[cajungirl]

Thanks again! Now that I see him in the context of his time I guess I am not so surprised. Except that Adams who was also a farmer, smaller than Jefferson however, hated debt, lived frugally and left money in his estate. From the Adams bio, Jefferson spent his money on books, furniture, art and maybe clothing. Anyhow, I guess leaving ones life in debt so that the heirs are encumbered just seems so alien to me even as a southerner. Jefferson seemed to just love to build, decorate, remodel and really loved to buy books. Not a bad thing.

[CatoRenasci]

The cultural differences between the New Englanders, frugal merchants and yeoman farmers reared in a Puritan environment, even such a sophisticated man as Adams, and the typically Anglican gentry that constituted the educated and hence governing class in the Southern colonies, was as great as the cultural difference today between an Upper West Side of Manhattan graduate of Harvard, and the owner of small retail service business in Texas.

What is remarkable is that the submerged (but didn't completely put aside) their cultural and regional differences in the creating of the American Experiment, from the War of Independence through the adoption of the Constitution.