Close-Kin Marriage and Upper-Class Formation in Late-Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia

Abstract

In contrast with other contemporary urban elites, relatively few wealthy Philadel phians in the late eighteenth rentury married first cousins, and these marriages led to the forma tion of divisions among the wealthy rather than to social integration. These divisions and the social conflict which resulted from them were often strengthened by an emerging trend of rich Philadel phians marrying affinal kin. Philadelphia's religious norms, pluralistic social and political en vironment, changing business atmosphere, and latitudinarian marriage practices accounted for these patterns. The patterns, in turn, were part of a shift by wealthy Philadelphians toward "modern" family arrangements, based on affection, individualism, and voluntarism.