Westmoreland County

In the decades following the Civil War, Chesapeake Bay became the scene of a life and death struggle to harvest the oyster, one of the most valuable commodi­ties on the Atlantic coast. In this book, noted historian and author John Wennersten tells the stories of wa­termen, law enforcement officers, government officials, Bay scientists, immi­grants, and oyster shuckers involved in the oyster trade.
(From the publisher's description)

Robert Carter III was born into the highest circles of Virginia's Colonial aristocracy, neighbor and kin to the Washingtons and Lees and a friend and peer to Thomas Jefferson and George Mason. But in 1791, Carter severed his ties with this elite at the stroke of a pen. Having gradually grown to feel that what he possessed was not truly his, clashing repeatedly with his neighbors, his friends, government officials, and, most poignantly, his own family, he set free nearly five hundred slaves in the largest single act of liberation in the history of American slavery before the Emancipation Proclamation.
(From the publisher's description)

"There are few American families that feature such a collection of characters, both heroic and ignoble, who have made such a mark on history as the Lees. In The Lees of Virginia, Paul Nagel chronicles seven generations of Lees, covering over two hundred years of accolades and scandals. We meet Thomas Lee, who dreamed of America as a continental empire, and his son, Arthur Lee, who created a political storm with his accusations against Benjamin Franklin. Arthur's cousin was Light-Horse Harry Lee, a controversial cavalry officer in the Revolutionary War, whose wild real estate speculation led to imprisonment for debt and finally self-exile in the Caribbean. One of Harry's sons, Henry Lee, further disgraced the family by seducing his sister-in-law and frittering away Stratford, the Lees' ancestral home. It was a third son, Robert E. Lee, who would become the family's redeeming figure, a brilliant tactician still revered for his lofty character and military success. In these and numerous other portraits, Nagel discloses how, from 1640 to 1870, a family spirit united the Lees, making them a force in Virginian and American affairs."
(From the publisher's description)

A lengthy, illustrated guide to George Washington's birthplace, also known as Pope's Creek Plantation or Wakefield.

From Tom Lee to Robert E. Lee, who made the fateful decision to turn from the nation he loved to defend the state he loved more, the Lees of Virginia dominated both their local and our national landscape.
From the publisher's description

"...a unique study of the traditions, institutions, and people who were involved in teaching and educating the black population throughout the county. In this volume, with many never-before-published photographs, you will take a visual journey through the area's past and visit the one and two-room schoolhouses of Templemans, Potomac, and some of the smaller areas, such as Frog Hall and Mudbridge; and meet the dedicated and creative teachers and their students who studied and learned in this picturesque region nestled between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers."
From the publisher's description