Another booklet in this series contains a selected bibliography of works
on seventeenth-century Virginia. The interested student should consult
that booklet for a more detailed listing of works used in preparing this
account of Virginia in the period 1625-1660.
The best secondary account of Virginia in the period covered by this
booklet is Wesley Frank Craven, _The Southern Colonies in the
Seventeenth Century, 1607-1689_ (Baton Rouge, 1949). Craven skilfully
combines research in Virginia local history with a broad understanding
of developments in England and in other colonies. He points out the
social and political significance of many hitherto ignored aspects of
Virginia history. Other important works include Charles McLean Andrews,
_The Colonial Period of American History_, I (New Haven, 1934), Thomas
Jefferson Wertenbaker, _Virginia under the Stuarts_ (Princeton, 1914),
Herbert L. Osgood, _The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century_, 3
vols. (New York, 1904-1907), and Edward D. Neill, _Virginia Carolorum:
The Colony under the Rule of Charles the First and Second, A.D.
1625-A.D. 1685_ (Albany, 1886).
Any study of colonial Virginia must begin with a perusal of Philip
Alexander Bruce, _Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth
Century_, 2 vols. (New York, 1895), and his _Institutional History of
Virginia in the Seventeenth Century_, 2 vols. (New York, 1910). Bruce's
work is the indispensable platform upon which political and social
accounts of the period must rest. Morgan Poitiaux Robinson, _Virginia
Counties: Those Resulting from Virginia Legislation_ [Virginia State
Library, Bulletin, IX, Nos. 1-3] (Richmond, 1916), is a carefully
documented study of the growth of Virginia as evidenced by the formation
of its counties. Maps showing the area of settlement at frequent
intervals give a graphic account of the nature and extent of Virginia's
expansion.
There are a number of local histories chronicling the growth of
particular regions in Virginia. An outstanding local history is Fairfax
Harrison, _Landmarks of Old Prince William_ (Richmond, 1924), which
analyzes the growth of settlement in the Potomac River valley. Histories
of the Eastern Shore are numerous: Susie M. Ames, _Studies of the
Virginia Eastern Shore in the Seventeenth Century_ (Richmond, 1940),
Jennings Cropper Wise, _Ye Kingdome of Accawmacke, or the Eastern Shore
of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century_ (Richmond, 1911), and Ralph T.
Whitelaw, _Virginia's Eastern Shore_, 2 vols. (Richmond, 1951).
A reading of but a few works in Virginia history will be enough to show
that the interpretations and conclusions of the authors must be accepted
with extreme caution. There are two conflicting interpretations for
nearly every important event in Virginia's history. History may be
defined as the attempt to state what happened in the past on the basis
of inadequate evidence existing in the present. The reader should keep
always in mind that historical writing is largely a series of guesses
more or less intelligently elaborated.
Much of the original manuscript material upon which an account of the
period must be based has been published in the following sources:
William Waller Hening, _The Statutes at Large; being a Collection of all
the Laws of Virginia_, Vol. I (Richmond, 1809), H. R. McIlwaine,
_Minutes of the Council and General Court of Colonial Virginia,
1622-1632, 1670-1676_ (Richmond, 1924), H. R. McIlwaine, _Journals of
the House of Burgesses of Virginia, 1619-1658/59_ (Richmond, 1914), Nell
Marion Nugent, _Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land
Patents and Grants, 1623-1666_ (Richmond, 1934), _Virginia Magazine of
History and Biography_ (Richmond, 1893 to present), _William and Mary
Quarterly_ (Williamsburg, 1892 to present), _The Southern Literary
Messenger_, January 1845 (documents on the recall of Governor Berkeley
by the Burgesses and Council of Virginia in 1660), and W. Noel
Sainsbury, _Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1574-1660,
Preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty's Public Record
Office_ (London, 1860). The essential guide to most of this material is
Earl G. Swern, _Virginia Historical Index_, 2 vols. (Roanoke, 1934).
The most important unpublished manuscript materials of the period are
the county records, some of which are complete from the earliest period
of settlement. Originals or transcripts of the county records are
available in the Virginia State Library, Richmond. Another important
source of unpublished manuscript material for the period is the
"Virginia, Book No. 43" manuscript in the Library of Congress,
Washington, D. C., which contains numerous commissions and proclamations
for the period 1626-1634. Among the Virginia papers of the Barons of
Sackville, Knole Park, are a few documents relating to the period which
have not been printed either in the documentary articles in the
_American Historical Review_, XXVII (1922), Nos. 3-4, or elsewhere. They
are now available on microfilm in the Library of Congress, having been
photographed by the British Manuscripts Project of the American Council
of Learned Societies.
Important unpublished dissertations include James Kimbrough Owen, "The
Virginia Vestry: A Study in the Decline of a Ruling Class" (Ph. D.
dissertation, Princeton University, 1947), and Edna Jensen, "Sir John
Harvey: Governor of Virginia" (M. A. thesis, University of Virginia,
1950).
[Illustration: Virginia Farrer Map of Virginia, 1651, showing common
geographical misconceptions of the period.]