Customer Reviews

Bound Away: Virginia and the Westward Movement

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What an excellent book! The last I knew Fischer was working on a big book concerning plantation life in the south and I assume this is a book that developed out of the research he is doing for that book. This book concerns migration from Britain to Virginia, migration within Virginia and then migration from Virginia to other states. Most of the book deals with the 1700's up until just before the Civil War. I can't do justice to all the interesting information that is in this book during the course of a brief review. The authors explain how people migrated from different parts of Britain and settled in different areas of Virginia. For example, people from Northern England and the Scottish border area tended to settle in southern Virginia. They brought their customs with them which tended to make southern Virginia different from other areas settled by different people. For instance, the Tidewater area was settled by younger sons of the English nobility. These people came over to Virginia because under English law they were not going to inherit estates back home as the first born sons had that right. Different speech patterns developed in different areas as well as different ways of cooking and different forms of architecture, etc. The book also deals extensively with the lives of slaves and the institution of slavery and how the mass migrations out of Virginia involved many, many slaves being taken to other states with their masters or being sold. When the Virginia tobacco based economy began to falter in the late 1700's the sale of slaves to settlers in other states was a great source of income to the white people in Virginia who had fallen on hard times. Many famous people had ancestral origins in Virginia, such as Lincoln, Henry Clay, Stephen Austin, Sam Houston and General Patton amongst countless others. There are many firsthand accounts quoted in the book from the settlers so you get a real feel for the times and there are a number of wonderful black and white photos, also. This short book is packed with fascinating details. Thank you Mr. Fischer and Mr. Kelly.

Fischer wrote _Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America,_ which is one of the best works published in several decades in comparative and local U.S. history, and in many ways this is a continuation of the "Virginia" section of that book. Which is a bit surprising, since the author is a New Englander and previously showed considerable preference for the folkways of Massachusetts over those in the South. Since I have numerous forebears in Virginia, I was particularly interested in the first three chapters: "Migration to Virginia," "Migration in Virginia," and "Migration beyond Virginia." All of those apply to my people and Fischer's coverage of the in-through-and-out process is first-rate. As before, he's an old-fashioned historian, spending a lot of time describing the concrete experiences of particular individuals and families, not spinning out historiographical theory. This is a must-read for anyone interested in Virginia's first couple of centuries.

After reading Albion's Seed I was eager to read more about the English folkways. This book expands on that with information about German folkways and African folkways. This books gives a sense the people that expanded westward. There is also a philosophical current about the nature of historial inquiry. He addresses various ideas about frontiers and shows that the process of expansion is not open to one-size-fits all explainations. Though Fischer depricates purely materialist explainations of history, the interplay between the cultural values of the Virginians and the physical limitations of the land is a compelling explaination of the westward expansion.

A fascinating history of migration to, within, and from Virginia, the Old Dominion. The "to" begins with the English colonization at Roanoke (the lost colony) and Jamestown. "Within" is movement of colonists to various parts of the region, including the tidewater, piedmont, southside, northern neck, and "the valley" (Shenandoah). And "from" is the movement of Virginians to all parts of the country, south, north, but mainly west. What happened to Virginia, the most populous and prosperous of states during the early U.S. Republic? Why the decline after four of the first five presidents were Virginians (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe)? Part of the reason was a great migration west, both northwest and southwest. Why? The land was depleted from generations of farming, and there wasn't enough land for the growing population. But Virginia's emigrants and their descendants had great impacts on other territories and U.S. history: Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton, William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor, Stephen Austin and Sam Houston. The authors use Turner's theory of the frontier as the backdrop for a vivid portrayal of Virginia and U.S. history. One weakness is a section of name-dropping about now unknown families who migrated west. Other than that, a lively story recommended for those interested in Virginia and U.S. history. Plenty of pictures and maps--the book accompanied an exhibit at the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond.

Bound Away by Brandeis University History Professor David Hackett Fischer and James C. Kelley of the Virginia Historical Society is the history of three migrations: to Virginia, within Virginia, and from Virginia.

The first of these migrations, to Virginia from Britain, summarizes Fischer's earlier book, Albion's Seed (see my review) which describes the settlement of Virginia by Anglican-Royalist-Cavaliers from the south and west of England during the period of Cromwell's Puritan Protectorate (1649-1660). This migration pattern continued after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 under the guidance of Sir William Berkley, the governor of Virginia who actively recruited members of this aristocratic group and worked to purge Virginia of Puritans, Quakers and other dissenting groups.

Migration within Virginia resulted in the emergence of the distinctive subcultures of Virginia's regions: the original Tidewater settlements which expanded to the Northern Neck (between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers), Southside (the south-central area bordering on North Carolina), the Eastern Shore (across the Chesapeake Bay), Hampton Roads (the maritime region at the mouth of the Chesapeake), the Piedmont (from the fall line to the Blue Ridge mountains), and the Shenandoah Valley. This period was characterized by increased diversity in the population brought on in part by the Toleration Act in Britain which extended toleration (but not public office) to religious dissenters. Prominent among the Virginians were the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians and various German protestant sects.

Migration from Virginia was already well underway at the time of Virginia ascendancy as first among equal states, the Virginia "Dynasty" of presidents from Jefferson through Monroe, 1801- 1825. Virginia's economy was largely dependent on agriculture, especially tobacco and corn. As the soil became exhausted and other states developed into competitors for these products, Virginia became an exporter of people. Free whites who chose to emigrate to the new southern states, the southern parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and even farther west. Black slaves were sold to plantations throughout the South while the small number of free blacks emigrated to northern states. Both these migrations dispersed elements of Virginia's cultural traditions throughout significant parts of the country, excepting the northern tier of states.

Throughout the book, a recurring theme is the reevaluation of historian Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis. In 1893, Turner first suggested that the American frontier was a major determining factor in the development of the United States. He proposed that the availability of free land on the frontier promoted the development of freedom and openness in government and society. In addition, he cited the frontier as a melting pot of different cultures in which a new and unique American culture was created by the merging of old cultures in a new environment. Fischer and Kelly take issue with this thesis, pointing out the major influence of cultural continuity in the western migration of Virginians. They also cite the work of other historians, notably the Russian V. O. Kliuchevsky, who cited the availability of free land at the frontier of Tsarist Russia as a factor contributing to the development of governmental and social institutions that were neither free nor open.

Bound Away was particularly interesting to me as a person who has lived most of his life in Virginia, but might not have the same appeal to others. For that reason, I'd recommend Fischer's Albion's Seed as a starting point for exploring migration and cultural continuity in America.

As a continuation of the ground-breaking Albion's Seed, this book is a mixed success. On the one hand, it follows the four threads of Albion's Seed (Cavaliers, Puritans, Quakers, Border) from old Virginia to the new frontiers. The demographic information is interesting and sometimes surprising. On the other hand, the book relies too often on biographies of a few Virginians and is very weak in explaining the massive migration to Ohio in the decades before the Civil War. It is much stronger in following Virginians to the south than to the west and upper midwest, even though Ohio was a major resettlement area. I have to wonder whether this is because Virginia migrants were not as culturally dominant when they moved to Ohio and other more northern states - were they absorbed in the Puritan-Quaker flow? My own Virginia ancestors made just such moves - from the frontier into Ohio from 1818 to 1850, and I had hoped to learn more about this flow. Still, Bound Away presents a strong challenge to the Turner thesis that the frontier was the source of American democracy and renewal. It is a worthwhile study of an important subject.

I was terribly disappointed in this book, not because it was bad or not enlightening, but really because I had such high expectations for it. You see, Dr. Fischer was a professor of mine at Brandeis, many years ago, by far my best & most personally influential professor of either my college or grad school years. So I eagerly, too eagerly in this case, await each volume he produces. This book has alot of great information in it, and it is beautifully produced, with well chosen, well reproduced paintings, maps & photographs throughout. But in narrative style, it is sorely lacking. If you are looking for traditional narrative history, this is not it. If you are looking mainly for sparklingly new insights about the history of the colonies & the early-republic, this is a great place to find those (as long as you don't mind sloughing through the text).

I really like this book, and I believe it is a well-assembled companion to the Virginia Historical Society exhibit. What I can't get over, however, is Fischer's thesis: American culture (in this case, specifically in Virginia) is an amalgamation of British folk culture transplanted to fresh land. Germans, French, and all other ethnic groups who came to the colonies all assimilated the dominant mish-mash of British folkways. I'm sorry, but I just don't buy it.

I'm a firm believer that emigrants from the "Old World" considered it just that, and became defined by what they cast off or left behind, not by what they brought along. People came here to escape their conditions "at home," or they were forced to come here as indentured servants. Few, except the tiny sliver of elites (i.e. Byrd, Carter, Lee), had a desire to emulate their homeland. Those who did we now call "Loyalists." So Dr. Fischer and I must agree to disagree, but that doesn't dilute the depth of his historical analysis or the important contribution this book makes to Atlantic Studies. I guess I'm still falling back on Turner's idea that, as people migrated West, they did so as an intentional act of repudiation and renewal, and they were more shaped by what they found than by what they brought. Sacramento, California (or Roanoke, Virginia) is not a bit like Norwich, England, I would say.

Much as Wood's, Radicalism of the American Revolution is a further study of Bailyn's Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, so is this book a further study of Greene's Pursuits of Happiness: The author is attempting to add further depth to a well-explored topic with some success, but also with some contrivances. I know that sounds terribly arrogant, but I just can't help seeing the Graduate School folkways at work here!

One thing I really like about this book is that it is well illustrated, with maps, artwork and diagrams that bring the words to life. The Introduction is the best presentation of conflicting frontier theories that I've yet read. This is an academic text easily handled by any general reader with basic groundwork in colonial history.

If you know a lot of facts about your immigrant ancestors in the 1600s and 1700s, and where they originally came from, this book may very well give you some insight into their lives as they moved to, thru and beyond Virginia. Virginia was the gateway to many states, north, west and south. This is the story of the settlement of a good bit of this country and it is EXCEPTIONALLY well done. The sources of information are identified in an extensive bibliography and the author presents his analysis of the information contained therein. This book presents a whole new framework for studying your immigrant ancestors.

This very interesting book takes an in-depth look at Virginia history and how migration from Virginia affected the states west of Virginia. It's of particular interest to Virginians and to anyone studying the spread of attitudes in the USA.

Although the book began as a catalog for an exhibition, it expanded into a rich social history. The authors argue that long-accepted theories put forth by Frederick Jackson Turner on freedom and the frontier are not compatible with the facts of Virginia history.

The story of the spread of slavery presents some fascinating "what-ifs." Large numbers of Virginians who were uncomfortable with slavery left the state for areas where that unjust institution was not accepted, making it difficult for a series of anti-slavery proposals to pass. Imagine how different the American Civil War would have been if Virginia had eliminated slavery. The state might not voted to secede; Lee might not have fought against the Union.

My only criticism is that the argument with Turner gets a bit tiresome by the concluding chapter, but on the whole, this is an extremely interesting work. There are numerous footnotes which are well-organized.