© Bill White.
I have been thinking about this project for a long time.
Over the years I collected stories about Virginians in the 1760-1790 period – the era of our American Revolution. While these stories all relate to the Revolution, there is not always a clear narrative thread between them. Taken together they may seem disjointed and erratic. I have struggled and failed to figure out how I might present these in larger narrative. The semiquincentennial, however, seems like the right time to try and get some of these stories out. I hope that a blog format will be conducive to the array of stories I have in mind.
Historians are the ones who construct the narrative connections between stories and they have the benefit of hindsight. Virginians at the time did not see clearly see the interrelations and connections we construct today. They certainly did not have the advantage of understanding how the story of their actions and choices would turn out. They – like us – made choices sometimes influenced by global considerations, sometimes in an inter colonial context, at times focused on Virginia concerns, but more often were spurred by community issues, the situation of their own family unit, kinship relations, and close relationships. Sometimes all these factors worked in concert with each other. Often, they did not. Eighteenth century lives were as chaotic, contentious, confusing, and disorienting as our own twenty-first century lives.
I do not plan to provide any broad historiographical context here. Many historians have done that already, so do not look for any extensive biographical essays or exhaustive footnotes here. This is more in the vein of light self-entertainment. That said, I do hope that a few readers will enjoy my ramblings.
When is the first installment? Perhaps late summer or early fall of 2025. We will see.