Fences

"An attention to fencing, a feature of English agriculture since about the fifteenth century, was perpetuated by English settlers in North America. Though often not without overtones of possession, fences were built for mainly practical reasons. In the southern colonies, livestock of all kinds was accommodated in the woods surrounding the cultivated fields. As the animals could be branded or otherwise marked for owner identification and cleared land was often limited, crops came to be enclosed and livestock was thus fenced out. Conversely, in New England and parts of the middle colonies, livestock was customarily fenced in. By no means restricted to agricultural use, fences also defined and protected all types of rural and urban spaces, such as churchyards, gardens, and workyards, throughout the colonies." -- Partitioning the Landscape by Vanessa E. Patrick

Library

Happy Birthday

 

Tucker House

 

"The St. George Tucker House is one of the original colonial homes in Historic Williamsburg. It was built in 1718–19 for William Levingston (who, incidentally, built the first theater in America). The house eventually came into the hands of St. George Tucker who had moved from Bermuda to Williamsburg. Tucker was a lawyer and professor of law at the College of William and Mary and later became a state and federal judge. In 1796, Judge Tucker wrote a controversial pamphlet addressed to the General Assembly of Virginia. In it he laid out a plan to end slavery in Virginia because 'the abolition of slavery was of great importance for the moral character of the citizens of Virginia.' He is also famous for his 1803 edition of Blackstone's Commentaries. which has become an indispensable American law text." -- Wikipedia