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A 17th Century American Revolution
John Harvey’s governorship had some real highs. The population doubled in his term, war with the Powhatan was ended, food shortages disappeared, and tobacco problems started to be fixed.
But, he was in a difficult political situation, and was not a skilled politician. With news of Baltimore’s Maryland patent, a tax dispute and Harvey’s decision not to send a petition to the king regarding a tobacco monopoly, the governor’s fate was sealed. In April 1635, the Mathews-Claiborne faction staged a coup, deposing Harvey and sending him back to England. The event became known as the thrusting out of Governor Harvey, and it was a revolutionary act (and a sign of things to come).
Transcript
Welcome back! When we left off last week, members of the Virginia Company had started to ask for the company to be reconstituted, and across the Atlantic, Harvey and his council had signed an agreement stating their intention to set aside their disagreements and work together in peace. This week, that agreement will allow Harvey to reach the height of his success, and its breaking will lead to the governor’s downfall in one of the most revolutionary events in early Virginia history.
Introduction
In February 1632, Harvey and the General Assembly went about trying to strengthen Virginia’s economy, and enhance its security. It was time to codify laws with tangible strategies to achieve the goals they’d laid out two years before.
And, if I may say so, they did a great job.
First, they passed the colony’s first-ever highway act, facilitating colonists’ moving into the forests, away from navigable rivers. Harvey also went through every law Virginia had, updating them to suit existing conditions.
On the issue of tobacco, corn and the economy, they required that two acres of corn be planted per person, per year, and said any person who failed to do this would forfeit their entire crop of tobacco. And then, they legislated that corn could be sold to the highest bidder. This was absolutely radical for most European countries at the time. The norm was still the mentality which would, a few years later, lead to Roger Keayne becoming the most hated man in Massachusetts. There was a certain, acceptable range of prices and profits you could demand when buying and selling goods. Massachusetts may have approached the issue with an uncommon intensity, but 1630s Europeans would have understood that much more than simply allowing people to sell food to the highest bidder. The notable exception here would be the Netherlands, which had really rolled back its mercantile restrictions.
And, yet, that’s exactly what Virginia did, and Harvey defended the decision by saying “none are so poor here, as that they may not have as much corn as they will plant, having land enough.” No one needed to depend on corn purchases to survive.
So, if people didn’t plant enough corn, and had to buy more to get through winter, they might have to pay a very high price for it. But, that was their own fault, because every single landowner in the colony had the time, the land and the tools to plant as much corn as they wanted, and they had chosen not to do so. So this was an additional incentive to go beyond the minimum planting requirements. And, by turning corn into a commodity, they maximized its value and therefore encouraged production.
The second thing they did was legislate that tobacco could not be sold for less than 6p per pound. If the merchants negotiated their prices as a single group, so would the colonists. They’d allow colonists to sell to whatever countries would pay the highest price, but there was a baseline minimum that tobacco could be sold for in Virginia. These weren’t popular reforms with either the merchants or the king, but the colonists stood firm. Harvey told the king that the colonists had already built several small ships to trade with the Dutch on the Hudson, and said it was funny that English merchants couldn’t afford to pay Virginians a penny a pound for tobacco when the Dutch were happy to pay 18 pence per pound. He told the king that, like it or not, tobacco was Virginians’ primary economic interest, and he urged the king not to impede their free trade.
At the same time, though, they officially limited annual tobacco cultivation to 2000 plants per laborer, which, according to my very brief research, translated to about 500 pounds weight per laborer. It brought planters back up to that 30 pound stirling per year wage, which was perfectly reasonable, but also meant you weren’t going to get rich on tobacco, so it incentivized other economic ventures.
Furthermore, Harvey still wanted to decrease dependence on tobacco, and having a limited supply would also help with negotiations with the English merchants. And to further enhance the benefits of limiting tobacco production, they required that inferior tobacco be burned on site to prevent poor quality leaves from entering the market. So, to address the free-falling tobacco prices, Virginia tobacco would be uniformly high quality, there would be a limited supply, it would go to the highest bidder, and if merchants refused to pay a minimum price, they wouldn’t get it at all.
Tobacco and food shortages addressed, Harvey also ended the war with the Powhatan, negotiating a peace agreement with Opechancanough. This was definitely a controversial move, but the agreement included the provision that the Powhatan would leave the lower half of the peninsula between the James and York Rivers. This would enable the English to effectively build the palisade Wyatt had envisioned.
And, the next spring they finally built the palisade, and in fact they built it further west than Wyatt had planned, because the population was rapidly increasing. The Powhatan and English were separated, livestock kept inside, and the colony could in theory be both at peace and secure. The council incentivized people to move there, where they could serve as the first point of defense for any attack by Opechancanough. John West and John Utie were among the first people to agree to move there, and they took particularly vulnerable and important defense locations, and for that they were given 600 acres each. They offered 50 acres to anyone who would join them within the first year, and 25 for anyone who joined the second year. People who agreed to move there would also be exempted from certain taxes and public charges. So, if you were willing to incur just a little extra danger, it was a pretty good deal.
And, the plan was immediately successful. Not only did food scarcity completely disappear, but the next fall, fall of 1633, Virginia exported 5-10,000 bushels of corn to New England, which was just getting established at the time. And from then on, they’d continue be able to export massive amounts. Harvey reported that “Virginia is become the granary of all his Majesty’s northern colonies.” The price of tobacco didn’t fully recover, but the colonists were living a life of peace and plenty, in a sustainable way, for the first time ever.
But no victory lasted long in Virginia. At the same time as Virginian ships carried corn to New England, the Ark and Dove were preparing to carry a group of colonists from England to the Northern Chesapeake. Thus resumed Harvey’s problems.
When the Ark and Dove reached Virginia, Calvert showed Harvey the documents supporting Baltimore’s claim to the land that would become Maryland. Harvey was loyal to the king’s wishes, and he also hoped that amity with Lord Baltimore would help him convince the king to pay him his wages. He was, however, almost alone in his support of the colony. Only two members of the council were even indifferent to Maryland, one named Captain Purfree, who was a soldier, and the other a man named Henry Browne, who had virtually no wealth, power or influence.
On the other hand, when Mathews heard of Baltimore’s plans, he threw his hat upon the ground and scratched his head, stamped his feet and cried “a pox upon Maryland.” He, the richest, most powerful man in Virginia would take the lead in opposing Baltimore’s papists, with Captain Claiborne following close behind.
When Marylanders came to Jamestown saying they suspected Claiborne had incited the Indians to destroy the colony, Harvey ordered an interrogation. It was this moment that solidified the re-splitting of the Council between Harvey’s two supporters, and Mathews’s faction. Mathews’s faction dominated the investigation, ensuring Claiborne’s acquittal. And, in a version of events where Claiborne was fully innocent, Harvey looked terrible, having prioritized Maryland’s interests over those of Virginians.
It was only a couple months before there was an irrevocable split. In June, Maryland Captain Thomas Young’s ship arrived in Jamestown after being severely damaged by a storm. Harvey ordered a ship’s carpenter to repair Young’s vessel, but the carpenter was one of Mathews’ indentured servants, and he didn’t get Mathews’s permission first. If he did, there was no way that Mathews would have agreed, but when he didn’t, he opened himself up to scrutiny as a Maryland supporter, and a source of arbitrary power who would commandeer another man’s servants against the employer’s wishes. Mathews told Harvey that actions like that would create bad blood in Virginia and the argument began to turn heated. Harvey tried to diffuse the situation, saying “come, Gentlemen, let’s go to supper and for this night leave this discourse, and tomorrow we will meet betimes and consult over business,” but Mathews couldn’t be placated. He stormed away, hitting the heads of weeds with his truncheon.
But, Mathews was the most powerful person in Virginia, and Claiborne was second. They could do more than that. They controlled the council, and they led the House of Burgesses. They just had to wait for the right moment.
It wasn’t long before Harvey made his next blunder. In an event that eerily mirrored controversies in England, Harvey tried to bypass the legislature and raise taxes on his own authority. His attempt was quickly thwarted, but Mathews’s faction pushed to have the governor ousted, calling him extortionate, unjust and arbitrary, and said he was fraudulently trying to profit from his position. They accused him of using public revenue as his own private property, and accused him of taking a portion of the colony’s trade duties. The controversy split the colony into the Harveyites and anti-Harveyites.
William Claiborne was still Secretary of Virginia, the second highest office in the colony, and at this point, Harvey removed Claiborne from his position, and replaced him with Richard Kemp, who was a relatively new arrival but firmly on his side. In just a few months, Kemp would be Harvey’s only remaining ally. Meanwhile, Claiborne focused his attention on Maryland, trying to confirm his rights to Kent and Palmers Islands, and dispute Baltimore’s authority.
In the polarized year of 1634, an important shift in Virginia’s political system sounds more like a side note. This was the year the colony embraced its rural economy and formalized the shift to a decentralized government. Eight counties were formed, each with a monthly court established by commission from the governor and council. This would become Virginia’s permanent system of governance.
But, Harvey was now in a downward spiral. Toward the end of the year, the king sent over a contract which would create a royal monopoly on Virginia’s tobacco. He demanded the General Assembly sign it to give it the force of law, but the Assembly refused. They drafted their response as a petition, written largely by Mathews and Claiborne, and all of the burgesses and councilors signed their names to the document. But Harvey kept the petition in Jamestown, merely sending a copy to the king’s secretary of state.
When this was discovered, it alienated almost all of Harvey’s remaining support. The text of the petition is long gone, so we can’t know exactly what it said or why Harvey didn’t send it onward, but tobacco was the lifeblood of Virginia, and it looked like Harvey wasn’t going to protect it.
Harvey said the letter would do more harm than good in negotiating the future of Virginia tobacco with the king. It would infuriate him, and make him more forceful about the necessity of a monopoly. Harvey had already written the king, telling him that the planters were working to enrich the merchants who were impoverishing them, and telling the king that under those circumstances, a monopoly which precluded trade with the Dutch would be devastating.
Regardless of Harvey’s reasons, his actions looked bad enough that even the Harveyites turned against the governor. Protecting tobacco was more important than politics or factional loyalty. It was a matter of stability or financial ruin. It was a matter of whether you’d give 5% of your annual income for a pair of shoes. They had signed the petition, and Harvey had refused to send it.
Mathews’s faction began to organize at a settlement in the York River area. They also collected signatures on a petition listing their complaints about the governor, including the fact that he’d made peace with the Powhatan, something they said would inevitably result in another massacre. On April 26, Harvey learned about their activities and knew the situation was dire. More politically adept men than he would have been powerless in the situation. A rebellion was imminent. Harvey ordered that the men circulating the petition be seized and clapped in irons, and he summoned a meeting of the Council the next day.
It was also at this time that the shootout between Claiborne’s and Maryland’s pinnace took place, so conveniently for Claiborne, he was absent from what happened next. His actions couldn’t be used against him in his fight to reclaim Kent Island, and the confrontation certainly didn’t endear Maryland to Virginians.
At the Council meeting, Harvey laid his cards on the table. He said the dissidents should be dealt with according to martial law, but the council refused, saying the dissidents were only voicing the peoples’ complaints, and that they should be given regular trials, which, of course, were likely to acquit them. Outnumbered, Harvey demanded that every member of the council immediately and without consulting with any other member, write down what the governor should do with the men conspiring against him, bearing in mind that he was the king’s chosen representative. This was a reasonably well thought out political move. If they said the men shouldn’t be punished, they were condoning rebellion against the king’s authority, and if they condoned punishment, then they vindicated Harvey’s arrests. No one knew what to do, and Mathews compared the demand to a scene from Shakespeare’s Richard III. Finally, a man named George Menifee said he couldn’t answer the question, because he lacked the sufficient legal training. Menifee had found a justifiable way to decline answering, and others quickly repeated his response. After a violent debate, and at an impasse, Harvey dismissed the meeting.
The next day it reconvened. Harvey and Menifee immediately resumed their argument about rebelling against the king’s governor. As Menifee evaded, Harvey’s anger exploded. He rose from his chair, struck Menifee on the shoulder and said, “I arrest you of suspicion of treason to his majesty.” John Utie gave the response. “And we the like to you, sir.” John Pott signaled, and musketeers emerged from the woods, surrounding the governor’s house, guns ready to fire, assuring Harvey this was for his own protection. Mathews and the other councilors surrounded Harvey, grabbed him and held him in his seat. Kemp stepped into the fray, and told Utie and Mathews that Harvey was the king’s lieutenant, and that they should back off, having already done more than they could answer for, and at this point, they laid their cards on the table. They told Harvey he must and shall sail for England to answer the complaints against him. They justified this by saying the people’s wrath was so strong they couldn’t protect Harvey if he stayed in Virginia, but Harvey refused.
Then, 24 hours later, after consulting with Kemp, he agreed. The Council told Harvey and Kemp that Kemp would fill Harvey’s role as governor until the king appointed a new one, and then they ordered a meeting of the General Assembly to collect complaints about Harvey to add to the petition. At the Assembly, they elected John West acting governor, contrary to their prior statements.
On May 23, Harvey and two of his accusers, Francis Pott and William Harwood, sailed for England.
This event came to be known as the thrusting out of governor Harvey, and it was extraordinarily important and radical for the time period. They pushed out the king’s appointed representative because they wanted to forcefully reject the king’s chosen policies, so they’d indirectly rebelled against their king. It was a sign of things to come.
There was almost certainly some collaboration between people in England and Virginia in the months leading up to the coup. Mathews may have been discussing events with people like Sandys and Ferrar to maximize their political impact in fighting Maryland, restoring the Company and ousting Harvey. It seems likely, but like so many things, no documentation exists.
And, if we’re looking at the time period, and the English Civil War, there are some pretty dramatic comparisons to be made between Virginia’s conflicts and the wider debates going on in England. Harvey wasn’t a bad guy, at least, I would say he wasn’t, though some people disagree, and he seemed an able administrator, but he was thoroughly unequipped to play the games which are necessary in politics, and to make up for that inability, he wanted more individual power, whereas the Mathews faction favored democratic control, the system which gave them almost total control of the colony. I’m not saying they couldn’t have had ideological conviction, too, but each side was definitely taking the pragmatic position, too. Harvey slipped into debt and attempted to extralegally get enough money to pay some of that debt, and that served as a rallying point for the Mathews faction. Harvey was lenient toward Catholics, and that ultimately precipitated a revolt and coup by predominantly Puritan opposition.
It’s almost shocking how well Harvey’s first term as governor mirrored events in England.
But, it’s also worth mentioning Harvey’s successes. Despite everything, he did alleviate economic difficulties, ended war with the Powhatan, opened trade, ended Virginia’s food shortages for the forseeable future, and made the colony an attractive enough place that the population more than doubled in the five years of his first term.
Next week, though, we’ll discuss his second term, and his final departure from Virginia.