Excerpt from History of Virginia, Vol. 1 of 6: Colonial Period, 1607-1763 The first century and a half of Virginia's Colonial History, the period described in this volume, was crowded with events of extraor dinary variety and far - descending influence. The eighteen years of the London Company's existence saw the erection on the banks of the James of the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere; the meeting at Jamestown of the earliest representative assembly to convene within the present area of the United States; the establishment of the first civil and criminal courts; the first trial by jury; the first grant of separate titles to land; the planting of the first staple crops; the manufacture of the first merchantable articles; the building of the first church; and the construction of the first dwelling-house. The era of Nathaniel Bacon made up another interval of supreme importance, for it was then that the first armed blow on a large scale was struck on American soil for the preservation of the rights of the common people and for their equality before the law. Subsequently, it was during the administrations of Culpeper and Effingham that the Virginians contended, with indomitable courage and persistence, for the inherited, and inalienable, and sole right of their General Assemblies to impose taxes and originate the measures necessary for the proper government of their local affairs. And next, it was during the administrations of Spotswood and Gooch that the first great movement of population westward began, never to pause until the shores of the Pacific were reached; and it was during this interval, also, that the' Dissenters carried on their noble struggle for religious liberty, which was to end, at a later day, in a splendid triumph. And, finally, it was during the administrations of Din widdie and Fauquier that the expansion of the French Power towards the Alleghanies was permanently halted. All these dramatic and pregnant episodes were, by their transmitted influence, to make a profound impression on the character and career of the great Republic which now dominates the Western Hemisphere, and they are, there fore, entitled to a discriminating study as much from a national, as from a Virginian, point of view. I have not lost sight of' this larger significance in my treatment of the different aspects of my central theme, whether it deals with the facts in the ordinary current of events, or with the qualities of the men who played the chief part during the years of the colonial period. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.