But they conveniently ignore the fact that the richest Americans were southern planters, who greatly supported Jefferson (the Pinckneys are the only notable exception I've found so far).
George Washington was a Federalist in spirit and practice (and Shay's Rebellion is what took him out of retirement - which he violently put down and then went on to win the Presidency unopposed two times - not a good look for democracy!), if not in open affiliation, and Alexander Hamilton's in-laws owned slaves (and Hamilton himself traded some slaves in NYC and even owned one or two IIRC, don't quote me on that last part though).
The real point is that the Federalists were
more anti-democratic, even if the Jeffersonians/Republicans were white supremacists and many of them were wealthy slaveowners. True, there were more abolitionists in the Federalist Party because of New England's politics and there were more white supremacists in the Jeffersonian Republican Party because of the Southern skew, so it is not super clear-cut, but for the most part I'm pretty confident in saying that the Federalists were more conservative, certainly in a more elitist "Tory" sense!
FWIW, I reckon Aaron Burr was pretty good on a lot of issues (and he helped kill the Federalist Party - literally
) but his legacy is forever tainted because of Hamilton's death and the weird conspiracy he was involved in later.
