-29-                            
 
 
procured, great tracts of land on the border of his 
province through the listing of names that did not 
exist and even the addition of ciphers to the figures 
in his grant. And he often gave freed white servants 
small tracts of land in order to make them freeholders 
and to command their allegiance in electoral contests, 
a custom which prevailed more than a hundred years. But 
it was not easy to rear successful heirs, although the 
Engilsh custom of giving the major part of one's estate 
to the eldest son still prevailed. Since one's land was 
exhausted in eight or ten years and his slaves doubled 
in number every twenty years, poverty would be the
lot of one's eldest son and slaves would be a liability.
But the structure was fairly complete
ewerywhere before William and Mary mounted the
throne of the Stuarts; and the vast expanse of                 
free lands and the numberless Negroes one might
import from Africa gave promise of increasing wealth
and social eminence. However, the relaxing trade
 
 
1 Craven, Avery O.: 
Soil Exhaustion in Virginia and Maryland
gives excellent account of this problem in early tobacco region.