Virginia 1619: Slavery and Freedom in the Making of English America

by Paul Musselwhite (Editor), Peter C. Mancall (Editor), James Horn (Editor)

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.

Genres: History

336 pages, Paperback

Published June 17, 2019

Reviews

[Andrew Martin]

This book is a collection of essays that studies how Virginia started as a colony. the date 1619 is important for two reasons. First, Africans from Angola were brought into Virginia not necessarily to be slaves but because the captain of the ship needed food and water and used them to trade for it. Over the years, slavery became a pernicious institution in the colony. Second, the House of Burgesses was created to help govern a troubled and weak colony. Over the years the assembly took on more power and became an institution that other colonies would emulate as they grew in size. The historians who wrote these essays examine Virginia from all angles and present important facts to bolster their claims. They do not all agree and that is a good thing because it gives the reader different interpretations to digest. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the start of this colony and how slavery became a dreaded institution.

[Isaac Pena]

pretty good but again not quite what I expected -- I think I was looking forward to essays that were like "we're going to expound on X topic briefly touched upon in American Slavery, American Freedom" and this was more like "here's something that happens decades in the future from my preferred topic; you can consult American Slavery, American Freedom about it if you'd like to learn more". learned a ton about Jacobean court politics and the factions within the Virginia Company though