Gunston Hall Plantation Library & Archives

BIBLIOGRAPHY

This bibliography provides a list of information resources covering the following subjects:

George Mason
Gunston Hall
Our Rights Heritage
Building a Nation
Slavery and 18th Century Race Relations
Everyday Life in 18th Century Virginia
For Student Readers
Internet Resources

Many of the book titles listed below are available in Gunston Hall's museum shop. Please call the shop for more information about availability and ordering at 703-550-9220.

Some titles, marked with a star, are out of print and may be difficult to find in your local library. If you wish to see any of these materials, please contact Gunston Hall's Librarian, Kevin Shupe, at 703-550-9220, or library@gunstonhall.org for more information.

George Mason

The Colonial Plantations of George Mason
by Robert M. Moxham. Springfield, VA: Colonial Press, 1974.
Provides information on George Mason's land holdings throughout Virginia.

The Five George Masons: Patriots and Planters of Virginia and Maryland
by Pamela C. Copeland and Richard K. Macmaster. Lorton, VA: The Board of Regents of Gunston Hall, 1975.
Traces the family from George Mason I who arrived in northern Virginia ca. 1651.

The First Amendment: The Legacy of George Mason
by T. Daniel Shumate, ed. Fairfax, VA: George Mason University Press, 1985.
The First Amendment's background and selected historical and current aspects are discussed by four authorities.

"Flawed Keepers of the Flame: The Interpreters of George Mason"
by Peter Wallenstein. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 102, no. 2 (April 1994) 229-270.
Focusing on the events of 1787 and 1788, Wallenstein "seeks to sort out Mason's actions and beliefs with regard to slavery, the slave trade, states' rights, and the Bill of Rights. . . This essay plays across a triangle of George Mason's words and actions, his interpreters to the historical profession, and his interpreters to the public.

Founding Fathers: Brief Lives of the Framers of the United States Constitution
by M. E. Bradford. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1994.
Offers a concise biography of George Mason and other Framers, and serves as an invaluable reference work.

"George Mason and the Conservation of Liberty"
by Brent Tarter. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 99, no. 3 (July 1991) 279-304.
Tarter seeks to clarify George Mason's "role in the creation of some of the most important texts of American liberty."

"George Mason and the Constitution"
by Josephine F. Pacheco. New York State Bar Journal, vol. 59 (October 1987) 10-17.

"George Mason and the Fairfax County Court"
by Joseph Horrell. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 91 no. 4 (1983) 418-439.

George Mason and the Legacy of Constitutional Liberty
by Donald J. Senese, ed. Fairfax, Virginia: Fairfax County History Commission, 1989.
Essays concerning Mason's influence on the Bill of Rights.

George Mason and the War for Independence
by Robert A. Rutland. Williamsburg, VA: Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission, 1976.

George Mason, Father of the Bill of Rights
by Carla R. Heymsfeld and Joan W. Lewis. Alexandria, Virginia: Patriotic Education Incorporated, 1991.
A well-documented account of Mason's life and contributions. For readers age 10 and up.

George Mason: Forgotten Founder
by Jeff Broadwater. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2006.
Publishers Weekly calls it an "engrossing biography.... Broadwater's prose is vigorous and his assessment of Mason judicious; this biography is a standout." Focusing attention on Mason's fear of unchecked political power and corruption, Broadwater sees Mason as a staunch supporter of civic virtue and a truly representative government.

"George Mason: Forgotten Founder, He Conceived the Bill of Rights"
by Stephan A Schwartz. Smithsonian Magazine vol. 31, no. 2 (May 2000) 143-154. See Internet Resources for an online version of this article.

George Mason: Gentleman Revolutionary
by Helen Hill Miller. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1975.
Particularly valuable on Mason's contributions to Virginia and the Constitution.

George Mason of Gunston Hall
by Helen Hill Miller. Lorton, VA: Board of Regents of Gunston Hall, 1958.

"George Mason: The Most Radical of Our Founding Fathers"
by Barbara Lauren. Torch Magazine, vol. 79, no. 2 (Winter 2005-2006) 24-27, 34.
Makes a case that Mason's influence on the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, and his opposition of slavery makes him "the most radical."

George Mason: Reluctant Statesman
by Robert A. Rutland. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1961.
A concise biography.

"George Mason's Pursuit of Religious Liberty in Revolutionary Virginia"
by Daniel L. Dreisbach. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 108, no. 1 (2000) 5-44.

The Life of George Mason, 1725-1792
by Kate Mason Rowland. 2 vols. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1892.

Natural Rights and Natural Law: The Legacy of George Mason
by Robert P. Davidow, ed. Fairfax, VA: The George Mason University Press, 1986.
Discusses the fundamental values underlying the Constitution and some modern applications.

The Ohio Company: Its Inner History
by Alfred P. James. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1959.
The Ohio company was an organization that invested in land located in the Ohio River Valley. Mason became the lifelong treasurer of the Ohio Company in 1751 and spent much of his time trying to reconcile claims made in the Company's name.

The Papers of George Mason
by Robert A Rutland, ed. 3 vols. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1970.
Includes valuable editorial notes.

The Recollections of John Mason: George Mason's Son Remembers His Father and Life at Gunston Hall,
edited by Terry K. Dunn. Marshall, Va. : EMI Publications, Inc., 2004.
Late in life, John Mason wrote his Recollections for his family. In this document he described his father and his family and provided images of eighteenth-century gentry life. This publication is distributed through Gunston Hall's Museum Shop.

"An Uneven Friendship: The Relationship Between George Washington and George Mason"
by Peter R. Henriques. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 97, no. 2 (April 1989) 185-204.

Gunston Hall

"Architect-Designed Furniture in Eighteenth-Century Virginia: The Work of William Buckland and William Bernard Sears"
by Luke Beckerdite. American Furniture (Milwaukee, WI: Chipstone Foundation, 1994) 29-48.
William Buckland was a carpenter-craftsman hired as an indentured servant by George Mason in 1755. He supervised the interior decoration of Gunston Hall. William Bernard Sears was a joiner and carver who it is believed is responsible for much of the detailed carvings of Gunston Hall. See Internet Resources for an online version of this article.

*Buckland: Master Builder of the 18^th Century
by Bennie Brown, ed. Lorton, VA: Board of Regents of Gunston Hall, 1977.

Historic Virginia Gardens: Preservations by the Garden Club of Virginia
by Dorothy Hunt Williams. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1975.
One chapter includes list of plants and detailed landscape drawings for the restoration of the gardens at Gunston Hall.

Of Land & Labor: Gunston Hall Plantation Life in the 18th Century
by M. Lauren Bisbee. Lorton, VA: Board of Regents, Gunston Hall, 1994.

"The Ownership of Architecture Books in Colonial Virginia"
by Bennie Brown. Published in American Architects and Their Books to 1848, ed. by Kenneth Hafertepe and James F. O'Gorman (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001) 17-33.
Discusses the books owned by William Buckland.

*What It Ought to Have Been: Three Case Studies of Early Restoration Work in Virginia
by Marilyn Harper. Master's thesis, George Washington University, 1989.
Includes early restoration attempts at Gunston Hall.

William Buckland, 1734-1774: Architect of Virginia and Maryland
by Rosamond Beirne and John H. Scarff. Lorton, VA: The Board of Regents of Gunston Hall and Hammond-Harwood House Association, 1958.
Informative chapters on Buckland's early career. A number of the houses credited to Buckland in this book are no longer thought to have been his work.

"William Buckland and William Bernard Sears: The Designer and the Carver"
by Luke Beckerdite. Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, 8 (November 1982) 7-40.

*William Buckland in England and America: His Apprenticeship, English Early Georgian Influences on his Style and New Evidence at Gunston Hall
by Georgina Louise Joyner. Master's thesis, University of Notre Dame, 1985.

"William Buckland Reconsidered: Architectural Carving in Chesapeake Maryland, 1771-1774"
by Luke Beckerdite. Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, 8 (November 1982) 43-88.

*The Work of William Buckland in Maryland, 1771-1774
by Barbara Allston Brand. Master's thesis, George Washington University, 1978.

Our Rights Heritage

American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence
by Pauline Maier. New York: Knopf, 1997.

The Bill of Rights: A Lively Heritage
by Jon Kukla, ed. Richmond, VA: Virginia State Library and Archives, 1987.
Contains essays on each of the amendments.

The Bill of Rights: A User's Guide
by Linda R. Monk. Arlington, VA: Close Up Foundation, 1991.
Discusses the history and modern role of the first ten amendments of the Bill of Rights.

The Birth of the Bill of Rights, 1776-1791
by Robert Rutland. New York: Collier Books, 1962.

The Bill of Rights and the States: The Colonial and Revolutionary Origins of American Liberties
by Patrick Conley, ed. Madison, WI: Madison House, 1992.

The Bill of Rights: Original Meaning and Current Understanding
by Eugene W. Hickok, Jr. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1991.

Constitutional History of the American Republic: Authority of Rights, vol. 1
by John Philip Reid. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1986.
Provides a complete, detailed, and closely argued discussion of the taxation question, including legal and constitutional rights and policy thinking.

Contexts of the Bill of Rights
by Stephen Schechter, ed. Albany, NY: New York State Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution, 1990.
"This book establishes the intellectual, political, and historiographical context of the formation of the Bill of Rights. It analyzes the intellectual origins of the Bill of Rights and traces the debate over how best to preserve liberty."

Creating the Bill of Rights: the Documentary Record from the First Federal Congress
edited by Helen E. Veit, Kenneth R. Bowling, and Charlene Bangs Bickford. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.

Declaring Rights: A Brief History with Documents
by Jack N. Rakove
Using primary documents Rakove provides a concise study of the Constitutional struggle between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists and how that relates to modern-day issues. This is an excellent resource for teaching about the conception and development of the Bill of Rights.

Devising Liberty: Preserving and Creating Freedom in the New American Republic
by David Thomas Konig. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995.

Emergence of a Free Press
by Leonard W. Levy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
In a controversial book which examines the meaning of free press, Levy contends that the "Framers meant a right to engage in rasping, corrosive, and offensive discussions on all topics of public interest."

The First Amendment: The Legacy of George Mason
by T. Daniel Shumate, ed. Fairfax, VA: George Mason University Press, 1985.

The Fourth Estate and the Constitution: Freedom of the Press in America
by L. A. Scott Powe. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
While much of Powe's discussion focuses on the modern interpretations of freedom of the press, his study begins with a look at the history of the first amendment.

The Great Rights of Mankind: A History of the American Bill of Rights
by Bernard Schwartz. Madison, WI: Madison House, 1992.

In Our Defense
by Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy. New York: William Morrow, 1991.
The Bill of Rights in action.

Locke in America
by Jerome Huyler. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1995.
Huyler builds on the work of noted historians to argue that the American revolutionaries, the Federalists, the Antifederalists, and the Jeffersonian republicans were all committed to a set of moral and political beliefs which were readily available and clearly articulated in Locke's writings.

Principles of Democracy: The Constitution and the Bill of Rights
by Ellen Hansen, ed. Carlisle, MA: Discovery Enterprises, LTD., 1995.

The Roots of Democracy: American Thought and Culture, 1760-1800
by Robert E. Shalhope. Boston: Twayne, 1990.
An interpretation of the tremendous transformations in political and cultural life of American Society.

Roots of the Republic: American Founding Documents Interpreted
by Stephen Schechter. Madison, WI: Madison House, 1990.

To Secure These Rights: The Declaration of Independence and Constitutional Interpretation
by Scott Douglas Gerber. New York: New York University Press, 1995.
Gerber examines the classic sense of the terms "liberal" and "conservative" in examining the basic purpose of government as a safeguard of the natural rights of individuals.

Building a Nation

The Anti-Federalist: Writings by the Opponents of the Constitution
edited by Herbert J. Storing; Selected by Murray Dry from The Complete Anti-Federalist. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
"The purpose of this abridgement of Herbert J. Storing's The Complete Anti-Federalist is to provide students of American political thought, especially those concerned with the American founding, with a one-volume companion to The Federalist. The writings and speeches have been chosen on the basis of the importance of their arguments and their prominence in the ratification campaign."

The Antifederalists
by Cecelia Kenyon, ed. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merill, 1966.

The Anti-Federalists: Critics of the Constitution, 1781-1788
by Jackson Turner Main. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1961.
Examines the philosophical attitudes and political activity of the opponents to the Constitution.

The Anti-Federalists and Early American Political Thought
by Christopher M. Duncan. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1995.
Duncan argues that the "American Anti-Federalists were different from their Federalist counterparts not merely in degree but also in kind, and that each group constructed a political theorization congruent with its political faith.

Are We to Be A Nation?
by Richard Bernstein and Kym S. Rice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987.
A story of the revolution in political thought which resulted in the U.S. Constitution. Illustrated with documents assembled by the New York Public Library.

Birth of the Constitution
by Edmund Lindop. Hillside, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 1987.
A readable account of how the Constitution was created and what this document has meant over the years.

A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution
by Carol Berkin. Hillside, NY: Harcourt, 2002.
This a readable account of the formation of the Constitution, written in a clear narrative style for a non-scholarly audience.

Constitucion de Estados Unidos Y Enmiendas (The U.S. Constitution and Amendments)
by Carlos B. Vega, trans. Gaithersburg, MD: V&A Communications, 1981.
The Constitution translated into Spanish.

The Constitution and the States: The Role of the Original Thirteen in the Framing and Adoption of the Federal Constitution
edited by Patrick Conley and John P. Kaminski. Madison, WI: Madison House, 1988.
A series of essays including ones by Gregory Stiverson of Maryland and Alan V. Briceland of Virginia dealing with each states’ national constitution-making process.

The Constitutional Convention & the Formation of the Union
edited by Winston V. Solberg. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1990.
Solberg "presents and explicates James Madison’s notes on the debates of the founding fathers at the 1787 Philadelphia convention to provide a firsthand view of the drafting of the Constitution.

Federalists and Antifederalist: the Debate Over the Ratification of the Constitution
by John Kaminski, ed. Madison, WI: Madison House, 1989.

Fifty-five Men: The Story of the Constitution
by Fred Rodell. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1986.
An easy-to-read account of the Constitution, based on the daily notes of James Madison.

"George Mason and the Constitution"
by Josephine F. Pacheco. New York State Bar Journal, vol. 59 (October 1987) 10-17.

The Great Rehearsal
by Carl Van Doren. New York: Penguin Books, 1987.
The story of the writing and ratifying of the Constitution.

How Free Are We? What the Constitution Says We Can and Cannot Do
by John Sexton and Nat Brandt. New York, M. Evans,1986.
Arranged in question-and-answer format, with clear explanations of legal reasoning.

"The Ideology of Court and Country in the Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788"
by J. Thomas Wren. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 93 no. 4 (1985) 389 - 408; 1985.

Jefferson's Pillow: The Founding Fathers and the Delemma of Black Patriotism
by Roger Wilkins. Boston, Beacan Press, 2001.
Wilkins attempts to measure the American legacy of slavery and racial discrimination against the country’s ideals of freedom and equality. He focuses on four founding fathers from Virginia, Jefferson, Madison, Washington and Mason, contrasting their humanistic failings and struggles with the possibilities they created. This powerful and very readable book is partly a personal inquiry and partly a call for a broader retelling of history. It is an important book for understanding Mason and slavery from a contemporary perspective.

Letters of Liberty: A Documentary History of the U. S. Constitution
by John H. Rhodehamel. Los Angelos: Constitutional Rights Foundation, 1988.
Illustrations and descriptions of manuscript items in the Huntington Library collection including George Mason's working copy of the Constitution.

The Living U.S. Constitution
by Saul K. Padover and Jacob W. Landynski. New York: World Publishing Co., 1968.
Thirty-five landmark Supreme Court decisions illustrate the history of the Constitution.

A Machine That Would Go of Itself
by Michael Kammen. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986. Republished, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994.
This award-winning and very readable history, first published in 1986, follows the idea and impact of the Constitution through the course of American history, mostly focusing on the political uses and the struggles over court powers.

The Making of the American Constitution
by Merrill Jensen. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing Co., 1979.
The origins, writing, and adoption of the U. S. Constitution.

Moyers: Report from Philadelphia
by Bill Moyers. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987.
Based on the PBS television series on the Federal Convention.

Natural Rights and Natural Law: The Legacy of George Mason
edited by Robert P. Davidow. Fairfax, VA: The George Mason University Press, 1986.
Discusses the fundamental values underlying the Constitution and some modern applications.

A Necessary Evil? Slavery and the Debate Over the Constitution
by John Kaminski, ed. Madison, WI: Madison House, 1995.

The Ordeal of the Constitution: The Anti-Federalists and the Ratification Struggle, 1787-1788
by Robert Rutland. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1983.

Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution
by Jack N. Rakove. New York: A. A. Knopf, 1996.
Rakove examines the classic issues that the framers of the Constitution had to solve: federalism, representation, executive power, rights & ideas that a constitution somehow embodied supreme law. Extensive citing of George Mason.

The Other Founders: Antifederalism and the Dissenting Tradition in America, 1788-1828
by Saul Cornell. Chapel Hill: Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, by the University of North Carolina Press, 1999.

Principles of Democracy: The Constitution and the Bill of Rights
edited by Ellen Hansen. Carlisle, MA: Discovery Enterprises, LTD., 1995.

The Selling of the Constitutional Convention: A History of News Coverage
by John Alexander. Madison, WI: Madison House, 1990.
"In this revealing exposé of media management in the eighteenth century, Alexander demonstrates how publishers' tacit political assumptions and their tightly woven information networks channeled public debate over the issue."

Slavery and 18th Century Race Relations

American Slavery, American Freedom
by Edmund S. Morgan. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1975.
A detailed look at slavery in colonial Virginia.

Ar'n't I a Woman?
by Deborah Gray White. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1985.
Compares the myths and realities of life for female slaves on the plantation.

From Calabar to Carter's Grove: The History of a Virginia Slave
by Lorena S. Walsh. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1997.
A substantial history of a seventeenth and eighteenth century tidewater Virginia slave community, researched using diverse records and archaeological evidence.

In the Matter of Color: The Colonial Period
by A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.
"Judge Higginbotham chronicles in unrelenting detail the role of the law in the enslavement and subjugation of black Americans during the colonial period."

A Necessary Evil? Slavery and the Debate Over the Constitution
by John Kaminski, ed. Madison, WI: Madison House, 1995.

The Political Economy of Slavery
by Eugene D. Genovese. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1989.
This book has been described as "one of those books that rearrange basic concepts, so that even though debate continues, it no longer travels over the same tracts."

Race and Revolution
by Gary B. Nash. Madison, WI: Madison House, 1990.
Nash studies "the Revolutionary generation's early efforts to right the contradiction of slavery and the ultimate compromises that strengthened the institution after 1788."

Roots of American Racism: Essays on the Colonial Experience
by Alden T. Vaughan. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Vaughn focuses on the variable role of cultural and racial perceptions on colonial policies, and explores the origins of slavery and racism in Virginia, the Puritan war against the Pequots, and other racial clashes.

Slavery in the Chesapeake
by David Brion Davis. Foundation of America Series, Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1986.

Stand the Storm: A History of the Atlantic Slave Trade
by Edward Reynolds. Chicago: I. R. Dee, 1993.
Reynolds has developed a graphic portrait of the Atlantic slave trade which uses primary and contemporary sources to present a realistic and balanced picture of the trade and its consequences.

The World the Slave Holders Made: Two Essays in Interpretation
by Eugene D. Genovese. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1988.
Genovese systematically explores what slaveholders thought.

Everyday Life in 18th Century Virginia

Colonial Virginians At Play
by Jane Carson. Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1989.
Describes home entertainments, games, and sports, with a section on public times in Williamsburg.

A Colonial Woman's Bookshelf
by Kevin J. Hayes. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1996.
A social and literary history which reconstructs what might have filled a typical colonial woman's' bookshelf, reviewing evidence of women owning books and considering why they read them.

Common People and Their Material World: Free Men and Women in the Chesapeake, 1700-1830
edited by David Harvey and Gregory Brown. Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1995.
A product of Colonial Williamsburg Research Publications, this study contains several essays devoted to the social life and customs of the "common people."

The Crafts of Williamsburg
by James S. Wamsley, Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1982. World of Williamsburg Series.
Celebrates the artisans of eighteenth-century Williamsburg and their contemporary counterparts.

Eighteenth-Century Clothing at Williamsburg
by Linda Baumgarten. Williamsburg, Virginia: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1989.
Discusses the tremendous variety in wearing apparel of men, women, children in the 1700s. Ninety illustrations with details.

Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia
by Kathleen Brown. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
This book places gender at the center of early Virginia History. It provides another way of looking at the past and hearing from some of the other people who lived in Virginia.

Inside the Great House
by Daniel Blake Smith. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1980.
Explores the nature of the family experience in 18th-century Chesapeake society.

Journal and Letters of Philip Vickers Fithian, 1773-1774: A Plantation Tutor of the Old Dominion
by Hunter Dickinson Farish, ed. Charlottesville, VA: The University Press of Virginia, 1957.
Offers insight into life on a gentry plantation.

The Journal of John Harrower: An Indentured Servant in the Colony of Virginia, 1773-1776
by Edward Miles Riley, ed. Williamsburg, Virginia: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1963.
A rare story of what it was like to work as an indentured servant in the South.

Of Land & Labor: Gunston Hall Plantation Life in the 18th Century
by M. Lauren Bisbee. Lorton, VA: Board of Regents, Gunston Hall, 1994.

A Place in Time
by Darrett B. Rutman and Anita H. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1984.
A study of changing social patterns from 1650-1750 in Middlesex County, Virginia.

A Planter's Republic: The Search for Economic Independence in Revolutionary Virginia
by Bruce A. Ragsdale. Madison, WI: Madison House, 1996.
Early Virginians "pursued a vision of economic independence that they considered a prerequisite for liberty, security, and prosperity of their state. That vision reflected a determination to free themselves from the demands of British merchants and the restrictions of the tobacco trade while maintaining the viability of Virginia's plantation system."

Political Life in Eighteenth-Century Virginia
by Jack P. Greene. Foundation of America Series, Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1986.

Revival, Revolution, and Religion in Early Virginia
by Edwin S. Gaustad. Foundation of America Series, Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1994.

Tobacco and Slaves: The Development of Southern Cultures in the Chesapeake, 1680-1800
by Allan Kulikoff. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.
A comprehensive study of changing social relations.

Tobacco Culture
by T. H. Breen. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985.
Considers the mentality of planters in the Tidewater on the eve of revolution.

The Transformation of Virginia,1740-1790
by Rhys Isaac. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1982.
Stimulating chapters on the social landscape, celebrations, and community.

Virginia Women: The First Two Hundred Years
by Anne Firor and Suzanne Lebsock. Foundation of America Series, Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1988.

Virginians At Home: Family Life in the Eighteenth Century
by Edmund S. Morgan. Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1952.
An engaging account of life in colonial Virginia.

The World They Made Together
by Michael Sobel. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987.
A provocative discussion of African-American and white values in eighteenth-century Virginia.

Worlds of Experience: Communities in Colonial Virginia
by Rhys Isaac. Foundation of America Series, Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1987.
This book "presents an overall view of daily life for people in colonial Virginia. Isaac compares the experiences and concerns of three main groups: slaves, common planters (small farmers), and gentry.

For Student Readers

American Heroes: In and Out of Schools
by Nat Hentoff. New York: Delacorte Press, 1987.
Relates actual encounters by students of violations of the Bill of Rights. (Grades 7+)

The Bill of Rights
by Warren Colman. Chicago: Children's Press, 1987. (Grades 3-6)

The Bill of Rights and You
by Steve Jenkins, L. Riekes, R. Goldman, and P. McKissack. St. Paul, Minnesota: West Publishing Company, 1990. (Grades 7+)
Asks students to consider the historical origins, fundamental principles, and current applications of the Bill of Rights. Teachers' guide available.

The Bill of Rights: How We Got It and What It Means
by Milton Meltzer. New York: Crowell, Thomas Y., 1990. (Grades 7+)
Shows how our liberties have been contested since the adoption of the Bill of Rights.

The Constitution
by Warren Colman. Chicago: Children's Press, 1987. (Grades 3-6)

The Day They Came to Arrest the Book
by Nat Hentoff. New York: Delacorte Press, 1982. (Grades 7+)
A novel about the censorship of books in the schools.

George Mason: Father of the Bill of Rights
by Carla R Heysmfeld and Joan W. Lewis. Alexandria, Virginia: Patriotic Education Incorporated, 1991. (Grades 7+)
A well-documented account of Mason's life and contributions.

If You Lived in Colonial Times
by Ann McGovern. New York: Four Winds Press, 1966. (Grades 3-6)

The Living Constitution: Landmark Supreme Court Decisions
by Peter Sgroi. New York: J. Messner, 1987. (Grades 5+)

A More Perfect Union: The Story of the Constitution
by Betsy and Giulio Maestro. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1987. (Grades 3-6)

Shh! We're Writing the Constitution
by Jean Fritz. New York: Putnam, 1987. (Grades 3-6)

We the People: The Constitution of the United States of America
by Peter Spier. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1987. (Grades 3-6)

A Williamsburg Household
by Joan Anderson. New York: Clarion Books, 1988. (Grades 3-6)

Internet Resources

Architect-Designed Furniture in Eighteenth-Century Virginia: The Work of William Buckland and William Bernard Sears
by Luke Beckerdite. Originally published in American Furniture (Milwaukee, WI: Chipstone Foundation, 1994) 29-48. http://www.chipstone.org/publications/1994AF/index1994Beck.html

George Mason's "Objections" and the Bill of Rights, by Robert A. Rutland. American Political Science Association and American Historical Association.
http://www.apsanet.org/CENnet/thisconstitution/rutland.cfm
This essay was from This Constitution: A Bicentennial Chronicle, Fall 1985, published by the American Political Science Association and American Historical Association. Prof. Rutland was the editor of The Papers of George Mason.

Forgotten Founder, by Stephan A. Schwartz. Originally published in the Smithsonian Magazine, May 2000, pp. 143-154.
http://stephanaschwartz.com/HTML/George%20Mason.html

"The Greatest American Who Was Never President," by John Silveira. Backwoods Home Magazine. Issue 60 (1999).
http://backwoodshome.com/articles/silveira60a.html

Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hh:@field(DOCID+@lit(VA0433))
Includes a detailed architectural history, photographs and architectural drawings from a survey done in 1981.

Selected Works of R. Carter Pittman.
http://www.jtl.org/pittman/
R. Carter Pittman (1898-1972) was a lawyer and author of numerous essays on Constitutional law and history. Much of his writing and research focused on George Mason and the Bill of Rights.