Author Archives: Will
Fxbg’s Landscape of Slave-Made Capitalism
This recent post by Julia Ott, a historian of capitalism at the New School, articulates forcefully a point that can’t be repeated enough: in a very real sense, slaves were the capital that made the emergence of capitalism possible. … Continue reading
Posted in Historian in the World
Tagged Auction Block, Fredericksburg, historic district, History, Landscape of Slavery, slavery, Virginia
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Discussing My Cliometric Odyssey
Next Wednesday, April 16th, I will be talking with the Department of History and American Studies about an ongoing cliometrical research experiment I have been undertaking this academic year. With a research team of two outstanding senior history majors, Leah … Continue reading
Posted in Digital Life, Historian in the World, Teaching
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Fixing FXBG’s Traffic
Fredericksburg can be a weird place to live. If you stay downtown, life flows smoothly and easily along, with relatively few delays and inconveniences. But if you leave “the bubble” (as Brian calls it) then things get ugly really fast. … Continue reading
A Month on my RSS Drip
As part of the Domain of One’s Own Faculty Initiative this spring, I began to explore the world of RSS feeds. Perhaps my favorite part of the DoOOFI was its focus on managing incoming flows of digital information. The immersive … Continue reading
In Defense of the Econoline
After briefly flirting with the status of two-car family, an unfortunate encounter with a new 16-year-old driver in Fairfax this weekend has knocked us back down to being a one-car family again. I thought I would take advantage of this … Continue reading
Inhabiting NC’s Landscape of Jim Crow
My two recent posts on Carter’s Grove and Beverly Wellford’s physician/slave insurance office have gotten me thinking about the experience of inhabiting historic landscapes of slavery as a modern historian and general Yankee. This past weekend, I had another direct … Continue reading
Posted in Historian in the World
Tagged Durham, Fredericksburg, Landscape of Slavery, North Carolina, real estate, slavery
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Utopianism and Media, Then and Now
This week’s readings on the future of the internet seem deeply steeped in the utopianism of internet culture. This utopianism has always struck me as the most salient feature of writing about internet culture, especially by those authors who are … Continue reading
Inhabiting Fxbg’s Landscape of Slavery
In my last post on Carter’s Grove, I found myself imaging what it would be like to inhabit a landscape so thoroughly imbued with slavery. This train of thought led to my wondering about Fredericksburg’s landscape of slavery. Slavery is … Continue reading
Carter’s Grove is For Sale
Does anyone want to give me $15 million? All I found under the couch this morning was a dime. I ask because Carter’s Grove, a plantation built on the James River just below Williamsburg in early 1750s for the descendants of Robert … Continue reading
Posted in Historian in the World, The Aspiring Handyman
Tagged estates, Landscape of Slavery, real estate, slavery, Virginia
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The Accidental Digital Scholar
Reading through the Weller piece for this weeks’ DoOO discussion, I realized that I have become something of a digital scholar without entirely intending it. When I began to form my scholarly identity in my early graduate school years, “digital … Continue reading
