Conceived in Liberty Volume 2 - Ludwig von Mises Institute

16
The Virginia Political Structure
The political structure of eighteenth-century Virginia featured the form of
democracy (except of course for slaves and servants), prettifying the hard
reality of oligarchic rule by the large planters. Accordingly, the hierarchy of
officialdom was continuously permeated by the scions of a handful of leading
planter families. As Professor Sydnor states:
At the peak of the official hierarchy were the members of the Council, who
were chosen from the top families of the planter aristocracy .. . and they were
in a favorable position, which they did not hesitate to use, to secure large
grants of land. Good family helped to put a man in the Council; in turn membership
in the Council enabled a man to improve the fortunes of his family.
The advantages of the office were enjoyed by a rather small number of families
interrelated by blood and marriage. One kind of relationship is indicated
by the fact that only fifty-seven family names appear on a list of the ninety-one
men appointed to the Council from 1680 to the Revolution. Nine family
names account for almost a third of the Councillors during this century; and
fourteen other names for almost another third. Five Councillors bore the
name of Page; three each the names of Burwell, Byrd, Carter, Custis, Harrison,
Lee, Ludwell and Wormley. *
A similar though necessarily broader social structure held for the distribution
of the powerful appointive county offices headed by local county judges,
who performed executive and legislative as well as judicial functions. It held,
also, for the elective House of Burgesses, especially in the positions of power
in that chamber. As Sydnor concludes:
* Charles S. Sydnor, American Revolutionaries in the Making (New York: Collier
Books, 1962), p. 63.
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