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Book: The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 by Robert Middlekauff
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Authors: Robert Middlekauff
Tags: United States, History, Military, Colonial Period (1600-1775), Americas (North; Central; South; West Indies)
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the head-matter of sperm whales. Ironmakers were more common in Pennsylvania and not all engaged in a general trade overseas. Many did, however; for them the production of pig iron was one of several money-making businesses. 14
Commerce generated most of the great fortunes in the cities. By the middle of the eighteenth century a number of merchants in the principal cities, through their connections with the larger Atlantic world inside and outside the British empire, had made their names as well as their wealth well known -- at least locally. An increasing number intermarried, and a few joined their families across colonial boundaries. Thus the Redwoods of Newport, Ervings of Boston, Allens, Shippens, and Francises of Philadelphia, DeLanceys of New York, and Izards of Charleston established familial connections in other colonies. 15
The great landowners along the Hudson Valley in New York and the big planters in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina may have possessed even greater wealth. A number of these planters owned thousands of acres, cultivated a relatively small portion themselves, and leased the remainder. These landed magnates made up a rural aristocracy, and some consciously imitated English models.
Several of the great landlords owed their start to seventeenth-century charters and land patents. The charters were worthless for more than a hundred years after they were first issued even though they provided that feudal dues -- rents, fees, and quit rents -- should be paid their holders. The holders, however, could not collect what the charters said was owed them since the population to give these obligations reality did not exist in the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century, when colonial population virtually exploded, the holders of the original grants -the Penns and the Calverts, for example -- made the old charters pay off.
A few "feudal lords," a large number of great merchants, planters, and wealthy lawyers made their way to the top. There is some evidence that the long-run "trend" in the seventy-five years before the American Revolution entailed an increasing concentration of wealth in such groups. One historian holds that the richest 5 percent in Boston increased its share of taxable wealth between 1687 and 1774 from 30 to 49 percent. In Philadelphia a comparable group built up its holdings from 33 percent
____________________
14
The standard study of iron production in Pennsylvania is Arthur C. Bining, Pennsylvania Iron Manufacture in the Eighteenth Century ( Harrisburg, Pa., 1938).
15
Bridenbaugh, Cities in Revolt , 346.
to 55 percent. The difficulty with these figures lies in the fact that in 1774 taxable wealth was assessed differently from 1687. 16
Several historians have recently compiled a good many other statistics, most of which show that social stratification occurred in the eighteenth century. In Boston and Philadelphia, to cite a different sort of example, the lower half of society held 5 percent of the taxable wealth. Using another sort of measurement, a historian has established that between 1720 and 1770 in Philadelphia the percentage paying no taxes rose from 2.5 percent to 10.6 percent. He estimates that by 1772 one of four adult men in Philadelphia was poor by the standards of the day; of this poor group half either received some sort of public aid or spent part of the year in the workhouse, the almshouse, or the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Sick Poor; the other half owned so little real property that they paid no taxes. 17
The abstractness of the statistics conceals the bleakness of the lives of these urban poor. There is little doubt that some went hungry; some lived in dreadfully cramped and unsanitary housing; some did not receive medical treatment when sick. From at least the 1750s on, these poor included new sorts of people -- veterans of the midcentury wars and perhaps a larger number of victims of the instabilities produced by the wars
Commerce generated most of the great fortunes in the cities. By the middle of the eighteenth century a number of merchants in the principal cities, through their connections with the larger Atlantic world inside and outside the British empire, had made their names as well as their wealth well known -- at least locally. An increasing number intermarried, and a few joined their families across colonial boundaries. Thus the Redwoods of Newport, Ervings of Boston, Allens, Shippens, and Francises of Philadelphia, DeLanceys of New York, and Izards of Charleston established familial connections in other colonies. 15
The great landowners along the Hudson Valley in New York and the big planters in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina may have possessed even greater wealth. A number of these planters owned thousands of acres, cultivated a relatively small portion themselves, and leased the remainder. These landed magnates made up a rural aristocracy, and some consciously imitated English models.
Several of the great landlords owed their start to seventeenth-century charters and land patents. The charters were worthless for more than a hundred years after they were first issued even though they provided that feudal dues -- rents, fees, and quit rents -- should be paid their holders. The holders, however, could not collect what the charters said was owed them since the population to give these obligations reality did not exist in the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century, when colonial population virtually exploded, the holders of the original grants -the Penns and the Calverts, for example -- made the old charters pay off.
A few "feudal lords," a large number of great merchants, planters, and wealthy lawyers made their way to the top. There is some evidence that the long-run "trend" in the seventy-five years before the American Revolution entailed an increasing concentration of wealth in such groups. One historian holds that the richest 5 percent in Boston increased its share of taxable wealth between 1687 and 1774 from 30 to 49 percent. In Philadelphia a comparable group built up its holdings from 33 percent
____________________
14
The standard study of iron production in Pennsylvania is Arthur C. Bining, Pennsylvania Iron Manufacture in the Eighteenth Century ( Harrisburg, Pa., 1938).
15
Bridenbaugh, Cities in Revolt , 346.
to 55 percent. The difficulty with these figures lies in the fact that in 1774 taxable wealth was assessed differently from 1687. 16
Several historians have recently compiled a good many other statistics, most of which show that social stratification occurred in the eighteenth century. In Boston and Philadelphia, to cite a different sort of example, the lower half of society held 5 percent of the taxable wealth. Using another sort of measurement, a historian has established that between 1720 and 1770 in Philadelphia the percentage paying no taxes rose from 2.5 percent to 10.6 percent. He estimates that by 1772 one of four adult men in Philadelphia was poor by the standards of the day; of this poor group half either received some sort of public aid or spent part of the year in the workhouse, the almshouse, or the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Sick Poor; the other half owned so little real property that they paid no taxes. 17
The abstractness of the statistics conceals the bleakness of the lives of these urban poor. There is little doubt that some went hungry; some lived in dreadfully cramped and unsanitary housing; some did not receive medical treatment when sick. From at least the 1750s on, these poor included new sorts of people -- veterans of the midcentury wars and perhaps a larger number of victims of the instabilities produced by the wars
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