A book can inspire many things. These past few weeks I’ve been inspired by “Bound Away, Virginia and the Westward Movement” by David Hackett Fischer and James C. Kelly. The authors do a terrific job covering migration to, within and from the state. I was most captivated by the latter. Little did I realize the totality of the Virginia story, those who migrated not only westward, but southward and even northward. And the story goes way beyond sheer numbers.
I prepared this map of select individuals and compiled the accompanying list. It could be broken down into the “Fathers of” such as Stephen Austin (Father of Texas), the “Founders of,” such as John Donelson (Nashville), the “portable planters” like David Meade, the frontiersmen (Simon Kenton), the mountain men (Jim Bridger), the courageous enslaved African Americans such as Clara Brown (known as the “Angel of the Rockies”), and the family members who also had it tough.
And, of course, there were those who did not go willingly. The forever scar is the Virginia migrants who took a lot of enslaved humans with them. Dred Scott and his family were taken from Virginia. Their saga tells us something very important about the growth of the United States.
Lewis and Clark were not migrants, per se, but they knew a thing or two about blazing a trail. Our list doesn’t have a particular order, but it does begin George Washington, who promoted and invested in the west, and Thomas Jefferson, who purchased a large chunk of it.
The authors touch on many aspects of migration from Virginia. Another category could be the cultural contributors. George Caleb Bingham left Augusta County and headed to Missouri. He fought for the Union and held political office before becoming a noted portraitist and historical painter (over 500 recorded works).
Mark Twain was not born or raised in Virginia but his father was, and as his biographers have pointed out, Twain used the “old-fashioned Virginian” in his thoughts and writings.
We’d be remiss, of course, for not mentioning Virginia City. The authors do mention the story that a drunken James Fennimore gave the boom town its name, and add that the name caught on “perhaps because Wells Fargo only set up offices in cities.”
Perhaps that one is apocryphal. The rest are solidly researched and told. It all adds up to something quite remarkable. We hope our encapsulation is worthy of this fine book, and perhaps even inspires you.
Note: We wondered if the great migration from Virginia is reflected in the number of historical markers in the U.S. The method is flawed, but Virginia does rank second highest with currently more than 9,000 markers and has a nation-wide spread.
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