John Beale Bordleys Necessaries

John Beale Bordley (1727-1804) first had Necessaries printed in 1776 as a 17-page pamphlet. In 1799, he revised his work and reprinted it as a chapter in Essays and Notes on Husbandry and Rural Affairs. Necessaries published a 3rd time in 1801, when Essays and Notes saw a corrected and expanded edition. With its history spanning Colonial, Revolutionary, and early national America, Bordleys work provides an advantageous window from which to view some of early Americäs central debates as they played out on the ground. Uncovering its historical contexts enriches our understanding of it as well as of its author and his enlightened, revolutionary, and increasingly Republican times. Illus.