A "Topping People"
A "Topping People": The Rise and Decline of Virginia's Old Political Elite, 1680-1790 Emory G. Evans,
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 0813927900
DDC: 305.520975510903
Edition: Hardcover; 2009-04-30
Summary:
"A Topping People" is the first comprehensive study of the political,
economic, and social elite of colonial Virginia. Evans studies
twenty-one leading families from their rise to power in the late
1600s to their downfall over one hundred years later. These families
represented the upper echelons of power, serving in the upper and
lower houses of the General Assembly, often as speaker of the House
of Burgesses. Their names - Randolph, Robinson, Byrd, Carter, Corbin,
Custis, Nelson, and Page, to note but a few - are still familiar in
the Old Dominion some three hundred years later. Their decline was
due to a variety of factors - economic, social, and demographic. The
third generations showed an inability to adapt their business
philosophies to the changing economic climate. Their inclination was
to mirror the English landed gentry, living off the income of their
landed estates. Economic diversification was the norm early on, but
it became less effective after 1730. Scots traders, for example,
introduced chain stores, making it more difficult to continue
family-run stores. And land speculation was no substitute for
diversification. An increase in population resulted in the creation
of new counties, which weakened the influence of the Tidewater
region. These leading families began to spend more than they earned
and became heavily indebted to British mercantile firms. The
Revolution only served to make matters worse, and by 1790 these
families had lost their political and economic status, although their
social status remained. "A Topping People" is a thorough and
engrossing study of the way families came to gain and, eventually;
lose great power in this turbulent and progressive period in American
history.
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