Old Virginia and her neighbours

I112 OLD VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBOURS." cheap money." Culpeper insisted that the onlychance of relief was in exporting beef, pork, andgrain to the West Indies. A more effective measurewould have been the repeal of the NavigationAct. In the spring of 1682, on the petition ofseveral counties, the assembly was convened forthe purpose of ordering a cessation of planting.Amid great popular excitement the assembly ad-^journed without taking any decisive action. Thena fury for destroying the young plants seized uponthe people." The growing tobacco of one plantationwas no sooner destroyed than the owner,having been deprived either with or without hisconsent of his crop, was seized with the samefrenzy and ran with the crowd as it marched todestroy the crop of his neighbour." ^ The contagionspread until ten thousand hogsheads oftobaccohad been destroyed. In Gloucester, wherethe most damage was done, two hundred plantationswere laid waste. The riot was suppressed bythe militia, three ringleaders were hung, and therest pardoned.One, we are told, received pardonon condition that he should build a bridge .^This was contracting the currency with a vengeance,but it produced the desired effect. In1683 the purchasing power of tobacco was greatlyincreased, and a feeling of contentment returned.But the destruction of the plants served to heightenthe king's indignation at Culpeper's ill successin curtailing the power of the burgesses. Cul-1 Bruce, Economic History oj Virginia, i. 405 ; Hening'aStatutes, ii. 5G2.^ Doyle's Virginia, p. 261.