ained at this time 40,000 people, 6,000 being white
servants and 2,000 negro slaves, located mainly upon the lower waters of
the Rappahannock, York, and James Rivers. Between 1650 and 1670, through
large immigration from the old country, the population had increased
from 15,000 to 40,000, some of the first families of the State in
subsequent times arriving at this juncture. About eighty ships of
commerce came each year from Great Britain, besides many from New
England. Virginia herself built no ships and owned few; but she could
muster eight thousand horse, had driven the Indians far into the
interior, possessed the capacity for boundless wealth, and had begun to
experience a decided sense of her own rights and importance. The last
fact showed itself in Bacon's Rebellion, which broke out in 1676, just
one hundred years before the Declaration of Independence. The causes of
the insurrection were not far to seek.

[1673]

The navigation acts were a sore grievance to Virginia as to the other
colonies. Under Cromwell they had not been much enforced, and the
Virginians had traded freely with all who came. Charles enforced them
with all possible rigor, confining Virginia's trade to England and
English ships manned by Englishmen. This gave England a grinding
monopoly of tobacco, Virginia's sole export, making the planters
commercially the slaves of the home government and of English traders.
Duties on the weed were high, and mercilessly collected without regard
to lowness of price. All supplies from abroad also had to be purchased
in England, at prices set by English sellers. Even if from other parts
of Europe, they must come through England, thus securing her a profit at
Virginia's expense.

This was not the worst. The colonial government had always been abused
for the ends of worthless office-holders from England. Now it was farmed
out more offensively than ever. In 1673 Charles II. donated Virginia to
two of his favorites, Lords Arlington and Culpeper, to be its
proprietaries like Penn in Pennsylvania and Baltimore in Maryland. They
were to have all the quit rents and other revenues, the nomination of
ministers for parishes, the right of appointing public officers, the
right to own and sell all public or escheated lands; in a word, they now
owned Virginia. This shabby treatment awoke the most intense rage in so
proud a people. The king relented, revoked his donation, made out and
was about to send a new charter. But it wa