This history tells the story of Essex County, from the Indians of the 1600s to today's thriving rural community. Our county has undergone nearly all of the great trials and transitions of our nation: frontier wars and revolution, slavery and civil war, reconstruction, depression, and rapid modernization. Essex County's history paints a broad panorama, extending beyond the shores of the Rappahannock to encompass much of the story of the American nation.
Our county's history is also distinctly Southern. Slavery set Essex and the South on a course different from the rest of the nation, a course that nurtured a distinguished yet tragically flawed society. Essex County's history, like all history, is a story of human success and failure. A Godfearing people struggled with a great moral dilemma in their midst until it overwhelmed them.
Above all, this is a history of Essex County's people. Colorful characters fill our past: proud Indians, eloquent patriots whose words still inspire us today, bold preachers, inventive farmers, rebellious slaves, and persevering women. Many of them seemed to have little in common. This book attempts to weave these people together, to discover the common experiences that shaped their perceptions of each other and the county.
Once Essex was mostly Indian; then it was a county with a black majority; finally the white population grew to be the county's largest. This book explores how Native Americans, blacks, and whites have lived with each other in the past 350 years. The story is sometimes an ugly one of misunderstanding, hatred, and violence. Not many American counties have endured such a volatile mixture for so many centuries. Yet in the end our history is a triumph, for the county's diverse communities have gradually found a common identity as Americans.
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