A Place in Time

Based on years of research of the records of a Chesapeake county, the narrative volume stresses personalities, from the poor to the rich, exploring family life, friendships, status, the distribution of wealth, and mobility--all as the new settlement evolved. The authors find evidence of community (which others have assumed was virtually nonexistent), one in which slavery and time created stratification. They see the Chesapeake as an example of "that rural society toward which and from which American society has proceeded."