"The Atlantic World and Virginia, 1550-1624": Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture Conference.

Conferences & conventions; Virginia state history; United States history; Native Americans; Land settlement

This highlights the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture (OIEAHC) Conference, entitled The Atlantic World and Virginia, 1550-1624, which took place in March 2004 in Williamsburg, Virginia. The task of the meeting was to retell the story of Jamestown's settlement within the frame of Atlantic history, Native American history and World Systems scholarship. Conceived by Fredrika Teute, editor of publications for OIEAHC, and enacted and hosted by OIEHAC director Ronald Hoffman, the meeting filled three and one-half days with sessions revealing from various perspectives the tenuousness and marginality of Virginia in the world of 1607. The order of matters stated in the conference title—-Atlantic World first, Virginia second—was reflected in the proportion of talks. The first day treated the Native culture that preexisted English and Spanish settlement, interacted with it, and survived after contact. Representatives and leaders of Virginia's various Native peoples appeared on the program speaking putatively about oral history. Certain presentations require acknowledgment such as Philip Morgan's "The Caribbean and the Atlantic World," which decisively showed that, while the settlement on the James betokened an exercise of imperial ambition, the desires, dreams and the bulk of English maritime activities from 1550 to 1624 took place in the Caribbean.