Robert Cole's World: Agriculture and Society in Early Maryland

by Russell R. Menard, Lois Green Carr, Lorena S. Walsh

Book Overview

In 1652 Robert Cole, an English Catholic, moved with his family and servants to St. Mary's County, Maryland. Using this family's story as a case study, the authors of Robert Cole's World provide an intimate portrait of the social and economic life of a middling planter in the seveneenth-century Chesapeake, including work routines and agricultural techniques, the upbringing of children, neighborhood relationships and community formation, and the role of religion. The Cole Plantation account, a record that details what the plantation produced, consumed, purchased, and sold over a twelve-year period, is the only known surviving document of its kind for seventeenth-century British America. Along with Cole's will, it serves as the framework around which the authors build their analysis. Drawing on these and other records, they present Cole as an exemplar of the ordinary planter whose success created the capital base for the slave-based plantation society of the eighteenth century.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807819859
• ISBN13: 9780807819852
• Release Date: October 1991
• Publisher: Omohundro Institute and Unc Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Robert Cole's World

Robert Cole's World is a great book. Covering the history of Robert Cole and his family from England to their immigration to Lord Baltimore's Colony of Maryland, the book is a must for anyone interested in early American history. Background on the Cole family, 17th century tobacco cultivation, and daily life in 17th century Maryland are all incorporated into this interesting and nicely written book. Included are copies of the Cole family's inventory, as well as Robert Cole's will. For anyone interested in colonial American history and what life was like before American slavery took hold, Robert Cole's world is for you.