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James Hamilton of South Carolina. By Robert Tinkler. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004. x, 294 pp. $59.95, ISBN 0-8071-2936-4.)
James Hamilton (1786-1857) and his father both won entry to the planter class through advantageous marriages, but neither had the aptitude or the interest to run a plantation. Major James Hamilton (1750-1833), the son of a Scots-Irish immigrant from Ulster, grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He enlisted when the Revolutionary War started. By the time the war ended, the handsome young officer was stationed in South Carolina, where he wooed and wed a wealthy young widow.
In 1813 young James, who shared his father's charm and "striking good looks" (p. 29), won the hand of an eighteen-year-old who brought three plantations and more than two hundred slaves to the marriage. They settled for several years on one of...