RIGHTS OF THE VIRGINIANS IN THE COLONIAL ERA

Rights of the Virginians in the colonial era

Rights of the Virginians in the colonial era

At the beginning of the seventeenth century all the eastern portion of North America, which afterward became the thirteen original states, was known as Virginia. Great interest in American colonization was awakened throughout the kingdom by a little book on "Western Planting," inspired by Raleigh and written by Richard Hakluyt(Salmon, 1994). Several voyages were made before any permanent settlement was established.

Accordingly, in 1606, two companies were formed, Virginia was divided into two parts and a part granted to each, the London Company and the Plymouth Company. They obtained a royal charter enabling each to found a colony, granting the right to coin money, raise revenue, and to make laws, but reserving much power to the king. Each was given a block of land a hundred miles square, and the settlements were to be at least one hundred miles apart. The London Company had permission to plant a colony anywhere on the coast between the thirty-fourth and forty-first degrees north latitude, and to what they did we now direct our attention(Rubin, 2004).

In 1612, during the incumbency of Dale, a third charter was granted to Virginia. This charter added the Bermuda Islands to Virginia, empowered the company to raise money by means of lotteries, and was far more liberal than either of its predecessors in granting governmental powers. It is interesting to note the first steps toward democratic government in America as shown by the rapidly succeeding charters of Virginia. King James, blindly devoted to the autocratic theory of government, refused to embody any democratic features in the first charter. The local council was subject to a superior council resident in England, and both were under the instructions of the king. The charter guaranteed the rights of Englishmen to the people, but gave them no voice in their own government. But the colony came to the verge of failure, and in the belief that a more liberal government would enhance the prospects of success, a second charter was applied for and granted(Morison, 2002).

At about the same time another element was introduced into Virginia society, which exerted a most healthful and beneficent influence over the colony. The wise Sir Edwin Sandys, who had lately been appointed treasurer of the London Company, had, for the purpose of effecting a reform, ...