THE VIRGINIA PEASANTRY: A STUDY OF FARMS IN STAFFORD AND CAROLINE COUNTIES, THE EIGHTEENTH THROUGH THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Abstract

This dissertation reports the results of a study on family farms that existed in Stafford and Caroline counties, Virginia, between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. A framework based on the characteristics of the Latin American peasantry, as outlined by Eric Wolf (Wolf 1955, 1966), was applied to the data for this study. This research aims to expound on the current literature on farmstead archaeology and the understanding of a community with little formal history. While many local historians recognized the need to compile and publish their counties’ histories, few outside researchers were interested in writing about either county.