SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES IN 1700.
90. References.
Bibliographies.--Same as § 82, above.
Historical Maps.--Same as § 82, above.
General Accounts.--Doyle, _Colonies_, IV.; Lodge, _Colonies_, chs. xiii.,
xv., xvii.; Andrews, _Colonial Self-Government_, chs. xviii., xix. See also
histories of separate colonies, § 82, above.
Special Histories.--Topography: Semple, _American History and its
Geographic Conditions_, chs. i.-iv.; Roberts, _New York_, I. ch. viii.;
Scharf, _Delaware_, ch. i.--Manners and Customs: Fisher, _Men, Women, and
Manners in Colonial Times_, I. chs. vi., vii., II. ch. viii.; Wilson,
_Rambles in Colonial Byways_; Earle, _Colonial Days in Old New York_; C.
Hemstreet, _When Old New York was Young_; T. Janvier, _Old New York_; E.
Singleton, _Dutch New York_; J. Van Rensselaer, _Goede Vrouw of
Mana-ha-ta_; A. Gummere, _The Quaker: a Study in Costume_; novels by
S. W. Mitchell.--Industries: Bishop, _History of American
Manufactures_.--Slavery: J. Brackett, _Negro in Maryland_. See also § 82,
above, and biographies of prominent men.
Contemporary Accounts.--Same as § 82, above.
91. Geographical Conditions in the Middle Colonies.
Sidenote: Geography.
The middle section of the Atlantic plain in the United States is
distinguished by three deep indentations,--Chesapeake, Delaware, and New
York bays; each of these is the expanded mouth of a comprehensive river
system, and furnishes abundant anchorage,--New York bay being the finest
harbor on the continent. Along the coast south of New York is a low, level
base-plain of sand and clay, from twenty-five to fifty miles in width, the
larger towns being generally situated on the uplands beyond. The
Appalachian mountains extend in several ridges across the middle district
from southwest to northeast, the highest elevations being those of the
Catskill group in southeastern New York, where Slide Mountain towers 4,205
feet above sea-level. New Jersey is largely occupied by the base-plain,
with hills in the northwest. From the eastern range of mountains, the
surface of New York slopes gently down, with great diversity, to Lake
Ontario; the mountains are rent by the interesting and important water-gap
of the Mohawk valley, which in an earlier geological age connected the lake
basin with the trough of the Hudson. Pennsylvania has three distinct
topographical divisions: (1) the highly fertile district between the Blue
Mountains and the sea,--including Delaware; (2) the middle belt of elevated
valleys, separated by low parallel ridges of mountains rich in anthracite
coal and iron ore; (3) the upland north and west of the mountain walls,
sloping down to the tributaries of the Ohio with a wealth of bituminous
coal, oil, and natural gas.
Sidenote: Intermingling river-systems.
In the New York and Pennsylvania hills the numerous rivers of the region
have their rise. These rivers either flow westward into the Mississippi
basin, northward into the Great Lakes, eastward into the deep cleft cut
through the mountains by the Hudson, or southward into the estuaries of the
Delaware and Chesapeake. Within a short distance of each other are waters
which will reach the Atlantic ocean by three divergent routes,--through the
Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the bays we have mentioned.
This fact has had a potent influence on the course of American settlement
and trade, which have persistently followed the water highways into the
interior of the continent; and along those rivers were fought two great
wars.
Sidenote: Their historical significance.
The ease with which the French and English in America could approach each
other, along the almost continuous water-route formed by Hudson River and
Lake Champlain and their tributaries, made this central region the theatre
of a protracted and desperate struggle throughout the French and Indian
war; while we shall see that during the Revolution the Hudson was regarded
as the key to the military situation. It has already been remarked (page
202, § 85) how important the English government deemed the possession of
the Hudson, in 1664, as a means to the unification of the Anglo-American
empire. Through its Mohawk arm, waters running into the Great Lakes
could be readily reached.
Sidenote: Soil and climate.
The soil in the middle district, back from the sandy coast-belt, is for the
most part fertile. Originally the entire country was densely wooded, even
to the summits of the mountains, which nowhere rise to the snow-line. The
climate is, judged by the record of average temperature, an agreeable
compromise between New England and the South; although, as elsewhere on the
Atlantic slope, it is subject to rapid and extreme variations. Penn wrote
that the "weather often changeth without notice, and is constant almost in
its inconstancy."
92. People of the Middle Colonies.
Sidenote: Population of New York,
The population of the middle colonies was noted for its heterogeneous
character. New York was first settled by the Dutch, who ruled the district
for fifty years. After the English conquest (1664), Dutch immigration
practically ceased; nevertheless in 1700 a majority of the whites were
Dutch, although the English, more of whom had emigrated from New England
than from the parent isle, were widely spread and politically dominant.
There were in 1700 about twenty-five thousand inhabitants, perhaps two
thousand five hundred being blacks. Besides the prevailing Dutch and
English, there were many French Huguenots, a number of Palatine Germans who
had fled from persecution at home, and a few Jews. The New York colonists
chiefly dwelt on the islands and shores of New York bay, and the banks of
the Hudson and Mohawk. Beyond this thin fringe of settlement, the forest
wall was for the most part still unbroken. Agricultural development was as
yet slow, but the fur-trade was spreading far into the interior.
Sidenote: of the Jerseys,
East Jersey had a population of about ten thousand, composed of Quakers,
New England men, and Scotch Presbyterians. Of the four thousand inhabitants
of West Jersey, the Quakers were the prevailing element. The population of
New Jersey was homogeneous, being very largely English; the few Dutch,
Germans, and Swedes having little effect on the character of the colony.
Jerseymen were vigorous and quick-witted, although Governor Belcher
(1748-1757) wrote, "They are a very rustical people, and deficient in
learning."
Sidenote: and of Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Pennsylvania and Delaware had, together, a population of about twenty
thousand in 1700, having developed more rapidly than any other of the
American colonies. Somewhat over one half were English Quakers, the others
being sectaries from New England, French, Dutch, Germans, Swedes, Finns,
Welsh, and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. The Germans moved in large numbers
to what were then the western borders, where they evolved a distinct
dialect, popularly known as "Pennsylvania Dutch." Although valuable
pioneers of civilization, they exhibited a stubborn temper, which, with
their strong opposition to the bearing of arms, made them untrustworthy
during the French and Indian wars. The rugged, liberty-loving Scotch-Irish
were a later acquisition. The pure Irish, destined to become so prominent
on the frontier, did not commence arriving until 1719. The Swedes were
strong, sturdy, and simple agriculturists. The English Quakers were of the
middle class of tradesmen and small farmers. Their prejudice against taking
up arms made it difficult for the colonial military officers to defend the
province against the disastrous Indian forays of the eighteenth century,
and was a fruitful source of political and social disturbance.
By the close of the seventeenth century a people had grown up in most of
the middle colonies which was largely English in composition, with habits
of speech, thought, and manner greatly affected by English traditions, but
still much modified by the liberal infusion of blood from kindred
nationalities on the continent of Europe. The eager, enterprising spirit of
the English, quickened by removal to the New World, had, after a generation
or two of amalgamation, been noticeably tempered by the phlegmatic
temperament of the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian settlers.
93. Social Classes.
Sidenote: Classes.
In the middle colonies, as in New England and the South, there existed an
acknowledged aristocracy, although there was a wide gap between the haughty
and elegant Dutch manor-chiefs in New York and the rude gentlemen farmers
who headed New Jersey society. The servile classes common to the Southern
colonies were also present here, as a foundation for aristocratic
distinction; but they were comparatively insignificant in number. Nowhere
in this middle group was free white labor regarded as degrading; nearly all
the colonists were workers, whether behind the desk or the counter, in the
shop or in the field. Trade was exalted to a high station.
Sidenote: Slavery.
New York had many negroes, left over from the Dutch rule, but there was a
strong physical prejudice against them, and their further importation was
gradually restricted. In 1711 and 1741, on insufficient evidence, the
blacks were accused of plots against the whites of New York city, and were
cruelly dealt with,--on the former occasion nineteen were hanged; on the
latter, eighteen suffered death by the gallows, and thirteen were burned at
the stake. The laws against negroes were harsh in all of the middle
colonies. But in practice, slaves were mildly treated, compared with those
in the South. The Quakers were opposed to human bondage on principle, yet
many employed slaves, chiefly as house-servants. There were numerous
indented servants, especially in Pennsylvania, and most stringent laws were
adopted for their regulation. From these and the negroes the criminal class
was recruited. Among Pennsylvania Quakers were formed the first abolition
societies.
Sidenote: The Dutch aristocrats.
No aristocrats in America so nearly resembled the nobility of the Old World
as the great-landed Dutch proprietors in New York,--such as the Van
Rensselaers, the Cortlandts, and the Livingstons. Their vast estates up the
Hudson, granted to their fathers in the days of the Dutch West India
Company, were rented out to tenant-farmers, over whom they ruled in
princely fashion, dispensing justice, and bountifully feasting the tenants
on semi-annual rent-days. Some of these estates were entitled to
representatives in the assembly, and the lords of the manor practically
held such appointments in their keeping. There was an impassable gulf
between the rural aristocrats and the small freeholders and tradesmen. This
condition of affairs was not calculated to encourage settlement; and out of
these feudal privileges, often harshly exercised, there arose conflicts
which became riotous as the Revolution approached.
Sidenote: Aristocracy among the Quakers.
The aristocrats of Pennsylvania and Delaware were also the wealthy landed
gentry, chiefly Penn's followers; but the class was not strongly marked,
and almost imperceptibly faded away into the ranks of the merchants and
small freeholders. Each village, however, had its Quaker "squire" or
magistrate, in powdered wig, broad ruffles, cocked hat, and gold-headed
cane, who meted out justice at the neighboring tavern and was highly
regarded. Rich and poor alike, among the Quakers, were simple in tastes and
habits. In New Jersey there was a mild recognition of the social
superiority of the gentlemen farmers, notwithstanding a strong underlying
spirit of democracy; a rude plenty prevailed, and the gentlemen's houses
were not without some degree of elegance.
94. Occupations.
Sidenote: The professions.
The judicial system was very similar to that which obtained elsewhere in
America. In each province was an upper court, consisting of a chief justice
and associates, appointed by the governor; from this an appeal might go in
important cases to the governor and council, and in causes involving £200
or over, to the king in council. Below the upper court was a regular series
of courts, ranging down to the local justices of the peace. Justice was
cheap, and court practice simple. In New York, the quality of both bench
and bar was inferior, and remained so down to the Revolution; the judges
had often no legal training, and the law was not recognized as a
profession. In Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania men of ability and
character were engaged on the bench and at the bar, and their calling won
universal respect. Penn brought out two physicians with him, and in the
Quaker colonies the art of medicine had from the first an honorable
standing; but in New York physicians were not licensed until 1760. In all
four colonies the clergymen for the most part were zealous, upright men, of
learning and ability, and took high social rank.
Sidenote: Agriculture and manufacturing.
Except in New York, where trade was equally important, agriculture was the
chief industry; but as the soil was fertile and the average farmer
consequently careless, farming was, except among the painstaking Quakers of
Pennsylvania, in a low condition. The principal crop was wheat, although
there was much variety in farm products, and New Jersey raised large herds
of cattle on her broad lowland meadows. There were many small manufactures
for domestic use, the most important being among the Germans of Germantown,
who made, in a small way, paper and glass, and also some varieties of knit
goods and coarse cloths; the spinning-wheel was a familiar household
machine, for homespun was much worn by all except the rich. But the bulk of
manufactured goods was imported from England and the continent of Europe.
Little picturesque windmills, with broad canvas sails, after the Dutch
fashion, were numerous. Many of the Maryland and Virginia colonists came
long distances to patronize the Pennsylvania mills. It was not until 1720
than an iron furnace was erected in the latter province,--the first in the
middle group of colonies.
Sidenote: Trade and commerce.
The middle-colony people had a keen sense for trade. The fur-traffic was
widespread and of the first importance, particularly in New York and
Pennsylvania; while the personal danger to the adventurous forest trader
was very great, the profits on packs of peltries successfully landed in New
York and Philadelphia were such as to warrant the hazard. The principal
exports were grain, flour, and furs, and vessels with these American
products sailed to England, Lisbon, Madeira, and the West Indies; the
exports of goods were never equal to the imports, however, and ships
bringing over wines, sugar, and miscellaneous manufactured articles often
found it difficult to obtain return cargoes. There was a profitable
'longshore commerce in farm products and small manufactures, boats
penetrating up the rivers far inland. New England bottoms were largely
employed, although a shipbuilding industry soon sprang up at Philadelphia.
New York was the chief port of the middle colonies for foreign trade; her
merchants were highly active and prosperous.
95. Social Life.
Sidenote: Life and manners in New York.
In 1700 the Dutch were still the largest landowners in New York. The
English and other nationalities, jealously excluded from the landed class
as far as possible, were to be mainly found in the large towns in the
southern portion of the province, engaged in trade. The Dutch adhered to
old dress and customs with remarkable tenacity. Their farm-houses were
usually of wood, with the second story overhanging; the great rafters
showed in the ceilings; the fireplaces were ornamented with pictured tiles,
and above were rows of great wooden and pewter dishes, and racks of long
tobacco-pipes; the floors were daily scrubbed and sanded, and evidences of
neatness and thrift were distinguishing features. In the little hamlets, as
well as on the farms, there was plenty of good plain living; but the
people, while thrifty, sober, contented, and industrious, were
superstitious, ignorant, grasping, and slow. Life with them was narrow and
monotonous. The wealthy landed proprietors lived on their estates up the
Hudson in summer, and moved to New York city in winter; their manor-houses
were large and richly furnished, they had trains of servants, black and
white, and maintained a degree of splendor scarcely equalled elsewhere in
the colonies. The Dutch women, rich and poor, were noted for their
excellence as housekeepers, their unaffected piety, and their love of
flowers.
Sidenote: Elsewhere in the middle colonies.
In Pennsylvania and Delaware there was a wide difference between the
condition of the dwellers in the long-settled portions, where there was
intelligent progress, sobriety, and neatness, and that of the western
borderers, who were a rude, turbulent people, living amid wretched economic
and sanitary conditions. The better class of farmers in the eastern section
were prosperous but simple; men and women alike worked in the fields, and a
patriarchal system of family life prevailed. The soberly attired Quakers
still exercised a large influence on society, which was pervaded by a
healthy moral tone; tradesmen had a particularly keen sense of business
honesty. New Jersey was also a well-to-do colony; but her farms and
villages long had the reputation of presenting an untidy appearance.
Sidenote: Social intercourse.
Although life among the middle-colony folk was sober and filled with toil,
there were the customary rough and simple popular diversions of the
period,--for the farmers corn-huskings, spinning-bees, house-raisings, and
dancing-parties, at which hard drinking was not infrequent; for the
townsfolk horse-racing, bull-baiting, cock-fighting, tavern-parties, balls,
and picnics. The people were, as a whole, of a more social temperament than
their New England neighbors. There was little luxury within their reach,
but they appear to have been as a rule satisfied in their condition, and
above want.
Sidenote: Town life.
The principal town was New York. Society there was more gay than in Boston,
and more fashionable than in any other American city, except perhaps
Charleston. The wealthy landed proprietors spent money freely during the
winter season, and the latest London styles were eagerly sought and
followed. A social polish was aimed at, clubs were fostered, and pride was
taken in the fact that no other American city was so cosmopolitan in
tone,--a result of its being the centre of a far-reaching foreign trade.
There was much that was English in New York, yet even here the Dutch
influence was strong. Visitors speak of the wide, pleasant streets lined
with trees, the low brick and stone houses, with their projecting eaves and
their gables to the street,--a fashion general in the colonies,--and the
insignificant character of the few public buildings. Albany was the centre
of the northern fur-trade, and purely Dutch in composition and
architecture.
Philadelphia was the Quaker capital. Laid out like a checker-board, with
architecture of severe simplicity, its best residences were surrounded by
gardens and orchards. The town was substantial, neat, and had the
appearance of prosperity. Germantown, near by, settled by the Germans
(1683), was largely given over to small manufactures. Newcastle was
ill-built and unattractive. The New Jersey towns were rather comely, but
insignificant; Trenton was chiefly supported by travellers along the great
highway between New York and Philadelphia.
Sidenote: Roads and travel.
There was little intercommunication, except between the larger towns, and
the facilities for travel were meagre. Rude farm-wagons, two-wheeled
chaises, and saddle-horses were the chief means of conveyance over the
rough, stony roads; and on the many and far-reaching rivers, travellers and
traders proceeded leisurely by slow-moving craft. New Jersey was traversed
by the highways between New York and Philadelphia, over which post-boys
rode weekly with the mail in saddlebags. Taverns were in every town in New
York and Pennsylvania, and were favorite meeting-places for the village and
country folk; but in New Jersey it required legislation to induce villages
to maintain "ordinaries" for wayfarers.
96. Intellectual and Moral Conditions.
Sidenote: Education.
Under the Dutch domination common schools flourished in New York, each town
supporting them by public aid. The English, however, jealous of educational
enterprises under charge of a nonconforming church, suffered them to fall
into neglect. Thus at the close of the seventeenth century education was
neither general nor of good quality. The English Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel established an excellent Church of England school
in New York city (1704), but the Dutch did not take kindly to it; they long
clung to their mother-tongue and the few rude schools of their own
ordering. In Pennsylvania but little attempt was made by the English in the
direction of popular education outside of the capital, where was opened
(1698) the now famous Penn Charter School, destined for fifty years to be
the only public school in the province. The Germans and Moravians
maintained some good private schools in the larger Pennsylvania and New
Jersey towns, but educational facilities in the rural places were generally
wretched, where there were any at all.
Sidenote: Religion.
The Church of England was nominally established in all except Pennsylvania;
but it was managed with great lack of discretion, and aroused popular
hostility against it and the mother-country. On Long Island and in New
Jersey the Puritans exerted a powerful influence on manners and thought.
Everywhere the laws against excesses in amusement and Sabbath-breaking were
very severe, but only in the Puritan communities were they strictly
enforced, although a strong sentiment of piety was general among all
respectable classes of the people. Except in New York, towards the close of
the seventeenth century there was toleration for all Protestant sects, but
in Pennsylvania alone were Roman Catholics entitled to equal consideration;
the New York laws against "Jesuits and Popish priests" were harsh, and
founded on the false notion that they incited the Indians to acts of
violence. In New York the Church of England endeavored for a time
(commencing in 1692), by violent persecution, to repress all forms of
dissent; but the sectaries flourished despite official opposition. The
leading denominations were the Dutch Lutheran, Dutch Reformed, English
Independent, and English Presbyterian. The Scotch Presbyterians and New
England Congregationalists were most numerous in New Jersey. In
Pennsylvania and Delaware, next to the Quakers stood the Lutherans and
Scotch Presbyterians, and the preachers of the latter church were vigorous
proselyters, especially successful among the western borderers. The
Germans, brought over, at first, largely through Penn's efforts, included a
number of persecuted groups,--Quakers, Palatines, Ridge Hermits, Dunkards,
and Pietists. All Christian forms and creeds were liberally represented in
Pennsylvania, where there was as genuine religious freedom as exists
anywhere in the United States to-day.
Sidenote: Crime and pauperism.
In none of the middle colonies was crime so prevalent as to be a
troublesome question, with the one exception of piracy,--the most common
and widely demoralizing of all the dangers to which the colonists were
subjected. Public officials often corruptly connived at the practice, and
popular sentiment was not strongly against a set of men who brought wealth
to the seaport towns and spent it lavishly. Hangings and whippings were not
infrequent public spectacles in the colonies, and the pillory was much in
use. In the Long Island towns the New Englanders, who were dominant there,
faithfully reproduced their native customs in the punishment of crime as in
most other particulars. The Quakers were, on the whole, the most lenient in
their treatment of evil-doers, up to 1718, when the second generation of
colonists abandoned the old theory of criminal legislation and adopted
measures of harsh repression similar to those in vogue in other colonies.
There was little pauperism, but perhaps more in Pennsylvania than
elsewhere. In the treatment of this evil the Quakers were also wise, and in
Philadelphia they established the first hospital for the insane, on the
continent.
97. Political Conditions and Conclusion.
Sidenote: Political spirit in the Jerseys,
New Jersey having no foreign trade and but little manufacturing, her people
were without experience of the harshness of the English Acts of Navigation
and Trade (page 104, § 44). Since there was not much to complain of
regarding treatment by the mother-country, they were generally loyal. Taxes
were light, public salaries small, and the colony, with Pennsylvania and
New York as buffers, was in no danger from Indians.
Sidenote: in New York,
On the other hand, New York was constantly subjected to border warfare,
which proved a serious financial burden; taxation, levied by duties on
slaves and imports, and on real and personal property, was clumsy and
oppressive, and the government corrupt and expensive. English officials and
wealthy Dutch were loyal because it was their interest to be so; but the
mass of the people, rich and poor, favored liberal candidates to the
assembly. The men from New England exerted a strong influence on the
general trend of political thought. Elections excited great bitterness and
often rioting, and they were made an excuse for the usual holiday excesses.
There was a strong feeling of resentment against the home government,
growing out of the Navigation Laws and the impressment of seamen.
Sidenote: and in Pennsylvania.
In Pennsylvania there prevailed a similar attitude of opposition to
England; the Quakers were, however, conservative, and slow in action, and
their dislike to bear arms made the colony a drag upon all attempts at
continental union for common defence. As in New York, local politics ran in
extremely narrow channels, and election riots were not uncommon.
Sidenote: Summary.
Taking a general view of the middle colonies, we find that the fur-traffic,
the fertile soil, a mixed system of agriculture, and an enterprising
commercial spirit, were the chief sources of their material prosperity.
There was prevalent a broader spirit of religious toleration; there was,
perhaps, on the whole, a more democratic spirit among all classes of the
people, than in New England or the South; except in the case of the Dutch
patroons, aristocracy did not flourish among them; the state of popular
education was pitiable; the population was more mixed than anywhere else in
America. The continental nationalities gave a more cheerful tone to society
than existed in New England and the South; the several communities varied
greatly in speech, customs, and thought, according to their origin,
although we find, as the eighteenth century opens, that the English
Puritans from New England were coming more and more to exercise a
considerable influence in political, social, and religious affairs.