| INTRODUCTION | |
| 1. Virginia During the Golden Age | [xiii] |
| 2. Philip Fithian and the Carter Family | [xxv] |
| JOURNAL AND LETTERS OF PHILIP FITHIAN | [3] |
| APPENDIX | [221] |
| NOTES | [237] |
| INDEX | [249] |
CHAPTER ONE
Virginia During The Golden Age
In the "Golden Age," or half-century immediately preceding the American Revolution, a remarkable civilization reached its zenith in the broad coastal plain of eastern Virginia. Gradually, during a century of colonization and expansion, the heavily wooded tidewater had been converted into a land of settled order and accumulated wealth. Vast estates had been carved out of the wilderness and large plantations were everywhere the rule.
Embraced by numerous arms of the Chesapeake and covered by a network of wide rivers and creeks, this sylvan Venice abounded in safe and convenient water routes. Pressing through the mouths of the deep estuaries, the ocean tides reached the "fall-line," beyond which the streams were inaccessible to shipping owing to the rapids. Ocean vessels could penetrate to the plantations in every part of the lowlands and carry cargoes thence straight to the wharves of London and the outports. Despite the distance and rigors of the voyage, the colonists of the Tidewater had maintained a constant intercourse with the mother country from the time of their earliest settlement.
The hope had long persisted that this coastal plain might yield the ores, timber, ship stores and other products England needed, and for which she then largely depended on foreign potentates. Lacking an ample supply of cheap labor, however, colonial industries could not compete with well-established ones of the Old World. For well over a century tobacco proved the one commodity which the colony could profitably produce for the home market in large quantities.
A notable result of the method of tobacco cultivation was a rapid depletion of the soil. Intent only upon reaping quick returns, men customarily neglected the most ordinary precautions to preserve fertility. Since the tobacco plant required the richest loam to produce the leaf in its perfection, fields were usually abandoned after three or more crops had been harvested, and "new grounds" were cleared. Thus there developed an ever recurring need for fresh lands.
Under so wasteful a system, Virginians had soon realized the necessity of acquiring many times the quantity of land they could cultivate at any one time. Farseeing men, realizing a day would come when fertile soil could no longer be had for a song, wished also to provide sufficient elbow room for their children at a future day. The appreciation in land values in a new country provided a further incentive to the accumulation of large holdings. As a result, enterprising persons everywhere competed to secure the best tracts.