A B's scholarship is woefully outdated.  Several decades ago his books
still got mined for the documents he quoted/transcribed at some length,
but nowadays we can get the originals on the Va Colonial Records Microfilm
and in more reliable modern editions like Susan Kingsbury's 4-volume
edition of the papers of the Virginia COmpany, etc.  As to the phrase you
mention, Brown was a strong proponent of the idea that Sir Edwin Sandys
and the VA Company represented a forerunner of the independent American
republic, and that James I was a prototype of George III.  He was not
terribly subtle in drawing parallels between two very different centuries.

Jon

> In cleaning out my files yesterday, I came across a small pamphlet by
> Alexander Brown from 1898 called "The History of our Earliest History."
> It was interesting in itself, but of most interest to me was review of a
> book that he published the 1st and 2nd editions in 1898, "The First
> Republic in America."
>
> The phrase that grabbed my attention said:
>
> "An account of the Origin of this Nation, written from the Records then
> (1624) concealed by the Council, rather than from the histories then
> licensed by the Crown."
>
> That's strong stuff.  Has anybody ever heard of the book?  Is there a
> grain or two of truth in that above statement, or is it mainly pre-
> Madison-Avenue hype?
>
> Randy Cabell
>
>


Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President
Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial
1250 Red Hill Road
Brookneal, Virginia 24528
www.redhill.org
Phone 434-376-2044 or 800-514-7463

Fax 434-376-2647

- M. Lynn Davis, Office Manager
- Karen Gorham, Associate Curator
- Edith Poindexter, Curator