in Virginia and the Company in
England must approve its acts.

A mighty hope in small was here! Hedged about with provisions, curtailed
and limited, here nevertheless was an acorn out of which, by natural
growth and some mutation, was to come popular government wide and deep.
The planting of this small seed of freedom here, in 1619, upon the banks
of the James in Virginia, is an event of prime importance.

On the 30th of July, 1619, there was convened in the log church in
Jamestown the first true Parliament or Legislative Assembly in America.
Twenty-two burgesses sat, hat on head, in the body of the church, with
the Governor and the Council in the best seats. Master John Pory, the
speaker, faced the Assembly; clerk and sergeant-at-arms were at hand;
Master Buck, the Jamestown minister, made the solemn opening prayer.
The political divisions of this Virginia were Cities, Plantations,
and Hundreds, the English population numbering now at least a thousand
souls. Boroughs sending burgesses were James City, Charles City, the
City of Henricus, Kecoughtan, Smith's Hundred, Flowerdieu Hundred,
Martin's Hundred, Martin Brandon, Ward's Plantation, Lawne's Plantation,
and Argall's Gift. This first Assembly attended to Indian questions,
agriculture, and religion.

Most notable is this year 1619, a year wrought of gold and iron. John
Rolfe, back in Virginia, though without his Indian princess, who now
lies in English earth, jots down and makes no comment upon what he has
written: "About the last of August came in a Dutch man of warre that
sold us twenty Negars."

No European state of that day, few individuals, disapproved of the
African slave trade. That dark continent made a general hunting-ground.
England, Spain, France, the Netherlands, captured, bought, and sold
slaves. Englishmen in Virginia bought without qualm, as Englishmen
in England bought without qualm. The cargo of the Dutch ship was a
commonplace. The only novelty was that it was the first shipload of
Africans brought to English-America. Here, by the same waters, were the
beginnings of popular government and the young upas-tree of slavery. A
contradiction in terms was set to resolve itself, a riddle for unborn
generations of Americans.

Presently there happened another importation. Virginia, under the new
management, had strongly revived. Ships bringing colonists were coming
in; hamlets were building; fields were being planted; up and down were
to be found churche