Serving Time in Virginia and From Rosie to Lucy from After The Fact by Davidson and Lytle - Book Report/Review Example

Serving Time demonstrates the expansion and growth of tobacco in the first American boom country as well as how the cultivators used the peons to work in their tobacco fields despite the fact that the colony was falling apart in the background. Sir Edwin Sandys has tried to rebuild the Jamestown in three ways. He attracted the new investors by granting them the head rights for introducing and bringing in new tenants. He grabbed the attention of new settlers by introducing lotteries. He tried to make the colony a more peaceful and pleasant place to settle down in by abolishing the martial law.

Citizens were extended the rights to select two members of the colony as their representatives or spokespersons. Even after the years of struggle and reconstruction, Jamestown was lacking a lot of attention. Citizens were legally enforced to grow corn. Insufficient food, the arrival of unprepared settlers, inadequate housing facilities and the presence of contaminated wells were becoming the reason for spreading disease. People were more interested in growing tobacco than corn despite food scarcity.

This raised the question of why Jamestown was still not self-sufficient despite the hard struggle. Another reason could be the transformation of Virginia into a booming country. The settlers discovered new innovative ways to produce more crops of tobacco. They also predicted that they could grow more tobacco crops only if they would have servants or peons taking care of their crops. This idea pinned the concept of slavery for the first time. The tenants gave fifty percent of their crops to plantation owners and worked for four to seven years in their fields.

On the other hand, the servants worked with full commitment and dedication in exchange for food, shelter and their passage from England. As a result, with the help of tenants and new laborers, colonists looked forward to becoming richer by producing more tobacco. Gradually, tobacco became the economic trademark of the colony. Serving Time in Virginia also raises some questions as to why slavery did not grow well during the time when labor was valued greatly. It is worth mentioning that only 5 percent of the Africans constituted the population in Virginia during the first half of the century in the colony.

In addition, it was not until 1660 that a law was passed that secured the rights of the laborers and condemned slavery as well as race discrimination. So, the next thing that comes to the mind is why weren’t slaves introduced as an article of trade during the 1620s? Historians believed that it could be due to the non-availability of slaves in the colony as compared to other places where slavery was high in demand such as St.Kitts or Barbados. It was also believed that colonists had a preference for white slaves.

However, it is hard to comment on the prices of slaves were very high and the economic downfall in the West Indies gave a blow to the prices of slaves in the area. Serving Time in Virginia discusses the statement of how historians have assumed that life in the colony was more unpredictable, raw and avaricious than anywhere else. Chapter 14: From Rosie to Lucy: The chapter, ‘From Rosie to Lucy’ revolves around the changes that occurred in the role of women in 1950 and also, how media played an important role in this transformation.

The author discusses what it was mainly because of World War II that brought massive changes in the lives of American women. Many of the women got an opportunity to work and live independently. For the first time, women received employment opportunities with high pay. At first, it was a hard-to-accept truth for the American society to register the success of American women but, gradually with the passage of time, society started to think that this change in the social status of women was only temporarily which was merely due to high patriotism, absence of husbands, high salaries but the main focus behind this struggle was not the financial independence.

However, the authors have discussed the role of women and about the massive transformation behind acquiring this new role but still, for the society; it was hard to accept the change in their social roles. The authors have raised the hypothesis that the media was responsible for expediting this feminine struggle. The projection of Rosie and Lucy by the media pinned the examples of a typical and a modern woman in both the roles. Rosie being patriotic and highly ambitious with go-get-it attitude attracted a greater proportion of American women whereas, on the other hand, Lucy portrays the image of a typical frustrated housewife of the 1950s.

Both of the characters were fictional and can be considered as the product of media either to ignite the flame of social independence in American women or to symbolize American thinking. However, regardless of what the reasons were behind this transformation, it helped the American women to gain their financial independence, social status and a stronger image in American society.