Public Discourse in Frontier Virginia
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Differences with New England
- Where New England was founded for religious reasons, Virginia was a
commercial colony. This difference fundamentally altered the
motivation discourse of the two.
- Land was the basis of wealth in Virginia. Acquisition of land
preceded settlement. There was no village system.
- In Virginia tobacco provided a cash crop. This crop meant
that life went beyond a subsistence agriculture to provide elements of a
cash crop system.
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Differences from the Virginia Tidewater
When we think of public speaking in Colonial Virginia, we most often think of
those who lived in Williamsburg or large plantations on the tidewater and went
to important meetings like Burgesses, the Continental Congresses and the
Constitutional Convention. Although these people were important, they are
not the people we will study.
- When the frontier moved off the Tidewater, English gentry took over.
They used tobacco capital to buy slaves to provide labor. The parlor
of the plantation house and letters among the gentry became the place for
public life on the Tidewater. The tidewater culture had been established in the 1600s.
- Republican Virginia lived on the frontier of the Piedmont and
Intermountain areas, not on the Tidewater. The frontier areas were
the place where the laboratory of democracy was acting itself out. As people settled new areas making them the frontier, they had to invent their government. Naturally they did it in the ideas of the 1700s not the ideas of the 1600s.
An exercise to compare the characteristics of the frontier below with the rhetoric of the tidewater to illustrate the differences
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Life on the Virginia Frontier
- Predominately a subsistence farmer. You have recieved a land grant on the frontier, have come and cleared land along a river. Grow the crops to support your family. You may also have a little tobacco to provide a limited cash crop.
- What do you do with the money from the "cash crop"? The store is your bank. You take "cash" to the storekeeper and he credits it to your account. Then you can draw down that money to buy the things you buy from the store. The store is also your market for your "cash crop." For example, the storekeeper collects the tobacco from the neighborhood and ships it to the markets on the tidewater. Whatever your cash crop is -- cattle, tobacco, wheat, corn, whiskey -- the arrangement is the same. Thus, the store and the storekeeper are an important part of your livelihood.
- What do you do when you accumulate a lot of money from your cash crop? You buy land. To obtain land on the frontier there is generally a three step process. (1) Enter the land. You simply record in a book at the court house that you intend to buy 400 acres on the Pigg River, or whatever. (2) Survey. The most expensive part of the process. A surveyor measures out your acres precisely and records the survey for you. (3) Grant or Patent. You receive a deed to the land indicating it is yours. You can sell at any of these stages -- entry, survey, or patent -- so you have put your money in something that can grow in value.
- You have a second skill that defines your unique contribution to the community: a cooper, surveyor, blacksmith, shoemaker, gunsmith, wagoner, miller, etc. For women: nail maker, candle maker, midwife, basket maker, etc.
- Your family provides the labor on the farm. Labor is relatively isolated. May have a hand, probably free but perhaps slave, to assist with the labor.
- The store provides metals, imported cloth, some books, rum, supplies for your trade. Seldom leave your farm, monthly or weekly at most.
- Rhythms of life are tied to the crops and court day. Court day provides market opportunities.
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Places for Public Life on the Virginia Frontier
- The Store: Primary place of contact. The store is particularly important to your economic life. It is your bank, where you sell your crops, where you pay your taxes. It handles your cash.
- The County Court: A place for resolving conflicts. Imagine you are
at the county court. What type of matters would you be hearing? What activities
might you be engaged in? How do you view a suit against you? For what sorts
of things might you ask the court to take action? The court is also important economically because it is where you do the business that allows you to acquire land, where you register your deeds.
- Court Day: Once a month. Imagine you are at court day. Describe your
surroundings? Who else is there? What sorts of activities are occurring? Who
and what sorts of things did you bring with you to court day?
 |
First Courthouse of Pittsylvania County, 1770. Samuel Calland's Store. Court Day events occurred in the fields around the Courthouse. |
- The Vestry: Imagine you are at a meeting of the vestry. What sorts
of matters would you bring to the vestries attention? What sorts of things
would the vestry be discussing? What is the qualification for you to sit on
the vestry board?
- Taverns and Ordinaries: The place to acquire news of the world. Imagine
you are at a tavern. What sorts of things are being discussed? Who will you
find gathered there?
 |
Yates Tavern, Pittsylvania County VA. On the road between the Dan River and the James River at Lynchburg that tied the citizens of Southside Virginia to the colony's government on the James. |
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Characteristics of Public Discourse on the Virginia
Frontier
- Authority: How is authority to speak distributed on the Virginia
Frontier? How do you establish your authority in your message?
- Authority is more broadly distributed on the frontier.
- Authority is experiential and common sense.
- Motivating Public Action: How do you motivate public action?
- The "good of the community" was an important motive,
a generalized private need.
- The community provided those things necessary for prosperity: the commerce
of the community
- Enforcement of public decisions depended on their legitimacy.
- There was much more in Virginia that was beyond the public matters --
in the private domain -- than in New England.
- Ideographs: What were some of the important ideographs that
you would use to appeal for public action on the frontier?
- Rights
- Property
- Liberty. But this is not the positive liberty of New England. This is "liberty from," the right to do as you wish without others interfering.
- Security.
- The influence of the Enlightenment on Republican Virginia's discourse
- The social contract gave form to the discourse. Legitimacy
was contextualized within the social contract.
- Natural rights. Individualism emerges from differing notions
of where rights come from in the language of the enlightenment.
- Empirical common sense as a basis of truth. The enlightenment
notion of the roots of truth placed the basis of communication in different
places then the theories of Truth in New England. Truth emerged
from the processes of rhetorical exchange.
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Other study questions on public discourse on
the Virginia Frontier
- What were the differences in private and public matters in Puritan
New England and Republican Virginia?
- What were the differences between the frontier and the Tidewater in
Virginia?
- What were the differences in the reasons for the founding of Puritan
New England and Virginia? How did this difference influence their discourse?
- What were the differences in the place of religion in Puritan New England
and Virginia? How did this difference influence their discourse?
- Explain the difference in the ideograph "liberty" in Puritan
New England and the Virginia frontier.
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Some Discourse Exercises
Are the following matters private or public matters on the Virginia Frontier?
Develop a speech that might be heard on the Virginia frontier in response
to the following situations:
- You go to the County Court to justify the building of a bridge over
a creek.
- You go to the County Court to request permission to build a mill.
- You go to the County Court requesting that your neighbor leave your
son alone.
- You petition that rates charged at the tavern be decreased.
- You petition the Court to lower prices at the store.
- You urge the Court to enforce the regulations requiring attendance
at Militia.
-
Produce a message to appeal to the court to build a road in your neighborhood.
- Produce a message to urge your neighbors to support the patriot cause in
the revolution
- You make a plea for protection against the Indians during the French and
Indian War. Matthew
Talbot's plea for Assistance. Text
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