Excerpt from Patrician and Plebeian in Virginia: Or the Origin and Development of the Social Classes of the Old Dominion The origin of the aristocracy of colonial Virginia is a subject which has caused much controversy among students of the history of the Old Dominion. It was for many years the general belief that the leading planters were the descendants of English families of high rank, and that their aristocratic instincts were their birth - right, the heritage left them by noble ancestors. Others have maintained that the best families of Virginia came from the great English middle class, and the evidences upon the debated question which have been unearthed in recent years, tend to confirm this View. The author's own studies have led him to the conclusion that but few men of rank ever came to the wilderness of Vir ginia, and that the planters were in most cases the descendants of merchant ancestors. With this as a basis he has sought to point out the operation of the economic, social and political forces that operated upon the colo nists and instilled into them those instincts of chivalry and of pride that were so pronounced at the time of the Revolution. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.