{"product_id":"north-carolina-planters-and-their-children-1800-1860-paperback","title":"North Carolina Planters and Their Children, 1800--1860 - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJane Turner Censer\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMany historians of late have portrayed upper-class southerners of the antebellum period as inordinately aristocratic and autocratic. Some have even seen in the planters' family relations the faint yet distinct shadow of a master's dealings with his slaves. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eChallenging such commonly held assumptions about the attitudes and actions of the pre-Civil War southern elite, Jane Turner Censer draws on an impressive array of primary and secondary sources--including letters, diaries, and other first-person accounts as well as federal census materials and local wills, deeds, and marriage records--to show that southern planters, at least in their relations with their children, were caring, affectionate, and surprisingly egalitarian. Through the close study of more than one hundred North Carolina families, she reveals the adults to have been doting parents who emphasized to their children the importance of education and achievement and the wise use of time and money. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe planters guided their offspring toward autonomy by progressively granting them more and more opportunities for decision making. By the time sons and daughters were faced with choosing a marriage partner, parents played only a restrained advisory role. Similarly, fathers left career decisions almost entirely up to their sons. Censer concludes that children almost invariably met their parents' high expectations. Most of them chose to marry within their class, and the second generation usually maintained or improved their parents' high economic status. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOn the other hand, Censer finds that planters rarely developed warm, empathetic relationships with their slaves. Even the traditional \"mammy,\" whose role is southern planter families was been exalted in much of our literature, seems to have held a relatively minor place in the family structure. Bringing to light a wealth of previously unassimilated information, \u003ci\u003eNorth Carolina Planters and Their Children\u003c\/i\u003e points toward a new understanding of social and cultural life among the wealthy in the early nineteenth-century South.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eJane Turner Censer is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Reconstruction of White Southern Womanhood, 1865-1895\u003c\/i\u003e and editor of \u003ci\u003eLike unto Like, \u003c\/i\u003e a feminist novel by Sherwood Bonner about the Reconstruction South. She teaches history at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 220\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.46 x 8.97 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e July 01, 1990\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42131007373447,"sku":"9780807116340","price":40.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/30aa691ea9f3bfaf2e9bbce32359156d.webp?v=1732615559","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/north-carolina-planters-and-their-children-1800-1860-paperback","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}