What did our Germans find when they arrived in Virginia? They perhaps landed at Jamestown, the port for Williamsburg. Already this was thirty miles inland up the James River. So before they had landed they would have discovered two characteristics of Virginia. The one that surprised them the most was the number of trees. Chances are they saw some ground being cleared for growing tobacco, and the trees were being burned. They were not used to so many trees, nor were they used to seeing them being burned just to get rid of them. This was difficult for them to accept; trees in Germany were scarce and bordered on being precious.
The trip up the James River would have exposed them also to another aspect of life in Virginia. Civilization was based on the major river systems. In the early 1700's, ships could sail up the four major rivers to the limits of settlement. From the north, there was the Potomac, the Rappahannock (to be very important to them later), the York, and the James. Commerce took place on these rivers. Some of the plantations fronted on the rivers (as Mount Vernon was to do later), but many were set back slightly, with only a landing to mark where ships could call.
It perhaps took a while for the Germans to appreciate it, but there was only one town, Williamsburg, the capitol city where the Governor had his home. The assembly, or the House of Burgesses, met here and enacted legislation. The Council was both an advisor to the Governor and a partner in the legislative process.
Outside of Williamsburg, life centered on the larger homes which were surrounded by the buildings necessary for a self-contained community of specialized labors. A traveller would be welcome to stay in one of these homes, especially if he brought news from the larger world. If he could tell a few good stories, he might be invited to stay another night.
The road network was limited, and tapered off in quality as one moved away from Williamsburg. When Lt. Governor Spotswood went to Germanna in 1716, he travelled the first part of the way in a chaise. Then he transferred to a horse. The road network was used mainly for people, not for commerce. The largest amount of freight was tobacco going to market in England. From the farms it was rolled in large casks to a warehouse at a river bank. There it could be traded for a warehouse receipt, and the warehouse receipt could be used as money. Even the tithes of the church were assessed in pounds of tobacco and could be paid with actual tobacco.
The importance of tobacco would have been a surprise to the Germans but, as soon as they were on their own, they too adopted the culture of tobacco. It was the one cash crop in Virginia which dominated everything else. Mini-depressions could result if the crop was poor or the price was low. Tobacco even had its own network of roads, called rolling roads. These had to be laid out very carefully to avoid hills which would make the pulling hard or the braking difficult. These roads also needed to be smooth to avoid breaking up the casks.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.