I thought this to be interesting bit ole history Harriet ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 8:53 AM Subject: [DAVENPORT] What "Below the Salt" means, and It's Implications to Pamunkey Davenports : Pamunkey Davenports & Others Interested: : : In my introductory discussion relative to Davis Davenport's ancestry, : I used the term "below the salt" to describe Davis' social status compared to : that of Major John Waller, Davis's new neighbor in 1696. "What do you mean : by that?" I have been asked by a cousin. : : It's a succinct term from Medieval English times describing a person : of lower social standing. In those days, Lords of Manors and those of their : household, excepting cooks and others involved in food service who ate in the : kitchen, all persons of the household took their meals together and sat at a : common table, which was a "T" in design. (King Arthur's Round Table being the : notable exception.) The Lord of the Manor or the Master of the Household, his : wife, his family, and honored guests and favorites sat at the cross table, : all others, seated according to their status in the household, were at the : long table extending from the cross table. Salt for individual seasoning was : placed in one or more trenchers, depending on the length of the long table, : in the center of the table midway, one-third, one-fourth, one-fifth, whatever : needed, down. Those of highest status in the household sat closest to the : Lord or Master and his lady at the cross table. Those of lesser status or in : disfavor sat down the table according to their relative status, with Pages : and Apprentices, young nobodies on their ways to becoming somebodies, sitting : at the foot of table, below all the salt, but everyone at the long table : beyond those who sat above the first salt were "below the salt." Hence, by : station or place at the table one social status in the household was : identified and all knew who their "betters" were. A visitor was placed where : the Host determined he belonged, and woe unto anyone who "gave himself Aires" : and seated himself above his station. : : Pecking Order was possibly more crucial in Colonial Virginia than it : was in England, for all life in the Colony centered on one's social status. : You'll recall that the earliest Company of Adventurers to Virginia in 1608 : was largely composed of youthful Gentleman, who were of little use in doing : the work that it took to establish the Jamestown settlement because they had : no useful skills nor work ethic and considered themselves above common labor. : They were parasites on the labors of the Commoners, uncontributing mouths to : feed. : : The Social Structure was cemented into Seventeenth Century English : life from Medieval Times. In frontier Virginia, the English did not change, : but scoured the streets of English cities for the homeless and vagrants--the : jails for debtors and petty criminals, and shipped them to Virginia to become : indentured servants and do the common labor. According to Governor Berkeley : in 1671, four out of every five shipped to the Colony in its first fifty : years died within a year of their arrival, largely due to the harshness of : the life and their poor physical condition on arrival. The English turned to : Slavery in Virginia only because Blacks had the physical strength to do the : work and could survive the environment. Virginia Planters did not embrace : Slavery until the 1690s, after eighty years of failure with the dregs and : jail birds of English cities who could not survive the labor of pushing back : the forest to make fields, and planting, cultivating, and harvesting the : Tobacco that created the wealth that justified Virginia's existence. : : Not all who came to Virginia were Gentleman or Indentured Servants. : Merchants, Craftsmen, Yeomen, and Younger Sons made their own way or had it : made for them to seek their fortunes. Whoever they were, they were : classified by social status, not by merit or contribution to the good of the : Colony. An uneducated, shiftless son of a prominent English family shipped : to Virginia as a "Remittance Man" was of higher social regard and more : entitled to a place "above the salt" than was a hard working, highly skilled : artisan, who had to sit "below the salt," possibly at the foot of the table. : : The point is that in Colonial Virginia Society, social caste was : primary, and only the brash and inconsiderate married out of their Class, up : or down, and did so at the peril of losing whatever status they had obtained : or were born to. By becoming Virginia land owners and small planters, men of : low stature in England could advance in both economic and social status in : Virginia, but it was a slow, unsure process. Wealth did not guarantee that : one common born a place above the salt. : : I'll be touching on the matter of Social Status constantly as I unfold : what we have learned about the times of Davis Davenport, because of some of : our Pamunkey cousins are determined to make a Silk Purse out of a Sow's Ear : insofar as our ancestry is concerned. The reality of our Beginning will be : considered bitter medicine, by some. Bitter medicine, if needed, is better : administered in one, early dose where Genealogy is concerned. Delusions of : Grandeur contribute nothing but fiction to our effort. : : Every corollary family known to have been associated with the Pamunkey : Davenports in the first two generations after Davis was higher up the social : ladder than we were. Accept the premise that we started below the salt, and : have worked our way up, and the rest of the story will fall into place : comfortably. We started low, but we have been upwardly mobile on these : Shores for at least three hundred and fifty years. : : John Scott Davenport : Holmdel, NJ : : : ==== DAVENPORT Mailing List ==== : The Pamunkey Davenport Chronicles are available on CD. : Visit the link below for a free preview and instructions on ordering. : http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~nvjack/davnport/chronicles.htm : : ============================== : To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: : http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 :