Wealth,+Authority+and+Power

LM Early American social structure was heavily defined by four major factors. The first was a residual social value, lasting from the British aristocracy's precedence, placed on one's wealth and capitol. This value on wealth manifested first in the the South's slavery, for it was slavery that proved to be the property of desire. Later in the north, the market economy outlined further definition in the property-based class system. The article //Wealth, Authority and Power// also explained that additional organization of early American classes was caused by provincial politics of the colonies.

The earliest fault line between the socio-economic classes split after the ownership of slaves became a visible assurance of financial success. In Maryland and Virginia, there was an undeniable correlation between one’s assets in slaves and one’s success in the economy. Because the presence of slaves in an estate also corresponded to its size (for more land required more laborers), there was further reverence observed to slave owners. The large southern plantations charecteristic of wealthy land-owners required more capitol investment and risk to effectively establish; because the slaves were the labor asset that made southern plantations viable, slaves became a type of //symbolic// wealth. Through this relationship - between the presence of slaves and the success of a plantation - an early adaptation of the British aristocracy of wealth was casted. Those who didn't have slaves were economic underlings, whereas those with slaves were the economic powerhouses. First through slavery, the precedent of assets causing American social status gave rise to other similar forms of status building in the North.

Because slaves were both less common and less fashionable in the North, the upper half of America drew the basis of its social structure on other forms of symbolic wealth. The North’s large market economy gave rise to a high value being placed on success in trade. More social mobility existed in the North, mainly because their symbols that created status were to a greater degree acquirable than the South’s status-creating slaves who required generations of establishment. Whereas slaves were an expensive upfront investment, the northern market economy style of trade allowed for a family without huge pre-existing wealth to elevate their status in only one generation. In this manner, the North had a thriving middle class scaling the capitalistic ladder. In essence, American social stratification used as its spring board the Slave owning wealth in the South, and later leapt into the merchant economy of the North.

Furthermore, these elements of social status combined to heavily influence all stages American politics. From the 1650s through the Revolutionary War, it was the rich and well-to-do that held the reigns of influence in American discourse. This was due primarily to two factors. The first was that British-American legislation effected the wealthy most significantly, therefore those of higher economic status had more vested interest in political happenings. Also, the better education (not necessarily formal schooling) and exposeure made theupper and middle classes more suited to the nature of national discourse. In the early 1700s, the first serious talks of American freedom would arise out of these two classes, the nothern middle class and the southern upper class. summarized not analyzed