British Cabinetmakers in the Chesapeake
A constant stream of British furniture makers emigrated to coastal Maryland and Virginia and northeastern North Carolina in the eighteenth century. Joiners, turners, chairmakers, cabinetmakers, and upholsterers from all parts of the British Isles settled throughout the Chesapeake. Over time, they passed British design standards on to the hundreds of native-born apprentices and slaves who trained in their shops. Chesapeake furniture buyers consequently developed a deeply rooted preference for goods in the British taste.

Note the dramatic similarity between the Chesapeake furniture and the British prototypes displayed here.