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ARISTOCRATIC CLASSES. 21
manners, in fact, were those of a rude new-settled country, peopled with a class
of adventurers, who were rapidly acquiring wealth, and, while hospitable to
strangers, liked to practice pranks upon them. Neither literature nor education were likely to exist extensively among such a people.
Master Cook, however, draws the line sharply between the native colonists
and the English gentlemen resident in the colony. This was in 1700, and it
may be supposed that in 1770, after the manners of the colonists had been
benefited by two generations of rapidly acquired wealth, that it was easy for
them to become all that Eddis saw. In his time the colonial planters and
gentry had all grown rich—as wealth goes in a new country—and Cook's
pictures of the planters' manners no longer applied to this well-to-do, slave-
holding aristocracy; but it did still suit the middle farming classes, owning
only a few redemptioner servants, with whom they lived on terms of great
familiarity, or at most two or three negro slaves. In this view of the case,
the elegant refined ease of the courtly gentry at Annapolis, clad in velvet and
laces, and conspiring to make that city in 1770 the most luxurious town in
America, is not at all incompatible with Cook's portraits of the people who
welcomed him when he put himself and his goods ashore at Piscatoway,
" Where soon repair'd a numerous Crew,
In Shirt and Drawers of Scotch-cloth, blue,
With neither Stockings, Hat or Shooe.
These Sot-weed-Planters crowd the Shoar,
In hue as tauny as a Moor :
Figures so strange no God design'd
To be a part of Humane kind :
But wanton Nature, void of Rest,
Moulded the brittle clay in Jest."
In 1770 then, as we understand it, there was, socially, a distinctly aristocratic class in Maryland, a class comparatively .large, wealthy, and some of
them very wrell educated. Their fortunes rested on lands and slaves. They
■communicated with one another, but did not associate with the other classes.
The cadets of these families furnished the lawyers, and generally the men who
held places in the civil government of the colony. They had built themselves
up by large land-holdings and extensive tobacco planting. They were comparatively a large class, for a colony of the population of Maryland, and they
only associated with the English-born merchants, the representatives of the
crown, the lawyers, etc. One part of this class, living up-country and secluding
themselves more and more on their plantations, from lack of means for
extravagance, as the culture of tobacco became less profitable, relapsed into the
old sot-weed manners again and brought up their children in comparative ignorance, though on a good many plantations there were indentured servants who
knew enough to become school-masters. In some sections the clergymen founded
pretty good schools, such as that of the Rev. Thomas Cradock in connection
^with Garrison Forest Church, Baltimore County, now called St. Thomas'
| Title | History of Maryland - 2 |
| Creator | Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas) |
| Publisher | J. B. Piet |
| Place of Publication | Baltimore |
| Date | 1879 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000044 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | ARISTOCRATIC CLASSES. 21 manners, in fact, were those of a rude new-settled country, peopled with a class of adventurers, who were rapidly acquiring wealth, and, while hospitable to strangers, liked to practice pranks upon them. Neither literature nor education were likely to exist extensively among such a people. Master Cook, however, draws the line sharply between the native colonists and the English gentlemen resident in the colony. This was in 1700, and it may be supposed that in 1770, after the manners of the colonists had been benefited by two generations of rapidly acquired wealth, that it was easy for them to become all that Eddis saw. In his time the colonial planters and gentry had all grown rich—as wealth goes in a new country—and Cook's pictures of the planters' manners no longer applied to this well-to-do, slave- holding aristocracy; but it did still suit the middle farming classes, owning only a few redemptioner servants, with whom they lived on terms of great familiarity, or at most two or three negro slaves. In this view of the case, the elegant refined ease of the courtly gentry at Annapolis, clad in velvet and laces, and conspiring to make that city in 1770 the most luxurious town in America, is not at all incompatible with Cook's portraits of the people who welcomed him when he put himself and his goods ashore at Piscatoway, " Where soon repair'd a numerous Crew, In Shirt and Drawers of Scotch-cloth, blue, With neither Stockings, Hat or Shooe. These Sot-weed-Planters crowd the Shoar, In hue as tauny as a Moor : Figures so strange no God design'd To be a part of Humane kind : But wanton Nature, void of Rest, Moulded the brittle clay in Jest." In 1770 then, as we understand it, there was, socially, a distinctly aristocratic class in Maryland, a class comparatively .large, wealthy, and some of them very wrell educated. Their fortunes rested on lands and slaves. They ■communicated with one another, but did not associate with the other classes. The cadets of these families furnished the lawyers, and generally the men who held places in the civil government of the colony. They had built themselves up by large land-holdings and extensive tobacco planting. They were comparatively a large class, for a colony of the population of Maryland, and they only associated with the English-born merchants, the representatives of the crown, the lawyers, etc. One part of this class, living up-country and secluding themselves more and more on their plantations, from lack of means for extravagance, as the culture of tobacco became less profitable, relapsed into the old sot-weed manners again and brought up their children in comparative ignorance, though on a good many plantations there were indentured servants who knew enough to become school-masters. In some sections the clergymen founded pretty good schools, such as that of the Rev. Thomas Cradock in connection ^with Garrison Forest Church, Baltimore County, now called St. Thomas' |
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