Page images
PDF
EPUB

38

CHARACTER AND OWNERSHIP OF PROPERTY.

losses during the war, it was probably nearly that in 1790. Personal property would run about a third more. All things considered the per capita was large and was evidence of a condition of general industry and prosperity.

Real estate was principally in farming properties, small farms in the North, extensive manors in New York, and Maryland, and big plantations in Virginia and elsewhere in the South. Residential properties in the few cities constituted a relatively small proportion of the real estate. Personal property was made up entirely of live-stock, implements of agriculture, household furnishings and utensils, clothing, jewelry, money, ships, and products of the land. Banks were not known; stocks and bonds of railroads and other industrials had not arrived; manufacturing as means of investment and profit was not to come for half a century.

During the Revolution there was little progress in material development. The field of military operations' was extensive; not a single colony escaped. Property losses, outside a few localities where the military forces were most in action, were not large. But the people everywhere were so involved in the struggle for liberty that other affairs were considerably neglected. The local animosities between the patriots and the Loyalists were of such virulent character that they broke up many of the

ordinary pursuits of the people; in New York and other colonies even the administration of law was suspended to a grave extent on account of the divided allegiance of the people, some to the king and others to the patriot cause. There was left little record of the status and accumulation of property in that period. A considerable number of men were enlisted in the Continental army; as many as 157,000 were called for by Congress in 1776. The number actually in the field at any one time was less than that, but a large proportion of the entire population was in the fighting ranks, and thus withdrawn from gainful occupations. This was the principal reason why property did not increase in value between 1770 and 1783; but to this must be added, as another prime cause of the stagnation, the almost entire suspension of foreign commerce.

A majority of the wealthiest people in all the colonies were of the official class, or merchants whose interests were more or less allied to or dependent upon the government. Naturally, most of these remained loyal to the crown when the colonies revolted. When the patriot cause was successful, the Loyalists fled to Canada and to England, leaving their estates to be confiscated by the victors. But they carried some personal property with them. It has been estimated that the Loyalists of New York carried away with them nearly

VALUATION OF ESTATES.

a million in hard money.* Not less than that amount was taken from the other colonies. Some of the estates left behind were valued at nearly £100,000; that of James de Lancey, for example, was worth £93,639. England undertook to compensate these loyal supporters for their losses and in the final adjudication in 1788, 5,072 individuals presented claims amounting to £8,026,045.† These figures give at least a suggestion of the value of property held by part of the wealthiest class of the colonists of that time.

Estates of the rich in Pennsylvania and in Virginia were valued at from £10,000 upward. An estate of £50,000 was exceptional. The Watts house in New York, a fine city mansion, was worth £2,000 sterling. Mary Philipse inherited from her father, Frederick Philipse, an estate worth £20,000. Annual incomes of substantial citizens ranged from £500 to £5,000.

Authorities have differed regard ing the amount of specie in the colonies in the Revolutionary and postRevolutionary periods. One worker -Blodgett calculated that in 1774 there was about $4,000,000, and Lord Sheffield's figures for 1775 were about $9,500,000.‡

[ocr errors]

Coming to the close of the Revo

* Thomas Jones, History of New York During the Revolutionary War, vol. iii., p. 246.

Lorenzo Sabine, Biographical Sketches of the Loyalists of the American Revolution, vol. i., p. 112.

Adam Seybert, Statistical Annals, p. 551.

39

lution, we have somewhat more definite figures as to amount and value of property, particularly of real estate. Then there were in the United States 163,746,688 acres of land valued at $479,293,203, and dwelling houses valued at $140,683,984, making a total for real estate of $619,977,247. There were 276,695 dwelling houses and the number of slaves was 393,219. The acreage was divided among the States as follows: New Hampshire, 3,749,061; Massachusetts, 7,831,628; Rhode Island, 565,844; Connecticut, 2,649,149; Vermont, 4,918,722; New York, 16,414,510; New Jersey, 2,788,282; Pennsylvania, 11,959,838; Delaware, 1,074,105; Maryland, 5,444,272; Virginia, 40,458,644; North Carolina, 20,956,467; South Carolina, 9,772,589; Georgia, 13,534,154; Kentucky, 17,674,634; Tennessee, 3,951,357.* It will be observed that by far the greatest proportion of land owned was in the seven Southern States, over 111,000,000 acres, as compared with less than 51,000,000 in the nine States of the North.

The assessed valuation of property -including real estate and slaves in the several States in 1788 was as follows: New Hampshire, $23,175,046; Massachusetts, $83,992,469; Rhode Island, $11,066,358; Connecticut, $48,313,434; Vermont, $16,723,873; New York, $100,380,707; Delaware, $6,234,414; Maryland, $32,372,291;

Timothy Pitkin, A Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States, pp. 417-419 (2d ed., 1817).

40

VALUATION OF ESTATES.

North Carolina, $30,842,372; South Carolina, $17,465,012; Tennessee, $6,134,108; Virginia, $71,225,127; New Jersey, $36,473,890; Pennsylvania, $102,145,900; Georgia, $12,061,138; Kentucky, $21,408,090; total, $619,977,247. These were the figures taken by Congress as a basis for taxation in 1789.*

* Thomas Jones, History of New York During the Revolutionary War and of the Leading Events in the other Colonies at that Period (2 vols., New York, 1879); Lorenzo Sabine, Biographical Sketches of the Loyalists of the American Revolution (2 vols., Boston, 1864); George Bancroft, History of the United States of America (5 vols.,

New York, 1885); C. C. Coffin, Old Times in the Colonies (New York, 1880); Adam Seybert, Statistical Annals (Philadelphia, 1818); James Curtis Ballagh (ed.), Economic History, 1607-1865, vol. v., in The South in the Building of the Nation (12 vols., Richmond, 1909); A. Burnaby, Travels in America (London, 1755); John Fiske, Old Virginia and Her Neighbours (Boston, 1897); J. A. Doyle, The English Colonies in America (New York, 1882); F. J. Chastellux, Travels in North America (2 vols., London, 1787); W. B. Weeden, Economic and Social History of England (2 vols., Boston, 1890); J. J. Lalor (ed.), Cyclopedia of Political Science, Political Economy, and of the Political History of the United States (3 vols., Chicago, 1881); Peter Force, Tracts Relating to the American Colonies (4 vols., Washington, 1836-46); T. A. Glenn, Some Colonial Mansions and Those who Lived in Them (2 vols., Philadelphia, 18991900).

CHAPTER II.

1764-1789.

INDUSTRIES: AGRICULTURE: LABOR.

[ocr errors]

--

Increase in iron
Congress

Increase in population stimulates industries - Effect of English policies on industries - Shipbuilding in New England Number and tonnage of vessels built- - Timber production - Textile industries Introduction of machinery and the factory system - Various articles manufactured in the colonies manufactures and textiles after war Laws passed in England to harass American industry vested with power to regulate trade - Tariff bill of 1789 stimulates home industries - Northern and Middle States non-agricultural South supreme in agricultural pursuits Tobacco leading crop in South - Cotton production Sugar Rice Hemp and flax - England prohibits exportation of machinery — Invention and improvement of machinery in America Labor largely individual Spinning-jenny introducedCotton factories established Slave labor in the South - Mechanical inventions revolutionize labor conditions.

[ocr errors]

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Industries.

Before 1770 the colonies had attained to a position where they realized that, were it not for the restrictions which the mother country sought to place upon their commerce and industries, they were even then capable of being economically and industrially an independent people. The enormous natural resources of

the country had been drawn upon only to a moderate degree. Comparatively narrow strips of land along the seaboard had been taken up for cultivation. Acres of timber within sight of the shipping ports still waited for the axe and the sawmills. Iron mining had barely indicated the wealth that was in store beneath the surface of the earth. Al

GROWTH OF COUNTRY STIMULATES INDUSTRIES.

ready shipbuilding was going on at a pace that held out promise that America might soon outrun any other part of the world in this line of industry.

The growth of population-to the approximate number of of between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000— and the increased demand for the things that make for comfort, refinement and luxury in living, had encouraged invention and had stimulated activity in every line of manual labor, in trade, and in commerce. For more than a century England had persistently sought to place burdensome restrictions upon colonial industry and commerce, but this unstatesmanlike policy had an effect wholly contrary to that anticipated by its authors. To a very considerable extent, the infant industries — agriculture, manufacturing and commercewere thus seriously hampered. The people were forced to purchase in London most of the manufactured articles used in the family or in trade; they were compelled to send their raw material and their agricultural products to England alone, foreign trade being forbidden to them.

But this experience had educated them in a hard school and in a very practical way. They had come to a full realization of the material and irreconcilable divergence in the economic interests of the two countries and of the necessity of achieving independence in these respects,

41

if they would remain free and prosperous Englishmen. Momentarily industry could not advance under these conditions. In the South, agriculture continued; in New York, trade was not ruined altogether, but in New England and elsewhere, manufactures sank into neglect.

But amid all this stress, the industrial and commercial future of the country was not lost sight of. The people lived, labored, and did business in an atmosphere of discontent and resentment at the impositions of the mother country. Parliamentary laws and ministerial exactions to the contrary notwithstanding, manufacturing went on, crippled to be sure, but not killed; foreign trade was maintained surreptitiously; obnoxious restrictive laws were sturdily ignored; and throughout this preRevolutionary period industrial and commercial development went went on surely and lustily though slowly. Home industries were maintained in the face of all discouragement when the time came for the inevitable separation from the mother country; it was in these industries that the latent strength was found which made it possible to carry on the struggle to a successful conclusion.

Despite all discouragements, shipbuilding and the commerce which naturally grew therefrom continued to engross the attention of the New Englanders and to a lesser extent the Southern colonists. In 1769 the number of vessels built in the several

42

SHIPBUILDING; PRODUCTION OF TIMBER.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

The tonnage of vessels built in 1770 was 20,610, and in 1771, 24,068. In 1772 the number of vessels built was 182, with an aggregate tonnage of 26,544; of this number 123, which had a tonnage of 18,149, were built in New England. At this time about 50 vessels were built annually and sold to Great Britain. Massachusetts owned nearly one vessel for every one hundred of its inhabitants. Many were also built in that colony on contract and for sale. At the time of the Revolution Philadelphia led the country in naval architecture. Raft-ships, constructed for carrying great loads of timber and designed to be broken up when the voyage was ended, originated in the shipyards of that city. Four of the thirteen frigates ordered by the Congress in 1775 were built there. During the war Maryland was active in fitting out cruisers and South Carolina was her close rival in that work.

Shipbuilding,. North and South,

was nearly ruined by the war. For example, the town of Newburyport in Massachusetts, which built 90 vessels in 1772, sent only three off the stocks in 1778. Other shipbuilding places showed a like falling off. The shipyards were kept going only by the building of a few privateers or small frigates for Congress, but these made glorious records for themselves. After the war had ended, there was prompt and substantial recovery of this industry. American shipbuilders again began to demonstrate their superior skill. In 1789 the registered tonnage American built vessels only — of the United States amounted to 123,893 out of a total tonnage of 201,562; in 1790, the corresponding figures were 346.254 and 478,377, and in the following year the registered tonnage had increased to 669,921.

Timber production was as fruitful a cause of contention between the people and the officers of the crown in 1764 and thereafter as it had been throughout the preceding one hundred years and more. England was still in pressing need of timber for shipbuilding and other purposes, and of naval stores, while the demand for timber from other lands, particularly the West Indies, Portugal and Spain, was an additional incentive to lumbering activity. This was especially true of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, where most of this business was carried on.

Textile industries, more than any

« PreviousContinue »