Smoke and Mirrors
Reinterpreting the society and economy of the seventeenth-century Chesapeake
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12737726 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Douglas Bradburn (Binghamton University, corresponding author), John C Coombs (Schlumberger (Ireland), corresponding author) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 3 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 131-157 |
| Publication date | 2006-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Atlantic Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1478-8810 • E-ISSN: 1740-4649 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14788810600875356 |
| OpenAlex | W1515049823 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 64 |
The most recent research demonstrates that the idea of a 30-year depression in the Chesapeake economy at the end of the seventeenth century, which has been the dominant view since the groundbreaking work of the “Chesapeake school” 30 years ago, is no longer tenable. The peculiar way this “depression thesis” emerged has inhibited creative and ongoing research on the society and economy of early Virginia and Maryland. This essay argues that the time has come to explore new questions with new perspectives, including an awareness of the Atlantic dimensions as well as the internal diversity of the early modern Chesapeake. To help encourage further research the authors point to suggestive but under-researched aspects of the region's economy in the so-called era of depression, including the variation of regional tobacco cultures, new evidence of a vibrant commerce with the Caribbean, exchange with other mainland colonies, trade with the Indians, growth of internal markets, shipbuilding, and western land development. An awareness that the old narratives no longer work and that many topics are ripe for creative analysis shows that better solutions to old interpretive problems within the history and historiography of the colonial Chesapeake are possible, including the consolidation of gentry power, opportunity for poor whites, and the rise of slavery
Archaeology · Art · Capitalism · Colonialism · Diversity (politics · Economics · Economy · Ethnology · Gentry · Great Depression · Historiography · Literature · Mainland · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Welsh · American History and Culture · Anthropology · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law
The Tobacco Industry in the Chesapeake Colonies, 1617-1730
Economic aspects of the growth of slavery in the seventeenth-century Chesapeake
A Staple Theory of Economic Growth
Patterns of Development in Newly Settled Regions
American Slavery, American Freedom
Tobacco Colony
American Slavery, American Freedom
The Formation of a Society on Virginia's Eastern Shore 1615-1655
Some Notes on the Four Forms of the Oldest Building of William and Mary College
The Peopling of British North America
The Great Rebuilding and its Later Stages
Domestic Masonry Architecture in 17th-Century Virginia
Westward from Virginia
Work and Labor in Early America
Approaches to the Analysis of Economic Growth in Colonial British America
The Present State of Virginia and the College
Rooms and room use in Norwich housing, 1580–1730
Urban housing
The Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century
The Economy of British America, 1607-1789
Economic Behavior in a Planting Society
France and the Chesapeake
Tobacco Colony
The Correspondence of the Three William Byrds of Westover, Virginia, 1684-1776
White Servitude and the Growth of Black Slavery in Colonial America
A Note on the Value of Colonial Exports of Shipping
Impermanent Architecture in the Southern American Colonies
Adapting to a New World
A Changing Labor Force and Race Relations in Virginia 1660-1710
Law, Society, and Politics in Early Maryland
Fifty-Four Days Work of Two Negroes
From Servant to Freeholder
Plantation Management in the Chesapeake, 1620-1820
The English Farmhouse and Cottage
The Great Rebuilding
The Economic Growth of the Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake Colonies
Wealth and Welfare in Early Maryland
The Peopling of British North America
Calendar of State Papers
William Fitzhugh and His Chesapeake World
A Small Planter's Profits
Merchants and Empire
Staying Put or Getting Out
A Place in Time
Summing the Parts
The English and Scottish Tobacco Trades in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Westward from Virginia
Law, Society, and Politics in Early Maryland
"Boom and Bust" in the Colonial Chesapeake Economy
The Present State of Virginia, and the College
Adapting to a New World
The New Social History and the Search for "Community" in Colonial America
The Fur Trade in Canada; an Introduction to Canadian Economic History
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2020 (10) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |