Glenn Williams

2008 Pre-Collegiate Colonial Session I

• The American Identity in Women

  Glenn Williams
  7/10/08
  The American Identity in Women's Society

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Thu, 10 Jul 2008
  • The World Turned Upside Down

• The Value of My Freedom

  Glenn Williams
  7/9/08

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Wed, 09 Jul 2008
  • Revolutionary City 4

• The Dunmore Proclamation Class

  Glenn Williams
  7/8/08
  The Dunmore Proclamation Class

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Tue, 08 Jul 2008
  • Revolutionary City 3

• Different Lifestyles: Great Hopes Plantation v. The Randolph House

  Glenn Williams
  7/7/08
  Different Lifestyles: Great Hopes Plantation v. The Randolph House

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Mon, 07 Jul 2008
  • Revolutionary City 2

• Separated by Religion

  Glenn Williams
  7/3/08
  Separated by Religion
  As the lines of social class were beginning to blur in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, religion was the factor that would either unite or separate the colonists. Most colonists were Anglican and affiliated with the Church of England. However, over time the churches in the colonies became symbols of power for the wealthy. The gentry were using the church to impose its political, economical, and social class on the people of the colony. The wealthy controlled every aspect of the church and told the members of the Anglican Church were to sit, what to say, and where to look. As seen in Christ Church, the gentry used the pews as a system of separating the wealthy from the poor.

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Thu, 03 Jul 2008
  • Revolutionary City 1

• The Consumer Class

  Glenn Williams
  7/2/08
  The Class of Consumers

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Wed, 02 Jul 2008
  • Town and Country: Slavery & Food

• The Power and Meaning of the Gentry

  Glenn Williams
  7/1/08
  The Power and Meaning of the Gentry's Architecture

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Tue, 01 Jul 2008
  • River Gods: Lives of the Colonial Rich and Infamous

• Architeccture of the 18th Century Gentry

  Glenn Williams
  6/30/08
  Architecture of the 18th Century Gentry
  In the 1676, Nathanial Bacon's rebellion was directed at Governor Berkeley and the wealthy landowners who were oppressing the lower class. This rebellion was ironic because it helped create class division when it was attempting to separate it. Usually the wealthy men had large brick houses on their large plantations with many indentured servants. These large brick houses were built by the indentured servants and were usually in a Jacobean style or represented some simplistic style of architecture.
  After 1676, when the rebellion ended, slavery was the prominent outcome.

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Mon, 30 Jun 2008
  • Pride and Prejudice: The Houses and Churches of the Georgian Age

• The Impact of Discontent on the Class System: Before and After Bacon

  Glenn Williams
  6/27/08
  The Impact of Discontent on the Class System: Before and After Bacon's Rebellion
  In the seventeenth century, there was a limited class system. There were two types of labor: slaves and indentured servitude. Indentured servants would provide labor for their masters in exchange for living facilities. These facilities were usually not built to last. However, at Bacon's Castle, there is a slave house was to last. It had 2 brick chimneys, 3 front doors, a wooden floor that was raised off of the ground, windows, and no subterranean pit in which the salves would have been able to hid weapons or objects they stole.

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Fri, 27 Jun 2008
  • Coming Apart at the Seams

• The Labor Force in Jamestown

  Glenn Williams
  6/26/08

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Thu, 26 Jun 2008
  • Worlds Colliding: Race and Labor in the Early Chesapeake

• Jamestown, A Success?

  Glenn Williams
  6/25/08

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Wed, 25 Jun 2008
  • Outpost of Empire: What Really Happened at Jamestown?

• English Importance at Werowocimo

  Glenn Williams
  6/24/08

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Tue, 24 Jun 2008
  • The World of Powhatan

• The Moving of The Capital and The Wren Building

  Glenn Williams
  6/23/08
  The Wren Building Relating to the Capital

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Mon, 23 Jun 2008
  • Orientation

Fall 2009 History 216-01: From the American Revolution through the American Civil War

• The Honor of Bloody Secession

  The Civil War is the bloodiest war in United States History. At least over 618,000 people died. One of the most discussed questions concerning soldiers in the war was that of enlistment: why did they enlist? There are many answers to this question, and all of them relate back to the basic ideologies of both sides.
  The Confederates were thought to have been strong believers of honor and tradition. As the famous historian Joseph Glattharr stated in his work, General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse, the Southerners believed that "Northerners intended to force racial changes on them that were anathema to their fundamental beliefs." (Why they Enlisted, 32) Slavery was a critical part of the Southern economy and way of life.

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Fri, 20 Nov 2009
  • The Lives of Civil War Soldiers

• Were The Seven Days Battles the true end of the Civil War?

  All Historians agree that the Civil War did not end with the Seven Days Battles. However, the Seven Days Battles would have been the end of the war if not for the military mishaps and lack of communication and misfortune by both sides. The result of Seven Days Battles, which was a stalemate, gave the Union a need to shift to a 'hard' war. Lincoln observed the peremptory determination of the Confederate forces. Lincoln realized that he needed to modify the war aims of the Union if he wanted to end the war and preserve the union. Although The Seven Days Battles were thought to be a stalemate from a military perspective, the outcome resulted in a new approach by the Union that ultimately led to the collapse of the Confederacy.

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Fri, 16 Oct 2009
  • Lee Takes Command: The Seven Days Battles

• The New View of The Emancipation Proclamation

  The American Civil War is ordinarily thought to be fought by soldiers from the North and South who had a conflict regarding whether or not states had the right to break away from the union. However, the Civil War can also been seen as a giant slave revolt. Southern society forced the salves to be proactive in their own fight for freedom oppressing them to the point where slaves ran away and joined the Union Army. Roughly 100,000 slaves fought in the American Civil War. Emancipation was a pivotal issue in the Civil War that helped shape the outcome of the war and the future of our country.

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Fri, 09 Oct 2009
  • The Peninsula Campaign

• Somerset Place and Eighteenth Century Slave Society

  In the late eighteenth century slaves were becoming to become a part of the society in which they lived. Somerset Place in Creswell North Carolina was a distinguished plantation which helped add to the growing commodity culture of the century. Somerset had over 300 slaves and over 100,000 acres of land which produced crops, mainly cotton and corn. The influence of this plantation was immense. The marketplaces which plantations like Somerset helped sustain, gave slaves opportunities to freedom which they have never seen before.
  Material goods were becoming a necessary commodity which members of society could purchase.

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Fri, 02 Oct 2009
  • Somerset Place

• The Blending of Richmond Society

  Richmond was one of the most unique cities in early America. It was similar to big cities in the north except for a few differences. The first reason was unlike Philadelphia or New York, Richmond was located in the South. The second difference from Northern big cities was Richmond's dependency on slavery. The system on which Richmond relied on slavery is one that distinguishes it not only from the north but also made it an exception in the south.
  Richmond was unlike other southern cities because of the relations between members of all social classes. The city was based on the port industry from the James River.

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Fri, 25 Sep 2009
  • Antebellum Richmond

• Culture Transformation on The Western Frontier

  In the 1730's there was a new way of life in Virginia. Many Virginians were farmers who moved to America to escape persecution from their homelands. Later in America, there was a movement by many of these farmers to expand into the western frontier. This movement was sparked by Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis; Western expansion of the United States helped shape what we know today as American culture.
  Starting in the 1730's many farmers, merchants, and craftsmen moved to America to escape various types of persecution; especially religious. Germans, Irish, Scottish, English, and other Europeans left their homes to start a new life for their families in America. At the time, this was considered an extremely radical thought.

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Fri, 18 Sep 2009
  • Frontier Culture & Southern Honor

• Moticello: The Source of All Power

  Thomas Jefferson's Monticello house was fully populated and busy. He was in Virginia's gentry and had an important role in the founding of America. He believed that intellectual power was the source of all power. As a result he used his intellect to impose his authority in all aspects of his life especially Monticello.
  Thomas Jefferson is known for his successful writing of the constitution which helped found our country and continues to inspire its people to this day. Less well known is the success of his complex home at Monticello. In 1764 Thomas Jefferson inherits 3000 acres along the Rivana River. In 1770 Thomas Jefferson resided at Monticello and two years later, he marries Martha Wayles Skelton.

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Fri, 11 Sep 2009
  • Two Gentlemen from William & Mary

• The Symbol of Montpelier

  Montpelier was built by James Madison Sr. in 1763 and completed in 1765. His son added on to the house in 1797 and later went to become the fourth President of the United States. The house is of Georgian and Venetian architectural designs. Montpelier was a symbol of an elite social class. James and Dolly Madison used Montpelier and its resources to build up their family legacy as well as the entire history of America.
  Montpelier had an abundant number of resources for the intellect as well as for everyday life. There were numerous business located on the property, including barrel and carpentry shops. Inside of the house was James Madison's grand library filled with books and documents.

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Fri, 04 Sep 2009
  • Well, Hello Dolley!

• The Gentility of Moses Myers

  Roughly 5 years after the Bill of Religious Toleration was passed, a Jewish man by the name of Moses Myers built a house in Norfolk Virginia in 1792. Moses was a successful and a world renowned merchant as well as a counsel to many foreign countries. His exemplifies what could be done with religious freedom. Moses helped define gentility in late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. From the cards he used to play games with to the placement of halls and rooms in his house, Moses strove to put his refinement on display. With an exceptional determination to be recognized as genteel, he succeeded and was able to use his success to help support a society based on capitalism.

  . . . continue reading full entry »
  • Fri, 28 Aug 2009
  • The Merchant of Norfolk