What do you think?
Rate this book
The Evolution of the Southern Backcountry: A Case Study of Lunenburg County, Virginia, 1746-1832
The Evolution of the Southern Backcountry is the story of an expanding frontier. Richard Beeman offers a lively and well-written account of the creation of bonds of community among the farmers who settled Lunenburg Country, far to the south and west of Virginia's center of political and economic activity. Beeman's view of the nature of community provides an important dynamic model of the transmission of culture from older, more settled regions of Virginia to the southern frontier. He describes how the southern frontier was influenced by those staples of American historical opportunity, mobility, democracy, and ethnic pluralism; and he shows how the county evolved socially, culturally, and economically to become distinctly southern.
288 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1984
About the author
Richard Beeman
19 books24 followersRichard Roy Beeman was an American historian and biographer specializing in the American Revolution. Born in Seattle, he published multiple books, and was the John Walsh Centennial Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 18, 2016
I have mixed feelings about this work. Certainly, Beeman produced a meticulously researched work that uses a variety of types of primary sources for a place and time where relatively few sources exist. For this and the sweeping narrative of almost 100 years of history he is able to craft, Beeman deserves praise. However, it is confusing at times to figure out what place Beeman is actually talking about. This is partially because of the changing borders of Lunenburg County over the years and partially because he must draw from the available sources which come from scattered places throughout the county and, at times, he must use neighboring counties to fill in gaps in the record. But, Beeman at times also devotes portions of the text to other regions of the United States and Virginia. Yes, these give Lunenburg county's history some context and yes, Beeman is attempting to demonstrate the similarities and differences of the Virginia Backcountry to the Eastern counties; but, I found these diversions more distracting than necessary.
Beeman primarily traces three institutions that comprised the basis of power in Virginia counties: the economy, politics and the court, and religion. This focus makes the book a very traditional type of history, almost exclusively about the white elite--although as he demonstrates throughout, this elite was smaller, less wealthy, and a bit less stable in their positions than in other Virginia counties. He also consistently includes other white men when applicable, for example, including numerous details about the more common folk in the Revolutionary War militia rolls and their presence in the Baptist churches. Obviously, the questions that Beeman is asking about the main institutions that help create the idea of a community lead him to study these three institutions, and the sources probably limited his output, too. However, the book is shockingly devoid of almost any discussion of the family, of women, and of kinship networks; in other words, of what may have been the number one institution in creating community. No where does Beeman consider the place of women's work in the economy or women's influence and role(s) in the churches (although they do show up in church records). Beeman is only marginally better at including people of color, never shying away from the presence of slavery in the region and pointing out how the growth, stability, and cohesion of the region into a hegemonic cultural norm that allied itself with the American South came almost solely because of slavery. Beeman is not interested in providing details about the lives of enslaved people and he only gives an intriguing, passing mention of the few free blacks in the county. Beeman's sources certainly play a role in the lack of information about those who were not white males and overcoming this obstacle can be particularly difficult when producing history about a specific place.
Overall, however, Beeman is successful in convincing readers about the peculiarities of the Southern backcountry's history. One cannot treat the region as just a fragment or addendum to the histories of the more studied eastern counties and political elites. What occurred in Lunenburg was a community that was to a degree more egalitarian than in the East and more diverse in terms of ethnicity, culture, and religion. The environment and lack of access to Eastern markets were part of the reasons for Lunenburg's difference. But, after the Revolution, Lunenburg's white residents moved quickly to create a shared culture that accepted religious and ethnic differences, but existed as a cohesive unit because of racial slavery and white supremacy. Even those that had previously voiced concerns about slavery, such as evangelicals, because staunch supporters of the institution and belief in racial inequality. The most damning evidence of this is white Lunenburg's frequent lack of material goods associated with a middling or elite status, but a great investment in enslaved peoples and land for the use of tobacco production and enslaved labor. In short, Beeman is another attempt to come to terms with understanding how a nation so founded on ideals of equality and freedom, and with the case of Lunenburg, a place in the eighteenth century that allowed for the existence of a diversity of peoples and a more equitable distribution of land, could contain an economic, political, and cultural system (a worldview) fundamentally about inequality. Not only did it contain this system, it believed it needed it to survive.
Beeman primarily traces three institutions that comprised the basis of power in Virginia counties: the economy, politics and the court, and religion. This focus makes the book a very traditional type of history, almost exclusively about the white elite--although as he demonstrates throughout, this elite was smaller, less wealthy, and a bit less stable in their positions than in other Virginia counties. He also consistently includes other white men when applicable, for example, including numerous details about the more common folk in the Revolutionary War militia rolls and their presence in the Baptist churches. Obviously, the questions that Beeman is asking about the main institutions that help create the idea of a community lead him to study these three institutions, and the sources probably limited his output, too. However, the book is shockingly devoid of almost any discussion of the family, of women, and of kinship networks; in other words, of what may have been the number one institution in creating community. No where does Beeman consider the place of women's work in the economy or women's influence and role(s) in the churches (although they do show up in church records). Beeman is only marginally better at including people of color, never shying away from the presence of slavery in the region and pointing out how the growth, stability, and cohesion of the region into a hegemonic cultural norm that allied itself with the American South came almost solely because of slavery. Beeman is not interested in providing details about the lives of enslaved people and he only gives an intriguing, passing mention of the few free blacks in the county. Beeman's sources certainly play a role in the lack of information about those who were not white males and overcoming this obstacle can be particularly difficult when producing history about a specific place.
Overall, however, Beeman is successful in convincing readers about the peculiarities of the Southern backcountry's history. One cannot treat the region as just a fragment or addendum to the histories of the more studied eastern counties and political elites. What occurred in Lunenburg was a community that was to a degree more egalitarian than in the East and more diverse in terms of ethnicity, culture, and religion. The environment and lack of access to Eastern markets were part of the reasons for Lunenburg's difference. But, after the Revolution, Lunenburg's white residents moved quickly to create a shared culture that accepted religious and ethnic differences, but existed as a cohesive unit because of racial slavery and white supremacy. Even those that had previously voiced concerns about slavery, such as evangelicals, because staunch supporters of the institution and belief in racial inequality. The most damning evidence of this is white Lunenburg's frequent lack of material goods associated with a middling or elite status, but a great investment in enslaved peoples and land for the use of tobacco production and enslaved labor. In short, Beeman is another attempt to come to terms with understanding how a nation so founded on ideals of equality and freedom, and with the case of Lunenburg, a place in the eighteenth century that allowed for the existence of a diversity of peoples and a more equitable distribution of land, could contain an economic, political, and cultural system (a worldview) fundamentally about inequality. Not only did it contain this system, it believed it needed it to survive.
May 19, 2020
A few years ago, I discovered that some ancestors of mine settled in Lunenburg County Virginia in the mid 18th Century. Because I was born in the Midwest but currently live in Virginia, I found that information particularly interesting and made the trip to Lunenburg to see what I could learn. I stayed at a B&B and discovered that the host was quite into genealogy and history, and he took me to the courthouse and showed me where I could find the records I was looking for. I spent a great day looking at old deeds and such. He also recommended this book, which I was able to order. It is dry and detailed and took me a long time to get through, but it's an impressive (if incomplete) account of the area.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews