it by pledging their farms and their
crops, and in the end the investment usually paid handsome dividends and
many who could not raise the money to buy a full grown negro, often
found it possible to secure a child, which in time would become a
valuable asset.

This movement may readily be traced by an examination of the tax lists
and county records of the Eighteenth century. In Lancaster even so early
as 1716 we find that the bulk of the slaves were in the hands, not of
wealthy proprietors, but of comparatively poor persons. Of the 314
taxpayers listed, 113 paid for themselves alone, 94 for two only, 37 for
three, 22 for four, thirteen for five, while thirty-five paid for more
than five. As there were but few servants in the colony at this time it
may be taken for granted that the larger part of the tithables paid for
by others were negro slaves. It would seem, then, that of some 200 slave
owners in this country, about 165 possessed from one to four negroes
only. There were but four persons listed as having more than twenty
slaves, William Ball with 22, Madam Fox with 23, William Fox with 25 and
Robert Carter with 126.[8-44]

Nor did the class of little slave holders melt away as time passed. In
fact they continued to constitute the bulk of the white population of
Virginia for a century and a half, from the beginning of the Eighteenth
century until the conquest of the State by Federal troops in 1865. Thus
we find that of 633 slave owners in Dinwiddie county in 1782, 95 had one
only, 66 had two, 71 three, 45 four, 50 five, making an aggregate of
327, or more than half of all the slave holders, who possessed from one
to five negroes.[8-45] In Spotsylvania there were, in 1783, 505 slave
owners, of whom 78 possessed one each, 54 two, 44 three, 41 four, and 30
five each. Thus 247, or nearly 49 per cent of the slave holders, had
from one to five slaves only. One hundred and sixteen, or 23 per cent,
had from six to ten inclusive.[8-46] The Gloucester lists for 1783 show
similar conditions. There were in this country 320 slave holders, having
3,314 negroes, an average of about 10-1/3 for each owner. Fifty had one
each, 41 had two each, 9 had three, 30 had four and twenty-six had five.
Thus 156, or about half of all the owners, had from one to five
slaves.[8-47] In Princess Anne county, of a total of 388 slave owners,
100 had one each, 56 had two each and forty-five had three each.[8-48]

Records of transfers of land tend to s