David Brown

Bio

David received his B.A. in Anthropology from The College of William and Mary in 1996 and his M.A. in History/Historical Archaeology from The University of Massachusetts at Boston in 2001. His master’s thesis, “'…to the Place Where it Began': Seventeenth-Century Settlement Patterns in Abingdon Parish, Gloucester County, Virginia, History, GIS, and Archaeology,” focuses on community formation and development along the early colonial frontier. He received his Ph.D. in 2014 and his dissertation is titled "An Enslaved Landscape: The Virginia Plantation at the End of the Seventeenth Century." His research interests include the rise and fall of the plantation system in the New World, the interaction of Indigenous and colonial cultures in the seventeenth century, and African-American tenant farmers in nineteenth-century Virginia.  In addition, he is Co-director of the Fairfield Foundation Inc., a non-profit archaeological and historical research group in Gloucester County, Virginia, as well as a founding member of the Werowocomoco Research Group, currently studying the site of Werowocomoco, the principal residence of the Virginia Algonquian chief Powhatan from 1607-1609.  He helped start and co-owns DATA Investigations LLC in 2003, a cultural resource management firm based in Gloucester County. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of History through the NIAHD program within the Department of History at The College of William & Mary.