rushed
to arms, striking out blindly against their oppressors, and bringing
fire and sword to all parts of Virginia. The third period, from 1676
to 1700, was one of growth. The poor people still felt the effects of
the unjust Navigation Acts, but they were no longer oppressed at will
by their governors and the aristocracy. Led by discontented members of
the wealthy planter class, they made a gallant and effective fight in
the House of Burgesses for their rights, and showed that thenceforth
they had to be reckoned a powerful force in the government of the
colony. The representatives of the people kept a vigilant watch upon
the expenditures, and blocked all efforts to impose unjust and
oppressive taxes. During this last quarter of the 17th century the
middle class grew rapidly in numbers and in prosperity. The fourth
period, from 1700 to the Revolution, is marked by a division in the
middle class. At the beginning of the 18th century, there was no
lower class corresponding with the vast peasantry of Europe. All
whites, except the indentured servants and a mere handful of freemen
whose indolence doomed them to poverty, lived in comparative comfort
and ease. After the introduction of slaves, however, this state of
affairs no longer existed and there grew up a class of poor whites,
that eked out a wretched and degraded life. On the other hand planters
of the middle class that had acquired some degree of prosperity
benefited greatly by the introduction of slaves, for it lowered the
cost of labor to such an extent that they were able to cultivate their
fields more cheaply than before. At the time of the Revolutionary War
the distinction had become marked, and the prosperous middle class
farmers were in no way allied to the degraded poor whites.

During the first seventeen years of the colony's existence the
character of immigration was different from that of succeeding
periods. Virginia was at this time ruled by a private trading company.
This corporation, which was composed largely of men of rank and
ability, kept a strict watch upon the settlers, and excluded many
whom they thought would make undesirable colonists.[139] As a
consequence, the class of people that came over before 1624 were more
enlightened than the mass of the settlers during the remainder of the
century. The London Company looked upon the whole matter as a business
affair, and they knew that they could never expect returns from their
enterprise if they fil