William E. Nelson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195327281
- eISBN:
- 9780199870677
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327281.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
The four-volume series of which this book is the first volume shows how the legal systems of Britain's thirteen North American colonies, which were initially established in response to divergent ...
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The four-volume series of which this book is the first volume shows how the legal systems of Britain's thirteen North American colonies, which were initially established in response to divergent political, economic, and religious initiatives, slowly converged until it became possible by the 1770s to imagine that all thirteen participated in a common American legal order, which diverged in its details but differed far more substantially from English common law. This book reveals how Virginians' zeal for profit led to the creation of a harsh legal order that efficiently squeezed payment out of debtors and labor out of servants. In comparison, Puritan law in early Massachusetts strove mainly to preserve the local autonomy and moral values of family-centered, subsistence farming communities. The law in the other New England colonies, although it was distinctive in some respects, gravitated toward the Massachusetts model, while Maryland's law, except during a brief interlude of Puritan rule, gravitated toward that of Virginia.Less
The four-volume series of which this book is the first volume shows how the legal systems of Britain's thirteen North American colonies, which were initially established in response to divergent political, economic, and religious initiatives, slowly converged until it became possible by the 1770s to imagine that all thirteen participated in a common American legal order, which diverged in its details but differed far more substantially from English common law. This book reveals how Virginians' zeal for profit led to the creation of a harsh legal order that efficiently squeezed payment out of debtors and labor out of servants. In comparison, Puritan law in early Massachusetts strove mainly to preserve the local autonomy and moral values of family-centered, subsistence farming communities. The law in the other New England colonies, although it was distinctive in some respects, gravitated toward the Massachusetts model, while Maryland's law, except during a brief interlude of Puritan rule, gravitated toward that of Virginia.
William E. Nelson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195327281
- eISBN:
- 9780199870677
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327281.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
The Introduction outlines the primary thesis of this book—that prior to 1660 the Chesapeake and New England came into being as strikingly different places and that the law in force in each both ...
More
The Introduction outlines the primary thesis of this book—that prior to 1660 the Chesapeake and New England came into being as strikingly different places and that the law in force in each both reflected and contributed to their differences. It also explains that the choice of 1660 as the terminal date for the volume—the year when Charles II was restored to his throne and the crown launched a longterm effort to fashion England's colonies into a coherent empire with a single common-law based judicial system—is not an arbitrary one. Ending the volume in 1660 highlights the initial differences between Chesapeake and New England law and also suggests that similarities in their early law resulted from the common social and economic realities that colonists faced as they settled and tamed the continental wilderness.Less
The Introduction outlines the primary thesis of this book—that prior to 1660 the Chesapeake and New England came into being as strikingly different places and that the law in force in each both reflected and contributed to their differences. It also explains that the choice of 1660 as the terminal date for the volume—the year when Charles II was restored to his throne and the crown launched a longterm effort to fashion England's colonies into a coherent empire with a single common-law based judicial system—is not an arbitrary one. Ending the volume in 1660 highlights the initial differences between Chesapeake and New England law and also suggests that similarities in their early law resulted from the common social and economic realities that colonists faced as they settled and tamed the continental wilderness.
Colin Pengelly
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813033136
- eISBN:
- 9780813038780
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813033136.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Military History
The Siege of Yorktown — the military engagement that ended the American Revolutionary War — would not have been possible without the French fleet's major strategic victory in the Battle of the ...
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The Siege of Yorktown — the military engagement that ended the American Revolutionary War — would not have been possible without the French fleet's major strategic victory in the Battle of the Chesapeake on September 5, 1781. It was during this battle that British fleets lost control of the Chesapeake Bay and the supply lines to the major military base at Yorktown, Virginia. As a direct result, General George Washington's forces and the newly arrived French troops were able to apply the pressure that finally broke the British army. Sir Samuel Hood (1724–1816) was one of the commanders of the British fleet off the Virginia Capes during the American Revolution. Responsibility for some of the missed opportunities and gaffes committed by the British during the bloody Battle of the Chesapeake can be traced to him, specifically his failure to bring his squadron into action at a key moment in the action. Afterward, Hood defended his actions by arguing that ordering his ships to attack would have contradicted the orders sent to him by battle flag. Hood largely escaped blame, which was assigned to Rear Admiral Graves, who commanded the fleet. Though Hood's inaction arguably resulted in the loss of the American colonies, he ultimately rose to command the Mediterranean fleet. This book engages the details of this battle, and the author sifts through Hood's own propaganda to determine how he escaped subsequent blame.Less
The Siege of Yorktown — the military engagement that ended the American Revolutionary War — would not have been possible without the French fleet's major strategic victory in the Battle of the Chesapeake on September 5, 1781. It was during this battle that British fleets lost control of the Chesapeake Bay and the supply lines to the major military base at Yorktown, Virginia. As a direct result, General George Washington's forces and the newly arrived French troops were able to apply the pressure that finally broke the British army. Sir Samuel Hood (1724–1816) was one of the commanders of the British fleet off the Virginia Capes during the American Revolution. Responsibility for some of the missed opportunities and gaffes committed by the British during the bloody Battle of the Chesapeake can be traced to him, specifically his failure to bring his squadron into action at a key moment in the action. Afterward, Hood defended his actions by arguing that ordering his ships to attack would have contradicted the orders sent to him by battle flag. Hood largely escaped blame, which was assigned to Rear Admiral Graves, who commanded the fleet. Though Hood's inaction arguably resulted in the loss of the American colonies, he ultimately rose to command the Mediterranean fleet. This book engages the details of this battle, and the author sifts through Hood's own propaganda to determine how he escaped subsequent blame.
Virginia DeJohn Anderson
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195158601
- eISBN:
- 9780199788538
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195158601.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This study presents colonial American history as the story of three-way interactions among Indians, English colonists, and livestock. By situating domestic animals at the heart of the colonizing ...
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This study presents colonial American history as the story of three-way interactions among Indians, English colonists, and livestock. By situating domestic animals at the heart of the colonizing process in 17th-century New England and the Chesapeake region, the book restores contingency to a narrative too often dominated by human actors alone. Livestock were a central factor in the cultural clash between colonists and Indians as well as a driving force in expansion west. By bringing livestock across the Atlantic, colonists assumed that they provided the means to realize America's potential, a goal that Indians, lacking domestic animals, had failed to accomplish. They also assumed that Native Americans who learned to keep livestock would advance along the path toward civility and Christianity. But colonists failed to anticipate that their animals would generate friction with Indians as native peoples constantly encountered free-ranging livestock often trespassing in their cornfields. Moreover, concerned about feeding their growing populations and committed to a style of animal husbandry that required far more space than they had expected, colonists eventually saw no alternative but to displace Indians and appropriate their land. This created tensions that reached boiling point with King Philip's War and Bacon's Rebellion, and it established a pattern that would repeat time and again over the next two centuries.Less
This study presents colonial American history as the story of three-way interactions among Indians, English colonists, and livestock. By situating domestic animals at the heart of the colonizing process in 17th-century New England and the Chesapeake region, the book restores contingency to a narrative too often dominated by human actors alone. Livestock were a central factor in the cultural clash between colonists and Indians as well as a driving force in expansion west. By bringing livestock across the Atlantic, colonists assumed that they provided the means to realize America's potential, a goal that Indians, lacking domestic animals, had failed to accomplish. They also assumed that Native Americans who learned to keep livestock would advance along the path toward civility and Christianity. But colonists failed to anticipate that their animals would generate friction with Indians as native peoples constantly encountered free-ranging livestock often trespassing in their cornfields. Moreover, concerned about feeding their growing populations and committed to a style of animal husbandry that required far more space than they had expected, colonists eventually saw no alternative but to displace Indians and appropriate their land. This created tensions that reached boiling point with King Philip's War and Bacon's Rebellion, and it established a pattern that would repeat time and again over the next two centuries.
Mark S. Warner
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813061115
- eISBN:
- 9780813051390
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813061115.003.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter introduces the themes of the book and shows that the households in question chose pork over beef at a time when most white households made the switch to beef. A comparison of the food ...
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This chapter introduces the themes of the book and shows that the households in question chose pork over beef at a time when most white households made the switch to beef. A comparison of the food remains from other archaeological sites within the Chesapeake regularly indicates a much higher level of pork consumption among black households. While some might argue that a preference for pork is attributable to economic factors, a detailed examination of the archaeological, oral, and documentary record indicates that this was patently not the case. African American’s consumption of pork within this region was a profound expression of an identity as separate from white society.Less
This chapter introduces the themes of the book and shows that the households in question chose pork over beef at a time when most white households made the switch to beef. A comparison of the food remains from other archaeological sites within the Chesapeake regularly indicates a much higher level of pork consumption among black households. While some might argue that a preference for pork is attributable to economic factors, a detailed examination of the archaeological, oral, and documentary record indicates that this was patently not the case. African American’s consumption of pork within this region was a profound expression of an identity as separate from white society.
Mark S. Warner
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813061115
- eISBN:
- 9780813051390
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813061115.003.0008
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter connects the food choices of the houses under excavation with the soul food movement of the 1960s.
This chapter connects the food choices of the houses under excavation with the soul food movement of the 1960s.
Virginia DeJohn Anderson
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195158601
- eISBN:
- 9780199788538
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195158601.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
Indians’ ideas about animals — rooted in spiritual conceptions that recognized no sharp distinction between the natural and supernatural worlds — shaped native peoples’ responses to colonial ...
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Indians’ ideas about animals — rooted in spiritual conceptions that recognized no sharp distinction between the natural and supernatural worlds — shaped native peoples’ responses to colonial livestock. This chapter discusses the place of animals in Native American societies in New England and the Chesapeake region, focusing on religious beliefs, hunting practices, and ideas about animals as property. It also discusses how colonists misunderstood both Indian ideas and practices.Less
Indians’ ideas about animals — rooted in spiritual conceptions that recognized no sharp distinction between the natural and supernatural worlds — shaped native peoples’ responses to colonial livestock. This chapter discusses the place of animals in Native American societies in New England and the Chesapeake region, focusing on religious beliefs, hunting practices, and ideas about animals as property. It also discusses how colonists misunderstood both Indian ideas and practices.
Lacy K. Ford, Jr.
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195118094
- eISBN:
- 9780199870936
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195118094.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter examines the changing structure and demography of slavery in the early republican upper South. It explores how the decline of the Chesapeake tobacco economy gave masters an incentive to ...
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This chapter examines the changing structure and demography of slavery in the early republican upper South. It explores how the decline of the Chesapeake tobacco economy gave masters an incentive to dispose of surplus slaves, just as the rhetoric of the American Revolution gave upper South masters an ideological motivation to put slavery on a slow journey toward extinction. It also looks at how the expansion of slavery across the Appalachians into Kentucky and Tennessee engendered ambivalence toward the institution among whites in the new states.Less
This chapter examines the changing structure and demography of slavery in the early republican upper South. It explores how the decline of the Chesapeake tobacco economy gave masters an incentive to dispose of surplus slaves, just as the rhetoric of the American Revolution gave upper South masters an ideological motivation to put slavery on a slow journey toward extinction. It also looks at how the expansion of slavery across the Appalachians into Kentucky and Tennessee engendered ambivalence toward the institution among whites in the new states.
James Horn
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205623
- eISBN:
- 9780191676703
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205623.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
English society in the Chesapeake originated with the establishment of a fortified settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 and, a generation later, the foundation of Lord Baltimore's colony at St ...
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English society in the Chesapeake originated with the establishment of a fortified settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 and, a generation later, the foundation of Lord Baltimore's colony at St Mary's City, Maryland, in 1634. Contemporaries were unimpressed by either. From controversies and scandals during the early years, complaints about over-dependence on the pernicious staple, tobacco, to attacks on the base character of settlers and absence of civil society, there was seemingly little to be said in favour of the tobacco colonies. The failings of early Chesapeake society have been underscored by a series of comparisons with New England. Stable, consensual societies in the North have been contrasted to violent, chaotic societies in the South; the profound importance of religion in the Bible Commonwealth to irreligion and precocious secularism along the tobacco coast; small independent farmers relying on family labour in New England to plantation agriculture and slave labour along the Bay.Less
English society in the Chesapeake originated with the establishment of a fortified settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 and, a generation later, the foundation of Lord Baltimore's colony at St Mary's City, Maryland, in 1634. Contemporaries were unimpressed by either. From controversies and scandals during the early years, complaints about over-dependence on the pernicious staple, tobacco, to attacks on the base character of settlers and absence of civil society, there was seemingly little to be said in favour of the tobacco colonies. The failings of early Chesapeake society have been underscored by a series of comparisons with New England. Stable, consensual societies in the North have been contrasted to violent, chaotic societies in the South; the profound importance of religion in the Bible Commonwealth to irreligion and precocious secularism along the tobacco coast; small independent farmers relying on family labour in New England to plantation agriculture and slave labour along the Bay.
Ned C. Landsman
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205623
- eISBN:
- 9780191676703
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205623.003.0016
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
Among the principal regions of extensive English settlement in North America during the seventeenth century, that which became the Middle Colonies was the last to experience a concerted effort at ...
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Among the principal regions of extensive English settlement in North America during the seventeenth century, that which became the Middle Colonies was the last to experience a concerted effort at English settlement. While New England, the Chesapeake, and several West Indian islands all attracted substantial immigration before 1660, and Carolina a decade after that, England only asserted its rights to the mid-Atlantic coastline in 1664; its first significant settlement commenced more than a decade later. The fact of late settlement within an already well-established English colonial world was of major significance in the development of the region. Moreover, the existence of neighbouring English settlements gave the region a well-defined role within the English colonial system and affected the character of mid-Atlantic society.Less
Among the principal regions of extensive English settlement in North America during the seventeenth century, that which became the Middle Colonies was the last to experience a concerted effort at English settlement. While New England, the Chesapeake, and several West Indian islands all attracted substantial immigration before 1660, and Carolina a decade after that, England only asserted its rights to the mid-Atlantic coastline in 1664; its first significant settlement commenced more than a decade later. The fact of late settlement within an already well-established English colonial world was of major significance in the development of the region. Moreover, the existence of neighbouring English settlements gave the region a well-defined role within the English colonial system and affected the character of mid-Atlantic society.
Martin D. Gallivan
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813062860
- eISBN:
- 9780813051819
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813062860.001.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
The Powhatan Landscape traces the Native past in the Chesapeake from the Algonquian arrival circa A.D. 200 through the rise and fall of the Powhatan chiefdom. Martin D. Gallivan argues that the ...
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The Powhatan Landscape traces the Native past in the Chesapeake from the Algonquian arrival circa A.D. 200 through the rise and fall of the Powhatan chiefdom. Martin D. Gallivan argues that the current fixation with the English at Jamestown in 1607 has concealed the deeper history of Tsenacomacoh (sehn-uh-kuh-MAH-kah), the Algonquian term for Tidewater Virginia. Drawing from maps, place names, ethnohistory and, above all, archaeology, Gallivan shifts the frame of reference from English accounts of the seventeenth century toward a longer narrative of Virginia Algonquians’ construction of places, communities, and connections in between. Riverine settlements occupied for centuries oriented the ways Algonquian people dwelled in the Chesapeake estuary, initially around fishing grounds and collective burials visited seasonally, and later within horticultural towns occupied year-round. Ritualized spaces, including trench enclosures within the Powhatan center place of Werowocomoco (WAYR-uh-wah-KOH-muh-koh), gathered people for events that anchored the annual cycle. Despite the violent disruptions of the colonial era, Native people returned to Werowocomoco and to other riverine towns after 1607 for pilgrimages that commemorated the enduring power of place. For today’s American Indian communities in the Chesapeake, the rethought and reinterpreted landscape represents a powerful basis from which to contest narratives and policies that have denied their existence. This book seeks to add to these conversations by offering other reference points in a deeper history of landscape.Less
The Powhatan Landscape traces the Native past in the Chesapeake from the Algonquian arrival circa A.D. 200 through the rise and fall of the Powhatan chiefdom. Martin D. Gallivan argues that the current fixation with the English at Jamestown in 1607 has concealed the deeper history of Tsenacomacoh (sehn-uh-kuh-MAH-kah), the Algonquian term for Tidewater Virginia. Drawing from maps, place names, ethnohistory and, above all, archaeology, Gallivan shifts the frame of reference from English accounts of the seventeenth century toward a longer narrative of Virginia Algonquians’ construction of places, communities, and connections in between. Riverine settlements occupied for centuries oriented the ways Algonquian people dwelled in the Chesapeake estuary, initially around fishing grounds and collective burials visited seasonally, and later within horticultural towns occupied year-round. Ritualized spaces, including trench enclosures within the Powhatan center place of Werowocomoco (WAYR-uh-wah-KOH-muh-koh), gathered people for events that anchored the annual cycle. Despite the violent disruptions of the colonial era, Native people returned to Werowocomoco and to other riverine towns after 1607 for pilgrimages that commemorated the enduring power of place. For today’s American Indian communities in the Chesapeake, the rethought and reinterpreted landscape represents a powerful basis from which to contest narratives and policies that have denied their existence. This book seeks to add to these conversations by offering other reference points in a deeper history of landscape.
A. Roger Ekirch
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198202110
- eISBN:
- 9780191675157
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202110.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
Chesapeake society saw many troubles after the arrival of large number of convicts into Virginia and Maryland. Soon these white convicts turned servants dominated the ranks of black-workers on the ...
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Chesapeake society saw many troubles after the arrival of large number of convicts into Virginia and Maryland. Soon these white convicts turned servants dominated the ranks of black-workers on the plantations. During the third quarter of the 17th century, these white labourers started a civil war in the province. Many masterless men, servants, landless freemen, and scattered slaves started threatening the big planters. The province saw a series of uprisings during 1660 and 1670 which was followd by Bacon's Rebellion in 1676. Virginia also experienced an uprising when the convicts raised their voice against the Governor and the provincial authorities. Most convicts were young, male, experienced criminals and their past crimes and reports about their shipboard uprisings also showed that they were desperate to pose a threat and make themselves free.Less
Chesapeake society saw many troubles after the arrival of large number of convicts into Virginia and Maryland. Soon these white convicts turned servants dominated the ranks of black-workers on the plantations. During the third quarter of the 17th century, these white labourers started a civil war in the province. Many masterless men, servants, landless freemen, and scattered slaves started threatening the big planters. The province saw a series of uprisings during 1660 and 1670 which was followd by Bacon's Rebellion in 1676. Virginia also experienced an uprising when the convicts raised their voice against the Governor and the provincial authorities. Most convicts were young, male, experienced criminals and their past crimes and reports about their shipboard uprisings also showed that they were desperate to pose a threat and make themselves free.
A. Roger Ekirch
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198202110
- eISBN:
- 9780191675157
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202110.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
The American shores became a dumping ground for British criminals and these criminals posed a serious threat to the provincial society of America and they spread lawlessness across the county. These ...
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The American shores became a dumping ground for British criminals and these criminals posed a serious threat to the provincial society of America and they spread lawlessness across the county. These transported white convicts were responsible for most of the crimes committed during the 18th century in America. Transportation did not change the moral character of the imported convicts and most of them remained involved in crime and other evil activities. In 1721, Maryland's provincial court stated that criminal prosecutions increased after the transportation of these white convicts. Then Governor Gooch also blamed increased lawlessness in Virginia on the transported convicts. However, these uprisings were rare in Chesapeake because many convicts migrated to new localities after the expiry of their servitude, hence diffusing any threat to the social peace.Less
The American shores became a dumping ground for British criminals and these criminals posed a serious threat to the provincial society of America and they spread lawlessness across the county. These transported white convicts were responsible for most of the crimes committed during the 18th century in America. Transportation did not change the moral character of the imported convicts and most of them remained involved in crime and other evil activities. In 1721, Maryland's provincial court stated that criminal prosecutions increased after the transportation of these white convicts. Then Governor Gooch also blamed increased lawlessness in Virginia on the transported convicts. However, these uprisings were rare in Chesapeake because many convicts migrated to new localities after the expiry of their servitude, hence diffusing any threat to the social peace.
Paul Musselwhite, Peter C. Mancall, and James Horn (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781469651798
- eISBN:
- 9781469651811
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469651798.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
Virginia 1619 provides an opportunity to reflect on the origins of English colonialism around the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic world. As the essays here demonstrate, Anglo-Americans have been ...
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Virginia 1619 provides an opportunity to reflect on the origins of English colonialism around the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic world. As the essays here demonstrate, Anglo-Americans have been simultaneously experimenting with representative government and struggling with the corrosive legacy of racial thinking for more than four centuries. Virginia, contrary to popular stereotypes, was not the product of thoughtless, greedy, or impatient English colonists. Instead, the emergence of stable English Atlantic colonies reflected the deliberate efforts of an array of actors to establish new societies based on their ideas about commonwealth, commerce, and colonialism. Looking back from 2019, we can understand that what happened on the shores of the Chesapeake four hundred years ago was no accident. Slavery and freedom were born together as migrants and English officials figured out how to make this colony succeed. They did so in the face of rival ventures and while struggling to survive in a dangerous environment. Three hallmarks of English America--self-government, slavery, and native dispossession--took shape as everyone contested the future of empire along the James River in 1619. The contributors are Nicholas Canny, Misha Ewen, Andrew Fitzmaurice, Jack P. Greene, Paul D. Halliday, Alexander B. Haskell, James Horn, Michael J. Jarvis, Peter C. Mancall, Philip D. Morgan, Melissa N. Morris, Paul Musselwhite, James D. Rice, and Lauren Working.Less
Virginia 1619 provides an opportunity to reflect on the origins of English colonialism around the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic world. As the essays here demonstrate, Anglo-Americans have been simultaneously experimenting with representative government and struggling with the corrosive legacy of racial thinking for more than four centuries. Virginia, contrary to popular stereotypes, was not the product of thoughtless, greedy, or impatient English colonists. Instead, the emergence of stable English Atlantic colonies reflected the deliberate efforts of an array of actors to establish new societies based on their ideas about commonwealth, commerce, and colonialism. Looking back from 2019, we can understand that what happened on the shores of the Chesapeake four hundred years ago was no accident. Slavery and freedom were born together as migrants and English officials figured out how to make this colony succeed. They did so in the face of rival ventures and while struggling to survive in a dangerous environment. Three hallmarks of English America--self-government, slavery, and native dispossession--took shape as everyone contested the future of empire along the James River in 1619. The contributors are Nicholas Canny, Misha Ewen, Andrew Fitzmaurice, Jack P. Greene, Paul D. Halliday, Alexander B. Haskell, James Horn, Michael J. Jarvis, Peter C. Mancall, Philip D. Morgan, Melissa N. Morris, Paul Musselwhite, James D. Rice, and Lauren Working.
Mark S. Warner
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813061115
- eISBN:
- 9780813051390
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813061115.003.0005
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
In chapter 5, I explore how the simple acts of family members shopping for a cut of pork, fishing along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, or gathering eggs from the chickens in their backyard was ...
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In chapter 5, I explore how the simple acts of family members shopping for a cut of pork, fishing along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, or gathering eggs from the chickens in their backyard was inextricably linked to a broader foodway that linked African Americans living in the Chesapeake. By comparing the Maynard-Burgess assemblages to similar archaeological and historical contexts in the city and the region, I identify the ways that the two families’ food preferences and acquisition strategies reveal the complexities of African American consumption and the implication of such choices in shaping their approach to white Annapolis.Less
In chapter 5, I explore how the simple acts of family members shopping for a cut of pork, fishing along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, or gathering eggs from the chickens in their backyard was inextricably linked to a broader foodway that linked African Americans living in the Chesapeake. By comparing the Maynard-Burgess assemblages to similar archaeological and historical contexts in the city and the region, I identify the ways that the two families’ food preferences and acquisition strategies reveal the complexities of African American consumption and the implication of such choices in shaping their approach to white Annapolis.
Mark S. Warner
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813061115
- eISBN:
- 9780813051390
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813061115.003.0006
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter explores how the African American families who lived in the excavated houses used goods within the marketplace to either ameliorate or reinforce their differences with a dominant white ...
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This chapter explores how the African American families who lived in the excavated houses used goods within the marketplace to either ameliorate or reinforce their differences with a dominant white society. What types of goods were they enthusiastically purchasing and what were they rejecting? When did they respond to nascent attempts by whites to market to their race and when did they make purchases that were attempts to distance themselves from white racism? Given what we know about regional African American food preferences in the Chesapeake, what did it mean when the Maynards or the Burgesses entered their local grocery store and purchased a particular cut of pork? Or how did keeping chickens and fishing along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay make their lives better amid a relentlessly racist society? The answers to these questions will take us from the stockyards of Chicago, to the pages of etiquette books, and then back again to the objects we found buried at 163 Duke of Gloucester Street.Less
This chapter explores how the African American families who lived in the excavated houses used goods within the marketplace to either ameliorate or reinforce their differences with a dominant white society. What types of goods were they enthusiastically purchasing and what were they rejecting? When did they respond to nascent attempts by whites to market to their race and when did they make purchases that were attempts to distance themselves from white racism? Given what we know about regional African American food preferences in the Chesapeake, what did it mean when the Maynards or the Burgesses entered their local grocery store and purchased a particular cut of pork? Or how did keeping chickens and fishing along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay make their lives better amid a relentlessly racist society? The answers to these questions will take us from the stockyards of Chicago, to the pages of etiquette books, and then back again to the objects we found buried at 163 Duke of Gloucester Street.
Mark S. Warner
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813061115
- eISBN:
- 9780813051390
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813061115.003.0007
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter attempts to discover the cultural significance attached to food choices. The taken for granted-ness of food choices also can make the broader cultural meanings difficult to reconstruct. ...
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This chapter attempts to discover the cultural significance attached to food choices. The taken for granted-ness of food choices also can make the broader cultural meanings difficult to reconstruct. The problem is compounded when looking at oppressed groups that were largely silenced within the official historical record. Given this problem, I have had to rely on just a handful of clues within the oral, written, and material record of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to tease out what certain foods might have meant for families like the Maynards and Burgesses. My search for food-related commentary or imagery produced by African Americans during this period led me to survey old cookbooks, listen to the blues, ask my wife about quilting, and read through quite a number of oral interviews conducted from the 1930s onward. In the end, it is the persistence of references to certain foods across such a wide range of cultural forms that is striking and significant for understanding what the meals the Maynards and Burgesses ate in the “side room” might have meant, both to them, and to other African Americans living in the Chesapeake.Less
This chapter attempts to discover the cultural significance attached to food choices. The taken for granted-ness of food choices also can make the broader cultural meanings difficult to reconstruct. The problem is compounded when looking at oppressed groups that were largely silenced within the official historical record. Given this problem, I have had to rely on just a handful of clues within the oral, written, and material record of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to tease out what certain foods might have meant for families like the Maynards and Burgesses. My search for food-related commentary or imagery produced by African Americans during this period led me to survey old cookbooks, listen to the blues, ask my wife about quilting, and read through quite a number of oral interviews conducted from the 1930s onward. In the end, it is the persistence of references to certain foods across such a wide range of cultural forms that is striking and significant for understanding what the meals the Maynards and Burgesses ate in the “side room” might have meant, both to them, and to other African Americans living in the Chesapeake.
Martin D. Gallivan, Christopher J. Shephard, and Jessica A. Jenkins
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781683400462
- eISBN:
- 9781683400684
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9781683400462.003.0010
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter proposes a Powhatan theory of power and suggests links to the archaeology and ethnohistory of towns in the lower Chesapeake. Early colonial-era sources highlight a recurring process ...
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This chapter proposes a Powhatan theory of power and suggests links to the archaeology and ethnohistory of towns in the lower Chesapeake. Early colonial-era sources highlight a recurring process whereby powerful outside forces, materials, and people were socialized within the Powhatan settlements known as Kings’ Houses. We suggest that a key Algonquian concept for understanding this process is manitou—the vital spiritual force manifest in dangerously potent people, animals, objects, and places. Within the Kings’ Houses of the colonial-era, Powhatan leaders harnessed manitou by orchestrating ritual, trade, and the built environment. Archaeological evidence of feasting, ditches, and palisades points toward similar practices associated with the construction of boundaries—ditches and palisades—within prominent settlements, starting in the thirteenth century AD. By transforming the objects and people that transgressed these boundaries, religious practitioners and political leaders exercised a “tactical power” grounded in Kings’ Houses and animated by manitou.Less
This chapter proposes a Powhatan theory of power and suggests links to the archaeology and ethnohistory of towns in the lower Chesapeake. Early colonial-era sources highlight a recurring process whereby powerful outside forces, materials, and people were socialized within the Powhatan settlements known as Kings’ Houses. We suggest that a key Algonquian concept for understanding this process is manitou—the vital spiritual force manifest in dangerously potent people, animals, objects, and places. Within the Kings’ Houses of the colonial-era, Powhatan leaders harnessed manitou by orchestrating ritual, trade, and the built environment. Archaeological evidence of feasting, ditches, and palisades points toward similar practices associated with the construction of boundaries—ditches and palisades—within prominent settlements, starting in the thirteenth century AD. By transforming the objects and people that transgressed these boundaries, religious practitioners and political leaders exercised a “tactical power” grounded in Kings’ Houses and animated by manitou.
Paul Musselwhite
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226585284
- eISBN:
- 9780226585314
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226585314.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This book argues that repeated waves of frustrated urban development in the colonial Chesapeake region were critical to framing the political and economic structures of the region’s plantation ...
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This book argues that repeated waves of frustrated urban development in the colonial Chesapeake region were critical to framing the political and economic structures of the region’s plantation society. Although the early Chesapeake never boasted major cities, intense debates over the spaces, processes, and consequences of urbanization between imperial officials, English merchants, and colonial factions persisted over two centuries. This was because, rather than being simply the product of deterministic geographic, social, and economic forces, towns and cities were institutional and legal forms of colonial space that were consciously crafted by colonists and officials in the struggle to define the nature of early modern empire. Exploring these contests reveals long-overlooked ways in which important questions about the imperial constitution and mercantilism were negotiated by ordinary people through the quotidian production of such spaces. The book demonstrates that the development of the rural tobacco plantation system, defined by the exploitation of enslaved labor on large estates by a well-connected imperial oligarchy, was a result of this process; it was not inevitable, but was honed in response to repeated efforts to reshape and redefine the economic, institutional, and political spaces of the Chesapeake. The book argues that these struggles were a crucial catalyst in the formation of a distinctive planter vision of civic order and imperial political economy that continued to shape southern planters’ agrarian republicanism after the American Revolution.Less
This book argues that repeated waves of frustrated urban development in the colonial Chesapeake region were critical to framing the political and economic structures of the region’s plantation society. Although the early Chesapeake never boasted major cities, intense debates over the spaces, processes, and consequences of urbanization between imperial officials, English merchants, and colonial factions persisted over two centuries. This was because, rather than being simply the product of deterministic geographic, social, and economic forces, towns and cities were institutional and legal forms of colonial space that were consciously crafted by colonists and officials in the struggle to define the nature of early modern empire. Exploring these contests reveals long-overlooked ways in which important questions about the imperial constitution and mercantilism were negotiated by ordinary people through the quotidian production of such spaces. The book demonstrates that the development of the rural tobacco plantation system, defined by the exploitation of enslaved labor on large estates by a well-connected imperial oligarchy, was a result of this process; it was not inevitable, but was honed in response to repeated efforts to reshape and redefine the economic, institutional, and political spaces of the Chesapeake. The book argues that these struggles were a crucial catalyst in the formation of a distinctive planter vision of civic order and imperial political economy that continued to shape southern planters’ agrarian republicanism after the American Revolution.
Trevor Burnard
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226286105
- eISBN:
- 9780226286242
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226286242.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
This introduction introduces the principal themes of the book, notably seeing plantations in an Atlantic and an American context, paying particular attention to changes in space and time in the use ...
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This introduction introduces the principal themes of the book, notably seeing plantations in an Atlantic and an American context, paying particular attention to changes in space and time in the use of slavery to produce tropical goods. The importance of violence in the creation of the plantation system and the role of war as a crucial ingredient in the transition from societies based on smallholdings to societies that were based around large integrated plantations are stressed. The plantation system developed differently in the three major reasons of plantation British America – the Chesapeake, the Carolinas, and the West Indies. The major features of social and economic development in each of these regions are treated separately. The poorest but most populated region was the Chesapeake; the lowcountry was more diversified and medium wealthy; and the West Indies was richest. The wealth of the plantation system was manifest in improved slave management over time, leading to great increases in plantation productivity.Less
This introduction introduces the principal themes of the book, notably seeing plantations in an Atlantic and an American context, paying particular attention to changes in space and time in the use of slavery to produce tropical goods. The importance of violence in the creation of the plantation system and the role of war as a crucial ingredient in the transition from societies based on smallholdings to societies that were based around large integrated plantations are stressed. The plantation system developed differently in the three major reasons of plantation British America – the Chesapeake, the Carolinas, and the West Indies. The major features of social and economic development in each of these regions are treated separately. The poorest but most populated region was the Chesapeake; the lowcountry was more diversified and medium wealthy; and the West Indies was richest. The wealth of the plantation system was manifest in improved slave management over time, leading to great increases in plantation productivity.
