The american farmer in the eighteenth century

www.allitebooks.com The American Farmer in the Eighteenth Century www.allitebooks.com This page intentionally left blank www.allitebooks.com The American Farmer in the Eighteenth Century A Social and Cultural History Richard Lyman Bushman new haven and london www.allitebooks.com Published with assistance from the Annie Burr Lewis Fund Published with assistance from the Louis Stern Memorial Fund Copyright © 2018 by Richard Lyman Bushman All rights reserved This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational, business, or promotional use For information, please e-mail sales.press@yale.edu (U.S office) or sales@yaleup.co.uk (U.K office) Set in Fournier type by IDS Infotech, Ltd Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Control Number: 2017942158 ISBN 978-0-300-22673-7 (hardcover: alk paper) A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper) 10 www.allitebooks.com For Claudia Bushman This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix pa rt on e fa r m th o u g h t The Farm Idea The Life Plans of Family Farmers A Note on Sources How Documents Think 23 part two n o rth a m er ic a , 1600–1800 The Nature of the South The Creation of Sectional Systems 39 Generation of Violence A Population Explosion Ignites Conflict 58 part th r ee c on n ec tic ut, 164 0–17 60 Uncas and Joshua The Acquisition of Connecticut 83 Sons and Daughters Provision for the Young 105 Farmers’ Markets How the Exchange Economy Formed Society 122 pa rt f o u r pen n s y lvan ia , 17 60–7 Crèvecoeur’s Pennsylvania Farming in the Middle Colonies 141 Revolution Why Farmers Fought 167 viii c o n t e n t s 10 Family Mobility The Lincolns of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois 183 pa rt f iv e virg in ia , 177 6–1800 11 Founding Farmers The Contradictions of the Planter Class 193 12 Jefferson’s Neighbors Economy, Society, and Politics in Post-Revolutionary Virginia 217 13 Learning Slavery How Slaves Learned to Be Slaves and Whites to Become Masters 244 pa rt s ix a pproac h in g th e presen t 14 American Agriculture, 1800–1862 273 Notes 295 Index 367 Preface Twenty years ago, my wife, Claudia Bushman, and I decided to work together on a farm book To get a feeling for the life, we went to county fairs and struck up conversations about hogs and corn We leapt at the chance to see tobacco sprouts put in the ground in North Carolina We talked with rice and walnut farmers in California and cattle ranchers in Utah We repeatedly visited farm museums like Old Sturbridge Village Eventually, Claudia struck out on her own to write a book on John Walker, a pre–Civil War Virginia farmer whose diary she had discovered (In Old Virginia: Slavery, Farming, and Society in the Journal of John Walker, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002) I labored on in hopes of constructing a broad outline of farm lives in Britain’s North American colonies in the eighteenth century I cannot explain my fascination with agriculture I have no farmers in my immediate background One great-grandfather farmed forty acres in Utah County south of Salt Lake City in the late nineteenth century; another raised hay in Garfield County, Utah Since then, no one in my family has farmed; both of my grandfathers found jobs in town My experience as a twelve-year-old picking strawberries for six cents a pound on truck farms in the Columbia River Basin west of Portland did not inspire a desire to know more Nor did I begin with a historiographical problem or a demanding question about how the agricultural economy worked I was motivated only by a desire to understand farmers I wanted to know how they thought, their strategies for getting on, the obstacles and dangers they faced, their fears and hopes I aspired to write a social and cultural history of eighteenth-century farmers As I learned more, I was struck by the secure base that farming provided for British North American society in the eighteenth century The tens of thousands of farms planted up and down the coast and spreading into the mountains formed a great productive system that yielded the bulk of what ix 362 n o t e s t o pa g e s – 7 10 11 12 1822), 130 For a description of long fallow in New England, see Carolyn Merchant, Ecological Revolutions: Nature, Gender, and Science in New England (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989), 157–63 The American system was not classic shifting agriculture with villages that moved as the fields migrated through the forest D B Grigg, The Agricultural Systems of the World: An Evolutionary Approach (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974), 57–60, 72–73 On corn as well as tobacco depleting the soil, see W[illiam] Strickland, Observations on the Agriculture of the United States of America (London, 1801), 49–50 “An Account of the Present State and Government of Virginia [1696],” Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections for the Year 1798, (Boston, 1835), 127 Brian Donahue believes Concord farmers must have manured their land to keep it in heart rather than going to fallow The evidence is a bit thin, but he argues that the town’s corn crops could not have continued without soil restoration The Great Meadow: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), 10–20 On the other hand, Jared Eliot, advocating reforms in the middle of the eighteenth century, said earlier farmers had “depended upon the natural Fertility of the Ground, which served their purpose very well, and when they had worn out one piece they cleared another.” Jared Eliot, Essays upon Field Husbandry in New England and Other Papers, 1748–1762, ed Harry J Carman and Rexford G Tugwell (New York: Columbia University Press, 1934), 29 Gloria L Main, Tobacco Colony: Life in Early Maryland, 1650–1720 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), 43–44 Clarence H Danhof, Change in Agriculture: The Northern United States, 1820–1870 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969), 252 Paul G Bourcier, “ ‘In Excellent Order’: The Gentleman Farmer Views His Fences, 1790–1860,” Agricultural History 58, no (1984): 546–64 Martin L Primack, “Farm Fencing in the Nineteenth Century,” Journal of Economic History 29, no (1969) Clarence H Danhof, “The Fencing Problem in the Eighteen-Fifties,” Agricultural History 18, no (1944): 169 By the middle of the century the median of cleared land in fifty-eight Worcester County towns was 62 to 63 percent Judging from land usage in urban areas along the coast, 80 to 85 percent was maximum usage Landusage figures tabulated from “Massachusetts Valuation Returns for Worcester Co, 1781–1860,” compiled by the research staff at Old Sturbridge n o t e s t o pa g e s 7 – 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 363 Village, Massachusetts, and available in the Old Sturbridge Village Research Library Delaware Register (Dover), (Oct 1838): 201 For a dimmer view of soil recovery, Strickland, Observations on the Agriculture, 43; Danhof, Change in Agriculture, 254 Timothy Dwight, Travels in New England and New York, ed Barbara Miller Solomon, vols (1823; Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1969), 1: 77 Richard A Wines, “The Nineteenth-Century Agricultural Transition in an Eastern Long Island Community,” Agricultural History 55, no (1981): 53–56 Kathleen Bruce, “Virginia Agricultural Decline to 1860: A Fallacy,” Agricultural History 6, no (1932): 3–13 For another example of self-provisioning through neighborly exchange, see Mary Babson Fuhrer, A Crisis of Community: The Trials and Transformation of a New England Town, 1815–1848 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014), 24–26 Claudia L Bushman, In Old Virginia: Slavery, Farming, and Society in the Journal of John Walker (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 13, 18 Ibid., 1–3, 20, 42 Ibid., 33, 184 Ibid., 30–31 Historical Statistics, 1: 449 Cf Atack, Bateman, and Parker, “Farm, Farmer, and Market,” 2: 258–63, 269 Bushman, In Old Virginia, 4–6, 32, 48 A progressive Iowa corn-and-hogs farmer in the 1860s constructed a lye leach in his barnyard for making soap, grew sorghum for molasses, and sent wool from his sheep to a carding mill to prepare rovings for his wife to spin and dye with sumac and red-oak bark dyes Allan G Bogue, From Prairie to Corn Belt: Farming on the Illinois and Iowa Prairies in the Nineteenth Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963), 278–79 Bushman, In Old Virginia, xiv, 14 (quotation), 26, 31 Ibid., 63–64 Ibid., 64–65, 67 Ibid., 63 Ibid., 183–84 Ibid., 51 Quotation from Atack, Bateman, and Parker, “Farm, Farmer, and Market,” 2: 247 Bushman, In Old Virginia, 173–76, 187 364 n o t e s t o pa g e s – 29 The classic account of city and country in the United States is William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (New York: Norton, 1991) 30 On eighteenth-century agrarianism, see Chester E Eisinger, “The Farmer in the Eighteenth-Century Almanac,” Agricultural History 28, no (1954): 110 Strickland, Observations on Agriculture, 55 31 Quoted in Richard H Abbott, “The Agricultural Press Views the Yeoman: 1819–1859,” Agricultural History 42, no (1968): 37–38 32 Samuel Deane, New England Farmer; or, Georgical Dictionary (Worcester, Mass.: Isaiah Thomas, 1790), Gilbert C Fite, “The Historical Development of Agricultural Fundamentalism in the Nineteenth Century Agricultural Press,” Journal of Farm Economics 44, no (1962): 1206–7 E G Storke, ed., The Family and Householder’s Guide (Auburn, N.Y., 1859), 31, quoting from The American Agriculturalist, A Consolidation of Buel’s Cultivator and Genesee Farmer, Designed to Improve the Soil and the Mind (Albany, 1840), 93 The Genesee Farmer (Rochester, N.Y.), 15 (1854): 160, 16 (1855): 158, 279 33 On the profitability of farms in the mid-nineteenth century, see Atack, Bateman, and Parker, “Farm, Farmer, and Market,” 2: 276–77 34 Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (1785; New York: Harper and Row, 1964), 156 35 Rolla Milton Tryon, Household Manufactures in the United States, 1640–1860 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1917), 166, 308–9 36 George P Sanger, ed., The Statutes at Large, Treaties, and Proclamations of the United States of America (Boston: Little, Brown, 1863), 12: 392–93 Jeremy Atack, “Northern Agriculture,” in Engerman and Gallman, Cambridge Economic History, 2: 301, 304–7 37 Statutes at Large, 12: 387–88, 503–4 For the writings of an advocate of educated farmers, see Mary Turner Carriel, The Life of Jonathan Baldwin Turner (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1911) 38 Abraham Lincoln, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed Roy P Basler, Marion Dolores Pratt, and Lloyd A Dunlap, vols (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953–55), 3: 473 39 Ibid., 3: 478 40 Ibid., 3: 478–79 For the view that independence was less important to Lincoln than personal advancement, see G S Borritt, Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream ([Memphis, Tenn.]: Memphis State University Press, 1978), 185–86, 188 Borritt believes the Wisconsin speech was an outlier in Lincoln’s economic thought For an elaboration of Lincoln’s n o t e s t o pa g e s – 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 365 ideology, see Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), 11–39 Lincoln, Collected Works, 3: 479 Ibid., 3: 480–81 Ibid., 3: 480 Ibid., 3: 481 Figure Da-C, https://hsus-cambridge-org.ezproxy.cul columbia.edu/HSUSWeb/search/searchessaypath.do?id=Da.ESS.02 Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1977), 39–40 A Whitney Griswold, Farming and Democracy (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1948), 15 Ibid., viii Griswold’s book was a sequel to Theodore Roosevelt’s Report of the Country Life Commission (1909); Roosevelt wrote that democracy did rely on a thriving farm population but one that had to be improved For the context, see Scott J Peters and Paul A Morgan, “The Country Life Commission: Reconsidering a Milestone in American Agricultural History,” Agricultural History 78, no (2004): 289–316; and Kevin Lowe, Baptized with the Soil: Christian Agrarians and the Crusade for Rural America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1916) Griswold, Farming and Democracy, 180 Ibid., 36 Ibid., 203, 206–7, 209–10 Ibid., 204, 214 For a recent critique of the agrarian ideal in Griswold’s spirit, see Melissa Walker, “Contemporary Agrarianism: A Reality Check,” Agricultural History 86, no (2012): 1–25 Alan L Olmstead and Paul W Rhodes, “Farms and Farm Structure,” Historical Statistics Millennial Edition Online, https://hsus-cambridge-org ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/HSUSWeb/toc/showEssayPath.do?id=Da ESS.02 Ibid David B Danbom, “Romantic Agrarianism in Twentieth-Century America,” Agricultural History 65, no (1991): 6–8 Quoted ibid., 4–5 Olmstead and Rhodes, “Farms and Farm Structure,” Table Da612–14 and Figure Da-E 366 n o t e s t o pa g e s – 59 Nancy Williams to Richard Bushman, June 1, 2015, in author’s possession 60 Ibid., Nancy Williams to Richard Bushman, Aug 11, 2016, in author’s possession 61 J Hector St John de Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer and Sketches of Eighteenth-Century America, ed Albert E Stone (New York: Penguin, 1986), 67 Index Account books, 5–7, 12–14, 127–28, 280 Adams, Eliphalet, 127 Adams, John, 57, 170 Adams, Samuel, 175 Agriculture: source of exports, 3–4; rational, 205–10, 278–79, 285–86; unchanged through eighteenth century, 273; new markets for, 274; new crops in, 274–76; Department of, 285–86; Lincoln on thorough, 286; turning point at World War II, 288–93 See also farmers; farming; plantation agriculture Alabama, 282 Alamance, Battle of, 73–74 Albemarle County, Va., 193, 197–98; social structure of, 218–19; poor in, 219–21; analysis of estate inventories in, 223–25; exchanges in, 225–28; in wartime, 228–36; petitions for currency relief, 238–39; sheriff of, appeals for relief from tax collections, 239; standard of living in, 245–47; slavery in, 261–65 American Husbandry, 4, 6, 55–56, 198 Amity, Penn., 184 Amstad, John, 28 Andrew: fictional farmer, 142; amazed by wagons, 151; purchases land, 154; many such, 164 Antigua, 40, 123 Antilles, 40 Armstrong, John, 31–32 Ashby, Mr., 132–33 Association: closes ports, 175; enforcement of, 180–81 Augusta County, Virginia, 187–88, 193–94 Babcock, James, 133 Bailey, Callam: possessions of, 245–46; bequeaths slaves, 248–49, 259 Ball, Mary, 201 Bancroft, George, 74 Barbados, 40, 123 Barrel making, 150–51 Beck, William, 226–27 Bells, 225–26 Benton, Colonel, 74 Berks County, Penn., 175, 240 Berry, Fannie, relationship with owners, 249–52 Berry, Wendell, and self-provisioning, 289 Biddwell, Widow, 12 Bliss, Elizabeth, 135 Bliss, Elizabeth, Jr., 135 Bliss, Eunice, 135 Boone, Daniel, 66 Boston, Mass., 135, 184 Boston Port Bill, arouses farmers, 172–77 Boston Tea Party, 172 Bouton, Terry, 240 Brandywine River, 149 Brazil, 39–40, 42 Bricolage, style of farm management, 8–9 Brooms, new farm product, 275–76 Brown, Betty, 254, 256 Brown, J Jonas, 25 Buchanan, James, 190 Burke, Andrew, 28 Bushman, Claudia, ix, 303 n.1 Butler, Jane, 201 Butler, John, 163 Byrd, William, Byrd, William I, 195 367 368 i n d e x Calvert, Charles, 41 Campbell, Arthur, 240 Capitalism: farmers and, 6; transition to, 16–17; John Walker adopts, 281 Carlisle, Penn., 142, 164 Carney, Cornelia, 252, 261 Carolinas, slavery in, 42 Carrington, Edward, 241–42 Cartegena, 202 Carter, Charles, 230 Carter, Edward, 218 Carter, Jared, 61 Carter, John 218 Carter, Landon, 54, 176 Carter, Robert, 218, 270 Carteret, Sir George, 70–71 Carteret, Philip, 70–71 Cary, Archibald, 260 Caulkins, Frances Manwaring, 83 Chatham Hill, plantation for provisioning, 278, 281–82 Chatsworth, Bob, 226 Chester County, Pa., 50–51, 173, 178, 181, 184, 186 Child, Josiah, recognizes North-South distinction, 43 Christophers, Capt Richard, 122–23 Cities: as markets, 273–76; as source of work, 282; as cultural influence, 283–84 Cleaveland, James, 237 Cleaves, David, 133 Climate: defines South, 44–45; and tobacco cultivation, 47–49; and temperature differentials, 50; and northern slavery, 51; and work year, 53–54; in Pennsylvania, 144 Cocolico, Pa., 156 Colbert, Burwell, 254 Colchester, Conn., 110 Competence, 5, 298 n 13 Concord, Ma., 78, 181 Conestoga Manor, Pa., 157 Connecticut: farm accounts in, 6; tobacco in, 47–48; slavery in, 51; claims to Pennsylvania lands, 70–71; government of, controls Indians, 86–95; battles for land in Wyoming Valley, 162–63; and Revolution in, 169–70; elite markers in, 248 Continental Army, 234–35 Continental Congress: recommends Association, 175, 180; suppresses royal government, 182; drafts men for army, 234–37; checks inflation, 237–38 Continuous cropping, 276–77 Cooper, Bet Ann, 114–15 Cooper, Esther, 114–17 Cooper, Joseph (Dade), 114, 116 Cooper, Mary Wright, and farm life of a woman, 114–17 Coopering See barrel making Cottagers, 53 Countryman, Edward, 169–70 Crèvecoeur, Hector St John de: defines Americans, 3–4, 293–94; on nature, 47; biography, 141–42; publishes Letters, 141–42; lauds American farmer, 142–44, 287; more letters of, discovered, 143–44; defines North and South, 144–45; describes slavery in Pennsylvania, 144–47; on Pennsylvania frontier, 153–54; on natural adversity, 154–55; on frontiersmen, 157; on fear of Indians, 159; ambiguous toward Pennsylvania, 164–66; opposes the Revolution, 167 Crossman, Elizabeth, 133, 135 Crusoe mentality, 8–9 Cuba, 50 Cumberland County, Pa., 179, 181 Currency, 330, n 28 Custis, Daniel Parke, 214 Custis, Martha, 214 Dairying, 224–25 Daniel (John Walker’s slave), 281 Darrow, Christopher, 125 Dauphin County, Pa., 240 Davenant, Charles, defines North and South, 43 Davis, Charles, 248 Debt: in Orange County regulation, 72; in New England, 132–37; and Mary Cooper, 137; in Pennsylvania, 154–55; among planters, 210–15 Declaration of Independence, 182 Deeds, 25–28 Defoe, Daniel, Delaware, 27 index Democracy, develops from grass roots, 179–82 Denison, William, Dickinson, John, 174, 177 Dickinson, Levi, 275–76 Doll (slave), 254 Domestic economy, 13–15 Donahue, Brian, 362 n.9 Douglass, William, 199 Draft, 234–36 Dunmore, John Murray, Lord, removes powder, 228, 269 Durrett, Richard, 227 Dwight, Elizabeth, 135 Dwight, Col Joseph, 135 Dwight, Timothy, 277 Ebe (Hempstead’s servant), 102 Edenton, N.C., 61 Edwards, David, 220 Edwards, Henry, 83 Egremont, Ma., 133 Elder, John, 161 Eliot, Jared, 362 n Endicott, John, 87 Estate inventories, analysis of in Virginia, 222–26 Estate sales, 29–31 Europe, food shortage in, x Exchange economy See markets Excise taxes, 171–72 Exports: heavily agricultural, 3, 296 n 5; overshadowed by domestic sales, 273–76 Fairfax, Anne, 202 Fairfield County, Conn., 51 Family: security of, x–xi, 4–5; integrated into farm economy, 9–12; seeks land for children, 17–19; life cycle of, 17–18; requires land, 18–20; and Indian expulsion, 20–22; imperial, 20–22, 120–21; and land crisis, 59–60, 63–65; Hempstead provides for his, 105–10; Hempstead teaches his, 111–14; Mary Cooper teaches her, 114–17; Uncas teaches his, 117–20; and land in Pennsylvania, 153–54; underlies struggle in Wyoming Valley, 163–64; Lincolns provide for, 183–90; slave, 252–53, 266–67, 269; of 369 Virginia small holders, 262–63; in twentieth century, 292–94 Fanning, Edmond, 129 Fanning, Edmund, 73–76, 127 Farguson, Daniel, 220 Farmers: seek security, ix–x, 4–5, 11–12; not capitalist, xi, 6–7, 11–12; seek to balance accounts, 6–7; provision themselves, 7–9; operate in household and exchange economies, 11–16, 122–26; seek to provide land for children, 17–19; drive out natives, 20–22; everywhere in colonial records, 23–24; fathers form the future, 31–32; taxed, 32–34; appraise each other’s farms, 35–36; Franklin believes ample land for, 58–59; acquire land, 61–63; struggle to acquire land, 63–67; in conflict over land 69–72; in Regulator controversies, 72–76; oppose slavery, 76–77; provide for children, 103–10; skills of, taught to children, 111–17; differentiate household and exchange economies, 127–29, 329 n.23; and stores, 129–32; and debt, 132–37; and natural adversity, 154–55; social divisions among in Pennsylvania, 156–62; Crèvecoeur’s ambivalence about, 164–66; slow to oppose Britain, 167–68; uprisings of and resistance to Britain, 168–70; and British taxes, 171–72; aroused by Boston Port Bill, 172–77; mobilize to fight, 177–82; migrant, 183–90; Washington believes backward, 205; unaware of profits, 206; and debt, 210–15; lose farms, 216; poor in the South, 219–22; exchange with planters, 226–28; and military service, 232–36; and money shortage, 236–42; standard of living among southern, 245–49; buy genteel goods, 282–84; all to be rational, 285–86; self-provisioning of declines, 283–84, 289–92; Lincoln lauds for independence, 286–87; education for, 287–88 See also agriculture; farming; plantation agriculture Farming: author’s interest in, ix; sustains population, ix–x; in towns and cities, x, 4; for family and for markets, x–xi; variations in, xi–xii; predominant in North America, 3–4; an idea, 4–5; pure market, 8; instills a Crusoe and bricolage mentality, 8–9; family, 9–11; 370 i n d e x Farming: author’s (continued) blends household and market economies, 10–15, 122–23; transition of to capitalism, 16; found in court records, 23–36; a mental construct, 23–25; records form spaces, 25–28; projected in time, 28–29; material culture of, 29–31; reproduced through the will, 31–32; appraised in tax lists, 32–34; shapes a culture, 36; tobacco, 47–49; uses varying labor systems, 49–51; in winter, 51–57; in crisis because of land shortage, 59, 61–67; and slavery, 76–77; grips the land, 95–96; products of Hempstead’s, 101–2; Hempstead teaches to young, 111–14; institutional structure of Hempstead’s, 113; Native American, 117–18; in Pennsylvania, 144–52; and wheat, 148–50; in the Susquehanna Valley, 164–66; among southern planters, 198; Jefferson and, 200; Washington and, 202–5; requires encyclopedic knowledge, 203–5; and rational agriculture, 205–10; among southern middling farmers, 221–26, 262–65; unites Virginia society, 242–43; little change in during 18th century, 273; sees new crops in 19th century, 275–76; and improved production, 276–77; improving blends with self-provisioning, 279–81; Lincoln values, 286–88; idea of continues to World War II, 288; and democracy, 289–92; transformed in twentieth century, 291–92; and Williams family, 293–94; size by section, 297 n.12; income from, 298 n.20; and soil fertility, 346–47 n 40, 362 no See also agriculture; farmers; plantation agriculture Farming and Democracy, 290–91 Farrell and Jones, 211 Fences, 277 Ferguson, Robert, 180–81 Ferry Farm, 201 Fertilizer, 277 Field, Cori, 34, 304 n.12 Fillmore, Millard, 190 Findley, William, 79 Fisher’s Island, 124 Fitch, James, 93 Fitch, James, Jr., 93 Fitch, Thomas, 169 Fitzpatrick, Alexander, 220 Fluvanna River, 198 Foot, Nathaniel, 93 Fort Durkee, Pa., 163 Foucault, Michel, 33–34 Francis, Col Turbutt, 162–63 Franklin, Benjamin, 58–59: on Paxton uprising, 158–60; and Boston Port Bill, 172 Fredericksburg, Va., 201 French and Indian War, 68, 161, 187 Frontiersmen: lawless, 157; perpetuate tales of Indian horror, 159–60; resentment of government, 160–62 Fulton, Robert, 210 Gage, Gov Thomas, 176 Gallatin, Albert, 79 Gates, Paul, 274 Gentry, Nicholas, 222, 224 Gilmer, George, wartime leader, 228–32 Gooch, William, 196–97 Goochland County, Va., 193, 197–98 Goose Nest Prairie, Ill., 189 Goshen, N.Y., 142 Grafton, Ma., 25 Granger, George (father), heroism of, 266–67 Granger, George (son), 266–67 Granger, Isaac, 259, 260, 265, 266–67 Granger, Ursula, 266 Granville, John Earl Viscount Carteret, 60–61 Gray, Mrs., 226–27 Greenbrier County, Va., 241 Griswold, A Whitney, on democracy and farming, 289–91 Gross, Robert, 64, 78 Grover, Benjamin, 25 Grover, Sarah, 25 Guadalupe, 40 Guns, 226 Gunter, Edmund, 27 Hadley, Ma., 275–76 Halifax County, Va., 247 Hall, David, 295, n.2 Hamilton, Andrew, 4, 152 Hanks, Joseph, 189 Hanks, Lucy, 190 Hanks, Nancy, 189 index Hanover, Pa., 163, 173, 175 Hardin County, Ky., 189 Hartford, Conn., 122 Havens, Jason, Hay: in South, 55–56; sold by Hempstead, 122–23, urban demand for, 274–75 Head rights, 62–63 Helper, Hinton, 274–74 Hemings, John, 255 Hemings, Madison, 259, 265–66, 270 Hemings, Mary, 265, 266 Hemings, Sally, 259, 266 Hempstead, Abigail (b 1676): dies, 96; helps manage farm, 100 Hempstead, Abigail (b 1712), 98; marries, 109 Hempstead, Elizabeth, 96; marries, 109 Hempstead, John, 98, 107, 110 Hempstead, Joshua (b 1649), 86, 100 Hempstead, Joshua (b 1678), 84; witnesses execution, 86; family of, 98; as shipbuilder, 99–100; farm products of, 101–2; selfprovisioning of, 102–3; and sloop building, 103; exploits his children, 106–9; provides for children, 109–10; raises sheep in Stonington, 107–8; purchases a slave, 108–9; work exchanges with sons, 109; children of marry, 109–10; teaches sons, 111–14; dominates Indians, 120–21; markets crops, 122–23; away from home, 123–24; involved in exchanges, 124–26; in politics, 126–27; and church, 127; debt of, 132–37 Hempstead, Joshua (b 1699), 96, 111 Hempstead, Joshua (b 1724), 98; inheritance of, 109; taught by grandfather Hempstead, Mary (b 1716), 96; marries, 109 Hempstead, Mary Hallam, 98 Hempstead, Nathaniel (b 1701), 98, 100, 107 Hempstead, Nathaniel (Nattee, b 1727), 98; marries, 107; falls ill, 111; taught by grandfather, 111 Hempstead, Robert, settles New London, 84–86 Hempstead, Robert (b 1702), 107, 110 Hempstead, Stephen, 98, 107, 110 Hempstead, Thomas, 98, 103 Henderson, Mat, 265 Henderson, Richard, 66 Henry, Patrick, 170, 238, 242 371 Hepper, Mr., 130 Herndon, William, 190 Hildreth, Ben, 115 Hill, Widow, 124 Hillsborough, N.C., 73 Hingham, England, 184 Hingham, Ma., 184–85 Holt, Sarah, 98 Homestead Act, 79, 285 Hooker, Thomas, 87 Horses, 151–52 Household economy, 9–12 See also farmers; farming Howells, William Dean, 190 Hughes, Wormeley, 254 Hunter, James, 73 Husband, Herman, 187: and North Carolina land 60–61; speculates in land, 65–66; and N.C Regulators, 72–76; Impartial Relation, 74–75; views of slavery, 76–77; death of, 79–80 Hutchinson, Gov Thomas, 176 Imperial families, 20–22, 120–21 Indians See Native Americans Indigo, 42 Ingersoll, Jared, 169, 170 Intolerable Acts, 168 Jackson, Adam, Hempstead’s slave, 108–9, 133 Jackson, Andrew, 83 Jamaica, 40 Jefferson, Israel Gilette, 266 Jefferson, Martha (wife of Thomas Jefferson), 266 Jefferson, Martha (daughter of Thomas Jefferson), 270 Jefferson, Peter: settles Goochland County, 193–95; rise of, 196–98; culture of, 199 Jefferson, Randolph, 198–99 Jefferson, Thomas (b c 1640), 195 Jefferson, Thomas (b 1679), 195–96, 214 Jefferson, Thomas (b 1743): and winter work, 54; and land offices, 79; on resistance to Boston Port Bill, 173; rise and decline of, 195; ancestry of, 195–96; receives land, 198; education of, 199; replies to Arthur Young, 206–7; and rational agriculture, 208–9; 372 i n d e x Jefferson, Thomas (continued) designs a plow, 209–10; and debt, 210–13; bankruptcy of 215–16; taxes of, 218; trades with neighbors, 226–27; and George Gilmer, 228–29; and Jupiter, 250; and management of slaves, 253–59, and slave discipline, 259–61; and skilled craftsmen, 264; and runaway slaves, 269; calm demeanor of, 270 Jenner, Edward, 257 Jenny, 259 Johnson, Thomas, 239 Jones, Alice Hanson, 149–50, 244–45 Jones, William, 212 Jupiter, 250, 253, 256, 260–61, 266–67 Kentucky, 188–89 Kindred, Bartholomew, 227 King and Queen County, Va., 278 King Philip’s War, 92–93 Kulikoff, Allan, 64 Labor systems: vary by section along seaboard, xi, 49–51; in Pennsylvania, 52–53, 144–48; and winter warmth, 53–55; free and slave, 286–88 Lambert, Mr., 205 Lancaster, Ma., 131 Lancaster, Pa., 4, 50, 151–53; Indians in slaughtered, 157–58; protests Boston Port Bill, 175 Lancaster County, Pa.: slavery in, 145–48; turnpikes in, 152; prosperity of, 156; wealth distribution in, 159, 335 n.43; protests Boston Port Bill, 173, 174, 175; selects leaders, 178–9 Land: required for children, 18–20; absorbs population, 58–59; distribution of, 59–60; in North Carolina, 60–61; breakdown in distribution of, 61–65; prices of, 64–65; speculation in, 65; companies form, 66–67; government distributes, 67–68; contests over control of, 68–72; crisis over subsides, 77–79; government distributes, 78–79; granted to Jeffersons, 195–97; ways to profit from, 198–99; and forced sales for taxes, 238–39 Land grant colleges, 285–86 Land Ordinance of 1785, 78 Laslett, Peter, 10–11 Lebanon, Pa., 151, 173, 175 Lee, Arthur, 175 Lee, Phoebe, 98 Lee, Richard Henry, 170, 238 Leedstown Resolves, 170 Lemon, James, 148 Lenders, 132–35 Lester, Jo, 127 Lewis, Charles, 221, 229, 261; leaves slaves to children, 248–49 Lincoln, Abraham (b 1688), 184–86 Lincoln, Abraham (b 1744), 187–89, 199 Lincoln, Abraham (b 1805): ancestors of, 183–90; leaves farm, 189–90, 216; loses track of family, 190; ancestors of compared to Washington’s, 201; addresses Wisconsin State Fair, 286–88 Lincoln, Bathsheba, 189 Lincoln, Isaac (b 1750), 187–88 Lincoln, Jacob (b 1751), 187–88 Lincoln, John (b 1716), 185–88, 193–94 Lincoln, John (b 1755), 187–88 Lincoln, Josiah (b 1773), 188–89 Lincoln, Mass., 133 Lincoln, Mordecai (b 1657), 184–86 Lincoln, Mordecai (b 1686), 184–86 Lincoln, Mordecai (b 1771), 188–89 Lincoln, Samuel (b 1622), 183–84 Lincoln, Thomas (b 1732), 187–88 Lincoln, Thomas (b 1778), 188–89 Lincoln County, Ky., 188 Linkfield, Benjamin, 14 Littleton, John Jones, 252 Lloyd, Edward, 131 Locke, John, 104 Locust Grove (John Walker’s plantation), 281–82 Long Island, slavery on, 51 Loudon County, Va., 235, 236–37 Louisa County, Va., 239–40 Lunenburg County, Va., 233 Macon County, Ill., 189 Madison, James, 242–43 Maier, Pauline, 168 Main, Gloria, 63 Main, Jackson Turner, index Manure, 206–7 Manwaring, Capt., 123 Markets: compatible with self-provisioning, x–xi, 7–8, 122–23; and household economy, 11–12; and crops, 51; form society, 123, 125–26; distinguished from domestic economy, 127–29; for wheat, 148–50 Marshfield, Ma., 133 Martinique, 40 Marx, Leo, 143 Maryland: northern boundary of the South, 39–40, 42; tobacco production in, 41 Mason, George, 238 Mason, John: destroys Pequots, 87–88; manages Indian lands, 90–92 Mason, Samuel, 93–94 Mason-Dixon Line, 69 Massachusetts, in Revolution, 170, 172, 173–74 Massachusetts Government Act, 172 Mattaponi River, 278 Maury, Rev James, 199 McCaleb, Ephraim, 30 McClure, James, 130 Miantonomi, 88–90 Middle ground, 22 Middletown, Pa., 174 Migration, 63–65 Militia companies: in Pennsylvania, 178–79, 181–82; in Virginia, 228–32; and social structure, 230–32 Miner, Clement, 109 Minor, David, Mohegan Indians, 83–84; execute offender, 86; lose control of lands, 90–95; compared to English, 95–96; economy of, 117–18 Money, 236–42 Monmouth County, N.J., 51, 184–86 Monticello: constructed, 199; leads to debt, 213; slave management at, 253–59, 266–67; slave housing at, 262 Moor, Nathaniel, 25, 36 Moore, Bernard, 211 Moravian Indians, 158–59 Morgan, Philip, 264 Morris, Gouverneur, 217–18 Mount Vernon, 201–2, 215–16 Moyer, Paul, 163 Muldrew, Craig, 126 373 Murrin, John, 17, 63 Nameag, 85 Narragansett Indians, 87–90 Narragansett Sound, 51 National Reform Association, 282 Native Americans: forced out by settler families, 20–22; resist white settlement, 68; New London sites named for, 84; threaten New London settlers, 85–86; lose control to English in Connecticut, 86–94; blocked from recovering land, 95–96, 103–4; skills of, 117–20; slaughtered in Pennsylvania, 157–58; accused of conspiring, 158–59; characterized as savage, 159–62; cleared out of Shenandoah Valley, 201 See also Oweneco; Uncas Navigation Acts, 43 New Castle County, Del., 149 New England: labor systems in, 43, 49–50, 62–63; soils in, 45; and winter feed, 55–56; land distribution in, 62; labor system of compared to Pennsylvania’s, 147–48; shops and crafts in compared to Pennsylvania, 152–53; wealth of, compared, 217, 244–45, 247–48; stone fences in, 277 See also Hempstead, Joshua (b 1678) New Jersey, land conflict in, 70–71 New London, Conn., 122–23, 130–31 New London County, Conn., 84–85 New Salem, Ill., 189 New York: land controversies in, 71–72; compared to Pennsylvania, 142; in Revolution, 169–70, 173–74 Nicholas, Robert Carter, 218 Nicolls, Richard, 70–71 Norfolk County, England, 184 Northampton County, Pa., 173, 180, 181 Northwest Ordinance, 78 Norwich, Conn., 83–84, 90, 95, 195 Oldham, John, 87 Orange County, N.C., 30–32, 60, 187; Regulators in, 72–76; crisis in subsides, 78 Oweneco, 86–87; rules Mohegans after Uncas’s death, 93–95; learns from father, 117–20 Owens, David, 262–65 Owens, Elenor, 262–63 374 i n d e x Owens, Elizabeth, 262–63 Owens, Jane, 262–63 Owens, Mary, 162–63 Owens, Stewart, 262–65 Owens, William, 262–65 Owens, William, Jr., 262–65 Oxen, 151–52 Patapsco River, 53 Patriarchy, 12 Patten, Matthew, 99, 101, 128; and exchange economy, 12–15; store purchases of, 130–31 Paxton uprising, 156–63; and Revolution, 168 Peaches, 275 Pendleton, Edmund, 234–36 Pennsylvania: labor system in, 50, 52–54; contest with Virginia, 69–70; Crèvecoeur lauds, 142–43; situated between North and South, 144; slavery in, 144–46; wheat buoys economy of, 148–53; social conflict in, 156–62 Pequot Indians, 85; war with Connecticut, 87–88 Perth Amboy, N.J., 71 Philadelphia, Pa., 179, 186 Phillips, U.B., 44, 46 Pierce, Franklin, 190 Pierpont, Thomas, 109–10 Pinckney, Charles, 57 Pine Hill, N.Y., 141 Plantation agriculture, emergence in North America, 39–44 Pleasant, James, 226 Plows: invented by Jefferson and Washington, 209–10; Cary’s, 279 Podunks, 120 Poor: in Virginia, 219–28; and distraining property of, 239 Pope, Nathaniel, 200 Poplar Forest, 254 Population, growth of, xii, 58–59 Prendergast, William, 71 Prince George’s County, Md., 175–76 Promissory notes, 28–29 Quebec Acts, 172 Queens County, N.Y., 135 Quincy, Josiah, Jr., 174 Quinebaug, 93 Rachel (Hempstead’s serving girl), 98 Randolph, Gov Edmund, 241 Randolph, Isham, 196 Randolph, Jane, 198 Randolph, Thomas Jefferson, 250 Randolph, Thomas Jefferson, Jr., 260 Randolph, Thomas Mann, 266, 267 Randolph, William, 197–98 Raynal, Abbé, 142 Regulators, N.C., 72–76 Revere, Paul, 173 Rhode Island, 51 Rhodes, Sheriff of Albemarle County, Va., 239 Rice, 42 Richvale, Ca., 293 Risjord, Norman, 243 Rittenhouse, David, 209 Rivanna River, 198 Riverhead, N.Y., 277 Robert Cary and Co., 213–14 Rockingham County, Va., 187–88 Rogers, William, 125 Ross, George, 178–79 Rothenberg, Winifred, 131 Royal African Company, 42 Royall, Isaac, Jr., 309 n 30 Saint Domingue, 40 Salem, 135 Salmon, Hannah, 98, 110 Salt, 233 Sandy, 267 Sandy Creek Association, 73 Sassacus, 87–88 Schoepf, John David, 54 Scituate, Ma., 184 Scott, Capt., 230 Sea Horse of London, 200 Self-provisioning, x–xi, 4–5; encouraged by account books, 7; exemplified by Matthew Patten, 12–15; achieved by Joshua Hempstead, 101–3; by John Walker, 279–81; diminishes in 19th century, 283–84; continues into twentieth century, 289–90; ends, 292–93 Seymour, Horatio, 281 Shadwell, 197–98 index Shaw, Richard, 130 Shays, Daniel, 219 Shays’s Rebellion, 241 Shipman, N.L., 83 Shippen, Edward, 161–62 Sims, George, 74 Slavery: growth of in the South, 41–42; Herman Husband’s views of, 76–77; Hempstead and, 108–9; in Cooper household, 115; in Pennsylvania, 144–48; Washington relinquishes, 215–16; as a cultural ideal and mark of status, 244–49; and children’s relationships under, 249–54; and oral culture, 252–53; and Jefferson’s management, 253–59; and discipline, 259–61; among small planters, 261–65; and education, 265–70; and trust versus resistance, 266–69; and American Revolution, 268–69 Sloan, Herbert, 212 Smallpox, 116 Smedley, William, 150 Smith, Matthew, 162 Sons of Liberty, 168, 169 South, the: relation to Latin America, 39–40; economists define, 43; Madison defines, 43–44; climate defines, 44–45; geology of, 46; labor systems in, 46–47, human agency in forming, 46–47; tobacco cultivation in, 47–49; winter work in, 53–56; agro-system of, 57; wealth of compared, 217–18 Southern Planter, The, 279, 281 Spain, 40 Springfield, Ma., 131, 133–34, 153 Squatting, 61 Stamp Act, 168, 169, 174; favors farmers, 171–72 Starr, Daniel, 109 Staves, 149–50 St Christopher, 40 Stewart, Lazarus, 162–63 Stone, William, 84 Stonington, Conn., Hempstead’s property in, 107–8 Stores: in Connecticut and Virginia, 129–32, 330 n 28; in Lancaster County, Pa., 152–53; farmers trade with, 299, n 22 Strickland, William, 55 375 Subsistence, See also self-provisioning Subsistence Homestead Act, 292 Sudbury, Ma., 133 Sugar, 40–41 Sugar Act, 168 Surry County, Va., 222 Surveying, 25–28 Susquehanna Company, 162–63, 169 Susquehanna River, 162, 164–65 Tallmadge, Mary, 96–97 Tallmadge, Thomas, 96–97 Taxes, 171–72, 240–43 Tax lists, 32–36 Taylor, John, 209 Taylor, Robert, 173–74 Thompson, Waddy, 239 Tippet, Mehetable, 141 Tobacco: coming of to South, 41; South’s advantages in growing, 47–49; production areas of, shrink, 52; as currency, 129–30 Transylvania, 66 Treaty of Albany, 197, 201 Truman, Joseph, 125–26 Truman, Thomas, 125–26 Trumbull, Jonathan, 169 Trust, 125–27 Tryon, Governor William, 73–74, 80 Tuckahoe, 198 Tull, Jethro, 202 Turner, Frederick Jackson, 74 Turner, Nat, 252 Uncas: memorial to, 83–84; frightens settlers, 85–86; aids English, 86–88; yields power to Connecticut, 88–90; struggles to manage lands, 90–93; teaches sons, 117–20 Uncas, Ben, 86, 94–95 Upper Paxton, Pa., 156 Vagrants, 234–35 Van Buren, Martin, 83 Vernon, Adm Edward, 202 Vickers, Daniel, 105 Virginia: development of slavery in, 40–41; tobacco production in, 41; wheat in, 52; hay production in, 55–56; contest with Pennsylvania, 69–70; economy of, 376 i n d e x Virginia: development (continued) compared to Connecticut, 129–30; resists Boston Port Bill, 173; Lincoln’s move to, 186–88; land distribution in, 195–98; plight of gentlemen in, 214–15; poor in, 219–28; class confusion in, 228–32; wartime tensions in, 232–36; conflicts over money in, 236–42; houses in, 246–48 Volney, Count Constantine de, 268–69 Wabaquasetts, 93 Wagons, 151 Walker, Humphrey, 278 Walker, John, ix; improving and selfprovisioning farmer, 278–81; Methodism of, 278–79; rents slave, 281; provides for sons, 281–82; adopts modern accounting, 281–82 Walker, Melville, 281 Walker, Thomas, 278 Walker, Watson, 281 Walkerton, Va., 278 Waller’s Grove, Va., 230 Walsh, Lorena, Ward, Joseph, 57 Washington, Augustine, 201 Washington, George: as surveyor, 27; and winter work, 54; on New England cattle, 56; rise of family, 200–201; as agricultural experimenter, 202; replies to Arthur Young, 205–6; on manuring, 206–8; designs a plow, 209–10; and debt, 211, 213–15; relinquishes Mount Vernon, 215–16; and runaway slaves, 269 Washington, John (b 1632), 200 Washington, John (b 1692), 201 Washington, Lawrence (b 1659), 201, 214 Washington, Lawrence (b 1718), 201–2 Washington, Lund, 225, 235, 237 Washington County, Ky., 189 Wayles, John, 211, 213 Wayne, Anthony, 178, 181; commander of army, 182 Weaseapano, 120 Weaving, 224–25 Wells, Camille, 246–47 West Indies, 122–23, 148 Westmoreland, Pa., 163, 240 Westmoreland County, Va., 170, 173 Wheat, 52; transition to, 52–54; buoys Pennsylvania economy, 148–53; in Virginia, 278 Whiting, Anthony, 203 Whittenburg, James, 74 Wiley, Mrs., 260 Willey, Joane, 86 William and Mary College, 199 Williams, Darin, 293 Williams, Ebe, 124–25 Williams, Jenny, 293 Williams, Nancy, 293–94 Williams, Rebecca, 293 Williams, Roger: travels with Narragansetts, 88; on Indian culture and economy, 90, 117–19 Williams, Terry, 293–94 Williamsburg, Va., 229–31 Wills, 31–32 Wilmington, De., 148–49 Winslow, Edward, 118 Winthrop, Fitz-John, 93–94 Winthrop, John (b 1588), 85 Winthrop, John (b 1681): Hempstead works for, 100–101, 124 Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, 286 Women: work roles of, 10–11, 100; work of not in account books, 14, 128; as landowners, 28; on tax lists, 34; lives of as exemplified by Mary Cooper, 114–17; work of Indian, 117–18; as lenders, 135; and dairying, 149, 224; work of, in John Walker’s household, 280 Woods, Thomas, 70 Woodson, John, 220–21 Worcester, Ma., 25 Worcester County, Ma., 177 Work, 8–9 Wyoming Valley: land in, 69–70; warfare in, 162–63 Wythe, George, 199 York County, Pa., 173, 181 Yorktown, Pa., 182 Young, Arthur, 205–7 Youngs, Benjamin, 110 .. .The American Farmer in the Eighteenth Century www.allitebooks.com This page intentionally left blank www.allitebooks.com The American Farmer in the Eighteenth Century A Social... on the original investment In 1775 he published the results, specifying the rate of return colony by colony coming down the coast No one in America showed any interest in the book, nor could American. .. outgo, they purchased as little as possible They made things rather than incurring a debt by buying them They spun their own flax, raised their own food, made their own shoes From their woodlots, they