Settlers, Southerners, Americans: The History of Essex County, Virginia 1608-1984 (review)

BOOK REVIEWS93 Settlers, Southerners, Americans: The History of Essex County, Virginia¡608-1984. By James B. Slaughter. (Salem, West Virginia: Walsworth Press, 1984. Pp. vi, 318. $29.50.) Settlers, Southerners, Americans, a project commissioned by the Essex County Board of Supervisors, is primarily aimed at the taxpaying citizens of Essex who subsidized its publication. All too often, such efforts tend to be little more than filiopietistic coffee-table books. Happily, James B. Slaughter's Settlers, Southerners, Americans attempts to integrate traditional local history into the mainstream ofAmerican historical scholarship. His topical narrative contains ample footnotes citing the works ofsuch prominent historians as Bailyn, Morgan, Stampp, Genovese, Blassingame, Isaacs, and Potter. In this way Slaughter bases his otherwise traditional narrative upon a solid framework grounded in accepted professional interpretations. Although the tale is a familiar one, Essex deserves serious attention. The tobacco culture ofthe colonial Chesapeake has been the subject of a great deal of creative scholarship of late, and Slaughter avails himself of this fresh approach as he relates the story ofIndian and Englishman. As Essex's seat, Tappahannock—once known as Hobb's His Hole—developed into a regional center ofthe staple-crop economy, Slaughter probes the planters' lifestyle and culture. Settlers, Southerners, Americans does not neglect the social history ofthe less fortunate builders ofEssex, however, and contains chapters detailing the role of blacks and women as well. Readers of this journal will be most interested in chapters 4 through 8, which follow the fortunes of Essex in the Civil War. Although the tobacco culture deteriorated as its soil depleted, wealthy Essex planters played a prominent role in antebellum Virginia. Dynasties suchas Garnett, Ritchie, Hunter, and Brooke contributed members to the Old Dominion's first political machine, the famed "Richmond Junto. " R. M. T. Hunter became senator from Virginia and secretary of state in the Confederacy. White Essex was highly secessionist, mustering six companies ofinfantry into the 55th Virginia, and several squadrons ofthe 9th Virginia Cavalry. The 9th participated in Stuart's storied ride around McClellan, and the Brandy Station debacle as well. The proud but green 55th broke and ran when first it "saw the elephant"at the Seven Days, but matured into a solid combat regiment under Jackson and A. P. Hill. The 55th fought in every major engagement in the Virginia theater until Chancellorsville, when it was virtually annihilated. Every officer above the rank of lieutenant was a battlefield casualty, and only thirty members of the regiment survived to surrender at Appomattox. Chapters investigating the home front do not ignore the role ofblacks and women, and the fine account ofemancipation is rare in such books. 94CIVIL WAR HISTORY Reconstruction in Essex saw blacks enter politics and attempt to reshape their world, but Virginia's redemption ushered in the familiar interplay of race and class, segregation and discrimination. Slaughter casts Essex's slow decline into rural poverty in the best possible light, but oysters and pickles have hardly replaced tobacco as the agricultural basis ofthe county's economy . Slaughter includes a sensitive account ofthe civil rights movement in his narrative, a welcome rarity in local history books. Settlers, Southerners, Americans' broad focus and fresh approach make this a unique local history, one which should both satisfy and educate his local constituency, but to the professional historian, the volume is uneven and ultimately unsatisfying. Although the author attempted to include minorities in his history, the resulting narrative is still highly traditional. Slaughter did not consult valuable primary sources such as the census worksheets, Freedmen's Bureau records, or the files ofthe American Missionary Association, which might have shed more light on his subjects. He does not discuss the social impact of the war, nor does he investigate the roots of modern black political participation. Slaughter's short, choppy paragraphs and uneven transitions detract from his otherwise graceful style. A good copy editor might have smoothed over the gnarly split infinitives, frequent parentheses, and misspelled words. The author resorts to the amateurish continuous past tense to convey action. Essex County might have been better served had it chosen a more scholarly publishing house for its efforts. Despite these caveats, Settlers, Southerners, Americans successfully injects social history into traditional "moonlight...