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This episode introduces the First Families of Virginia, explaining how a small group of younger sons of the gentry and merchant families became a class of elite colonial families came to dominate first the Tidewater, and then Virginia. It begins by describing how younger sons hoped to rebuild themselves as landed gentlemen in the New World, and then discusses the debate over whether these First Families of Virginia were truly “Cavaliers” or whether that label stems from a later legend meant to shroud their humble origins.
The episode then explains how these families used capital, trade, and officeholding to acquire huge riverfront estates, expand tobacco production, and eventually shift from indentured labor to enslaved African labor after Bacon’s Rebellion and the Navigation Acts made the old system less profitable. It then profiles several of the most famous First Families of Virginia, including the Randolphs, Byrds, Harrisons, Ludwells, Burwells, Pages, Nelsons, Carters, Beverleys, Wormleys, Lees, Fitzhughs, and Custises, describing their marriage alliance, massive estates, political offices, commercial activity, and in some cases, their role in the Revolution.
The conclusion of this episode covers the social peak and decline of the Virginia gentry. It describes how their intermarriages and grand brick plantation homes turned into lifestyles of debt that were wrecked by the effects of the American Revolution that the Virginia gentry did so much to lead, along with describing how soil exhaustion played a role in ending the reign of the old Virginia gentry.
0:00 Who Were The First Families of Virginia?
5:05 The History of the Virginia Cavaliers
8:35 The Younger Sons Form a Virginia Gentry
12:52 Land, Trade, and Slavery: The Basis of Financial Power for the FFVs
18:03 How the Virginia Gentry Dominated Local and State Politics
21:46 The Randolph Family of Virginia: The Adam and Eve of Virginia
22:47 The Byrd Family of Virginia: Fortune and Ruin
24:32 The Harrison Family
25:19 The Ludwell Family and Green Spring
26:26 The Burwell Family of Virginia
27:27 The Pages and Nelsons
29:03 The Carter Family of Virginia
31:32 The Beverlys and Wormeleys at Rosegill,
32:07 The Lees of Stratford Hall, and
34:08 the Fitzhughs
35:10 The Custis and Washington Families
37:03 Intermarriage Amongst the FFVs
39:07 Luxury and Debt End the Golden Age
43:26 Revolution and Collapse
46:46 Twilight of the Old Dominion
49:06 Virginia’s Lasting Legacy
Sources Referenced in this Episode:
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Evans, Emory G.: A “Topping People”: The Rise and Decline of Virginia’s Old Political Elite, 1680-1790.
Sydnor, Charles S.: Gentlemen Freeholders: Political Practices in Washington’s Virginia, https://amzn.to/3QxjEXq
Isaac, Rhys: The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790, https://amzn.to/4ee2INl
Dowdey, Clifford: The Virginia Dynasties, https://amzn.to/4vlqoqN
Dowdey, Clifford: The Golden Age, https://amzn.to/3QbGNi4
Dowdey, Clifford: The Great Plantation, https://amzn.to/4gdOxKR
Fischer, David Hackett: Albion’s Seed, https://amzn.to/4gayayG
Breen, T.H.: Tobacco Culture, https://amzn.to/4uuwvYy
Wright, Louis B.: The First Gentlemen of Virginia, https://amzn.to/4ekuR5z
