THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND
"God sifted a whole nation that he might send choice grain over into
this wilderness."[204] With regard to New England this statement was in
part true, for the people of those northern colonies exhibited a
remarkable homogeneity, and their leaders were men of a peculiarly lofty
character. That this population grew with leaps and bounds during the
first century of settlement is well attested by records. As early as
1643, Massachusetts had a population of 20,000; while Plymouth,
Connecticut, and Newhaven, taken together, must have numbered between
eleven and twelve thousand. At the Restoration the total population is
placed at 80,000, of which two-thirds dwelt in Massachusetts. The
eighteenth century statistics show a steady increase, 100,000 whites and
4000 negroes being a rough computation for the year 1714.
The people dwelt for the most part in little towns, each one of which
was a separate commonwealth possessing representative government. The
corporations were the chief landholders and watched with the greatest
jealousy any increase of individual possession which might trespass upon
their rights. The system was one of antiquity and carries our thoughts
back to mediæval methods where police, finance, justice, and agriculture
were all concentrated in one manorial district. Just as in England in
Plantagenet days there were the division of the land into strips, the
rights of common pasture, and the tilling on a communal principle, so in
the New England of the seventeenth century these systems were employed
with partial success. The houses in which the settlers dwelt were for
the most part built of wood, and stretched in orderly rows along trim
streets. Each homestead was detached, and like the houses of our
Teutonic forefathers, "was surrounded with a clearing," which in America
was usually allotted to fruit trees.
The comfort of the houses was of a very doubtful character, log huts
were extremely draughty, so that houses of brick and stone were most
coveted, but only obtainable by the rich. Although in Plymouth as early
as 1645 glass seems to have been common in the windows, yet the houses
were mainly of wood, which was also the case at Newport as late as 1686.
Governor Bradstreet six years before this had recorded that Boston had
suffered severely by fire and that the houses were therefore to be
rebuilt with brick or stone, "yet hardily to be obtained by reason of
the inhabitants' poverty."[205] Wooden houses continued to be built, and
in fact in a few instances exist to this day. In Boston they were still
common in 1750, if we are to believe Captain Francis Goelet. "Boston,"
he writes, "the Metropolis of North America, Is Accounted The Largest
Town upon the Continent, Haveing about Three Thousand Houses in it,
about two Thirds them Wooden Framed Clap Boarded, &c."[206]
The men of Boston, and of New England in general, were, owing to natural
circumstances, traders. They had found themselves in a land of splendid
harbours, and so they went down to the sea in ships and trafficked upon
its waters. It has of course been urged that this trade of the colonies
was sadly restricted by the English people, who as a nation of
shopkeepers were determined that "the cultivators of America might be
confined to their shop."[207] For this reason the Navigation Act of
1660, on the lines of the famous Act of 1651, insisted on certain
enumerated articles being landed in British ports only; and this was
still further extended by two later enactments. But even Adam Smith
allows that "though the policy of Great Britain with regard to the trade
of her colonies has been dictated by the same mercantile spirit as that
of other nations, it has, however, upon the whole, been less illiberal
and oppressive than that of any of them."[208] The colonial system was
in truth a mistake, but it never undermined the trade of the British
settlements, as was the case in French Canada, owing to the corrupt and
negligent methods of Bigot and his gang. The result was that the New
England trader flourished. The trade had of course small beginnings; at
first merely fish and fur were exported to Virginia. Then corn, cattle,
and butter were sent to the West Indies, and exchanged for cotton and
fruits. More distant voyages followed, and in 1643, wine, iron, and
wool were imported from Spain. In the meantime iron had been discovered
in Massachusetts by the younger Winthrop at Lynn and Braintree; and the
Commissioners in 1665 certified that there was "good store of iron made
in this province."[209] The Commissioners were, however, too optimistic,
for the iron raised proved to be of inferior quality; partly because of
this inferiority, but chiefly owing to trade regulations, scarcity of
labour, and high wages, all cutlery and farm implements were imported
from England well into the eighteenth century. The reported discovery of
silver in Rhode Island in 1648 caused a nine days' wonder, and then the
excitement subsided for nothing came of it. Lead was also found as early
as 1650 in Lynn, but these mineral industries never rose to great
importance under British rule.
Minor commercial industries seem to have flourished, as there are
frequent references to masons, bricklayers, ropemakers, powder and
pitch-makers, and in 1650 Boston had its own goldsmith. Clothmaking was
not altogether unknown, as certain clothiers from Yorkshire settled at
Rowley in 1639 and established weaving and spinning. The venture was,
however, unsatisfactory, and although New England encouraged by bounties
the textile industry, yet it took long to mature, and as late as 1700
there was only one small cloth mill in Connecticut. At the same time it
is evident that the different colonies varied very much in their
prosperity. Plymouth is reported to the Committee of Trade and
Plantations to have no trade beyond the sea. About the same time
Governor Bradstreet complains of the poverty of Boston, and says "the
country in general is very poor, and it is hard for the people to clothe
themselves and families."[210] The general trade of New England,
however, in the eighteenth century seems to have been good. Daniel
Neale, a very careful writer of the day, records in 1720 that the
imports from England were "all sorts of Woollen Drapery, Silks, Stuffs,
and Hats; all Sorts of Linnen and printed Callicoes, all sorts of Iron
Manufacture ... to the value of 100,000 _l._ annually and upwards. In
Return for these Goods, our Merchants export from thence about 100,000
Quintals of dried Cod-fish Yearly, which they send to Portugal, Spain,
and several Ports of Italy, the returns for which are made to London out
of the Products of those Countries, and may amount to the value of about
80,000 _l._ annually."[211]
Governor Wentworth reports in 1730 that New Hampshire manufactured
timber "into beams, planks, knees, boards ... and sometimes into
house-frames."[212] But long before this it had been exported to England
for naval purposes, and on two occasions at least the Massachusetts
Government bought the goodwill of the home authorities by a timely
present of masts. In particular, however, this timber was used by the
colonies for shipbuilding, which became an industry of importance, and
in later years those employed in it actually excelled the English
shipwrights. In 1631 Winthrop built a thirty-ton vessel, soon to be
followed by others of a hundred and even three hundred tons; and seven
years later the first New England vessel sailed safely across the
Atlantic into the Thames. Although in 1643 Massachusetts could only
boast five ships ranging from one hundred to five hundred tons, yet in
1665 the colony had one hundred and ninety-two ships of all sizes; and
in 1708 possessed two hundred, twenty of which were over one hundred
tons burthen. Rhode Island ran Massachusetts very close in this
shipbuilding race. Between 1690 and 1710 her vessels are said to have
increased six-fold, and in 1740 the inhabitants could proudly boast that
they owned no fewer than one hundred and twenty ships. Connecticut never
competed in this form of industry, and in 1708 she is reported to have
had only thirty vessels. New Hampshire too carried on her over-sea
traffic by means of strange vessels, possessing only five ships of her
own. In 1748, although trade was supposed to be in a very depressed
state, five hundred and forty ships sailed from Boston, a fact which
showed a considerable export and import commerce.
It would be erroneous to imagine that the colonies in the eighteenth
century were in any way struggling, poverty-stricken communities. Their
trade had grown with leaps and bounds, and they carried on a profitable
commerce with England which Sir Robert Walpole had encouraged on the
grounds that "the greater the prosperity of the colonies, the greater
would be their demand for English goods."[213] That this proved true is
shown by William Pitt saying in 1766, "the profits to Great Britain from
the trade of the colonies are two millions a year. That was the fund
that carried you triumphantly through the last war.... And shall a
miserable financier come with a boast that he can filch a peppercorn
into the exchequer to the loss of millions to the nation?"[214] For the
same reason Adam Smith has given a conspicuous place to colonial trade
in his _Wealth of Nations_. "Though the wealth of Great Britain," he
writes, "has increased very much since the establishment of the Act of
Navigation, it certainly has not increased in the same proportion as
that of the colonies.... The industry of Great Britain, instead of being
accommodated to a great number of small markets, has been principally
suited to one great market.... The expectation of a rupture with the
colonies accordingly has struck the people of Great Britain with more
terror than they ever felt for a Spanish Armada or a French
invasion."[215]
The colonists did not, however, simply depend upon trade for their means
of livelihood; many of them engaged in agriculture. During the winter
months their beasts suffered as much as those in England, for until the
eighteenth century there were no winter roots. In the same way the
rotation of crops was much restricted, as the settlers were totally
ignorant of artificial grasses. They had still to wait for Lord
Townshend to make his agricultural experiments at home before they could
grow turnips, cereals, and grasses on scientific principles. On the
other hand they seem to have anticipated the discoveries of Mr Jethro
Tull of Mount Prosperous, and some years previous to his work on
husbandry they had inaugurated deep tillage. Tobacco, the principal
commodity of the southern colonies, was not introduced into New England
until 1660, but its place as a staple was taken by the cultivation of
large quantities of rape, hemp, and flax. The colonists also, after many
disappointments, came to be enthusiastic breeders of sheep, horses,
goats, and cattle. At first the sheep fared very badly; the wool crop
was short, and the climate proved unsuitable to the English stock. By
1642, however, there were one thousand sheep in Massachusetts, and these
increased very rapidly. The authorities were most anxious to encourage
sheep-farming, and in 1654 the exportation of sheep was forbidden. In
Rhode Island and Connecticut they flourished upon the public lands, and
by 1670 the latter colony was able to export a fairly large quantity of
wool.
During the whole period there was a great lack of specie, which in the
early years had not been a very serious drawback, as barter was the
ordinary method of exchange, but as the colonies advanced in importance
it was a decided check upon foreign commerce. In 1631, Massachusetts
declared corn to be legal tender, and four years later it was ordained
that public dues were to be paid in this commodity at the rate of 6s.
per bushel. This system was employed in the next decade by both
Connecticut and Newhaven, with decidedly disadvantageous results, for it
brought about the inconvenience of a double price; the monetary payment
being about half the actual value of the payment in kind. For many years
in the Indian trade the settlers had used Indian shell money or wampum.
This medium of exchange was first applied in New Plymouth in 1627, and
was afterwards employed by Coddington when he bought Aquedneck. In 1641,
wampum was declared legal tender under £10, but within eight years the
Massachusetts Assembly refused to accept it for taxes. The fact was that
it depended solely upon Indian trade, and when this began to decline,
wampum was valueless. Rhode Island was the last colony to discontinue
its use for taxes, which it did in 1662; though it acted as small change
in Newhaven well into the eighteenth century.
As early as 1642, Massachusetts, by means of its foreign trade, began to
obtain coined money in the shape of Dutch ducats and rix-dollars. But
the extraordinary mixture of coins was very awkward, so that in 1652 a
mint was established in the colony. John Hall, the goldsmith of Boston,
was made its master. The coins had stamped upon them the word
Massachusetts encircling a tree, which was in early years a willow,
later an oak, and finally a pine. Charles II. was furious at this attack
upon his coinage, and the story goes that to appease his wrath he was
told that the emblem of the oak was in grateful memory of his glorious
escape at Boscobel.
Towards the end of the seventeenth century the amount of coin in the
country had very largely increased, but in the commercially backward
Connecticut, barter was still common. As late as 1698, gold was very
scarce, and taxes continued to be paid entirely in silver. The colonists
firmly believed in the enriching powers of paper money, which in New
England was issued in particularly large quantities by Rhode Island. The
real disadvantage was intercolonial, and not internal, so that most of
the colonists failed to understand the interference of the home
authorities, either in 1740, when the Lords Commissioners for Trade and
Plantations forbade the governors to sanction the issue of bills of
credit, or again in 1744, when an Act of Parliament was passed
forbidding paper money altogether. The fact was that the settlers
believed, like Governor Burnet, "that this manner of compulsive credit
does in fact keep up its value here, and that it occasions much more
trade and business than would be without it, and that more specie is
exported to England by reason of these Paper Bills than could be if
there was no circulation but of specie."[216]
It is not surprising that the colonists should also labour under the
economic delusion that it was necessary to regulate wages and prices. At
first Massachusetts left them both free, but after three years, wages
were found to have risen to what was then regarded as the monstrous rate
of 3s. a day for carpenters and 2s. 6d. a day for common workmen. In
1633, therefore, a scale of wages was proposed by the General Court, and
"they made an order that carpenters, masons, etc., should take but two
shillings the day, and labourers but eighteenpence, and that no
commodity should be sold at above fourpence in the shilling more than it
cost for ready money in England."[217] The enactment, however, proved
fruitless, and was repealed two years later. The enormous rise in wages
and the extortionate prices still exercised the minds of those in
authority, and a committee was appointed in 1637. The outcome of their
deliberations was that about 1643 the wages of farm labourers were fixed
at 1s. 6d. a day. This remuneration appears to have been ample, and it
has been calculated that a careful man could save enough in five years
to become the tenant of a small farm. This was not so difficult as it
might seem, for small holdings were common, and as succession was by
gavelkind and not through primogeniture, holdings tended to be kept
limited in extent. The accumulation of land was rather the exception
than the rule, though there are occasional examples, as in Newhaven,
where some estates contained as many as three thousand acres.
The thriftless man could not, of course, save very much out of such a
wage, and there were therefore many paupers. The burden of their support
fell upon the towns, and in the case of New Plymouth, it was not long
before the township became "the poor law unit."[218] The decision as to
a man's settlement caused as much difficulty in the Puritan colonies as
it was doing in England at the time. In 1639, Massachusetts ordained
that two magistrates should decide this momentous question. Six years
later the power of decision was put in the hands of a committee; while
immediately before the Restoration a three months' residence was
selected as the period of settlement necessary to denote a man's parish.
The richer inhabitants of the Puritan colonies no doubt had slaves, but
throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries negro slavery in New
England was never a very flourishing institution. The tenets of
Calvinism naturally warred against such a practice, while "the main
influence ... was no doubt the unfitness of the climate and soil for
servile industry."[219] The Rhode Island authorities were from the first
against perpetual bondage, and in 1646, Massachusetts also raised its
voice against slavery. As late as 1680 there were, according to Governor
Brodstreet, only one hundred and twenty negro slaves in the colony, and
they sold for £10, £15, and £20 apiece. The methods of employment do not
seem to have been harsh, and according to Mrs Knight in 1704, the slaves
and masters in Connecticut had their meals together: "into the dish goes
the black hoof as freely as the white hand."[220] Towards the end of the
seventeenth century slavery slightly increased in New England, and it
was found necessary to pass several laws for the better regulation of
the negro. In 1703, in Massachusetts, slaves were not to be set free
unless their masters guaranteed that they would not become a burden on
the poor rate. Two years later the marriage between slaves and whites
was forbidden, and a £4 duty was placed upon every imported negro. In
1708 the blacks in Rhode Island numbered only four hundred and
twenty-six, but within twelve years they had risen to one thousand,
three hundred. At the same time Connecticut had eight hundred, while
Massachusetts was the worst offender with three thousand.
The actions and protestations of the New Englanders were somewhat
contradictory. Although negro slavery was preached against, it was
nevertheless practised. So too with regard to the Indians. The New
Englander treated the savage with contempt, yet several efforts were
made, not without some success, to convert the Redskin to the Christian
faith. Thomas Mayhew has earned for himself historic fame by being the
first who really made definite attempts to bring the natives into touch
with the doctrines of Christianity. In 1643, with the ready assistance
of his Indian colleague Hiacoomes, he did what he could, and at least
succeeded in founding schools in some of the Indian villages.
Massachusetts made state efforts in 1646, but they were surpassed by the
individual enterprise of John Eliot of Roxbury, who had laboriously
learnt the Indian tongue to accomplish this great work. Excellent as the
work was, it compares but feebly with the self-denial of the Jesuits in
Canada, whose missionary labours far surpassed in deeds of heroism and
suffering anything that was ever undertaken by the English settlers. A
progressive move was made in 1649, when Parliament incorporated the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England. The work then
spread more rapidly, so that in two years a convert settlement of four
hundred "praying Indians" was established at Natich. The Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel was encouraged to still further action when in
1662 it was granted a Royal Charter. For this reason it may be said that
the Restoration stimulated missionary effort, the partial success of
which is to be found in the issue of an Indian Bible and the creation of
converted Indian villages in Massachusetts, New Plymouth, Martha's
Vineyard, and Nantucket.
In New England the church and township were inseparable, their members
being for the most part Congregationalists. In the early days a body of
believers simply entered into a Church covenant and that was all. The
methods of worship were somewhat peculiar, and it is asserted that for
sixty years these Puritans had no marriage or funeral ceremonies.
Throughout all the colonies there was the principle that the members of
the church must support their minister, and in 1637 Massachusetts issued
an order to that effect. In 1650 Connecticut and in 1657 Plymouth did
the same. The Churches were separate in their governance, and the synods
of United Churches held at Boston in 1646, 1657, and 1662 were not
viewed with entire favour by all the congregations. At first, as has
already been shown, the Puritans were the most intolerant of people, and
tried to enforce the law that a freeman must be a member of the Church.
Gradually, however, this fanatic flame burnt itself out, and by the end
of the seventeenth century the intensity of feeling on matters of Church
and toleration began to relax. Fifty years later there were men in
Massachusetts and elsewhere who blushed for shame at the harsh bigotry
of their grand-parents, and one writer is able to say "at present the
Congregationalists of New England may be esteemed among the most
moderate and charitable of Christian professions."[221] Nevertheless
even in that eighteenth century there was no lack of factions and
parties, and this was intensified by the preaching of George Whitefield
in 1739. He certainly created a religious revival amongst the
dissenters, but at the same time his words drove many of the
Independents into the arms of the Church of England, which, though by no
means welcomed in Massachusetts, had long been tolerated in Connecticut.
Even after this event, however, the Established Church never really
succeeded in the colonies, for there was no colonial episcopate, and it
was regarded as doing little or nothing for spiritual life. In 1758,
Archbishop Thomas Seeker urged manfully "the establishment of Bishops
of our Church in America,"[222] but it was too late, and the fear of
such an establishment was a main cause of uneasiness in New England at
the outbreak of the War of Independence.
The lack of unanimity in the religious question does not seem to have
existed with regard to education. Unlike the southern and middle
colonies, the Puritans from the outset encouraged the education of the
young with praiseworthy enthusiasm. This owed its origin to several
circumstances, not the least being the fact that so many men from the
two ancient Universities emigrated during the period 1630 to 1640. The
foundation of Harvard, as already mentioned,[223] did something to
encourage teaching. In 1640, Rhode Island, with extraordinary
promptitude, established public education, but without any definite
system. Seven years later, Massachusetts went further still by creating
elementary schools in small villages of fifty householders, and grammar
schools in the larger and more populous towns. The same was done in
Connecticut; but curiously enough New Plymouth seems to have done
nothing for education until the end of the seventeenth century.
Providence had its own school three years after the Restoration; and by
1693 Hartford, Newhaven, New London, and Fairfield were all in
possession of state-supported schools. Connecticut's energy did not stop
here; for Yale College was founded, and in 1717 was permanently
established at Newhaven, where a house had been built "for the
entertainment of the scholars belonging to the Collegiate School."[224]
Thus the clergy of Connecticut were freed from their dependence upon
Harvard. For nothing does New England deserve more unstinted praise than
for these early efforts in the cause of education, the results of which
have proved so eminently satisfactory.
Whether University education had much effect upon the literature of New
England it would perhaps be a little difficult to say. Connecticut, for
example, even with Yale College as a starting-point, produced no great
literary achievements. Nevertheless throughout the first century of New
England's story there was a well-defined and living school of
literature. The school naturally divided into two parts: that of
theology, which to the ordinary modern critic is somewhat meaningless;
and that of history. The historical section was composed for the most
part of chronicles, glowing with patriotism, alive with the picture of
the daily life, and filled with "a dignity of diction belonging to those
who have assimilated the English Bible till their speech instinctively
adopts its form."[225] There was the work of Winthrop; the impulsive,
triumphal hymn of Edward Johnson; "The Simple Cobbler of Agawam" of
Nathaniel Ward, and the writings of many others. But this period of
history and theology died away as the century neared its close. At the
beginning of the eighteenth century Cotton Mather may be regarded as one
of the best known of Boston authors. But the curious thing about the New
England literature is the total absence of anything that might be called
secular. The colonies, however, were not without their poets, for they
had Anne Bradstreet and Michael Gigglesworth, the works of both of whom
were recognised in the seventeenth century as being of real poetical
merit.
This outburst of literature could never have been accomplished had it
not been for the introduction of the printing-press. As early as 1638 a
press was brought by Day to Boston and set up at Cambridge. A second
press was introduced in 1655 by the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel. Rhode Island had its press in 1708; while Short of Boston
established printing in New London, Connecticut, in 1709. By the end of
the seventeenth century newspapers began to be printed, such as _The
Public Occurance both Foreign and Domestic_ at Boston in 1690, to be
followed fourteen years later by John Campbell's _Boston Letter_.
The increase of newspapers was the natural outcome of better means of
travel and circulation of news. At first the different townships had
been divided by vast forests; gradually, however, roads were built and
communication between the different settlements was established. As
early as 1638, three bridges were ordered to be built in Plymouth, and
in 1652 we read of bridges that were strong enough for horsemen.
Travelling, however, was generally on foot, for coaches were very rare
and were only possessed by the more wealthy citizens of Boston. A postal
service was established in the reign of Charles II. between Boston and
New York; but it was not until 1710 that a General Post Office, with
several sub-offices, was erected by Act of Parliament. The inns were not
of any particular comfort, though they were fairly numerous. The Puritan
was not hospitable like his southern brother, so that throughout New
England taverns were insisted upon by law.
This was probably an excellent enactment and far better than many of the
extraordinary laws that stained the pages of the New England records.
Numerous sumptuary laws were passed against the wearing of gold or
silver girdles, ruffs, or slashed sleeves. Drunkards had to proclaim
their fault by wearing a red D; while Hawthorne's _Scarlet Letter_ has
familiarised all with the cruel punishment meted out to the fallen
woman. In 1658, lying, drinking, and swearing could be punished by
flogging; dancing and kissing also fell under severe penalties, though
Cotton does say he only condemns "lascivious dancing to wanton ditties
and in amorous gestures and wanton dalliances, especially after great
feasts."[226] The attempt to prevent immorality was carried to the most
absurd lengths, and even in the eighteenth century stage plays and rope
dancing were forbidden as "likely to promote idleness and a great
mispence of time."[227]
The laws may have been foolish, but it is perhaps uncharitable to judge
them too sternly at this period. The men who passed them were
undoubtedly conscientious; harsh they may have been, cruel in their
punishments, but their hearts were in what they conceived to be the work
of the Lord. They were bold men in a "howling wilderness"; they were the
pioneers of a great nation. The American spirit to-day is compounded of
much that once animated these first Americans on the eastern sea-coast.
Their industry, their untiring energy, their honesty, their masculine
character have been handed down through many generations to descendants
not unworthy of such an ancestry as that of the Pilgrim Fathers.
FOOTNOTES:
[204] Words of Stoughton, Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts.
[205] _Calendar of State Papers_, Colonial, 1677-1680, p. 529.
[206] _New England Historical and Genealogical Register_ (1870), xxiv.
p. 62.
[207] Adam Smith, _Wealth of Nations_ (ed. 1845), p. 254.
[208] _Ibid._, p. 240.
[209] _Calendar of State Papers_, Colonial, 1661-1668, No. 50.
[210] _Calendar of State Papers_, Colonial, 1677-1680, p. 529.
[211] _History of New England_, II. (1720) ch. xiv.
[212] New Hampshire Historical Society, _Collections_, i. p. 228.
[213] Morley, J., Walpole, _Twelve English Statesmen_ (1896), p. 168.
[214] 1 Green, W., William Pitt, _Heroes of the Nations_ (1901), p. 258.
[215] Smith, A., _Wealth of Nations_ (ed. 1845), pp. 245 and 249.
[216] O'Callaghan, _Documents relative to Colonial History of State of
New York_ (1855), v. p. 738.
[217] Winthrop, _History of New England_ (ed. 1853), i., Nov. 1633.
[218] Doyle, _The English in America_, vol. ii. p. 64.
[219] _Ibid._, p. 506.
[220] Knight, _Journal_ (1825), p. 40.
[221] Quoted by Thwaites, _The Colonies_, 1492-1750 (1891), p. 189.
[222] O'Callaghan, _ut supra_, vii. 348.
[223] See p. 93.
[224] Clap, _The Annals or History of Yale College_ (1766), p. 22.
[225] Doyle, _Cambridge Modern History_ (1905), vol. vii. p. 60.
[226] _Mass. Hist. Coll._, Series II. vol. x. p. 183.
[227] Quoted by Doyle, _Colonies under the House of Hanover_ (1907), p.
13.