Description
A colorful narrative history of colonial America traces the development of the Dismal Swamp Company, which proposed draining and developing a vast region along the Virginia/North Carolina border, and the schemers, scalawags, and dreamers involved in the failed scheme. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.
Read More
From historian Charles Royster--winner of the Francis Parkman, Bancroft, and Lincoln prizes--comes the history of one of eighteenth-century America's most fantastic land speculation deals: William Byrd's scheme to develop 900 square miles of swamp on the Virginia-North Carolina border and create fabulous wealth for himself and other shareholders, including George Washington.Royster scrupulously follows the paper trail through the byways of transatlantic deal-cutting, providing a rare view of early American economic culture. Elegantly written and impressively researched, The Fabulous History of the Dismal Swamp Company is an eye-opening account of greed, folly, and venture capitalism in the revolutionary era.
Read Less