“We live in a moment in which old conflicts, much altered during their subterraneous years, have boiled up again.”— Marilynne Robinson, When I was a Child I Read Books
The Reality of History
Once upon a time in America, being a colonist meant something. As members of the pre-revolutionary middle class, colonists who owned property ran in the best of social circles. By the standards of the 1700s, they were the envied models of success.
John Kimbrough was such a person. Four centuries gone, he is still remembered for his leadership and business savvy. From his first day in America he knew that land ownership would be his ticket to wealth and power. With land ownership came the right to vote, as well as with other privileges such as a seat on the church council.
One of the first ways John acquired land was in service to the government recruiting immigrant families willing to settle in Virginia. For each family he signed up, the government awarded him title to 150 acres of land. He recruited so many families (thus more land) that he came to be called “The Colonist” John Kimbrough.
The lands the British so freely parceled out were, of course, the vast homelands of America’s indigenous peoples. After the tribes lost their lands—and their lives—to the forces of colonialism, the new owners converted the tribal lands into grand tobacco-growing plantations, worked by slaves. Colonialism also replaced the native culture with a revised version of England’s social and legal system.
Historical Perspective
In today’s context, John Kimbrough’s Colonist prefix has lost its shine. But including that brief mention in John’s story illustrates the valued of historical perspective. While the term Colonist may have been worn proudly by some (but not all) in eighteenth century America, it carries additional meaning in today’s world. Historical perspective takes into account an array of factors—from geographical to emotional—that shaped the life and times of those in the past. It opens us to understanding our own story—past and present.
Part 1, Episode 4
Previously on Unsettled:
The Kimbrough family left their native Scotland for life in Tobacco Port, Maryland. John prospered in the new colony, but yearned for more, more opportunity and more land.
The Death of a Boy
With his residency obligations fulfilled, John looked for ways to increase his land holdings. He didn’t have to look farther than Virginia, which like Maryland grew tobacco and bordered the Chesapeake Bay. By then he had accumulated a good stock of cattle and horses he would have to transport either across or around the Chesapeake Bay to get to their new home in New Kent, Virginia. Travel on either route posed danger for John and Mary’s family, which now included two teenage sons and four younger children.
John and Mary couldn’t wait any longer to make the move and decided traveling across the Chesapeake Bay would be safer and quicker. Mary and the younger children left Maryland ahead of John, traveling by boat across the Chesapeake and on up the James River to New Kent, Virginia.
The weather in Virginia, however, was unusually stormy. Hurricanes battered the region, hail shredded tobacco plants and flooding brought misery to town and plantation alike.
John and the two older sons, John II and Marmaduke, took an overland route to Virginia driving a herd of horses and other livestock through marshes and across narrow but unpredictable streams. At one crossing, thirteen-year-old Marmaduke tumbled into the rain-swollen river and was swept downstream. John plunged in the river in an attempt to reach Marmaduke, but boy had disappeared into the roiling waters. He and John II searched for the boy among the tangle of willow roots and chokeberry crowding the bank. Finally, they abandoned their search and continued on to New Kent without the boy. Mary and the children met their arrival in New Kent with a mixture of joy and relief. But when Mary saw that young Marmaduke wasn’t with them, her look mirrored John’s grief stricken face. With Mary at his side, the two pulled the children close and John told them Marmaduke would not be coming home.