The American Adventure

An ocean away, the American colonies gradually forged a separate identity while sharing the heritage of the Old World. Many features of the new land challenged its citizens: flying sand in Florida, a limited amount of specie (hard cash) in circulation, extremes of climate, recurring friction with the indigenous population. The European Romantic movement celebrated nature, but the New World was nature: pristine, savage, and idealized. Much colonial wealth was built upon slave labor, while white European-Americans struggled to create a genteel society. For at least the first half of the eighteenth century, Britain’s American colonies did their best to emulate the lifestyles of the mother country, and in 1705, tobacco planter Robert Beverley wrote of his fellow Virginians, “The Families being altogether on Country-Seats, they have their Graziers, Seedsmen, Gardiners, Brewers, Bakers, Butchers, and Cooks within themselves: they have a great Plenty and Variety of Provisions for their Table; and as for Spicery, and other things that the Country don’t produce, they have constant supplies of’em from England. The Gentry pretend to have their Victuals drest, and serv’d up as Nicely, as at the best Tables in London.” ⁴¹