g gave the large and small
planters similar economic interests and a homogeneous society, at least
east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Second, the less-affluent farmer
naturally elected his more prosperous neighbors to the House of
Burgesses. The poorly run plantation was no recommendation for a public
office whose main responsibility was promoting agricultural prosperity.
Third, the hard-working small farmers lacked the time and money to
serve in public office. Virginia had a long tradition of voluntary
service in local government and only a small per diem allowance for
attending the House of Burgesses. Finally, social mobility was fairly
fluid in a fast-growing society, and the standard of living among the
lower classes had improved visibly in pre-Revolutionary Virginia. The
independent farmers and small slaveholders saw no reason to oust or
destroy the power of the larger planters. They wanted to emulate them
and they fully expected to be able to do so.

[4] See D. Alan Williams, "The Virginia Gentry and the Democratic
Myth", Main Problems in American History, 3rd. ed. (Dorsey Press,
Homewood, Illinois, 1971), 22-36.

The liberal humanism of the planter gentry did much to assure the
people that they had little to fear from their "betters". The gentry
served because they believed in noblesse oblige--with power and
privilege went responsibility. Honor, duty, and devotion to public and
class interest called them to office, and they took that call
seriously. They alone had the time, the financial resources, and the
education necessary for public office. As social leaders they were
expected to set an example in manners and public morals, to uphold the
church, to be generous with benevolences, to serve with enlightened
self-interest, and to be paragons of duty and dignity. With a certain
amount of condescension and considerable truth, they thought colonial
Virginia would be ill-served if they refused to lead and government was
run by those who were less qualified to hold office. They set a
standard which has remained the benchmark of Virginia political ethics.

Though they remembered their own interests, the burgesses believed they
were bound to respect and protect those of others. This was a
fundamental part of Virginia public ethics and was one reason for the
absence of extensive political corruption. They held that sovereignty
was vested in the people, who delegated certain powers to government.
This