Existing comment:
Sir William Berkeley
(pronounced Bar-clay)
b 1605 / d 9 July 1677
As royal governor (1642-1652 and 1660-1677), Berkeley transformed a society in flux into one controlled by a few elite families. He vigorously persecuted political and religious dissenters. He wanted no public schools or printing presses in Virginia because learning produced civil discontent and heresy, and printing presses spread these sorts of "problems." He controlled assembly members with land grants and well-paying public positions. |