Ruins of Jamestown
John Gadsby Chapman
1834
Oil on board
Virginia Historical Society

The ruins of Jamestown produced ambivalent responses during the antebellum era. Virginians knew from European authors that ruins were considered picturesque, but America was too young a country to have ruins and they touched a sore spot. Virginia was then undergoing an agricultural depression that sparked the emigration of a million residents. Many of the older regions were depopulated as buildings were left to ruin. Some Virginia writers of this period, of whom Edgar Allen Poe is the best known, found an attraction in the impermanence and decay scattered across Virginia's landscape. In contrast, John Gadsby Chapman attempted to reverse the prevailing negative connotations of ruins. In this painting he looks forward to a bright future rooted in a glorious past.