HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

Ghost Walls: The Story of a 17th-Century Colonial Homestead

by Sally M. Walker

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations
1611,295,836 (5)None
In 1638, John Lewger made a home in the wilderness of the New World, in a place called Maryland. He named his house St. John's, and for nearly eighty years, it was the center of an ambitious English plan to build a new kind of community on American soil. Men and women lived and worked within its walls. Babies were born. Last breaths drawn. St. John's walls witnessed the first stirrings of the great struggles that would dominate the continent for the next three centuries: The unimaginable wealth of the New World's crops and natural resources. The promise of religious tolerance under a new model of government. The injustice of slavery. The betrayal of native peoples. The struggle for equality between men and women. If St. John's walls could have talked, they would have spoken volumes of American history. And then the walls crumbled. One hundred years after it was built, St. John's House had been abandoned. The buildings slowly deteriorated, returning to the Maryland soil to be plowed under by generations of Maryland farmers. St. John's walls were silent for more than two centuries, little more than ghosts haunting the historical and archeological records. But they weren't lost. Not entirely. Award-winning author Sally M. Walker tells the story of how teams of scientists and historians managed to hear the ghostly echoes of St. John's House and, over the course of decades of painstaking work, made them speak their stories again.… (more)
None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

Ghost Walls: The Story of a 17th Century Colonial Homestead
by Sally M. Walker

Thank you Lerner Publishing Group, Carolrhoda Books and Netgalley.com for the opportunity to preview this book.

This 84 page children's book , Ghost Walls, is a fact-studded history of the colonial home of the John Lewger family of St. Mary's City, Maryland. The home was built in 1638 near the St. Mary's River; a 100 mile boat trip from the only other settlement, Jamestown, VA.

The book is much more than a children's book; it is a primer for anyone interested in colonial (Maryland) history and politics, archaeology, religious strife, racial and gender roles, and native American relations. There is not a wasted word and the book is chock full of fascinating graphics and photographs. The author has done a superb job of bringing the construction, abandonment and resurrection of this homestead to the reader. The archaeological site is now preserved within a uniquely constructed museum.

Intensive research into the various owners of the property over the life-time of the house provides a captivating snapshot of the individuals themselves. The photographs of some of the unearthed artifacts bring the people alive in your mind; you can practically smell the tobacco burning in the pipes at the town meetings.

I would highly recommend it for libraries in the mid-Atlantic states and specially for Maryland and Virginia.
( )
  Itzey | Jan 23, 2016 |
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

In 1638, John Lewger made a home in the wilderness of the New World, in a place called Maryland. He named his house St. John's, and for nearly eighty years, it was the center of an ambitious English plan to build a new kind of community on American soil. Men and women lived and worked within its walls. Babies were born. Last breaths drawn. St. John's walls witnessed the first stirrings of the great struggles that would dominate the continent for the next three centuries: The unimaginable wealth of the New World's crops and natural resources. The promise of religious tolerance under a new model of government. The injustice of slavery. The betrayal of native peoples. The struggle for equality between men and women. If St. John's walls could have talked, they would have spoken volumes of American history. And then the walls crumbled. One hundred years after it was built, St. John's House had been abandoned. The buildings slowly deteriorated, returning to the Maryland soil to be plowed under by generations of Maryland farmers. St. John's walls were silent for more than two centuries, little more than ghosts haunting the historical and archeological records. But they weren't lost. Not entirely. Award-winning author Sally M. Walker tells the story of how teams of scientists and historians managed to hear the ghostly echoes of St. John's House and, over the course of decades of painstaking work, made them speak their stories again.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (5)
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5 1

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,188,850 books! | Top bar: Always visible