Aside from the annoyance of "the Pilgrims were here first" [and I
won't go into the First Thanksgiving controversy], it is really
irritating to hear people talk as if all the early colonists were
dour, religiously-driven Puritans. Virginians loved their hunting,
horse racing [the Quarter Horse was created here, to run fast quarter
mile races], wenching, card-playing, and drinking. Virginia had laws
on the books, I am sure a religious element in the UK as well as the
royal element were trying to keep things in order over here, but the
laws don't seem to have been rigidly and consistently enforced; there
was a more lax attitude. Virginians were here to make money. There
were laws against witchcraft, but the authorities seemed to have
discouraged witchcraft cases. After a hearing to see if they were
suitable to go to trial, most cases were dismissed and the person who
brought the charges had to pay court costs. I am sure that cut down
on neighbors accusing neighbors they didn't like, of being a witch.
There seem to have been only 2 convictions for witchcraft in
Virginia. The famous "Witch of Pungo", who was ducked on a ducking
stool [by what is still called Witchduck Road in Va. Beach], later
thrown in jail for a few years, and when she was released the
Governor helped her get her lost land and properties back. And a man
in a county, I couldn't find which one, who was found guilty, given
some lashes on the back as punishment and banned from the county.
That was it.

Harold, there were a lot of free blacks here, people [men and women]
who ran their own businesses, even some, I hate to say it, who owned
land and had a few slaves of their own.

Nancy

-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.

--Daniel Boone



On Jan 15, 2007, at 6:15 PM, Debra Jackson/Harold Forsythe wrote:

> These regulations were weak compared to those in Puritan New
> England.  In
> 17th century Massachusetts healthy, able bodied people were
> required to
> attend church serves ALL DAY on the Sabbath, usually involving 2-3
> sermons
> of 2-3 hours in length.
> Twenty minutes every four months was weak beer for the Puritans.
> Save for
> the fact I would have probably been a slave, I think I would have
> preferred
> 17th century VA over MA.  (smile)
>
> Harold S. Forsythe
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sunshine49" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, January 15, 2007 5:58 PM
> Subject: Re: The beginning of the Episcopal Church
>
>
>> I'm no expert, but I'd agree with you. I came across one mention of a
>> law in early Va.- I don't know the date- that said a person had to go
>> to church once every 4 months, and the sermon was not to exceed 20
>> minutes. Maybe she is, like so many Americans, confusing Va. with
>> Mass, or assuming all were the same. After the Va. church service
>> people would gather to talk horse breeding, the price of crops, read
>> the marriage notices and other community information posted at the
>> courthouse, etc. It was a time to socialize and get caught up. Unlike
>> in Mass, Virginia "plantations" were very far apart [and pretty self-
>> contained], travel was a mess by land, the court days or church
>> services or weddings and funerals were the main times people saw each
>> other. While Va. had it's various religious laws, it was not set up
>> as a religious colony as Mass was. She needs to do a little more
>> research.
>>
>> Virginia was not Mass!! Arrgghhhh! I just finished reading William
>> Kelso's newest book on the recent James Fort discoveries, and he said
>> that with one exception, every religious relic they there found was
>> Catholic. So while these first colonists may have been Anglican, they
>> plainly still harbored Catholic feelings as well. They were not
>> Puritanical religious zealots. Obviously, their religion was rather
>> ambiguous. Or flexible.
>>
>> Nancy
>>
>> -------
>> I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.
>>
>> --Daniel Boone
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jan 15, 2007, at 4:35 PM, Anne Pemberton wrote:
>>
>>> I appreciate all the responses to the question of the origin of the
>>> Episcopal church. I will pass them on to the author of D'Arcy ....
>>> Donna
>>> Southall.
>>>
>>> Now, if I may, a question of the early Church services in
>>> Jamestown. I've
>>> always gotten the impression that they were a somewhat irreligious
>>> group,
>>> but in the book D'Arcy, she has the hero arriving by ship in time
>>> for
>>> sabbath worship, that lasted many hours, and when he nodded off, he
>>> was
>>> clapped in the stocks for his transgression. The typical sabbath
>>> was three
>>> hours of preaching, a communal lunch, and back to church for two
>>> more hours
>>> of preaching. An awful lot of preaching that one cannot go to sleep
>>> on!These
>>> events, to me,  sound more like the practices of the Puritans
>>> than the
>>> Anglicans. Am I wrong?
>>>
>>> Anne
>>>
>>> Anne Pemberton
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>> http://www.erols.com/stevepem
>>> http://www.erols.com/apembert
>>> http://www.educationalsynthesis.org
>>>
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>>
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