Creole gentlemen : the Maryland elite, 1691-1776 / Trevor Burnard.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burnard, Trevor, 1960-

Series:

New World in the Atlantic world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History.

Economic conditions.

Social conditions.

Upper class.

Elite (Social sciences).

Maryland--History--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.

Maryland.

Elite (Social sciences)--Maryland--History--18th century.

Upper class--Maryland--History--18th century.

Upper class--Maryland--Social conditions--18th century.

Upper class--Maryland--Economic conditions--18th century.

Maryland--History--Social conditions--18th century.

Maryland--History--Economic conditions--18th century.

Maryland--Social conditions--18th century.

Local Subjects:

Maryland--Social conditions--18th century.

Physical Description:

ix, 278 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2002.

Summary:

While much recent scholarship has examined the colonial Chesapeake's slave culture, little attention has been paid to the class of landowners who dominated this society. Trevor Burnard has corrected this oversight by undertaking the first systematic study of an agricultural elite in any British colony, examining the lives of 460 of the wealthiest men who lived in colonial Maryland during this era. Burnard traces the development of this elite from a hard-living, profit-driven merchant-planter class in the seventeenth century to a more genteel class of plantation owners in the eighteenth century. This study innovatively compares these men to their counterparts elsewhere in the British Empire, including absentee Caribbean landowners and East Indian nabobs, illustrating their place in the Atlantic economic network. "Creole" "Gentlemen" provides a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the men who shaped the society of colonial Maryland.

Contents:

1. Problems and Perspectives: A Picture of the Maryland Elite 1

2. A Gentleman's Competence: The Economic Ambitions of the Maryland Elite 21

3. "A Species of Capital Attached to Certain Mercantile Houses": Elite Debts and the Significance of Credit 61

4. Patriarchy and Affection: The Demography and Character of Elite Families 103

5. Arrows over Time: Elite Inheritance Practices 139

6. The Rule of Gentlemen: Elite Political Involvement 167

7. The Development of Provincial Consciousness: The Formation of Elite Identity 205

8. Conclusion: Toward a History of Elites in the Eighteenth-Century British Empire 237

Appendix The Creation of the Elite Sample of Wealthy Marylanders 265.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0415931738

0415931746

OCLC:

47183445