he turned
to them for comradeship, sharing with them his joys and confiding to
them his sorrows. If he spent much of his time in hunting, or in
fishing, or in fighting he always returned to the softening influence
of his home, and it was inevitable, under these conditions, that the
importance of the female sex should increase.[86]

As we have seen, the Virginia plantation bore a striking analogy to
the feudal estate. The planter, like the baron, lived a life of
isolation, coming into daily contact not even with his nearest
neighbors. His time was spent with his servants and slaves. He too
could turn only to his family for companionship, and inevitably, as
homage and respect for women had grown up among the feudal barons, so
it developed in Virginia.

There is no proof that the colonists of the 17th century regarded
womanhood in any other than a commonplace light. They assigned to
their wives and daughters the same domestic lives that the women of
the middle classes of England led at that time. Predominated by the
instinct of commerce and trade, they had little conception of the
chivalric view of the superiority of the gentle sex, for in this as in
other things they were prosaic and practical.

The early Virginians did not hesitate to subject gossiping women to
the harsh punishment of the ducking stool. In 1662 the Assembly passed
an Act requiring wives that brought judgments on their husbands for
slander to be punished by ducking.[87] In 1705 and again in 1748 the
county courts were authorized to construct ducking stools if they
thought fit.[88] That the practice was early in vogue is shown by the
records of the county courts. We read in the Northampton records for
1634 the following, "Upon due examination it is thought fitt by the
board that said Joane Butler shall be drawen over the Rings Creeke at
the starn of a boat or canoux."

How inconsistent with all the ideals of chivalry was that action of
Bacon in his war with Governor Berkeley which won for his men the
contemptuous appellation of "White Aprons!" Bacon had made a quick
march on Jamestown and had surprised his enemies there. His force,
however, was so small that he set to work immediately constructing
earthworks around his camp. While his men were digging, "by several
small partyes of horse (2 or 3 in a party, for more he could not
spare) he fetcheth into his little league, all the prime men's wives,
whose husbands were with the Governour, (as Coll. Bacon