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Article: In the Absence of Towns: Settlement and Country Trade in Southside Virginia,1730-1800.
- Article from:
- The Historian
- Article date:
- March 22, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In this well conceived and nicely executed work of historical geography, Charles J. Farmer provides a thorough description and analysis of settlement evolution and patterns of economic life in eighteenth-century Southside Virginia, a region noted for its absence of towns during this period despite its having been an era of town-building elsewhere in the southern backcountry of British North America. In the decentralized settlement system that evolved, urban functions were carried out in country stores, which were dispersed across the countryside. Farmer's main analytical focus is set upon these country stores, and his most basic purpose is to explain their origins and ...