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Title: History of the
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Author: Charles A. Beard and Mary R.
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HISTORY
OF
THE
UNITED STATES
BY
CHARLES A.
BEARD
AND
MARY R. BEARD
New York
THE
MACMILLAN COMPANY
1921
_All rights
reserved_
COPYRIGHT, 1921,
BY THE MACMILLAN
COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published March,
1921.
Norwood Press
J.S. Cushing
Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
NORWOOD, MASS.,
U.S.A.
PREFACE
As things now stand, the
course of instruction in American history in
our public schools
embraces three distinct treatments of the subject.
Three separate
books are used. First, there is the primary book, which
is usually
a very condensed narrative with emphasis on biographies
and
anecdotes. Second, there is the advanced text for the seventh
or eighth
grade, generally speaking, an expansion of the
elementary book by the
addition of forty or fifty thousand words.
Finally, there is the high
school manual. This, too, ordinarily
follows the beaten path, giving
fuller accounts of the same events
and characters. To put it bluntly, we
do not assume that our
children obtain permanent possessions from their
study of history
in the lower grades. If mathematicians followed the
same method,
high school texts on algebra and geometry would include
the
multiplication table and fractions.
There is, of
course, a ready answer to the criticism advanced above. It
is that
teachers have learned from bitter experience how little history
their
pupils retain as they pass along the regular route. No teacher
of
history will deny this. Still it is a standing challenge to
existing
methods of historical instruction. If the study of
history cannot be
made truly progressive like the study of
mathematics, science, and
languages, then the historians assume a
grave responsibility in adding
their subject to the already
overloaded curriculum. If the successive
historical texts are only
enlarged editions of the first text--more
facts, more dates, more
words--then history deserves most of the sharp
criticism which it
is receiving from teachers of science, civics, and
economics.
In
this condition of affairs we find our justification for offering
a
new high school text in American history. Our first contribution
is one
of omission. The time-honored stories of exploration and
the
biographies of heroes are left out. We frankly hold that, if
pupils know
little or nothing about Columbus, Cortes, Magellan, or
Captain John
Smith by the time they reach the high school, it is
useless to tell the
same stories for perhaps the fourth time. It
is worse than useless. It
is an offense against the teachers of
those subjects that are
demonstrated to be progressive in
character.
In the next place we have omitted all descriptions
of battles. Our
reasons for this are simple. The strategy of a
campaign or of a single
battle is a highly technical, and usually
a highly controversial, matter
about which experts differ widely.
In the field of military and naval
operations most writers and
teachers of history are mere novices. To
dispose of Gettysburg or
the Wilderness in ten lines or ten pages is
equally absurd to the
serious student of military affairs. Any one who
compares the
ordinary textbook account of a single Civil War campaign
with the
account given by Ropes, for instance, will ask for no
further
comment. No youth called upon to serve our country in arms
would think
of turning to a high school manual for information
about the art of
warfare. The dramatic scene or episode, so useful
in arousing the
interest of the immature pupil, seems out of place
in a book that
deliberately appeals to boys and girls on the very
threshold of life's
serious responsibilities.
It is not
upon negative features, however, that we rest our case. It is
rather
upon constructive features.
_First._ We have written a
topical, not a narrative, history. We have
tried to set forth the
important aspects, problems, and movements of
each period,
bringing in the narrative rather by way of illustration.
_Second._
We have emphasized those historical topics which help to
explain
how our nation has come to be what it is to-day.
_Third._ We
have dwelt fully upon the social and economic aspects of our
history,
especially in relation to the politics of each period.
_Fourth._
We have treated the causes and results of wars, the problems
of
financing and sustaining armed forces, rather than military
strategy.
These are the subjects which belong to a history for
civilians. These
are matters which civilians can
understand--matters which they must
understand, if they are to
play well their part in war and peace.
_Fifth._ By omitting
the period of exploration, we have been able to
enlarge the
treatment of our own time. We have given special attention
to the
history of those current questions which must form the subject
matter
of sound instruction in citizenship.
_Sixth._ We have borne in
mind that America, with all her unique
characteristics, is a part
of a general civilization. Accordingly we
have given diplomacy,
foreign affairs, world relations, and the
reciprocal influences of
nations their appropriate place.
_Seventh._ We have
deliberately aimed at standards of maturity. The
study of a mere
narrative calls mainly for the use of the memory. We
have aimed to
stimulate habits of analysis, comparison, association,
reflection,
and generalization--habits calculated to enlarge as well as
inform
the mind. We have been at great pains to make our text clear,
simple,
and direct; but we have earnestly sought to stretch the
intellects
of our readers--to put them upon their mettle. Most of them
will
receive the last of their formal instruction in the high school.
The
world will soon expect maturity from them. Their achievements
will
depend upon the possession of other powers than memory alone.
The
effectiveness of their citizenship in our republic will be
measured by
the excellence of their judgment as well as the
fullness of their
information.
C.A.B.
M.R.B.
NEW YORK CITY,
February 8, 1921.
=A
SMALL LIBRARY IN AMERICAN HISTORY=
_=SINGLE
VOLUMES:=_
BASSETT, J.S. _A Short History of the United
States_
ELSON, H.W. _History of the United States of
America_
_=SERIES:=_
"EPOCHS OF AMERICAN
HISTORY," EDITED BY A.B. HART
HART, A.B. _Formation of
the Union_
THWAITES, R.G. _The Colonies_
WILSON, WOODROW.
_Division and Reunion_
"RIVERSIDE SERIES," EDITED BY
W.E. DODD
BECKER, C.L. _Beginnings of the American
People_
DODD, W.E. _Expansion and Conflict_
JOHNSON, A. _Union
and Democracy_
PAXSON, F.L. _The New Nation_
CONTENTS
PART
I. THE COLONIAL
PERIOD
CHAPTER
PAGE
I. THE GREAT MIGRATION TO
AMERICA
1
The
Agencies of American Colonization
2
The
Colonial Peoples
6
The
Process of Colonization
12
II. COLONIAL AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY, AND
COMMERCE
20
The Land
and the Westward Movement
20
Industrial and Commercial Development
28
III. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL
PROGRESS
38
The
Leadership of the Churches
39
Schools
and Colleges
43
The
Colonial Press
46
The
Evolution in Political Institutions
48
IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLONIAL
NATIONALISM
56
Relations with the Indians and the French
57
The
Effects of Warfare on the Colonies
61
Colonial
Relations with the British Government
64
Summary
of Colonial Period
73
PART II. CONFLICT AND INDEPENDENCE
V. THE NEW COURSE IN BRITISH IMPERIAL POLICY
77
George
III and His System
77
George
III's Ministers and Their Colonial Policies
79
Colonial
Resistance Forces Repeal
83
Resumption of British Revenue and Commercial Policies
87
Renewed
Resistance in America
90
Retaliation by the British Government
93
From
Reform to Revolution in America
95
VI. THE AMERICAN
REVOLUTION
99
Resistance and Retaliation
99
American
Independence
101
The
Establishment of Government and the New Allegiance
108
Military Affairs
116
The
Finances of the Revolution
125
The
Diplomacy of the Revolution
127
Peace
at Last
132
Summary
of the Revolutionary Period
135
PART III. FOUNDATIONS OF THE UNION AND NATIONAL
POLITICS
VII. THE FORMATION OF THE
CONSTITUTION
139
The
Promise and the Difficulties of America
139
The
Calling of a Constitutional Convention
143
The
Framing of the Constitution
146
The
Struggle over Ratification
157
VIII. THE CLASH OF POLITICAL
PARTIES
162
The Men
and Measures of the New Government
162
The
Rise of Political Parties
168
Foreign
Influences and Domestic Politics
171
IX. THE JEFFERSONIAN REPUBLICANS IN
POWER
186
Republican Principles and Policies
186
The
Republicans and the Great West
188
The
Republican War for Commercial Independence
193
The
Republicans Nationalized
201
The
National Decisions of Chief Justice Marshall
208
Summary
of Union and National Politics
212
PART IV. THE WEST AND JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY
X. THE FARMERS BEYOND THE APPALACHIANS
217
Preparation for Western Settlement
217
The
Western Migration and New States
221
The
Spirit of the Frontier
228
The
West and the East Meet
230
XI. JACKSONIAN
DEMOCRACY
238
The
Democratic Movement in the East
238
The New
Democracy Enters the Arena
244
The New
Democracy at Washington
250
The
Rise of the Whigs
260
The
Interaction of American and European Opinion
265
XII. THE MIDDLE BORDER AND THE GREAT
WEST
271
The
Advance of the Middle Border
271
On to
the Pacific--Texas and the Mexican War
276
The
Pacific Coast and Utah
284
Summary
of Western Development and National Politics
292
PART V. SECTIONAL CONFLICT AND RECONSTRUCTION
XIII.
THE RISE OF THE INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM
295
The
Industrial Revolution
296
The
Industrial Revolution and National Politics
307
XIV. THE PLANTING SYSTEM AND NATIONAL
POLITICS
316
Slavery--North and South
316
Slavery
in National Politics
324
The
Drift of Events toward the Irrepressible Conflict
332
XV. THE CIVIL WAR AND
RECONSTRUCTION
344
The
Southern Confederacy
344
The War
Measures of the Federal Government
350
The
Results of the Civil War
365
Reconstruction in the South
370
Summary
of the Sectional Conflict
375
PART VI. NATIONAL GROWTH AND WORLD POLITICS
XVI. THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC EVOLUTION OF THE SOUTH
379
The
South at the Close of the War
379
The
Restoration of White Supremacy
382
The
Economic Advance of the South
389
XVII. BUSINESS ENTERPRISE AND THE REPUBLICAN
PARTY
401
Railways and Industry
401
The
Supremacy of the Republican Party (1861-1885)
412
The
Growth of Opposition to Republican Rule
417
XVIII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREAT
WEST
425
The
Railways as Trail Blazers
425
The
Evolution of Grazing and Agriculture
431
Mining
and Manufacturing in the West
436
The
Admission of New States
440
The
Influence of the Far West on National Life
443
XIX. DOMESTIC ISSUES BEFORE THE COUNTRY
(1865-1897)
451
The
Currency Question
452
The
Protective Tariff and Taxation
459
The
Railways and Trusts
460
The
Minor Parties and Unrest
462
The
Sound Money Battle of 1896
466
Republican Measures and Results
472
XX. AMERICA A WORLD POWER
(1865-1900)
477
American Foreign Relations (1865-1898)
478
Cuba
and the Spanish War
485
American Policies in the Philippines and the Orient
497
Summary
of National Growth and World Politics
504
PART VII. PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRACY AND THE WORLD WAR
XXI. THE EVOLUTION OF REPUBLICAN POLICIES (1901-1913)
507
Foreign
Affairs
508
Colonial Administration
515
The
Roosevelt Domestic Policies
519
Legislative and Executive Activities
523
The
Administration of President Taft
527
Progressive Insurgency and the Election of 1912
530
XXII. THE SPIRIT OF REFORM IN
AMERICA
536
An Age
of Criticism
536
Political Reforms
538
Measures of Economic Reform
546
XXIII. THE NEW POLITICAL
DEMOCRACY
554
The
Rise of the Woman Movement
555
The
National Struggle for Woman Suffrage
562
XXIV. INDUSTRIAL
DEMOCRACY
570
Coöperation between Employers and Employees
571
The
Rise and Growth of Organized Labor
575
The
Wider Relations of Organized Labor
577
Immigration and Americanization
582
XXV. PRESIDENT WILSON AND THE WORLD
WAR
588
Domestic Legislation
588
Colonial and Foreign Policies
592
The
United States and the European War
596
The
United States at War
604
The
Settlement at Paris
612
Summary
of Democracy and the World War
620
APPENDIX
627
A TOPICAL
SYLLABUS
645
INDEX
655
MAPS
PAGE
The Original Grants (color map)
_Facing_ 4
German and Scotch-Irish
Settlements
8
Distribution of Population in
1790
27
English, French, and Spanish Possessions in America,
1750
(color
map)
_Facing_ 59
The Colonies at the Time
of the Declaration of Independence
(color map)
_Facing_ 108
North America according
to the Treaty of 1783
(color
map)
_Facing_ 134
The United States in 1805
(color map)
_Facing_ 193
Roads and Trails into
Western Territory (color map) _Facing_
224
The Cumberland
Road
233
Distribution of Population in
1830
235
Texas and the Territory in
Dispute
282
The Oregon Country and the Disputed
Boundary
285
The Overland
Trails
287
Distribution of Slaves in Southern
States
323
The Missouri
Compromise
326
Slave and Free Soil on the Eve of the Civil
War
335
The United States in 1861 (color map)
_Facing_ 345
Railroads of the United
States in 1918
405
The United States in 1870 (color map)
_Facing_ 427
The United States
in 1912 (color map)
_Facing_ 443
American Dominions
in the Pacific (color map)
_Facing_ 500
The Caribbean
Region (color map)
_Facing_ 592
Battle Lines of the
Various Years of the World War
613
Europe in 1919 (color map)
_Between_ 618-619
"THE
NATIONS OF THE WEST" (popularly called "The
Pioneers"), designed by A. Stirling Calder and modeled by
Mr. Calder, F.G.R. Roth, and Leo Lentelli, topped the Arch
of the Setting Sun at the Panama-Pacific Exposition held at
San Francisco in 1915. Facing the Court of the Universe
moves a group of men and women typical of those who have
made our civilization. From left to right appear the
French-Canadian, the Alaskan, the Latin-American, the
German, the Italian, the Anglo-American, and the American
Indian, squaw and warrior. In the place of honor in the
center of the group, standing between the oxen on the tongue
of the prairie schooner, is a figure, beautiful and almost
girlish, but strong, dignified, and womanly, the Mother of
To-morrow. Above the group rides the Spirit of Enterprise,
flanked right and left by the Hopes of the Future in the
person of two boys. The group as a whole is beautifully
symbolic of the westward march of American
civilization.
[Illustration: _Photograph by Cardinell-Vincent
Co., San Francisco_
"THE NATIONS OF THE
WEST"]
HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
PART
I. THE COLONIAL PERIOD
CHAPTER I
THE GREAT
MIGRATION TO AMERICA
The tide of migration that set in
toward the shores of North America
during the early years of the
seventeenth century was but one phase in
the restless and eternal
movement of mankind upon the surface of the
earth. The ancient
Greeks flung out their colonies in every direction,
westward as
far as Gaul, across the Mediterranean, and eastward into
Asia
Minor, perhaps to the very confines of India. The Romans,
supported
by their armies and their government, spread their
dominion beyond the
narrow lands of Italy until it stretched from
the heather of Scotland to
the sands of Arabia. The Teutonic
tribes, from their home beyond the
Danube and the Rhine, poured
into the empire of the Cæsars and made the
beginnings of
modern Europe. Of this great sweep of races and empires
the
settlement of America was merely a part. And it was, moreover,
only
one aspect of the expansion which finally carried the
peoples, the
institutions, and the trade of Europe to the very
ends of the earth.
In one vital point, it must be noted,
American colonization differed
from that of the ancients. The
Greeks usually carried with them
affection for the government they
left behind and sacred fire from the
altar of the parent city; but
thousands of the immigrants who came to
America disliked the state
and disowned the church of the mother
country. They established
compacts of government for themselves and set
up altars of their
own. They sought not only new soil to till but also
political and
religious liberty for themselves and their children.
THE
AGENCIES OF AMERICAN COLONIZATION
It was no light matter for
the English to cross three thousand miles of
water and found homes
in the American wilderness at the opening of the
seventeenth
century. Ships, tools, and supplies called for huge outlays
of
money. Stores had to be furnished in quantities sufficient to
sustain
the life of the settlers until they could gather harvests
of their own.
Artisans and laborers of skill and industry had to
be induced to risk
the hazards of the new world. Soldiers were
required for defense and
mariners for the exploration of inland
waters. Leaders of good judgment,
adept in managing men, had to be
discovered. Altogether such an
enterprise demanded capital larger
than the ordinary merchant or
gentleman could amass and involved
risks more imminent than he dared to
assume. Though in later days,
after initial tests had been made, wealthy
proprietors were able
to establish colonies on their own account, it was
the corporation
that furnished the capital and leadership in the
beginning.
=The
Trading Company.=--English pioneers in exploration found
an
instrument for colonization in companies of merchant
adventurers, which
had long been employed in carrying on commerce
with foreign countries.
Such a corporation was composed of many
persons of different ranks of
society--noblemen, merchants, and
gentlemen--who banded together for a
particular undertaking, each
contributing a sum of money and sharing in
the profits of the
venture. It was organized under royal authority; it
received its
charter, its grant of land, and its trading privileges from
the
king and carried on its operations under his supervision and
control.
The charter named all the persons originally included in
the
corporation and gave them certain powers in the management of
its
affairs, including the right to admit new members. The company
was in
fact a little government set up by the king. When the
members of the
corporation remained in England, as in the case of
the Virginia Company,
they operated through agents sent to the
colony. When they came over the
seas themselves and settled in
America, as in the case of Massachusetts,
they became the direct
government of the country they possessed. The
stockholders in that
instance became the voters and the governor, the
chief
magistrate.
[Illustration: JOHN WINTHROP, GOVERNOR OF THE
MASSACHUSETTS BAY
COMPANY]
Four of the thirteen colonies in
America owed their origins to the
trading corporation. It was the
London Company, created by King James I,
in 1606, that laid during
the following year the foundations of Virginia
at Jamestown. It
was under the auspices of their West India Company,
chartered in
1621, that the Dutch planted the settlements of the New
Netherland
in the valley of the Hudson. The founders of Massachusetts
were
Puritan leaders and men of affairs whom King Charles I
incorporated
in 1629 under the title: "The governor and
company of the Massachusetts
Bay in New England." In this
case the law did but incorporate a group
drawn together by
religious ties. "We must be knit together as one man,"
wrote
John Winthrop, the first Puritan governor in America. Far to
the
south, on the banks of the Delaware River, a Swedish
commercial company
in 1638 made the beginnings of a settlement,
christened New Sweden; it
was destined to pass under the rule of
the Dutch, and finally under the
rule of William Penn as the
proprietary colony of Delaware.
In a certain sense, Georgia
may be included among the "company
colonies." It was,
however, originally conceived by the moving spirit,
James
Oglethorpe, as an asylum for poor men, especially those
imprisoned
for debt. To realize this humane purpose, he secured
from King George
II, in 1732, a royal charter uniting several
gentlemen, including
himself, into "one body politic and
corporate," known as the "Trustees
for establishing the
colony of Georgia in America." In the structure of
their
organization and their methods of government, the trustees did
not
differ materially from the regular companies created for trade
and
colonization. Though their purposes were benevolent, their
transactions
had to be under the forms of law and according to the
rules of business.
=The Religious Congregation.=--A second
agency which figured largely in
the settlement of America was the
religious brotherhood, or
congregation, of men and women brought
together in the bonds of a common
religious faith. By one of the
strange fortunes of history, this
institution, founded in the
early days of Christianity, proved to be a
potent force in the
origin and growth of self-government in a land far
away from
Galilee. "And the multitude of them that believed were of
one
heart and of one soul," we are told in the Acts
describing the Church at
Jerusalem. "We are knit together as
a body in a most sacred covenant of
the Lord ... by virtue of
which we hold ourselves strictly tied to all
care of each other's
good and of the whole," wrote John Robinson, a
leader among
the Pilgrims who founded their tiny colony of Plymouth in
1620.
The Mayflower Compact, so famous in American history, was but
a
written and signed agreement, incorporating the spirit of
obedience to
the common good, which served as a guide to
self-government until
Plymouth was annexed to Massachusetts in
1691.
[Illustration: THE ORIGINAL GRANTS]
Three other
colonies, all of which retained their identity until the eve
of
the American Revolution, likewise sprang directly from
the
congregations of the faithful: Rhode Island, Connecticut, and
New
Hampshire, mainly offshoots from Massachusetts. They were
founded by
small bodies of men and women, "united in solemn
covenants with the
Lord," who planted their settlements in
the wilderness. Not until many a
year after Roger Williams and
Anne Hutchinson conducted their followers
to the Narragansett
country was Rhode Island granted a charter of
incorporation (1663)
by the crown. Not until long after the congregation
of Thomas
Hooker from Newtown blazed the way into the Connecticut River
Valley
did the king of England give Connecticut a charter of its own
(1662)
and a place among the colonies. Half a century elapsed before
the
towns laid out beyond the Merrimac River by emigrants from
Massachusetts
were formed into the royal province of New Hampshire
in 1679.
Even when Connecticut was chartered, the parchment
and sealing wax of
the royal lawyers did but confirm rights and
habits of self-government
and obedience to law previously
established by the congregations. The
towns of Hartford, Windsor,
and Wethersfield had long lived happily
under their "Fundamental
Orders" drawn up by themselves in 1639; so had
the settlers
dwelt peacefully at New Haven under their "Fundamental
Articles"
drafted in the same year. The pioneers on the Connecticut
shore
had no difficulty in agreeing that "the Scriptures do hold forth
a
perfect rule for the direction and government of all men."
=The
Proprietor.=--A third and very important colonial agency was
the
proprietor, or proprietary. As the name, associated with the
word
"property," implies, the proprietor was a person to
whom the king
granted property in lands in North America to have,
hold, use, and enjoy
for his own benefit and profit, with the
right to hand the estate down
to his heirs in perpetual
succession. The proprietor was a rich and
powerful person,
prepared to furnish or secure the capital, collect the
ships,
supply the stores, and assemble the settlers necessary to found
and
sustain a plantation beyond the seas. Sometimes the proprietor
worked
alone. Sometimes two or more were associated like partners in
the
common undertaking.
Five colonies, Maryland,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the Carolinas,
owe their formal
origins, though not always their first settlements, nor
in most
cases their prosperity, to the proprietary system.
Maryland,
established in 1634 under a Catholic nobleman, Lord
Baltimore, and
blessed with religious toleration by the act of
1649, flourished under
the mild rule of proprietors until it
became a state in the American
union. New Jersey, beginning its
career under two proprietors, Berkeley
and Carteret, in 1664,
passed under the direct government of the crown
in 1702.
Pennsylvania was, in a very large measure, the product of
the
generous spirit and tireless labors of its first proprietor,
the leader
of the Friends, William Penn, to whom it was granted in
1681 and in
whose family it remained until 1776. The two Carolinas
were first
organized as one colony in 1663 under the government
and patronage of
eight proprietors, including Lord Clarendon; but
after more than half a
century both became royal provinces
governed by the king.
[Illustration: WILLIAM PENN, PROPRIETOR
OF PENNSYLVANIA]
THE COLONIAL PEOPLES
=The
English.=--In leadership and origin the thirteen colonies, except
New
York and Delaware, were English. During the early days of all,
save
these two, the main, if not the sole, current of immigration
was from
England. The colonists came from every walk of life. They
were men,
women, and children of "all sorts and conditions."
The major portion
were yeomen, or small land owners, farm
laborers, and artisans. With
them were merchants and gentlemen who
brought their stocks of goods or
their fortunes to the New World.
Scholars came from Oxford and
Cambridge to preach the gospel or to
teach. Now and then the son of an
English nobleman left his
baronial hall behind and cast his lot with
America. The people
represented every religious faith--members of the
Established
Church of England; Puritans who had labored to reform that
church;
Separatists, Baptists, and Friends, who had left it altogether;
and
Catholics, who clung to the religion of their fathers.
New
England was almost purely English. During the years between 1629
and
1640, the period of arbitrary Stuart government, about twenty
thousand
Puritans emigrated to America, settling in the colonies
of the far
North. Although minor additions were made from time to
time, the greater
portion of the New England people sprang from
this original stock.
Virginia, too, for a long time drew nearly
all her immigrants from
England alone. Not until the eve of the
Revolution did other
nationalities, mainly the Scotch-Irish and
Germans, rival the English in
numbers.
The populations of
later English colonies--the Carolinas, New York,
Pennsylvania, and
Georgia--while receiving a steady stream of
immigration from
England, were constantly augmented by wanderers from
the older
settlements. New York was invaded by Puritans from New England
in
such numbers as to cause the Anglican clergymen there to lament
that
"free thinking spreads almost as fast as the Church."
North Carolina was
first settled toward the northern border by
immigrants from Virginia.
Some of the North Carolinians,
particularly the Quakers, came all the
way from New England,
tarrying in Virginia only long enough to learn how
little they
were wanted in that Anglican colony.
=The Scotch-Irish.=--Next
to the English in numbers and influence were
the Scotch-Irish,
Presbyterians in belief, English in tongue. Both
religious and
economic reasons sent them across the sea. Their Scotch
ancestors,
in the days of Cromwell, had settled in the north of Ireland
whence
the native Irish had been driven by the conqueror's sword. There
the
Scotch nourished for many years enjoying in peace their own form
of
religion and growing prosperous in the manufacture of fine
linen and
woolen cloth. Then the blow fell. Toward the end of the
seventeenth
century their religious worship was put under the ban
and the export of
their cloth was forbidden by the English
Parliament. Within two decades
twenty thousand Scotch-Irish left
Ulster alone, for America; and all
during the eighteenth century
the migration continued to be heavy.
Although no exact record was
kept, it is reckoned that the Scotch-Irish
and the Scotch who came
directly from Scotland, composed one-sixth of
the entire American
population on the eve of the Revolution.
[Illustration:
SETTLEMENTS OF GERMAN AND SCOTCH-IRISH
IMMIGRANTS]
These
newcomers in America made their homes chiefly in New
Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas.
Coming late upon
the scene, they found much of the land
immediately upon the seaboard
already taken up. For this reason
most of them became frontier people
settling the interior and
upland regions. There they cleared the land,
laid out their small
farms, and worked as "sturdy yeomen on the soil,"
hardy,
industrious, and independent in spirit, sharing neither the
luxuries
of the rich planters nor the easy life of the leisurely
merchants.
To their agriculture they added woolen and linen
manufactures,
which, flourishing in the supple fingers of their tireless
women,
made heavy inroads upon the trade of the English merchants in
the
colonies. Of their labors a poet has sung:
"O, willing hands to toil;
Strong natures
tuned to the harvest-song and bound to the kindly soil;
Bold pioneers for the wilderness, defenders in the field."
=The
Germans.=--Third among the colonists in order of numerical
importance
were the Germans. From the very beginning, they appeared in
colonial
records. A number of the artisans and carpenters in the
first
Jamestown colony were of German descent. Peter Minuit, the
famous
governor of New Motherland, was a German from Wesel on the
Rhine, and
Jacob Leisler, leader of a popular uprising against the
provincial
administration of New York, was a German from
Frankfort-on-Main. The
wholesale migration of Germans began with
the founding of Pennsylvania.
Penn was diligent in searching for
thrifty farmers to cultivate his
lands and he made a special
effort to attract peasants from the Rhine
country. A great
association, known as the Frankfort Company, bought
more than
twenty thousand acres from him and in 1684 established a
center at
Germantown for the distribution of German immigrants. In old
New
York, Rhinebeck-on-the-Hudson became a similar center
for
distribution. All the way from Maine to Georgia inducements
were offered
to the German farmers and in nearly every colony were
to be found, in
time, German settlements. In fact the migration
became so large that
German princes were frightened at the loss of
so many subjects and
England was alarmed by the influx of
foreigners into her overseas
dominions. Yet nothing could stop the
movement. By the end of the
colonial period, the number of Germans
had risen to more than two
hundred thousand.
The majority
of them were Protestants from the Rhine region, and South
Germany.
Wars, religious controversies, oppression, and poverty drove
them
forth to America. Though most of them were farmers, there were
also
among them skilled artisans who contributed to the rapid
growth of
industries in Pennsylvania. Their iron, glass, paper,
and woolen mills,
dotted here and there among the thickly settled
regions, added to the
wealth and independence of the
province.
[Illustration: _From an old print_
A GLIMPSE
OF OLD GERMANTOWN]
Unlike the Scotch-Irish, the Germans did
not speak the language of the
original colonists or mingle freely
with them. They kept to themselves,
built their own schools,
founded their own newspapers, and published
their own books. Their
clannish habits often irritated their neighbors
and led to
occasional agitations against "foreigners." However,
no
serious collisions seem to have occurred; and in the days of
the
Revolution, German soldiers from Pennsylvania fought in the
patriot
armies side by side with soldiers from the English and
Scotch-Irish
sections.
=Other Nationalities.=--Though the
English, the Scotch-Irish, and the
Germans made up the bulk of the
colonial population, there were other
racial strains as well,
varying in numerical importance but contributing
their share to
colonial life.
From France came the Huguenots fleeing from the
decree of the king which
inflicted terrible penalties upon
Protestants.
From "Old Ireland" came thousands of
native Irish, Celtic in race and
Catholic in religion. Like their
Scotch-Irish neighbors to the north,
they revered neither the
government nor the church of England imposed
upon them by the
sword. How many came we do not know, but shipping
records of the
colonial period show that boatload after boatload left
the
southern and eastern shores of Ireland for the New World.
Undoubtedly
thousands of their passengers were Irish of the native
stock. This
surmise is well sustained by the constant appearance of
Celtic
names in the records of various colonies.
[Illustration:_From
an old print_
OLD DUTCH FORT AND ENGLISH CHURCH NEAR
ALBANY]
The Jews, then as ever engaged in their age-long
battle for religious
and economic toleration, found in the
American colonies, not complete
liberty, but certainly more
freedom than they enjoyed in England,
France, Spain, or Portugal.
The English law did not actually recognize
their right to live in
any of the dominions, but owing to the easy-going
habits of the
Americans they were allowed to filter into the seaboard
towns. The
treatment they received there varied. On one occasion the
mayor
and council of New York forbade them to sell by retail and on
another
prohibited the exercise of their religious worship.
Newport,
Philadelphia, and Charleston were more hospitable, and
there large
Jewish colonies, consisting principally of merchants
and their families,
flourished in spite of nominal prohibitions of
the law.
Though the small Swedish colony in Delaware was
quickly submerged
beneath the tide of English migration, the Dutch
in New York continued
to hold their own for more than a hundred
years after the English
conquest in 1664. At the end of the
colonial period over one-half of the
170,000 inhabitants of the
province were descendants of the original
Dutch--still distinct
enough to give a decided cast to the life and
manners of New York.
Many of them clung as tenaciously to their mother
tongue as they
did to their capacious farmhouses or their Dutch ovens;
but they
were slowly losing their identity as the English pressed in
beside
them to farm and trade.
The melting pot had begun its historic
mission.
THE PROCESS OF COLONIZATION
Considered
from one side, colonization, whatever the motives of the
emigrants,
was an economic matter. It involved the use of capital to pay
for
their passage, to sustain them on the voyage, and to start them
on
the way of production. Under this stern economic necessity,
Puritans,
Scotch-Irish, Germans, and all were alike
laid.
=Immigrants Who Paid Their Own Way.=--Many of the
immigrants to America
in colonial days were capitalists
themselves, in a small or a large way,
and paid their own passage.
What proportion of the colonists were able
to finance their voyage
across the sea is a matter of pure conjecture.
Undoubtedly a very
considerable number could do so, for we can trace the
family
fortunes of many early settlers. Henry Cabot Lodge is authority
for
the statement that "the settlers of New England were drawn from
the
country gentlemen, small farmers, and yeomanry of the
mother
country.... Many of the emigrants were men of wealth, as
the old lists
show, and all of them, with few exceptions, were men
of property and
good standing. They did not belong to the classes
from which emigration
is usually supplied, for they all had a
stake in the country they left
behind." Though it would be
interesting to know how accurate this
statement is or how
applicable to the other colonies, no study has as
yet been made to
gratify that interest. For the present it is an
unsolved problem
just how many of the colonists were able to bear the
cost of their
own transfer to the New World.
=Indentured Servants.=--That at
least tens of thousands of immigrants
were unable to pay for their
passage is established beyond the shadow of
a doubt by the
shipping records that have come down to us. The great
barrier in
the way of the poor who wanted to go to America was the cost
of
the sea voyage. To overcome this difficulty a plan was worked
out
whereby shipowners and other persons of means furnished the
passage
money to immigrants in return for their promise, or bond,
to work for a
term of years to repay the sum advanced. This system
was called
indentured servitude.
It is probable that the
number of bond servants exceeded the original
twenty thousand
Puritans, the yeomen, the Virginia gentlemen, and the
Huguenots
combined. All the way down the coast from Massachusetts to
Georgia
were to be found in the fields, kitchens, and workshops, men,
women,
and children serving out terms of bondage generally ranging from
five
to seven years. In the proprietary colonies the proportion of
bond
servants was very high. The Baltimores, Penns, Carterets, and
other
promoters anxiously sought for workers of every nationality
to till
their fields, for land without labor was worth no more
than land in the
moon. Hence the gates of the proprietary colonies
were flung wide open.
Every inducement was offered to immigrants
in the form of cheap land,
and special efforts were made to
increase the population by importing
servants. In Pennsylvania, it
was not uncommon to find a master with
fifty bond servants on his
estate. It has been estimated that two-thirds
of all the
immigrants into Pennsylvania between the opening of the
eighteenth
century and the outbreak of the Revolution were in bondage.
In the
other Middle colonies the number was doubtless not so large; but
it
formed a considerable part of the population.
The story of
this traffic in white servants is one of the most striking
things
in the history of labor. Bondmen differed from the serfs of
the
feudal age in that they were not bound to the soil but to the
master.
They likewise differed from the negro slaves in that their
servitude had
a time limit. Still they were subject to many
special disabilities. It
was, for instance, a common practice to
impose on them penalties far
heavier than were imposed upon
freemen for the same offense. A free
citizen of Pennsylvania who
indulged in horse racing and gambling was
let off with a fine; a
white servant guilty of the same unlawful conduct
was whipped at
the post and fined as well.
The ordinary life of the white
servant was also severely restricted. A
bondman could not marry
without his master's consent; nor engage in
trade; nor refuse work
assigned to him. For an attempt to escape or
indeed for any
infraction of the law, the term of service was extended.
The
condition of white bondmen in Virginia, according to Lodge,
"was
little better than that of slaves. Loose indentures and
harsh laws put
them at the mercy of their masters." It would
not be unfair to add that
such was their lot in all other
colonies. Their fate depended upon the
temper of their
masters.
Cruel as was the system in many ways, it gave
thousands of people in the
Old World a chance to reach the New--an
opportunity to wrestle with fate
for freedom and a home of their
own. When their weary years of servitude
were over, if they
survived, they might obtain land of their own or
settle as free
mechanics in the towns. For many a bondman the gamble
proved to be
a losing venture because he found himself unable to rise
out of
the state of poverty and dependence into which his servitude
carried
him. For thousands, on the contrary, bondage proved to be a
real
avenue to freedom and prosperity. Some of the best citizens
of America
have the blood of indentured servants in their
veins.
=The Transported--Involuntary Servitude.=--In their
anxiety to secure
settlers, the companies and proprietors having
colonies in America
either resorted to or connived at the practice
of kidnapping men, women,
and children from the streets of English
cities. In 1680 it was
officially estimated that "ten
thousand persons were spirited away" to
America. Many of the
victims of the practice were young children, for
the traffic in
them was highly profitable. Orphans and dependents were
sometimes
disposed of in America by relatives unwilling to support them.
In
a single year, 1627, about fifteen hundred children were shipped
to
Virginia.
In this gruesome business there lurked many
tragedies, and very few
romances. Parents were separated from
their children and husbands from
their wives. Hundreds of skilled
artisans--carpenters, smiths, and
weavers--utterly disappeared as
if swallowed up by death. A few thus
dragged off to the New World
to be sold into servitude for a term of
five or seven years later
became prosperous and returned home with
fortunes. In one case a
young man who was forcibly carried over the sea
lived to make his
way back to England and establish his claim to a
peerage.
Akin
to the kidnapped, at least in economic position, were
convicts
deported to the colonies for life in lieu of fines and
imprisonment. The
Americans protested vigorously but ineffectually
against this practice.
Indeed, they exaggerated its evils, for
many of the "criminals" were
only mild offenders against
unduly harsh and cruel laws. A peasant
caught shooting a rabbit on
a lord's estate or a luckless servant girl
who purloined a pocket
handkerchief was branded as a criminal along with
sturdy thieves
and incorrigible rascals. Other transported offenders
were
"political criminals"; that is, persons who criticized or
opposed
the government. This class included now Irish who revolted
against
British rule in Ireland; now Cavaliers who championed the
king against
the Puritan revolutionists; Puritans, in turn,
dispatched after the
monarchy was restored; and Scotch and English
subjects in general who
joined in political uprisings against the
king.
=The African Slaves.=--Rivaling in numbers, in the
course of time, the
indentured servants and whites carried to
America against their will
were the African negroes brought to
America and sold into slavery. When
this form of bondage was first
introduced into Virginia in 1619, it was
looked upon as a
temporary necessity to be discarded with the increase
of the white
population. Moreover it does not appear that those planters
who
first bought negroes at the auction block intended to establish
a
system of permanent bondage. Only by a slow process did chattel
slavery
take firm root and become recognized as the leading source
of the labor
supply. In 1650, thirty years after the introduction
of slavery, there
were only three hundred Africans in
Virginia.
The great increase in later years was due in no
small measure to the
inordinate zeal for profits that seized slave
traders both in Old and in
New England. Finding it relatively easy
to secure negroes in Africa,
they crowded the Southern ports with
their vessels. The English Royal
African Company sent to America
annually between 1713 and 1743 from five
to ten thousand slaves.
The ship owners of New England were not far
behind their English
brethren in pushing this extraordinary traffic.
As the
proportion of the negroes to the free white population steadily
rose,
and as whole sections were overrun with slaves and slave traders,
the
Southern colonies grew alarmed. In 1710, Virginia sought to
curtail
the importation by placing a duty of £5 on each
slave. This effort was
futile, for the royal governor promptly
vetoed it. From time to time
similar bills were passed, only to
meet with royal disapproval. South
Carolina, in 1760, absolutely
prohibited importation; but the measure
was killed by the British
crown. As late as 1772, Virginia, not daunted
by a century of
rebuffs, sent to George III a petition in this vein:
"The
importation of slaves into the colonies from the coast of Africa
hath
long been considered as a trade of great inhumanity and under
its
present encouragement, we have too much reason to fear, will
endanger
the very existence of Your Majesty's American
dominions.... Deeply
impressed with these sentiments, we most
humbly beseech Your Majesty to
remove all those restraints on Your
Majesty's governors of this colony
which inhibit their assenting
to such laws as might check so very
pernicious a commerce."
All
such protests were without avail. The negro population grew by
leaps
and bounds, until on the eve of the Revolution it amounted
to more than
half a million. In five states--Maryland, Virginia,
the two Carolinas,
and Georgia--the slaves nearly equalled or
actually exceeded the whites
in number. In South Carolina they
formed almost two-thirds of the
population. Even in the Middle
colonies of Delaware and Pennsylvania
about one-fifth of the
inhabitants were from Africa. To the North, the
proportion of
slaves steadily diminished although chattel servitude was
on the
same legal footing as in the South. In New York approximately one
in
six and in New England one in fifty were negroes, including a
few
freedmen.
The climate, the soil, the commerce, and the
industry of the North were
all unfavorable to the growth of a
servile population. Still, slavery,
though sectional, was a part
of the national system of economy. Northern
ships carried slaves
to the Southern colonies and the produce of the
plantations to
Europe. "If the Northern states will consult their
interest,
they will not oppose the increase in slaves which will
increase
the commodities of which they will become the carriers,"
said
John Rutledge, of South Carolina, in the convention which
framed the
Constitution of the United States. "What enriches
a part enriches the
whole and the states are the best judges of
their particular interest,"
responded Oliver Ellsworth, the
distinguished spokesman of Connecticut.
=References=
E.
Charming, _History of the United States_, Vols. I and II.
J.A.
Doyle, _The English Colonies in America_ (5 vols.).
J. Fiske,
_Old Virginia and Her Neighbors_ (2 vols.).
A.B. Faust, _The
German Element in the United States_ (2 vols.).
H.J. Ford,
_The Scotch-Irish in America_.
L. Tyler, _England in America_
(American Nation Series).
R. Usher, _The Pilgrims and Their
History_.
=Questions=
1. America has been called a
nation of immigrants. Explain why.
2. Why were individuals
unable to go alone to America in the beginning?
What agencies made
colonization possible? Discuss each of them.
3. Make a table
of the colonies, showing the methods employed in
their
settlement.
4. Why were capital and leadership so
very important in early
colonization?
5. What is meant by
the "melting pot"? What nationalities were
represented
among the early colonists?
6. Compare the way immigrants come
to-day with the way they came in
colonial times.
7.
Contrast indentured servitude with slavery and serfdom.
8.
Account for the anxiety of companies and proprietors to
secure
colonists.
9. What forces favored the heavy
importation of slaves?
10. In what way did the North derive
advantages from slavery?
=Research Topics=
=The
Chartered Company.=--Compare the first and third charters of
Virginia
in Macdonald, _Documentary Source Book of American
History_,
1606-1898, pp. 1-14. Analyze the first and second
Massachusetts charters
in Macdonald, pp. 22-84. Special reference:
W.A.S. Hewins, _English
Trading Companies_.
=Congregations
and Compacts for Self-government.=--A study of the
Mayflower
Compact, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut and the
Fundamental
Articles of New Haven in Macdonald, pp. 19, 36, 39.
Reference:
Charles Borgeaud, _Rise of Modern Democracy_, and C.S.
Lobingier,
_The People's Law_, Chaps. I-VII.
=The Proprietary
System.=--Analysis of Penn's charter of 1681, in
Macdonald, p. 80.
Reference: Lodge, _Short History of the English
Colonies in
America_, p. 211.
=Studies of Individual Colonies.=--Review of
outstanding events in
history of each colony, using Elson,
_History of the United States_, pp.
55-159, as the
basis.
=Biographical Studies.=--John Smith, John Winthrop,
William Penn, Lord
Baltimore, William Bradford, Roger Williams,
Anne Hutchinson, Thomas
Hooker, and Peter Stuyvesant, using any
good encyclopedia.
=Indentured Servitude.=--In Virginia,
Lodge, _Short History_, pp. 69-72;
in Pennsylvania, pp. 242-244.
Contemporary account in Callender,
_Economic History of the United
States_, pp. 44-51. Special reference:
Karl Geiser, _Redemptioners
and Indentured Servants_ (Yale Review, X,
No. 2
Supplement).
=Slavery.=--In Virginia, Lodge, _Short History_,
pp. 67-69; in the
Northern colonies, pp. 241, 275, 322, 408,
442.
=The People of the Colonies.=--Virginia, Lodge, _Short
History_, pp.
67-73; New England, pp. 406-409, 441-450;
Pennsylvania, pp. 227-229,
240-250; New York, pp. 312-313,
322-335.
CHAPTER II
COLONIAL AGRICULTURE,
INDUSTRY, AND COMMERCE
THE LAND AND THE WESTWARD
MOVEMENT
=The Significance of Land Tenure.=--The way in
which land may be
acquired, held, divided among heirs, and bought
and sold exercises a
deep influence on the life and culture of a
people. The feudal and
aristocratic societies of Europe were
founded on a system of landlordism
which was characterized by two
distinct features. In the first place,
the land was nearly all
held in great estates, each owned by a single
proprietor. In the
second place, every estate was kept intact under the
law of
primogeniture, which at the death of a lord transferred all
his
landed property to his eldest son. This prevented the
subdivision of
estates and the growth of a large body of small
farmers or freeholders
owning their own land. It made a form of
tenantry or servitude
inevitable for the mass of those who labored
on the land. It also
enabled the landlords to maintain themselves
in power as a governing
class and kept the tenants and laborers
subject to their economic and
political control. If land tenure
was so significant in Europe, it was
equally important in the
development of America, where practically all
the first immigrants
were forced by circumstances to derive their
livelihood from the
soil.
=Experiments in Common Tillage.=--In the New World, with
its broad
extent of land awaiting the white man's plow, it was
impossible to
introduce in its entirety and over the whole area
the system of lords
and tenants that existed across the sea. So it
happened that almost
every kind of experiment in land tenure, from
communism to feudalism,
was tried. In the early days of the
Jamestown colony, the land, though
owned by the London Company,
was tilled in common by the settlers. No
man had a separate plot
of his own. The motto of the community was:
"Labor and share
alike." All were supposed to work in the fields and
receive
an equal share of the produce. At Plymouth, the Pilgrims
attempted
a similar experiment, laying out the fields in common
and
distributing the joint produce of their labor with rough
equality among
the workers.
In both colonies the
communistic experiments were failures. Angry at the
lazy men in
Jamestown who idled their time away and yet expected regular
meals,
Captain John Smith issued a manifesto: "Everyone that
gathereth
not every day as much as I do, the next day shall be set
beyond the
river and forever banished from the fort and live there
or starve." Even
this terrible threat did not bring a change
in production. Not until
each man was given a plot of his own to
till, not until each gathered
the fruits of his own labor, did the
colony prosper. In Plymouth, where
the communal experiment lasted
for five years, the results were similar
to those in Virginia, and
the system was given up for one of separate
fields in which every
person could "set corn for his own particular."
Some
other New England towns, refusing to profit by the experience
of
their Plymouth neighbor, also made excursions into common
ownership and
labor, only to abandon the idea and go in for
individual ownership of
the land. "By degrees it was seen
that even the Lord's people could not
carry the complicated
communist legislation into perfect and wholesome
practice."
=Feudal
Elements in the Colonies--Quit Rents, Manors, and
Plantations.=--At
the other end of the scale were the feudal elements of
land tenure
found in the proprietary colonies, in the seaboard regions
of the
South, and to some extent in New York. The proprietor was in fact
a
powerful feudal lord, owning land granted to him by royal charter.
He
could retain any part of it for his personal use or dispose of
it all in
large or small lots. While he generally kept for himself
an estate of
baronial proportions, it was impossible for him to
manage directly any
considerable part of the land in his dominion.
Consequently he either
sold it in parcels for lump sums or granted
it to individuals on
condition that they make to him an annual
payment in money, known as
"quit rent." In Maryland, the
proprietor sometimes collected as high as
£9000 (equal to
about $500,000 to-day) in a single year from this
source. In
Pennsylvania, the quit rents brought a handsome annual
tribute
into the exchequer of the Penn family. In the royal provinces,
the
king of England claimed all revenues collected in this form from
the
land, a sum amounting to £19,000 at the time of the
Revolution. The quit
rent,--"really a feudal payment from
freeholders,"--was thus a material
source of income for the
crown as well as for the proprietors. Wherever
it was laid,
however, it proved to be a burden, a source of constant
irritation;
and it became a formidable item in the long list of
grievances
which led to the American Revolution.
Something still more
like the feudal system of the Old World appeared in
the numerous
manors or the huge landed estates granted by the crown,
the
companies, or the proprietors. In the colony of Maryland alone
there
were sixty manors of three thousand acres each, owned by
wealthy men and
tilled by tenants holding small plots under
certain restrictions of
tenure. In New York also there were many
manors of wide extent, most of
which originated in the days of the
Dutch West India Company, when
extensive concessions were made to
patroons to induce them to bring over
settlers. The Van
Rensselaer, the Van Cortlandt, and the Livingston
manors were so
large and populous that each was entitled to send a
representative
to the provincial legislature. The tenants on the New
York manors
were in somewhat the same position as serfs on old European
estates.
They were bound to pay the owner a rent in money and kind;
they
ground their grain at his mill; and they were subject to his
judicial
power because he held court and meted out justice, in
some instances
extending to capital punishment.
The manors
of New York or Maryland were, however, of slight consequence
as
compared with the vast plantations of the Southern
seaboard--huge
estates, far wider in expanse than many a European
barony and tilled by
slaves more servile than any feudal tenants.
It must not be forgotten
that this system of land tenure became
the dominant feature of a large
section and gave a decided bent to
the economic and political life of
America.
[Illustration:
SOUTHERN PLANTATION MANSION]
=The Small Freehold.=--In the
upland regions of the South, however, and
throughout most of the
North, the drift was against all forms of
servitude and tenantry
and in the direction of the freehold; that is,
the small farm
owned outright and tilled by the possessor and his
family. This
was favored by natural circumstances and the spirit of
the
immigrants. For one thing, the abundance of land and the
scarcity of
labor made it impossible for the companies, the
proprietors, or the
crown to develop over the whole continent a
network of vast estates. In
many sections, particularly in New
England, the climate, the stony soil,
the hills, and the narrow
valleys conspired to keep the farms within a
moderate compass. For
another thing, the English, Scotch-Irish, and
German peasants,
even if they had been tenants in the Old World, did not
propose to
accept permanent dependency of any kind in the New. If they
could
not get freeholds, they would not settle at all; thus they
forced
proprietors and companies to bid for their enterprise by
selling land in
small lots. So it happened that the freehold of
modest proportions
became the cherished unit of American farmers.
The people who tilled the
farms were drawn from every quarter of
western Europe; but the freehold
system gave a uniform cast to
their economic and social life in America.
[Illustration:
_From an old print_
A NEW ENGLAND FARMHOUSE]
=Social
Effects of Land Tenure.=--Land tenure and the process of
western
settlement thus developed two distinct types of people
engaged in the
same pursuit--agriculture. They had a common tie in
that they both
cultivated the soil and possessed the local
interest and independence
which arise from that occupation. Their
methods and their culture,
however, differed widely.
The
Southern planter, on his broad acres tilled by slaves, resembled
the
English landlord on his estates more than he did the colonial
farmer who
labored with his own hands in the fields and forests.
He sold his rice
and tobacco in large amounts directly to English
factors, who took his
entire crop in exchange for goods and cash.
His fine clothes,
silverware, china, and cutlery he bought in
English markets. Loving the
ripe old culture of the mother
country, he often sent his sons to Oxford
or Cambridge for their
education. In short, he depended very largely for
his prosperity
and his enjoyment of life upon close relations with the
Old World.
He did not even need market towns in which to buy native
goods,
for they were made on his own plantation by his own artisans who
were
usually gifted slaves.
The economic condition of the small
farmer was totally different. His
crops were not big enough to
warrant direct connection with English
factors or the personal
maintenance of a corps of artisans. He needed
local markets, and
they sprang up to meet the need. Smiths, hatters,
weavers,
wagon-makers, and potters at neighboring towns supplied him
with
the rough products of their native skill. The finer goods, bought
by
the rich planter in England, the small farmer ordinarily could
not
buy. His wants were restricted to staples like tea and sugar,
and
between him and the European market stood the merchant. His
community
was therefore more self-sufficient than the seaboard
line of great
plantations. It was more isolated, more provincial,
more independent,
more American. The planter faced the Old East.
The farmer faced the New
West.
=The Westward
Movement.=--Yeoman and planter nevertheless were alike in
one
respect. Their land hunger was never appeased. Each had the eye of
an
expert for new and fertile soil; and so, north and south, as soon
as
a foothold was secured on the Atlantic coast, the current of
migration
set in westward, creeping through forests, across
rivers, and over
mountains. Many of the later immigrants, in their
search for cheap
lands, were compelled to go to the border; but in
a large part the path
breakers to the West were native Americans
of the second and third
generations. Explorers, fired by curiosity
and the lure of the
mysterious unknown, and hunters, fur traders,
and squatters, following
their own sweet wills, blazed the trail,
opening paths and sending back
stories of the new regions they
traversed. Then came the regular
settlers with lawful titles to
the lands they had purchased, sometimes
singly and sometimes in
companies.
In Massachusetts, the westward movement is recorded
in the founding of
Springfield in 1636 and Great Barrington in
1725. By the opening of the
eighteenth century the pioneers of
Connecticut had pushed north and west
until their outpost towns
adjoined the Hudson Valley settlements. In New
York, the inland
movement was directed by the Hudson River to Albany,
and from tha