The Fire of Liberty in Their Hearts

The Papers of Sir William Berkeley, 1605–1677

Warren M. Billings with the assistance of Maria Kimberly 731 pages, 2007
ISBN 978-0-88490-207-2 (Cloth) $59.95

This edition of the surviving papers of Governor Sir William Berkeley contains the largest body of original documents concerning any seventeenth-century Virginian. As governor of the colony for almost three decades, Berkeley was the most important man in Virginia. The collected records of his administration, of his attempts to diversify the economy of the colony, and of his personal life offer unique insights into the man and his times and chronicle the development of Virginia from Berkeley's arrival in 1642 through the tumultuous English Civil Wars and the calamity of Bacon's Rebellion.

Dr. Warren M. Billings is Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of New Orleans and Historian of the Supreme Court of Louisiana. He is author of A Little Parliament: The Virginia General Assembly in the Seventeenth Century (Library of Virginia, 2004) and Sir William Berkeley and the Forging of Colonial Virginia (Louisiana State University Press, 2004).

Maria Kimberly is Project Editor in the Division of Publications and Educational Services at the Library of Virginia.