The Grand Model and the Genesis of Southern Political Culture

• Published in: The Ashley Cooper Plan p. 136
• Main Author: Wilson, Thomas D
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: The University of North Carolina Press 01.03.2016; University of North Carolina Press
• Subjects: 1st Earl of Shaftesbury; Agricultural geography; Agricultural land; Agricultural sciences; Agriculture; American minorities; Anthony Ashley Cooper; Anthropology; Applied anthropology; Armed conflict; Behavioral sciences; Biological sciences; Civil wars; Conservatism; Cultural anthropology; Cultural studies; Enlightenment; Ethnic groups; Ethnology; John Locke; Military science; Native Americans; Native culture; Plantations; Political communication; political culture; Political History; Political ideologies; Political organizations; Political parties; Political philosophy; Political rhetoric; Political science; Political sociology; Province of Carolina; Reconstruction; Segregation; Slave ownership; Slavery; Slaves; social hierarchy; Social organization; Sociology; Southern Agrarians; War; War theaters
• ISBN: 9781469628905; 1469628902
• DOI: 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469628905.003.0005

This chapter investigates the hypothesis that the United States is composed of three primary political cultures, one of which substantially originated in colonial times with the Ashley Cooper Plan. The assertion that attitudes and actions of the present time can be traced back to a point of origin ten generations earlier appears on its face to be a decidedly spurious notion rather than a serious hypothesis. Certainly, mostindividualstoday looking back ten generations would be hard-pressed to find a single ancestor with a discernible influence on the present generation. On the other hand, Nicholas Ashley Cooper, the 12th Earl