Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend

>>>>>>Sources Not Cited<<<<<<<<<
Jamestown:
Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in America. (the only successful settlement that preceded it was the Spanish settlement at St. Augustine Florida.) Sent by the Virginia Company of London, the first settlers arrived on the Susan Constant, The Discovery and the God Speed in April 1607 to the land which had been given by King James I. There were 105 who settled in a marshy spot on the James River. The early years were difficult, but because of the leadership and persuasion of John Smith the colony had survived. Originally the first people of Jamestown were reluctant to work, as they were used to the luxury of having servants and possibly even slaves back in England. This was until Smith ordered that if they people did not do their share of work, then they would not get their share of food. During the first winter the colonists survived mostly on corn Smith had purchased from the Indians. Smith was injured and returned to England in 1609.
The following winter known as the starving time, the Indians were hostile, and the colonists (almost 500 of them), did not have enough food. By spring, all but 60 perished. They were about to return to England when Lord De La Warr arrived with supplies, new colonists and a new found hope. Years later the state of Delaware would be named after him.
Conditions improved, new colonists came and more settlements were built. A period of friendship with the Indians started when John Rolfe married the daughter of an Indian chief. Economic conditions greatly improved after 1612 when Rolfe developed a better kind of tobacco. Large amounts were exported to Europe.
In 1619, representatives of Virginia’s farmers met for the first session of the House of Burgesses, the first representative assembly in America. “To establish one equal and uniform government of the people there inhabiting.” In 1622, the colonists were involved in another Indian war. Hundreds of settlers were killed, but Virginia continued to grow. In 1676 the town was burned. (bacons rebellion) The capital of Virginia was moved to Williamsburg in 1699.






Williamsburg:
Williamsburg Virginia was once the capital of colonial Virginia. It located between the lower James and York rivers and in colonial times it was high enough above these rivers to be free of the swamp fevers that killed many people.

The settlement was started in 1633 as Middle Plantation. It quickly became the center in the new colony and in 1693 was chosen as the site of the College of William and Mary (the second oldest college in the country.) After the statehouse burned down in 1699, a meeting was held by colonists, and students from the College of William and Mary submitted a proposal that the capital be moved to Middle Plantation to escape the dreaded malaria and mosquitoes that plagued Jamestown Island. The capital was moved there from Jamestown and the city was renamed Williamsburg in honor of King William III or Great Britain.

The new capital grew quickly and for 80 years was the political and social center of colonial Virginia. Wealthy planters gathered and there Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Patrick Henry started their political careers. During the revolutionary war (1780), for security reasons the capital was moved to Richmond to escape the British. Williamsburg lost its importance and except for brief periods during wars acted only as a small agricultural shopping center. The modern tows was built around it and by the early 20th century many older structures were no longer in use and in poor condition.

In 1927 John D. Rockefeller Jr. started rebuilding many of the old buildings to look as they did in colonial times. Within ten years the work was completed and is now a popular city for locals, tourists and students of the college of William and Mary.




Shirley Plantation:

In 1613, Shirley Plantation was sprawling as one of the first economic engines of the new world.
Carved out of Virginia’s frontier land, Shirley plantation has survived the Indian uprising, Bacons’s rebellion, the revolutionary war, the civil war, and the great depression.

It is the oldest family-owned business in North America dating to 1638.

Construction of the present mansion began in 1723 when Elizabeth Hill, great-granddaughter of the first Hill, married John Carter, eldest son of Robert "King"
Carter (all of Carter’s Grove Plantation---the plantation we visited on our last Williamsburg vacation). Completed in 1738, the mansion, referred to as the “Great House,” is largely in its original state and is owned, operated, and lived in by direct descendants of Edward Hill. However, the impressive mansion and other structures you see at Shirley were not the first to be erected on the property. 1613 the area was officially known as West and Shirley Hundred and soon thereafter a handful of adventurous tobacco farmers had put up simple dwellings. Historical records say very little about these first occupants, leaving archaeology to fill in the picture (excavations at modern day Shirley are beginning to find telling evidence of activity before 1723 and the Carter era.) During 1650s, Edward Hill I acquired the property and for three generations his family operated a successful plantation.


Slavery@Shirley Plantation
In Virginia, during the late 1600s and early 1700s, the labor of slaves quickly replaced that of English indentured servants. Slavery provided the larger and more permanent labor force necessary for an increasing scale of agricultural production. The labor of slaves was critical to the development and operation of Shirley Plantation, just as it was on hundreds of farms and plantations across the South. Large plantations like Shirley could function only with considerable numbers of slaves and Shirley ranked at the top of slave-holding plantations over much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The tasks of slaves on Shirley consisted of constructing buildings, tending fields, housekeeping, cooking and the skilled labor of gardeners, blacksmiths, and carpenters.
Slaves were very likely important in aspects of the construction of Shirley’s famous buildings starting in 1723. By 1787 records tell us that there were 134 slaves residing on the property. Most of these slaves would have labored in the fields, while others were responsible for upkeep of the house and associated buildings.

This basic pattern continued until emancipation at the close of the Civil War. However, family records from the nineteenth century reveal more details about the slaves at Shirley. The number of slaves on the property ranged from 98 to 153. Periodically the Carters provided basic provisions to the Shirley slaves. For example, shoes, blankets, and food were regularly distributed. Shirley’s slaves lived at different locations on the property according to their primary role. A relatively small number working as house servants, kitchen staff, and skilled laborers lived in and around the complex surrounding the main house. Quarters for slaves would have been available above the kitchen in the 19th century, for example. Most of the slaves at Shirley worked in the fields and resided in quarters located up to a mile from the main house. The typical quarter area consisted of several houses, often aligned in a neat row, surrounded by small garden plots and animal pens. In the eighteenth century the primary slave compound was called “The Great Quarter.”














Timeline for Shirley Plantation

Prehistoric-early 1600s
Native Americans resided throughout eastern Virginia

1607
First permanent English settlement established at Jamestown
1613
Land grant to Sir Thomas West, Baron De La Warr, named “West and Sherley Hundred”
1614
Pocahontas married John Rolfe
First shipment of Virginia tobacco sold in London
1619
First Africans arrived in Virginia
First representative legislature established at Jamestown
1615
25 London Company men commanded by Captain Issac Madison employed in planting and curing tobacco at “West and Sherley Hundred”
1622
Indian Uprising
1622
“West and Sherley Hundred” suffered no casualties in Indian Uprising and afterwards served as refuge for abandoned settlements in Charles City County
1624
Virginia became royal colony
1624
Census listed 45 people living at “West and Sherley Hundred,” first mention of an African at Shirley
1644
Second Indian Uprising
1638
Edward Hill I established 450-acre tobacco farm in Charles City County, establishing what is now the oldest family business in America
1646
Treaty between Powhatans and colonists declared Native Americans subjects of Jamestown government
1651
Edward Hill I in residence at “Shirley Hundred,” elected Speaker of House of Burgesses
1650s
Edward Hill I built Hill House
1660
Edward Hill I patented 2476 acres in vicinity of “Shirley Hundred”
1663
Edward Hill I died, Shirley inherited by Edward Hill II
1676
Bacon’s Rebellion
1693
The College of William and Mary established

1699
Capital moved from Jamestown to Williamsburg
1676
Hill family imprisoned by Bacon’s Rebels
1700
Edward Hill II died, Shirley inherited by Edward Hill III
1723
Edward Hill III’s daughter Elizabeth married John Carter, Secretary of Virginia and son of Robert “King”Carter
1732
George Washington born
1723-1738
Great House and outbuildings built; Hill House and its outbuildings torn down
1726
Edward Hill III died, Shirley inherited by John and Elizabeth Hill Carter
1754-1763
French and Indian War
1742
John Carter died, Elizabeth received life interest in Shirley
1775-1781
American Revolution
1779
State capital moved from Williamsburg to Richmond
1771
Elizabeth Hill Carter died, son Charles Carter inherited Shirley and began major renovations
1781
Shirley served as supply depot for Lafayette’s troops on way to Yorktown
1799
George Washington died
1793
Ann Hill Carter married “Light Horse Harry” Lee in parlor of Great House
1807
Robert E. Lee born
1812-1815
War of 1812
1806
Charles Carter died, Shirley managed by guardians Williams and Bernard Carter for minor heir, Hill Carter
1831
Nat Turner’s Rebellion
1833
First railroad built in Virginia
1816
Hill Carter assumed management of Shirley; tobacco cultivation ended
1845-1848
Mexican War
1840
Hill Carter elected to Virginia Senate
1859
John Brown’s Raid
1861-1865
American Civil War
1861
Virginia seceded from Union
1862
General McClellan granted Federal Order of Safeguard protecting Shirley in recognition of care given Union soldiers by Carter family after Battle of Malvern Hill
1866
Hill Carter turned over operation of Shirley to son Robert Randolph Carter
1870
Robert E. Lee died
Virginia readmitted to Union
1875
Hill Carter died, Shirley inherited by Robert Randolph Carter
1898
Spanish-American War
1888
Robert Randolph Carter died, Shirley inherited by wife Louise, daughters Alice Carter Bransford and Marion Carter
1902
Third Virginia Constitution
1917-1918
World War I
1917
Charles Hill Carter assumed management of farming operations at Shirley
1926
Alice Carter Branford died
1930s
The Depression
1941-1945
World War II
1928
Charles Hill Carter moved to Shirley with family
1950-1953
Korean Conflict
1964-1975
Vietnam War
1989
Virginia elected first African American governor in United States
1952
Marion Carter Oliver died, Shirley inherited by Charles Hill Carter, Jr. (her first cousin once removed), the last descendant of Hill Carter still working Shirley land
2003
Shirley Plantation LLC established with Charles Hill Carter III as manager