Hello everyone, I am trying out blogging for the first time, and thought I would insert some initial thoughts I had from my pre-reading the Edmund Morgan book. I first looked through the contents and and saw that he had arranged the material into 4 books. The first book title seems to suggest an ideal vision of the new world that the future colonists envisioned upon their arrival. The second book appears to deal with the realities of colonial life once the colonists had arrived. The third books brings the tension between the various peoples in the colonies into the foreground, and the final book looks at how the institution of slavery and freedom came into fruition throughout the colonies and how that is contrasted with the idea of freedom. Also looking at the index, the author focuses mostly on the origins of counties, Indians, slaves and servants, and the growing of tobacco. What I gathered from the preface is that the argument of the book is that the institution of slavery in America is sharply contrasted with the ideas of a free republic established through the American Revolution, however that because of slavery the creation of a free republic was achieved. These are just some initial thoughts and they are probably way off, but I would certainly like some feedback to see what others are thinking.
I Agree with your findinds, and understanding of the text, but this always baffles me. Why is it that in our education system we are taught the history of this country and its foundation in a sweet way. Unless you explore history for yourself you do not learn the deeps of the countries origin. Thank you for your post by the way and being the icebreaker lol
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DeleteI too have thought about the ramifications of this book and how we as students in American history, especially before reaching the college level, are never really taught the whole story of Colonial American history. I thought this book was interesting in how it focused on VIRGINIA's colonial history and how this history is vastly different from colonial settlements in New York and Plymouth (Massachusetts Bay). I feel like in school, these early colonial periods blend together and many times we are led to believe that colonial life and experience was the same for all American colonists. Usually there's a narrative where colonists, hoping to escape religious persecution, come to America, struggle to survive and "make friends" and occasionally fight with the Indians and generally get rich by growing crops and making other New World goods. I love how Morgan blows these stories out of the water and shows us how colonists REALLY lived. I'll talk about this more as a post, but I too was wondering why so little of what really happened in these colonies is untold in American history classes.
yes, thanks for the icebreaker. Let me offer my quick two cents on this. First, your observation is largely correct, with a few modifications. The vision in Book 1 quickly meets reality (in that book), and this is where contact and reality meet the ideal--and ideas about race get worked out in this context. Book 2 talks about the stabilization of the economy and society in Virginia and how social and economic and demographic factors impact this stabilization (it won't remain stable for long). Book 3 is about the consequences of these changes, and Book 4 about the consequences of the consequences (to put it a little mysteriously). Good pre-reading, Nick!
ReplyDeleteYes, Nick, I think you are on point. I can only add that, I believe the author wanted us to not only look at the contrasting ideals in America like slavery and freedom, but also polar positions like North v. South, Democrat v. Republican. America, for years, have been polarized on not just slave v. free, but topics like segregaton v. integration. Maybe I am reading too much!!!!
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