ABSTRACT
All of the chief assumptions underlying the egalitarian thesis appear to be undermined by the evidence for 1825-1850. Great fortunes did exist in this country, and many hundreds of American families lived opulently even by European standards. An inequality that was marked at the beginning of the era became even more glaring at its end, as the share owned by the wealthiest 1 per cent rose from roughly one-quarter to one-half. Nor was opportunity more equal than material condition. Al though legend claimed they were mostly self-made men born to poverty, the rich with few exceptions had been born to wealth and comfort, owing their worldly success mostly to inheritance and family support. Instead of rising and falling at a mercurial rate, fortunes usually remained in the hands of their accumulators, whether in the long run or the short. The great financial panics of the late 1830s appear to have strengthened rather than destroyed great wealthholders, even while they wiped out modest property owners. Antebellum urban society was very much a class society. Surface manifestations of easy mingling among diverse social orders may have given European visitors the impression that class barriers were easily breached. In fact, the several hundred most eminent of the wealthy families in each of the great cities sought marital partners, neighbors, dinner companions, formal and informal social relationships, almost exclusively from among their own sort. And, far from lacking direct representation in or influence over the agencies that ran their communities, the wealthy and eminent were inordinately present and powerful in such bodies. They dominated and shaped the policies of the army of voluntary associations that complemented municipal govern ment during the era, while retaining the sufficient if diminishing mem bership needed to ensure their substantial control over city councils. During the "era of the common man," rich men had power and influence in the affairs of urban communities that appeared to be commensurate with their great wealth and lofty status.
