Lisa Kepple

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

• Patrick Henry's Virginia

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  • Wed, 21 Oct 2009
  • Patrick Henry’s Virginia: Deference or Democracy?

• Rosewell and Christ Church

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

• Bacon's Rebellion

  Life in mid-17th century Virginia was difficult and fleeting, which contributed to the social unrest that characterized the period. According to Rutman, more than 50% of children experienced the loss of a parent by age 13, which resulted in a society composed of complicated horizontal family structures. Instead of several generations of a single family living together, a household would often be comprised of step-parents and step-children from several different marriages. Orphans were left to the care of step-siblings, family friends, or godparents upon their parents' death. Wills were drafted so as to carefully guard the inheritances of young offspring, who were then eligible to claim their property in their late teens or early 20s.

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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

• St. Mary's City, Maryland

  A striking difference I noticed between the Jamestown settlement and St. Mary's City was the nature of the relationship between English settlers and local Native American populations. It seems that the situation in Maryland was far less violent than it was in Virginia. For example, major events of the early settlement of Jamestown were Native American attacks that occurred in 1622 and again in 1644. In contrast, Maryland settlers bargained with Native Americans when they arrived in 1634 to acquire part of an Indian village for temporary accommodation. According to the museum in St. Mary's, the Yaocomaco Indians taught settlers to work the land to produce food, and they enjoyed a peaceful relationship.

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

• Jamestown, Take 2

  It was interesting to wander around in the model Native American Village in Jamestown. The dwelling places and other features are based on archeological finds as well as the drawings of John White. For example, the dancing posts, which were tall wooden structures with carved faces placed in a circle, might have appeared only as stains in the layers of dirt unearthed by archeologists. It would have been difficult to interpret their meaning if not for White's sketch (on display in the museum) of Native Americans dancing around the poles. John White captured scenes of Native Americans making and using tools, such as the fishing weir, which are extremely helpful in understanding their lifestyle.

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  • Wed, 02 Sep 2009
  • Worlds Colliding

• Jamestown

  Archeologists and historians working on Jamestown are attempting to answer the most obvious of questions: what happened there in the early days of settlement? We know for a fact that life was exceedingly difficult for colonists, and that mortality rates were very high. Piecing together archeological finds and written records has provided some insight into conditions of life at that time.

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