"Sir," he stated
to President Blair, who would have given him advice from the Bishop of
London, "Sir, I know how to govern Virginia and Maryland better than all
the bishops in England! If I had not hampered them in Maryland and kept
them under, I should never have been able to govern them!" To which Blair
had to say, "Sir, if I know anything of Virginia, they are a good-natured,
tractable people as any in the world, and you may do anything with them by
way of civility, but you will never be able to manage them in that way you
speak of, by hampering and keeping them under!"*
* William and Mary College Quarterly, vol. I, p. 66.
About this time arrived Claude de Richebourg with a number of Huguenots who
settled above the Falls. First and last, Virginia received many of this
good French strain. The Old Dominion had now a population of over eighty
thousand persons -- whites, Indians in no great number, and negroes. The red
men are mere scattered dwellers in the land east of the mountains. There
are Indian villages, but they are far apart. Save upon the frontier fringe,
the Indian attacks no more. But the African is here to stay.
"The Negroes live in small Cottages called Quarters . . . under the
direction of an Overseer or Bailiff; who takes care that they tend such
Land as the Owner allots and orders, upon which they raise Hogs and Cattle
and plant Indian Corn, and Tobacco for the Use of their Master .... The
Negroes are very numerous, some Gentlemen having Hundreds of them of all
Sorts, to whom they bring great Profitt; for the Sake of which they are
obliged to keep them well, and not over-work, starve or famish them,
besides other Inducements to favour them; which is done in a great Degree,
to such especially that are laborious, careful and honest; tho' indeed some
Masters, careless of their own Interest or deputation, are too cruel and
negligent.
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