Autumn Woods, by Albert Bierstadt. 1886
Reading a very interesting collection of essays, The Genuine Article, by Edmund S. Morgan. It’s an historical look at early American life, taken primarily from his articles for the New York Review of Books.
Lots of food for thought. He tells us (indirectly) that historians of that early period have spent most of their time with New England, not because of bias, but because of available records. We are blessed with a huge amount and variety of journals, letters, public records, and assorted written indications of life for the early settlers in the north, but very little for those in Virginia and south of that colony. There was also a difference in family life, ratio of male to female and life expectancy that favored New England. More families settled in the north initially. Virginia and other southern colonies seemed to get far more indentured servants, and then slaves, and far fewer intact families. This seems to have had an impact of written records from the point of view of the settlers themselves. The Civil War also played a destructive role in preservation. The records housed in Richmond, Virginia were mostly destroyed during the war.
Morgan also tries his hand at historical analysis of The Crucible, Arthur Miller’s play about the Salem Witch Trials, and the movie made from that play in 1996. He’s highly impressed with both, though he tells us of the historical inaccuracies, but does so gently. It’s interesting to think of Miller’s play in the context of the Communist witch hunts of the time of his writing, and how it impacted his own battle with McCarthyism.
There is also discussion of gender roles in early America and a review of several books on the subject. Without having read the books under review, it’s hard to know if Morgan’s criticism is just or fair, but his points make sense. As when he questions whether it is accurate to paint New England with the brush of a thinker (Robert Filmer) whose major work (Patriarcha) was published in 1680, after the period in question. Or, that the author set up a fair dichotomy between north and south when it came to gender roles. Filmerian for New England, Lockean for Virginia and parts further south.
There is also some discussion of the relative merit involved in concentrating on “ordinary” people (in the southern colonies), their everyday lives, at the expense of big events. Morgan makes the logical criticism that it is one thing to bring those who have been neglected by previous historians into the forefront, and still another to make assumptions based upon very sketchy records. The case in point being Bacon’s Rebellion (1676) and its impact on ordinary folks in Middlesex County, Virginia. The authors under review opine that the rebellion was of very little consequence to average Virginians. Morgan counters with the fact that historians have little to go on in the way of actual, written records for that conclusion. He concedes it may be true. But because of scant evidence, it is conjecture, rather than factual deduction.
The writing is solid. Morgan gets in and out of his subjects quickly, directly. I’m looking forward to finishing it up and returning to it from time to time.
The following excerpts are from an article in Wikipedia about the the poisonous plant jimsonweed. As you will see, the plant and its effects have a place in Virginia history, depending on how much you believe the story below and how much you can extrapolate from it. I found some jimsonweed growing in Riverside Park in NYC this past summer. It doesn’t explain anything.
“Datura stramonium, known by the common names jimson weed, ditch weed, stink weed, loco weed, Korean morning glory, Jamestown weed, thorn apple, angel’s trumpet, devil’s trumpet, devil’s snare, devil’s seed, mad hatter, crazy tea, malpitte, and, along with Datura metel, zombie cucumber is a common weed in the Nightshade Family. It contains tropane alkaloids that are sometimes used as a hallucinogen. The active ingredients are atropine, hyoscyamine and scopolamine which are classified as deliriants, or anticholinergics. Due to the elevated risk of overdose in uninformed users, many hospitalizations, and some deaths, are reported from recreational use.
The plant originated in North America, and was first described by Linnaeus in 1753. It was rapidly spread by human activity. Today, it grows wild in all the world’s warm and moderate regions. In Europe, it is found as a weed on wastelands and in garbage dumps. The genus was derived from “datura”, an ancient Sanskrit word for the plant. Stramonium is originally from Greek, strychnos (nightshade) and manikos (mad).
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In the United States it is called jimson weed, or more rarely Jamestown weed; it got this name from the town of Jamestown, Virginia, where British soldiers were drugged with it while attempting to suppress Bacon’s Rebellion. They spent eleven days generally appearing to have gone insane:
‘The James-Town Weed (which resembles the Thorny Apple of Peru, and I take to be the plant so call’d) is supposed to be one of the greatest coolers in the world. This being an early plant, was gather’d very young for a boil’d salad, by some of the soldiers sent thither to quell the rebellion of Bacon (1676); and some of them ate plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart straws at it with much fury; and another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mows [grimaces] at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll.
In this frantic condition they were confined, lest they should, in their folly, destroy themselves — though it was observed that all their actions were full of innocence and good nature. Indeed, they were not very cleanly; for they would have wallowed in their own excrements, if they had not been prevented. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after eleven days returned themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed. – The History and Present State of Virginia, 1705.’”
zombie cucumber is a new one to me.Every few years around Los Angeles you hear a news story about some curious youth and jimson weed.I recall several of us in high school picking a friends mothers morning glory in Rochester to make milkshakes and pretty much just getting sick to our stomachs but then we had a slew of drugs available in the 70’s which we tried all of and the morning glory was just an exotic thing that we didn’t buy like LSD,Mescaline,Hashish,mushrooms,opium etc.
John, you should write a book about your experiences. Seriously. Reading it, it almost writes itself.
That’s why we won!