American Origins and Regional Institutions
The Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8377025 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert D Mitchell (University of Maryland, College Park, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1983 |
| Volume | 73 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 404-420 |
| Publication date | 1983-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Annals of the Association of American Geographers (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0004-5608 • E-ISSN: 1467-8306 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-8306.1983.tb01425.x |
| OpenAlex | W2105926828 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 80 |
The current debate about relationships between American origins and European precedents has engaged geographers at a number of levels. A major problem has been the lack of discussion of the institutional environments of early Americans and the regional settings in which they were established. A study of the early Chesapeake reveals the importance of its profit-oriented, socially stratified beginnings based upon the success of tobacco cultivation in the southern Virginia tidewater. This placed paramount importance on the drive for land, the search for a suitable labor supply, and individual desire for upward social mobility. The dependence on British agricultural servants created early class distinctions and an initial demographic profile marked by young, unmarried males. Family life was thus less structured than it was in England or New England, and cultural patterns were subject to greater change. The principal institutions of the family, plantation, and county were recognizable by the 1660s, to which hereditary slavery was added during the 1680s. Regional differences nevertheless emerged between early Virginia and Maryland, and between the Chesapeake's eastern and western shores. Political and religious patterns in particular remained more varied and unstable in Maryland. These findings emphasize the importance of examining institutions as well as structures and patterns in the early life of American settlers. They highlight the differential significance of English social origins, the need to identify the Chesapeake yeoman, and the limitations of the culture hearth concept. Key Words: American originsinstitutionsregionalismChesapeakeVirginiaMarylandindividualismfamilytobacco plantationservant laborcountyneighborhoodslaveryyeomanculture health
Geography · Political science · Politics · Shore · Social science · Social stratification · Sociology · Tidewater · American Environmental and Regional History · American History and Culture · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Law
White servitude in colonial America
Founding of New Societies
Education in the forming of American society
American Slavery, American Freedom
The cultural geography of the United States
The origins of English individualism
The Cultural Approach to History
Canadian Labour in Politics
"Comment on James A. Henretta's "Families and Farms
Families and Farms
The Americans
Errand into the Wilderness
Migration to London and transatlantic emigration of indentured servants, 1683–1775
Land and society in early Canada and South Africa
Early Americans and their social environment
Environment, disease and mortality in early Virginia
Geographical perspectives on Maryland's past
Town founding in seventeenth-century North America
Town and County. Essays on the Structure of Local Government in the American Colonies
In English Ways
The city in southern history
The Labor Problem at Jamestown, 1607-18
Human Geography of the South
The Agrarian History of England and Wales. Vol. IV
The Colonial Chesapeake
The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century
Myne Owne Ground
The Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century
The Evolution of a Tidewater Settlement System
Values as an Obstacle to Economic Growth
From Tobacco to Grain
Apathy and Death in Early Jamestown
Law, Society, and Politics in Early Maryland
White Servitude in Colonial America
Land and People
Husbandmen of Plymouth
Puritans and Adventurers
Husbandmen of Plymouth
White Over Black
Colonists in Bondage
Family and Inheritance
Place, Landscape, and the Dialectics of Cultural Geography
The Simplification of Europe Overseas
The Simplification of Europe Overseas
The Origins of English Individualism
From Servant to Freeholder
In English Ways
Families and Farms
The First American Boom
The Planter's Wife
White, Red, and Black
The Transition Question in Early American History
Cash Is Good to Eat
Human Geography of the South
The Historical Geography of North American Regions
Expulsion of the Salvages
Myne Owne Ground
Mortality and Family in the Colonial Chesapeake
The Morphology of New England Society in the Colonial Period
The Americans
The Planters of Colonial Virginia
The Westward Enterprise
The Best Poor Man's Country
The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century
Of Agues and Fevers
Land and People
The Origins of Afro-American Society in Tidewater Maryland and Virginia, 1700 to 1790
The Virginia Muster of 1624/5 As a Source for Demographic History
The Founding of New Societies
From Puritan to Yankee
The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism
American Communities
From Organization to Society
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,09 |
| Citation span | 1993 - 2025 (33) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |