0703: Rosanna A. Blake Collection, 1818-2000

This collection consists of manuscript and other paper items collected by Rosanna A. Blake. Included are letters, diaries, correspondence, unit rosters, Confederate imprint forms and currency, 1860-1865. Also included are 3D items including firearms, edged weapons, tin soldiers, original Civil War art work, the Volck shield, and Southern periodicals relating to the Civil War. Notably, the collection includes 3 original Robert E. Lee letters, 1 Jefferson Davis letter, and 2 general orders dictated by Lee. The O\u27Brien sub-collection contains Civil War pamphlets and booklets, over 300 monographs and books, photos, CDV\u27s, original Civil War art work, the Volck shield, ambrotypes and tintypes, one original Robert E. Lee letter, original Civil War sketches and etchings, and other 3D items. Most materials are Confederate related. To view materials from this collection that are digitized and available online, search the Rosanna Blake Collection, 1818-2000 here

Three generations of planter -businessmen: The Tayloes, slave labor, and entrepreneurialism in Virginia, 1710-1830

This study analyzes the entrepreneurial estate-building activities of three generations of the Tayloe family of Virginia from the 1710s to the 1820s. The three John Tayloes were model planter-businessmen---that is, they combined mixed commercial agriculture with a variety of business enterprises in an effort to secure long-term financial security and social status for themselves and their heirs. This diversified approach to plantation management characterized early Virginia\u27s culture of progress ---an early American business culture interpreted in many different ways throughout the colonies (and later the states) that had the pursuit of a better life as its organizing premise.;The Tayloes were not alone in their ironmaking, shipbuilding, land speculation, investing, and craft-service activities. Instead, the three generations of Tayloe planter-businessmen represent the activities, approaches, and values of the elite planter class of early Virginia.;For each of the Tayloes, slave labor served as the fundamental resource for successful enterprise. The presence of large populations of enslaved African Americans enabled the Tayloes and other planters to branch out from staple agriculture and ultimately necessitated that they continue to do so. Slaves demonstrated their abilities, became central to the daily operations of the South\u27s business culture, and made the enterprises planters founded profitable.;Planter-businessmen as individuals founded businesses that were usually complementary in some way to their holdings in land and slaves. Recognizing the potentially dangerous fluctuations of the tobacco market, planters were apt to attempt new endeavors in good times and bad and rarely abandoned new businesses simply because the tobacco market rebounded. They kept their finger on the pulse of the market, braved risk, and attempted to keep up with the latest technology. Planters\u27 non-tobacco activities provided an important buffer between the uncontrollable weather, shipping, and prices associated with tobacco agriculture and their family\u27s future security. The institution of slavery certainly placed some structural limits on planters\u27 entrepreneurial imaginations. However, whether compared against northern farmer-businessmen prior to the antebellum period or set against the definitions of Virginia\u27s own slave society, early southern planter-businessmen exhibited rational and progressive economic behavior

Intellectual Life in the Colonial South, 1585-1763 (Volume 3 of 3)

https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_early-american/1016/thumbnail.jp