminated. Even those sailing as steerage passengers were allowed greater deck privileges because of the extreme heat of their quarters; and thus made the acquaintance of the planters and their families and shared in the general cordial spirit.

Each planter became a zealous emigrant agent for his community and plantation, promising employment to such of the passengers as might settle in his neighborhood. Their efforts induced quite a few to change their original plans, and decision as to location rather than social cast finally grouped the passengers, those becoming intimates who expected to be neighbors in the new country.

There were three distinct groups. Those destined for the Northern Neck and for the York and James river plantations headed by the three planters, made the most numerous and affluent party. Those crossing the Blue Ridge into the Virginia Valley, intending to settle at the McDonald Settlement on the headwaters of Jackson river, nearly all Presbyterians from Ulster or Dissenters from Scotland, made a second, nearly as strong numerically, though not so rich a party. A third group of twenty-two persons consisting of four former small land owners who had lost their holdings, three recently released political prisoners and their families, with a Baptist [pg 78] preacher, William Hickman, driven from home by misfortune or persecution, intended settling where class and religious restrictions were unknown or disregarded; and therefore were headed for the extreme frontier settlements on the Ohio.

One cabin passenger was treated as a pariah by all. Mrs. Campbell asking her husband about him was told: “O that Spaniard, Carlo Sebastian! ‘He’s a spirit,’ that is, one who lives in a seaport town and lures young people to his tavern, where they are kidnapped and held prisoners until they can be sold and transported to the colonies as indentured servants. He started in that way and still continues the practice, though his business has grown until now he contracts with the government and buys at first hand political prisoners and criminals. Under the English code there are three hundred offences punishable with death; sometimes the judge trying the case deems this too severe; and having the option, sentences such prisoners to transportation. Sebastian buys and resells them to the planters. He has a third source of supply from rural or peasant laborers who find conditions of life almost impossible at home and yet have no means of getting away. Under the law, such can only labor in the fields of their own parish. When they find it impossible to subsist on the very small wage they earn at home they indenture themselves to him, willing to pay five years of service for transportation to the Colony; where labor is the only thing that is high. At the end of their bondage, they emigrate to the frontier, take out a patent for land and start in for themselves as landed proprietors, usually becoming substantial citizens.

“Yesterday, telling him that I expected to buy a slave or two, he showed me his stock. He has seven men, three grown women, a girl of fourteen and three boys about [pg 79] Richard’s age, all of whom are indentured. He also has four black slaves, three men and a clean looking young negro wench. He holds the indentured servants at prices ranging from twelve to eighteen guineas delivered at Norfolk and the slaves at twenty-five to thirty-five guineas. The young white girl seems quite frail, but is refined looking. I believe she will die during the voyage, confined in the foul air of her quarters and with such food as Sebastian provides. We better buy the negro wench at twenty-five guineas to help you; and if he will shave his price to thirty-three guineas, I will pay that for my choice of the negro men. Father says the slaves are better investments than the indentured servants; they stand the climate of the lowlands and are your absolute property; by the time the indentured servants are broken in and acclimated they have formed, and are only interested in, their own plans; and it is almost impossible to hire them after they are freed.”

“Oh, Archibald! We must not buy any slaves. It is wrong. One person should not be sold to another as a cow or a horse. It is bad enough to own the right to the services of another for a term of years, even though he voluntarily sells himself, or is so punished by the law. I should like to talk with the poor women and the sick girl. Can we not go down and see them?”

“Not unless Sebastian asks us to do so.”

“Here he comes. If you ask, he will show us his servants, the indentured ones.”

“Sebastian, my wife desires to see your indentured women servants. It is possible we might make you an offer for one.”

“Very well, come this way. I am not responsible for their filthy condition; I offer them clean clothing and water, but they prefer their dirt.”

[pg 80] Mrs. Campbell, when she saw the little girl, was deeply moved and inclined to express her indignation, but controlling herself, said:

“This girl must have attention at once. She is quite ill.”

“No. She is sea sick.”

“What do you ask for her? She might help me with the baby and the housework.”

“She is to be bound for seven years and her price is fifteen guineas.”

“But Sebastian, you offered her to me yesterday for twelve. I will give you that for her.”

“Yes, but your wife needs the girl.”

The girl, roused from the lethargy of her fever by the talking, held out her hands to Mrs. Campbell and in a voice broken by fear and sickness, pleaded:

“O, Lady! Take me away! You do not know what I am forced to endure. This man dragged me aboard and will sell me as a slave. I am very ill and so dirty. I cannot eat the food. Do not leave me in this place and with him. I am afraid.”

“Dear, we have made him an offer and if he will sell, will give you a good home. He sees our hearts are moved and has raised the price he asked. Mr. Sebastian, the girl is ill and you will lose her if she is not given immediate attention. My husband will give you twelve guineas and we will move her at once.”

“No. If you want her you must pay fifteen.”

“Come Mary, that will do. Let the trafficker in human flesh keep her and bear the loss. Let him have the burden of her murder on his conscience.”

“O, Lady! If you do not take me I shall not try to live. I would rather die than complete the voyage and [pg 81] be sold as a beast of burden. If you buy me I shall get well and be a faithful and willing servant.”

Mrs. Campbell, stooping down, kissed the dirty face of the sick girl and whispered: “We have every intention of buying you. Refuse to eat anything except what I send you. I will send Richard down today with clean clothing and something nice to eat.”

Within the hour Richard was sent to the hold with clean clothing, bed linen and some broth. The Spaniard took the articles saying:

“Hand them to me; you cannot go to my quarters.”

As soon as Richard was out of sight he drank the broth; calling it sloppy stuff; and that evening sold the clothing and bedding to the wife of an emigrant.

The next day he told the girl: “Your fine friends have forgotten you. That is the way people do. Some old bachelor or an Indian chief will be glad to get you.”

Each day Mrs. Campbell sent food to the girl and asked to see her, but Sebastian would not permit it. He ate the food himself or threw it away.

Several days later when he was showing his stock to one of the planters, he found the girl raving in delirium. Believing that she would die within a day or two, he hunted up Mr. Campbell and offered to sell her for twelve guineas.

Mr. Campbell looked at the girl. She was quiet at the moment and conscious, though her face was flushed, her hands twitched and her breathing was labored. He believed she would die and regretted not having bought her for fifteen guineas. To punish the Spaniard for his inhumanity, he told him the girl was dying; then after some delay offered eight guineas for her. This he accepted, after much swearing at his ill luck, complaining that he [pg 82] had paid four guineas for her transportation and two to her aunt.

Mrs. Campbell immediately arranged for more comfortable quarters and when she had been moved, removed her filthy clothing and sponged to cleanliness and comfort her hot, dirty body. With a sigh of exhaustion she dropped into a deep sleep which lasted several hours. Within a few days she was convalescent; then she gained strength and flesh rapidly and before the voyage ended had completely recovered.

One of Sebastian’s servants had voluntarily indentured himself for five years to obtain transportation to America, with the design to become a landed proprietor at the end of his service. He had seen Mr. Campbell purchase Ruth Crawford and judging by the act that he would make a considerate master sent a note to him, stating that he was a farm hand of experience and proposed to serve his master faithfully until the end of his service.

Mr. Campbell looked him over; and satisfied with his physical appearance and appreciating that an experienced and willing servant was a better investment than a stubborn and inexperienced one; for seventeen guineas, became the master of John Mason.

Mr. Clark purchased the negro wench and a black man slave. He would not invest in the indentured servants, giving as his reason that he did not care to drill a servant five years and lose him just when he was most needed or had become efficient.

The ship came to anchor in Elizabeth river, off Norfolk, at noon on the twenty-second day of September. The next day those bound for the Virginia Valley chartered a river boat to carry them to Ricketts, just below [pg 83] Richmond, and shifting their belongings to it, sailed up the James River, making their first landing at Williamsburg.

At Williamsburg, while their wives were shopping, the men called upon Peyton Randolph and presented the letter which Mr. Campbell’s father had given him. At the time he had more influence than any other man in the colony.

He read the letter and turning to Mr. Campbell said:

“I recall the very pleasant visit I made your father. We were great friends and were at the Temple together. He says you desire my advice in the selection of a location. If you were a man of considerable means you might buy a plantation on the York or James River or in the Northern Neck; but he says you have less than a thousand pounds. I therefore advise that you ascend the James River in boats or canoes to Balcony Falls and then proceed overland into the Valley. There you and your wife as Scotch-Presbyterians will feel more at home than with the Conformist planters of Tidewater, Virginia. You know Virginia was settled by rural Englishmen, who brought their church and class distinctions with them. Class distinctions are more closely drawn in the Colony than in England; and in eastern Virginia it would be some time before you would be treated as a neighbor. Even though you are a kinsman of the Duke of Argyll, the women would never forget that your wife is the daughter of Dissenter McDonald.

“Since 1745 Irish and Scotch Presbyterians have been pouring into the colony and traveling westward have settled in the valley between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies, where they engage in raising cattle and growing wheat and Indian corn. They are democratic in their ideals, insisting upon religions freedom and self-government. [pg 84] On the other hand planters of the Tidewater country are satisfied with things as they are; as the law recognizes their church and they as social and political leaders rule the colony insofar as Parliament has delegated authority to the colonists. They live in great plantation houses conveniently near to navigable streams; so as to have access and a highway to the ocean. The streams swarm with small craft which furnish a way of social intercourse between plantations and a gateway to salt water.

“About fifteen years ago eastern Virginia was very prosperous. It was the golden age of the planter. In 1758 the colony exported seventy thousand hogsheads of tobacco; but its culture is declining, labor is dearer, the land is becoming impoverished and there are threatened embargoes and even a prospect of war with the mother country; which would destroy the industry and bankrupt the planters, as its growing is almost wholly for export. The labor in its production is severe, the initial outlay is great and the plantations growing it buy all their food and forage. Its almost exclusive cultivation and facilities for water transportation has given a fictitious value to land along navigable streams and created the slave and bond-servant market, which in my opinion is a curse to Virginia.

“I therefore advise that you cross the mountains into the Virginia Valley and there buy a considerable acreage, if possible partly improved, and engage in raising cattle and growing wheat and Indian corn, for which products there is always a demand and a local market.”

His visitors were not only grateful for, but were impressed by the advice he gave them and told him they intended to follow it. Then after an exchange of invitations and pleasant farewells, they joined their wives in [pg 85] the capitol grounds as had been arranged and returned by carriage to the landing; where, hailing their boat, they were taken aboard and the voyage resumed.

A short while after re-embarking they passed Jamestown, where the first English colony in America maintained an almost futile effort for existence against starvation, the lowland fevers and, worse still, the dissensions and jealousies of their leaders. Little was left of the old settlement. On the low ground a few tumbling ruins washed by the tide marked the town-site; and on a point above, some ivy grown walls and moss covered, weather stained tombstones with half obliterated inscriptions marked the site of a once pretentious church.

They knew the history of those first colonists; how landing they spread an old sail overhead from the trees, “to shadow them from the sunne,” and all, one hundred and five, gave thanks to God. How in a few days, they had a more substantial place of worship, where they held “daily common prayer, morning and evening, every Sunday two sermons and every three months holy communion.” Here also in 1612 they built “an hospital with four score lodgings—for the sick and wounded or lame, with keepers to attend them for their comfort and recoverie.”

How in that first winter, when their food was exhausted, Pocahontas came with burden bearers, bringing hampers of venison and corn, which “saved many of their lives, that else, for all this had starved of hunger.” How years later, Captain John Smith writing of her to the Queen said: “During the time of two or three years, she next to God, was still the instrument to preserve this colony from death, famine and utter confusion, which if in those days had once been dissolved, Virginia might have lain as it was at our first arrival to this day.”

[pg 86] During the voyage from Norfolk to Richmond, the party learned much of the country and the people. Archibald Campbell wrote his father describing people and country:

“The shores of the broad, sluggish, brackish river are a succession of tobacco and corn fields or marshy overflowed land. The plantation houses, usually of lumber, have a dozen rooms; and as the family grows in size or importance, wings are added to the main building to meet demands. The houses are furnished in such style as to indicate that tobacco, if not now, has been a paying crop.

“The men and women of the planter class dress in clothing imported from England or France. The men wear camlet coats, lace ruffles, blue waistcoat and trousers of broadcloth or velvet; and their shoes are adorned with silver buckles. You should see the women! They wear gorgeous silk and satin gowns of bright colors; their bonnets and petticoats are trimmed with silver and gold lace; their stomachers and mantles are ornate and gorgeously colored.

“They seem to have everything to eat. Food is cheap and abundant. Great flocks of duck and geese feed in the salt marshes; they get fish and oysters from the shallows and inlets; deer and wild turkey are common in the swamps and in the interior. Their orchards furnish fruit; and they have such vegetables as we grow in England and also native melons, cymlins, pumpkins and Indian corn.

“At the public gatherings and entertainments the planters and small farmers are inclined to a spirit of carousal, but not more so than the English country gentleman.

[pg 87] “Dancing is commonly engaged in; cards and dice are the gambling games; the livelier outdoor sports are horse and boat racing, wolf drives, fox hunting, turkey shooting and at night coon hunts; while fishing, gigging or striking by torchlight, nine pins and competitive marksmanship are the quieter outdoor sports.

“Weddings, muster and court days are general holidays. A wedding is a season of extravagant and protracted gayety, lasting a week. Guests in the main come from considerable distances, in their private barges or in carriages, or on horseback, with their wives and daughters riding behind on pillions. All are entertained at the plantation house, usually remaining for several days.

“The law requires all to attend church. Thus great crowds gather and mingle, not alone for worship, but before and after the service, for social and business intercourse. Many bring their dinners in hampers and friends gathering in groups share a common spread. The women thus exhibit their latest gowns and the men talk politics, trade horses and barter for tobacco.

“The plantation house is the community center and from it a lavish hospitality is dispensed. The planters are jealous of their social and political honors, which seem attached as prerogatives to the plantation. They even object to the establishment of a church in the neighborhood of the one supported by the plantation. They intermarry with the neighboring planter’s family; and are slow to take up a stranger, though of good family.

“At Curles landing, at the site of the old Nathaniel Bacon plantation, we were given and accepted an invitation to spend the night. The house was a ten room structure, built upon an eminence overlooking distant reaches of the river. Its white stuccoed walls and commodious pillared porch, made it very distinguishable in contrast [pg 88] with the background of green timbered hills. Four less pretentious buildings flanked each corner and back of all were the whitewashed cabins of the ‘quarters.’

“The dining room walls were decorated with English hunting scenes and a great sideboard held the silver and pewter ware. The library had many shelves of books, quite a few of which were Elzevir editions. The walls of the hall were covered with portraits of a cavalier ancestry. All the furniture of the lower floor was of solid mahogany and imported.

“Two sons of the family are attending Cambridge and have not been home for a year. The daughter who is at home is to be married before the Christmas holidays.

“Judging by Mr. Lee and his visitor, the planters are essentially English; having all of the Englishman’s pride of race and love for home. They spoke of England as home, until the conversation turned to England’s right to tax the colony and the law requiring tobacco to be exported in British bottoms; then they flared up, declaring: ‘We of the colony will never submit to such unjust and arbitrary laws; and if necessary will fight before submitting to such tyranny.’

“We are now at Richmond, which was first called ‘None Such,’ then Forte Charles, then was known as Byrd’s Warehouse. The town, founded by Colonel Byrd, was incorporated in 1742.”

[pg 89]