Synopses & Reviews
In 1663, an indentured servant, Anne Orthwood, was impregnated with twins in a tavern in Northampton County, Virginia. Orthwood died soon after giving birth; one of the twins, Jasper, survived. Orthwood's illegitimate pregnancy sparked four related cases that came before the Northampton magistrates -- who coincidentally held court in the same tavern -- between 1664 and 1686. These interrelated cases and the decisions rendered in them are notable for the ways in which the Virginia colonists modified English common law traditions and began to create their own, as well as what they reveal about cultural and economic values in an Eastern shore community. Through these cases, the very reasons legal systems are created are revealed, namely, the maintenance of social order, the protection of property interests, the protection of personal reputation, and personal liberty. Through Jasper Orthwood's life, the treatment of the poor in small communities is set in sharp relief.
Anne Orthwood's Bastard was the winner of the 2003 Prize in Atlantic History, American Historical Association.
Review
"Pagan's Anne Orthwood's Bastard: Sex and the Lawin Early Virginia spin engaging yarns that tie together the best of recent scholarship while also interweaving fresh historical questions and issues....the kind of work tailor-made to grip and hold the imaginations of undergraduates in early American survey courses everywhere."--Reviews in American History
"Four cases provide the basis for John Ruston Pagan's intelligent and highly readable book." --Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
"superb analysis of the colony's nascent social, economic, and judicial structures. . . . terrific scholarship that adds significantly to historians' understanding of early Virginia. . . . Microhistories succeed when their case studies illuminate larger themes; at their best, the stories they tell rate as literature. John Pagan scores on both counts."- The Journal of Southern History
"John Pagan's subtle and sophisticated research and analysis and his lucid and evocative writing bring to life these Virginians of 350 years ago. The character sketches of the servants, justices of the peace, planters, jurors, and of Anne Orthwood and her lover are gems of historical writing....[An] excellent book."--Richmond Times-Dispatch
Review
"Pagan's
Anne Orthwood's Bastard: Sex and Law in Early Virginia . . spin[s] engaging yarns that tie together the best of recent scholarship ont eh colonial Chesapeake while also interweaving fresh historical questions and issues. the kind of work tailor-made to grip and hold the imaginations of undergraduates in early American survey courses everywhere. Pagan deliberately couches his case study as a narrative and sets forth his story in taut and elegant prose that has a ll the analytic precision of a tightly argued legal brief."--
Reviews in American History "Anne Orthwood's Bastard is microhistory of the first order. Like The Return of Martin Guerre, it is a story as engaging in the telling as in the tale. Not only is it a good story, it also reminds us of the power of a received legal tradition to confer legitimacy on change."-- David Thomas Konig, Washington University in St. Louis
"Anne Orthwood's Bastard tells a compelling story of hope, sex, death, and freedom among English immigrants in early Virginia--of new immigrants pressing toward better fortunes in early America, the force of luck, often very bad though sometimes good, and the ways that law, popular concepts of morality, and crude but savvy courts brought forth community and shaped individual destinies in England's first New World wilderness. Pagan's Virginians prove as determined and willful as Puritans to the north--and even more deftly American."-Jon Butler, Yale University
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-211) and index.
About the Author
John Ruston Pagan is a Professor in the School of Law at the University of Richmond, Virginia.