der.--In 1611 Sir Thomas Dale came
out as ruler, and he ruled with an iron hand. If a man refused to work,
Dale made a slave of him for three years; if he did not work hard
enough, Dale had him soundly whipped. But Sir Thomas Dale was not only a
severe man; he was also a wise man. Hitherto everything had been in
common. Dale now tried the experiment of giving three acres of land to
every one of the old planters, and he also allowed them time to work on
their own land.

[Sidenote: Tobacco.]

[Sidenote: Prosperity.]

34. Tobacco-growing and Prosperity.--European people were now
beginning to use tobacco. Most of it came from the Spanish colonies.
Tobacco grew wild in Virginia. But the colonists at first did not know
how to dry it and make it fit for smoking. After a few years they found
out how to prepare it. They now worked with great eagerness and planted
tobacco on every spot of cleared land. Men with money came over from
England. They brought many workingmen with them and planted large pieces
of ground. Soon tobacco became the money of the colony, and the whole
life of Virginia turned on its cultivation. But it was difficult to find
enough laborers to do the necessary work.

[Sidenote: White servants.]

[Sidenote: Criminals.]

[Sidenote: Negro slaves, 1619.]

35. Servants and Slaves.--Most of the laborers were white men and
women who were bound to service for terms of years. These were called
servants. Some of them were poor persons who sold their labor to pay for
their passage to Virginia. Others were unfortunate men and women and
even children who were stolen from their families and sold to the
colonists. Still others were criminals whom King James sent over to the
colony because that was the cheapest thing to do with them. In 1619 the
first negro slaves were brought to Virginia by a Dutch vessel. The
Virginians bought them all--only twenty in number. But the planters
preferred white laborers. It was not until more that twenty-five years
had passed away that the slaves really became numerous enough to make
much difference in the life of the colony.

[Sidenote: Sir Edwin Sandys.]

[Sidenote: The first American legislature, 1619.]

36. The first American Legislature, 1619.--The men who first formed
the Virginia Company had long since lost interest in it. Other men had
taken their places. These latter were mostly Puritans (p. 29) or were
the friends and workers with the Puritans. The best known of them was