17 William Byrd II to Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery, 2 Feb. 1727, Tinling, ed., Correspondence of the Three William Byrds, III, 358.

18 William Byrd II to John Perceval, Earl of Egmont, 12 July 1736, ibid., I, 487.

19 The history of slavery and African folkways in America is discussed at length in volume 2 of this book. Here only two points are to be made. First, the culture of Virginia came before slavery. Second, slavery developed not merely from an economic but a broadly cultural imperative.