was so far from complete that they gladly sold off their holdings in
little parcels to the first purchasers who presented themselves.
Apparently they made no attempts to establish themselves in a position
similar to that of the great landlords of England.

The records afford ample evidence that the leasing of property was by no
means unknown in colonial Virginia, but the custom was comparatively
rare. Hugh Jones, writing in 1721, declared that the tenant farmers
constituted but a small fraction of the population, a fact which he
explained by the unusual facilities for acquiring property in fee
simple.[3-15] It would have been folly for the tobacco planter to expend
his labor upon another man's property, perhaps erecting barns and fences
and otherwise improving it, when he could for so small an outlay secure
land of his own.

Thus we are led to the conclusion that the average Virginia plantation
must have been comparatively small in extent. The development of large
estates was narrowly limited by the various factors which made it
impossible to secure an adequate labor supply--the restrictions upon the
slave trade, the insufficient number of indentured servants and the
shortness of their terms, the unwillingness of freedmen and others to
work for wages. On the other hand, it would be expected that the
servants upon securing their freedom would purchase land of their own,
and cover all tidewater Virginia with little farms.

Turning to the various records of the time that deal with the
distribution of land--deeds, wills, transfers, tax lists,
inventories--we find that these conclusions are fully borne out. All
reveal the fact that the average plantation, especially in the
Seventeenth century, so far from vieing with the vast estates in
existence in certain parts of America, was but a few hundred acres in
extent.

The land transfers of Surry county afford an interesting illustration.
In thirty-four instances mentioned during the years from 1684 to 1686,
for which the exact number of acres is given, the largest is 500 acres,
the smallest twenty. The aggregate of all land which changed hands is
6,355 acres, or an average of 187 for each sale. There are eleven
transfers of 100 acres or less, twenty-three transfers of 200 or less
and only four of more than 300 acres.[3-16] One can find in this no
evidence of the fabled barons of colonial Virginia, but only of a well
established class of small proprietors.

The York county