#BENEATH A STEEL SKY CONFISCATED SERIES#

The source of wealth, the land upon which the 'weed' was grown, was not a liquid asset a family might have extensive holdings, but no pocket money. An intricate system of credit increasingly pushed the colonists into debt to English merchants. To the chronically coin and specie poor colonists, tobacco was literally a cash crop it became the common medium of exchange. Tobacco became the backbone of the Virginia economy and its main export soon after the first crop was harvested. Many Jamestown colonists realized their dreams of wealth, but in a way unexpected by the founders of the Virginia Company.

#BENEATH A STEEL SKY CONFISCATED SERIES#

His death, however, led to the collapse of the revolt and a series of executions and confiscations and a repeal of reform measures. Bacon, a former member of the governor's council, demanded reforms and ultimately burned the capital. Dissatisfied with Berkeley's indecisive policy, however, and having other grievances, frontiersmen under Nathaniel Bacon carried out a successful campaign against the Indians, then turned their eyes to Jamestown. Expecting no help from faraway England, the colonists looked to Governor Berkeley. The 1676 war had major repercussions for Virginia politics. One earthen fort was constructed near the Potomac south of Great Hunting Creek in the vicinity of present-day Belle Haven. One response of the Virginia government was the erection of a string of forts on the frontier. Retaliations by the Susquehannocks for the murder of five of their leaders in 1676 led to a war between them and the Virginians.

The Indians repeated this successful surprise attack strategy in 1644, killing 300 whites. About a third of the colonists were killed in 1622 during a widespread uprising by the Powhatans and their allies directed at the new plantations and towns. The colonists' often harsh treatment of the aboriginal inhabitants – not the least of which was the expropriation of their lands-engendered a great deal of resentment. Virginia faced other threats that were familiar to her neighbor colonies. Because of its distance from Canada and Florida, however, Virginia remained relatively uninvolved even during the colonial ' King William's War' (1689-1697) and ' Queen Anne's War' (1702-1713), the first two of the French and Indian Wars. War and RebellionĮxcept for occasional scares and the depression of trade, England's numerous wars with France, Spain and Holland did not greatly affect the sparsely populated Virginia colony. In fact, most Virginians remained loyal to the monarchy during Cromwell 's rule (one reason why so many latter-day Virginians would claim descent from the Cavaliers). Even the period of the English Civil War and the Commonwealth (1642-1660), which shook England to its foundations, left the Old Dominion relatively unscathed. As a royal colony after 1624, Virginia generally enjoyed benign neglect, except with regard to the collection of the King's revenues. It was far from universal suffrage, however, as women, African slaves and landless whites had no say in politics. Complaints of restrictive rule by the Virginia Company led to the Company's 1618 approval of a Charter of Grants and Liberties, which made the colony's government subject to the popular will as expressed through a representative legislature, the House of Burgesses. Virginia grew increasingly self-governing. At such a distance on a sparsely settled continent however, its interests and development quickly diverged from those of its mother country.

1699: Virginia capital moved to WilliamsburgĪs a colony, Virginia's early history was inextricably tied to events in Great Britain.

1693: College of William and Mary founded.

1690: John Locke’s Treatises on Civil Government published.

1678: John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress published.

1675-76: Virginia war with Susquehannock Indians.

1667: John Milton’s Paradise Lost published.

1653: Oliver Cromwell named “Lord Protector”.1647: George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, begins ministry.1622: Indian attacks all along the James River valley.1619: First African slaves brought to Jamestown.1618: Charter of Grants and Liberties establishes self-government in Virginia.1613: First tobacco shipped from Jamestown to England.1585: First attempt at settlement of a Roanoke Island colony.

Beneath a steel sky confiscated