By 1830, Virginia was in decline. With the departure from the national stage of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe,
the state had lost its political preeminence. The impoverished soil of the Tidewater had caused large segments of the population
to shift westward. For those who remained, new immigrants and new industries threatened massive changes to the old lifestyle.
Internal improvements in the form of roads, canals, and railroads would establish a transportation network that would carry the
newcomers and the products of their industry across the state. The planter aristocracy was further frustrated by its inability
either to phase out slavery or make slave labor more efficient and less troublesome, as well as by abolitionists—radical,
often militant thinkers who, it seemed, might ultimately find the political support to overturn the system. The landed
aristocracy, in the words of a modern historian, "became imbued with a deepening nostalgia, pessimism, and malaise."
At this low point, an emerging mythology about Old Virginia, coupled with the hope for a re-creation of the Tidewater
lifestyle in the West and a renewed attention to the great figures of Virginia's colonial past, provided solace for members
of the old order.
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Album of Virginia
Edward Beyer
Richmond, 1858
Lithograph
Virginia Historical Society
In this image we find visual evidence of both the old and the new, of a society that
was in transition. Immediately recognizable are depictions of Mount Vernon and Monticello.
These great homes, however, had by this time long been in disrepair, as were the farming
operations that surrounded them. Beyer also depicts a factory, a railroad, and a steamship,
which were symbols of the new, largely urban, industrialism that challenged the rural dominance
in Virginia. To counter what had become a persistently negative image of this slave state, Beyer
borrowed for the focus of his page the figure of virtue, which viewers would recognize from the
state's seal. She holds an American flag to suggest Virginia's former position of national
prominence and her patriotism, both of which were in jeopardy by 1858.
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Decline in Antebellum Society: Slavery Under Fire
Antebellum Virginians inherited a system that many of them found both morally wrong and economically inefficient. During
the first decades of the century, slaveholders themselves often criticized their institution and looked to end or at least reform it.
But if they recognized the problems, they could find no practical solutions.
In time, however, as slavery came under attack from outside the state, many Virginians reversed themselves and
defended the system they had once faulted. By mid-century, the stance taken by many European observers and the
rise of northern abolitionism actually encouraged the proliferation of the "Old Virginia" mythology.
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Uncle Tom's Cabin; Or, Life Among the Lowly
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Boston and Cleveland, 1852
Virginia Historical Society
Nothing brought slavery more to the fore of national consciousness than did Uncle Tom's Cabin. In this tale,
which made use of many of the conventions of the popular sentimental novels of the day, the slaves George and
Eliza and their son ultimately escape to freedom, but the ever-faithful and devoutly religious Tom is sent south
and ultimately beaten to death on the plantation of the demonic Simon Legree. Thomas Nelson Page, the most
widely read of the postwar apologists for the old ways of Virginia, noted that "Mrs. Stowe did more to free
the slave than all the politicians." On meeting Stowe, Abraham Lincoln reputedly remarked, "So you're the
little woman who wrote the book that made this great war."
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Urban Growth, Internal Improvements, and Social Change
As Virginians faced political and agricultural decline, along with the challenge of abolitionists, the survival of the
traditional way of life on the plantations of the Tidewater was further threatened by the development of towns into
mercantile centers like those of the North, by internal transportation improvements that would link these urban
hubs and thereby support their manufacturing and merchandising interests, and by the increasing prosperity and
prominence of the state's non-English populations. Germans, Scotch-Irish, and Quakers living in the bountiful
countryside west of the Blue Ridge, although agrarians, led lifestyles so different as to cause concern among the
planters of the east. Concurrently, immigrants in the cities seized upon commercial opportunities that had long
been underappreciated by the existing gentry.
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A Map of the Internal Improvements of Virginia
Claudius Crozet
1848
Philadelphia, 1848
Virginia Historical Society
On a national level, internal improvements were among the broad objectives of the Whig party
during the 1830s and 40s. Maps published by Claudius Crozet, the principal engineer of the Virginia
State Board of Public Works, suggest that local efforts at building lines of transportation were not
without some vigor. Pictured on his maps are various railroad projects, the Dismal Swamp Canal,
and the James River and Kanawha Canal. The latter project would tie up the capital, manpower,
and imaginations of Virginians for decades.
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Resistance to Change: The Pastoral Ideal Revived
In their resistance to the formidable forces of change, Virginians created what amounts to a mythology
about their past. The term "Old Virginia" was put into widespread use to identify the portion of antebellum
society that was made up of the descendants of ancient plantation families. "Old" was equated with "good."
The rural society of the Tidewater was again said to be idyllic. Novels transformed contemporary Virginia
planters into virtuous knights, venerated the plantation mistress, and portrayed the slave as contented.
Antebellum planters bred pedigreed horses in an attempt to recreate the life of the English country squire.
Many came to believe that the culture of Old Virginia could be revitalized in the Valley of Virginia and beyond.
And the region's colonial history was recalled as evidence that the old ways, which had produced the Founding
Fathers, were best for Virginia and for the nation.
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Swallow Barn, or, A Sojourn in the Old Dominion
John Pendleton Kennedy
New York, 1851
Virginia Historical Society
J. P. Kennedy's Swallow Barn (first published in 1832) did much to shape antebellum conceptions about
southern plantation life. The author imagined an arcadia characterized by a slow-paced and constant lifestyle,
by harmonious relations between the races, and by prosperity, with allowances for some decay. In this novel
many of the varied personalities on a Virginia plantation are brought to life, including the benevolent master,
Frank Meriwether, who understands the moral dilemma caused by slavery, but insists that only southerners
are in a position to find a solution. In the revised edition of 1851, these characters and their setting were
illustrated by Kennedy's cousin, David Hunter Strother.
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The Raking Hawk
David Hunter Strother
1851
Illustration in Swallow Barn
The chivalric world was a popular subject in antebellum Virginia. The flight of the hawk was a useful devise.
Kennedy suggests that although we have entered a romantic world of knights and fair ladies, we should also
consider whether beings like the hawk, who are held in thrall, truly wish to be free.
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"Westward Ho!": The Old Ways Beyond the Tidewater
By early in the 19th century, the Tidewater way of life was being exported across the Blue Ridge to the state's western
counties, as well as to the new states and territories beyond. With the soil in the east not producing as it had during the colonial
era, the fertile lands to the west seemed ready to provide agricultural opportunities that were no longer available in the
Tidewater or Piedmont. These areas would be developed by multitudes from "Old Virginia," who in some cases would
attempt to recreate what they thought of as the good old days.
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![Rippon [Ripon] Hall](rippon1a.jpg)
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Rippon [Ripon] Hall, York River, Va.
Lefevre James Cranstone
1860
Watercolor
Virginia Historical Society
This scene painted at mid-century by Lefevre Cranstone suggests the differences between the fertile
west and the exhausted east. This view of the Rippon Hall plantation on the York River shows that the
Tidewater still offered a pastoral beauty, but the setting is notably quiet and empty; the decline in agricultural
productivity is evident. Once the plantation of a prominent colonial, Edmund Jenings, Rippon Hall in 1850
was no longer a thriving tobacco producer. The fields are still well cared for, but this is hardly a scene
of intense farm activity.
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Churches, Blacksmith Shop and College: A View of Salem
Edward Beyer
1855
Oil on canvas
Virginia Historical Society, gift of Lora Robins,
E. Claiborne Robins, Jr., Bruce C. Gottwald,
Paul Mellon, D. Tennant Bryan, Henry F. Stern,
Mrs. E. Schneider, and Thomas Towers
When Thomas Jefferson envisioned a virtuous, rural society for Virginia that would be free from the vices of the
large European cities, he considered the market town to be integral to such an culture. In the antebellum era, such
centers, like Salem, pictured here, did in fact spring up, in the Piedmont, in the Valley, and in counties beyond. Produce
from the prospering plantations located nearby was sold in these centers, and with the income planters bought hard
and soft goods of every description. Edward Beyer painted a series of these hamlets. Their emergence and growth
testified to the fact that Old Virginia had experienced something of a rebirth in the far-flung new counties to the west.
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In the Valley, immigrants from the east were revitalized by a bountiful landscape. In 1854 William Gilmore Simms
described it as the "most perfect idea of Arcadia." To some observers the small size of the slave population made the
western counties seem all the more appealing.
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Map of the Springs
1855
Virginia Historical Society
The springs, with their rural settings that resembled that of the plantation, came to symbolize the glories and in
some cases the excesses of Old Virginia, and they served to perpetuate national interest in that lifestyle. Though
their remoteness had caused some of the early western resorts to fail, by the 1850s they had become
accessible by railroad from almost anywhere on the east coast. A guide of 1849 states, "There are now numerous
routes and modes of conveyance to these celebrated Springs, all of which have been, within a few years, greatly
improved." This map of 1855 shows the routes to be taken from as far away as New York and South Carolina.
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Recollections of Virginia's Heritage
As the state declined in national prominence and was confronted by internal and external challenges, residents needed
to find touchstones that would remind them that they had a past to be proud of and a present worth defending. Although
the lifestyle of the antebellum plantation was the idea then most closely associated with the term "Old Virginia," throughout
the early 19th century Virginians had continued to cherish their colonial and early national past. Such remembrances
provided an imaginative harbor from abolitionists and crop failures, and from tariffs and treacherous Yankee traders.
They harkened back both to a time of prominence for the state, and a time when the joys of the rural plantation life
had yet to be undermined.
The great Virginians of the past—particularly George Washington and Patrick Henry—could be imaginatively
resurrected, and their deeds rehashed, when the losses of wealth, status, and political influence became intolerable.
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Funeral Oration on the Death of General Washington
Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee
Boston, 1800
Virginia Historical Society, copy formerly owned by Robert E. Lee
Of the many eulogies delivered in memory of Washington, this oration presented by congressman and
Revolutionary War veteran Henry Lee is the best remembered, perhaps because of the simplicity of his
evaluation of the general and president as "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
This copy of the Washington eulogy is unique. Henry Lee was the father of Robert E. Lee, the future Confederate
general, who as a young man owned this volume and boldly placed his signature on its front cover. By signing this
book the son made it his own, and through his illustrious life, much of which was modeled on that of Washington,
Lee transformed it into an object worthy of veneration. To many Virginians, this book serves as a link between
two of the state's greatest sons.
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Patrick Henry Arguing the Parson's Cause at the Hanover County Courthouse
George Cooke
c. 1834
Oil on canvas
Virginia Historical Society
Because he most clearly articulated the call for liberty and then risked his life in its cause, Patrick Henry
was revered by antebellum Americans. In the episode recreated here, the orator holds forth on the subject
of King George III's interference concerning the salary set by the Virginia legislature for state-supported
ministers. Of Henry's most famous speeches, this was the most particularly Virginian in scope. (The others
—his protest of the Stamp Act and his call for liberty—were national in theme.) In this harangue, Henry
argued against the power of the king to encroach on the colony's rights, a subject that would have had
resonance with Virginians of the 1830s.
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Introduction
I. Origins of the Pastoral
II. Pursuit of Gentility
III. Decline and Resistance
IV. Resurgence of the Old Order
V. Triumph of the Colonial Past
Exhibit Catalog
Acknowledgements
Comments
Image rights owned by the Virginia Historical Society. Do not use without permission.
Rights and reproductions
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