Robert Beverley's claim to literary fame rests entirely upon one book, The History and Present State of Virginia (1705), which betrays a deep-seated ambivalence toward the march of civilization. On the one hand, Beverley envisages a productive society based upon wise laws, honest governors, and hard work. On the other, he locates the symbolic center of his book in Indian civilization, condemning the "curse of Industry" and imagining a static, nearly perfect pastoral society without laws of any sort but those dictated by nature; English "improvements" only ruin things.

Beverley was born in Middlesex County, Virginia, sometime about 1673, the son of Major Robert Beverley, a man who stood steadfastly by Gov. Sir William Berkeley during Bacon's Rebellion. Upon his father's death, Beverley inherited a plantation in Gloucester Country and some six thousand additional acres in King and Queen County, where he eventually built an estate and married Ursula Byrd...