Dr. Robert Owens Chronicles the History of the Future

The Chesapeake Colonies January 29, 2025

While England was ruled by landed nobles and people of refined education and manners, Virginia and the colonies of the Chesapeake Bay area were ruled by merchants and mechanics that worked hard and made something of themselves in a new land.  It was a meritocracy instead of an aristocracy.  The rise and fall of tobacco prices spelled boom and bust for these colonies that depended upon the tobacco crop for almost all their cash.

The great distance from the motherland and the growing wealth and independence of the colonists combined to establish commonwealths wherein the Royal Governor (Virginia) or Proprietor (Maryland) had to contend with the local powers to govern.  These local powers became so pronounced that at one point the Assembly of Virginia arrested a confrontational governor and shipped him home.  This situation led the colonists to come to expect personal freedom and rights that common Englishmen had never known.

The amount of people compared to the amount of work that needed to be done made labor a premium commodity.  Compared to England where most people couldn’t find a decent way to make a living, in the Chesapeake colonies anyone willing to work could always keep busy and make a profit.  And as is always the case in the presence of a free economy, the enterprising prospered building businesses for themselves.

This independence led to defiance of the crown and in more than one instance open rebellion.  The most famous of all being Bacon’s Rebellion which for a time seemed destined to take over the colony of Virginia until the untimely death of Mr. Bacon after which the crown reasserted its authority.   The Chesapeake colonies recovered from their spate of rebellion, built upon their freedom and their growing economy to develop a society headed by great planters and built upon yeoman farmers.

The blight upon the Chesapeake colonies was the institution of chattel slavery first imposed upon Native Americans and then upon imported Africans.  This system seemed to make sense to the Planters because the Africans adapted to the climate better and could work harder.  But it warped the realities of the economy and the society creating a false sense of solidarity between the planters and the yeoman in opposition to the slaves.  This stopped the yeoman from seeking to democratize the system and inculcated an inherent racism that became the bane of the area for generations.