Literature, Principally Belletristic - University of Tennessee, Knoxville

· Literature,
Principally Belletristic .
ley shows himself genuinely religious, but the puritan piety of the earlier
Whitaker variety seems to have been displaced by an emotion we may call
patriotism.
From the Restoration to the end of the century Virginia saw a rapidly
increasing population and prosperity, the genesis and dissolution of Bacon's
Rebellion, and the founding of the College of William and Mary, all of
which resulted in multiplied epistolary communication. From the 1660s
two Maryland personal letters survive, and from the 1670S there are a few
extant letters from the Carolinas. Virginia Governors Sir William Berkeley
and Lord Effingham and Acting Governor Nicholas Spencer have all left
epistles showing in style and content their urbane, uxorious, or hypochon­
driac characters, usually with some grace. In Berkeley'S case, as one might
expect of a whilom man of letters, there is unusually effective prose, albeit
the cruel intransigence so obvious in his character in his last years at times
shows through.1s From Maryland in the last generation of the century
are letters of an early Presbyterian to the noted Richard Baxter in England,
from Anglican John Yeo to English authorities on the deplorable state
of the colony, and from Catholic Philip Calvert (chancellor of Maryland)
to Colonel Henry Mease (or Meese) in London on official business. Then
there are epistles from governors Protestant and Catholic concerning the
insurrection of the 1680s and later and from Governor Nicholson on the
Indians and education.16 From Carolina Governor Joseph West and Wil­
liam Sayle gave accounts of their voyages and the present state of affairs, and
Joseph Dalton in 1672 and N. Mathews describe the country, Mathews
enclosing the plan of the city of Charleston. Other communications, as
those of Thomas Newe are concerned with natural history. In subject
matter several of the Carolina letters before 1700 are informative and gen­
erally interesting, but few if any are distinguished in style. This generalization
applies for both the Albemarle and Ashley river settlements, that is,
for both North and South Carolina. IT
There appear to be more surviving Virginia letters of the century's last
thirty years than of all the other colonies combined, though this may be
because more have been published and most of the unpublished are re­
corded in accessible manuscript catalogues. One of the more voluminous
of extant correspondences is that of Thomas Ludwell, for many years
secretary of state, a man who wrote regularly to officials and friends in
behalf of the colony. Usually devoted to such matters as the condition of
the tobacco industry, he also describes a battle between the Dutch and
Virginia fleets in Hampton Roads and presents the protest of the planters
against the policy of sending over so many "Rogues and ill people." These,