Jordan's Point, Virginia: Archaeology in Perspective, Prehistoric to Modern Times

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Overview

Jordan’s Point, a nearly triangular promontory in the James River, is situated in Prince George County, just east of the confluence of the James and Appomattox Rivers. A broad terrace overlooking the James, Jordan’s Point is bounded by small streams, tidal marshes, and protective uplands that rise to a height of 100 feet or more. In 1607, when the first European colonists saw Jordan’s Point, it was graced by the homes and cleared fields of natives they would call the Weyanoke. Virginia colonist Samuel Jordan established a community called Jordan’s Journey around 1621, giving his name to what became known as Jordan’s Point.

In time, the settlement became a hub of social and political life. By 1660, Jordan’s Point had come into the possession of the Blands, one of England’s most important mercantile families.
They leased their property to one or more of their agents, usually merchants and mariners involved in inter-colonial trade. Richard Bland I and his descendants developed Jordan’s Point into a family seat and working plantation they retained until after the Civil War. At Jordan’s Point enslaved men, women, and children toiled in the fields, enabling the Blands to prosper. Richard Bland IV went on to become a distinguished American patriot, and one of his sons became a physician.

Featuring more than one hundred photos and illustrations, most in color, and intended for a general reader,
Jordan’s Point, Virginia: Archaeology in Perspective, Prehistoric to Modern Times tells the story of Jordan’s Point, which spans thousands of years, through the cultural features that archaeologists have unearthed there. This is a book that will attract readers interested in Native American studies, Virginia and colonial history, and archaeology.

Distributed for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780615455402
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Publication date: 11/29/2011
Pages: 144
Sales rank: 840,121
Product dimensions: 6.34 (w) x 9.25 (h) x 0.32 (d)

Meet the Author

Martha W. McCartney is the author of six books, including
Jamestown: An American Legacy. She is the recipient of many professional honors, including a 2001 Daughters of the American Revolution’s National History Award. A former historian for the Virginia Research Center for Archaeology, she has served as a consultant to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation,
the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, and the National Park Service.

Foreword vii

Introduction ix

Chapter 1 Virginia's Native People 1

Chapter 2 Cultures Collide 15

Chapter 3 The Colony Takes Root 27

Chapter 4 Jordan's Journey 41

Chapter 5 The Archaeology of Jordan's Journey 61

Chapter 6 The Context of Settlement 83

Chapter 7 The Blands of Jordan's Point 97

Chapter 8 Entering A New Era 111

Chapter 9 The Beginning of the End 127

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Jimsonharvest

Posted December 21, 2011

Toward a Holistic History of Jamestown

Archaeology is belying many of educators¿ and popular long-held beliefs about Jamestown as America¿s first permanent English colony. A century and a half after New England historians, principally Henry Adams, denigrated and desecrated its heritage and place in our history in the cause of Union superiority, a more factual picture is gradually emerging from Historic Jamestown and other proximate sites.

At America¿s most important archaeological dig, Bill Kelso and his intrepid Jamestown Discovery team have most recently enabled us to learn about James Fort and the first Protestant church in America that both date from 1608. We know where Pocahontas was wed in 1614, then to become one of the parents to our nation¿s first economic boom with the birth of the tobacco industry. He also has explored and told us of Kingsmill Plantation, one of Jamestown¿s major proximate settlements.

Martha McCartney has now produced her well-researched, wide-sweeping and detailed examination of Jordan¿s Point, another important early and contemporaneous outpost up the James River from Jamestown. She relates archaeological findings that explore its history from prehistoric to our own times. She also interweaves a needed historical context of the colony¿s beginnings and formational events with descriptions of who was living and what was happening at Jordan¿s Point and among those of the archaeology that was performed there from the 1930¿s into the 1990¿s.

She begins by telling us about what has been found of the indigenous inhabitants of this peninsula just east of the convergence of the Appomattox with the James. This a formidable start for the average reader, who must plow though detail that is replete with arcane reference points about the Native American dwelling, grave and other sites. Then she unfolds her more readable contextual chronicle of Jamestown¿s early years in the following chapters on the continuing history of Jordan¿s Point.

One of her features is the two-page reproduction of a rare, colored version of John Smith¿s extraordinary 1612 map of Virginia. Now preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, it is the best example of the quality of the book¿s many fine illustrations. Many of these are of artifacts recovered by highly respected archaeologists that help us understand what daily living implements were then employed. Among them are well done renditions by Jamie May, Senior Staff Archaeologist at the Jamestown Rediscovery.

This book is an important testament to the need to explore, document and characterize other proximate settlements before modern development obscures and destroys all evidence of their heritage. This has happened at Jordan¿s Point, which has been obliterated by ¿Jordan on the James.¿

The reader would have been better served with an index and a list of illustrations and maps with the table of Contents. Equally, there should have been an earlier introduction of a regional map locating Jordan¿s Point; The archaeological reference points could have used some kind of indexing or comprehensible locators on maps. In addition, McCartney would have benefited from some judicious editing.
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