Previous: The Puritans
The Cavaliers (pages 207-418)
While the Puritans certainly had their share of high-ranking elites who possessed greater sway in the direction of their community, their societal set-up pales in comparison when observing the structure of hierarchies that made up the Virginian communities. The heads of the Cavaliers were an aristocratic bunch, sometimes hyper-focused on politics, then at times not focused—at least explicitly—on it at all. And of course, along with these high-ranking families, came indentured servants; high and low classes were represented, middle not so much. A running theme of this writing will present itself as what appears to be a constant conflict within these Virginian communities, that of living according to the high-status roots most of them had come from, while also taking advantage of the new landscape set before them, a savage form of freedom of exploration and creation that often required the setting aside of an aristocratic lifestyle.
Origins:
Consistent with their ideas with regard to hierarchy, the Cavaliers migrating to Virginia from England came from upper-status backgrounds and, unlike the Puritans who largely came from one area of England, the Cavaliers came from various counties spread throughout, with the largest influx of arrival occurring from 1645-1655. Religion certainly played a role in the migration, but it wasn’t near as important to this group as it was to the Puritans. Like the Puritans however, again a new landscape in which to build a new community from scratch provided enticing opportunities, especially to an elite who, while established in England, weren’t particularly content; setting up a “Royal Colony” would certainly break this discontent. However, while the top of the Cavalier origins was highly literate and sophisticated, the bottom—which made up the majority of the migration—was not at all. This juxtaposition resulted in fewer holders of greater amounts of land than in the New England counties. Beneficial to this more sizable land ownership, the Cavaliers were also more agrarian in their English origins. Also in contrast from the Puritans, early immigration contained far more men than women.
Family Ways (The Anglican Idea of the Patriarchal Family):
Extended family rings were even more important to the Virginians than the New Englanders. Certain sections of rural neighborhoods came to be known by the last name of the family that dominated in numbers, and within these neighborhoods cemeteries were constructed strictly for these distinct family rings. The nuclear family unit wasn’t completely neglected, however. Again, even more so than the New Englanders, within each nuclear Virginian family home, the father of the household was his own king over his family as well as, in the case he had them, his servants and slaves. A strong patriarchy within the home, as well as a gentlemen’s club made up of the high-ranking men of these family circles in the surrounding community, naturally followed through to the patriarchal style of hierarchical governance that dominated this southern culture.
Child-Rearing Ways (Bending the Will):
The Puritans were obsessed with “breaking the will” when it came to raising their children because of their obsession with religious piety and purity. The Virginians, on the other hand, while religious but not as pious as the New Englanders, focused more on “bending the will” of their children, mainly with the intention of molding a strong will, especially within their male offspring. So, while in Puritan communities, children were “sent away” to another family unit as a way to teach new manners and standards under a new roof, male children of Cavalier communities, at very young ages, were encouraged to go on adventures outside of the home and on their own, to build strength of character and resourcefulness. At the same time, however, along with this adventurous spirit, Virginian children were also expected to be good-mannered, especially in the practice of an inward stoic nature. “A gentleman of Virginia was expected to have boisterous feelings and manly passions and a formidable will. But at the same time he was also expected to achieve a stoic mastery of self.” (pg 317)
Religious Ways
The Virginians differed from the Puritans when it came to religion in many ways, something that persists to this day in these areas, even if the “religion” being practiced has changed; theology might change but mode and method carries on. One way, perhaps not most important but certainly telling, was the building in which they chose to worship. While the Puritan place of worship differed very little in structure from the more secular buildings of their communities, and also contained very little inside decoration, the churches in which the Anglican Virginians worshipped maintained distinct architectural styles. They were attractive buildings, not large in size but more artistic in design, and inside these churches more decoration could be found, which was more compatible with Heaven-ward reverential Anglican style of worship as opposed the down-home meeting-place lecture style of the Puritans.
The service itself was also quite different from that of the New Englanders. Ministers were much less likely to carry on with hour long sermons, that not being considered the most important part of the service; in fact, rarely did the minister’s sermon go under or over twenty minutes in length. The Anglican’s faith practice, including their weekly services, was less about meetings, rituals and structure, and was more devotional and contemplative in style, spontaneous even. One deviation, however, was the singing in these services, as it was more harmonically sound, and structured even, than that of the Puritans.
Sport Ways:
Consistent with its system of governance and society, sports, too, were subject to hierarchy within the Virginian communities. The Cavaliers looked down upon the Puritan’s preferred method of sport, specifically the use of a ball. Thomas Jefferson himself: “Games played with a ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind.” This is interesting in one particular respect, that of the migration of these folks to the greater south and the south’s present uber-obsession with football, a sport containing roots in New England.
Horse racing was at the top of the Virginian sports hierarchy. And while Jefferson may have bemoaned sports using balls as too violent, horse racing in the south quickly turned violent itself, mainly in regard to using whatever means necessary in knocking the jockey off his steed. Hunting for sport was also near the top of the hierarchy, containing also its own hierarchy within. The higher class hunted stag, and those in lower ranks fox. Small boys of the community often had to resort to the annihilation of songbirds.
Much like the implicit conflict between acting consistent with the royal society they thought themselves to be while also flexing muscles of savage exploration, the view of sports, along with the actual participation of them, carried forth this same conflict.
Work Ways:
The Virginian work ethic did not at align the Puritan one. They did not value work in and of itself near as much, not necessarily viewing it as one of their greatest duties in the world, one to be performed with dedication and obligation to God. Instead, the Cavaliers valued work—or perhaps, “tolerated” is the better word—insofar as it created the high society they sought to create; aristocracy and royalty took work, and so what needed to be done was done, with the hope of time and space being cleared for the more sought-after pursuits of the people of these communities.
This attitude led to another conflict, familiar in its form: the Virginians despised trade by its definition, yet they engaged in the practice often, so as to alleviate the lack of desire for too much work. This particular conflict also led to the accumulation of debt, of which the Virginia communities had the most of among British America. Consistent with this theme, as well as the larger one: Thomas Jefferson had a vast amount of personal debt, yet fought against a debt-based economy.
Order Ways (The Anglican Idea of Order as Hierarchy):
It should be no surprise that the possession and maintenance of an established hierarchy was indeed the main method used for establishing an ordered society, which set in motion a circular motion of the two—hierarchy and order—maintaining each other. As far as the task of keeping day-to-day order within these communities, much fell upon the county sheriffs, who, consistent with the structure, delegated lower-level duties to those below them, the town constables. It was expected that these sheriffs be landowners, also consistent with the top of the Virginian hierarchies having hold over the greater amount of land. How the position of sheriff was attained varied by county. In some areas it was a position of patronage; in others it was a rotation of justices, therefore maintaining consistency in both keeping order and punishing those who went against the desired order. Punishments were severe in these communities, with the gallows being the main method of death penalty.
Freedom Ways (The Idea of Hegemonic Liberty):
Finally, as we’ve observed throughout the writing, the idea of hegemonic liberty within the Virginian communities was again another case study of the Cavaliers being a group of people possessing ideas that, on the surface at least, seemed to be at war within themselves. However, despite the quite hierarchical structure, the Englishmen making up these Virginia communities enjoyed more liberty—as well as “liberties”—than the more egalitarian Puritans; the democratically imposed upon restraints of New England weren’t near as prevalent in Virginia. John Randolph of Roanoke: “I love liberty; I hate equality.” Unsurprisingly, then, it is also true that those who had established themselves at the top of the hierarchy—of which Randolph was—enjoyed not only the greatest amount of liberty but also became the purveyors of what was to be construed as liberty within the communities; and as we’ve seen, freedom to explore—ideas, land, even social status in some cases (it is more achievable to climb a visible ladder than an invisible one)—was much more prominent here than in New England.