The Evolution of the Southern Backcountry: A Case Study of Lunenburg County, Virginia, 1746-1832

FIVE: The Constitutional Revolt in the Backcountry

Whatever the potential for conflict posed by the "internal disorder" inherent in the evangelical revolt, the Virginia social order man­ aged to display remarkable cohesiveness and unity of purpose in mobilizing itself for the external revolt against Great Britain. The cultural divisions appearing in areas like Lunenburg would ulti­ mately produce profound changes in the way Virginians defined both their civil and religious polity, but in the short run the con­ stitutional conflict provoked by the British—and the hardship produced by the military conflict that would follow—served to submerge the differences between Anglicans and evangelicals and to join virtually all the citizens of Lunenburg in the common cause of the Revolution. But Lunenburg's citizens did not rise to rebel against the mother country spontaneously, and the success of the Whig leaders of eastern Virginia in mobilizing backcountry counties like Lunen­ burg in support of the Revolution is testimony to the power of political institutions to resolve conflicts and promote consensus. Throughout much of the Southern backcountry the strains of re­ gional, economic, ethnic, and religious antagonisms, in concert with a corrupt and inequitable system of provincial government, The Constitutional Revolt in the Backcountry F I V E The Constitutional Revolt in the Backcountry 121 produced civil uprisings against eastern political authorities during the 1760s and early 1770s and, more serious, helped foster bitter and bloody divisions between Whigs and Tories during the Revo­ lution itself. The citizens of the Virginia backcountry, though af­ flicted by many of the same social divisions as their counterparts to the south, were nevertheless a part of a colonywide political system that, whatever the variations from east to west, did provide them with a sense of connection with the rest of their colonywhich was notably lacking in other parts of the Southern backcountry. • THE MOBILIZATION OF REVOLT Like most of revolutionary America, Lunenburg managed to carry on much of its business during the period from 1763 to 1776 as if the resistance movement against Great Britain—indeed, as if the mother country herself—did not exist. The myth of a constant and unified resistance to British oppression during the years 1763­76 is one which, though congenial to our patriotic instincts, has in recent years given way to a more realistic view of the way political resistance movements build momentum. Prior to 1774 even the most politically conscious activists in the major urban areas of America confined their activities to a generally well­ordered resis­ tance to specific British policies. They did not initially intend their activities to lead to a wholesale denial of British authority, and they certainly did not wish for a severance of their amicable and generally useful attachment to the mother country.' Moreover, in areas which were out of the mainstream of commercial or political activity—and that surely included most of America—early resis­ tance to England was sporadic at best. Even the residents of Con­ cord, Massachusetts, located so close to the main center of resistance activity in Boston, remained generally unconcerned with imperial policies until late 1773, when the British government began to tamper with the workings of local government and when local "committees of correspondence" were formed to carry the message of resistance to the hinterlands.2 If Concord, the temporary meeting place of the extralegal pro­ vincial assembly of Massachusetts and the scene of the initial 122 The Evolution of the Southern Backcountry outbreak of hostilities in the RevolutionaryWar, was slow to involve itself in the movement for independence, then it should hardly surprise us to discover that Lunenburg—over a hundred miles from the provincial capital in Williamsburg and light­years away from the seat of the empire in both spatial terms and the concerns of her citizens—was not wholly caught up in the early stages of the struggle. Lunenburg's two burgesses, Henry Blagrave and William Taylor, most likely supported Patrick Henry's resolves denouncing the Stamp Act in .the Spring 1765 session of the General Assembly. Contemporary accounts of prerevolutionary Virginia politics refer to a bloc of Southside Piedmont counties that regularly supported Henry's positions, and though the vote on the Stamp Act Resolves was not recorded, Lunenburg's representatives did subsequently tend to side with the Hanover County lawyer. It is clear, though, that even in Henry's home county the intensity of citizen involve­ ment in the imperial dispute was uneven and sporadic, and...