The great Tidewater planters of mid-eighteenth-century Virginia were fathers of the American Revolution. Perhaps first and foremost, they were also anxious tobacco farmers, harried by a demanding planting cycle, trans-Atlantic shipping risks, and their uneasy relations with English agents. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and their contemporaries lived in a world that was dominated by questions of debt from across an ocean but also one that stressed personal autonomy.
T. H. Breen's study of this tobacco culture focuses on how elite planters gave meaning to existence. He examines the value-laden relationships--found in both the fields and marketplaces--that led from tobacco to politics, from agrarian experience to political protest, and finally to a break with the political and economic system that they believed threatened both personal independence and honor.
"Breen writes clearly and argues well. . . . Tobacco Culture is enjoyable."--Allen Boyer, New York Times
Preface to the Second Paperback Edition xi
Preface xxv
Acknowledgments xxix
I. An Agrarin Context for Radical Ideas 3
II. Tobacco Mentality 40
II. Planters and Merchants: A Kind of Friendship 84
IV. Loss of Independence 124
V. Politicizing the Discourse: Tobacco, Debt and the Coming of Revolution 160
Epilogue: A New Beginning 204
Index 211
Pack Edt: Nuevas Hazañas Bélicas 03. Volumen 13 y 14
La Bipolaridad del Chocolate: Balanda de Una Fregona 02
Una Metamorfosis Irani
Curiosity Shop 02