Historiansplaining: A historian tells you why everything you know is wrong

Virginia began from a small, undersupplied wooden fort immersed in a brackish and malarial marsh to become, after 30 years, the largest and most valuable colony in North America, pulling in thousands of indentured workers and African slaves each year and pumping out millions of pounds of tobacco. In achieving this shocking metamorphosis, the colonists had to contend with the Powhatan Confederacy, one of the strongest indigenous states in the Americas, which ruled the Tidewater region; and they had to to choose among different forking paths that might have led to an entirely different relationship between Indians and English.
We consider the unrealized possible histories that iconic figures like John Smith and Pocahontas came to symbllize, and the reasons why the English backers poured so many resources and human lives into this endeavor of conquest and colonization, ultimately supplanting Powhatan civilization and creating a cash-crop colony.

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Suggested further reading: Morgan, “American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia”; Wertenaber, “The Planters of Colonial Virginia”; Kupperman, “The Jamestown Project”; Billings, Selby, & Tate, “Colonial Virginia: A History”

Image: Portrait of Matoaka / Pocahontas / Rebecca Rolfe, by WL Sheppard, 1891, based on an unknown original allegedly from life, 1616

Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only: A tall “stovepipe” hat, which was made in the 1600s out of felt from beaver fur and likely belonged to a powerful member of the English Parl

A tall “stovepipe” hat, which was made in the 1600s out of felt from beaver fur and likely belonged to a powerful member of the English Parliament, illustrates the extraordinary value of finely made hats, which fueled centuries of colonization, exploration, diplomatic feuding, and warfare all across North America, as European empires and Native American nations competed fiercely for control of the lucrative fur trade.

Costume history blog post on beaver hats, with comtemporary artworks, by Gail Kellogg Hope: https://artbeautyandwell-orderedchaos.blogspot.com/2011/04/beaver-hats.html

Dissertation by Elizabeth McFadden, on “Fur Dress, Art, and Class Identity in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century England and Holland,” at: https://escholarship.org/content/qt79w6n34n/qt79w6n34n.pdf?t=q6z2rg

Alice Morse Earle’s “Two Centuries of Costume in America,” vol. 1, 1620-1820: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10115/pg10115.txt

Weiss Gallery page with portrait of Sir Rowland Cotton (1581-1634) holding a felt hat: https://www.weissgallery.com/artworks/categories/2/9411-paul-van-somer-c.1577-1622-sir-rowland-cotton-1581-1634-of-alkington-painted-1618/

We follow the adventures and the atrocities of the English “sea dogs,” from raiding ports in West Africa and Spanish mule trains in Central America to scrounging for gold in the Canadian tundra, as the Tudor regime exploited England’s expertise in sailing and navigation to undermine the Spanish empire and try to turn the Atlantic into a massive free-trade zone. We uncover why Elizabethan England never created lasing colonies of their own, until the accession of the first Stuart king in 1603 led to a profound shift in policy, paving the way for the first English colonies beyond Ireland and the extension of the “British empire” to America.

Patrons: comment on this post to let us know which country or state you are in: https://www.patreon.com/posts/tell-me-where-153392904

Please become a patron to hear all patron-only lectures: https://www.patreon.com/c/u5530632

My previous lecture on England in the Tudor Age: https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/age-of-absolutism-2-tudor-england-1485-1603

My interview with historian Melissa Morris on the early European colonies in Guiana, South America: https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/before-jamestown-when-england-colonized-the-amazon-a-conversation-with-melissa-morris

Image: the “Armada Portrait” of Queen Elizbeth I, version probably commissioned by Francis Drake; notice English & Spanish ships seen over queen's shoulders, & queen’s hand resting on North America on the globe, representing her purported claim to that land

Suggested further reading: Armitage, “Ideological Origins of the British Empire”; Kupperman, “The Jamestown Project”

We follow the tortuous beginnings of Acadia, the first northern European colony in America -- a string of remote fishing and fur trading outposts, Catholic missions, and French farming villages, which had to withstand a harsh, remote environment, religious and political feuding, a near civil war, and frequent privateer attacks, in order to persist through the seventeenth century and finally begin to develop a distinctive Acadian provincial society which would later survive global war and ethnic cleansing.

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My previous lecture on Bourbon France in the same period: https://www.patreon.com/posts/age-of-3-bourbon-44146424

Suggested further reading: N. Griffiths, “The Contexts of Acadian History” & “From Migrant to Acadian: A North American Border People”; Arseneault, “History of the Acadians”

Image: Depiction of Belle-Isle area just outside of Port Royal from French census of 1686

Music: “Danse des Sauvages,” from “Les Indes Galantes” by Rameau, performed by Les Arts Florissants

The riots, protests, and boycotts that broke out in North America in the wake of the Stamp Act were only one part of the mass crisis that beset Great Britain in the 1760s, as the discontented poor and middle classes rallied behind the ideals of liberty and freedom of speech, and around “radical Whig” politicians who challenged the power of the Crown and the London oligarchy – none more so than the infamous provocateur, satirist, and “rake,” John Wilkes, who ignited popular passions in London and the colonies and nearly burned down the ruling Whig establishment.

We examine a key specimen of a tiny glass cufflink jewel inscribed with the incendiary slogan, “Wilkes and Liberty,” which was rececntly discovered in an abandoned town in North Carolina, and which has touched off a wave of similar discoveries, revealing the importance of small, almost unnoticeable objects in the spread of discontent and radical rhetoric across the Atlantic in the years before the American Revolution.

Special thank you to: Charles Ewen, East Carolina University; Jim McKee, Brunswick Town / Fort Anderson State Historic Site; Addison Siemon

Please sign on as a patron, including to hear the previous installment of "History of the United States in 100 Objects" -- https://www.patreon.com/c/u5530632

For non-patrons, to hear all installments in this series on the history of the United States in 100 objects, you can purchase access through a single small payment: https://www.patreon.com/collection/2070759?view=condensed

My lecture on the Interregnum & Restoration, including the origins of the Whig party: https://www.patreon.com/posts/england-and-1650-42722389

My lecture on the Glorious Revolution and the beginning of the Whig ascendancy: https://www.patreon.com/posts/james-ii-and-88-73953596