Date Awarded
1991
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
History
Advisor
Chandos M. Brown
Abstract
Inspired by the concept of culture as expressed in the work of Claude Levi-Strauss, this dissertation traces the roots of modern perceptions of slavery and race by analyzing three sites each of which is associated with a distinct cultural pattern and social ideology. The first, Penshurst in Kent England is described as feudal, organic, vernacular, and popular. The second, Westover in tidewater Virginia is classical, rational, and elite. Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in the Virginia piedmont, the third site, is described as romantic, liberal, and bourgeois. It is only at this third site, the locus for a distinctly modern family type, that concepts of race and slavery unique to our age are found. The new ideas about family structure, race and slavery, evident at Monticello, it is argued, have had a vast influence upon the course of American social and political development.
DOI
https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-3sgp-s483
Rights
© The Author
Recommended Citation
Boulton, Alexander Ormond, "The architecture of slavery: Art, language, and society in early Virginia" (1991). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. William & Mary. Paper 1539623813.
https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-3sgp-s483
