Early Colonial Virginia is introduced with seven histories that focus on political developments and colonial economic classes. The first is the political history of “Colonial Virginia” early and late periods, from 1607 to 1780. “The Barbarous Years” charts the expulsion of Native Americans in the British North American colonies. “Colonial Chesapeake Society” is a social...
Month: September 2017
Virginia’s Gilded Age New South: Overviews
Virginia’s Gilded Age New South is introduced in five books. New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age, encompasses American political, economic, and cultural history 1865 to 1905, then Origins of the New South looks at the time period as a political history including Virginia, and The Promise of the New South treats economic and cultural...
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Virginia’s Free African Americans, 1780-1865
Here are four histories of free Blacks in Virginia highlighting self reliant communities in a slave society. Of course, Virginia’s free African Americans have a history dating from 1619 with their importation as “servants” with subsequent freedom and voting rights in the 1600s. But these focus on the era of their substantial expansion and integration...
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Virginia History Surveys
Survey histories of Virginia are important to beginning your discovery of Virginia History. Reading Virginia history books with bibliographies enables the amateur historian to drill down in a field of interest by paying attention to the writer’s sources. These can become a to-buy list for building a personal library. See Twelve Steps to a Personal Library on Virginia....
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The 1800s Industrialization of Virginia
Four books offer an introduction to Virginia’s industrialization throughout the 1800s. The first as an introduction is “Tredegar Iron Works” by Nathan Vernon Madison in a short popular history spanning the antebellum period into the 1920s. Richmond’s first railroad was built to transport Midlothian coal and the second volume on Virginia industry is “Old Dominion,...
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Civil War Home Front Virginia
For those interested in the political and social history of Civil War home front Virginia, four books are recommended. Unionists, Secessionists, free blacks and slaves are studied in “Old Southampton”, from the sectional crisis through the conflict and into Reconstruction. The black Virginian experience in the Civil War, whether slave or free, for blue or...
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Civil War Battles in Virginia
The Civil War in Virginia, for those interested in political and social history, can be introduced with four books from the battlefield, the naval war and amphibious operations, motives of the fighting men, and Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Battle Cry of Freedom is perhaps the best single volume of the Civil War that places...
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