Boston Brahmin

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Boston Brahmins, also called the First Families of Boston are a blue-blooded class of New Englanders who claim hereditary or cultural descent from the Anglo-Saxon Protestants who founded the city of Boston, Massachusetts and originally settled New England. They are part of the historic core of the East Coast establishment, along with wealthy families of New York and Philadelphia.

Some of the Brahmins trace descent back to the original founders of Boston. Others bought their way into society in the nineteenth century with the profits of commerce, and by marrying into other Brahmin families like the Emersons and Winthrops. Today, Brahmins often refer to themselves as Yankees. They are predominantly fiscally conservative, socially liberal, well educated and, religiously speaking, often Episcopalian or Unitarian.

The term Brahmin comes from the Indian caste system, of which the Brahmins are the highest caste. The assertion that they are "Brahmin" is not just a claim of high social class, but also of cultural, intellectual, and possibly spiritual leadership; these roles were performed by the namesake caste that existed in India. The American phrase was probably coined by writer Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., as part of a January 1860 article in the Atlantic Monthly called "The Professor's Story."

They are often perceived as marked by their distinctive elocution, the Boston Brahmin accent, their high level of education, and wealth. The nature of the Brahmins is summarized in the doggerel poem, "Boston Toast," by John Collins Bossidy.

"So this is good old Boston,
The home of the bean and the cod,
Where the Lowells talk only to the Cabots,
And the Cabots talk only to God."
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Original Brahmin families

Brahmin families frequently intermarried. According to Yankee magazine and other sources, some Boston Brahmin families include the:

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See also

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External links

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