that norm was violated in ways that could not be ignored by the community,
grand juries dealt with the offenders.
Sunday the   Lord s Day,  or the   Sabbath  in contemporary parlance
held a special place in the lives of colonial Virginians. It meant release from
work, a dictate both of custom and law.47 Custom and law also mandated Sun-
days as days for religious worship. Required regular church attendance was not
solely to ensure the support of the church but also to recognize that the sanc-
tions for order and morality upheld in sermon and liturgy were fundamentally
religious in nature.
Release from work meant that Sundays were times for recreation and plea-
sure. If we are to believe Philip Fithian, persons treated Sunday as much a
holiday as a holy day:   All the lower class of People, & the servants, & the Slaves,
consider it as a Day of Pleasure & amusement, & spend it in such Diversions
as they severally choose.  48 But, in fact, there were substantial Sabbath con-
straints. Some Virginians   disturbed  the Sabbath by pleasuring themselves
with activities beyond the bounds of the permissible. John Crashly, his wife,
and Thomas Dobbs were presented in Princess Anne County for   fidling and
dancing on the Sabbath Day.  49 Four men in Northampton County in 1751
faced similar charges of   fidling, dancing & fireing Guns.  50 Even fishing on
Sunday could result in grand jury action, as William Grubbs discovered in
1704.51 In Sussex County in1755 Charles Anderson got in trouble by   travelling
on the Sabbath Day with a Loaded Cart.  52 A grand jury presented Jonathan
Gibson   for suffering his negroes to work, within his Corn feild on the Lords
Day,  while another charged Avury Naylor with   hanging tobbacco on the
Sabbath Day.  53 Horse trading on Sunday resulted in a presentment against
two men in Northampton County in 1737, while in 1773 John Tatler in Louisa
County broke the Sabbath laws by   putting his Horse to a Mare.  54 A Lan-
caster County grand jury in 1722 presented Edward Blackmore for   Shooting
of geese on the Sabbath day.  55
Questions as to what was permissible occupied Virginians throughout the
period, and for some it meant conscience wrestling of almost Talmudic in-
tricacy.56 Col. Landon Carter faced such a dilemma in September 1773 when
rain threatened the harvesting of his tobacco crop:   I shall therefore though
it is Sunday endeavour to save what I can, and I hope it is no harm; for it is
as much like a cow in the mire as anything, and that is given as instance that
works of real care joined to accident must be done.  57
Some years earlier as a member of the Committee of Privileges and Elec-
tions in the House of Burgesses, Carter dealt with yet another Sunday quan-
.
278 parishioners