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618thCenturyWorkersMerchantsandLandBarons.pptxWorkers, Merchants, and Land Barons
From the end of the 17th century through the mid 18th century, England and France engaged in a series of mercantilist wars known collectively as the Colonial Wars. We’ve already looked at the first two, King William’s War and Queen Anne’s War, both of which began in Europe and had to do not only with colonial domination but with long-standing European power struggles.
The third, King George’s war will be another in this series. It begins as a war in Europe over the succession to the Austrian crown and later spills over into North America in a continued dispute over territory between the French and British. As in the other two, both the French and British will rely on their respective Indian allies.
Colonial/Mercantilist Wars
King William’s War 1689-1697
Queen Anne’s War 1702-1713 War of the Spanish Succession
King George’s War 1744-1748 War of the Austrian Succession
French and Indian War 1756-1763 Seven Years War
The 4th of this series of wars began in North America and spilled over to Europe where it will ultimately be referred to as the Seven Years War. In the Americas, it is simply called The French and Indian War. It is financially devastating to many (including the British government), yet profitable to others (arms dealers and merchants who have become smugglers).
End the end, the British win, gaining the eastern half of French held territories from northern Canada to the Gulf Coast. Repercussions of the war, and disagreements over subsequent laws imposed upon the colonists, will soon lead to Revolution.
One such annoyance to colonists is the British promise that land in the Ohio River Valley will remain Indian land, inaccessible to colonial settlers.
What They Were Fighting For
As is always the case in modern warfare, those who did the actual fighting were working people, both from urban areas and farms. Class resentments began to increase over the course of these wars.
Who Fought?
The Iroquois Had Been Fighting the French Continuously Since @1640 Over Hunting and Trapping Territory (Beaver Wars) and Then Were Used As British Allies in the Colonial Wars
Two commodities in great demand in Europe were fur and wood. These two resources would continue to dominate colonial exports.
As the 18th century went on, trade became more complex with agricultural goods (both food and products like indigo and tobacco) and other natural resources being sent to Europe for European manufactured goods.
The three way trade patterns between England and Africa, the Caribbean plantation islands and the North American mainland became know as the Triangle Trade. Rum, guns, and slaves were among the major commodities exchanged.
Colonial territory in the East became increasingly marked by the growth of farm villages into towns and cities. Farmers would often live in the villages and commute to their farm workplace.
Over time, the more wealthy began to consolidate property holdings and employing farm workers (many of whom had previously owned their own farms.)
Colonial Villages: Town Center, Farms Radiate Outward
Colonial Williamsburg
Consolidation Of Prime Land Under a Small Group of Increasingly Wealthy Landowners
White Farm Workers in the North (from egalitarian to hierarchical).
Black Slaves in the South
Diverse kinds of slave conditions from constant hard labor for the master to areas where slaves can hunt and fish or earn money after work.
10-20% of the population in the North were slaves.
Many slaves ran away and founded their own colonies in the Caribbean and on the Spanish mainland in secluded areas. These runaway colonists were know as maroons.
Farther west, with workers looking for greater freedoms, homesteads would often be miles from each other., bringing with it dangers and also the evolution of cultures that differed greatly from those along the Atlantic seaboard.
From Nucleated to Highly Dispersed Over the Course of the 18th Century
As more farmers moved west, their grain and animal produce is needed for a growing Atlantic Coast population.
Eastern port towns continued to grow dramatically as class structures began to coalesce. Still, many port workers and wealthy merchants held interests in common. Both required a relatively free trade. They would come to see the British government as an obstacle their economic well being.
18th Century Philadelphia
On Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers
Charleston
Consolidation of Colonial Wealth and Power
As class differences began to solidify, the propertied and merchant classes, with more disposable income, became a prime market for British manufactured goods. In fact, one advertisement his status by dressing his wife in the latest British fashions and furnishing his home with English furniture, china, utensils, glassware, and linens.
Local colonial products were considered to be (and often were) of inferior quality.
The Colonial Desire for British Goods
Has a tremendous impact on the colonial economy, which in turn impacts colonial politics.
The working classes bought locally produced goods, if they could afford them at all.
With low rates of literacy or special skills, it was rare for a member of the lower classes to rise above his or her station.
Distinct Classes
Very Little Social Mobility
Sponsored or Competitive When It Does Happen
Although the British government (King and Parliament) had grown stronger and more cohesive in the 18th century, the 17th century disruptions in England (religious wars and political coups) had left the colonies to fend for themselves. During these times they had developed a tradition of self governance. With the accession of the Hanover family to the crown, along with increasing powers in Parliament, the British mainland began to consolidate its control over the colonies.
This often conflicted with a colonial sense of autonomy and resentments began to increase. (It is important to note, however, that this was not a universal sentiment. Many colonists, even when annoyed with British policy, were reluctant to protest and often criticized those who did.)
American Colonial Governments
These colonial governments were most often led by wealthy landowners and merchants. The hierarchical nature of the colonies were characterized by class animosities. The colonial governments typically acted for the benefit of their own classes. Still, democratic traditions began to arise in local governments. Democratic debate took place at the aristocratic or plutocratic levels and at popular levels, but rarely in interaction between the two.
18th Century Factories
Exploitation of Women and Children
Tremendous Poverty
While the Industrial Revolution was in full bloom in early 18th century England, it lagged well behind in the colonies. Still, factory conditions were showing a pattern of exploitation and poverty that would continue well into the 20th century. Work slowly began to change from artisan shops to factory work, although this did not reach major proportions until the early 19th century.
18th Century Single Women Often Lived in Deep Poverty and Servitude
When Married, They Gave Up Most Rights to Their Husbands
Conditions for Orphans were even worse. They were often forced to work for other families until adulthood.
While some prospered, many immigrants to the American Colonists were deeply disappointed with the stratified conditions.
Work in the coastal regions often involved the sea. Longshoremen (dockworkers), merchant seamen, fishermen, and whalers were common to the port cities.
These were often dangerous professions. Besides the sheer unpredictability of the seas, sailors had to endure piracy and impressment (kidnapping by the British navy and merchant marine. Even dockworkers were subject to being whacked over the head and waking up miles out to sea.
Many in the lower classes worked as public servants in villages, towns, and cities.
Public Servants
Town Crier
Watchman
Rat Catcher
Street Sweeper
Hog Reeve
Chimney Sweep
Many also worked in itinerant sales, sometimes in a state a constant travel though the countryside, other times wandering the city in the hopes of selling their product.
ANKLE BEATER: a young person who helped to drive the cattle to market
BADGER: a licensed pauper who wore a badge with the letter "P" on it and could only work in a defined area; a corn miller or dealer; an itinerant food trader
BATMAN: an officer's servant in the army
BEADLE: a town crier or warrant officer; a lowly parish officer appointed to keep order in church, punish petty offenders, and act as a servant or messenger of the parish
BIDDY: female servant usually of Irish stock
BREWSTER: a female brewer
BULLWHACKER: a bullock or oxen driver
COBBLER: a shoemaker
CRACKER BOY - a boy employed to clean and sort slate and other impurities from the coal crushed by the crackers (machines that crush anthracite coal)
DOG LEECH: a veterinarian
PETTIFOGGER: a small time lawyer retained by a small or mean business
For a longer list go to http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sam/occupation.html
Other lower class occupations.
Artisans or skilled laborers formed a middle class. They were often referred to as “leather apron men”.
Gunsmith
Blacksmith
Silversmith
Wainwright
Sail Maker
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While today, debt is a standard feature of citizenship in a modern capitalist society, it was considered a criminality in colonial times.
Persistent debt could lead you to debtor’s prison. This could be the result of debt regardless of class. In fact, the middle and upper classes, for obvious reasons, often had a greater chance of incurring significant debt.
Debtors Prison
Class warfare was brewing in the colonies with tenant riots in both rural and urban settings. Landholders in attempt to secure the highest profits would attempt to extract oppressively high rents. When the situation became intolerable in the eyes of the tenants they rebelled…sometimes violently.
Hudson Valley Tenant Riots of the 1750s
New York Rent Riots 1766
Slave revolts began to become more common.
Poor rural farmers began to violently protest oppressive laws and taxes in the South brought on by colonial hierarchies. There was an increasing revolutionary spirit, although it was directed at the local elite rather than the crown.
The North Carolina Regulators
Benjamin Franklin
A lower class kid from Boston would rise to become a prominent member of the Philadelphia elite as well as becoming a world renowned inventor and scientist. His stint as Pennsylvania postmaster and then colonial postmaster transformed American communications and in s significant way created conditions necessary for pan-colonial revolt.
He became, without question, the most famous man from the colonies. In middle age he left for Europe, where he had intended to stay, but returned to the colonies just before the Revolution.
George Washington
Born a generation after Franklin, a plantation owners son would rise to prominence in colonial society. His efforts in land speculation, a route to great wealth in these times, took him into the countryside far to the west of his Potomac home on surveying expeditions. His desire to claim property in the Ohio Valley, west of the Appalachians put him at odds with the British government.
Ask yourself: Why would a man of wealth and stature put his life and holdings at risk to challenge the British establishment? This is a question that extends to many others beyond Washington himself. This a question we’ll pursue in the next lecture.
18th Century Land Grab
