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.ÿþ.Prologuelate in the 1730s William Proctor arrived at Westover, the James River planta-tion of William Byrd II.Proctor, a Scot, had been recruited by Byrd s Englishmerchant contacts to assume at an annual salary of £20 sterling the positionsof librarian and tutor at Westover.1For William Proctor, young, single, and male, England s ancientest, as wellas most profitable Colony offered a matchless opportunity to fulfill ambi-tion.2 Westover afforded an exceptional vantage point from which Proctorcould take his measure of colonial Virginia society.From the great house hecould observe the operation of the tobacco economy, the varied work of thelarge slave labor force, and the life the slaves made for themselves in their quar-ters.There, too, he could converse with overseers of the outlying farms andwith artisans maintaining and improving buildings and equipment and prepar-ing plantation products for shipment abroad.He could witness the unloadingof crates and barrels coming from England and Scotland in return for ship-ments of tobacco and containing commodities that both sustained and elabo-rated the genteel society fashioned by Byrd and his peers: tailored suits andgowns, shoes and stockings, farming tools and household implements, cloth,buttons and buckles, fine chinaware and silver, wine and brandy, books andnewspapers.Neighboring farmers came to buy, borrow, or beg seed, tools, andsupplies, to get advice on treating the fevers, agues, and fluxes that yearly laidthem low, to compare notes on the effects of a recent hailstorm, on methodsof fertilizing the soil, or on the most recent happenings at the meeting of thecounty court.As Virginia custom and fashion dictated, there came also an un-ceasing stream of guests from among the colony s leading families drawn byWestover s proximity to Williamsburg, and the social and political eminenceof its master.1 [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]
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.ÿþ.Prologuelate in the 1730s William Proctor arrived at Westover, the James River planta-tion of William Byrd II.Proctor, a Scot, had been recruited by Byrd s Englishmerchant contacts to assume at an annual salary of £20 sterling the positionsof librarian and tutor at Westover.1For William Proctor, young, single, and male, England s ancientest, as wellas most profitable Colony offered a matchless opportunity to fulfill ambi-tion.2 Westover afforded an exceptional vantage point from which Proctorcould take his measure of colonial Virginia society.From the great house hecould observe the operation of the tobacco economy, the varied work of thelarge slave labor force, and the life the slaves made for themselves in their quar-ters.There, too, he could converse with overseers of the outlying farms andwith artisans maintaining and improving buildings and equipment and prepar-ing plantation products for shipment abroad.He could witness the unloadingof crates and barrels coming from England and Scotland in return for ship-ments of tobacco and containing commodities that both sustained and elabo-rated the genteel society fashioned by Byrd and his peers: tailored suits andgowns, shoes and stockings, farming tools and household implements, cloth,buttons and buckles, fine chinaware and silver, wine and brandy, books andnewspapers.Neighboring farmers came to buy, borrow, or beg seed, tools, andsupplies, to get advice on treating the fevers, agues, and fluxes that yearly laidthem low, to compare notes on the effects of a recent hailstorm, on methodsof fertilizing the soil, or on the most recent happenings at the meeting of thecounty court.As Virginia custom and fashion dictated, there came also an un-ceasing stream of guests from among the colony s leading families drawn byWestover s proximity to Williamsburg, and the social and political eminenceof its master.1 [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]