Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/42

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brevity of the time for which all whose ages exceeded nineteen, among whom alone a plot was likely to be formed, were required to serve. It was entirely natural that the older members of this class should have been disposed to endure much that was harsh or repugnant to their wishes in the expectation of the early ending of their terms, rather than plunge into secret schemes that exposed them to the risk of certain death in the event of detection. There seems to have been a seditious feeling in York in 1661, and its display was considered to be sufficiently serious to justify the authorities in warning the magistrates and heads of families in that county to punish all discourse among those in their employment tending to a popular tumult.^[1] The conspiracy of 1663, to which reference has been made already, had a religious and political object in view. Only a few servants appear to have been included among those implicated in it. The Cromwellian soldiers, reduced to the condition of common laborers, doubtless smarted with the sense of degradation, but beyond all this, there was a hope that the status of the English Protectorate might by their bravery and resolution be restored in the Colony.^[2] The discovery of this

↑ Records of York County, vol. 1657-1662, p. 369, Va. State Library. “A dangerous conspiracy among servants discovered Oct. 13, 1640.” Robinson Transcripts, p. 12.
↑ The account which Beverley gives of this conspiracy is as follows: The rigorous circumscription of their trade (i.e. of the Virginians), the persecutions of the Sectaries and the little demand for tobacco, had liked to have had fatal consequences; for the poor coming thereby very uneasy, their murmurings were watched and fed by several mutinous and rebellious Oliverian soldiers that were sent thither as servants. These, depending upon the discontented people of all sorts, formed a villainous plot to destroy their masters and afterwards to set up for themselves.” History of Virginia, p. 55. See also letter of Thomas Ludwell, British State Papers, Colonial Papers; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1665, p. 72, Va. State Library.

[1] Records of York County, vol. 1657-1662, p. 369, Va. State Library. “A dangerous conspiracy among servants discovered Oct. 13, 1640.” Robinson Transcripts, p. 12.

[2] The account which Beverley gives of this conspiracy is as follows: The rigorous circumscription of their trade (i.e. of the Virginians), the persecutions of the Sectaries and the little demand for tobacco, had liked to have had fatal consequences; for the poor coming thereby very uneasy, their murmurings were watched and fed by several mutinous and rebellious Oliverian soldiers that were sent thither as servants. These, depending upon the discontented people of all sorts, formed a villainous plot to destroy their masters and afterwards to set up for themselves.” History of Virginia, p. 55. See also letter of Thomas Ludwell, British State Papers, Colonial Papers; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1665, p. 72, Va. State Library.

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