The Old Dominion; her making and her manners

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HER MAKING AND HER MANNERS

Preface

IT has from a long time back been an author's privilege to say a word more or less confidential to his Reader before committing himself in cold type to the Public. The author of these Essays now avails himself of this privilege to express the hope that whatever their faults may be, they may lead some of his readers to turn for themselves to the almost unknown page of their Country's History: the Record of the early life of "The Antient Dominion." Few know it now, yet no page of the History of the Race will better repay patient study; for none shines with more heroic deeds, or more sublime fortitude and endeavor. Her History belongs not to the present Virginia alone. It is the heritage of every State carved from the mighty empire once embraced within her borders. Of the first six thousand settlers who came over and seized and held this great country for viii PREFACE

England and her People; nine out of ten "left here their bodies in testimonie of their mindes." But they left the Old Dominion founded, to be the foundation of a new Nation. She brought forth in time a new Civilization where Character and Courtesv went hand in hand; where the goal ever set before the eye was Honor, and where the distinguishing marks of the life were Simplicity and Sincerity.

It was by no mere accident that Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Marshall, Henry, Mason and their like came from Tidewater and Piedmont Virginia. They were the proper product of her distinctive Civilization, and were not uncommon types of the Character she has given to her Children.

The writer is under obligations to all the faithful Historians who have in the past labored to preserve and set forth the true History of Virginia as they were able to find it. And he especially wishes to record his debt to the pious labors of the late Alexander Brown of Virginia, who devoted his life to the collection and publication of the early records of the History of the Old Dominion. To his monumental work, "The Genesis of the United States," every American Historian must ever be indebted.

The fact that these Essays came in part from

PREFACE ix

addresses delivered before various Societies at different times, will account for certain repetitions in them. The author, however, hopes that this repetition may not be frequent enough to prove tedious, and, moreover, he feels that some facts cannot be too often repeated.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Beginning of America .... 3

II. Jamestown, the Birthplace of the