Page:The rising son, or, The antecedents and advancement of the colored race (IA risingsonthe00browrich).pdf/277

 CHAPTER XXX.

INTRODUCTION OF BLACKS INTO THE AMERICAN COLONIES.

Simultaneously with the landing of the Pilgrims from the Mayflower, on Plymouth Rock, December 22d, 1620, a clumsy-looking brig, old and dirty, with paint nearly obliterated from every part, slowly sailed up the James River, and landed at Jamestown. The short, stout, fleshy appearance of the men in charge of the vessel, and the five empty sour-crout barrels which lay on deck, told plainly in what country the navigators belonged.

Even at that early day they had with them their "native beverage," which, though not like the lager of the present time, was a drink over which they smoked and talked of "Farderland," and traded for the negroes they brought. The settlers of Jamestown, and indeed, all Virginia at that time, were mainly cavaliers, gentlemen-adventurers, aspiring to live by their wits and other men's labor. Few of the pioneers cherished any earnest liking for downright persistent muscular exertion, yet some exertion was urgently required to clear away the heavy forest which all but covered the soil of the infant colony, and to grow the