Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/143

 CHAPTER XII

DOMESTIC ECONOMY OF THE PLANTER

inquire into the origin of the planters of Virginia in the seventeenth century would be to enter into a domain which is more distinctly a part of social than economic history. Such an inquiry was justified in the case of servants because they bore the same practical relation to the community as the ordinary beast of burden, only tempered by their human intelligence, which led to their receiving more conscientious treatment from their masters. Nevertheless, even from an economic point of view, it is important to know that the great body of men who sued out patents to public lands in Virginia were sprung from the portion of the English commonwealth that was removed from the highest as well as from the lowest ranks in the community, and which, while in many instances sharing the blood of the noblest, yet as a rule belonged to the classes engaged in the different professions and trades, in short, to the workers in all of the principal branches of English activity. With those powerful traditions animating them, the traditions of race and nationality, blending with the traditions of special pursuits, they had also that enterprising spirit which prompted them to abandon home and country to make a lodgment in the West. It is incorrect to infer that their position in their native land was lacking in advantages because they showed a willingness to emigrate. Of all the