An American Aristocracy: Southern Planters in Antebellum Philadelphia (review)

Abstract

An American Aristocracy: Southern Planters in Antebellum Philadelphia. By Daniel Kilbride. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2006. Pp. 216. Illustrations. Cloth, $34.95.)Reviewed by Susan J. StanfieldDaniel Kilbride's An American Aristocracy analyzes close bonds that developed between Philadelphia elites and southern planter during first six decades of nineteenth century. Described by Kilbride as class, this shared aristocratic identity bridged sectional difference and brought southerners to Philadelphia to live, learn, and mingle. The bulk of book's action takes place within city of Philadelphia. Instead of emphasizing a bustling antebellum community devoted to antislavery activism, however, Kilbride brings reader to Carolina Row and prestigious institutions of city. Beyond author's descriptive claim as to strong ties and southern sympathies of city's elites, he also advances a more critical argument that sectionalism did not shape social interactions until decade prior to Civil War. Kilbride demonstrates that planter embraced a form of nationalism that allowed identification as both Americans and southerners.The first two chapters focus on family and friendship ties between regions, while next four examine institutional ties to south. Throughout, Kilbride draws heavily upon private words found in diaries and correspondence and supplements these with cultural references found in newspapers, books, and institutional records. In his introduction, author argues that to understand the dynamics of early one must accommodate presence of this leisure class (3). In other words, there is value to analyzing dynamics from a perspective other than from bottom up. Within this framework Kilbride poses questions as to how and why did these geographically different people get along, how did their relationships change over time, and why? In my opinion, most important questions are implied ones: How does a national identity form for upper classes? And does trump region, a thesis that would complicate our understanding of nineteenth-century social relationships? Kilbride tackles this issue throughout book.An American Aristocracy begins with an examination of family and friendship ties by tracking social interactions of, first, Manigault household, and then cousins Sidney and Joshua Fisher a generation later. Margaret Manigault, widow of a wealthy South Carolina planter, relocated her family to Philadelphia after her husband's death in 1809. Manigault's home often functioned as a conservative salon where Philadelphia's leisure mixed and mingled with their visiting southern counterparts. Kilbride argues that these women mold [ed] other aspects of political life, especially caucusing, consensus building, public opinion, and patronage (7). Kilbride does a beautiful job of bringing to light daily lives of elites, and in particular women, through their own words, and deftly proves cultural importance of elite women differentiating them from republican mothers of middle class. In next chapter author turns to Fisher cousins, and shifts from early republic to antebellum era. Kilbride further illustrates how interregional friendships continued, even during an era of growing sectional differences.The next chapters discuss education of southern young adults at Philadelphia's boarding schools and medical schools. For young women educated in Philadelphia, refinement and connections with local elites were considered as important as curriculum. …