A Topping People: The Rise and Decline of Virginia's Old Political Elite, 1680-1790

by Emory G. Evans

Published: March 2009
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Pages: 288
Hardcover
ISBN: 9780813927909

Overview of A Topping People: The Rise and Decline of Virginia's Old Political Elite, 1680-1790

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.

University of Virginia Press

About the Author, Emory G. Evans

Emory G. Evans is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Maryland, College Park.

University of Virginia Press

Reviews of A Topping People: The Rise and Decline of Virginia's Old Political Elite, 1680-1790

There are no reviews yet. Perhaps you can add one!

Editorials

Common-Place

A "Topping People" could well be considered the definitive insider's take on the eighteenth-century Virginia elite...In giving readers what should amount to the last word on how Virginia's elite saw themselves�providing the kind of insight that can come only from a lifetime of work�"A 'Topping People'" has the potential to fuel a generation's worth of scholarship on the complex political sociology of the largest, most diverse society in the British colonial world.

� R.S. Taylor Stoermer

Common-Place - R.S. Taylor Stoermer

A "Topping People" could well be considered the definitive insider's take on the eighteenth-century Virginia elite...In giving readers what should amount to the last word on how Virginia's elite saw themselves--providing the kind of insight that can come only from a lifetime of work--"A 'Topping People'" has the potential to fuel a generation's worth of scholarship on the complex political sociology of the largest, most diverse society in the British colonial world.

Ronald Hoffman

I know of no account of the rise and fall of the Virginia elite that is so encyclopedic in scope. Emory Evans draws from many published but relatively obscure materials and has apparently read every relevant publication. In short, his research fairly merits the term prodigious�the book represents a lifetime of work. Future students of Virginia history will find this volume invaluable.

Common-Place

A "Topping People" could well be considered the definitive insider's take on the eighteenth-century Virginia elite...In giving readers what should amount to the last word on how Virginia's elite saw themselves--providing the kind of insight that can come only from a lifetime of work--"A 'Topping People'" has the potential to fuel a generation's worth of scholarship on the complex political sociology of the largest, most diverse society in the British colonial world.

� R.S. Taylor Stoermer