Letterbook of John Curtis IV of Williamsburg, 1717-1742

This absorbing letterbook, meticulously edited and thoroughly annotated, provides remarkable insight into the life and concerns of 18th-century colonial Virginians. The letters are especially revealing about economic life, the material culture of colonial Virginia, and the treacherous legal and financial conditions in which even important planters operated. The correspondence clearly shows how a wealthy colonial planter uses and could be misused by the British mercantile system. The letters also provide a view of the personal side of the sober and overly frugal Custis: his fashionable passion for gardening (in which he was inferior to few if any in Virginia); his strife-filled nine-year marriage to Frances Parke, before her death from smallpox; and his uneven relationships with his son and daughter.Schechter, Stephen L. is the author of 'Letterbook of John Curtis IV of Williamsburg, 1717-1742 ' with ISBN 9780945612803 and ISBN 094561280X.