Introduction: Subversions, ethnic dynamics, and racism -- Elite strategies, local networks -- Part 1: Ethnicity and commodity chains in nineteenth-century Virginia -- George Washington's great emporium -- The testimony of merchants -- Ethnic networks and a cultural landscape in the backcountry -- Local archaeology and transatlantic competitions -- Concluding observations: Ethnic networks in a Mid-Atlantic periphery -- Part 2: Racism, land, and freedom in nineteenth-century Illinois -- Overcoming enslavement with toil, gunpowder, and land -- Racism's waste and resilient entrepreneurs -- Surmounting adversities in the Land of Lincoln -- Concluding observations: Understanding histories with concepts of race and ethnicity
Summary
"Using two case studies in the Virginia back country and the Midwestern frontier in Illinois, Fennell argues that individuals and their families were able to affect economic development and the plans of government and wealthy elites"--Provided by publisher
