The Planters of Colonial Virginia

Wertenbaker's classic work traces the collapse of the yeoman dream in colonial Virginia. When English settlers first arrived, they envisioned a society of independent farmers owning their own land, each man a king of his own acres. The reality proved more complicated. Through meticulous research, Wertenbaker shows how the tobacco boom created staggering wealth for some while systematically destroying the prospects of small farmers who could not compete with large plantations utilizing slave labor. The book follows the tragic arc from hope to dependency: the early decades of relative equality among white settlers, the gradual entrenchment of a slave-based economy, and the emergence of Virginia's planter aristocracy. What emerges is not merely economic history but a profound meditation on how America began with democratic aspirations and ended with hierarchical tyranny. The work remains essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the origins of American inequality.