The History and Present State of Virginia
The History and Present State of Virginia: A New Edition with an Introduction by Susan Scott Parrish
Robert Beverley
with an Introduction by Susan Scott Parrish
Daphna Atias
Helen C. Rountree
Transcription by M. Kathryn Burdette
Series: Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia
Copyright Date: 2013
Published by: University of North Carolina Press
https://doi.org/10.5149/9781469607955_beverley
Pages: 384
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469607955_beverley
Search for reviews of this book
Book Info
The History and Present State of Virginia
Book Description:

While in London in 1705, Robert Beverley wrote and publishedThe History and Present State of Virginia, one of the earliest printed English-language histories about North America by an author born there. Like his brother-in-law William Byrd II, Beverley was a scion of Virginia's planter elite, personally ambitious and at odds with royal governors in the colony. As a native-born American--most famously claiming "I am an Indian--he provided English readers with the first thoroughgoing account of the province's past, natural history, Indians, and current politics and society. In this new edition, Susan Scott Parrish situates Beverley and hisHistoryin the context of the metropolitan-provincial political and cultural issues of his day and explores the many contradictions embedded in his narrative.Parrish's introduction and the accompanying annotation, along with a fresh transcription of the 1705 publication and a more comprehensive comparison of emendations in the 1722 edition, will open Beverley'sHistoryto new, twenty-first-century readings by students of transatlantic history, colonialism, natural science, literature, and ethnohistory.

eISBN: 978-1-4696-0796-2
Subjects: History
You do not have access to this book on JSTOR. Try logging in through your institution for access.
Log in to your personal account or through your institution.
Table of Contents
Export Selected Citations Export to NoodleTools Export to RefWorks Export to EasyBib Export a RIS file (For EndNote, ProCite, Reference Manager, Zotero, Mendeley...) Export a Text file (For BibTex)
Select / Unselect all
  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-iv)
  2. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (pp. v-vi)
  3. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. vii-viii)
  4. List of Illustrations
    List of Illustrations (pp. ix-x)
  5. INTRODUCTION
    INTRODUCTION (pp. xi-xxxviii)
    Susan Scott Parrish

    When Robert Beverley penned hisHistory and Present State of Virginiaand had it printed in London in 1705, he was not addressing an audience of fellow colonials. Rather, he was writing to a London audience whom he believed to be badly misinformed on the topic of Virginia. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 had legitimated a suspicion of absolutist executive authority and established a language of legislative rights, “public good and contract.” In strategic moments of hisHistory,Beverley employs a republican rhetoric that emerged from and was pitched for this English postrevolutionary mentality. Beverley meant to enlist his English...

  6. A NOTE ON THE TEXTS
    A NOTE ON THE TEXTS (pp. xxxix-xl)
  7. THE HISTORY
    • BOOK I. The History of the First Settlement of Virginia, and the Government Thereof, to the Present Time
      BOOK I. The History of the First Settlement of Virginia, and the Government Thereof, to the Present Time (pp. 11-86)

      The Learned and Valiant SirWalter Raleighhaving entertain’d some deeper and more serious Considerations upon the State of the Earth, than most other Men of his Time, as may sufficiently appear by his incomparable Book,The History of the World:And having laid together the many Stories then inEuropeconcerningAmerica;the Native Beauty, Riches, and Value of this Part of the World; and the immense Profits theSpaniardsdrew from a small Settlement or two thereon made; resolv’d upon an Adventure for further Discoveries.¹

      According to this Purpose, in the Year of our Lord, 1583, He got...

    • BOOK II. The Natural Productions and Conveniencies of the Country, Suited to Trade and Improvement
      BOOK II. The Natural Productions and Conveniencies of the Country, Suited to Trade and Improvement (pp. 87-120)

      Virginia, as you have heard before, was a Name at first given, to all the Northern Part of the Continent ofAmerica;and when the Original Grant was made, both to the First and Second Colonies, that is, to those ofVirginia,andNew-England,they were both granted under the Name ofVirginia.And afterwards, when Grants for other new Colonies were made, by particular Names, those Names for a long time served only to distinguish them, as so many Parts ofVirginia:And until the Plantations became more familiar toEngland,it was so continued. But in Process of...

    • BOOK III. The Native Indians, Their Religion, Laws, and Customs, in War and Peace
      BOOK III. The Native Indians, Their Religion, Laws, and Customs, in War and Peace (pp. 121-186)

      TheIndiansare of the middling and largest stature of theEnglish:² They are straight and well proportion’d, having the cleanest and most exact Limbs in the World: They are so perfect in their outward frame, that I never heard of one singleIndian,that was either dwarfish, crooked, bandy-legg’d, or otherwise misshapen. But if they have any such practice among them, as theRomanshad, of exposing such Children till they dyed, as were weak and misshapen at their Birth, they are very shy of confessing it, and I could never yet learn that they had.

      Their Colour, when...

    • BOOK IV. The Present State of the Country, as to the Polity of the Government, and the Improvements of the Land
      BOOK IV. The Present State of the Country, as to the Polity of the Government, and the Improvements of the Land (pp. 187-254)

      I Have already hinted, that the first Settlement of this Country, was under the direction of a Company of Merchants incorporated.

      That the first Constitution of Government appointed by them, was by a President and Council, which Council was nominated by the Corporation, and the President annually chosen by the People.

      That in the year 1610 this Constitution was altered, and the Company obtain’d a new Grant of his Majesty; whereby they themselves had the nomination of the Governor, who was oblig’d to act only by advice in Council.

      That in the year 1620,¹ an Assembly of Burgesses was first...

    • THE TABLE
      THE TABLE (pp. 255-276)
  8. ERRATA
    ERRATA (pp. 277-278)
  9. NOTES
    NOTES (pp. 279-306)
  10. Preface to the Edition of 1722
    Preface to the Edition of 1722 (pp. 307-310)
  11. Changes in the Edition of 1722
    Changes in the Edition of 1722 (pp. 311-336)
  12. INDEX
    INDEX (pp. 337-342)
University of North Carolina Press logo