In Old Virginia
Slavery, Farming, and Society in the Journal of John Walker
Published on 7. February 2002
Book
Hardback
336 pages
978-0-8018-6725-5 (ISBN)
Description
In 1824, John Walker purchased a 500-acre farm in King and Queen County, Virginia, and began working it with a dozen slaves. The son of a local politician and planter who grew tobacco, Walker lost status when he became a devout Methodist, raised wheat, and treated his slaves like brothers and sisters. He also kept a detailed and fascinating journal. Drawing on this forty-three-year chronicle, Claudia L. Bushman provides a richly illuminating study, a microhistory that is rewarding to read. Walker sets aside most of the "Old South planter" stereotype. He sold wheat in Baltimore and Norfolk and invested in railroad stock, and yet he grew, spun, and wove cotton for clothing, tanned leather, and made shoes. He avoided lavish creature comforts in favor of purchasing the latest farm equipment. So far from losing out to soil exhaustion, he experimented with improved farming methods, nourished his land, and kept his yields high. Walker's journal describes the legal cases he tenaciously pursued, records devotion to the local Methodist church, and explains his practice of Thomsonian medicine on slaves and family members alike.
He provides insight into women's work and lays out the drama of blacks and whites living in close intimacy and constant fear. Walker humbly referred to himself as "a poor illiterate worm," but his diary dramatically captures the life of a small planter in antebellum Virginia.
He provides insight into women's work and lays out the drama of blacks and whites living in close intimacy and constant fear. Walker humbly referred to himself as "a poor illiterate worm," but his diary dramatically captures the life of a small planter in antebellum Virginia.
Reviews / Votes
Claudia L. Bushman tells Walker's life story with verve and sympathy, tempered by evident distaste for the arbitrary power of the patriarch-slaveholder. Perhaps the author's most impressive accomplishment is reducing the journal entries of over forty years to a balanced and lucid account of Walker's life. -- Robert McColley American Historical Review This very readable book will surely become a 'must read' in agricultural history surveys both for the information it conveys and the questions it raises. -- Connie L. Lester Agricultural History In Old Virginia is microhistory at its best-illuminating, relevant, and highly readable. Bushman paints a vivid portrait of agrarian life in the Old South... [Her] monograph deserves a wide and attentive audience. -- Michael R. McCarthy History Bushman skillfully mines this rich vein of material to uncover a vivid portrait of antebellum farm life. Choice A valuable edition on agricultural practices; at the same time, it explores aspects of rural culture that have not been the subject of sufficient study... Claudia Bushman meticulously teases out a great deal about the roles of slaves and women, ideas about health, agricultural innovation, and community structure. -- Ellen Eslinger Virginia Magazine of History and Biography Readers will appreciate and enjoy Bushman's ingenuity and skill in crafting her study of antebellum Virginia. By comparing Walker's life and circumstances with those of his family, neighbors, and others, the author reveals important and ever-evolving social changes in southern society. -- Jeremy Boggs North Carolina Historical Review Bushman's detailed summaries of Walker's journal are filled with revealing details of day-to-day life in this small corner of rural Virginia. -- John T. Schlotterbeck Journal of the Early Republic A close and careful analysis... Walker's diary is an invaluable source for understanding the culture of antebellum Virginia and how one of the region's large grain growers adjusted to rising and falling crop prices, personal and family crises, and the Civil War... A uniquely lay-centered interpretation of the [Methodist] movement. -- John Fea Religious Studies Review Gives us a sense of both an earnest, if only moderately successful, small planter in antebellum Virginia and a region in the midst of relative decline. -- Peter A. Coclanis Journal of American History 2003 A compelling story. -- G. Terry Sharrer Journal of Southern History 2003More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore, MD
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Illustrations
7 s/w Zeichnungen, 4 s/w Photographien bzw. Rasterbilder
7 Line drawings, black and white; 4 Halftones, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
603 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8018-6725-5 (9780801867255)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Claudia L. Bushman teaches history and American studies at Columbia University. She is the author and editor of seven books, including Mormon Sisters: Women in Early Utah; America Discovers Columbus: How an Italian Explorer Became an American Hero; and "A Good Poor Man's Wife," Being a Chronicle of Harriet Hanson Robinson and Her Family in Nineteenth-Century New England.
Content
Contents: Preface - "in many respects a peculiar man" Acknowledgments Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION "I record this for the benefit of my children" Chapter 2: LAND AND FAMILY "writing off a kind of History of my ancestry" Chapter 3: HUSBANDRY "began to plant corn" Chapter 4: AGRICULTURE "an experiment to see which way will produce the best" Chapter 5: ECONOMY "Income fell short this year $156.371/2" Chapter 6: MASTERY "My Servant Jack ran away from me Wednesday" Chapter 7: HUSWIFERY "the first piece of cloth woven here" Chapter 8: COMMUNITY "the rich nabobs... make us poor people give them ease" Chapter 9: METHODISM "I am yet striving to get to glory" Chapter 10: MEDICINE "he would have been dead before this but for the Tomsonisn practice" Chapter 11: LEGALITIES "But for my forgiving disposition I would sue indite and prosecute him again" Chapter 12: LOCUST GROVE "the greatest crop of wheat ever made in Locust Grove" Chapter 13: TWILIGHT "thine poor insignificant helpless illiterate worm" Chapter 14: WAR " a most dreadfull and distressing afflicted state" Chapter 15: CONCLUSION "I am so reduced in circumstances" APPENDIX A - GENEALOGICAL CHARTS APPENDIX B - THE SLAVE POPULATIONS AT CHATHAM HILL AND LOCUST GROVE NOTES INDEX