The Southern Aristocrats Values
Plantation Owner Debt; Major Economic Causes of American Revolution
When comparing themselves to their elite British cousins, the southern aristocracy of plantation and slave owners in Colonial America suffered from a socially poor self-image. These descendants of "distressed cavaliers and indentured servants" shared the same sense of an economic lack of control that fueled the partisan “middling sort” to the north. This was because these American Aristocrats were up to their ears in debt.
They had a very real fear that their British financiers were about to foreclose. It was ironic that this very economic and social system that relied so heavily on slavery added so much rhetoric to the vision of Great Britain as having a grand scheme to enslave them. This was especially true in Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina where the economic situation feared out if control taxation was the result of the downward spiral of debt that the social institution of slavery perpetuated.
Maintaining Social Order
South Carolina had its own unique social structure that was even more aristocratic than their immediate northern neighbors. The economic basis for their claims were established in an even a higher dependence on slavery. A typical New England citizen might see freedom and equality as having a voice in their own destiny. In contrast, many large plantation owners in South Carolinian thought of freedom as the liberty to preserve and maintain their social and economic power base. Indeed, there was always a subconscious (if not at times openly conscious) fear that their own sins would find them out if a slave rebellion ever actually materialized. This was a very real fear in an 18th century society whose slave population was as high as 65%. The social dichotomy of pride in their property and position along with the underlying guilt in the method used to obtain it fueled some strange ideas and horrifying social abuses.
Freedom's Hypocrisy
The anxious “aristocracy” in all of the southern colonies exhibited this very strong but sometimes distorted bent toward independence. This exemplified the often unacknowledged double minded thinking that was lambasted in some of the British and American Tory literature. One British author, Samuel Johnson formed this thought provoking question to penetrate the hypocrisy.
“How is it, that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of Negroes?"
It was even strongly criticized by members of this same self-styled aristocracy. Colonel John Laurens, an aide-de-camp to General Washington, became more and more disillusioned with this double standard. In his bid to free slaves in exchange for their service in the Continental Army he wrote these words.
“I think we Americans at least in the Southern Colonies, cannot contend with a good Grace, for Liberty, until we shall have enfranchised our Slaves. How can we whose Jealousy has been alarm'd more at the Name of Oppression sometimes than at the Reality, reconcile to our spirited Assertions of the Rights of Mankind, the galling abject Slavery of our negroes” - John Laurens
One Small Step
Ultimately the Liberty and Freedom promised by the Declaration of Independence would begin to take more and more of a foothold in southern as well as northern American society. The American Revolution was only the first tiny step on that very long journey. While we can justifiably question some of the motives of this aristocratic set, we can also admire their willingness to pledge their lives and fortunes to plant the seeds of liberty that have slowly but surely advanced the cause of freedom.
Sources
Albion’s Seed, Four British Folkways in America by David Hackett Fischer, 1989, Oxford University Press
Liberty and Freedom: A Visual History of America's Founding Ideas by David Hackett Fischer, 2004, Oxford University Press
The Cousins' Wars: Religion, Politics, and the Triumph of Anglo-America by Kevin Phillips, 1999, Basic Books
The Spirit of 'Seventy-Six: The Story of the American Revolution As Told by Participants by Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, 2002, Book Sales
