necessitate the adoption of any settled policy toward slavery or the
slave-trade. Later the slave-trade to the colony increased; but there is
no evidence of any effort to restrict or in any way regulate it before
1786, when it was declared that "the importation of slaves into this
State is productive of evil consequences and highly impolitic,"[23] and
a prohibitive duty was laid on them.


7. ~Restrictions in Virginia.~[24] Next to South Carolina, Virginia had
probably the largest slave-trade. Her situation, however, differed
considerably from that of her Southern neighbor. The climate, the staple
tobacco crop, and the society of Virginia were favorable to a system of
domestic slavery, but one which tended to develop into a patriarchal
serfdom rather than into a slave-consuming industrial hierarchy. The
labor required by the tobacco crop was less unhealthy than that
connected with the rice crop, and the Virginians were, perhaps, on a
somewhat higher moral plane than the Carolinians. There was consequently
no such insatiable demand for slaves in the larger colony. On the other
hand, the power of the Virginia executive was peculiarly strong, and it
was not possible here to thwart the slave-trade policy of the home
government as easily as elsewhere.

Considering all these circumstances, it is somewhat difficult to
determine just what was the attitude of the early Virginians toward the
slave-trade. There is evidence, however, to show that although they
desired the slave-trade, the rate at which the Negroes were brought in
soon alarmed them. In 1710 a duty of £5 was laid on Negroes, but
Governor Spotswood "soon perceived that the laying so high a Duty on
Negros was intended to discourage the importation," and vetoed the
measure.[25] No further restrictive legislation was attempted for some