In striking contrast to New England was the absence of towns, due mainly to two reasons—­first, the wealth of watercourses, which enabled every planter of means to ship his products from his own wharf; and, secondly, the culture of tobacco, which scattered the people in a continual search for new and richer lands.  This rural life, while it hindered co-operation, promoted a spirit of independence among the whites of all classes which counteracted the aristocratic form of government.  The colony was essentially a democracy, for though the chief offices in the counties and the colony at large were held by a few families, the people were protected by a popular House of Burgesses, which till 1736 was practically established on manhood suffrage.  Negro slavery tended to increase this independence by making race and not wealth the great distinction; and the ultimate result was seen after 1792, when Virginia became the headquarters of the Democratic-Republican party—­the party of popular ideas.[44]

Under the conditions of Virginia society, no developed educational system was possible, but it is wrong to suppose that there was none.  The parish institutions introduced from England included educational beginnings; every minister had a school, and it was the duty of the vestry to see that all poor children could read and write.  The county courts supervised the vestries and held a yearly “orphans’ court,” which looked after the material and educational welfare of all orphans.[45]

The benevolent design of a free school in the colony, frustrated by the massacre of 1622, was realized in 1635, when—­three years before John Harvard bequeathed his estate to the college near Boston which bears his name—­Benjamin Syms left “the first legacy by a resident of the American plantations of England for the promotion of education."[46] In 1659 Thomas Eaton established[47] a free school in Elizabeth City County, adjoining that of Benjamin Syms; and a fund amounting to $10,000, representing these two ancient charities, is still used to carry on the public high-school at Hampton, Virginia.  In 1655 Captain John Moon left a legacy for a free school in Isle of Wight County; and in 1659 Captain William Whittington left two thousand pounds of tobacco for a free school in Northampton County.

[Footnote 1:  Hening, Statutes, I., 224.]

[Footnote 2:  Cal. of State Pap., Col., 1574-1660, pp. 201, 231, 268.]

[Footnote 3:  William and Mary Quarterly, IV., 173-176, V., 40.]

[Footnote 4:  Virginia’s Cure (Force, Tracts, III., No. xv.).]

[Footnote 5:  De Vries, Voyages (N.Y.  Hist.  Soc., Collections, 2d series, III., 34).]

[Footnote 6:  Smith, Works (Arber’s ed.), 887.]

[Footnote 7:  Cal. of State Pap., Col., 1574-1660, p. 288.  In 1639 Alexander Stonar, brickmaker, patented land on Jamestown Island “next to the brick-kiln,” Tyler, Cradle of the Republic, 46, 99.]