SLAVERY INTRODUCED.--Another event which makes 1619 a memorable year in
our history was the arrival at Jamestown of a Dutch ship with a cargo of
African negroes for sale. Twenty were bought, and the institution of negro
slavery was planted in Virginia. This seemed quite proper, for there were
then in the colony many white slaves, or bond servants--men bound to
service for a term of years. The difference between one of these and an
African negro slave was that the white man served for a short time, and
the negro during his life. [7]

A CARGO OF MAIDS.--Yet another event which makes 1619 a notable year in
Virginian history was the arrival of a ship with ninety young women sent
out by the company to become wives of the settlers. The early comers to
Virginia had been "adventurers," that is, men seeking to better their
fortunes, not intending to live and die in Virginia, but hoping to return
to England in a few years rich, or at least prosperous. That the colony
with such a shifting population could not prosper was certain. Virginia
needed homes. The mass of the settlers were unmarried, and the company
very wisely determined to supply them with wives. The ninety young women
sent over in 1619, and others sent later, were free to choose their own
husbands: but each man, on marrying one of them, had to pay one hundred
and twenty pounds of tobacco for her passage to Virginia.

[Illustration: THE MAIDS ARRIVE IN VIRGINIA.]

THE CHARTER TAKEN AWAY.--For Virginia the future now looked bright. Her
tobacco found ready sale in England at a large profit. The right to make
her own laws gave promise of good government. The founding of home ties
could not fail to produce increased energy on the part of the settlers.
But trouble was brewing for the London Company. The king was quarreling