eyed."[72]

This change was beyond doubt the result of the increased political
resistance which the aristocracy encountered during the 18th century.
Within a few years after the founding of Jamestown the wealthy
planters may be noted as a body distinct from the other settlers.
Immediately after the downfall of the Virginia Company of London they
became a powerful force in the colony, and when, a few years later,
Governor Harvey tried to curb them, not only did they resist him
successfully, but they eventually brought upon him financial and
political ruin. This state of affairs was due largely to the vast
superiority of the merchant settlers to the lower class of immigrants,
both in intelligence and in wealth. Those English traders that made
their home in the colony, became at once leaders politically and
socially. Not infrequently they became burgesses, justices, or even
members of the Council after a few years' residence only, taking their
place quite naturally by the side of those that had come over
previously. This condition of affairs continued until late in the
century. Bacon the rebel was made a councillor, although he lived in
Virginia less than two years altogether, while the Lees, the
Washingtons and many others obtained places of influence and power as
soon as they reached the colony. On the other hand, the middle class
did not become a factor of very great importance in the government
until the surrender of the colony to the Parliamentary Commissioners
in 1652. The bulk of the immigrants during the first half of the 17th
century were indentured servants, brought over to cultivate the
tobacco fields. They came, most of them, from the ignorant laboring
class of England, and were incapable, even after the expiration of
their term of indenture, of taking an intelligent part in governmental
affairs. It is true that many free families of humble means came to
the colony in this period, but their numbers were not great enough to
counterbalance the power of the leading planters. These families
formed the nucleus of what later became an energetic middle class, but
not until their ranks were recruited by thousands of servants, did
they develop into a really formidable body.

It was the Commonwealth Period that gave to the middle class its first
taste of power. After the surrender of the colony to Parliament, the
House of Burgesses was made the ruling body in Virginia, in imitation
of conditions in England. Since the B