Preamble
Virginia, the birthplace of the nation, contains a lengthy history that is derived from the implications of slave labor and traditional social hierarchy. Numerous historical figures, from the beginnings of Jamestown to the colonial era at Williamsburg and throughout the Tidewater region, contain large-scale plantations associated with the aristocracy. The aristocratic social roles of the past were very different from what society allows to be considered social roles in the modern day, yet the traditional social hierarchies are often still largely enforced by way of culture, even if not strictly so.
The Promenade
Everything about the Commonwealth of Virginia, especially the traditional Tidewater and Piedmont areas, is largely associated with different types of formal events with traditional meaning, whether in derivation from debutante balls that had historically depended on binaries that are often antiquated today; particularly strict enforcement of traditional social roles, scripts, and hierarchies; or numerous additional categories of events. Today, the roles remain enforced socially, rather than legally (in most cases), yet political tension continues to exist both for–and against–such roles. Unfortunately, economic factors are resulting in the apparent dissolution of prom and prom cultural traits in particular.
Presidential and High Families
Several families in the modern-day Tidewater region continue to enforce the codes of prom every day, including living relatives, direct and collateral, of the Washington, Custis, Lee, Tayloe, Jackson, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Tyler families, just to name a few. While the vast majority of the national population is capable of living in a modern society, most are also living under hostile working conditions often considered comparable to the moral equivalent of “wage slavery.”
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