olony in the last half of the 17th century
toiled ceaselessly upon their plantations, attending to the minutest
details of the countless enterprises that it was necessary for them to
conduct. They were the nation builders of Virginia. It is true that
they spent much of their energy upon political matters, but this was
to them but another way of increasing their fortunes. Altogether
neither their inclinations, nor the conditions in which they lived,
inclined them to devote much of their time to acquiring culture and
refinement.

But the descendants of these early planters enjoyed to the full the
fruits of the energy and ability of their fathers. As time passed,
there grew up in the colony the overseer system, which relieved the
great property owners of the necessity of regulating in person all the
affairs of their estates. Even before the end of the 17th century many
men possessed plantations in various parts of the colony and it became
then absolutely necessary to appoint capable men to conduct those that
were remote from the home of the planter. At times the owner would
retain immediate control of the home plantation, which often served as
a center of industry for the remainder of the estate, but even this
in the 18th century was not infrequently intrusted to the care of an
overseer. These men were selected from the class of small farmers and
many proved to be so capable and trustworthy that they took from their
employers' shoulders all care and responsibility. They were well paid
when their management justified it and cases were frequent where
overseers remained for many years in the service of one man.

This system gave to the planters far greater leisure than they had
possessed in the earlier part of the colony's existence, and they made
use of this leisure to cultivate their minds and to diversify their
interests. It is only in this way that we can fully explain why the
aristocrat surrounded himself with a large library, indulged in the
delicate art of music, beautified his home with handsome paintings, and
revelled in the dance, in races or the fox hunt. This too explains why
there grew up amid the plantations that series of political
philosophers that proved so invaluable to the colonies in the hour of
need. Jefferson, Henry, Madison, Marshall, Randolph, would never have
been able to give birth to the thoughts that made them famous had they
been tied down to the old practical life of the planters of early days.