Part 2, Chapter 10 Summary and Analysis

The Revolution brings to the surface the republican tendencies in American life and offers an opportunity for a broad abolition of monarchy. Subjects become citizens, who are generally more prosperous than anyone on earth. This makes them jealous of and nervous about the liberty that makes this possible. Inequality is growing, but it is pervasive equality that sparks instability, even in South Carolina, the colony with the greatest discrepancy between rich and poor. Ordinary people prospering through hard labor can scarcely believe what is happening. Equality does not mean everyone is the same, but that ordinary people are closer in prosperity to those above them and feel free from aristocratic patronage and control. They speak vehemently about risking all to save their precarious country. Particularly in the Deep South, aristocrats who have experienced a rapid ascendancy, join in this...