Infinite Road
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RichmondWilliamsburg

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Narrated by The Historian Focus: How the Colony Nearly Died 83 km · about 51 min · 11 stories

Route 5 through the colonial Tidewater, focused on how close the whole enterprise came to failing: the Virginia Company's fatal gamble, the Starving Time at Jamestown, Lord De La Warr's brutal salvage, and the tobacco economy that finally paid — at a price.

The stories

In order along the route. Tap a dot on the map, or play them here.

  1. 1
    Richmond, Virginia

    The Harlem of the South

  2. 2
    Henrico, Virginia

    The Virginia Company’s Fatal Gamble Deep Dive · Part 1 of 3

  3. 3
    Sandston, Virginia

    The Virginia Company’s Fatal Gamble Deep Dive · Part 2 of 3

  4. 4
    Quinton, Virginia

    The Virginia Company’s Fatal Gamble Deep Dive · Part 3 of 3

  5. 5
    Quinton, Virginia

    John Smith and the Powhatan

  6. 6
    New Kent, Virginia

    Letitia Christian Tyler of New Kent

  7. 7
    Lanexa, Virginia

    Survival During the Starving Time

  8. 8
    Toano, Virginia

    The Governance of Lord De La Warr

  9. 9
    Williamsburg, Virginia

    The Tobacco Economy of Virginia

  10. 10
    Williamsburg, Virginia

    The Oath of Middle Plantation

  11. 11
    Williamsburg, Virginia

    The Founding of Eastern State Hospital

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Where the stories come from

Infinite Road draws from a library of primary sources — public-domain county histories, the WPA American Guide Series, National Register of Historic Places records, local records, and encyclopedic sources — then writes and narrates each story in its own words.