Unification of a slave state : the rise of the planter class in the South Carolina backcountry, 1760-1808 /

Klein's study complements two other recent analyses of South Carolina politics, Carl J. Vipperman's William Lowndes (1966) and Lacy K. Ford's Origins of Southern Radicalism (CH, Jun'89). Both Klein and Ford show the increasing homogeneity of planter culture after 1760. Economics, politics, and religion helped transform contentious backcountry farmers into copies of their politically powerful coastal neighbors. Chattel slavery of Africans came westward also, argues Klein, as planters sought profits from a dependable staple crop. In this connection one might raise the larger question: were backcountry planters successful because they owned slaves, or, did they purchase slaves because they were successful? Drawing on a wide range of recent scholarship, Klein has mined county, state, and national depositories to produce this study illuminating the forces at work between 1760 and 1808, not only in the South Carolina backcountry but eastward to Charleston. Klein's achievement intensifies the light shed both on South Carolina antebellum life and across the Revolutionary stage. Helpful maps and tables. College and university libraries. -J. H. O'Donnell III, Marietta College