Just a month after the opening of the House of Burgesses a Dutch
vessel anchored at Jamestown. The captain had been on a raiding
expedition off the coast of Africa, and he had on board a cargo of
negroes, whom he had stolen from their homes. Twenty of these he
sold to the farmers. And thus slavery was first introduced upon
the Virginian plantations.
In 1619, too, there arrived the first ship-load of women colonists.
Nearly all the settlers were men. A few indeed had brought their
wives and daughters with them, but for the most part the colony
was a community of men. Among these there were many who were young,
and as they grew rich and prosperous they wanted to marry and have
homes of their own. But there was no one for them to marry. So
at length some one at home fell upon the plan of persuading young
women to go out to Virginia to settle there, and in 1619 a ship-load
of ninety came out. As soon as they arrived they found many young
men eager to marry them, and sometimes they must have found it
difficult to make a choice. But as soon as a young man was accepted
he had to pay the Company 120 Ibs., afterwards raised to 150 Ibs.,
of tobacco as the price of his bride's passage across the seas.
Then they were free to marry as soon as they pleased.
After this from time to time women went out to the colony. Sometimes
we read of "a widow and eleven maids," or again of "fifty maids for
wives.
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