According to the IRS, a temporary stamp tax in 1797 applied a tax of varying size depending on the size of the bequest, ranging from 25 cents for a bequest between $50–$100, to 1 dollar for each $500. The tax was repealed in 1802. In the 19th century, the Revenue Act of 1862 and the War Revenue Act of 1898 also imposed rates, but were each repealed shortly thereafter. The modern estate tax was enacted in 1916.
They repealed the tax 5 years later. Also, it was $1 per $500 (0.2%).
> It was re-instated
as part of the Tax act of 1862 to help fund the Civil War and repealed after the war was paid for.
That history does not scream "must prevent creation of dynastic wealth!" to me.
> The tax instituted by our founding fathers, specifically as a safeguard against the creation of an aristocratic class?
fr0sty essentially said that your original statement should be amended to something like: "The tax instituted by our founding fathers, specifically (so they said) as a safeguard against the creation of an aristocratic class, and then repealed five years later to show that they weren't very serious about preventing aristocracy (or no longer believed in the tax as a cure for it).
And a 0.2% tax rate is directly relevant to the actual effectiveness of the tax at preventing the aristocracy (as in, not very effective at all).
You also said:
> A tax that ONLY affects people with more than 5 million at time of death?
But that's the current state of affairs now. When originally implemented, it applied to estates as small as $50. Placing that in the very next sentence to the founding fathers has the potential to be misleading.