First published in 1952, this is historian Edmund S. Morgan’s second book on family life in the American colonies. An informative, well-researched and well written book, Morgan sketches the day-to-day life of colonial Virginians. From the planters of the Tidewater to the Scotch-Irish and German farmers in the Shenandoah Valley, he explores such matters as childhood, marriage, servants and slaves, homes, and holidays in the complex society of eighteenth-century Virginia. An entertaining and enlightening book that allows the reader to glimpse into the world of 18th Century family life.
Tracing a little-known period of colonial history, this book explores the lives of the brave men and women who brought their families west from Virginia to settle the rough frontier. 20 photos. 26 maps.
Histories of Virginia have traditionally traced the same significant but narrow lines, overlooking whole swathes of human experience crucial to an understanding of the commonwealth. With Virginians and Their Histories, Brent Tarter presents a fresh, new interpretive narrative that incorporates the experiences of all residents of Virginia from the earliest times to the first decades of the twenty-first century, affording readers the most comprehensive and wide-ranging account of Virginia’s story. Tarter draws on primary resources for every decade of the Old Dominion's English-language history, as well as a wealth of recent scholarship that illuminates in new ways how demographic changes, economic growth, social and cultural changes, and religious sensibilities and gender relationships have affected the manner in which Virginians have lived. Virginians and Their Histories interweaves the experiences of Virginians of different racial and ethnic backgrounds and classes, representing a variety of eras and regions, to understand what they separately and jointly created, and how they responded to economic, political, and social changes on a national and even global level. That large context is essential for properly understanding the influences of Virginians on, and the responses of Virginians to, the constantly changing world in which they have lived. This groundbreaking work of scholarship—generously illustrated and engagingly written—will become the definitive account for general readers and all students of Virginia’s diverse and vibrant history.
As the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America, the birthplace of a presidential dynasty, and the gateway to western growth in the nation’s early years, Virginia can rightfully be called the “cradle of America.” Peter Wallenstein traces major themes across four centuries in a brisk narrative that recalls the people and events that have shaped the Old Dominion. The second edition is updated with new material throughout, including a new chapter on Virginia and world affairs from the Korean War through 9/11 and beyond, and, an expanded bibliography. Historical accounts of Virginia have often emphasized harmony and tradition, but Wallenstein focuses on the impact of conflict and change. From the beginning, Virginians have debated and challenged each other’s visions of Virginia, and Wallenstein shows how these differences have influenced its sometimes turbulent development. Casting an eye on blacks as well as whites, and on people from both east and west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he traces such key themes as political power, racial identity, and education. Bringing to bear his long experience teaching Virginia history, Wallenstein takes readers back, even before Jamestown, to the Elizabethan settlers at Roanoke Island and the inhabitants they encountered, as well as to Virginia’s leaders of the American Revolution. He chronicles the state’s dramatic journey through the Civil War era, a time that revealed how the nation’s evolution sometimes took shape in opposition to the vision of many leading Virginians. He also examines the impact of the civil rights movement and considers controversies that accompany Virginia into its fifth century. The text is copiously illustrated to depict not only such iconic figures as Pocahontas, George Washington, and Robert E. Lee, but also such other prominent native Virginians as Carter G. Woodson, Patsy Cline, and L. Douglas Wilder. Sidebars throughout the book offer further insight, while maps and appendixes of reference data make the volume a complete resource on Virginia’s history.
In the first comprehensive study of the experience of Virginia soldiers and their families in the Civil War, Aaron Sheehan-Dean captures the inner world of the rank-and-file. Utilizing new statistical evidence and first-person narratives, Sheehan-Dean explores how Virginia soldiers--even those who were nonslaveholders--adapted their vision of the war's purpose to remain committed Confederates. Sheehan-Dean challenges earlier arguments that middle- and lower-class southerners gradually withdrew their support for the Confederacy because their class interests were not being met. Instead he argues that Virginia soldiers continued to be motivated by the profound emotional connection between military service and the protection of home and family, even as the war dragged on. The experience of fighting, explains Sheehan-Dean, redefined southern manhood and family relations, established the basis for postwar race and class relations, and transformed the shape of Virginia itself. He concludes that Virginians' experience of the Civil War offers important lessons about the reasons we fight wars and the ways that those reasons can change over time.
Modified format genealogy tracing more than 10 generations of the descendants of George Bigbie, who lived in Tidewater Virginia in the early 1700s. Traces at nearly a dozen distinct family lines in Virginia, Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas, and includes families with surname spelling variants Bigbee, Bigby, Bigbey, and others. Introduction includes a short essay on the probable origins of the Bigbie name. 172 + v pages, 1200-name personal name index, full footnotes, plus maps, photographs and black and white illustrations. This is a revised and enlarged edition of Volume 1 of the same title published in 1994 and 2010.
This book "is a multivolume historical reference work intended for teachers, students, librarians, historians, journalists, genealogists, museum professionals, and other researchers who have a need for biographical information about those Virginians who, regardless of place of birth or death, made significant contributions to the history or culture of their locality, state, or nation. ..., Virginia is defined by the state's current geographic boundaries, plus Kentucky prior to statehood in 1792 and West Virginia prior to statehood in 1863. With a few exceptions, no person is included who did not live a significant portion of his or her life in Virginia."--P. vi.
