EARLY MANUFACTURES IN VIRGINIA. 27 pound, at which price it was fixed shortly after by the governor's edict, under penalty of three years slavery to the Colony. On the 17th of May, 1620, a meeting of the Company was called in London, at which many persons of the highest distinction joined the enterprise, and Sir Edwin Sandys, whose term of office as treasurer of the Company had just expired, made, we are told, "a long and handsome speech" on the affairs of the Colony. He stated the means he had taken to turn the attention of the colonists from tobacco to other more useful and necessary commodities. That for this purpose one hundred and fifty persons had been sent to set up three iron-works; that directions had been given for making cordage, as well as hemp and flax, and more especially silk grass, which grew there naturally in great abundance, and was found upon experiment to make the best cordage and line in the world. Each family was ordered to set one hundred plants of it, and the governor himself five thousand. They had also been advised to make pitch, tar, pot and soap-ashes, and timber for shipping, masts, planks, and boards, etc., for which purpose men and materials had been sent over for erecting sundry sawing-mills.1 The cultivation of mulberry-trees and silk was strongly recommended, and the king, for the second time, had furnished silk-worm seed of the best sort, from his own store; and as grapes of excellent quality were a natural production, several skillful vinegrowers, with abundance of vine slips, had been sent; and lastly, that the salt-works, which had been suffered to go to decay, were restored and set up, and that there were now hopes of such plenty as not only to serve the Colony for the present, but also shortly to supply the great fishery on the American coasts. 2 Ample provision, indeed, appears to have been made for the domestication of the principal useful arts in Virginia, as the following list of the tradesmen whom it was designed to transfer thither will show: viz., "Husbandmen, Gardners, Brewers, Bakers, Sawyers, Carpenters, Joyners, Shipwrights, Boatwrights, Ploughwrights, Millwrights, Masons, Turners, Smiths of all sorts, Coopers of all sorts, Weavers, Tanners, Potters, Fowlers, Fish-hook-makers, Netmakers Shoemakers, Ropemakers, says the original record, "order is given for making it in abundance, and after the manner of those hotter climates, which may prove a great help to enrich the plantation." (1) It is probable that no saw-mill was erected thus early, since in 1649 it was stated that a saw-mill was much wanted there. See page 31. Saw-mills were not erected in England until many years later. Yet it was stated in July following, that in addition to those sent in the spring to erect saw-mills, there are lately come from Hamburg divers workmen, very skillful, to be sent in the next ship. (2) Stith, Book iv., p. 176. "For salt," Winslow, in his "Good News for New Eng (3) In respect to the last two, the Virginia adventurers seem to have been more provident than those of Plymouth, for four years after this (1624) fish-hooks, and seines, and nets were much wanted in that Colony. Tilemakers, Edge-tool-makers, Brickmakers, Bricklayers, Dressers of Hempe and Flax, Lime-burners, Lether-dressers, Men skillful in vines, Men for iron-works, Men skillful in mines." Of the character of these, says the old chronicle: "The men lately sent have been, most of them, choice men, borne and bred up to labor and industry; out of Devonshire about one hundred men brought up to husbandry; out of Warwickshire and Staffordshire above one hundred and ten; and out of Sussex about forty, all framed to iron-workes, etc." Among the natural commodities enumerated in the same Tract, are "cotton-wooll and suger-canes, all of which may there also be had in abundance, with an infinity of othermore." As much as possible to discourage the use and cultivation of tobacco,3 several other branches of industry were encouraged; and to promote still further the culture of silk, a person skillful in the business was sent over from the king's own garden at Oatlands to instruct others in it. Others were expected from France; and to give full instruction in it, a French treatise on the subject was translated by one of the Company, printed at its expense, and sent over in sufficient numbers for distribution. In reference to the iron-works above alluded to, Beverley, in his History of Virginia, after noticing several appropriations of the Burgesses, the first Colonial Assembly ever held in America, who met the governor and Council in May, 1620, observes, "Many of the people became very industrious, and began to vie one with another in planting, building, and other improvements. A salt-work was set up at Cape Charles on the Eastern shore, and an iron-work at Falling Creek in Jamestown River, where they made proof of good iron ore, and brought the whole work so near a perfection that they writ word to the Company in London that they did not doubt but to finish the work, and have plentiful provision of iron for them by the next Easter."4 In 1621, three of the master-workmen having died, the Company sent over Mr. John Berkeley with his son Maurice, who were commended as very skillful in that way, with twenty other experienced workmen. On land," says, "For though our bays and creeks are full of bass and other fish, yet for want of fit and strong seines and other netting, they, for the most part, brake through and carried all away before them." If they had had these, they could hardly have suffered so much for want of food. Young's "Chronicles of Plymouth," pp. 171 and 294. (1) A Declaration of the State of Virginia, 1620. Force's Coll., vol. iii. No. 5. (2) Ibid. p. 4. Mr. Bancroft, vol. i. p. 179, anno 1621, observes: "The first culti 5 EARLY IRON-WORKS IN VIRGINIA. 29 * * * * the 22d of May following, the plan of a general massacre was put in execution by the Indians, of whom all fears had for some time been laid aside, and Berkeley with all his workmen and people, except one boy and a girl, who managed to hide themselves and escape, were cut off, with others, to the number of three hundred and forty-seven. The iron-works and the glass-house were entirely demolished, and the preparations for the manufacture of other commodities were abandoned. That the ironwork on Falling Creek had really gone into operation appears from further reference to it by Beverley. "The iron," he says, "proved reasonably good; but before they got into the body of the mine, the people were cut off in that fatal massacre, and the project has never been set on foot since, till of late; but it has not had its full trial "2 "The superintendent of this iron-work also discovered a vein of lead ore, which he kept private, and made use of it to furnish all the neighbors with bullets and shot. But he being cut off with the rest, and the secret not having been communicated, the lead mine could never after be found, till Colonel Boyd, some few years ago, prevailed with an Indian, under pretense of hunting, to give him a sign by dropping his tomahawk at the place, (he not daring publicly to discover it, for fear of being murdered.) The sign was accordingly given, and the Company at that time found several pieces of good lead ore upon the surface of the ground, and marked the trees thereabouts. Notwithstanding which, I know not by what witchcraft it happens, but no mortal to this day could ever find that place, though it be upon part of the colonel's own possessions. And so it rests till time and thicker settlement discovers it." This mine was subsequently rediscovered, and lead obtained from it not many years ago. The use of Iron, notwithstanding its high antiquity-furnaces for extracting the metal from its ores, and its manufacture into swords, knives, etc., being assigned to a period before the time of Moses-seems to have been unknown to the Indians generally, although gold and copper were known to those of Mexico before the discovery of that country by the Europeans. This is doubtless owing to the fact, as stated by McCulloch, that "iron, though the most common, is the most difficult of all the metals to obtain in a state fit for use; and the discovery of the method (1) It is a curious circumstance, that about the same time that the savages in Virginia were putting an end to this "good project" for the manufacture of iron, an ignorant mob in England destroyed the works of Edward Lord Dudley, for the smelting of iron ore with pit coal by his newly-discovered process, patented in 1621; and the use of which, though of as vast importance to the world as the former was to Virginia, was, like the latter, not again revived for about one hundred years. (2) The revival of the iron-manufacture alluded to took place about the year 1712-15. (3) Beverley. of working it seems to have been posterior to the use of gold, silver, and copper." Notwithstanding several attempts to divert the people from the cultivation of tobacco, so profitable had the business become through the increased productiveness under the improved cultivation by the spade, commenced in 1611, and the increased consumption and price in Europe, that in 1621, store-houses and factors were established at Middleburgh and Flushing, and fifty-five thousand pounds were exported to Holland, but none to England. The year following they made sixty-six thousand pounds, and in 1639 the Assembly ordered all the tobacco in the Colony made in that and the two succeeding years to be destroyed, except one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, in due proportion for each planter. For several years preceding the Revolution, the exports of tobacco from Virginia were about the same annually as in 1621. The instructions brought by Sir Francis Wyatt to his government in the latter year were, to withdraw attention from tobacco, and to direct it to corn, wine, silk, and others already mentioned; to the making of oil of walnuts, and employing the apothecaries in distillation; and searching the country for minerals, dyes, gums, drugs, and the like. A fund was also subscribed for a glass-furnace to make beads, which were the current coin with the Indians; and one Captain Norton, with some Italian workmen, was sent over for that purpose.* The next year a master shipwright, named Barret, and twenty-five men, were sent to build ships and boats. In 1623, Alderman Johnson, in justification of himself and Sir Thomas Smith, who had been charged with ruining the Colony during the administration of the latter ending in 1619, drew up an account, in which he states, among other evidences of its prosperity in that time, that barks, pinnaces, shallops, barges, and other boats, were built in the country; but some of his statements seem to have been questioned by the Assembly.* (1) This was in consequence of the impost which had been laid upon tobacco. Spanish tobacco sold about this time, we are told, at eighteen shillings per pound, while that of Virginia was limited in the Colony to three shillings, and the duty was the same upon both. The following was the valuation of a few articles, growing or to be had in the Colony in 1621, viz.: Iron, ten pounds sterling per ton; silk coddes, 2s. 6d. per lb.; raw silk, 138. 4d. per lb., which rose in 1650 to 258. and 288. per lb.; silk-grass for cordage, 6d. per lb. ; hemp, from 108. to 228. per cwt.; flax, from 228. to 30s. per cwt.; cordage, 208. to 248. per cwt.; cotton wooll, 8d. per lb.; hard pitch and rosin, each, 58. per (3) At the end of twelve years, the Company had expended £80,000, and were £4,000 in debt, and the Colony only numbered 600 persons. (4) "But in the midst of these troubles and alarms," says Mr. Stith, under this date, THE INDUSTRY OF VIRGINIA IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 31 To promote the silk culture, the Legislature of Virginia in 1623 ordered all settlers to plant mulberry trees, and in 1656, passed an act imposing a fine on every planter who should not have at least one mulberry tree to every ten acres of land. In 1651, premiums were offerd for its encouragement; and it is said that Charles II. wore, at his coronation in 1661, a robe and hose of Virginia silk, the art of weaving which was introduced into England in 1620. Sir William Berkeley, the governor, on his return from a visit to England, upon the Restoration, carried his majesty's pressing instructions for encouraging the people in Husbandry and Manufactures, but more especially to promote silk and vineyards. The Company had established a vineyard in the Colony previous to 1620, and a few years after sent out a number of French and Italian vignerons, who, through bad management, were unsuccessful. Wines were made in the Colony in 1647 by a Captain Brocas; and in 1651, premiums were also offered for its encouragement as well as for that of hemp; and in 1657, for flax also, both which latter were annually grown, spun, and woven by Captain Matthews of that State, prior to 1648. In 1662, an edict of Virginia required each poll to raise annually and manufacture six pounds of linen thread. The manufacture declined on the withdrawal of the premiums. A tract entitled, "A Perfect Description of Virginia," published in London in 1649, states, that "they had three thousand sheep, six public brew-houses, but most brew their own beer, strong and good; that indigo began to be planted and throve wonderfully well, from which their hopes are great to gain the trade of it from the Mogul's country, and to supply all Christendom; that the quantity of tobacco had so increased that it had fallen in price to three pence a pound; that they produced much flax and hemp; that iron ore was abundant, and had been tried and proved good; and that an iron-work erected would be as much as a silver mine; that they had four wind-mills and five water-mills to grind corn, besides many horse-mills; that a saw-mill was much wanted to saw boards, inasmuch as one mill driven by water will do as much as twenty sawyers; that they make tar and pitch, of which there was abundant material, as "the Muses were not silent. For in this time Mr. George Sandys, the Company's Treasurer of Virginia, made his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, a very laudable performance for the times." In relation to this performance, Mr. Moran, in his "Contributions toward a History of American Literature," remarks, "It is curious that the first book written, and the first book printed in what is now the United States, were in verse, the one being Sandys' Translation of (2) Force's Collection of Tracts, vol. ii. No. 8. |