This book identifies and interprets the changes that took place in the values and ideas brought from England by the early Maryland colonists. The author focuses on the border between social consciousness and social being, and interprets the changes from two perspectives: a genetic one, involving cultural patterns inherited from England, and a functional one, involving objective colonial conditions and social practice. Analyzes four spheres of colonial reality in which the greatest shift in values had taken place: the tobacco economy, Anglo-Indian relations, servitude, and slavery.