Tag: US History

First Families of Virginia – The Randolphs

Published on by Robert Van NessLeave a comment

I suppose superlatives become cliche, or at least they’re overused when discussing Virginia’s leading colonial dynasties. The Randolph family, however, deserves those superlatives just as much as any of the preceding families that we’ve discussed in this series, if not more. They were an immense family that impacted Virginia and the United States in such a way that few others, even from this series, can claim.

William Randolph of Turkey Island is often credited as being the first Randolph to immigrate, but he followed his uncle, Henry, who was already established in the colony. Henry Randolph came to Virginia and soon settled just west of Bermuda Hundred on Swift Creek in today’s Colonial Heights in the early 1640s. From there Henry got involved in mid-17th Century Virginia politics, where he rubbed shoulders with all of the colony’s leading men, he even married one of their daughters when he wed Henry Soane’s daughter Judith.

Henry continued to expand his footprint throughout the 1650s and 1660s. He became friend with Sir William Berkeley, was involved in rewriting Virginia’s legal codes, and built one of the colony’s first grist mills at Swift Creek. Newly found wealth allowed Henry to return to England in the late 1660s, where he convinced his nephew William to join him in the New World.

William accompanied his uncle’s trip back to Virginia, and settled near him along the James River’s Curls section. It was from here that William Randolph earned his name as being from Turkey Island, and from here that an enormous family grew into being one of Virginia’s largest. Largest didn’t always mean best, as the family has a few interesting characters dotting the history books, but the Randolphs have do have some of American History’s stalwarts.

This First Family of Virginia episode takes a look into the Randolph patriarch’s life, and then summarily dives into some of those characters and stalwarts. Find the links below.

LINKS TO THE PODCAST:

Randolph Family Tree
Tazewell Hall
William Randolph of Turkey Island
Wilton Manor House
Mary Isham Randolph
Tuckahoe Plantation
Turkey Island Marker
William Randolph House at Colonial Williamsburg
Swift Creek Mill
Dungeness Marker

SOURCES:

  1. Anderson, Jefferson Randolph. “TUCKAHOE AND THE TUCKAHOE RANDOLPHS.” Register of Kentucky State Historical Society, vol. 35, no. 110, 1937, pp. 29–59. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23371542.
  2. Jefferson Randolph Anderson. “Supplement to Tuckahoe and the Tuckahoe Randolphs: As Appearing in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. XLV: No. 1, January, 1937.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 45, no. 4, 1937, pp. 392–405. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4244824.
  3. Billings, Warren M.; Selby, John E.; and Tate, Thad W. Colonial Virginia: A History. White Plains, NY: KTO Press. 1986.
  4. Billings, Warren M. Sir William Berkeley and the Forging of Colonial Virginia. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 2004.
  5. Billings, Warren. A Little Parliament: The Virginia General Assembly in the Seventeenth Century. Richmond, VA: Library of Virginia, 2004.
  6. Brock, R. A. “Virginia Randolphs–Arms and English Descent.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 25, no. 2, 1916, pp. 133–134. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1915198.
  7. Bruce, Phillip Alexander. Social Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the Origin of the Higher Planting Class. New York: JP Bell Company, 1927.
  8. Cowden, Gerald Steffens, “The Randolphs of Turkey Island : a prosopography of the first three generations, 1650-1806” (1977). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623707
  9. Dabney, Virginius. Virginia: The New Dominion, A History from 1607 to the Present. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1971.
  10. Daniels, Jonathan. The Randolphs of Virginia. New York: Doubleday, 1972.
  11. Eckenrode, H.J. The Randolphs: The Story of a Virginia Family. Indianapolis, IN: The Bobbs Merrill Company, 1946
  12. Evans, Emory G. A “Topping People”: The Rise and Decline of Virginia’s Old Political Elite, 1680-1790. Charlottesville, VA: UVA Press, 2009.
  13. Fischer, David Hackett. Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (America: a cultural history). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
  14. Freeman, Douglas Southall. George Washington: A Biography. New York: Charles Scribners, 1957. (Specifically Volume 1).
  15. Horn, James. Adapting to A New World: English Society in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.
  16. Mapp, Alfred J. Virginia Experiment: The Old Dominion’s Role in the Making of America, 1607-1781. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc., 2006.
  17. McCartney, Martha W. Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers: A Biographical Dictionary, 1607-1635. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2007.
  18. Meade, William. Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia. in Two Volumes. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1891.
  19. Neill, Edward D. Virginia Carolorum: The Colony under the Rule of Charles The First and Second, A.D. 1625-A.D. 1685. Albany, NY: Joel Munsell’s and Sons, 1886.
  20. Paxton, William McClung. The Marshall family, or A genealogical chart of the descendants of John Marshall and Elizabeth Markham, his wife, sketches of individuals and notices of families connected with them. Cincinatti, OH: Robert Clarke and Co, 1885.
  21. Pecquet du Bellet, Louise. Some Prominent Virginia Families, 4 Volumes. Lynchburg, VA:  J.P. Bell Company, 1907.
  22. Ramage, C. J. “Randolph.” The Virginia Law Register, vol. 8, no. 6, 1922, pp. 415–418. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1105871.
  23. Randolph, Wassell. Henry Randolph I, 1623-1773 [sic] of Henrico County, Virginia, and his descendants. Preceded by short review of the Randolph family in early England and elsewhere. Memhis, TN: Cossitt Library, 1952.
  24. Randolph, Wassell. William Randolph I of Turkey Island, Henrico County, Virginia, and his Immediate Descendants. Memphis, TN: Cossitt Library, 1949.
  25. Rothbard, Murray N. Conceived in Liberty. Auburn, AL: Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 1999.
  26. Stanard, W. G. “Randolph Family.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 8, no. 2, 1899, pp. 119–122. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1915915.
  27. Swartz, James Eldred, “William Randolph, of Turkey Island, Progenitor of a Famous Family” (1942). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539624465.
  28. Taylor, Tess. “Remembering the Randolphs: A Genealogy in Thirteen Meditations.” The Virginia Quarterly Review, vol. 89, no. 3, 2013, pp. 56–69. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26447054.
  29. Tyler, Lyon Gardiner. The Cradle of the Republic: Jamestown and the James River. Richmond, VA: The Hermitage Press, 1906.
  30. Walsh, Lorena S. Motives of Honor, Pleasure, and Profit: Plantation Management in the Colonial Chesapeake, 1607-1763. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
  31. Washburn, Wilcomb E. Virginia Under Charles I and Cromwell 1625-1660. Kindle Edition.
  32. Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson. Virginia Under the Stuarts: 1607-1688. New York: Russell and Russell, 1959.
  33. Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson. The Planters of Colonial Virginia. Kindle Edition.
  34. Wright, Louis B. First Gentlemen of Virginia. Charlottesville, VA: Dominion Books, 1982.
  35. “Descendants of Henry Randolph.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 2, 1895, pp. 125–127. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1915057.
  36. Robert Isham Randolph. “The Sons of Isham Randolph of Dungeness.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 45, no. 4, 1937, pp. 383–386. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4244820.

Special Links:

Fort Chiswell Mansion
Opening of the 1st Continental Congress
Edmund Randolph as member of Washington’s Cabinet
Former Edmund Randolph home in Richmond, VA
Cartoon depicting the needed State votes to Ratify the US Constitution
John Randolph of Roanoke
First Page of the Virginia Ratification Convention
Peyton Randolph
St. George Tucker House, Colonial Williamsburg
Peyton Randolph House, Colonial Williamsburg

 

All photography used on this site is owned and copyrighted by the author unless otherwise noted. The Featured Image is of the Randolph Family Crest. All Randolph Portraits as well as Swift Creek Mill are from Wikimedia Commons. The Turkey Island Mansion Marker and The Dungeness Marker are both from hmdb.org. Tazewell Hall is located at Skinner Family Papers. The Randolph Family Tree is located in Tess Taylor’s article, found in the Bibliography above. The Prayer in the First the First Congress, A.D. 1774 can be found at Boston Tea Party Ship. Edmund Randolph’s former home was accessed at RV Hub. The Virginia Ratification Convention Cartoon is part of Historically Thinking’s Shownotes page for Episode 78. Lastly, Edmund Randolph as Member of Washington’s Cabinet is found at the American Herigate.

Music used for this episode – Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers,”Carry Me Back to Old Virginia” available on Apple Music, and “The Stubborn Mule” by The East Pointers also available on Apple Music.

First Families of Virginia – The Lees

Published on by Robert Van NessLeave a comment

The Lee family impact upon Virginia’s history is undeniable. Richard I, “The Immigrant” had a seemingly boundless energy attached to a shrewd business sense. He used that combination to establish the Lee Dynasty from which foundational descendants sprang. He and his wife Anne (aka Anna) Constable Lee bore 10 children, of whom 9 survived infancy. Those 9 children, perhaps not as boundless as their patriarch, ensured Richard’s legacy within the Commonwealth lived beyond one generation.

Richard purchased vast lands, and left them to his children to build upon. They built enduring monuments to the Lee name such as Statford Hall, created tight bonds with other leading families of the day, and shaped Virginia’s future, while also taking part in America’s founding. But the Lee name didn’t stop there.

When Virginia’s First Family dominance seemed lost a Lee stepped forward in the twilight to give one last performance. In the end, the sun set on the Lee family as well as the First Families of Virginia, which in profound manner also influenced Virginia’s future. No longer a leader, Virginia became simply another contributing member of the United States, and the Lees, ever faithful continued to play their part.

Today debates abound, but what is not debatable is the Lee impact as trailblazers, innovators, country-builders, heroes, and sometime villains. Without them Virginia and the United States’ story, both good and bad, would not be the same, and their story begins with that brilliant family founder in 1639.

Tune in to this episode where we introduce this important family’s founding, while highlighting just a few of the Lee’s who impacted history.

LINKS TO THE PODCAST:

Colonel Thomas Lee’s Stratford Hall
Stratford Hall’s Famous Carriage EntranceStairway
The Lee’s merchanting activities are still on display at Stratford Hall
Stratford Hall’s Great Room, adorned with the famous Lee portraits
Stratford Hall’s Great Room, adorned with the famous Lee portraits
Robert E. Lee was born to Anne Hill Carter Lee and Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee in this room at Stratford Hall
The now empty Lee Tomb at Stratford Hall
Stratford Hall’s northern border is the Potomac River
Mill at Stratford Hall

SOURCES:

  1. Billings, Warren M.; Selby, John E.; and Tate, Thad W. Colonial Virginia: A History. White Plains, NY: KTO Press. 1986.
  2. Billings, Warren M. Sir William Berkeley and the Forging of Colonial Virginia. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 2004.
  3. Billings, Warren. A Little Parliament: The Virginia General Assembly in the Seventeenth Century. Richmond, VA: Library of Virginia, 2004.
  4. Dabney, Virginius. Virginia: The New Dominion, A History from 1607 to the Present. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1971.
  5. Evans, Emory G. A “Topping People”: The Rise and Decline of Virginia’s Old Political Elite, 1680-1790. Charlottesville, VA: UVA Press, 2009.
  6. Fischer, David Hackett. Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (America: a cultural history). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
  7. Freeman, Douglas Southall. George Washington: A Biography. New York: Charles Scribners, 1957. (Specifically Volume 1).
  8. Freeman, Douglas Southall. R. E. Lee: A Biography. Charles Scribners: New York, 1936.
  9. Hendrick, Burton J. The Lees of Virginia: Biography of a Family. New York: Little Brown and Co, 1935.
  10. Horn, James. Adapting to A New World: English Society in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.
  11. Lee, Edmund Jennings. Lee of Virginia, 1642-1892: Biographical and Genealogical Sketches of the Descendants of Colonel Richard Lee. Heritage Books, 2008
  12. Mapp, Alfred J. Virginia Experiment: The Old Dominion’s Role in the Making of America, 1607-1781. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc., 2006.
  13. McCartney, Martha W. Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers: A Biographical Dictionary, 1607-1635. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2007.
  14. Nagel, Paul C. The Lees of Virginia: Seven Generations of an American Family. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
  15. Neill, Edward D. Virginia Carolorum: The Colony under the Rule of Charles The First and Second, A.D. 1625-A.D. 1685. Albany, NY: Joel Munsell’s and Sons, 1886.
  16. Pecquet du Bellet, Louise. Some Prominent Virginia Families, vol. 4. Lynchburg, VA:  J.P. Bell Company, 1907.
  17. Rothbard, Murray N. Conceived in Liberty. Auburn, AL: Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 1999.
  18. Tyler, Lyon Gardiner. The Cradle of the Republic: Jamestown and the James River. Richmond, VA: The Hermitage Press, 1906.
  19. Walsh, Lorena S. Motives of Honor, Pleasure, and Profit: Plantation Management in the Colonial Chesapeake, 1607-1763. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
  20. Washburn, Wilcomb E. Virginia Under Charles I and Cromwell 1625-1660. Kindle Edition.
  21. Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson. Virginia Under the Stuarts: 1607-1688. New York: Russell and Russell, 1959.
  22. Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson. The Planters of Colonial Virginia. Kindle Edition.
  23. Wright, Louis B. First Gentlemen of Virginia. Charlottesville, VA: Dominion Books, 1982.

Capahosic Beach, just south of Werowocomoco on the York River, near Richard and Anne Constable Lee’s first landholding
Cobbs Hall, Private Property with 1853 structure
Cobbs Hall Burying Ground, resting place of Richard I and Anne Constable Lee
Cobbs Hall Burying Ground
Cobbs Hall Burying Ground
Memorial to Richard Lee I
Hancock Lee’s Ditchley
Hancock Lee’s Ditchley
Ditchley Graveyard where Hancock Lee and wife Sarah Allerton Lee are buried
Burnt House Field, graveyard of Richard Henry Lee and wife “Lettice”
Richard Henry Lee marker at Burnt House Field.
Francis Lightfoot Lee’s Menokin
Arlington House at Arlingtion National Cemetery
Arlington House, the Lee Home turned National Cemetery
Antonin Mercie’s Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue, Richmond, Virginia

SPECIAL LINKS:

 

 

 

All photography used on this site is owned and copyrighted by the author unless otherwise noted. The Featured Image is of the Lee Family Crest.

Music used for this episode – Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers,”Carry Me Back to Old Virginia” available on iTunes, and “Haven” by We Banjo 3, also available on iTunes.

First Families of Virginia – The Bollings

Published on by Robert Van NessLeave a comment

In this episode I begin making the case that perhaps Governor Berkeley’s greatest contribution to 17th Century Virginia and beyond was his encouraging Cavaliers to immigrate into the colony.

Beginning in the 1640s many of those Cavalier families took up Berkeley’s offer, and indeed moved many sons into the Old Dominion. The first family on our list, the Bollings, sent teen-aged Robert to the New World in 1660. He quickly worked his way into existing society, especially when he married Pocahontas’ granddaughter, Jane Rolfe in 1674.

Robert’s arrival was a case of old meets new in that the Rolfe line was one of the earliest prominent Virginia families, even if Thomas Rolfe, John and Pocahontas’ son, didn’t return to Virginia until the 1640s himself. The Rolfe’s still owned land, and it was in Thomas’ name. He received more lands over the next couple of decades, which made marrying his daughter Jane a highly prized choice.

Robert and Jane’s marriage extended genealogical links from John Rolfe and Pocahontas into the 20th Century. Their children and grandchildren were highly influential planters, merchants, and statesmen who helped shape Virginia into a powerhouse up to the American War for Independence and beyond. Because of that, as well as their connection all the way back to 17th Century Virginia’s most famous marriage, the Bolling family is my first episode in the First Family of Virginia Series.

LINKS TO THE PODCAST:

Grave Markers at Kippax Plantation
Diascund Creek, site of Thomas Rolfe’s Fort Smith
Bolling Patriarch Robert Bolling, Sr.
The Old Brick (Kennon) House overlooking the Appomattox River at Conjurer’s Neck
The Old Brick House
John Randolph of Roanoke
The Bolling Mausoleum at Blandford Cemetery, Petersburg
A youthful Edith Bolling Wilson

SOURCES:

  1. Billings, Warren M.; Selby, John E.; and Tate, Thad W. Colonial Virginia: A History. White Plains, NY: KTO Press. 1986.
  2. Billings, Warren M. Sir William Berkeley and the Forging of Colonial Virginia. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 2004.
  3. Billings, Warren. A Little Parliament: The Virginia General Assembly in the Seventeenth Century. Richmond, VA: Library of Virginia, 2004.
  4. Bolling, Robert. A Memoir of a Portion of the Bolling Family in England and Virginia. Richmond, VA: W.H. Wade and Co, 1868.
  5. Dabney, Virginius. Virginia: The New Dominion, A History from 1607 to the Present. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1971.
  6. Evans, Emory G. A “Topping People”: The Rise and Decline of Virginia’s Old Political Elite, 1680-1790. Charlottesville, VA: UVA Press, 2009.
  7. Fischer, David Hackett. Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (America: a cultural history). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
  8. Horn, James. Adapting to A New World: English Society in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.
  9. Mapp, Alfred J. Virginia Experiment: The Old Dominion’s Role in the Making of America, 1607-1781. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc., 2006.
  10. McCartney, Martha W. Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers: A Biographical Dictionary, 1607-1635. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2007.
  11. Neill, Edward D. Virginia Carolorum: The Colony under the Rule of Charles The First and Second, A.D. 1625-A.D. 1685. Albany, NY: Joel Munsell’s and Sons, 1886.
  12. Pecquet du Bellet, Louise. Some Prominent Virginia Families, vol. 4. Lynchburg, VA:  J.P. Bell Company, 1907.
  13. Robertson, Wyndham. Pocahontas: Alias Matoaka, and Her Descendants. Richmond, VA: J.W. Randolph and English, 1887.
  14. Rothbard, Murray N. Conceived in Liberty. Auburn, AL: Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 1999.
  15. Tyler, Lyon Gardiner. The Cradle of the Republic: Jamestown and the James River. Richmond, VA: The Hermitage Press, 1906.
  16. Walsh, Lorena S. Motives of Honor, Pleasure, and Profit: Plantation Management in the Colonial Chesapeake, 1607-1763. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
  17. Washburn, Wilcomb E. Virginia Under Charles I and Cromwell 1625-1660. Kindle Edition.
  18. Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson. Virginia Under the Stuarts: 1607-1688. New York: Russell and Russell, 1959.
  19. Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson. The Planters of Colonial Virginia. Kindle Edition.
  20. Wright, Louis B. First Gentlemen of Virginia. Charlottesville, VA: Dominion Books, 1982.

SPECIAL LINKS:

 

 

All photography used on this site is owned and copyrighted by the author unless otherwise noted. The Featured Image is of the Bolling Family Crest. Other images not my own are the Bolling Grave Markers, Diascund Creek, Robert Bolling, Sr., John Wesley Jarvis’s John Randolph of Roanoke, The Bolling Mausoleum, and Edith Bolling Wilson.

Music used for this episode – Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers,”Carry Me Back to Old Virginia” available on iTunes, and “Brothers” by Little Chief, also available on iTunes.

 

Interview with Berkeley Castle’s Charles Berkeley

Published on by Robert Van NessLeave a comment

_DSC0803
Two men with deep connections to Berkeley Plantation – L-R Charles Berkeley (descendant of Richard Berkeley) and Graham Woodlief (descendant of Captain John Woodlief)

I used to tell my students that history is a giant web. Cause effects change, and that  change, sometimes unseen, is felt for generations.

Gloucestershire’s Berkeley Castle is a location at the heart of change. Even though the manorial seat has been in the same family for 27 generations, many of the people directly associated with the Castle moved to Virginia bringing profound influence with them to the New World.

The name Berkeley stands tall in 17th Century Virginia’s annals. The 1619 landing at what would become known as Berkeley Hundred put the Castle’s name on Virginia’s map forever. Decades later a Berkeley relative became Virginia’s most influential 17th Century colonial governor. But it wasn’t just Berkeley’s that came to Virginia from Gloucestershire. Skilled tradesmen, indentured servants, and merchants also moved from the old world, hoping to better there lives.

Berkeley Hundred soon suffered a horrific blow in 1622, but survivors endured and built a thriving colony. That colony became an early American leader, producing countless statesmen, scientific pioneers, westward explorers, military heroes, and seven United States Presidents. Two of those Presidents, William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison have immediate connections to Berkeley Plantation, and they were preceded by Benjamin Harrison V,  a Declaration of Independence signer.

The various causes spurring Berkeley Hundred’s first settlers to leave Gloucestershire undoubtedly left a lasting impact upon Virginia’s and the United State’s history. For that we should be thankful, just as those first settlers were, for new opportunities. Today we can build upon those opportunities, while we trace our history back to places like Berkeley Castle and beyond.

Charles Berkeley, 27th Generation owner of Berkeley Castle, visited Berkeley Plantation in order to share in highlighting Berkeley Castle’s profound influence upon Virginia. His kind generosity made this interview possible, for which I’m thankful beyond measure.

Crowd enjoying Berkeley’s fabulous grounds
Jamestown Settlement’s Godspeed sailed up the James to pay a visit
Bill Bevins addressing 2019’s historic First Thanksgiving Festival crowd.
Berkeley Castle’s Charles Berkeley offers his reflections on his home and its influence upon Berkeley Plantation as well as Virginia’s history.
Reenactors portraying English North America’s First Thanksgiving.
Reflections
Berkeley Plantation Beauty

LINKS TO THE PODCAST:

SPECIAL LINKS:

 

 

 

All photography used on this site is owned and copyrighted by the author unless otherwise noted. The featured image is of Berkeley Castle accessed from Wikipedia.

Music used for this episode – Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers,”Carry Me Back to Old Virginia” available on iTunes, and English Folk Song Suite I. March ( Seventeen Come Sunday). Allegro by Ralph Vaughan Williams, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, also available on iTunes.

Special Halloween Episode – Haunted Thoroughgood

Published on by Robert Van NessLeave a comment

The (Adam) Thoroughgood House has a lot of mystery surrounding it. At one time it was believed to be the oldest brick house in America, perhaps built by Adam Thoroughgood himself. Later work on the house put the house’s construction to 1719, almost 80 years after Thoroughgood died in 1640.

Other mysteries surround the famous Virginia Beach dwelling, such as whether or not the house is haunted. Many say no. Those who disagree on the otherhand tell rather compelling stories about eerie encounters.

Famed Virginia Ghost Storyteller L.B. Taylor paid the Thoroughgood House a visit in order to record some of those frightening stories for his book The Ghosts of Tidewater.

LINKS TO THE PODCAST:

Local Thoroughgood House Historical Marker
The Thoroughgood House is in the middle of a serene neighborhood close to the Lynnhaven River.
Carriage (Front) Entrance to the Thoroughgood House
One of the famous Thoroughgood House Chimneys
Thoroughgood House Historical Marker
“Adam Thoroughgood”
The “Thorowgood Family”
Dining Table at the Thoroughgood House
Desk at the Thoroughgood House
A downstairs room at the Thoroughgood House
Is this upstairs room haunted?
The upstairs bed said to have been impressed by a ghost

Plan a visit to the Thoroughgood

More from L.B. Taylor Jr.

Special Links

All photography used on this site is owned and copyrighted by the author unless otherwise noted. The featured image and subsequent images are from my visits to the Thoroughgood House.

Music used for this episode – Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers,”Carry Me Back to Old Virginia” available on iTunes, and Kevin MacLeod “Vanished” found on Soundcloud.

Berkeley Returns to Power

Published on by Robert Van NessLeave a comment

In 1652 it seemed like the Royalist cause was lost. Cromwell had firmly established the Protectorate, and the Stuarts just couldn’t organize a serious threat to Cromwell’s authority.

Berkeley and others like him hoped for Charles Stuart’s return, but news was slow, and generally contained awful stories. Other than a potential conspiracy in which funds were to be funneled to the royalist cause abroad, Virginians seemed to move on in their own independent way.

Then 1659-1660 brought conflicting news reports. Richard Cromwell succeeded his father and then resigned not too long thereafter. Samuel Matthews Jr. died. Who was in charge in Virginia, let alone England?

Two restorations brought familiar faces back onto the scene – William Berkeley and then Charles Stuart, who became King Charles II. Their restorations didn’t return both lands back to a status quo antebellum, for that matter, no one knew what their returns meant. When Berkeley came back to power, he wasn’t even sure if he could or should rule. But upon Charles’ restoration that question answered itself. Berkeley was Charles’ man.

Still, the situation was fraught with concern. Berkeley had ideas that he had already put into motion before Charles’ restoration occurred. After the king reclaimed his throne, he began governing the Old Dominion in a manner that threatened all Berkeley and his government’s plans.

What else was Berkeley to do? He chose to go back to England.

LINKS TO THE PODCAST:

Virginia Gives the Fifth Crown
Robert Beverley’s The History and Present State of Virginia, which shows Virginia as the Empire’s “Fifth Crown.”

SOURCES:

  1. Billings, Warren M.; Selby, John E.; and Tate, Thad W. Colonial Virginia: A History. White Plains, NY: KTO Press. 1986.
  2. Billings, Warren M. Sir William Berkeley and the Forging of Colonial Virginia. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 2004.
  3. Billings, Warren. A Little Parliament: The Virginia General Assembly in the Seventeenth Century. Richmond, VA: Library of Virginia, 2004.
  4. Breen, T.H. and Innes, Stephen. Myne Owne Ground: Race & Freedom on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, 1640-1676. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
  5. Craven, Wesley Frank. White, Red, and Black: The Seventeenth Century Virginian. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1977.
  6. Craven, Wesley Frank. The Southern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century: 1607-1689. LSU Press, 1949.
  7. Dabney, Virginius. Virginia: The New Dominion, A History from 1607 to the Present. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1971.
  8. Horn, James. Adapting to A New World: English Society in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.
  9. Mapp, Alfred J. Virginia Experiment: The Old Dominion’s Role in the Making of America, 1607-1781. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc., 2006.
  10. Neill, Edward D. Virginia Carolorum: The Colony under the Rule of Charles The First and Second, A.D. 1625-A.D. 1685. Albany, NY: Joel Munsell’s and Sons, 1886.
  11. Rothbard, Murray N. Conceived in Liberty. Auburn, AL: Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 1999.
  12. Tyler, Lyon Gardiner. The Cradle of the Republic: Jamestown and the James River. Richmond, VA: The Hermitage Press, 1906.
  13. Wallenstein, Peter. Cradle of America: Four Centuries of Virginia History. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2007.
  14. Walsh, Lorena S. Motives of Honor, Pleasure, and Profit: Plantation Management in the Colonial Chesapeake, 1607-1763. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
  15. Washburn, Wilcomb E. Virginia Under Charles I and Cromwell 1625-1660. Kindle Edition.
  16. Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson. Virginia Under the Stuarts: 1607-1688. New York: Russell and Russell, 1959.
  17. Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson. The Planters of Colonial Virginia. Kindle Edition.
  18. Wise, Jennings Cropper. Ye Kingdom Of Accawmacke: Or The Eastern Shore Of Virginia In The Seventeenth Century. Richmond, VA: The Bell Book and Stationary, CO. 1911.

Berkeley Signature

ADDITIONAL LINK:

GetAttachmentThumbnail.png

 

 

 

 

All photography used on this site is owned and copyrighted by the author unless otherwise noted. The featured image is of King Charles II’s Coronation Portrait at Westminster Abbey

Music used for this episode – Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers,”Carry Me Back to Old Virginia” available on iTunes, and “Wintergreen ” by The East Pointers, also available on iTunes.

Sir William Berkeley – Interview with Dr. Warren Billings

Published on by Robert Van NessLeave a comment

Virginia history is filled with many important names, dates, and events. One of those great names who influenced much of 17th Century Virginia is Sir William Berkeley. John Smith is more famous and certainly influenced Jamestown’s early survival, but Berkeley took the struggling colony and moved it into a position that the later First Families of Virginia inherited and made into a powerhouse.

Berkeley is a bridge. But he’s no ordinary bridge. For the time in question, he was an ornate spectacle that shined in a bleak world. His work ensured that the rule of law would expand and remain. He instigated building, better crops, better production, and expanded liberty through local courts and free trade. His work attracted a higher class that might otherwise have never come to the colony, but that class soon plagued him. They ultimately brought him down in the end.

Berkeley’s life spans many worlds, pre-Commonwealth England, the English Civil War, The Interregnum, the Restoration, the Powhatan Wars, Matthews-Claiborne Virginia, Dutch Wars, and Bacon’s Rebellion. He played a part in it all, and above all else, he left his mark on Virginia’s landscape.

No one speaks of this pivotal figure more completely than Dr. Warren Billings, my guest for this episode. Tune in and learn more about this amazing 17th Century figure’s influence on Virginia’s History.

LINKS TO THE PODCAST:

DR BILLING’S WORK:

  1. Billings, Warren M. Magistrates and Pioneers: Essays in the History of American Law. Clark, New Jersey, 2011.
  2. Billings, Warren M. The Papers of Sir William Berkeley, 1606–1677. Richmond, Va., 2007.The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century: A Documentary History of Virginia, 1606–1700. Revised edition. Chapel Hill, N.C, 2007.
  3. Billings, Warren M. Sir William Berkeley and the Forging of Colonial Virginia. Baton Rouge, La., 2004.
  4. Billings, Warren M. A Little Parliament: The Virginia General Assembly in the Seventeenth Century. Richmond, Va., 2004.
  5. Billings, Warren M. A Law Unto Itself? Essays in the New Louisiana Legal History. Edited with Mark F. Fernandez. Baton Rouge, La., 2001.
  6. Editor, Robert Joseph Pothier, A Treatise on Obligations Considered from a Moral and Legal View. Union, N.J, 1999. (Facsimile reprint of a classic early American legal work, for which Dr. Billings wrote an introductory essay and furnished the source text.)
  7. An Uncommon Experience: Law and Judicial Institutions in Louisiana, 1803–2003. Edited with Judith Kelleher Schafer. Lafayette, La.: Center for Louisiana Studies, 1997.
  8. Billings, Warren M. In Search of Fundamental Law: Louisiana’s Constitutions, 1812–1974. Edited with Edward F. Haas. Lafayette, La, 1993.
  9. Billings, Warren M. Virginia’s Viceroy: Their Majesties’ Governor and Captain-General, Francis Howard, Baron Howard of Effingham. Fairfax, Va. 1991.
  10. Billings, Warren M. Jamestown and the Founding of the Nation. Gettysburg, Pa., 1990.
  11. Billings, Warren M. The Papers ofFrancis Howard, 5th Baron ofEffingham, 1643–1695. Richmond, Va., 1989.
  12. Colonial Virginia: A History. Written with John E. Selby and Thad W. Tate. White Plains, N.Y, 1986.
  13. Billings, Warren M. Historic Rules of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1813–1879. Lafayette, La., 1985.
  14. Billings, Warren M. The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century: A Documentary History of Virginia, 1606–1689. Chapel Hill, N.C, 1975.
  15. Billings, Warren M. “Virginia’s deploured condition”, 1660-1676 : The Coming of Bacon’s Rebellion. DeKalb: Norther Illinois University, 1968. Dr. Billing’s 1968 Thesis and where to access it.

SPECIAL LINKS:

Berkeley Signature

 

 

All photography used on this site is owned and copyrighted by the author unless otherwise noted. The featured image is of Dr. Warren Billings.

Music used for this episode – Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers,”Carry Me Back to Old Virginia” available on iTunes, and “La Rejoussiance” from George Frideric Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks HWV 351 performed by Sir Charles Mackerras and the London Symphony Orchestra, also available on iTunes.

400th Commemorative Session – Virginia’s General Assembly

Published on by Robert Van NessLeave a comment

It was my great pleasure to be invited to the Virginia General Assembly’s 400th Commemorative Session.

The Assembly is the Western Hemisphere’s first and oldest representative government. The impact that that first meeting had on Virginia, America, and the rest of the world is immense. To mark the occasion 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution put together a week long program in which Historic Jamestown, Jamestown Settlement, and the College of William and Mary took part.

Historians, businessmen, and world-leaders were invited to participate in the American Evolution Forum on the Future of Representative Democracy, which has produced fascinating discussions covering the wide variety of issues that have affected and still affect representative government today.

Some of the key speakers featured in the Forum were –

  • Kathy Spangler, Executive Director, 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution
  • Virginia Representative Kirk Cox, Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates
  • Virginia State Senator Tommy Norment
  • U.S. Senator Mark Warner
  • U.S. Senator Tim Kaine
  • U.S. Representative Elaine Goodman Luria (VA-2), U.S. Navy veteran
  • U.S. Representative Bobby Scott (VA-3)
  • U.S. Representative Rob Wittman (VA-1)
  • Katherine Anandi Rowe, President, William & Mary (first female president)
  • Carly Fiorina, American businesswoman and political figure
  • Robert Gates, former U.S. Secretary of Defense from 2006-2001, scholar, and intelligence analyst
  • David Rubenstein, Financier and philanthropist, co-founder of The Carlyle Group
  • Annette Gordon-Reed, American historian and law professor
  • Eric Cantor, Politician, lawyer, banker
  • Jeffrey Rosen, American academic and commentator on legal affairs
  • Andrea Mitchell, television journalist and commentator
  • Andrew Card Jr., former White House Chief of Staff from 2001-2006
  • Karl Rove, Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff during the George W. Bush administration
  • Melody Barnes, lawyer and political advisor; former chief counsel to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and of Center for American Progress
  • Robin Christian Howard Niblett CMG, British specialist in international relations
  • Larry Joseph Sabato is an American political scientist and political analyst, and Robert Kent Gooch Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia
  • Marc Short, Chief of Staff to Vice President Mike Pence
  • Sir David Natzler KCB, former Clerk of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom

I attended only the 400th Commemorative Assembly activities, which held 3 sessions.

 

The First Meeting took place at Historic Jamestown’s Memorial Church

Elizabeth Kostelny, CEO of Preservation Virginia, welcomed those attending the historic meeting and was followed by Virginia Senate Majority Leader Thomas Norment.

The highlight from this meeting has to have been remarks delivered by Sir David Natzler KCB, retiring Clerk of the British House of Commons of the United Kingdom. His words linked Virginia’s representative government to other historical assemblies as far back as Athens as well as his native United Kingdom.

“These events were important not only in Virginia, not only in America, but throughout the world. The idea took root that people wanted to be governed by laws of their own making.”

Sir Natzler concluded by congratulating British Parliament’s oldest child, the Virginia General Assembly on her 400th Anniversary.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam followed Sir Natzler’s comments and spoke of the historic context and importance of Virginia’s General Assembly. He also mentioned who was not part of that First Assembly, women and newly arriving Africans. (The Jamestown Brides did not arrive until later 1620-1621 and the “20 and Odd” did not arrive until August, 1619. But followers of this podcast understand that there were a few women and Africans in Virginia pre-1619).

Following Governor Northam’s comments the first meeting adjourned. Lineage societies then placed wreaths outside of the Memorial Church’s tower before those on the Island moved to Jamestown Settlement.

Reconstructed wooden frame inside the Jamestown Memorial Church
Representative government was born near this spot in July 1619
The Jamestown Memorial Church
Historic Jamestown is an active archaeological site. Evidence can be seen of that fact all over the island, such as this exposed brick at the Memorial Church
Jamestown was the first permanent English settlment in North America.
The Memorial Church on Jamestown Island
Entrance to Historic Jamestown that take visitors over the Pitch and Tar Swamp
The many wreaths laid by lineage societies
The famous Pocahontas statue at Jamestown Island with a wreath placed by the Jamestown Society

 

The Second Meeting took place at Jamestown Settlement’s re-created  church

A processional led the Assembly into Jamestown Settlement’s church located within the re-created James Fort.

Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, Kirkland Cox welcomed guests, and was followed by Assistant Fort Supervisor of the Jamestown Settlement Brian Beckley, who played Governor George Yeardley, the man who opened that fateful Assembly 400 years ago.

Mark Greenough, Tour Guide Supervisor and Historian at the Virginia State Capitol, succeeded Mr. Beckley by delivering an interpretation while dressed to play Speaker John Pory.

Speaker Cox followed Mr. Greenough’s period interpretation before introducing the esteemed Presidential Historian Jon Meacham. Mr. Meacham’s speech highlighted some of Virginia’s historic contributions. One such highlight, the First Thanksgiving, brought loud applause. (In fact, Graham Woodlief sat in the row just ahead of me. He was gratified by the attention, as he mentioned to me afterward).

Meacham’s sentiments included memorable statements such as, “Jamestown is a mirror of who we were and who we are.”

Further, “Dreamers and doers came here and they built, and we stand in the light of their achievement.”

Finally, “In our finest hours, America has been about life, it’s been about liberty, it’s been about the pursuit of happiness not just for some, but for all. And in that history, history rooted here in this place, lies our hope.”

Mr. Meacham said many other things that delved into today’s current political landscape, but in my personal estimation, July 30, 2019 was about the beginning of a momentous, history changing event that though perhaps did not include everyone, would build upon this original foundation to include everyone. That being the case, I purposely chose what I deemed the most important and pertinent remarks from what was a well-crafted  and articulate speech.

If one would like to find Mr. Meacham’s full remarks, please visit this article by The Hill’s Judy Kutz, which also highlights some of the same comments already mentioned.

Speaker Cox brought the Assembly back to order, presided over the Mace’s presentation, conducted a roll call, and then called for a recess as the Assembly proceeded to the next venue,a tent set up for the day’s main Assembly meeting.

The recreated Church inside James Fort at the Jamestown Settlement
Inside James Fort at Jamestown Settlement
Jamestown Settlement’s famous 1607 replica fleet
Recreated indian village at Jamestown Settlement
Brian Beckley as Sir George Yeardley
Mark Greenough as Speaker John Pory
Historian Jon Meacham
The Mace
Reenactors at Jamestown Settlement’s Church
The tent audience watches proceedings

The Final Meeting took place at Jamestown Settlement’s Mall Area

The Assembly processional marched from the re-created church to the Settlement’s Mall Area, where organizers erected a tent for the day’s final meeting.

Speaker Cox brought the Assembly back to order before offering his own remarks and welcoming distinguished guests.

Illinois State Senator and President of the National Conference of State Legislatures, Toi Hutchinson followed Speaker Cox. Senator Hutchinson reflected on overcome challenges; challenges that could derail representative government if Americans are not on guard –

“I’m proud because despite the many challenges and setbacks this country has faced, America is still a place where our right to self-governance is not taken for granted, where we can challenge our government and debate our principles, and the institutions which provide for that right are held dear.”

“The institution of the legislature needs to be protected. For it is as strong and as fragile as democracy itself.” Said Senator Hutchinson before a crowd that stood in praise.

President Trump then arrived to deliver the keynote address.

Media doing their work
American Evolution and the Media await the Processional
The Processional from the Jamestown Settlement Church into the Tent
The Tent crowd awaits the day’s final session
Programs line the chairs
Illinois State Senator Toi Hutchinson addresses the Assembly
Speaker Kirkland Cox addresses the Assembly

President Trump Addresses Virginia’s General Assembly

In a historic twist on an already historic day, President Trump addressed the General Assembly. The President’s speech marked the first time that a sitting President of the United States addressed the Virginia General Assembly.

President Trump greeted those in attendance before highlighting Jamestown’s pre-1619 history. I’ll offer just a few remarks here, but if you want to see or read the entire keynote address, please, go here. Otherwise, here are a few key statements from the President’s speech.

Regarding Jamestown’s Early Years

“As we can see today on this great anniversary, it would not be the last time that God looked out for Virginia. Together, the settlers forged what would become the timeless traits of the American character. They worked hard, they had courage and abundance, and a wealth of self-reliance. They strived mightily to turn a profit, they experimented with producing silk, corn, tobacco, and the very first Virginia wines. At a prior settlement at Roanoke, there had been no survivors, none at all. But where others had typically perished, the Virginians were determined to succeed. They endured by the sweat of their labor, the aid of the Powhatan Indians, and the leadership of Captain John Smith.”

“As the years passed, ships bearing supplies and settlers from England also brought a culture and a way of life that would define the New World. It all began here. In time, dozens of brave strong women made the journey and join the colony and, in 1618, the Great Charter and other reforms established a system based on English common law. For the first time, Virginia allowed private land ownership. It created a basic judicial system. Finally, it gave the colonists essay in their own future, the right to elect representatives by popular vote.”

Regarding the Arrival of the First Africans

“As we mark the first representative legislature at Jamestown, our nation also reflects upon an anniversary from that same summer four centuries ago. In August 1619, the first enslaved Africans in the English colonies arrived in Virginia. It was the beginning of a barbaric trade in human lives. Today, and honor, we remember every sacred soul who suffered the horrors of slavery and the anguish of bondage. More than 150 years later, at America’s founding, our Declaration of Independence recognized the immortal truth that all men are created equal.”

“In the face of grave oppression and grave injustice, African-Americans have built, strengthened, inspired, uplifted, protected, defended, and sustained our nation from its very earliest days.”

Regarding the First Assembly’s Impact

“In the decades that followed that first legislative assembly, the Democratic tradition established here late deep roots all across Virginia. It spread up and down the Atlantic coast. One fact was quickly established for all time, in America, we are not ruled from afar, Americans govern ourselves. And so help us, God, we always will.”

“Self-government in Virginia did not just give us estate we love, in a very true sense, it gave us the country we love, the United States of America.”

“From the first legislative assembly down to today America has been the story of citizens who take ownership of their future and their control of their destiny. That is what self-rule is all about. Every day Americans coming together to take action, to build, to create, to seize opportunities. To pursue the common good and to never stop striving for greatness.”

“But among all of our America’s towering achievements none exceeds the triumph that we are here to celebrate today. Our nation’s priceless culture of freedom, independence, equality, justice and self-determination under God.”

“That culture is the source of who we are it is our prized inheritance it is our proudest legacy. It is among the greatest human accomplishments in the history of the world what you have done is the greatest accomplishment in the history of the world. And I congratulate you. It started right here.”

President Trump delivers keynote Address to the Virginia Assembly
President Trump delivers keynote Address to the Virginia Assembly
Delegate Ibrahim Sami
President Trump delivers keynote Address to the Virginia Assembly
Fixing the Presidential Seal in preparation of President Trump’s arrival
President Trump delivers keynote Address to the Virginia Assembly
President Trump delivers keynote Address to the Virginia Assembly
President Trump delivers keynote Address to the Virginia Assembly

Concluding Remarks

President Trump’s arrival sparked a little controversy. There were those who did not welcome his attendance, and they expressed as much.

The great thing, as part of Virginia’s 1619 foundational legacy, is that such opposition is tolerated. Before that time, even in Virginia, such opposition would at least earn prison, torture, and usually death. 1619’s Assembly laid the framework from which liberty has evolved. Perhaps the demonstration was misplaced during such a historic occasion, but that still does not take away from the fact that one has the freedom to conscientiously object.

Individual liberty continues to grow today as it faces new challenges. The inheritors of such a legacy must continue to champion that individual liberty on a local, personal level. That is the sentiment upon which Virginia and later the United States was built. That sentiment began 400 years ago on a hot, often disease plagued island, and we still celebrate that event today.

_DSC0486
The 400th Commemorative Session Virginia General Assembly Seal

ADDITIONAL 1619 LINKS:

  1. 1619 – Representative Government Is Formed
  2. 1619 – Women and Angolans Arrive
  3. Special Episode – The First Thanksgiving
  4. The Dr. James Horn Interview
  5. Virginia’s Outstanding Women – Interview with Dr. Sandra Gioia Treadway
  6. The House of Burgesses – Interview with Nancy Egloff
  7. Graham Woodlief Interview – the 400th Anniversary of the First Thanksgiving
  8. Tenacity, Virginia’s Remarkable 17th Century Women – Interview with Nancy Egloff
  9. Interview with Fort Monroe’s Terry Brown
  10. Falling Creek Ironworks’ 400th Anniversary – Interview with Archaeologist Lyle Browning
  11. American Evolution, Commemoration 2019
  12. Historic Jamestowne
  13. Jamestown Settlement
  14. Berkeley Plantation
  15. First Thanksgiving Festival
  16. Hampton, VA 2019 Commemorative Commission
  17. Project 1619
  18. 1619-2019 Commemoration at Fort Monroe
  19. Virginia General Assembly

 

 

All photography used on this site is owned and copyrighted by the author unless otherwise noted. The Featured Image is of the Virginia House of Delegates Sergent at Arms John L. Pearson, Jr. carrying the Mace into the Tent.

 

Virginia’s Native History – Interview with Dr. Ashley Spivey

Published on by Robert Van Ness2 Comments

Tsenacommacah, that’s what 17th Century English Virginia was called before the English named the land for Queen Elizabeth I. It loosely means “densely inhabited land.” By 17th Century standards the land was pretty well inhabited, and it was inhabited by the many tribes comprising the Powhatan Confederation. That Confederation greatly influenced 17th Century English settlements throughout the century and beyond as some of the Tribes in that alliance still dwell in Virginia today. That being the case, I wanted to bring to light Native Virginian’s fascinating lives and society. And I believe no one could better illustrate their lives and society than Ashley Spivey, herself a Pamunkey Tribe member.

Dr. Ashley Spivey joins me in this episode to discuss Indigenous Virginian history, the changes they felt, and the concerns facing modern Virginian tribes today. She brings to this discussion a spectacular wealth of information that has been forged through her upbringing, impressive academic credentials, and solid history and foundation work throughout Virginia’s landscape. Tune in, you’ll be glad you did!

Pocahontas Memorial Stone on the Pamunkey Reservation
Log Cabin on the Pamunkey Reservation
Pamunkey Indian Museum
Pamunkey Indian Museum
Powhatan Sculpture at the Pamunkey Indian Museum
Pamunkey Indian Museum
Recreated teepee and longhouse on the Mattaponi Indian Reservation
The Mattaponi Indian Reservation
Recreated totem pole at the Mattaponi Indian Reservation
Mattaponi Baptist Church, one of the oldest continually meeting Native American Churches in America
The annual Chickahominy dance at Berkeley Plantation’s Thanksgiving Festival
Rivers, such as the Mattaponi were essential to Native Virginian life

LINKS TO THE PODCAST:

SOURCES:

  1. Custalow, Linwood “Littlebear”. The True Story of Pocahontas. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 2007.
  2. Gallivan, Martin D. James River Chiefdoms: The Rise of Social Inequality in the Chesapeake (Our Sustainable Future). University of Nebraska Press, 2003.
  3. Gallivan, Martin D. The Powhatan Landscape: An Archaeological History of the Algonquian Chesapeake (Society and Ecology in Island and Coastal Archaeology). Gainsville, FL: University of Florida Press, 2016.
  4. Gleach, Frederic. Powhatan’s World and Colonial Virginia: A Conflict of Cultures (Studies in the Anthropology of North American Indians). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2000.
  5. Lutz, Lara; Gallivan, Martin D.; Turner III, E. Randolph; Brown, David A.; Harpole, Thane; and Moretti-Langholz, Danielle. Virginia Indians at Werowocomoco. Richmond, VA: Virginia Department of Historic Resources, 2015.
  6. Rountree, Helen C. The Powhatan Indians of Virginia: Their Traditional Culture (The Civilization of the American Indian Series). Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989.
  7. Rountree, Helen C. and Turner III, E Randolph. Before and After Jamestown: Virginia’s Powhatans and Their Predecessors (Native Peoples, Cultures, and Places of the Southeastern United States). Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 2002.
  8. Rountree, Helen C. Pocahontas’s People: The Powhatan Indians of Virginia Through Four Centuries (The Civilization of the American Indian Series). Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990.
  9. Rountree, Helen C. Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2006.
  10. Spivey, Ashley. “Knowing the River, Working the Land, and Digging for Clay: Pamunkey Indian Subsistence Practices and the MarketEconomy 1800-1900” College of William & Mary, Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects.Paper 1516639670, 2017.
  11. Waugaman, Sandra F. and Moretti-Langholz, Danielle. We’re Still Here: Contemporary Virginia Indians Tell Their Stories. Palari Pub, 2000.

BONUS LINKS:

 

 

All photography used on this site is owned and copyrighted by the author unless otherwise noted. The featured image is Dr. Ashley Spivey taken on the Pamunkey Reservation.

Music used for this episode – Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers,”Carry Me Back to Old Virginia” available on iTunes, and “Uranus, The Magician” from the Planets Orchestral Suite Op. 32 by Gustav Holst performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Colin Davis, also available on iTunes.

K.I. Knight Interview – First Africans and Slavery’s 17th Century Virginia Evolution (Pillars of 17th Century Virginia Society, Part 4)

Published on by Robert Van Ness1 Comment

1619 was a pivotal year in Virginia for many reasons, but author K.I. Knight says that one key issue that did not begin in 1619 was slavery. The “Twenty and odd” did arrive in August 1619, but according to Ms. Knight’s meticulous research the “Twenty” were in fact 14 at first, and many of those 14 went on to help save the colony after the 1622 uprising before securing land of their own. Some of them, like Anthony Johnson, even owned slaves themselves.

For sure, slavery seems to have been around the Virginia landscape in some form by the 1640s,  but it wasn’t the institution that it became by the 18th and 19th centuries. Kathryn puts together an astounding narrative weaving extant court and genealogical records together to prove that the immoral institution evolved over time, before it became legally organized by the late 1690s and early 1700s. Exact beginning dates are hard to pin down, largely due to lost records. Regardless, the foundations for American slavery were being set during the 17th Century, and this episode discusses those foundations as they occurred in Virginia.

LINKS TO THE PODCAST:

K.I. Knight’s Books and Links:

 

 

All photography used on this site is owned and copyrighted by the author. The Featured Image is of author Kathryn Hall Knight at Fort Monroe.

**Special thanks to Terry Brown at Fort Monroe, who graciously lent his office to Kathryn and me for this interview. If you haven’t heard my interview with Terry, please, find that here.

Music used for this episode – Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers,”Carry Me Back to Old Virginia” available on iTunes, and Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 60 “Leningrad”: IV. Allegro Non Troppo by Dmitri Shostakovich, performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra directed by Leonard Bernstein, also available on iTunes.