“As If I Had Been in a New World”

In his 1722 novel Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe created an archetypical colonial woman’s success story. Contrasting her life in Virginia with her experience in England, the character Moll declared, it was “as if I had been in a new world.” ¹ The original novel and popularized versions tantalized readers with the opportunities for upward social mobility in colonial Virginia. In England, Moll turned to a life of crime and suffered transportation to Virginia as punishment. In Virginia, however, life improved. Upon settling in the “wilderness” of her “new world,” Moll repented of her life of sin and crime. Ultimately, she became the mistress of a plantation and owner of a white servant and a black slave.