Tidewater Virginia. Human atoms were propelled outwards in
every direction in an uncontrolled and only feebly directed expansion.

The years 1607 to 1625 had created a base for this expansion. Those had
been crucial years and difficult ones. Settlements had resembled
military camps and individual colonists had been commanded like
soldiers. Rigorous administration of justice, fear of the Indians, and
the strict economic regulations imposed by the London Company had served
to restrain the potentially expansive nature of the colonists.

The year 1625 saw Virginia under a new King and under a new form of
government. The charter of the London Company was made void, and the
colony passed from the control of a commercial company to the direct
control of King Charles I.

The official census of the non-Indian population of Virginia in 1625
showed 1,232 persons in the colony. Nine hundred and fifty-two were
males, twelve of them Negroes. Two hundred and eighty were females,
eleven of them Negroes. Although the colony had been in existence for
eighteen years the fissioning process had hardly begun. But it was
beginning. Five years later the population had more than doubled to
approximately 3,000. In 1640 the population jumped to 8,000, and by 1670
to 40,000, of whom 2,000 were Negroes. Every aspect of Virginia
life--political, physical, economic, social, and moral--was to be
affected by this explosive and uncontrolled growth.

Virginia did not develop any cities or even towns during the period
1625-1660. Indeed, the towns, such as Jamestown and Henrico, that had
earlier been established, declined in population or were totally
abandoned. The immigrants who were funneled into the colony through
Jamestown were soon attracted to the ever widening frontier. During the
first twenty years colonists had lived in organized farming communities,
separated from other such settlements, but strictly supervised by local
"plantation commanders." The separate settlements were variously called
"colonies," "plantations," "hundreds," and "particular plantations," and
sometimes contained hundreds of planters. Frequently the "plantation"
was located within a loop of the James River. The members of the
settlement planted their crops within the loop, and set up palisades and
forts at the open end for their common defense. Sentinels and guards
were provided cooperatively to man the defenses. As the settlers
increased in numbers and the power of their