My research explores the economic and political implications of the connections between the “private,” domestic world of the family and the “public” world of governance at the federal, state, and local levels. I focus on southern families to tell a national story with continued resonance—the creation of a governing system intertwined with the familial networks of the elite. I use an interdisciplinary approach that brings together my training as a women’s historian, theoretical work on affect and emotion, and legal, economic, and political history.