niture could be fashioned with their own hands, while, except in
rare cases, even household utensils might be made upon the farm. Thus
the small farmer to some extent prospered.

Before the end of the 17th century it was rare indeed to find freemen
in the colony living in poverty. There were none whose condition was
at all comparable for misery and want to the vast body of paupers that
crowded the English cities and eked out an existence as laborers upon
the farms. Robert Beverley, who wrote in 1705, called Virginia the
best poor man's country in the world. He declared that the real poor
class was very small, and even these were not servile.[215] As early
as 1664 Lord Baltimore had written that it was evident and known that
such as were industrious were not destitute. Although this was
certainly an exaggeration, when applied to the period succeeding the
Restoration, it became strictly true after Bacon's Rebellion, when the
people were no longer oppressed with burdensome taxation. Hugh Jones,
writing during Governor Spotswood's administration, stated that the
common planters lived in "pretty timber houses, neater than the farm
houses are generally in England."[216] "They are such lovers of
riding," he adds, "that almost every ordinary person keeps a horse."
So favorable were the conditions in which the small farmers found
themselves that a fair degree of prosperity was often obtained by them
even though they were lacking in industry. Hugh Jones says, "The
common planters leading easy lives don't much admire labour, except
horse-racing, nor diversion except cock-fighting, in which some
greatly delight. This easy way of living, and the heat of the summer
makes some very lazy, who are said to be climate-struck."

The fourth period in the development of the middle class extends from
1700 to the Revolution. It is marked by a split in the class, some of
the small planters becoming wealthy, others failing to advance in
prosperity, while still others degenerated, falling into abject
poverty. This was almost entirely the result of the substitution of
slave labor for the labor of the indentured servant. The importation
of negroes had begun early in the 17th century, but for many years
their numbers were so few that the vast bulk of the work in the fields
had been performed by white men. In 1625 there were about 465 white
servants in Virginia and only 22 negroes.[217] In 1649, when the
population of the colony was 15,000, there we