Lisa Meninga

Fall 2009 History 216-02 From the Founding of Jamestown through the American Revolution

• Gents...Show your wealth!!

  Families during the 17th century were in many different social classes. There were the Gentry, Middleclass, and lower class to name a few. During this time, individuals would want to show their neighbors their wealth, which also showed what their standing was in society. The gentry class expanded upon showing their wealth by building their large plantation homes along the riverfront. This was because the river was the main way of going places that was also quick. Some plantations that are built along the riverfront are Shirley, Westover, and Powhatan.
  Plantations like Shirley and Westover are still functioning plantations today. Not only is the land still used, but there are also people living in those plantations to this day.

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  • Wed, 14 Oct 2009
  • Pride & Prejudice: The Rise of the Georgian Elite

• who built the courthouses and churches

  During the eighteenth century, courthouses and churches were not the only places that brought in the public. Places like Roswell were also landmarks that people wanted to visit the Page family. The families that built places like Roswell and Corotoman were the in the gentry class and showed others their wealth by the places they built like their mansion as a house. The gentry had the power, and it was seen in every day life throughout the town.
  Even though Roswell today is only see as ruins, you can see how a house like that would be considered to be among the gentry class during earlier times through pictures. However, to us, the upper class has the exquisite houses that have large room and everything is of the finest available.

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  • Wed, 07 Oct 2009
  • River Gods & Culture Wars: The Ruins of Rosewell & Christ Church

• Life during the time of Bacon's Rebellion.

  Bacon's castle was built by Arthur Allen, but when he built it, his home was not known to the public as Bacon's Castle. Even though Nathaniel Bacon never resided at the Allen home, some of his followers did during the Bacon Rebellion against the Native Americans and Berkeley. The tobacco industry was worsening because of the war that they were fighting at the time with the Dutch who usually traded their tobacco product. However, like many Rebellions during that time, the Rebellion died with the death of its leader.
  Lifestyle back during 17th century was quite different than it is today. Young men around twenty years of age were given the responsibility that men in their 40's are given today.

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  • Wed, 23 Sep 2009
  • After the Fall: Virginia from the Dissolution of the Company through the Era of Bacon's Rebellion

• How much have we changed?

  Since the founding of Jamestown there has been, one thought going through people's minds and that is how to improve their life, whether through wealth or opportunity. When the English settlers came to the New World, they were focused on improving their lives. There was a similar view of the settlers who came to Plymouth, though they also were looking for religious freedom. As the years progressed, citizens of the US have constantly moved to improve their lives, whether it was to strike it rich in California, or go to school to get the highest paying job in the country. People are being motivated by their own success, improving their well being. Breen addressed this in her article "Looking out for Number One.

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  • Wed, 09 Sep 2009
  • Founded Wholly on Smoke: The Tobacco Culture of the Early Chesapeake

• The early settlers have tobacco!!

  Ready, aim, fire!! As I was exploring James Fort I was looking at the types of guns that the settlers had and they were fascinating. They had these muskets, and canons similar to the ones that they used at Jamestown fort, which showed me how the early settlers lived life similar to how we live today but without the technology, how society was run, or clothing. What is amazing to realize what the early settlers at Jamestown and Jamestown Fort could do without the technology advances that we have today in the 21st century. They built building, barriers, and everything that one would need to survive. A key factor to the success of these early settlers was how they made a living, which was primarily through tobacco.

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  • Wed, 02 Sep 2009
  • Worlds Colliding

• Welcome to Jamestown.

  Traveling across the country is a very exhausting activity to perform, you have to remember everything and make sure you have a lot planned out. By the time you get there you're ecstatic to see your destination yet too exhausted to enjoy it and you just want to sleep. Our traveling experiences must be similar, yet less pronounced when the first English settlers made it to Jamestown, but the first thing they did was set up a barrier so that the Spanish could not get in.
  Coming into Jamestown island and looking around I can see what would make the first settlers to the new world want to settle there. There are many trees, very prosperous and would look like the ideal place to live.

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  • Wed, 26 Aug 2009
  • Outpost of Empire—What really happened at Jamestown

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

• The forests of death

  When you walk through the forest the first thing that you think of is not about battles, but rather about what nice scenery it is. When walking through the woods at Malvern Hill makes it hard to picture this luscious land to once be a battlefield where many men lost their lives. For me especially, seeing places that are now used for conventional uses like farmland make it harder to picture it being the location of a great battle between Confederate and Union forces. However, that is what many of the battlefields of then are today.

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  • Fri, 16 Oct 2009
  • Lee Takes Command: The Seven Days Battles

• Waterfront battle: here come the ironclad ships

  The Civil War brought about many different battles between Union and Confederate troops both by land and by sea. There were battles between the ironclad ships, battles in these earthworks places, battles on the battlefield, etc. Everything that occurred during the years of the Civil War affected the war in some way or another.
  The Earthworks location that dealt with the Battle of Williamsburg influenced the war more on the Confederate side. Confederates would use their slave labor to create these trenches where the troops would troops would hide, and when their enemy would travel by they would attack them when they least expected it.

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  • Fri, 09 Oct 2009
  • The Peninsula Campaign

• slaves did more than we realize

  One common factor that seems to be among plantation owners is that they wrote down everything that took place there. Josiah Collins owned Somerset plantation and when it first began it was used as a business, but by 1786, it was an active plantation. In fact, it was the third largest plantation of the time. The plantation was 100,000 acres long, and being next to the river, which the Collins owned, was swamp farmland. It would not be until later that people would realize how valuable swampland was for agriculture. Over the years, Somerset plantation would have been the home to 800 different slaves, including men, women, and children. When Josiah Collins III took over the plantation in 1829, he also moved onto the plantation.

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  • Fri, 02 Oct 2009
  • Somerset Place

• What happened in Richmond!!

  Politics seemed to be the center of life in Richmond after the capital was moved there in 1780. John Wickham, and John Marshall who were two prestigious gentlemen living in Richmond were involved in the treason trial for Aaron Burr. Furthermore, Richmond was the place where the sentence was carried out for 27 of the black men that participated in Gabriel's Rebellion. However, there was a theatre in the city as well, so not everything that took place in Richmond coincided with politics. Work took place along the James River, and close to that was the capital where most of the politics took place.
  One of the main places of politics was with the trial of Aaron Burr who was being accused of treason.

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  • Fri, 25 Sep 2009
  • Antebellum Richmond

• Life better in America!!

  If you were living back in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, you would have no chance for success or owning anything if you were a daughter or the younger son in your family. In turn, you probably feel like you have no nope, no chance for anything good turning out good in your life. But wait, you have a chance for something in this New World. There is land and an opportunity for a chance at living a better life than you are living now in your home country. The only question is: will you take it?
  This scenario confronted many people living in England at the time. Many took up the opportunity so that they and their families would have a chance at a better life.

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  • Fri, 18 Sep 2009
  • Frontier Culture & Southern Honor

• Founding Fathers Jefferson and Monroe: What they did to help form our nation to what it is today.

  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
  created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator
  with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are
  Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

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  • Fri, 11 Sep 2009
  • Two Gentlemen from William & Mary

• Politics: What all was involved?

  "You have the right to bear arms," "you have the right of freedom of speech," "you have the right to a fair trial." These rights and seven others like it are considered today to be the Bill of Rights. Today we have these sorts of rights thanks to James Madison. Madison introduced these rights after the Constitution had already been passed, and he hoped that North Carolina and Rhode Island would rejoin the union. Politics were an important aspect of daily life in Washington City. Women also participated in politics, it was not limited to just the men of the city. In fact, many thought a person better if he brought along his wife to their meetings.

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  • Fri, 04 Sep 2009
  • Well, Hello Dolley!

• Jane Austen and society during the time of Moses and Elizabeth Myers.

  In Jane Austen's book Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth Bennett discusses over the characteristics of being an accomplished woman with Mr. Darcy and company. During the time of the Myer's being genteel or accomplished was what was expected of the upper class, not so today. Like in Jane Austen's literature and books, the upper class showed their wealth through throwing parties, what their house looked like, and how they conducted themselves in society. Herman explains that people like the Myers largely depended upon their social status, which was seen by the outward appearance of their house and what happened inside. Parties, food, the decoration inside the house showed their guests where they were in society.

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  • Fri, 28 Aug 2009
  • The Merchant of Norfolk