|Patrick Hamrick (1684 - 1764) was the first of my direct
ancestors to step foot on American soil. He arrived in Virginia
as a young teenager, without his parents, when the English
colony was still very young. At the time he stepped ashore,
Virginia was comprised of a vast wilderness, mostly occupied by
native Americans. There were very few settlements, and they were
located solely along major waterways such as the James, York,
Rappahannock, and Potomac rivers. The non-native population of
these combined settlements was only about fifty to sixty
thousand inhabitants, and most of them were males.(1) At that
time, Virginia's economy was based almost completely on tobacco
trade with England. As was the case for many other young men who
came here from England during that period, Patrick paid for his
voyage by entering into an agreement to work in the tobacco
fields as an indentured servant.| Patrick was born more than 300
years ago, at the time Isaac Newton was working on his theory of
gravity. Charles II reigned