Albemarle County, Virginia, 1850-1870; an economic survey based on the U. S. census

This paper proposes to examine in some depth changes that occurred in Albemarle County, Virginia between 1850 and 1870. There was no preconceived idea of vindicating or destroying any particular interpretation or proving any specific points. It is an attempt to discover what changes took place in land ownership, slave ownership, and industry. More specifically, it seeks to determine whether the planter class consolidated its land and slave holdings, or whether democratization of them occurred. Finally it seeks to determine the influence of three important events on the County: the tobacco boom of the 1850s, the transportation revolution brought by the railroads, and the Civil War.

Digitization of this thesis was made possible by a generous grant from the Jefferson Trust, 2015.

Thesis originally deposited on 2016-03-14 in version 1.28 of Libra. This thesis was migrated to Libra2 on 2017-03-23 16:37:17.