The Virginia Dynasties

The novelist and historian, who has devoted considerable attention to the Less of Virginia in the past, reconstructs the events and personalities of the Virginia of 1676 to 1732. Beginning with Bacon's Rebellion, that ""yeoman"" effort to unseat the power of Governor Berkeley, the author proceeds to the career of Robert ""King"" Carter, an enlightened robber baron, a ""leader of responsible government,"" a land-grabber of awesome magnitude. And yet it was his establishment of a stable and promising climate, although managed by an oligarchical hierarchy, that provided a ground for a ""machinery"" of advance which ""made Jefferson possible."