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the entrepreneur's and the manor lord's status quite uncertain. The
guarantee of lands and freedom to indentured servants defeated the
formation of the stratified social order which was thought necessary.
Although there was the appearance of religious discipline and control
in Virginia, it was only an appearence (1).   People were not compelled
to attend church.  The Bishop of London might name pastors to
vacancies, but the salaries and terms of service depended on local
vestries popularly elected. Everybody was required by church decrees to
bury their dead in consecrated ground; yet many if not most landowners
buried deceased members of their families in their gardens or on
cherished hilltops. And, although the Prayer Book of James II's time
was supposed to express every man's creed, quite a third of Virginia
church members were dissenters or deists at heart.  Thus prospective
homesteads for all who wished them, the right to elect assemblies and
freedom of religious beliefs and conduct, that is, self-guided
democracies,
 
 
1. Wertenbaker, Thomas J.: 
Patrician and Plebian in Virginia
, 1910, gives good account of social classes in Virginia during the
17th century.