Steam and Steel

The years following the Civil War were fraught with change for the people of the Virginia counties of Accomack and Northampton on the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay. War had altered patterns of trade two hundred years old and had accelerated change in agriculture and the fisheries. Moreover, the end of slavery required new economic, social, and political arrangements. As Eastern Shoremen struggled with these challenges, Northern capitalists eyed investment opportunities on the conquered peninsula. In Steam and Steel: The Eastern Shore of Virginia, 1870-1884, Brooks Miles Barnes describes how improved transportation by rail and water set in motion the Eastern Shore’s economic and cultural colonization by the industrial North.

Brooks Miles Barnes is a native of the Eastern Shore of Virginia with roots in both Accomack and Northampton counties. He studied at the University of Virginia where he earned a Ph. D. in History. For many years he served as librarian in charge of the local history collection at the Eastern Shore Public Library. He is author of Gallows on the Marsh: Crime and Punishment on the Chesapeake, 1906, and editor, with Barry R. Truitt, of Seashore Chronicles: Three Centuries of the Virginia Barrier Islands.