Money and Morals in America

Patricia O'Toole, author of Money and Morals in America

America was first settled by colonists who came in pursuit of an ideal. Colonies in Massachusetts, Virginia and Georgia combined a commitment to material success with an equally strong interest in the pursuit of individual virtue. From the start, then, matters of money and morals have been in constant and at times conflicted interaction in America. Georgia, for example, began as an exercise in self-reliance. Soon the irresistible appeal of slave labor sullied the noble experiment as bondage, rather than freedom, became the colony's foundation. Patricia O'Toole describes how money and morals have been in vexed dialogue in America over the years.