Patriarchs and republicans: eighteenth-century Virginian planters and classical politics

Abstract

AbstractThis article argues that the metaphor of George Washington as Father of his Country– or Pater Patriae– must be seen in the context of the culture of the eighteenth-century Virginian planter élite. Classical education and English commonwealthmen's writings had given most planters familiarity with Roman republican figures such as Cicero, who first bore the title of Pater Patriae, and had prompted them to consider independence and disinterestedness for the sake of public good as the most important signs of virtue in the optimal republican citizen. At the same time, patriarchalism – the prominent ethos among Virginian planters – dictated that the representatives of the upper classes ought to display their virtue through an attitude of benevolence towards the lower strata of society, and especially towards the slaves.