Virginia.

Debate among colonial historians has often centered around the question of political stability in the British American colonies. This question has been especially pertinent to Virginia's history. Historians disagree, for instance, over the period from settlement to the 1730s whether the Chesapeake region was socially and politically unstable or relatively well established. Historian John Kukla has argued that early-seventeenthcentury Virginia had a stable political structure exemplified by a fully established civil government by 1646. After this time, Kukla asserted, political stability continued to progress. Taking an opposite view, historian Timothy Breen has argued that early Virginia was characterized by the inherently unstable mentality of "looking out for number one." Due to the early tobacco boom in the colony the strong lure of wealth attracted the rogue type, who Breen called "an unusual group of Jacobeans." Largely because of these inhabitants, early Virginia was unable...