How the Virginia Gentry Became a Ruling Class

This is the in-depth story of how the Virginia gentry built itself into a true ruling class. Focusing in particular on "American Revolutionaries in the Making," this explores how the planter class of Old Virginia used a system of obligation, duty, and cultivated excellence to go from being Virginia gentlemen to Founding Fathers. Particularly, it explores the role of the tobacco plantation, parish vestry, county court, and House of Burgesses in this process, describing their progression as a cursus honorum that created a political aristocracy unlike any other.

Listen ad-free here: https://www.theamericantribune.news/p/how-the-virginia-gentry-became-a

Read the article on which this video is based here, for the full set of lessons:  https://www.theamericantribune.news/p/equality-and-the-only-political-question

Read my article on what we can learn about building a new elite from them here: https://www.theamericantribune.news/p/how-to-build-a-durable-counter-elite

Read my article on what they can teach us about developing personal excellence here: https://www.theamericantribune.news/p/embodying-aristocratic-excellence

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Virginia's Excellent Aristocracy

4:48 Plantation Management as Training for Politics

14:51 The Parish Vestry Nursery of Government

24:43 Justice of the Peace: A Ladder to Achievement

32:14 Burgess Elections and Political Selection