orderly, if not strongly religious people, inheriting the good traits of the race from which they came, with a strong love for England, which was to most of them truly the Mother Country. There was now peace from the French on the north and west, from the Spaniards on the south, and from the lurking Indian, who had, almost from the beginning, been a terrible scourge to the frontier as its line had gradually moved from the Atlantic towards the western sun. CHAPTER X. THE PEOPLE AND THEIR RULERS. T has already been observed that the first representative assembly convened in America, met in 1619, at Jamestown, Va. It was the first indication of the mode of government to be adopted in after time in all parts of the land. The Republican form of government which is now guaranteed to all the States by the Constitution, was gradually developed by the force of circumstances, and the evident needs of the people. Slowly but surely in the shock of wars, The ample victories of peace are wrought. They bind up new-made wounds, and heal old scars, The governments of the original thirteen Colonies were not uniform at first, and their characteristic traits form an interesting and important study. There were various races in the different Colonies, and there were also different social classes. The political rights belonged only to the "freemen," called also "the better sort," and in Massachusetts these were the church members. In Virginia they were the "gentlemen," but there, also, they belonged to the Established Church. Below these were the "lower orders; persons holding the unpopular creed; those who had been sent from Europe to be sold into temporary bondage,* and those who were ineligible through youth or shiftlessness. The slaves found in all the Colonies at one time or another, formed the lowest class. Slavery began in Virginia, in 1619-the year before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth - but for half a century it did not rapidly extend. The earliest importations of negro slaves to New England, were in 1637, but the first cargo direct from Africa did not arrive until 1645, when a Salem ship left for Guinea for that purpose. The following advertisement from the Brooklyn (N. Y.) Star, shows how long negro slavery held its place in that region, though similar advertisements of a later date, might be found without difficulty. Ten Dollars REWARD.— Ran away from the farm of J J. Cossart, Esq., Foster's Meadow, Long Island, a French negro wench answering to the name of Mary. She is about thirty years old, remarkably short and slim, yellowish complexion, speaks broken English, and generally smiles when she speaks. She left the farm on Thursday, the 8th inst., between 7 and 8 o'clock, carrying with her all her clothes. Her dress, of course, cannot be particularly described, but her French appearance and manner of dressing will detect her. Persons secreting or harboring her will be prosecuted according to law, and whoever will secure her or deliver her to any jail, and notify said J. J. Cossart or Francis V. Rivere, 190 Broadway, will receive the above reward and reasonable charges. April 14, 1813. *The supply of white servants was early made a business in Virginia. The Roundheads sent many hundreds of Royalist prisoners after the battle of Worcester, September 3, 1651; Scotsmen were sent from the field of Dunbar, September 3, 1650; a thousand who participated in the insurrection of Monmouth, 1685; and many Roman Catholics from Ireland, at other dates, swelled the number. |