This is exactly right, I think.  Virginia was not only the first successful
English mainland colony in North America but also its largest for a long,
long time.  I think that New York was 8th or 9th in population among the 13
Colonies at the time of the Revolution.
At the time of the first US Census (1790) 40% of all African-Americans lived
within Virginia.  Thus, Virginia is a mother colony for Americans black and
white.

The meaning of Virginia origins for blacks is worked out in fascinating ways
in Ira Berlin's Many Thousands Gone:  The First Two Centuries of Slavery in
North America.

Harold S. Forsythe
Visiting Fellow (2005-2006)
Program in Agrarian Studies
Yale University
----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2006 1:34 PM
Subject: Re: Roll on Shenandoah.......


> In a message dated 2/3/06 12:49:21 AM, [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> << But SHENANDOAH is a bird in hand, and at this point worth considerably
> more than those other birds in the bushes. >>
>
>
> Not only is SHENANDOAH a bird in hand, but (with its haunting music) the
> song
> represents the thousands upon thousands of Virginians who left for the
> "west
> country" and built a nation, while looking longingly at the memory of
> their
> Virginia landscape.  In so many ways, Virginia is America because of the
> role of
> its role as the first successful English colony in the Americas, its
> leaders
> who formed the infant government and those who crossed the Shenandoah and
> tamed the west.
>
> Joyce Browning
> Fairfax County VA
>
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