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Who Shall Rule at Home?: The Evolution of South Carolina Political Culture, 1748–1776
A new telling of how principles of self rule developed in colonial South Carolina
A reinterpretation of the origins of the colonial revolutionary movement, Who Shall Rule at Home? charts the changing nature of South Carolina's political culture from the end of King George's War in 1748 to the decision for independence in 1776. As he follows the colony's shifting political landscape, Jonathan Mercantini challenges the prevailing interpretation of South Carolina as a politically harmonious colonial entity. Examining a series of constitutional and political conflicts, he highlights the increasing tensions between local authorities and royal officials in both London and Charles Town―disputes that demonstrate the growing resistance by the colony's elite to imperial control. These disagreements are all the more striking in South Carolina, according to Mercantini, because the colony benefited considerably from its relationship with Great Britain.
Mercantini explains this rejection of British rule through the transformation of the "rights of Englishmen" into the "rights of Carolina Englishmen." He suggests that South Carolinians, accustomed to authority as slave masters, took the British idea that certain inalienable rights accompanied an English birthright and reinterpreted the concept in ways related to self-rule. These "rights of Carolina Englishmen" centered on local control of elections, representation, finances, and taxation.
In addition Mercantini details the strategies South Carolinians used to resist royal control, the most notable of which was a refusal to compromise. After 1748 South Carolina politics were not geared toward conciliation or compromise but an all-or-nothing strategy that Mercantini calls "brinkmanship." Such tactics culminated with a bold threat to shut down government operations and suspend all business with the royal governor rather than concede to the demands of political rivals. Mercantini concludes that brinkmanship reveals what high political principles South Carolina's leaders believed to be at stake in their conflicts with outside authorities and the lengths to which they were willing to go to resist external interference.
A reinterpretation of the origins of the colonial revolutionary movement, Who Shall Rule at Home? charts the changing nature of South Carolina's political culture from the end of King George's War in 1748 to the decision for independence in 1776. As he follows the colony's shifting political landscape, Jonathan Mercantini challenges the prevailing interpretation of South Carolina as a politically harmonious colonial entity. Examining a series of constitutional and political conflicts, he highlights the increasing tensions between local authorities and royal officials in both London and Charles Town―disputes that demonstrate the growing resistance by the colony's elite to imperial control. These disagreements are all the more striking in South Carolina, according to Mercantini, because the colony benefited considerably from its relationship with Great Britain.
Mercantini explains this rejection of British rule through the transformation of the "rights of Englishmen" into the "rights of Carolina Englishmen." He suggests that South Carolinians, accustomed to authority as slave masters, took the British idea that certain inalienable rights accompanied an English birthright and reinterpreted the concept in ways related to self-rule. These "rights of Carolina Englishmen" centered on local control of elections, representation, finances, and taxation.
In addition Mercantini details the strategies South Carolinians used to resist royal control, the most notable of which was a refusal to compromise. After 1748 South Carolina politics were not geared toward conciliation or compromise but an all-or-nothing strategy that Mercantini calls "brinkmanship." Such tactics culminated with a bold threat to shut down government operations and suspend all business with the royal governor rather than concede to the demands of political rivals. Mercantini concludes that brinkmanship reveals what high political principles South Carolina's leaders believed to be at stake in their conflicts with outside authorities and the lengths to which they were willing to go to resist external interference.
314 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
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