<P> In actual practice , colonial Virginia never had a bishop to represent God nor a hereditary aristocracy with titles like ' duke ' or ' baron ' . However it did have a royal governor appointed by the king , as well as a powerful landed gentry . The status quo was strongly reinforced by what Jefferson called `` feudal and unnatural distinctions '' that were vital to the maintenance of aristocracy in Virginia . He targeted laws such as entail and primogeniture by which the oldest son inherited all the land . As a result increasingly large plantations , worked by white tenant farmers and by black slaves , gained in size and wealth and political power in the eastern ( `` Tidewater '' ) tobacco areas . Maryland and South Carolina had similar hierarchical systems , as did New York and Pennsylvania . During the Revolutionary era , all such laws were repealed by the new states . The most fervent Loyalists left for Canada or Britain or other parts of the Empire . They introduced primogeniture in Upper Canada ( Ontario ) in 1792 , and it lasted until 1851 . Such laws lasted in England until 1926 . </P>
<P> In actual practice , colonial Virginia never had a bishop to represent God nor a hereditary aristocracy with titles like ' duke ' or ' baron ' . However it did have a royal governor appointed by the king , as well as a powerful landed gentry . The status quo was strongly reinforced by what Jefferson called `` feudal and unnatural distinctions '' that were vital to the maintenance of aristocracy in Virginia . He targeted laws such as entail and primogeniture by which the oldest son inherited all the land . As a result increasingly large plantations , worked by white tenant farmers and by black slaves , gained in size and wealth and political power in the eastern ( `` Tidewater '' ) tobacco areas . Maryland and South Carolina had similar hierarchical systems , as did New York and Pennsylvania . During the Revolutionary era , all such laws were repealed by the new states . The most fervent Loyalists left for Canada or Britain or other parts of the Empire . They introduced primogeniture in Upper Canada ( Ontario ) in 1792 , and it lasted until 1851 . Such laws lasted in England until 1926 . </P>
who chose the governor of the royal colony of virginia
who chose the governor of the royal colony of virginia
the king
the king