The climate, the staple
tobacco crop, and the society of Virginia were favorable to a system of
domestic slavery, but one which tended to develop into a patriarchal
serfdom rather than into a slave-consuming industrial hierarchy. The
labor required by the tobacco crop was less unhealthy than that
connected with the rice crop, and the Virginians were, perhaps, on a
somewhat higher moral plane than the Carolinians. There was consequently
no such insatiable demand for slaves in the larger colony. On the other
hand, the power of the Virginia executive was peculiarly strong, and it
was not possible here to thwart the slave-trade policy of the home
government as easily as elsewhere.
Considering all these circumstances, it is somewhat difficult to
determine just what was the attitude of the early Virginians toward the
slave-trade. There is evidence, however, to show that although they
desired the slave-trade, the rate at which the Negroes were brought in
soon alarmed them. In 1710 a duty of L5 was laid on Negroes, but
Governor Spotswood "soon perceived that the laying so high a Duty on
Negros was intended to discourage the importation," and vetoed the
measure.[25] No further restrictive legislation was attempted for some
years, but whether on account of the attitude of the governor or the
desire of the inhabitants, is not clear. With 1723 begins a series of
acts extending down to the Revolution, which, so far as their contents
can be ascertained, seem to have been designed effectually to check the
slave-trade.
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