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ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL HISTORY

OF

NEW ENGLAND

1620 — iy8^

WILLIAM bPwEEDEN

IN TWO VOLUMES Vol. II.

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

lOlir-HTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY

■"■be Bitirrgttie tBrte^, CamdrtDot

Copyright, 1890, Bt WILLIAM B. WEEDEN.

AU rights reserved.

7%e Riverside Pressy Cambridge ^ Mass.y U. S. A. Eleotrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.

I"-; » .

;/

.3

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER Xn. The African Slave-Trade, 1708-1764.

The change in estimating slavery 449

Slavery in New England 460

Business of the Royal African Company. .... 451

Massachusetts in the trade 452

Rhode Island incorporates it with distilling . . . 453, 454

Early activity in Newport 454

Boston political economy applied to slavery .... 456

New York, in Grovemor Hunter's report 457

CONDUCT OF THE IMPORTATION.

Character of the vessels, crews, and cargoes .... 458

Preponderating demand for rum 459, 460

Detail of voyage ; insurance 460, 461

The horoscope 461

Order and disorder in the trade 462, 463

Privileges for trade given the officers 463

A master in the art of watering rum 464

PETER FANEUIL IN THE TRADE.

Faneoil's training and excellent position .... 466

His slaving venture in the Jolly Bachelor .... 467, 468 Adventures of this craft on the Guinea coast .... 468 Sale of the slaves in Newport after Faneuil's death . . 471

Iron bars for currency 471

How the eighteenth century went wrong .... 472

CHAPTER XIII.

The Period of Inflation, 1713-1746.

The values of silver 473

Silver in Rhode Island 474

ILw

iv CONTENTS.

Depreciation ; legal tender 476, 476

Three parties in Massachusetts finance 476

Experience of New York 477, 478

Troubles of Massachusetts 478-481

« Banks " issued in Rhode Island 481, 482

Downward course of paper, rise in silver . . . 483, 484

Effect on shipbuilding 484

More currency still needs more 485

Land Bank and its effects 486-488

Old and New Tenor 488

Conflicting currencies and their parties .... 489,490

Parliament stops the Land Bank 490

The finances are exhausted 491

NEW ENGLAND INDUSTRIES.

Their essential creative force 492

Agriculture and prices of land 492, 493

Woven fabrics ; Irish linens in New Hampshire . . 493-495

Hemp and duck 495, 496

Articles of iron 497-499

Casting furnaces ; mining ; exports of iron .... 500 Great importance of the distilling of rum . . . 501, 502

Decline of lumbering ; potash 503

Sundry industries 604,505

Land, prices, and speculations 506

Wheat ; Indian trade 507

EASIER TRAVEL AND GENERAL COMFORT.

Carriages, both private and for public use .... 508 The pillion yielding to chaise and chair .... 509

Improved roads and the first express .... 509, 510

Travel by the shore line to New York .... 510, 511

The ways of a pioneer 511

Contrast of our life with that of Canada .... 512

THE COMMUNITY AND ITS ADBDNISTRATION.

Organisation of new ones 512, 513

New towns and proprietary meetings 514

Peculiar ecclesiastical customs in New Hampshire . . 515, 516 Rev. Hugh Adams ; the parson in politics . . . 516-518

Close supervision of citizens 519

Indentured and other immigration .... 520-522

CONTENTS. V

Administration of the commons ..... 522, 523

Public markets; Faneuil Hall 524

The freeman and municipal control 525, 526

Municipal eccentricities 527, 528

SOCIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS.

The sittings in the meeting-house 528-530

"Colonial" architecture; finer dwellings . . . 531,632

More luxury in living 532

Dress, including wigs 533-536

Ladies' dress and hoops 536, 537

Marriage in a shift 538

Tea and other drinks 539

The market and the table 540,*541

Sordid negotiations in courtship 542

Position of woman ....*.. 543,544

Poetry and literature 545,546

Berkeley's coming and his influence 547

A typical town of the time 548

Punctilious manners stand for moi'als 549

Our country the parallel of its period 550

CHAPTER XIV.

Commerce after the Treaty of Utrecht, 1713-1745.

Material interests beg^ to affect European politics . . 552 Great Britain rules the seas ; effect in the colonies . . 552, 553

English capital comes over 553, 554

Spread of commerce in larger vessels 555

Navigation Acts and the customary smuggling . . 556-558 Sir Robert Walpole's indifference ...... 558

outlawed piracy.

One consequence of the Peace of Utrecht .... 559 Occasional complicity of colonial officials ..... 560

Ideal of the pirates 561

Aristocracy and democracy in governing the crew . . . 562 Misson, the hero ; Blackbeard, the ruffian . . . 563, 564 Decline of successful piracy 665

the merchant amory.

Thomas Amory settles in Boston 565

Schooled by Busby ; first experience in the Azores . . 566, 567

«

VI CONTENTS.

His boisiness at Terceira and in Europe . ^ . . . 568, 569

Business in Boston 570

Domestic life in Boston 570, 571

His methods of business 571, 572

CONSTRUCTION AND MANAGEMENT OF VESSELS.

Invention of the schooner 673

English capital helps shipbuilding 574

Prices, size of vessels 575,576

Life of seamen 577

Transfer of mast industry to Maine .... 578, 579

Number of vessels in service 579

Great changes from Hull's religious sailing directions . . 580 Agency of captains, or of local correspondents .... 581

GENERAL COMMERCE.

Timber next export to fish and vessels ; Irish imports . . 582 Growth of Newport ; working of Molasses Act . . . 583, 584 Complicated courses of West Indian voyages . . 584, 585

Naval stores ; marine insurance 586, 587

Domestic trade in Boston 588, 589

Coasting intercourse and British interference . . . 590-592 Connecticut attempts to regulate exports .... 593 Trade cannot be controlled artificially 594

ECONOMY OF THE FISHERIES.

The cod greater than Louis XIV 594, 595

Changes to northerly fishing grounds 596

Mackerel, herring, salmon 596

Shad ; system of eighteenth century could hardly use fresh .

fish 597

Cured fish a necessity ; importance of salt . . . 597, 598

PRIVATEERING.

Its relation to the general trade of this period .... 598

Greatly practised in Rhode Island 599

Admiral Sir Charles Wager once a lad on a privr*^-^' . . 600

Reasons for the success of Rhode Island pnvate^'-^ . 601

Value of prizes 602, 603

These comets of the seas reveal sfcranp^A siuhei O'^ ^ 60?

Judg^ Auchmutv aii'^ *'^" vof^' poonii, \/fv T./-'»n^.oi»

lln

CONTENTS. TO

CHAPTER XV.

Peter Faneuil and the Last GsmsRATioN of Dependent Col- onists, 1726-1742.

A new generation is to come after Louisburg .... 607

Faneuil is of mixed descent; his ancestry 608

commercial methods.

Faneoil's accounts and commission business • • . 609

Cargoes and vpyages 610

How the law oppresses the " faire trader '' • . . . 611

Dealings in contraband goods 612

SHIPS, FISH, AND FOREIGN TRADE.

Contracts for building ships 613

Best fishing is found eastward at Canso .... 614-

Canso prevails over Marblehead 615

Verplanck and the New York connection .... 615 Hypothecated vessel and a ''bottom bill" .... 616 London the centre of all the conmierce .... 617 Lads from Christ Hospital School needed ; English invest- ments 618

Good correspondents at Barcelona 619

A way to avoid paying duties 620

Codfish, pepper, snuff-boxes, forks, cook-books . . 621, 622

His fiery honor 623

SOCIAL LIFE OF THE FANEUILS.

AfPections of the heart 624

A maiden shipped, who will not go .... 624, 625

Contentment of single blessedness 626

Buying negro servants and shipping brandy. . . . 627

Personal ventures on shipboard 628

Many and various wants 629

The prevalent loyalty illustrated in The Dolphin case . 630, 631

Fine horses and coachman 632

Details of business 633

Summary of Peter's character ...... 634

An illustratiou of public morals and perfunctory loyalty . . 635

VDi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XVI. Commerce from Louisburg to Quebec, 1745-1769.

New commercial era in Europe 637

The episode of New England 637

Her first great external effort made at Louisburg . . . 638 The expedition and the general 639, 640

commerce of the period.

The great production of rum is at its height . . . 641, 642 Edward Payne a typical man of business . . .• . 642, 643 Whenever England extends trade it helps ours . 643, 644

The French War and Pitt's embargoes ; Irish trade . . 645, 646 Light-house fees ; other fees and excise .... 647 Underwriting ; coasting ....•..., 648

RUM, FISHERIES, SHIPS.

Waste through production of rum causes decline in fisher- ies and shipbuilding 649

State of the fisheries ; classification of vessels .... 650

Cooperation of many industries in shipbuilding . . . 651

Character of the shipmasters 652

Furs and the trade with Indians 653

The whale fishery ; manufacture of sperm candles . . 654, 655

PRIVATEERING AND ILLEGAL TRADE.

Privateering of the Spanish and French wars . . . 655 Success causes the business to be extended .... 656 Harsh justice on shore, tricky management at sea . . 657

Commerce of Providence 658

Course of the illegal traffic 659, 660

Greed for profits of trade stronger than restraining laws , 660, 661 Rhode Island openly evades Navigation and Sugar Acts 662, 663 The fall of Quebec ; English race overcomes the French . 663, 664 Indications of our own future 665

CHAPTER XVII.

The Last Period of Colonial Dependence, 1745-1762.

The conflict in America was inevitable 665

Economic growth and the new opportunities for leader -^'^ 668

Insular arroffaP'*e <»'*"l'^ Tir^* arn^rA/Jip+A ^-Vt^ •olotii'^' ♦.^^ <5^i

CONTENTS, IX

The colonial system required absolutely good goyemment . 670 Agitation commences ; Writs of Assistance .... 671 Action of the towns ; general municipal government . 672, 673

CURRENCY, MANUFACTURES, AGRICULTURE.

The currency in Massachusetts ... . . . 674-676

Rhode Island has a hard experience 677

Rates of silver and gold 677,678

Manufactures ; the " spinning craze *' . . . . 679, 680

Linen ; leather and shoemaking 681, 682

Iron and its manufacture ; Hugh Orr .... 683-685

Lumber ; various enterprises 686

Agriculture ; Jared Eliot's g^at enterprise and influence . 687-689 Hay, wheat, horses 689-691

SOCIAL LIFE.

Lotteries 692

Roads and the means of travel 693

Manners and dress 694, 695

Indentured servants ; amusements and wit . . . 696, 697

Religion as expressed in customs 698

Seating the congregation ; education 699

JONATHAN EDWARDS, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

Their conjunction in our social development . . • . . 700

Genius of Edwards . 701, 702

His preaching 702,703

Mystic view of common events 704

His published work ; conception of nature .... 705

An indirect political influence 706

Franklin's greatness in affairs 706, 707

Poor Richard's Almanac, a remarkable literary engine . 708, 709

His work as a citizen 710

Honesty ; essential mastery over himself . . . 711, 712 The last days of colonial prosperity . . . . . . 713

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Stamp Act and Rebellion, 1763-1775.

The power of liberty ........ 714

Political development of England, unequal to her colonial task 715 Grenville's virtues not of the kind wanted .... 716

X CONTENTS.

He determines to stop smuggling ; the Stamp Act . . 717, 718 Economic resistance precedes non-allegiance . . . 718, 719 Repeal ; the Declaratory Act is even worse .... 720 English polity; the two ideals, of Grenville, of Chatham 721, 722 Economic restrictions ; evasion and resistance inevitable 723, 724

REBELLION.

The exact date is uncertain 724

Agitation and conmiittees of correspondence . r 724, 725

The Boston « Tea-party " 726

Her punishment and splendid silent resistance . . 727, 728 Social conditions of industry and trade preceded political

revolution 728,729

THE COMMUNITY, INDUSTRIES, MANNERS.

Town government 729, 730

Manufactures in woollen and worsted .... 731-733

Iron and other industries 734, 735

Agriculture 735, 736

The currency 736, 737

Land travel 738

Manners ; courtship ; funerals 739, 740

Social gatherings ; reading 741, 742

Dress and the fashions 742-744

Women sustain the rebellion 744

CHAPTER XIX.

The Last Colonial Commerce, 1760-1775.

Illicit trade of the French War 745

Opportunity for the whale fishery after Quebec . . . 746

It is extended by New England enterprise . . . 747, 748

Codfish and the methods of fishing 749-751

Mackerel fishing 752

SUGAR ACTS AND WEST INDIAN TRADE.

The Sugar Act threatens whole economy of New England . 753 Bernard's wise counsel concerning taxation . . . 753, 754

The true source of British ^ain 755

Course of Rhode Island commerce 756

Connecticut intercourse with the West Indies . . 757, 758

CONTENTS.

NAVIGATION ACTS, SUGAR ACTS, REBELLION.

Grenville's restraining measures 768

Their immediate effect upon colonial prosperity . . 759, 760 Coasting trade and British interference .... 760, 761 Sullen opposition to enforcement of the laws . . . 762

The slave-trade 763

Freedom at last overcomes the unnatural tra£&c ; Indian trade 764 Shipbuilding ; vessels transported on land .... 765

Monster teams and the masts 765, 766

New Hampshire shipyards ; ocean timber rafts . . 766, 767 Political gain ; commercial loss by the approaching contest . 767

CHAPTER XX. Revolutionary Commerce, 1775-1783.

THE privateers AND ELLAS HASKET DERBY.

Changes in trade made by the war 769

Privateering becomes the chief interest 770

The various ports engage in it 771, 772

The commerce of privateering 773-775

The settlement of the ventures 775

Derby's early life ; improves shipbuilding .... 776

His sagacity in affairs 777

Privateersmen and whalemen should not be forgotten . . 778

ORDINARY commerce.

Our self-sustaining people live by home industries . . 779

Expedients in commerce for the time ..... 780

Management of West Indian trade 781

Underwriting increases in importance 782

Coasting ; unfriendly state legislation ..... 783 The royal masts are debarred from shipment . . . 783, 784

Royalty and the republic 785

CHAPTER XXI.

The Greater Community Forming itself into the United

States of America, 1775-1783.

Town, community, and nation ....... 786

New allegiance of the colonial citizen .... 787, 788

xii CONTENTS.

MANUFACTURES.

Linen and woollen fabrics 789

Values of textile and other articles 790

Wool-cards 791

Iron, firearms 792, 793

Substitutes for sugar 794

Articles of supply for the troops 795, 796

CURRENCY AND FINANCE.

Bad fiscal arrangements, forced circulation of paper . 797, 798

Depreciation, and regulating acts ...... 799

Sufferings of the Loyalists ; banishment and confiscation . 800-802 " Extortion " Acts ; derangement of prices .... 803

SOCIAL EXPERIENCE.

Houses and the life in them ....... 804

Characteristics of our people ; their ingenuity . . 805, 806

Hazard, the Quaker blacksmith 807

Meeting with Jemima the miracle-worker .... 808

The blacksmith's daily Ufe 809

His books and reading 810

The Revolution in remote and quiet districts . . . .811 Block Island boats and their cargoes .... 812, 813 Masculine wants and feminine privations .... 813, 814 Great burden of government after the war . . . 814, 815

CHAPTER XXII.

The Commerce of the Confederation, 1783-1789.

Narrow political management by England . . . 816, 817

The effect on American commerce 818

Over-trading 819

ORIENTAL commerce AND THE GREAT MERCHANTS.

Oriental trade begins 820

Large men developed during the war 821

Derby, Perkins, and others 822, 823

Difficulties overcome by energy of the shipmasters . . . 824 Elaborate preparation for Oriental voyages .... 825 Commerce begun to northwestern America .... 826 Mauritius and the French .... 826, 827

West Indian trade . . . 828

• ••

CONTENTS. xm

THE WHALE FISHERY: THE SLAVE-TRADE.

The whale fishery revived 828, 829

The Pacific fisheries ; the " lay " division of voyages . 830, 831

Cod fishing 832

Larger ships used in commerce ; masts .... 833

Slavery abolished ; the slave-trade 834

Illicit traffic was prosecuted 835, 836

Deranged business and poor commerce 837

Navigation Acts and tariff 838, 839

An established Union establishes commerce .... 839

CHAPTER XXIII.

The Confederation seeking Unity in the Republic, 1783-1789.

Slow and painful development of the Union . . . 840

Parts contributed by New England to the political whole . 841

ECONOMIC CONFUSION.

Convention to regulate commerce at Annapolis . • . 842

Economic derangement ; taxation is resisted . . . 843

Shays' rebellion reveals disease in the body politic . . . 844

The currency 845

Credit in disorder ; bad financial methods . . • 846, 847

MANUFACTURES.

Division of labor ; progress in New England . . . 848 Cotton spinning ; Samuel Slater, Moses Brown . . . 849

Minor inventions 850

Cotton, duck, and canvas . . '. 851

Machine-made cards are introduced 852

Woollen factories and worsted 853, 854

Eighteenth century stimulates manufacture .... 854 Household industries ; iron and nails .... 855, 856

SOCIAL INTERCOURSE.

Stages and packets ; difficult travel 857, 858

Distinctions of classes ; dress 858, 859

Great opportunity for the family ..... 860,861

Education ; excellent economy 861, 862

Physicians and their fees 863

Amusements and diversions 864

Gradual restoration of political and social order . . . 865

XIV CONTENTS.

American passion for unity in goyemment .... 866

Washington the ideal of the people 867

State unity in the history of New England .... 867

Its beginning and its relation to the community . . . 868

Economic forces at work in forming our institutions . . 869

New conmierce ; New England men 870

Growth of the people ; their finance, their industries . . 871

British taxation ; British arrogance 872

Gestating time of the Bevolution 873

Representative government is perfected 874

Economic evolution was the basis of freedom . . . 875

Appendix A 877

Appendix B 904

Appendix C 906

Appendix D 907

Appendix E .908

Appendix F 909

Appendix G 910

Appendix H 911

Appendix I • 912

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF

NEW ENGLAND.

CHAPTER Xn.

THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE.^ 1708-1764.

The deportation of African negroes — commonly called the slave-trade — was a movement of importance in the commerce of the latter part of the seventeenth and of the eighteenth century. Perhaps the most momentous and effectiye change instituted in the minds of men by this nineteenth century is in the fi^eneral conception and treatment of human slavery. The seven- aspect of teenth centmy organised the new Western conn- '^^- tries, and created an immense opportunity for labor. The eighteenth coolly and deliberately set Europe at the task of depopulating whole districts of western Africa, and ol transporting the captives, by a necessarily brutal, vicious, and horrible traffic, to the new civilisations of Amer- ica. The awakened conscience of the nineteenth century checked the horrid stream of forced migration, but an enormous social structure had been reared on servitude and enforced labor.

North American slavery fell, carrying with it a vast structure of political, social, and philanthropic ideas.

1 This chapter was lead at the meeting of the American Antiqaa- zian Society in October, 1887.

450 THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. [1708-64.

Looking backward one and a half or two and a half cen- turies, we are amazed and humiliated when we consider how little people knew what they were doing. When the old and enlightened countries sought eagerly for slaves, and taught their colonial offshoots to depend upon them, they dug a deep pit for their own children.

New England entered upon this long path of twisted social development — this wanton destruction of

Attitude of . . .-i.i.. ,1 1 A ••i*ii*<*

New Eng- barbaric life m the hope of new civilised life,

land. . . ^ ...

this perversion of the force of the individual barbarian into an opportunity for social mischief — with no more and no less consciousness than prevailed else- where at that time. The Winthrops and other Puritan colonists asked and received Indian captives for slaves as freely as any partisan went for loot or plunder. Indians were enslaved on all sides as long as the local tribes lasted ; ^ then Maine, then the Carolinas,^ and other dis- tricts, furnished captives for a never-ceasing demand for labor.^ Cotton Mather* employed his black servant, showing as little regard for the rights of man as the Bos- ton merchant or Narragansett planter. Mather's servant, " Spaniard," belonged to a Christian society or church of negroes formed in 1693. Spaniard left a copy of the " Eules " of the society with Judge Sewall in 17}f. The judge indorsed this fact on the paper. Among other obli- gations this was conspicuous : " Our coming to the Meet- ing shall never be without the Leave of such as have Power over us." ^ Sewall's was about the earliest and al- most the only voice raised in behalf of a larger humanity. Fortunately for the moral development of our beloved

^ Freeman, Cape Cod, p. 72. a Col. Rec. Conn. 1715, p. 516.

* Coffin, Newbury, p. 337 ; Essex Inst, vii. 73 ; Col. Rec. Conn, 1711, p. 233.

* Proc. M. H. S. 1862, p. 352. Op Increase Mather. See Proc. Am. Ant. Soc., vi. 192.

^ For Sewal)'*' **'>\)^ — «oD?**Tif«»*i loc ^^ ' •« 4r»' ^o/* no

1708-64.] THE ENGLISH IDEA. 451

colonies, the climate was too harsh, the social system too simple, to engender a good economic employment of black labor. The simple industrial methods of each New Eng- land homestead, described in so many ways through these pages, made a natural barrier against an alien social sys- tem including either black or copper-colored dependents. The blacks soon dwindled in numbers, or dropped out from a life too severe for any but the hardiest and firmest- fibred races.

The mother country knew no humanity, but only an economic opportunity, in the enslavement of the An economic negro. The Royal African Company,^ in their "^o^*'^^'**- " Declaration," as early as 1662, indicate the sentiment of England in this business. Other nations were invading the African trade, and there was danger that America " be rendered useless in their growing Plantations through want of that usual supply of Servants, which they have hitherto had from Africa,'^^ It was made a constant care for colonial governors ^ to forward the affairs of this slave-dealing corporation, which included the king, Duke of York, and many leading persons. In 1695 the traffic in negroes was considered the best and most profitable branch of British commerce.^ It was a melancholy omen of the immense significance of the slave-trade in that com- merce that the gold coin, used even more than the sover- eign as a unit of common prices, was named for Guinea, whence gold and negroes were taken together.

Slavery was a small factor in New England, because economic laws forbade its growth. It was managed as humanely, perhaps, as such a system could be conducted. It was not absolute constraint, nor a permanent confine- ment. A negro man and woman in Rhode Island, in 1735, by " Ind'y & Frugality, scrap'd together £200, or

^ Declaration, Carter-Brown Library, p. 1.

2 Doc, N. York, iii. 246, 261.

« Gary, British Trade, pp. 74, 76.

452 THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. [1708-64.

£300." They sailed from Newport to their own country, Guinea, where their savings gave them an independent fortune.^ The slave-trade was likewise a small constit- it8 place in ^^nt in itself, but it exercised a great influence commerce, j^^ ^j^^ ^^^^Q commcrce of the first half of the

eighteenth century. Any active element in trade, any- thing much needed at the moment, affects the general movement of commerce much more than its actual amount and mere particular value would indicate.

Massachusetts writers have always been especially sore at the point where the trade in African negroes is touched. If they had admitted that in fact none knew at the time the enormity of the offence, and that Massachusetts par- took of the common public sentiment which trafficked in Indians or negroes as carelessly as in cattle, their argument would be more consistent. Massachusetts attained enough in her history that is actual and real; it is not neces- sary to prove that she was endued with superhuman fore- cast, or a pragmatical morality. Instead of this simple avowal, they admit the good foundation of the indict- ment, then plead in extenuation of the crime, after the manner of Tristam Shandy's wet-nurse.

In the absence of exact statistics we must trace the Massachu- coursc of the trade in collateral reports and evi- ^^^' dence. Dr. Belknap, in his friendly correspond-

ence vrith Judge Tucker in 1795 concerning slavery in Massachusetts, addressed letters to many leading men with various queries. The replies show, among other matters, the general prevalence of the trade in the province. Dr. John Eliot says : " The African trade was carried on (in Massachusetts), and commenced at an early period ; to a small extent compared with Rhode Island^ but it made a considerable branch of our commerce (to judge from the number of our still-houses, and masters of vessels now liv- ing who have been in the trade). It declined very little till the Eevolution." 2

1 Bos. EveninaP^o* 17.SI= - Mn^-^ TJ, C '" 382.

1708-64.] IN NEWPORT AND BOSTON. 453

Samuel Dexter says : " Vessels from Rhode Island have brought slaves into Boston. Whether any have been imported into that town by its own merchants, I am unable to say. I have more than fifty years ago seen a vessel or two with slaves brought into Boston, but do not recollect where they were owned. At that time it was a very rare thing to hear the trade reprobated. . . . About the time of the Stamp Act, what before were only slight scruples in the minds of conscientious persons be- came serious doubts, and, with a considerable number, ripened into a firm persuasion that the slave-trade was malum in se." ^

Thomas Pemberton answers : " We know that a large trade to Guinea was carried on for many years by the citizens of Massachusetts Colony, who were the proprie- tors of the vessels and their cargoes out and home. Some of the slaves purchased in Guinea, and I suppose the greatest part of them, were sold in the West Indies. Some were brought to Boston and Charlestown, and sold to town and country purchasers by the head, as we sell sheep and oxen." ^

John Adams says : '^Argument might have some weight in the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts, but the real cause was the multiplication of labouring white people, who would no longer suffer the rich to employ these sable rivals so much to their injury. This principle has kept negro slavery out of France, England, and other parts of Europe." ^

From these reminiscences we turn now to the meagre accounts of the trade as it existed. Rhode Isl- j^hode and, or the modem Newport, was undoubtedly '*^*^* the main port of the New England slave-trade. The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations treated her Indian captives and slaves well.* From the

1 6 Mass H. C, iii. 384, 385. « Hid., p. 392. » Ihid,, p. 402. < R. I. C. R.y i. 243 ; ii. 535 ; iii. 483 ; and iv. 193.

464 THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE, [1708-64.

necessity of her sitnation, and from the enlightenment received from Koger Williams, she was more humane than her neighbors in her treatment of the Indian race. In Connecticut, as late as 1711, a family of '* Indian ser- vants," consisting of Bachel and her seven children, were distributed by will ; they were called " blacks." ^ Bhode Island went into the African slave-trade, it being the ris- ing, profitable venture of the time. Newport was a port of the third or fourth class in 1676, far below Boston or Salem. By the turn of the century its enterprise in- ci'eased greatly, and for fifty years its commerce rivalled in activity, though not in extent, that of Boston. Massa- chusetts had the fisheries by priority and the natural advantage of position. In the new development of the eighteenth century, rum-distilling was a chief factor, as has been shown. Rhode Island's new energy seized upon this industry in company with Massachusetts. A free supply of rum with new vessels carried the Newport men into the rising slave-trade. In these ventures they had much Massachusetts capital engaged with them.

In 1708 the British Board of Trade addressed a cir- The British cular letter to all the colonies relative to negro ^***^' slaves.^ To stop the iniquity? Oh, nol "It

being absolutely necessary that a trade so beneficial to the kingdom should be carried on to the greatest advan- tage," they desired the most particular statements concern- ing the numbers imported by the Royal African Company and by private traders. The trade had been laid open to private competition in the year 1698 by Parliament.

Governor Cranston replied December 5, 1708,^ that Newport trovd 1698 to Deccmbcr 25, 1707, no negroes ventures. y^gre imported into Rhode Island from Africa ; that in 1696 the brigantine Seaflower, Thomas Windsor,

^ Caulkins, New Lon.y p. 330. * R. I. C. 22., iv. 53.

« R. L C. R., iv. 54, 55.

1708-64.] EARLY REPORTS. 455

master, brought from Africa forty -seven negroes, sold fourteen in the colony at <£30 to £35 per head ; the rest he carried by land " to Boston, where his owners lived." In 1700 one ship and two sloops sailed directly from New- port to the coast of Africa; Edwiu Carter commanded the ship, and was part owner in the three vessels. With him sailed Thomas Bruster and John Bates, merchants of Barbadoes, and " separate traders from thence to the coast of Africa." All these vessels carried cargoes to Barba- does, and disposed of them there. It would seem that West India capital also availed of the advantages of New- port for prosecuting this commerce.

It will be observed that Governor Cranston is careful to limit his statement to December 25, 1707. In February, 170J,^ the colony laid an impost of £3 on each negro im- ported. In April it enacted that the drawback allowed in the first act, in case the negro was exported again, should be rescinded. There must have been a free movement of negroes, either from Africa direct, or by the way of the West Indies, to have occasioned such watchful legislation. In 1712,2 and again in 1715,^ the act was tinkered. The Assembly gravely remitted the duties on " two sucking slaves " from Barbadoes in 1716.* The impost amounted to enough by 1729 to justify an appropriation dividing it, one half toward paving the streets of Newport, one half toward " the great bridges on the main." ^ The tax was repealed in 1732.^

We may judge of the state of the public conscience

^ There was an act for the same purpose in 1705.

2 R. L a R.y iv. 134. 8 Ibid., p. 191.

* Ibid.f p. 209. The trade was well estahlished at this time. The Friends' Yearly Meeting Record, in 1717 (^Moses Brown MS., " Ma- terials Hist. Friends," R. I. H. S.), says : " The subject of Slaves considered, and advise given that Letters be Written to the Islands & Elsewhere not to send any more slaves here to be sold by any Friend."

* R. L a R., iv. 424. « Ibid., p. 471.

456 THE AFRICAN SLA VE-TRADE. [1708-64.

touching slavery and the movement of the slave-trade by The Boston ^^^ Collateral arguments of a writer in the " Bos- ***"^ ton News Letter"^ in 1718. In the previous

year there had been eighty burials of Indians and negroes in Boston. The writer argued that the loss at £30 each amounted to £2,400. If white servants had been em- ployed instead, at £15 for the time of each, the " town had saved £1,200." A man could procure £12 to £15 to purchase the time of a white servant that could not pay £30 to £50 for a negro or Indian. "The Whites Strengthens and Peoples the Country, others do not." Such political economy satisfied the artless publicists of that time.

The merchants of Boston quoted negroes, like any other merchandise demanded by their correspondents. Mr. Thomas Amory had frequent calls from North Carolina. In 1720 he buys for Thomas Bell a man at £60, though they often brought £80. *' Since the Law about slaves passed they prove better than they did, and no one sells, but endeavours to buy." ^ In 1723 he sends out a female house-servant bought at £50, on " condition to export her, else she would have been worth £70." Again, in 1724, " a good likely fellow that speaks English sells from £70 to £80." Again, " Nobody sells without some fault." " In the fall we expect negroes here directly from Guinea, a vessel having sailed from here and one from Rhode Isl- and." 3 The '' Boston News Letter " advertises in 1726 " Several choice Gold Coast Negros lately arrived." * Felt notes a cargo received in Boston in 1727, the highest sale from which was at £80.^ In 1736 the " News Letter "« has "just imported from Guinea, a parcel of likely young negroes, boys and girls." Advertisements of " imported " negroes, not specifying their locality, are frequent. The

1 March 3, 1718. 2 MS. Letters,

* Amory, MS. Letters. * Neros Letter, October 13th.

fi Felt, Salemy ii. 416. « December 29th.

1708-64.] PRICES IN BOSTON. 467

inventories in Boston and in the various towns often enumerate them, generally one or two in a family. In 1715 Charles Hobby ,^ of Boston, leaves six, two at £50, four at £40 each. In 1735 John Jekyll^ was i*esponsible for five ; one at £85, three at £65, one at £50. In one case we find two cradles for negroes. In 1740 Richard Hunt ^ had seven. The prices show the inflation of the currency : Great Cuffee at £200, Andrew £150, Will and Little Cuffee £140 each, Tommy £150, Rose £110, and poor Boston only £80. In 1731 Jahleel Brinton * at New- port devises three negroes, a child, and an Indian woman.

The Pepperells did not import negroes directly from Africa ; their vessels brought them frequently from the West Indies.^ Indeed, it was said " almost every vessel in the West India trade would return with a few." ^ The West Indies, being the large market, naturally controlled the destination of cargoes, even when the vessels went from New England, as we have seen in one instance at Newport."'^

Governor Hunter reported to the Lords of Trade in 1718 that no negroes came from Africa to New York direct in British vessels,® but " the duties laid on Negroes from ye other Colonies are intended to encourage their (our) own shipping and discourage the importing their refuse & sickly Negroes here from other Colonies." ^ In 1731 President Van Dara,^^ arguing again that the New York duty did not injure Great Britain, mentions a vessel belonging to that colony with a consid- erable number of negroes on board from Africa.

1 Suffolk P. R., xix. 103. ^ jf^id^^ ^xxii. 310.

8 Ihid.y XXXV. 42. "* Newport Hist. Mag., iv. 89.

* Parsons, Pepper ell, p. 28.

• Bourne, Wells and Kennehunl' ; and see Mass, Arch., Ixiii. 231. ' See above, p 454.

8 Yet the record savs also that private traders imported into New York, 1700-1726, 1,573 negroes from the West Indies, and 822 from the coast of Africa and Madagascar. Doc. N. Y., v. 814.

» Doc. N, F., v. 509. ^^ Ihid., v. 9.7.

458 THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE, [1708-64.

The African trade from Newport and Boston was eon- ducted in sloops, brigantines, schooners, snows, generally of forty or fifty tons burden. One brigantine is thus described : " Sixty feet length by the keel, straight rabbet, and length of the rake forward to be fourteen feet, three foot and one half of which to be * put into the keel, so that she will then be sixty-three feet keel and eleven feet rake forward. Twenty-three feet by the beam, ten feet in the hold, and three feet ten inches between decks and twenty inches waste." ^

The 3 ft. 10 in. was the height allowed the slaves ; in later and worse times this was reduced to 3 ft. 3 in., with ten inches to thirteen inches surface room for each. The abuses led to a law restricting the number of slaves to two and one half for each ton. In the early times we are treating, the number was about one and one half to a ton. The value of the vessels engaged was not large. The Sanderson brigantine, whose voyages I shall introduce, was offered new in 1745 for £450, Jamaica currency. The snow Susey was bought in Boston, in 1759, with outfit, for £568, lawful money.

Small vessels were considered more profitable than large ones, and they were handled by small crews, — the cap- tain, two mates, and about six men. Generally a captain and mate, two or three men, and a boy sufficed. When the voyage was to the West Indies, a cooper was included, who made bungs, heads, etc., on the outward trip, to be set up, with Taunton and other staves, together with Nar- ragansett hoops, into barrels and hogsheads when he came into port. White-oak staves went into rum casks, and red-oak into sugar hogsheads. There were two grades of water casks, '' common " and " Guinea ; " the latter were worth two and a half to three dollars, or one third more than the former.

1 Am. Hist. Rec, i. 311-319, 338-345. George C. Mason's state- ments from MS. records, which I use freely.

1708-64.] RUM ABSOLUTELY CONTROLS, 459

The West Indies afforded the great demand for ne- groes ; they also furnished the raw material supplying the manufacture of the main merchandise which the thirsty Gold Coast drank up in barter for its poor, banished chil- dren. Governor Hopkins stated^ that, for more than tliirty years prior to 1764, Rhode Island sent to the Coast annually eighteen vessels carrying 1,800 hhds. rum. It displaced French brandies in the trade of the Coast after 1723. The commerce in rum and slaves afforded about £40,000 per annum for remittance from Rhode Island to Great Britain. Molasses and poor sugar, distilled in Boston and more especially in Newport into west India rum, made the staple export to Africa. Some obtained gallon for gallon, of molasses, but the average was 96 to 100. Newport had twenty-two still-houses ; Boston had the best example, owned by a Mr. Childs. The cost of distilling was five and a half pence per gallon. Cis- terns and vats cost 14«. to I65. per 100 gallons in 1735, not including lumber ; three copper stills and heads, three pewter worms, and two pewter cranes cost in London £546.11.3. The quantity of rum distilled was enormous, and in 1750 it was estimated that Massachusetts alone consumed more than 15,000 hhds. molasses for this pur- pose. The average price in the West Indies of molasses was 13cZ. or 14rf. per gallon. The consumption of rum in the fisheries and lumbering and shipbuilding districts was large ; the export demand to Africa was immense.

It was very importunate. Captain Isaac Freeman, with a coasting sloop, in 1752, wanted a cargo of rum and molasses from Newport within five weeks, demand for His correspondent wrote that the quantity could not be had in three months. " There are so many vessels lading for Guinea, we cant get one hogshead of rum for the cash. We have been lately to New London and all along the seaport towns, in order to purchase the molasses,

1 R. L C. R., vi. 380.

460 THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE, [1708-64.

but cant get one hogshead." ^ The Guinea voyagers were known as " rum- vessels." There was no article of mer- chandise comparable to rum on the African coast. Our forefathers are not to be charged with any especial pref- erence for this civilising instrument over all the other re- sources of two continents. Their instincts were neither moral nor immoral ; they were simply economic. They had tried dry goods, and Africa rejected them in favor of the wet. Captain George Scott writes pathetically in 1740, from the Coast, of his trials in exchanging dry goods for black chattels. Out of 129 slaves purchased he had lost 29, and then had ^' five that swell'd, and how it will be with them I can't tell." He had one third of his dry goods left, and thought if he had stayed to dispose of it he would have lost all his slaves. " I have repented a hundred times ye bying of them dry goods. Had we laid out two thousand pound in rum, bread and flour, it would purchase more in value than all our dry goods." Could any hungry and thirsty savage ask for a keener and more sympathetic interpreter of his appetites ?

One slaver took out in her cargo " 80 hhds. 6 bbs. and 8 tierce of rum, containing 8,220 gals., 79 bars of iron [known as " African iron," the bars were used as a cur- Method of reney, as we shall see], " 19 bbs. flour, 4 tierces the voyagers. ^^^^ ^ bbs. suuff, 28 irou pots, 20 bbs. tar, 3 bbs. loaf sugar, 4 bbs. brown do., 7 quarter casks wine, 1 bb. cof- fee, 1 bb. vinegar, 20 firkins, 2 do. tallow, 10 bbs. pork, 15 half do., 10 boxes sperm candles, 4 kegs pickles, 2 bbs. fish, 1 bb. hams, 12 casks bread, 4 casks tobacco, 1 trunk of shirts and cotton hollands, 3,000 staves, hoops and boards, 470 ropes of onions, 4 bbs. beans," with water shackles, handcuffs, etc. The cargo was mixed, and it was probably intended for touching in the West Indies. The parts adapted for that market would be disposed of ; then the rum, shackles, vinegar, etc., would be carried to the West

1 Am. Hist. Rec, i. 316.

p,f'*'

1708-64.] SAILING BY HOROSCOPE. 461

Coast of Africa. Vinegar was a sanitary necessity. In good weather the negroes were brought on deck daily, their quarters were cleaned and sprinkled with vinegar, and if docile they enjoyed the outward air the greater part of fine days. Males were separated from females in the hold by a bulkhead.

Insurance was sometimes effected on the venture, though there could not have been enough written to cover a large proportion of the risks. The premiums were too high, and the merchants, through joint ownership, distributed their risk over a large number of ventures and small val- ues. The Newport vessels were taken generally by under- writers in New York. The rate was often 18 to 20 per cent, on Guinea voyages, one party underwriting about XIOO. Almost all insurances were underwritten by sev- eral parties joining in the contract.^ Rates varied much in different years, as war brought privateers, or chance brought rovers. From Newport to Jamaica in 1748, the rate was 5 to 6 per cent. ; in 1756 it advanced to 20 per cent., and in 1760 fell to 11 per cent.

After careful and elaborate preparation, manning the vessel, assorting her cargo, planning the voyage, and in- suring the adventure, one would say all was ready for sail- ing. Not so I This world had done its part, but The horo- the other worlds — the stais — must be called ^°^* upon for their conjunction, their propitiating influence in accomplishing a safe and profitable return. An astrol- oger or "conjurer " was employed to "cast a figure." This was an elaborate chart displaying cabalistic figures and courses known to the initiated. Mr. Mason gives an exaniple,^ and reports examination of hundreds of these horoscopes, many of which were annotated in the margin with the experience supposed to confirm the star lore, as " 6 D & h always wins the profits," etc. When the hour

^ For form of policy see Am, Hist. Rec, i. 318. a Ibid., p. 319.

462 THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. [17(»-64.

assigned by the horoscope came, the vessel must start, be it day or night, calm or storm ; the moorings were cast, and the voyage dated from that fatalistic hour. We may wonder that the Malbones, Vernon s, Ayraults, Collinses, and others, accounted among the most cultured Americans of their day, affected or patronised such rubbish. But whatever their own esoteric conviction might have been, they could not overlook the superstitious and wonder-lov- ing prejudices of their sailors. Cabin and forecastle both would pluck safety from danger the more certainly, when convinced that the stars in their courses were working in their favor.

These fleets and traders did not find a sure market or a certain supply of captives on the Gold Coast. In subse- quent days, about a half century later, after a thorough system had been established, factories with magazines of the goods coveted by the interior tribes were kept sup- plied on the Coast ; slave-pens were built, and the poor savages were herded ready for the buyers. In our period

there was no such horrid order, in this disor- the Gold der of the human race. Vessels crowded upon

each other, and losses occurred often, through mere irregularity in the traffic. In 1736 Captain John Griffon found this state of affairs, and a very " truble- surii " voyage. The French were out in great numbers, and there were 19 sail of all nations in the harbor at once. ** Ships that used to carry pryme slaves off is now forsed to take any that comes : heare is 7 sails of us Rume men that we are ready to devour one another, for our Case is Desprit." ^ The rum men were the New England craft probably. Captain " Hamond '* had been on the Coast six months, getting only 60 slaves on board. The sturdy man-trading skippers were quite })athetic in the story of their mishaps. Captain David Lindsay, an energetic member of the class, writes from " Anamaboe " in 1753 :

1 Am. Hist. Rec, i. 312.

1708-64.] SCENES ON THE COAST. 463

^^ Ye Traid Is so dull it is actuly a noof to make a man Creasey." His first mate was sick, with four of bis men. Obliged to replace bis worn-out cable and stock of oakum, he fears the blame of his owners, yet the " rusk " was too great. Five " rum ships " were at hand. His vessel was not too trustworthy, and they could see "day Lite al round her bow under deck. I never had so much Trouble in all my voiges."

Nevertheless the doughty mariner carried his rifted brigantine, the Sanderiion, into Barbadoes, about Healthy four months later, with 66 negroes, " all in ^^^^ helth and f att." Of these, 47 were sold ^ there, the re- mainder going to Rhode Island probably. Captain Scott, in 1740, was sorely tried also. He sent his second mate to leeward trading, but a slave escaped, carrying two ounces of the vessel's gold dust. Then the blacks from the shore captured the mate, and the captain, going to his rescue, was mulcted in <£32 in goods for ransom. He estimated the whole loss through the " mate's folly " at ^300. He bought slaves and goods from a Dutchman, intending to sell them to the French. But the imfortunate chattels were all taken " with the flucks," three dying, three more *' very bad." He had 100 good slaves and no gold, wait- ing for 20 more. Provisions were very high, and water cost him ten shillings per day. Every man slave paid for in goods " cost ^12 sterling prime." ^ The price of a prime man slave in 1762 was 110 gallons of nun. The instances given are types, and the voyages, outfits, and orders were quite similar one with another.

Captain Lindsay's troubles did not deter him from other attempts. In 1754 he sailed in a new "Privilege •» schooner. The Sierra Leone, of 40 tons, owned °' oncers.

^ Am, Hist. Rec.f pp. 339, 342. See for accounts in detail.

^ Yet the Western World had advanced the value of " chattels " in 1720 over that prevailing in Eastern Africa. Ten shillings ** English goods ** would buy a negro at Madagascar. Johnson's Pyrates, ii. 86.

464 THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. [1708-64.

jointly by William Johnston & Co., of Newport, and parties in Boston, whose names are not given. He sailed for Africa direct, and the commissions and privileges given the officers are of interest. In addition to the reg- ular wages, the captain received four parts out of 104 for *' Coast Commission," five per cent, on sale of the cargo in the West Indies, and five per cent, on goods purchased for the return cargo. Moreover, the captain had a privi- lege of five slaves ; the two mates had a privilege of two slaves for each. In these times the vessel did not carry a surgeon. When he was introduced at a later period, he was allowed a gratuity of ^50, and the captain one of ^100, if the profit amounted to 2 per cent. ; they received half these amounts if the loss was no more than 3 per cent.

Lindsay showed his usual capacity, and made a success- ful voyage in about ten months, much to the gratification of the Boston copartners in The Sierra Leone. They write to their Newport associates, April 28, 1755, " Lind- say's arrival is very agreeable to us, and we wish we may never make a worse voyage. Are you determined to get a larger vessel for him ? " May 26, 1756, they write con- cerning a snow of Mr. Quincey's, " She is about 112 tons, a fine vessel for y® Guinea trade." ^ Her name was the Hanover, and they afterward purchased her. In the voy- age of 1756, Lindsay took 133 slaves into Barbadoes, hav- ing lost 18, He carried some gold coin and bought gold dust on the Coast. Ivory was handled also in the traffic.

As the trade grew, Newport became more and more the central market. Connecticut reported, in 1762, *' Some few vessels to coast Guinea."

Bristol, R. I., followed Newport in the latter half of the Catering ccutury. Captain Simeon Potter,^ a famous pri- therum. vatcersniau, who ravaged the Spanish Main in the Spanish and French wars, appears as soon as 1764,

1 Am. HisL Rec, i. 341. « si^oW^i/l /? /. Privateers, p. 56.

1708-64.] RUM AND WATER, 465

investing his privateering profits in outfits for Africa. The invoice of " cargo and outfitts " of the ship King George, Captain William Earle, master, amounted to .£80,112 Os. 4c?. in poor currency. It was not dated, but it was for the voyage of 1764, or 1768 probably. Letters of instruction for both these voyages are extant. They show the same general course of trade as in the Newport ventures already cited. But Captain Potter was exceed- ingly naive in his management. His craft in circumvent- ing the poor Africans was quite equal to his force in over- coming the West Indians.

" Make y' Cheaf Trade with The Blacks and Little or none with the white people if possible to be avoided. Worter y' Rum as much as possible and sell as much by the short mesuer as you can."

Again, " Order them in the Bots to worter thear Kum, as the proof will Rise by the Rum Standing in y* Son." ^

The captains were men of force and business ability, as may be inferred from the foregoing facts. They often took small ventures for the friends of the owners, — out- ward in rum, inward in negroes. " Charming Polly " lent her romantic name to a Newport slaver in 1759. One of the schooner's bills of lading bears a hogshead of rum to buy a negro boy 13 or 14 years old, with the remain- der.in gold dust. Mistress Polly knew not that her name would go down to future generations soiled by contact with this inhuman traffic in the flesh and blood of our dark-skinned brothers and sisters. Such conceptions were far above and beyond the ethics of the early eighteenth century. A respectable " elder," who sent ventures to the Coast with uniform success, always returned thanks, on the Sunday after a slaver arrived in Newport, " that an overruling Providence had been pleased to bring to this land of freedom another cargo of benighted heathen, to enjoy the blessing of a Gospel dispensation." ^ This * MS, Letters, 2 Am, Hist. Rec, i, 312.

466 THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE, [1708-64.

"elder" has gone the way of other bigoted gospellers. The passions of man are still lustful, and his temper is cruel in gratifying them ; but his intellect has been trained into wholesome contempt for the ignorance of these uncon- scious Pharisees. Science has not solved the mysteries of the unseen, but she has taught modem generations a de- cent self-distrust, and some proper respect for all the reli- gions of all the children of God.

The spirit of an early eighteenth century American Peter Fan- merchant was bodied forth in Peter Faneuil, *"*^ whose whole lineage is "held in peculiar honor" ^

in Boston. Peter was of Huguenot blood, born in La Rochelle, New York, at the very beginning of the cen- tury, and was transferred to Boston to become his uncle Andrew's executor and legatee. Trained in the best mer- cantile system, of moderate enterprise, yet careful, hold- ing the largest estate of the time, here was a man with- out reproach. Solid, large-featured, self-considering, but liberal in his way, his eulogist Lovell, master of the Latin School, voiced the public sentiment at his death when he said, the bounty of Faneuil Hall, " however great, is but the firstfruits of his generosity, a pledge of what his heart, always devising liberal things, would have done." His private charity was equal to his public munificence, " so secret and unbounded that none but they who were the objects of it can compute the sums which he annually distributed."

In such savor of holiness, charity, and benignity lived this pocket-prince bachelor and husband of property, as he walked to church with his good sister, velvet-bound prayer-book in hand, his heart holding "many mbre blessings in store for us," his fellow-men, according to gushing Mr. Lovell. For his fellows, yes ; not for hu- manity, as it came to be known a generation later, when King George's redcoats put a curb on pro"d Boston, and

1708-64.] FANEUWS SLAVE VENTURES. 467

the people — Huguenot or English, native or African, black or white — mustered to put down tyranny, to assert independence.

No matter how large the inheritance, how successful the ventures, how full the tide an inflated cur- rency floated into good Peter's coflfers, it must merciai vigi- be made larger. Commerce must mix, trade must go. He drums up debtors with proper vigilance ; submits reluctantly to the customary 2^ per cent, ex- change his friend and frequent correspondent, Gulian Verplanck, charges him in New York. His eye is open, scanning the commercial horizon, and seeing that men everywhere " act the Honest and Just part by me." ^

Greed and thrift are near allied. The poor captains Lindsay and Scott, tugging painfully over on the Gold Coast, the small merchants handling rum down at New- port, had no keener eye for profit and increase than this sumptuous, merchant, — bewigged, beruflfled, and bebut- toned, — as he strutted modestly down the broad terraces of the stately mansion near King's Chapel, to seat him- self in the " chariot " with arms and harness, " in the handsomest manner." We get an occasional glimpse in the one letter book ^ preserved, of items which look shady and sooty. March 24, 1739, he hopes Verplanck has " an acco* of the Negros being sold ; " April 15, 1740, he expects a remittance of gold dust from " Coast of [an unreadable name]." These may be coincidences; all the traders dealt more or less in gold, ivory, and " black ivory."

But can we believe the curious, prying eyes of modem research, as it uncovers an actual venture after negroes, a voyage deliberately planned by Peter slaving voy- Faneuil, owned one half by himself, one quarter *^*' by his neighbor John Jones, and one quarter by the cap-

1 Letter Book, 1737, N. E. Hist, and Gren. Soo. ^ In cabinet N. £. Hist, and Gren. Soo.

468 THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. [1708-64.

tain, John Cutler? The name of the craft, too, — did Teter slu]) his fair round belly and chuckle when he named the snow Jolly Bachelor ? This must be merely the sad irony of fate, that the craft deliberately destined to be packed with human pains and to echo with human groans should in its very name bear the fantastic image of the luxury-loving chief owner. If these be the sources of j)rofits and property, where is the liberty of Faneuil Hall, where the charity of good Peter's alms ?

Neither Faneuil the owner, nor Cutler the master, lived to see the return of the snow with the ghastly funny name. The safe and prosperous merchant went out from the Tri- mouutain City in all the pomp of funereal circumstance, as will appear. Poor Cutler, with two of his sailors, was *' barbarously murdered " on the Coast of Guinea, near the Banana Islands, by the natives whom he was per- suading and converting to " the blessing of a Gospel dispensation."

This catastrophe was March 9, 1742. George Birchall, A vftMei re- ^ resident of Banana Islands, Sierra Leone, then "^tTe **" a[)peared on the scene and took possession of the coMt/* abandoned vessel. The natives had stripped her, and carried off such slaves as were already on board. Birchall, with considerable skill apparently, bought back a part of her stores from the natives, together with 20 slaves, refitted the snow with sails and rigging from Eng- lish slaving vessels, and appointed Charles Winkham master. Winkham shipped two mates, a boatswain, and two sailors, April 10, 1743, and two more sailors May 1st, at Sierra Leone, for New England, and brought his ves- sel into Newport about the sixteenth of August following, with 20 negroes on board. George Birchall libelled the vessel and cargo in a friendly suit for salvage before Hon. John Gridley, judge of the Court of Vice-Admi- ralty of the Colony of Khode Island. Benjamin Fan- euil, brother, administrator, and heir of the late Peter,

1708-64.]

THE WAGES OF SAILORS.

469

with John Jones, all of Boston, appeared to claim their rights, one half having been Peter's, one quarter Jones's, and one quarter Cutler's, the late master, for whom Ben- jamin was executor. Judge Gridley decreed the sale of vessel, cargo, and negroes by William King, deputy mar- shal, awarding one third of the proceeds to Birchall for salvage, and two thirds to Faneuil and Jones.

There were some nice points involved, for while reason- ably enousrh there was no dispute about such , , ,

•^ ° ^ ^ * ^ Legal points.

well-won salvage, Gridley curiously rejected the

** Portage bill " ^ of ofl&cers' and men's wages, ^102 17^. 4g?.,

1 This " portage " bill, the bill of costs, and the sworn statement of Benjamin Faneuil, administrator, are g^ven at length. The docu- ments of the case, unusually full for the time, are preserved in the Khode Island archives at Providence : —

A Portage bill of mens Names and wages Due on board the Snow Jolly Bachelor, Charles Winkham, master, bound To Newengland, Commencing at Sirrilioue W^ of April 1743.

Mena* Names

qualityes

Charles Winkham Master John Battey . . Mate Oliver Arnold . .2* mate Alex''." McKinsey , Boatswain Silvester Sweet . Sailor

Oliver Somes W^ Umerey Wm. Wyat

do. do. do.

	5k.
w" Shlpt	II <05
	tc
April 10	£6 00
do.	3 10
do.	3 10
do.	3
do.	2 10
do.	2 10
May V' 1'.*	2
do.	2 10

w« Diacharg'd

Aug.* 18 1743

do. 17 —

do. — —

do. 16 —

do. 18 —

do. 16 —

do. 16 —

do. 18 —

w* Dae

£25 12 14 16 12 14 12 12 10 13 10 10

7 1

8 18

4 4

Newport, Augl* IS*? 1743.

£102 17 4 E : E : p. Charles Winkham.

Burchell & Co., of Snow Jolly Batchelor.

Cost of Court,

For Drawing the Libels & attorneys Tax £0 18 8

For filing and allowing 12 8

To attachment Seal and service 10

To the marshalls Fee 2 6

To three Interligitary Decree & recos 2 11 6

To Taking Evidence In Court 6

470 THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. [1708-64.

from Sierra Leone to Newport. Leonard Loekman, in a subsequent decree, August 26, 1743, allows this bill, and orders Marshal King to pay it from the proceeds. We wonder how it could have been otherwise, but the judge must have had legal ground for the first decision.^

To a Copy of the Libel £ 26

To the marshall for keeping the Vessel in Custody 19

days 276

To the marshall for selling Snow & Twenty Negroes @

2\ p. Cent 18 6 6

To the Reg' for paying & Cecuriug do. at 2J p. Cent . 18 5 6

To the Door keeper &c 4 6

To Drawing Bill of Cost, taxing &c 5

To Decree Definitive & recording 1 12 10

Pr. Gridley Judge. £184 10 8

(Geo. Birchall vs. Jolly Bachelor.) And Benjamin Faneuil of Boston in New England, Esq, as he is A dm' of all & singular the Goods, Debts, Rights & Credits of Peter Faneuil, late of sd Boston, Esq, deced, who in his life owned one half of the Snow aforsd, her Cargo &c, and as he the sd Benj. is also Execut' of ye Late Will and Testament of the aforesaid John Cutler deced, who in his Life owned one other quarter part of sd Snow &c, and John Jones of Boston aforesaid, Merch^, who owneth the other quarter of sd Snow, &c, come into Court & say they have always been & still are ready to pay the proponent (on his delivering to the sd Benj. & John or their Bros, the Snow aforesaid, her Cargo &c.), a just & reasonable Reward for saving the sd Vessel, her Cargo &c, & send- ing her into this port, & of this, &c.

Tho. Ward

^ Another case opens the question of wages. Before Captain Charles Winkham took command of the Jolly Bachelor, apparently he was adrift on the Guinea coast, his snow, the Eagle, having been taken from him Feb. 9, 174§, by a Spanish privateer. He had shipped in the Eagle from Newport for Guinea, Sept. 8, 1742 : Alexander Mac- Kensie at £8 per month ; William Wyat and Silvester Sweet each at £7 3s. The prices must have been in paper currency. The sailors claimed that enough of the Eagle's cargo was saved to pay their wages, and they " libel and appeal " against Winkham in Judge Gridley's court. The case was set down for the Saturday after Sept. 30, 1743. The result of the trial does not appear.

1708-64.] AN IRON CURRENCY. 471

The snow was sold to Captain Winkham for <£1,300; the 20 negroes sold for £1,644, ranging from Disposition MO to £134 each. The men averaged nearly of the slaves.

<£84, the women nearly £79 ; but while the highest man brought .£134 the next dropped to £100, while three wo- men brought respectively £101, £105, £106. The mock- ing ironies in this whole transaction are not confined to the portly Faneuils. A list of honorable names — Vernon, Tweedy, Brinley, Robinson, Carr, Cranston — are repre- sented in Marshal King's list of purchasers of the cap- tives procured by Faneuil's gold and Cutler's blood. But there is one name preeminent in being borne by the de- scendant who became, three quarters of a century later, the greatest anti-slavery exponent, when New England waked to the final struggle. Then Boston did not come, but Newport went to Boston. The buyer of the highest- priced " £134 negro boy " was " Mr. Chaning ; " was he a relative of William Ellery Channing ?

The armament provided by Birchall for the Jolly Bach- elor deserves mention, for it shows what was indispensable for a slaver carrying forward our elder's gospel mission. Birchall and Captain Winkham did not buy unnecessary outfit in the far-away market of Sierra Leone. It in- cluded 4 " buckaneer " guns at 6 bars each, 2 small guns at 4 bars, 2 muskets at 4 bars, 4 guns at 5 bars, powder 7 bars, 1 small gun 8 bars, 2 pistols 8 bars, 6 cutlasses at

1 bar. Other articles in the new outfit were ship stores and provisions, the inevitable rum and " Manyoea." This was furnished several times, and as a boatload cost only

2 bars it must have been a native article of diet. The whole outfit at Sierra Leone cost 744^ bars.

We rub our eyes in amazement that any portion of exact and worthy Peter Faneuil's *' effects " or iron bars for accounts was estimated in bars. Gold dust, in- ^'""^"^y' gots, and plate were only various forms of specie, but bars did not appear on the ledgers of the early solid men of

472 THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. [1708-64.

Boston or Newport. The European and American mis- sionaries — if they did not carry all the Spartan virtues to the forsaken dark continent — at least gave it the boon of the iron currency of the Lacedaemonians. To give the strong metal value in use and value in exchange, they forged it into bars, known in New England as " African iron.

A pound sterling at Sierra Leone, in 1743, was equal to 12 bars of this iron. A negro slave, when The Jolly- Bachelor balanced accounts June 14th, was worth 60 bars, or <£5. At about the same time, according to Mr. Mason's old Newport documents, he was worth £12 in *' goods," i, e. rum, at Sierra Leone.^ We see the frightful scale by which merchandise ascends through rate after rate, — paper-priced rum. Coast-valued iron, sterling gold, — while human flesh, sense, mind, and spirit descend in corre- sponding degradation.

The Americans followed in the footsteps of a civilisa- tion they inherited but did not create. The whole world in the eighteenth century, previous to the move- tutedindua- meut beo^iuninff in the American Revolution,

try. . ? . .

which stirred the nations to their depths and shook thrones from their foundations, knew nothing of a refined humanity, knew but little even of the justice which should let men go free. We have seen molasses and alco- hol, mm and slaves, gold and iron, in a perpetual and unwholesome round of commerce. All society was fouled in this lust ; it was inflamed by the passion for wealth, it was callous to the wrongs of imported savage or displaced barbarian. The shallow sympathy expressed in the sev- enteenth century for Indians and native proprietors had expended itself. A new contiup^^ ' in possession, old Ethi- opia must be ransacked that tuv loH^^^^a might enjoy it more speedily. Cool, shrewd -^'^v^.. ,.- nerchants vied with punctilious, dogmatic pri. - ■ •' - nAfmgr t>^i'< .*./^t? titution of iT^dF^«<-i

■»»■»''

CHAPTER Xin.

THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. 1713-1745.

The actual inflation of the irredeemable paper cur- rency of New England began in 1712 to 1713. Silver had been long current at 85. per oz., and this y^^^ ^^ constituted the par of exchange.^ In 1712 the *"^®'* value began to rise in all commercial transactions. The act of December 1, 1727, regulated the price of silver for debts previously contracted. It fixed the value at 8$. for 1710, 1711 ; at 8s. 6d. for 1712, 1713 ; at 9s. for 1714, 1715 ; at 10s. for 1716, 1717 ; at lis. for 1718 ; at 12s. for 1719, 1720 ; at 13s. for 1721 ; at 14s. for 1722 ; at 15s. for 1723 ; at 17s. for 1724-27. This valuation in

1 MS,y Robert Hale Beverly, about 1720, Am. Ant. Soc.

Of the Exchange of Coins,

" transcribed or compiled by Robert Beverly.** Ill the Exchange of Coin, It is Necessary y* y* Par or Value of y* Money in Each Place be Exactly known : for y* Word Par Signifyes to Equalize y* Money of Exchange from one Place, with y* of another Place. As w° I take up so much money per Exchange in one place, to pay y* Just Value y*"of in anoth' kind of mony in another Place, w* out having respect to y' price currant of Exchange for y* Same, but only for w* y* mony doe currantly pass for in Each place ; From w**'* may be easily found out y* profit & Loss of all Monies Drawn or Emitted by Exchange.

But y* Par being Grounded principally upon y' Currant value of Coin, y* Plenty & Scarcity y*" of, y* rising & falling, luhancem' & Debasing of y* Same. It must necessarily follow, y* y* value of Coin is subject unto Change. An example w"*of is France where y* Coin has been Changed, Inhanced & Lowered for Several times in a few years.

474 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-45.

the early years corresponds with actual transactions as recorded. February 25, ITji, John Edwards, of Boston, bills a porringer to George Curwin, of Salem.^ The sil- ver is charged at 8s. per oz. " y® advanced " at 7 J per cent., " y® fashion " (the making) at 13c?. per oz. In a bill for several articles — pepper-box, whistle, porringer, salver, spout cup with a cover — amounting to <£16.19.11, from October 20, 1715, to July 28, 1716, the silver is charged at 8s., the advance at 15 per cent. ; " y® fashion '* varies with the articles, and the whistle is mounted with 65. worth of coral. In Lieutenant James Lindsey's in- ventory ,2 1715, silver is valued at 8s., and 11 per cent, advance. In Hannah Clarke's effects, <£57.10.9 rates at 9s. per oz. in 1717 ; ^ other inventories range from 8s. to 10s.

In Rhode Island the depreciation was more rapid, and Silver in silvcr was at 12s. per oz. in 1715.* She had Rhode Island, ^^^^g suiall cmissious in 1710, 1711, for the current wants of her treasury. In 1715 she began more heroic measures, issuing her first " bank " of £40,000. These banks followed in rapid succession until the ninth was made in 1750. Then the colony was debarred further issue by the action of the British goverament. A bank was distinguished from an ordinary issue of bills of credit, or treasury notes, in that it was intended principally for a loan of the public credit to individual borrowers. The Rhode Island bills of the first banks were loaned to residents on mortgages at five per cent, interest for pe- riods of ten years. The security was in real estate for double the value of the loan. The annual payment of interest was not required in the mortgages, but was pro- vided for in separate bonds. These were not regularly collected, and a large part of the interest was lost.^ Def-

1 Curwin MS., Am. Ant. Soc. 2 Suffolk P. R., xviii. 504.

» Suffolk P. /?., xix. 322. * R. I, C. R., v. 9.

« Potter and Rider, R. L Tracts, No. 8, pp. 11, 16, 81.

\ L-

1713-45.] COURSE OF DEPRECIATION. 475

inite amounts were assigned to each town in the colony. Connecticut was more moderate, and kept her paper from undue depreciation. In 1718 she was able to say that her bills of credit had been used since 1709, " the whole course of trade having been generally managed and regu- lated thereby ; " and she made them d legal tender until 1727.^ New Hampshire imitated the larger governments both in issuing and in suspending payment at maturity. She conferred with the other three colonies " about some method to advance the credit of the medium of exchange " in 1720.2

The pending inflation had been a disturbing cause in Massachusetts since 1707, but it did not derange Depredation the currency immediately. The bills passed and **®fi^- did the work of a currency as long as there was a good prospect of their final redemption. In 1707 the collec- tion of the taxes — which was the virtual redemption of the paper — was postponed for three years ; in 1709 for four years ; in 1710 for five years ; in 1711 for six years. The volume of the bills grew larger with every emission, and their credit grew less as the Province repudiated its own debts. The motive for non-payment was not repudi- ation. The presence of France on the borders oppressed the New England consciousness, and constant efforts were being made to drive her off. Patriotism, however mis- taken in its methods, impelled the New England men, and not a mere desire for the intoxication of inflation. There was no money ; it must be had for another and another expedition. For nearly forty years the inflation contin- ued. September 18, 1749,^ the parliamentary remittance of 653,000 oz. silver and ten tons of copper arrived in Massachusetts Bay. England had sent the money on condition that the bills of credit be redeemed.

1 CoL Rec. Conn, 1718, p. 74 ; and see Trumbull, Ct, ii. 47.

2 N. H. Prov, Pap., ii. 733.

■ Felt, Mass, Currency, p. 124.

476 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [17ia-45.

To enforce the circulation of the bills, the colonies en- j^gg^i acted repeatedly that they should be a legal

tender. tender wherever contracts did not specify to the contrary. These measures were ineffective, and increased the financial confusion always incident to a defective cur- rency. Debtors, always reluctant in paying, delayed more, to secure the advantage of buying legal tender bills at lower and still lower prices.

In the Bay,^ the commercial centre, there were three Three the- parties, cach respectable in wealth and public ones. consideration, but actuated by separate theories

in finance : the first, bullionist, believing in no paper money and opposing all kinds ; the second, in favor of private or associated land banks.'^^ This party made such headway in the commercial community that the projec- tors were about to issue bills relying on their associated credit, when they were prohibited by the direct action of the Council of the Province. The third, wishing a large volume of currency, like the second, were enabled to persuade the bullionists that it would be better to keep the issues from private hands and within control of the government, and its policy prevailed in the final action of the Province.

Massachusetts issued a " bank " of £50,000, in 1714, of the same kind as that already described in Rhode Island. One fifth of the principal, with interest at five per cent., was made payable each year. But in fact the loans were extended, and in some cases were unpaid for more than thirty years. New Hampshire in one year made " banks " or loans at twenty-three years and at eleven years, at 5 per cent, and at 10 per cent, interest.^

1 See Nar. and Crit. Hist. Amer., v. 170-176.

2 See pamphlets : *^ Projection for erecting a Bank of Credit in Bor ton, founded on Land Security ;

A Vindication from the aanp ?>*/»*» " /i'^ Or«#7 "ntifUpf -'-r. t r./>^fp *c To*...

BurrUl, etc.

m3-45.] CURRENCIES ELSEWHERE. 477

Our French neighbors in Canada had resorted to a rudely formed paper currency earlier than our forefathers did. In 1685 the Intendant Meules began to issue by the medium of common playing-cards. These were cut into four pieces and signed by proper officers. It was said to be redeemable, not in coin, but in bills of exchange. In 1714 the amount had risen to two million livres. About this time the circulation broke down, and it was partially redeemed.^

New York, always affected by the commercial move- ments of her Eastern neighbors, was forced to issue bills. In 1717 these circulated in Boston at 25 per cent, better rates than prevailed for those of Massachusetts. There were parties there, as elsewhere, favoring and opposing the use of paper money. Governor Hunter claimed that the effect was beneficial to the whole people, increasing the movement of trade by at least one half. "This circulation enables the many to trade, to some small loss to the few who had monopolized it." ^ The struggle over the issues extended to London. In the next year a sum of money was sent there from New York to enable Mr. Baker, a merchant, to oppose the New York " money bills " before the authorities at home.^ In 1719 the Lords of Trade reported on the petition to the Lords Justices adversely. They state their reasons for believ- ing that the bills had helped the trade of the Province, and would continue to be beneficial, if not over-issued.* This whole story is an interesting episode in the history of currency. The unit of issue was an ounce of silver, and not a pound or dollar. This was stated to be equal to 85. in all the colonies. The act assigned one half the issue, dividing it among specified creditors. This ^ in it-

1 Parkman, Old Reg., p. 300. 2 j)qc. Col N. F., v. pp. 494, 600. « Doc. Col N. F., V. 514. * /6irf., p. 524.

' But the said Merchants complaining that out of the 41,517^ ounces of Plate raised by bills of Credit on this Act, 22,749 Oz' are

478 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [171S-45.

self is one of the curiosities of legislation, yet it did not prejudice the authorities at Whitehall against the issues. New York had at this time the advantage, accruing from a brisk circulating medium, in better credit than neighbor- ing currencies. In 1718 Governor Hunter claimed that the bills were equal to silver " over the greatest part of the English continent," ^ and 30 per cent, better than the local bills on " 'change " in Boston. In 1721, according to Governor Burnet,^ the credit of the bills was about aB good ; silver was but sixpence per ounce premium, which was but little more than the levelling of the exchange, as was claimed.^

Meanwhile Massachusetts, having taken deeper draughts

of a seductive and intoxicating kind, was feeling Massachu- the prcssurc of her financial debauch. English

crown and province government had failed in all efforts to stop the flow of new bills, or to reduce the

divided among the legislators and their friends, it will be necessary

to enter into a particular discussion of this objection.

Whereas therefore it appears by their account that the Act directs

there shall be paid —

Plate, ounces, dwt.

To the Governor 2,525

To the Council 2,750

To the Assembly 6,009 16

For Negroes Executed for Rebellion 950

To several for Services done to the Colony 2,662 17

For Paym* of Sev* debts formerly provided for .... 1,404 17

For Building and Repairs 550

For making lines & for the Agent of y' Colony .... 3,750 To the Commissions who adjusted the De^^^" ^ ^^^

charges relating to y' A^* % R^ih ^^ '^'^Hi^ ^,147

12,749 1(

1 Doc. Col N. r., V. 51h

2 On the contrary, Mr. Tlw i - vj^ jt bojiLwi* - - "^'^ -'U^xj 1720, quotes New York ^^'^l« - '•■• kTocaool io<»- ... > r«*o Te and, at Vis, 9rf. in silve"

« Doc. r V - 7/v

1713-45.] RETURN TO COUNTRY PAY. 479

old ones by redemption. All expedients failed to check their declining credit. In the issue of 1720 the five per cent, advance — added in every previous issue, and in- tended to maintain the par — was dropped, for it had no effect. At the same time the weary financiers returned to the ways of the seventeenth century, and made a par- tial currency of produce which lasted until 1723. Through the scarcity of bills it was so difficult to convert produce or property of any kind into bills and thus pay the rates, that produce was made legal tender for rates, at prices to be fixed by the General Assembly. The treasury accepted beef, pork, or mackerel in barrel, butter in firkin, cheese, wheat, peas, barley, rye, Indian corn, oats, flax, hemp, bees'-wax, hides, tanned leather, dry fish, oil, whalebone, bayberry wax, or tallow. The list shows considerable ex- tension of products and some omissions. The early lum- ber disappears naturally, but we should expect wool to be included. The next year, the governor having opposed issues under pressure from England, the House memo- rialised him for more. They said that he had consulted the principal merchants and gentlemen of Boston, seek- ing some measure for a better '' medium of trade,'* but nothing came of it, and they would have at least <£ 100,000 more to pay public debts, and to float trade. They ad- mitted that further depreciation would be bad. They were sure this would be prevented by the act Legigiativo just passed, forbidding the sale of silver or bul- «*p«<"«»*«- Hon at higher prices than those fixed by Parliament. Had this act been passed in the beginning, " in our judgment," the bills " had to this day " been equal to silver money. Such sublime confidence have legislators in their fiat 1 Governor Shute gave way for one half, and consented to the emission of £50,000. It was secured by taxes o^ polls and estates, real and personal, one tenth ^ to be re

m ■

480 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-45.

deemed in each year, commencing in 1726. It was distrib- uted to the towns on a basis of taxation, each choosing its own trustees for letting it out. Worcester put its share into " ye finishing of ye meeting house." ^ In 1724, after a great debate, £30,000 was issued.^ In 1725 European goods, not perishable in their nature, brought 250 per cent, advance on the first cost.^ In the next year pro- visions had advanced about one third from the old prices in specie.

The few contemporary accounts existing are very pa- thetic concerning the effect produced by this shifting me- dium of exchange on the common business of the people. Bad fluctua. Trade was afloat without moorings, and steered tions. j^y ^ compass which fluctuated with every issue

of bills, and even with every vote or debate afi'ecting those issues. Thomas Amory, the founder of a long line of Boston merchants, writes to his correspondent, Wil- liam Jones, of Bristol, Eng., May 24, 1727 : " We shall soon see if the Loan Money will be continued. The Lower House is for it. The Shopkeepers have generally no money. I have sent to them twice a week. . . . We are all in hopes trade will be better when the Assembly breaks up. Should your debts come in, I Shall ship you Log- wood or whatever else will best turn to account. Mrs. Ann Hutchinson and Mr. Samuel Royal have shut up their shops and desire time for the payment of their debts. As yet their affairs are not settled, but by all reports they have enough to pay everybody. It was said others had a mind to shut up, if the merchants continued to be so hard upon them." ^

In October he informs the same Bristol merchant : " It

* Worcester Rec.f ii. 25.

^ 5M.H, C, viii. 345 Fo^ ^^W.^ f^f Km« '^Mfqionr^1•«<r, scr ^^1 Mass. Currency^ p. 80.

* Amory MS. Letters, ^ >• - /- - ^' • Amory.

1713-45.] PRESSURE FOR MORE MONEY. 481

is likely your goods will fall by reason of the great scarcity of money. The like was never known, and the shopkeepers by their bad pay will occasion the factors a bad name. For my own part I shall arrest those who owe me for the next court, if not for this — as I cannot avoid it."

In November the merchants are still awaiting the ac- tion of " Our Assembly," trusting that they will " make money or contrive some way for the better encouragement of trade." Debtors could not or would not pay, and cred- itors hesitated whether to await better payments in the expected increase of currency, or to pursue them in the courts at once. But in January the situation is no clearer. Buyers and sellers, creditors and debtors waited, almost concluding that there would be no more money. " The lower House endeavoured to have £60,000 issued, but the upper House would not concur, which occasions a great deal of uneasiness."

Khode Island was now — in 1728 — in the throes of its *' Third Bank," issued for the redemption of j^e its First Bank of <£40,000. The preamble re- X'de^M-^ fleets on a large scale the condition of affairs *°*^* shown in Mr. Amory's letters. Massachusetts absorbed a large portion of the Rhode Island bills, as long as their credit was fair. The puzzled legislative economists said : "not only Trade and Commerce, which are the Nerves and Power of Government, begins in a sensible manner to Decline, Stagnate and Decay, but the publick Affairs of the Colony, of the greatest Importance, and those things whereon depend our Peace and Safety, for want of a proper and sufficient medium of exchange."^ They subor- dinated the social and economic motives for issuing paper to the p^li^^^i'^al ones. This was to sugar the pill for the appetite? '^^ ^'^ TH'-no-ligh supervisors. The home govern ment wi..^.*'- -• -^ucs to pay for fortifications and wai

482 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-45.

like expeditions against enemies of the crown, while it professed to forbid issues of paper money for a " me- dium," or for direct inflation.

Evidently the credit of the " First Bank " was partially paralysed, and needed the stimulus of a new issue to re- vive the circulation. The theory of the issues was that the bills should be loaned out, the interest met, and the principal repaid by those who received them on loan. Then they should be loaned again to other recipients. But the preamble argues that this would not be just. The government was in honor bound not to keep out " said Bank longer than necessity required, or to the Prej- udice of said Currency." But the rights and duties of the debtors were treated very tenderly. They had been *' very punctual and exact [this statement is controverted by well known facts] in the payment of the Interest thereof, for the carrying on those wise ends and purposes for which the same was emitted, and sundry of them by paying Interest, have been so exhausted in their Stock, that for the Government to exact the Payment in of said Bank in compleat Sums at one time, as the same was emitted, would inevitably tend to the Ruin and Destruc- tion of many Families, good Subjects of the King." ^ The issue was made, followed by another in 1731, and by one of £100,000 in 1733. The Bay authorities tried in vain to keep the Rhode Island bills out of their mar- kets. The credit of the bills at this time corresponded with that of Massachusetts. Afterwards it was relatively lower. Silver in Rhode Island was at 18s. per ounce in 1728 ; 22s. in 1731 ; 25s. in 1733.2

The drift of the colonial paper money was in one direc- The inevita- *^^^' The issuc was casy, and debts to the treas- bie course. ^^^ were easily coutrac^^^ • ^'^H actions were mor** difficult. New Hamppl^V^^all^'^ "^ '^^ ^^ngstop '

1 R. I. Tract*, viii. 22. ^ * ' n ^'

« N* H» P*"»' ^'»" . * ' '^'^

1713-45.] SILVER MOUNTS UPWARD. 483

for <£500 loaned there. It divided the whole payment into three parts, and attempted to raise the rate of interest from 3 per. cent, to 10 per cent, per annum. According to Governor Burnet, this little province was in great need of currency. A company of " private gentlemen " ^ at- tempted to make an issue of bills on their own account. Conservative Connecticut ^ was dragged into the current of inflation. In 1733 she issued <£20,000, and fixed the rate of silver at 20s. per ounce.^ The pressure for cur- rency was so strong that legislatures must yield. When government would not furnish " a medium," private companies did it. The New London Society for Trade and Commerce circulated notes which were current until prohibited by the authorities.* When arraigned, they asserted that their notes were not bills of credit but of exchange. This society ^ numbered some eighty members, scattered over the whole colony. It obtained loans from the colonial treasury on mortgages. It built vessels and undertook various adventures; issued notes having twelve years to run. Its prosperity lasted about two years. We traced the rise of silver, in inventories ^ of personal

1 N. 11. Prov. Pap., iv. 685.

2 See N. Haven H. C, i. 50, 52, for account of depreciation. » Trumbull, Ct., u. 48.

* Col. Rec. Conn, 1733, p. 421; 1735, p. 15. ^ Caulkins, New London, p. 243.

• Suffolk P. R., XXV. 301. 1728. Example of a mixed currency : —

Mrs. Elizabeth Berry. '£ s. d.

302 oz. of silver money and plate at 16 / per oz. . . . 241 12 00

61 shillings of English money 07 13 00

ILvon dollar 4 00

3 pistoles in gold, at 50 / 7 10 00

1 English guinea 3 03 00

1 piece of gold called a Carolis 3 00 00

In paper money 202 10 00

In 1737 {Bos. News Let., July 14), William Brown found con*- cealed 1 '^^ '^•^ "ilr--*!.. Jnr' »^ipor '^^ov* 6,000 virgin shillings of Nei*"

484 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-45.

estates, to the year 1717, as it went up steadily from 8^., the standard or practical par value. And we changes in compared the rated values fixed by law.^ In the ®*^^®'' inventories, prices went up steadily, and in general were slightly lower than those fixed by law for all transactions. As silver went higher, there was more relative fluctuation in values for the same year. I cite from the Suffolk Pro- bate Records : In 1719-20, silver was at 10s. to II5. per oz., gold at <£8 ; 1721, silver 12s. ; 1722, silver 12s. to 13s., gold <£9; 1726, silver 15s., gold <£11 10s.; 1727, silver 15s. ; 1728, at 16s. ; 1730, at 18s. ; 1731, at 18s. to 18s. 6rf. ; 1733, at 20s. ; 1734, at 22s. to 25s. ; 1735, at 26s. to 28s. ; 1736, at 27s. to 28s. M. ; 1737, at 27s. ; 1738, at 27s. to 29s. ; 1739, at 28s. to 30s. ; 1740, at 28s. to 30s. ;

1744, Adam Winthrop's silver was valued at 32s. In

1745, the price was 33s. to 36s., while gold was at £24. These prices of silver are an index of the disturbing force acting within this volume of irredeemable paper currency.

The greatest of our industries, the building of ships for export, was now being checked by the de- Bhipbuiid- rangement of prices. Natural advantages were not changed ; timber and constructive skill were here still. The laws of exchange had revealed at last the cramping and restrictive elements always inherent in the expansive forces of paper money. Peter Faneuil advised an English correspondent in 1736 : " You will see by these Ace** how dear build'g is : it is much cheaper to buy Vessells in the river of Thames than to have them built here for the Present." ^

But the derangement of values, and the embarrassment of trade through fluctuations of its circulating medium, only tell half the story of the tim*^ There was no lack of comprehension of the di£&(>"lh.nc -'.J *:h^ "nso"*idness

^ See above, p. 473.

2 Peter Faneuil to William LiiD> . - y 'v^ • .- • - -^..fi. ^oqI' at N. E. H. and Gen. Soo

1713-45.] MORE CURRENCY NEEDS MORE, 485

of the situation. But no one could conceive of any suf- ficient remedy. Governor Belcher's messages in 1733 and 1734 are as sagacious as if written in* the light of our modem experiences. He tells the legislators that the bills say " equal -to money," yet " I65. worth will not purchase 5s. lawful money." The several loans of the Province, " after so many years' indulgence to the bor- rowers," must be paid without delay. The bills of the private bank, or merchants' notes, were expected to assist the currency of the Province bills ; instead of that, they had hastened the general depreciation of paper.

This increasing flood of currency is the mysterious element, the fever germ, in the body economic and commercial. All collateral testimony indi- creases with cates a debauched public sentiment. The essays written at Cambridge for the master's degree^ are one index of opinions prevailing from year to year. In 1728 the thesis was, " Does the issue of paper money contribute to the public good ? " which was maintained in the affirm- ative. In 1738, " Is the abundance of paper money re- ceived from the neighboring colony a serious hindrance to our commerce ? " — affirmative likewise. As above said, the depreciation and the entanglement thereby but half reveals the trouble. Each inflation bred a new and a greater one ; the larger the quantity, the lower the quality of pstper, the greater and more intense was the demand for an increase of quantity. This demand came not from mere speculators and grasping traders ; it included some of the best citizens. These private banks represented a widely spread need of the public. I have mentioned Connecticut. New Hampshire had one also, but Massa- chusetts was the centre of their activity. Several were formed there, — the most important and significant iu 1740. It was called a " Land " or " Land and Manufae tures Bank." *'

-f. H S. 1880. pp. 124, 125-

486 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION, [1713-45.

This institution turned first property, then the credit A land based on property, into a paper promise which

^*** should circulate and perform the functions of

money. The capital was <£150,000 in <£100 shares. The whole cash payment was two shillings lawful money on each £100 subscribed. Each subscriber must make over an ^^ Estate in Lands to the Satisfaction of the Direc- tors," and then pay in three per cent, per annum " in any of the following Manufactures, being the produce of this Province, viz., Hemp, Flax, Cordage, Bar Iron, Cast Iron, Linnens, Sheep's Wools, Copper, Tanned Leather, Flax Seed, Bees'-Wax, Bayberry-Wax, Sail Cloth, or Canvas, Nails, Tallow, Lumber or Cord Wood, or Logwood, though from New Spain."

These products were to be received at the prices fixed by the directors, or the shareholder could pay his dues in the company's bills. " Artificers and Traders in this town of Boston in good Credit, who have not Real Estate to mortgage, but can give good personal Security to the Satisfaction of the Directors," were admitted to subscribe, each for one sh^re only.

The "Bills" issued were promises by the company, first, to receive the said bill as lawful money, then in twenty years to repay the "value thereof, in Manufac- tures of this Province." Briefly, the institution was this : a private corporation received land chiefly for its capital stock ; on this capital it received an income of three per cent, in produce or rough manufactures. For the list excludes cereals and the primary agricultural products, as well as fish and general merchandise. It issued bills of twenty shillings, more or less, to be circulated on the credit of this property pledged to the corporation. The issues were loaned on mortgages a^^*^ ordinary securities the loans and interest to be '•^poiV .... onrr-jany'^ bib^

or the aforesaid manufactuxc. - «"«> 1^.

capital was to be r'*«='*^ve'' ^^t ^* ,' 'ti i

1713-45.] APPETITE FOR POOR MONEY. 487

vided among the shareholders. No dividend is recorded, but the affair, as well as others of its kind, played a great part in the circulating currency. All these schemes tried to turn some kind of credit into money, without the modem factor of instant or possible redemption of the circulating medium in specie.

Nothing more clearly reveals the debauched condition of the public credit and the redundant issues of provincial paper, than the fact of these schemes tion of and the avidity of the people in seizing upon the money. In 1741 and 1742, parties advertised various merchandise to be sold for *' Manufactory bills." ^ Gov- ernor Belcher and his Council not only forbade the organ- isation of the company, but used all their power to pre- vent the circulation of the bills. Samuel Adams, father of the great reformer, and other justices of high position and character, resigned their ofiBees under pressure from the Executive. " All officers, civil and military, concerned in this combination," were dismissed. Colonels were urged by the governor, under his own hand, to dismiss any offi- cers guilty of promoting the circulation of the company's bills. But whole troops, almost whole regiments, in- sisted on using the bills at all hazards. Henry Lee, of Worcester, writes, ^^ I am determined to do what I can to encourage it (the Bank;, and think the priviledge of an Englishman is my sufficient warrant." Some towns re- solved that they woukl mte such money in the payment of rates. Thus eonftu^erl were the notions of iK>litical inde- pendence, finamfial stability, and solvent currency in the eighteenth century*

Among the din^^Um^ wwi the well-known Robert Ilale, of Beverly, wbr> wa» Mtn\p\H^l by tb^j Oiuneil of the Province U^ ^lantijf Up \$ft<^tui i\ut whtniut to iw****** iheir notiicje* We ^et at bb» uUrn^ tfi a imrrt^tu^ i*r**««*.

488 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION, [1713-45.

through a manuscript diary he made of a trip into Acadia in 1731. In the Bay of " Chiquecto " he met an Indian trader, Pierre Asueau, who came twenty miles across from St. John's with furs and seals for sale or barter. He '' would give no more (or scarce so much) for our goods as they cost in Boston, so that all the advance our traders can make is upon their Goods." ^ Nevertheless, all the Province was obliged by the proclamation of Governor Phillips to take Massachusetts bills, unless contracts specified otherwise. Money was the worst commodity there. Traders would not take it, and Indians would not part with their furs for it. Consequently there was little trade among the inhabitants ; each raised produce for him- self. The landlord of the tavern, though one of the richest men, had only 5c?. in money. Hale saw that the abounding promises of the state had fallen so low in credit that they would hardly perform the offices of money. Perhaps he believed that a bill based on actual property was more sound than a mere provincial promise to pay. The common circulation of these land and manufacture bills shows that the public shared this opinion, though it proved a delusion finally.

In describing the private currency or land bank move- oidand nicut, wc havc passed by an important change New Tenor, j^ ^^^^ p^y;^ emissious. This occurrcd in 1737

at Massachusetts, and in 1740 at Rhode Island ; and it separates the two kinds into " Old and New Tenor." ^ All issues had been made in bills for twenty shillings — more or less — " in value equal to money." Henceforth they were made in value equal to a specified weight of silver or gold. The new bills were promises to paj definite sums of specie. Some of the Rhode Island issue* promised the definite sum, or in addition " such a sum ii any medium of exchange a** ^l^aF "^^ rasping ^^ l^e Go^

1 MS. Diary, R. Hale, Am. A

2 Felt, ifcfa««. Cur^ icy ^ '^ ^^ ■•■ <"

17ia-i5.] ALL SORTS OF CURRENCIES. 489

eminent as will be equal to so much Silver or Grold/^ ^ The Massachusetts issues of 1737 were at 6s. Sd, per ounce in silver, or £A 18«. per ounce in gold ; the Rhode Island issues of 1740 were at 6«. 9d. per ounce in silver, or X5 per ounce in gold. The Massachusetts were receivable for all taxes, except import, tonnage, and light-house dues ; these latter were payable in specie, intended for the redemption of the bills. The Rhode Island were receivable for aU dues to the colony. The Massachusetts government attempted to fix the value of the new tenor at one for three of the old, but the current rate became one for four.^ The same proportion prevailed in Rhode Island.^

The latter colony found great difi&culty in collecting the loans, as they became due, by which the currency had been issued at various times. In 1741 there were more than five hundred suits at law in Providence County based on the mortagages and bonds of the bor- rowers.

At this period, 1741, we see in a merchant's letter^ a picture of the mixed and vacillating currencies, conflicting These all mingled in the Boston exchanges, each <'""®°*^*®^ struggling with the other. There were first " public bills " — old tenor — of four Provinces at 29«. per ounce of sil- ver ; new tenor of Massachusetts at Gs, 8c?., but current at 9«. Sd. ; Connecticut at 8s.; Rhode Island at 6s. 9d. Of private bills there was a parcel of £110,000 of "silver money scheme or merchants' notes," issued in 1783 in an endeavor to cut ofif the circulation of Rhode Island notes in Massachusetts. Being redeemed punctually in specie, these were a favorite tender at 33 i>er cent, better rates than Province bills. Another jKircel of X120,000, issued by wealthy mercliants in 1740, based on silver, to cut off

' '' rr. T.. vUl m, ^ F«lt, Mfixn. Currency, p. 03.

490 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [17ia-45.

the circulation of Land Bank notes. The latter bills were payable in twenty years, and " then only in goods at an arbitrary price." There was considerable gold and silver coin, but not in circulation. It was eagerly taken by the merchants for remittance to England.^

We see here two parties, one representing capital, Theoppos- *^^ desiring a circulating medium of money, ing parties, ^j. quickly Convertible into money by the best means known at that time. The other party represented property and credit, seeking to convert this credit into a circulating medium which should move independently of money, especially of silver and gold, the best form of money. The " fiat " or credit money party has continued and probably will always continue its expedients for dis- pensing with silver and gold. A currency, to be convert- ible and elastic, demands in the last resort a basis of money which the whole world will accept. In certain seasons this valuable commodity, silver or gold, becomes scarce ; just as water, abundant in the mountains, be- comes a commodity of enormous value in the desert. Possessors of gold or silver will always sell their com- modity dear when the supply is little and the demand is great. Probably ingenious speculators will always try to escape the final responsibility to pay gold and silver.

The Land Bank^ was a political as well as financial Political development. Parties divided, and legislators agitation. ^^.^^.^ elected or defeated, on this issue. The doggerel of the time shows, —

" The Land Bank and the Silver Scheme Was all last winter*s noisy theme, Till their debates, at length, were sent For issue to the Parliament."

A commission in 1741 reported that the Land Bank had issued <£35,582 in notes. Their opera^^'^"« > ^re stoppec

1 Proc. M, H. S. 1860, p. 19.

2 TTpfch?"«»on, O-*"*?'. r) R

1713-45.] EXHAUSTED FINANCES, 491

in 1742 by positive act of Parliament. The concern dragged for years through all the stages of loss and dis- aster ; the estates of surviving directors were finally as- sessed for losses incurred through the bank.

Massachusetts attempted to regulate her currency in 1742 by an "Equity Bill." Hutchinson had tried in vain to raise a loan of 220,000 oz. silver in England in 1740 for redeeming Province bills. This provided that all coined sterling silver should pass at 6s. 8c?. per ounce troy. All future emissions of paper were to be equal to hard money. All debts contracted within five years were to be paid in this money, unless otherwise specially agreed. This was expected to solve the troubles of mixed currencies. But it only proved that governments can make money, but cannot make a currency. Gresh- am's law worked steadily on. The specie-bearing notes were hoarded and disappeared from circulation, while the citizens were forced to use the poorer paper of the adjoining governments.^

The especial interest of the currency — now in 1745 — merges in the larger interest of the whole peo- rphe French pie. The economic and the political motive ®°®™y- joined with race antipathy in working toward the expul- sion of the French from Acadia and Canada. New England put forth all its strength in the memorable ex- pedition against Louisburgh. It was a colonial effort ; the rich home government did little, the poor colonists did almost everything, in this bold assault and capture of the French stronghold. Exhausted Massachusetts could not float any more paper money, though a sea of patriot- ism buoyed up her vessels and drove her expeditions northward. She resorted to a lottery, the shares payable one fifth in new tenor, remainder in old tenor, four for one, to raise £7,500 in the dire need of the treasury. We

^ For a history of the currency, and for its literature, see Nar fffid ^-^^ •»>/►..,>/» ^ XT 170-17''.

1713-46.] IRISH SKILL MAKES LINEN. 495

spun ^ and wove by hand, but with more skill than had prevailed among our homespun artisans. This new indus- try partially replaced in that region the declining manu- facture of woollens. As the commons had been fenced in, the number of sheep diminished. The production of domestic woollens increased in other districts, and fulling- mills were added in many towns as the settlements ex- tended.2 The governor of Massachusetts reported to the Board of Trade in ITSJ that the country people then made only one third of their own wear in woollen. Two thirds was of British manufacture imported. Allowing for the official interest in diminishing the home manufac- ture, it would appear that the increase of a more generous living, which all evidence shows, was put into imported luxuries.

The Scotch Irish manufactures of linen in New Hamp- shire had stimulated similar attempts in Boston. The public mind was much excited. Women, rich and poor, appeared on the common with their wheels, spinning in holiday pastime. The craze soon died out, but meanwhile it created a brick building for special instruction in spin- ning. In 1737 a tax on carriages was assessed to support this industrial institution. It was abandoned after a few years. New Hampshire received hemp for taxes at one shilling per pound .^

Great efforts were now made to extend the manufac- ture of canvas or duck. It had been made in small quan- tities.* Massachusetts g^nted a monopoly in 1726 ^ to a petitioner, and a bounty for each piece 35 yards long, 30

^ For an account of the Boston spinning school see ahove, p. Id8. Jos. Clewly, a millwright at Maiden, has a " twisting mill," to twist worsted, and makes thread. There is a " twine & line " spinner in Boston. Bos. Eve. Post, April 12, Oct. 13, 1735.

2 Hist. Dorchester, p. 602 ; Chase, Haverhill, p. 253 ; Felt, Ipswich, p. 96.

■ Belknap, N. H., ii. 31. * See above, p. 396.

* Mass. Arch., \ix. 251.

496 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-45.

inches wide, " of good even thread, well drove, of good bright color, being wrought wholly of good strong water- rotted hemp."

She also paid considerable bounties on the growing of hemp previous to 1720,^ and b\% especial act, in 1739, received it at 4rf. per lb., with fhix at 6cf. per lb., for taxes.^ Andrew Eliot, cordwainer^ advertises silk grass in ** Boston News Letter,*' March 14, 1720. Connecticut began to make linseed oil.^ In 1723 Khode Island loaned <£3,000 in paper money to one Bonlen, on condition that he would mauufaeture 150 bolts of duck per year. In 1731 the 150 lH>lt condition was released, and in 1736 the loan was extendeil three years longer.^ She paid bounties to the growers likewise.^ Bichard Rogers, of New Lon- don, Ct., had eight looms in 1724 weaving duck, having exjx^udoil £140, and in the following year it amounted to j£250. The Court gave him a monopoly of the mauafao- turo for ton years.* These liberal encouragements pro- duooil no i*i>rrt>sponding results. Prices inflated by paper currency forlnido new manufactures competing with JEo-

Contino[ent to the manufacture of flax we mav notice

P>^nff luki ^'^*^ business of Samuel Hall at Boston in 1722.* «i\i*h»««. u^, ^,j,^,^ j{j^^,^ ^q^^^j^ ^^^ 1^ jj^^j^ £j^^^ bneknun,

or will s<41 the latter ** ready made/' He is proficient in ** oiUlondorinc: anv silk," and in ** watering:, dviujr or scoar- iuij/* In an advortisemont of 172i\^ of a ••silk dyer jost ovmio fr»Mu li^Mulon," mon^ elaK>mto work is called for. as Imx^ades, volvots, satins moK^ur^. dam,*uik, needle -work, silks, woi^slod luwo, wit I .- - anoiy of other goods. In 173 1 Jamos Vinoein ;«i.x ' ^ >•-* »l.x»»iw>,.f jy^ jjj ^

^ Kvf. .NVv.* /.r.'?<^» l7iJl\ NUr-* *^ ... .^ ,., .; ^526L

* (\»*»»j. t\v AVv KIT, \v :v ^ . ^ v'^ ^'^. sa

* Sfh-is^ Hist. M*}<> » i* ^ • '

• /W., April V "^^

17ia-46.] PAINTED FANS AND IRON ORES, 497

of women's wearing apparel, with embroidery and needle- work ; glaze fine chintz and calicoes ; ^^ press, cailender and new pack goods for merchants." ^

We should look for fans amid the elegant belongings of those Boston dames whose refined luxury made such impression on Bennet. The fanmaker in Milk Street, in 1741, continues his fan-mounts, with painting, etc. When he cannot sell fans he is busy with ^^ all sorts of English and Dutch Toys." «

Iron, the great staple of industry, was produced in fair proportion to the development of other manufac- tures. Much the greater part of the metal used was obtained from the bog ores of southeastern Massa- chusetts. There was no large increase in the period we are treating. About 1721,^ the report to the home gov- ernment mentioned the iron-works as erecte<l ^^ many years past." It ran that small quantities of the metal supplied the common use of the people, but in shipbuilding ttuty preferred the better article from England. In the reiKirt of 1782, six furnaces and nineteen forges are set down for New England.

The mining of the more refractory ores yielded small results, though attempts were constantly made b» disc^iv- eries were announced in new distri(;ts. New Hampshire was excited considerably by these movements in 1719.^ The export of iron ore was prohibited, and land was granted in Portsmouth for the prrjjec^teil works. Direijt encouragement from royalty was aitked for and denied.^ Lieutenant Governor Wentwortb and other prominent cit- izens engaged in the proje^^t. But by 1736^ it was lan- guishing for the lar^k of skilled workmen, who could not lie retaine^l at the work in conjpetition with Either indaHtries.

A copper mine at Syifisbury, Conn., was open^^d in

1 Bof, AVwr, />e<,, Jutt^ *si^ 173L « li^a. Ek^. P(M, .Jun^ 1, 171L

• JMjc. S. Y'frk, r. T/jf^, * N, U, Proe, Pap^ uL IT/^

• N, H. Pr^fK. Pap,, ill. ITA. • heUuiMp, N. //^ il 29.

498

THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-46.

1721.^ A company had been formed to work it in 1707. An attempt at mining the same metal in Wallingford yielded but small results. Connecticut first proposed to establish a slitting-mill to draw iron into rods for nails and other purposes, bhe granted an exclusive right to Ebenezer Fitch and others at Stony Brook in 1716, and again at Suffield in 1722.^ I do not find any evidence that the attempt was successful. But metal-working was gaining ground. There was a mill " for grinding scythes," operated by Henry Gray, at Andover, Mass., in 1715.^ Nathaniel Ayres had developed good facilities for forging heavy iron-work at Boston by 1720. Sawmills, '* crinks for sawmills," iron-work for gristmills, and all kinds of anchors under 600 pounds, indicate a business of import- ance for the period.*

We should expect that fishhooks would be included early in the range of the mechanic arts. And we find in the inventory of Adam Bath,^ at Boston, in 1717, a variety, — 6,000 tomcod, 5,000 flounder, and 10,000 " small fish- hooks not finished." He had an assortment of wire, both iron and steel ; 2 bbls. of " fine card wire," and 3 lbs. of " card wire." This would indicate that he made cards as well as fishhooks.

America has ever kept the pioneer and the mechanic in close unison. While iron and silver smiths wielded Tubal Yankee in- Caiu's hammer in Boston, the hardy settlers at ^""^*>- Concord, N. H., in 1729, faced another problem. A gristmill had been started, with a crank shaft tugged over on horseback from Haverhill. Hardly at work, the shaft broke on a flaw. No blacksmith, the iron nurse of early communities, was there, but the settlers knew what they were about. i piir »f pitchpine k"o*:s made an impromptu forge-' '^'^'^^^ ^flo r\r\<^^ vr>r ^^^g^e^a <\iq^

^ CoL Rec. Conn. 17i » 3 Bailey, Andover, p. 575 » Suffolk Pr^h »-- ▼-

'•'<

k-z

•MT M 170<

1713-45.] BUSINESS OF NAIL MAKING. 499

bound the broken parts together and finally welded the shaft. The wound thus rudely healed never opened again, and the shaft did duty for many years.

The roUing and slitting-mill was an important industrial link when the human hand did most of the work ^^^^ y^ds now done by automatic machinery. The iron *°<*"^^- nail was an indispensable implement in every country ; in colonial life, where buildings for shelter and contrivances for new industry were constantly being made, nails were always needed. The farmer bought rods, and in many hours when debarred from outdoor labor, often at the kitchen fireside, he hammered them into nails, — as im- portant in his vocation as the claw tips of his own fingers were to the work of his own hands.

The mill took the bar iron, rolled it into a ribbon, and slit it into these rods. The first was established at Mil- ton, Mass. Peter Oliver, the celebrated loyalist and chief justice,^ established another at Middleboro', where he had lands and water power. It is said that he offered a re- ward to any one who should obtain the secrets of the slit- ting process, jealously guarded by the craft. One Hashai Thomas, of Middleboro', disguised himself, assumed sim- ple-minded ways, and idled away his time around the mills at Milton. Too lowly in appearance to excite sus- picion, he worked his way into the rude mill while the workmen were at dinner. Once in, his quick eye and natural mechanical gifts mastered the principles of the machinery. He constructed similar works at Middleboro*, and Oliver's rods soon rivalled those from Milton in the market.

Joseph Mallinson had a furnace at Duxbury as early as 1710. He appears at the General Court in 1739, casting and is granted 200 acres of wild land in consid- *""***'«*• eration of his services to the public in prosecuting his

^ I am informed by Mr. Weston, descended from a subsequent owner, that this mill was built between 1745 and 1747.

500 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-45.

private business. These consisted, according to his peti- tion,* in cutting ofiE importations of £20,000 per annum in hollow ware. He cast kettles, pots, and other ware in " sand moulds." Jeremy Florio, an " ingenious English- man," is reputed to have introduced the art of casting in sand instead of clay, which had been the conduit and vehicle of the fiery stream of metal. I remarked on the importance of the introduction of casting by Joseph Jenks iu the earliest davs of colonial manufactures. A century has passed, and it is interesting to note this change to sand moulds, — an important step in the development of east-iron.

Guns were made in 1740, according to the statement of Richard Clark, of Boston, merchant ; with " great expense and pains," he had brought the business to ^^ some good issue. -

Berkshire valley in ]Massachusetts contains rich beds of

soft ores of superior quality, such as appears in

Connecticut Conuccticut. At Salisbury ^ in the latter state.

volley. _ 1 • Hrr Ark

a bed was opened m 1740, and a furnace was established at Ancrani. For sixty years an average of 2,000 tons of ore was taken out at Salisbury. About two and a half tons of ore made one ton of pig, and about four tons made one ton of bar iron. The production of the wrought iron depended on a supply of charcoal, as well as of labor. In Rhode Island James Greene began " iron works for refining " on the south branch of the Paw- tuxe.t in 1741.*

New England exported ^ a little pig iron to England, Exports of beginning with 6 cwt. in 1734-35, rising to 94 ^^°" tons in 1740, and ending with 2 tons in 1745 ;

of bar iron, 4 cwt., 1 qr., 21 lbs. went over in 1740, a mere accident of trade. At the same time Pennsylvania was

1 Mass. Arch., lix. 314. « pglt, Salem, ii i^o

8 Trumbull, Conn., ii. 109. ^ R. I C, R-. ^

6 Bishop, Hist. Ma^uf., i. 62*

1713-45.] GREAT DISTILLERIES. 501

seuding moderate quantities ; Maryland and Virginia con- siderable quantities, or 2,000 to 3,000 tons in a year. The New England figures interest us, revealing what was and what was not. Iron was produced in quantities beyond domestic wants, for it was exported. So little went that it proves the manufacture languished for reasons we have seen. Paper inflation, without doubt, stimulated these manufacturing enterprises at first ; then that force soon expended itself. So long as the local demand equalled the supply, iron could be exchanged for other products, • however poor the circulating medium. When the supply rose to an outflow, it was checked by cheaper production in other quarters. The middle states had a better cur- rency than our colonies had.

The most important change in the manufactures of this period was in the introduction of distilleries for i*um. Massachusetts and Connecticut undertook the business, but Rhode Island surpassed both in propor- tion. Newport was growing rapidly in wealth, and in the means for commercial enterprise. Massachusetts held the fisheries by preoccupation, and by the advantage of nat- ural situation. Newport found an outlet for its increas- ing energies in the import of molasses and the manufac- ture of spirit. The consumption of beer — the favorite beverage of the seventeenth century — appears to have diminished. Lumbermen and fisher-folk demanded a strong stimulant to ameliorate their heavy diet of pork and Indian corn. And the trade in negroes from Africa absorbed quantities of rum. Rum from the West Indies had always been a large factor in the movement of trade. The eighteenth century brought in the manufacture of New England rum with far-reaching consequences, social as well as economical. It was found that the molasses could be transferred here and converted into alcoholic spirit more cheaply than in the lazy atmosphere of the West Indian seas.

502 THE PERIOD OF INFLA TION. [1713-45.

The beginnings of this great manufacture attracted lit- tle attention from the inquisitive royal officials, always watching to report any productive enterprise. There had been distilleries ^ here and there on a very small scale. In 173^, in their oft-quoted report, the Board of Trade found " several still-houses and sugar ^ bakeries." This hardly represents the progi'ess of the business. Connecticut ^ in May, 1727, prohibited distilling, as it made molasses dear, and the spirits were "usually unwholesome." But the prudent colonists could maintain this statute only six months, as it drove business to other colonies.

It is certain that a large business in distilling rum was transacted in New England, and that it culminated about 1735. In 1738, according to Burke, the quantity in Bos- ton was as " surprising as the cheap rate at which they vend it, which is under two shillings a gallon.* On Price's plan there were eight distilleries.^ Between 1735 and 1742, the quantity of molasses distilled in Boston fell off two thirds. The inflation and derangement of the cur- rency deranged this industry, as well as the fisheries and shipbuilding. A still had been at work in Boston as early as 1714.^ They extended into the country towns. One was built at Haverhill in 1738."^

Long Wharf in Newport was alive with molasses com- ing in and rum going out. The docks in Boston were busy also. Mr. Thomas Amory ^ built a " still-house " in 1722, bringing pine logs 28 ft. long, 18 in. diameter, from Portsmouth for his pumps. In 1726 he orders a copper still of 500 galls, capacity from Bristol, England. The

1 Suffolk P. R.y xiv. 133.

^ At these sugar-houses they made double and treble refined, with "powder " grades. Bos, News Letter, April 2, 1725. « Col. Rec. 1727, pp. Ill, 138.

* Rum was 3s. 6rf. per gallon in 1722. M. A., cxix. C74. ^ Mem. HiH. Bos., ii. 447. ^ Mem. Hht. Bos., ii. 447.

•^ Chase, p. 309. s MS. Letters.

1713-45.] LUMBERING YIELDS TO POTASH, 503

head was to be large in proportion, the gooseneck to be of fine pewter and two feet long, with a barrel in proper proportion to the whole still ; the price in Boston to be 270 per cent, advance over Bristol. Unless the making could be done in Bristol for twopence sterling per pound, he would rather have the metals shipped to be made up in Boston. Mr. Amory also distilled turpentine and rosin. He drew pitch from North Carolina, sending back rum and other merchandise in exchange.

Connecticut^ granted the exclusive right to make molasses from Indian corn to Edward Hinman, of Strat- ford, in 1717.

There are indications that the business of making lum- ber, sawing boards and shingles, so profitable in Decline of the seventeenth century, was now waning. In ^"^^"°8* 1718 they found it better to export timber from Maine, rather than to saw it into boards.^ They made a second attempt to manufacture tar in the Kennebec country. The best and most accessible trees in all the river valleys of our colonies had fallen under the pioneer's axe. A product less bulky in transport, more valuable in kind than lumber, must be had from the remote districts now invaded by settling families.

Potash, or the " fixed and vegetable salt of ashes," came from this onset of the pioneer's axe, and the purification of the settler's torch. The circula- tion of money, though it was poorer than the wood, and almost as perishable as the cinders themselves, brought ashes out of the farther districts.^ It was claimed in 1717 * that a laborer working one year could cut, clear, and burn the wood from four acres in any of the American colo- nies. This fire upon four acres would yield eight tons of potash. A gang of three men, cutting, burning, " boiling

1 Col, Rec, 1717, p. 25.

2 Bourne, Wells and Kennebunk, p. 302.

« Prov. Pap. N. H,, iv. 836. * Force, Tract, i. 20, 21.

604 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-45.

and managing the ashes " on twelve acres, would produce twenty-four tons of potash, "a commodity of universal consumption," worth from <£40 to «£60 per ton.

A new enterprise, small in pounds, shillings, and pence, A paper- ^^* large in influence over the mind, — for it °^* affected the spread of intelligence, — established

the first paper-mill in our colonies. Daniel Henchman and others obtained some aid from the General Court, and began the manufacture of paper at Dorchester, Mass., in 1728.^ According to the Board of Trade report, three years later, they produced <£200 in value annually.

In the necessary article of leather we were able to fur- nish nearly enough for our home consumption.^ Some things were produced which have dropped out of use. Bayberry ^^ smilc at the gathering of wax or tallow from **"®'^' bayberry bushes by the roadside and in the pas- tures. But Connecticut^ legislated to prevent the strip- ping of the bushes before the tenth of September ; it was alleged that " great quantities " were illegally collected before the authorised date. And I find the wax and candles in a Boston inventory.*

The manufacture of hats attracted much attention and censure from the mother country. The industry is started in the " principal towns " by 1721.^ The company of hatters in London complain to the Board of Trade, 173|, that the supply had much increased, and that "great quantities" were exported from New England to Spain, Portugal, and the West Indies. This led to the act (5 George II., 1732) to restrain the number of apprentices in the colonies, and to prevent the export of hats.

Tobacco, which was grown in small quantities and im- ported from the Southern colonies, was manufactured in

1 Hist. Dorchester, p. 612 ; one ^homas, Hist, Printing, i. 25. a Doc. N York, v. 597. « Cd. Rec. 1724, p. 461.

* Suffolk P. R., xxiii. 38. fi Doc. N. York. V. ^^^

1713-45.] STABILITY OF LAND VALUES. 505

Boston. Samuel Weekes,^ in 1740, leaves a variety of apparatus, "tin tobacco moulds," "tobacco paper," and twine, an engine, and a press. A wire sieve probably served for separating the cut tobacco.

Wigs outlasted the anathemas of Judge Sewall, and the fashion supported at least one " peruke maker " in Boston. Samuel Dix ^ leaves nearly .£40 worth of assorted hair in 1736, assorted in "tye," "necklock," *' grizzled," and other varieties.

Boston had employed silversmiths always; by 1726 Newport had accumulated wealth sufficiently to ga^^,. put a good share of the incoming West Indian "^****- silver into domestic ware of all kinds. Samuel Vernon ^ and six others are named who for half a century prose- cuted the manufacture. It added to the luxury of living, and funded the silver in convenient form when paper was of uncertain value.

The great fundamental basis of all the productive activities, whether in manufactures at home or in fish- eries and commerce abroad, the land,* — reservoir of

1 Suffolk P. R,, XXXV. 384. « 75;^.^ ^xxii. 525.

' Newport H. Mag., ii. 187.

^ The following letter shows us the operations of some of the leading men in Massachusetts in land. The mode of interesting English capitalists is given {Sewall Papers, Am. Ant. Soc.) : —

Major Sewall to J. Dummer.

Salem m N. Eng"- June 3*, 1717.

Sir I Congratulate you on y" Safe Arrival of our good friend, M' Jon' Belcher, who is got Safe to us tho* our coast is much In- fested with Pyrates whose arrival is Cause of rejouceing to y* Province in Gen". His Excellency our Govern' his adm" hitherto is wonderfull Acceptable y* Gen" Court now Setting. I hope all things will run Smooth if you remember I gave you y* trouble of Finding out M' Allen to treat about a tract of Laud that if any part Should fall within his pretensions what he would ask for a Release &c.

We have a Deed of Conveyance from y" Native Indian proprietor thereof & pray you to Inform us whether you think it might be obtained from y* Crowne a Confirmation thereof whereby persons that

506 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-46.

patience and storehouse of industry, — changed but little as the tides of paper inflation swept over it. Actual values change little ; even nominal prices in paper fluctuate less than we should expect. In 1711 three acres of woodland are quoted at <£15, " paper or silver." ^ In 1737 an inventory ^ in current paper prices gives 4 acres and 3 roods woodland at <£25 ; also 6^ acres pasture at <£32. These are lands well situated near vil- lages in Massachusetts. In 1716 laud near the bridge in Pawtucket,^ then in Massachusetts, was valued at £3 per acre ; " further ofiE " it stood at <£1. In 1719, 7J acres on the " Hartford Meadow " was worth <£8 * per acre, while in 1737 " plow land " near Boston was inventoried at <£9.^ Farms at Worcester in 1739 are offered, by Irish settlers wishing to change their residence, at .£300, «£900, and .£1,000. The sizes are not given, but they are called

"good." 6

Wheat had almost passed out of cultivation in the third

are able would freely disburse for y* Settlem* thereof which would be a benefitt to many & hurt or damage to None, & y* more this wide, vast, woodey Country is Subdued and Settled y* more British Manufacture will be used in. Sometime there will be an Incredible M th d f consumption of English commodities here in this North- land specu- ern English America pray S' Give me a Line on this head we would willingly part with Some few Guineas rather then fail to help forward therewith & take you in as a proprietor Equal with us if your phancy leads you thereto our Leiu* Gov' your Bro* is chosen one of y* Council. As opportunity presents I pray yo*" favour as to my Son Samuel Sewall for Some buisness ; he is married and Setled in Boston if y* Assiento Comp' Should cause any branch of their Commerce to Extend to New Eng* & if they would please to make tryal of him I hope they would find him Capable &

Just.

Yo' obed* Ser*

Stephen Sewall

1 Barry, Massachusetts, ii. 89. ^ Suffolk P. R., zxxiii. 319.

* Goodrich, p. 32.

* Hartford P. Rec, Inv'y John Eliott.

s Suffolk P. /?., xxxiii. 319. « Boston Gazette, April 2, 1739.

1713-45.] TIMBER NOW NOT AN EVIL, 607

generation of farmers. A little was sown on new up- land clearings, as in the Connecticut valley,^

* "^ Wheat.

but the supplies came generally from New York and the Southern States. Indian corn was the staple grain of our colonies. The production of cider increased in this period. It is said that one village of forty families made 3,000 bbls. in 1721, while a larger one made 10,000 bbls. This proportion is exceeded relatively by the actual record of Judge Joseph Wilder, of Lancaster, Mass., in 1728. He made 616 bbls. in that year.^

The old pioneer methods of grappling with the wilder- ness were dropping out. Waterbury, Conn., like other frontier towns, had been wont to burn the undergrowth in the woods to improve the common pasture. In 1713 it suspended this operation for seven years, that young trees might grow. Growing timber had ceased to be the greatest evil.

The Indian trade, in these days of their degeneracy, afforded but little satisfaction. Massachusetts in 1724 ^ was obliged to forbid citizens selling strong drink to them, or bartering goods for the Indians' arms and clothing. Connecticut regulated the lending arms or ammunition to friendly Indians, who yet might be soon found fighting for the French.*

New Hampshire had a project for pushing a truck- house as far north as the Pemigewasset River.^

The French excelled in tact and the facility for trading with the Indians ; but the English goods were superior and cheaper. New York ^ made stringent laws for pre- venting the sale of Indian goods to Frenchmen ; yet the trade went on. A certain amount of furs came through Albany, and New England reaped some advantage from them in her exchanges with that point. "^

1 Judd, Hadleyy p. 362. ^ Lancaster Records^ p. 332.

» Mass. Arch., xxxi. 111. * Col. Rec. Conn. 1723, p. 381.

» Prov. Pap. N. H., v. 95. « Doc. N. Y. Col., v. 577,643,687.

508 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION, [1713-45.

The general improvement in living and the increase of comforts I have indicated manifested itself in the gradual use of carriages. At the turn of the century, they were established as a luxury in Boston ; a few years later they were spreading into the smaller towns. In 1712 Jonathan Wardell set up the first hack- ney-coach in Boston.^ In 1713 Margaret Sewall, Ste- phen's daughter, at Salem, had a very di£Bcult journey in a calash ^ from " beyond Lyn to Mistick," and " near Cambridge." They fed the horse with oats at Lewis's, a noted road tavern near Lynn, and drove by the " Blue Bell," another hostelry. They gathered " bearberries " by the wayside.

In 1717 ^ Moses Prince, brother of the annalist, saw at Gloucester a carriage of two wheels for two horses ; the drawing of it was said to resemble a modern cab. Cap- tain Robinson, of " schooner fame," had built it for his wife. It marks a change in the ways of travel and the habits of general living that in 1728 John Lucas, of Bos- ton, ofifers the use of a coach and three able horses to any part of the country passable for a coach, at the common price of hackney saddle-horses. This was for the ani- mals ; then he charged for the '' coach & harnish as one horse," and for the driver 258. per week. Within Boston he charged " 88. a time." On the Sabbath he carried to "Church or Meeting, for 88. per Day, which is 28. a time." * By 1732 ^ carriages were so common that at the funeral of Lieutenant Governor Tailer a great num- ber of the gentry attended in their own coaches, chaises, etc. In 1738 the Province tax on coaches, chairs, etc., was carefully collected.® In 1724 a sleigh is noticed in Boston.

The second quarter of the century established a much

1 Mem. Hist., ii. 452. ^ Sewall MS., Am. Ant. Soc.

8 Felt, Salem, i. 618. * New Eng, Weekly Jour., May 27, 17:r.

» 76w?., i. 315. « Bos. Eve. Post, July 10, 1738.

1713-46.] INCREASING LUXURY, 509

higher standard of comfortable living than the first gen- erations of colonists could afford. The change was

111* J • i 1 «• J "I Comfort be-

marked by improvement in the ways of travel comes lux- as well as in other comforts. By 1740, when Bennett made his visit to Boston and wrote his account,^ instead of the occasional coach of state, a lofty luxury, carriages of various kinds had become an ordinary com- fort. Judge Sewall took a lady on the pillion to a lec- ture or other social gathering as " a treat." Now the ladies "take the air" in a chaise or chair, drawn by one horse and driven by a negro servant. The gentlemen ride out "as in England," some in chairs, others on horse- back and with negro lackeys attending them. And more significant of their departure from colonial simplicity is the fact that they travelled on business in the same man- ner. In pleasure or business their habit was the same, and the sturdy men of affairs were taking on the manners of a gentry. The black laboring-man had become a body servant ; for wherever there was wealth, luxury crept in. Newport followed Boston closely.

Boston's largest communication was still along the northeastern shore ;2 and great improvements Roads and were made in the roads and ferries of New *™^®'* Hampshire.^ But the increasing intercourse southwest- ward, and on to New York, gradually improved the ways in that direction. The grandsons of the men who ex- pelled Roger Williams were travelling and trading so much among his descendants that they were willing to establish better communication. In 1713 * the two col- onies built the first bridge at Pawtucket, and three years later a Massachusetts committee laid out a highway con- necting with it. Rhode Island, always late in ihiproving

1 Proc. Mass. H. S, 1860, p. 124.

2 For detail of this route in 1713, see Essex Inst, xi. 24. 8 Prov. P. N. H., iii. 803 ; and N, H. H. C, vii. 354.

* Croodrich, Pawtuckety pp. 32, 141.

510 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION, [1713-45.

its ways of travel, laid out highways by an act in 1725,^ which was extended in 1741. By 1736 the great increase of travel required a line of stages between Newport and Boston. One Thorp received exclusive privileges for seven years.^

The precursors of the great modem " express " organ- isations began early in the century. Peter Belton, " late post-rider," started that sort of communication in 1721, once a week, from Boston, on Tuesdays, returning from Newport and Bristol on Saturdays. He carried " bundles of goods, merchandize, books, men, women and children, money, etc." He let horses with side saddles, etc., without charge for returning them. He kept a tavern or ordinary " at the sign of Rhode Island and Bristol Courier in New- bury St. Boston." The same business is advertised by Edward Brown in 1740, and by Jonathan Foster in 1745.3

Along the interior and remote highways, carts with

two to six oxen * made their toilsome way.

and Sound Tradition puts the first passa&re of " a team "

shore. , . .

from Connecticut to Providence in 1722.^ This is probably true, for the General Court of Connecticut found it necessary in 1724 to license a tavern at the ferry house on the east side at New London, to be " well pro- vided for the entertainment of men and with a good stable for horses." ® The first bridge over the Pawcatuck between Connecticut and Rhode Island, at Shaw's Ford, now Westerly, was said to have been built by contribu- tion in 1712. The second structure dated from 1735.'^ These changes indicate increasing travel over the least

1 R. 1. C. R.y iv. 364 ; v. 40. 2 /j^v/.^ jy. 527.

« Bos. News Let., April 17, 1721 ; Bos. Eve. Post, April 28, 1740 ; Bos. News Let., Aug. 8, 1745. * Proc. Mass. H. S. 1860, p. 124.

» R. I. Hist. Mag., vi. 19. « Col. Rec. Conn. 1724, p. 480.

' Denison, Westerly, p. 138.

1713-46.] DIFFICULTIES OF TRANSPORT. 511

frequented part of the route between Boston and New York. Madam Knight had some of her most lively ex- periences along the south shore of Khode Island about twenty years before. On the other end of the route, Ebenezer Hurd^ in 1727 began to ride post from New York to Saybrook once in two weeks. This humble forerunner of the mails, telegraphs, and telephones of the New York and New Haven line rode his circuit for forty- eight years. In 1717 the colony had granted the privi- lege of a wagon from Hartford to New Haven for seven years.2

In the North, travel was extending and pushing out the pioneer routes. Privileges for ferries ^ were being granted almost constantly in New Hampshire from 1721 to 1743, Some time between 1730 and 1739 the Fore River was bridged at Stroud water in Maine.*

The ways were not all smooth, nor did the New Eug- landers aU ride in chairs with glossy-faced black Hard ways lackeys in waiting. On the frontier lines, the ®^ ^'^*^®^* struggle with nature still went on. We get occasional glimpses of lusty pioneers, the same in kind with those who made the seventeenth century New England; men and women, too, they made their mark. Captain East- man was on horseback dragging a barrel of molasses over the then rough ways of Haverhill ^ by a car. This vehi- cle consisted of a pair of shafts fastened to the horse and resting on the ground ; across these, and near the ends, the cask was lashed. Rising and jolting over a hilltop, the lashings of the barrel gave way ; it rolled to the bottom, smashing its hoops and sweetening the poor earth as it went. " Oh dear ! " exclaimed the perplexed pioneer, as he looked back upon the possibilities of cakes and

1 N. Haven Gazette, Jan. 19, 1786.

^ Col Rec, Conn, 1717, p. 37.

8 Prov, Pap. N. H., iii. 803 ; Totcn Papers N. H,, ix. 89.

* Willis, Portland, p. 441. » Chase, p. 256.

512 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-45.

pies, now wasted and lost. " My wife will comb my head — yes, and harrow it too."

If any one thinks that I have marked too distinctly the economic features in the history of our or- With French gauisation and settlement, let him consult the comparative statement of the Jesuit Charlevoix ^ at this time. He saw that the New France lacked just what the New England had : " there reigns an opulence by which the people seem not to know how to profit; while in New France poverty is hidden under an air of ease which appears entirely natural. The English col- onist keeps as much and spends as little as possible ; the French colonist enjoys what he has got, and often makes a display of what he has not got. The one labors for his heirs ; the other leaves them to get on as they can, like himself."

No line of development in our institutions reveals this forecasting spirit and policy of our fathers more clearly than the community in our towns. The founding and organisation of a town exhibits a political prescience and sagacity admired by all the world. But it shows more. Into these structures of common life the New England freemen breathed a spirit of order, a regulation of cus- tom, which conveyed and moulded all their living, — the outcome of their daily desire, domestic and religious, eco- constant uomic and political. This evolution of the com- of com'STu- niunity was indicated in the beginning.^ The nities. process in no wise changed after a century of

growth. The elder towns, having conceived, labored for new communities ; parturition was hard, birth slow and difficult. When accomplished, this outgrowth was not a mere helter-skelter irruption of families into the domain of nature ; nor was it a race of individuals for the wealth and opportunity of a new district. A well-ordered eom- miipity, strong in a common purpose, rich in inherited

^ Cited by Parkman, Old Beg,, p. 393. * See above, p. 47.

1713-45.] FRONTIERS MADE INTO TOWNS. 513

thrift, sprang ready armed from the Olympiau creator of bodies politic, and planted the germ of a state upon the rocky soil.

The delayed settlement of Brimfield, Mass.,^ already referred to,^ was organised by slow and painful steps in the period now under consideration. All the liberal privileges of the first grant having been exhausted, new concessions were obtained from the General Court. The halting course of this town reveals the difficulties some- times encountered, and it marks by contrast the general success of the system.

An extension of time was obtained. In the first allot- ment only eight lots contained as much as 120 acres ; out of 67 lots the majority ran from 50 to 80 acres. In some instances one son of an original grantee had a lot also. The settlement dragged, and in 1731, after much diffi- culty, the committee of the General Court awarded 69 lots of 120 acres each, increasing the original grants gen- erally. A remainder was held in common. Then the first town meeting was held, and constables, surveyors of highways, " houg refes," fence-viewers, " Thying men," etc., were appointed. It was remarked in 1717 that the little hamlet had remained nearly seven years without a "teaching priest."

Common lands were generally administered for the di- rect benefit of the freemen and their descendants. This custom was not invariable, but it was the rule.^

About 1726 there was a marked movement in the older towns, like Boston and Salem, on the part of individuals, to buy wild lands in the new towns, and in the commons of the old. Prices in Hampshire were from one to three New England shillings per acre.*

In settling Penacook,^ N. H., where the Contoocook

* History, pp. 241, 260, 265, 281. 2 gge above, p. 404.

» Norwalk, Ct,, Rec, p. 111. * Judd, Hadley, p. 299-

« N. H. H. C, i. I5t, 155.

v\

514 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-45.

empties into the Merrimac, each settler paid the Province Organising a ^^ ^^^ ^^^ right in 1725. If he failed of '' faUow- new town, jj^^^ fencing, or clearing one acre " within a year, he was to forfeit <£5 " to the community of settlers." When 100 were admitted settlers they were empowered to hold proprietary meetings. Three rights remaining were reserved, — one for the first settled minister, one for a parsonage, one for the " use of the school forever." At the first meeting, the proprietors resolved that no lot should be sold to any one without the '' consent of the community first obtained, under pain of forfeiture." In 1730 they voted 50 acres of land to the blacksmith.^ This making an institution of the most necessary trades was common. At Keene, N. H., in 1737,^ 100 acres of "mid- dling good land" and «£25 was voted to any one who would found a sawmill," prices for sawing for proprietors to be fixed at 20s. per M., " slit work " at 3s. 10c?. per M. In 1738 a set of blacksmith's tools was bought by the town. In 1737 the proprietors had allotted 100 acres of " upland " to each house lot. Ipswich ^ granted land for a house to Samuel Stacey, a clothier, that he might carry on his trade. And Cambridge voted in the negative in 172 1 on the proposition to grant <£50 to Joseph Hanford *' to fit him out in the practice of physic."

The growth of the proprietary meeting into the town

meeting is interestiner everywhere. The smaller

and town commuual body enlarged gradually into the more

«^S popular and political body, but not without halt-

ing, and even backward steps. The town of Colchester,^ Conn., voted in 1714 : '' Whearas, we formerly granted our lands to perticqler persons by a towne voat," in future the power was vested w^holly in " the proprietors

oa M Colchester."

and oppoA740 New Hampshire empowered two congrega-

mgg^, strong ^.c..L161. » Ibid., ii. 76, 79.

' Ci^ by Farkman, Old Reg., * Records, p. 13.

1713-46.] A VIOLENT CLERGYMAN. 515

tibns in Chester,^ one " called Congregationalists, and one called Presbyterians," to meet and act separately in rais- ing money, and in assessing taxes for support of the min- isters respectively, and for building and repairing meeting- houses.

The ecclesiastical and political machinery of the time ran in close contact. Worcester, in 1724, holds Ecciesiasti- a town meeting to see if in choosing a minister *^ customa. the " town will concur with the Church's choice." ^ The good Puritans generally preferred ecclesiastical to civil law. There were few lawyers. Connecticut limited the number to eleven for the whole colony in 1730, but repealed the restriction shortly.^ A volume might be written to display the curious social life these records show in the New Hampshire towns. In 1723 Colonel James Davis and his wife Elizabeth being about to join the church at Durham, N. H., their former pastor presents a formal document * to enter his objection " by virtue of y® com- mimion of churches." He makes four counts against the husband, and three against the wife, all most edi- fying : " 2^ crime is his Sacrilegious fraud in his being The ringleader of the point peoples first rase of my first years sallary, retaining 16 pounds thereof now almost sixteen years."

And again, "4*^ his late wresting the Law of this Province in his partial Spite ag^ his own legal minister for so innocently playing at nine pins at a house no ways license for a Tavern . . . besides his the s^ Jas. Davis being so desperately & notoriously wise in his own con- ceit, his pretending to have so much religious discourse in his mouth, and yet live so long (40 years) in hatred unto contempt of & stand neuter from our crucified Saviour."

Among other faults of the lady he cites, " Z^ crime is

1 N. H. Town Pap., ix. 105. « Wwcester Rec, ii. 27.

.« Palfrey, N, E,, iv. 682. * N, H, Town Pap,, ix. 236.

516 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION, [1713-45.

her being disorderly as a busy body at every one of her husbands Courts to be his advisor or intermedler in his passing judg™* in any ease, as if he sh^ regard her more than his oath, the Law or evidence."

The gentle shepherd proposes to prove his allegations, then to turn these children of light into minions of dark- ness by due process of ecclesiastical procedure : " As bap- tized children of the covenant by their prop' minister, they are both of y°^ laid under y® censure of this pasto« ral rejection as unbaptized heathen man and woman, as Warranted by the law of Christ in Titus 3:10, I Tim« 1:20, Titus 2:15, Math. 16:19, Mai. 2:7, Saml. 15:23, Math. 3:10, Acts 8:13:21:23, untill publick Confession & amendm^ of life."

These were rude and frontier districts, where the minis- ters' games of bowls made ecclesiastical politics, and where judges' wives interfered in the court docket. In the pas- sion of the moment these childlike disputants seized any means of social contention ; ecclesiastical and civil law were caricatured alike.

The parish of Durham was fruitful ground for those Acurioua curious ccclcsiastical movements which reveal ^**^°* the springs of social life in the eighteenth cen- tury community. Fifteen years later Rev. Hugh Adams ^ brought a suit in court, and inveighs against the appellees, his " enemy," after the manner of the Jews in a more primitive period of civilisation. He had been an advocate of Governor Belcher, and the larger politics of the Prov- ince are mingled with these parish doings and personal disputes. The clerical plaintiff is confident in the justice of his cause ; moreover, he has discovered that the " Pa- triarch Joseph (under the infallible Inspiration of the Holy Ghost) made it a law unto this day " that Pharaoh should receive the fifth part (Gen. xlvii. 26). The cas- uistic method of rehabilitating the modern Pharaoh is

1 Prov. Pap. N, H., v. 36, 37.

1713-46.] A SOPHISTICATE PARSON. 617

most ingenious, and only possible to an eighteenth cen- tury shepherd at loggerheads with his lambs. His " con- science" has labored in the deep conviction that when any " Kings Representatives in his Court of Equity '" shall decide any case therein according to "good con- science," they shall be " distinctively remunerated." But as he is '' justly " convinced that three of the Council will favor his opponents, he rules them out, and promises the whole fifth of the final award to the three others, who will be in his favor. He relied on the casting vote of the gov- ernor, probably, for he makes a bond for himself and heirs, duly witnessed, agreeing to pay the fifth part of the expected judgment to the favoring judges, as above stated. The governor was to communicate the matter of the bond to each of the three councillors, but it was to be " con- ceal'd prudently from every other living person." If either should decline the gratuity, and yet should concur " in the full judgment of my honest case," then the whole sum should go to the governor himself. This was in- tended in no wise " as a bribe, but a just tribute for Equitable judgment as required by the Supreme Judge (Komans xiii. 4, 6).

Xhe best-laid plans will fall out, and the governor did not choose to wrap himself and Rev. Hugh Thegor- Adams in prudent concealment. Far from it ; ^u^'thS*" he found his political account in " communicat- **"*^°' ing narratively" the contents of the bond in quarters where it did the wily governor the most good and the art- less shepherd the most harm. The selectmen of Durham caught the Scripturally instructed litigant on the hip and threw him out of the parish. In 1739, the year after the bond was executed, Adams ^ wrote to the governor com- plaining bitterly of his betrayal ; and he stated that the bond became " my most scandalous crime for unsettling me." But he protests against its being construed as a

1 N, H, Prov, Pap.y v. 39.

*sri'-<w

618 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [17ia-46.

bribe, which he jibhors in giver or receiver. " Besides if mistaken and njisimprov'd as a bribe, I've supposed it my Duty, by my said Bond of security upon my Heirs and Ex- ecutors, for an Antidote against any real Bribes intended or proflfer'd by implacable enemies." What Jesuit casuist could exceed this distinction between a ^^ mistaken anti- dote " and a " real bribe " ?

If beaten in the Province and the town, that forum where ecclesiastical machinery, political manoeuvre, and social quarrelling united in a hotbed of intrigue, the par- son could wrap his gown about him and renew the fight on another ground. The citizen has failed, but the minis- ter towers above a poor governor in New Englapd, like an archangel hovering over a worm. He arraigns the earthly magistrate, who " so hurtfully trespassed against and de- spised me, and the most High God, as evident from Luke X. 16, xvii. 3, 4 ; II Cor. v. 20, therefore as though God Beseecheth you by me, I pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to the God of Spirits." He begs the governor to repent, in order that the mighty Adams, by his " Mas- ter's commandment, may say I forgive you."

Our forefathers were strong in affairs, and virtuous in ordinary living ; they were well grounded in common sense, but the things beyond sense turned their of Provi- heads. They made the spiritual life — that un- seen world so immanent and always impending over them — into a travesty of this petty world. It will be observed that the casuistical Adams, so shifty with his texts, puts " inspiration " with a capital /, after the method of his time. Special providence — the actual and mirac- ulous interference of the Deity in our common affairs — was quite as fertile a field for fancy as these egotistic Scriptural interpretations of Adams. Rev. George Cur- wen, a worthy member of a prominent Salem family, re- cords gravely among other providences, " When but an Infant of a yr & half old, I fell into ye fire, & God

1713-46.] TOWNS SUPERVISE CLOSELY. 619

might have so ordered it yt yr by I might have been sent to have burnt Eternally in hell."

Church and state, town and parish, meeting: for reli- gious exercise and meeting tor freemen s privi- lege, all worked together in embodying the com- troi of town mon ideas of the people. An essential part of every community was in the control of its own affairs, — a control to be maintained bylTTiomogeneou^^ voters.

The freemen clung closely to their right of keeping out outsiders. In 1714 ^ Boston reiterates that no one shall entertain a stranger without notice to the town authori- ties, with a description giving the circumstances of such stranger, etc. No person settling could open a shop or exercise his trade without a certificate from the town clerk. In 1723 ^ " great numbers have very lately been transported from Ireland to this Province," and Boston, fearing that they might become chargeable, requires that all be registered. Cambridge^ in 1723, having suffered through the entertainment of " sundry persons and fam- iles," provides that no freeholder shall admit a family " for the space of a month," without a grant previously obtained from the town. Sometimes this oversight was exercised by the selectmen and town officers, but often the town itself votes on these questions. Worcester * in 1745 votes that John be allowed to build a house and occupy a garden on the public land, " provided that what is now don dont opperate against ye Town, So as to Invalidate the warning him out of Town & his being Caried away, and that he be a Tenant at will." No inhabitant could receive cattle or horses to run on the common unless the animals belonged to a proprietor or freeholder. Warning out of town was common enough. The actual occurrences hardly need particular mention.^

1 Bos. Toicn Recy p. 104. « Ihid., p. 177.

• Paige, p. 11:9. * RecordSj ii. 57.

» Chase, Haverhill, p. 279 ; Worcester Rec, ii. 38, 123.

520 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-46.

Ehode Island was so liberal iu her ecclesiastical polity as to worry and dismay the seventeenth century men of the Bay, making their descendants groan through many generations. Though heaven and helf were loosed, the strings of economic management and town thrift were held stiffly enough to gratify any Puritan. In 1737 the council clerk of Portsmouth gives certificate to the town council '^ North Kingstown, on account of Matthew Allen, " desirous to settle in your town with his family, if you will admit thereof, and whenever you order the contrary this town wiU receive them again." ^

Our more complex system of civilisation has to struggle with masses and to deal with vice and crime in bulk. It has lost some of the excellent details of management which careful oversight of communal affairs developed in the early New England citizen. Salem ^ in 1726 had a loose woman in charge, and the town provided a spinning-wheel, a pair of cards, and some wool, that " she may be em- ployed."

An interesting study in social history might be made Indentured f^^m the Scattered facts on record concerning aervants. |.jjg white male and female immigrants appren- ticed or bound to service. This went on more or less from the beginning. Besides the influx of freemen and freewomen, gentle or yeoman, there was a number of ban- ished convicts and a steady stream of laborers, forced to sell their service to pay the expense of this transfer to the better opportunities of the New World. Valuations of unexpired serving-time were common matter in inven- tories. Advertisements ^ for the sale for seven years or less were common.

Among the first arguments used against negro slavery was the proposition that blacks, coming in to he bought^

^ Narrag, H. Mag., ill. 90.

2 Felt, Annals, ii. 400 ; Boston T. Rec, pp. 171, 176.

« Bos. News Let., AprU 15, 1714 ; April 115, 1715.

1713-46.] AMERICAN ABSORBING POWER, 621

kept out whites who would come owning themselves. Therefore the true capital of the community was dimin- ished by a bound slave, while it might be increased by a free servant coming in. These incoming people were serfs in no sense, though their liberty of person was abridged by the cruel lack of sufficient property to effect their change of abode and destiny. In many, probably most, instances they achieved a new destiny, enlarged and elevated ; the stronger men became proprietors of land, the women married freemen and citizens.

These immigrants were not mere waifs and strays. In the few glimpses into their condition we get through the advertisements^ of runaways, we see evidence of the train- ing and skiU of artisans, as well as the common attributes of serving-people. A house carpenter, a *' taylor," and a " cloathier," mentioned especially, show the varied char- acter of their occupations. The places of emigration were in great variety, and furnish another proof of the com- posite mingling of blood which went on constantly in the growth of the American nationality. Irish, North Brit- ish, German, a "Jersey boy "and a "Jersey maid,"^ were all melted in a fierce ethnical crucible, and were blended tog^ether by that strange assimilating power work- ing constantly in American history.

This American absorbing process has not been free from rivalry and competition in any period, other coun- Other climes and other institutions have sought ^S?oTim- eagerly to divert to themselves the persons whom "^aration. America has attracted without an effort. We have seen Cromwell's fruitless endeavors. In 1744 the governor of " Katan Island, Honduras " advertised ^ in Boston for set- tlers, offering extraordinary privileges. He called espe-

1 Bos. News Let, Aug. 24, 1713 ; Aug. 11, 1718 ; Bos, Eve, Post, Oct. 17, 1735.

2 Ibid., and also News Let., Sept. 7, 1713 ; April 25, 1715 ; Dec. 23, 1725. • Bos. Eve, Post, Aug. 30, 1744.

3

522 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-46.

cially for " joyners, carpenters, smiths, shoe-makers, peri- wig-makers, taylors or others." Each settler could have 50 acres of land for himself, 50 for his wife, 20 for each child, 15 for " every white person in Family," 10 for each slave. All settlers were freed from any debts contracted elsewhere. The island was reported very healthy, and well stocked with game.

In the midst of this abundance man alone was poor ; not for lack of Nature's bounty, — the potato and banana, deer, wild hog, and green turtle, almost begged to be eaten. The balmy and mild air required only the slightest effort of the tailor in clothing these happy exiles. Eve's fig- leaves were abundant enough, but Adam had developed higher and even stronger wants. Above his head must tower that grand social superstructure, the wig. There were brains enough for thinking, not heads enough to pro- duce the raw material in hair requisite for the adornment of eighteenth century gentlemen, even in Honduras. Per- iwig-makers would find land, but the British crown gov- ernor demanded gravely that they *' bring Hair and other materials with them."

Next to persons, the commons — land undivided and • used for the good of all combined — occupied the tion of the attention of these district legislators and admin- istrators. The characteristic business of herd- ing flocks and managing droves of cattle upon the com- mons was carried on very much as it was nearly a century earlier. Even Boston did not give up the " town bull " until 1722.^ The institution was thenceforth to be main- tained at the expense of the owners of the cows. And the following year the price was fixed at 5s. 6c?. for any person keeping a cow on the Neck, toward providing four bulls in summer and two in winter ; in addition he was to pay 6rf. per head for a certificate from the cow-keeper. It is curious to find a large community like Boston and a

1 Bos, Town Recy pp. 171, 176.

1713-45.] COMMUNAL MANAGEMENT, 623

sparsely settled province like New Hampshire both work- ing over essentially the same problems of communal man- agement. New Hampshire ^ bends itself to a better en- forcement of its statute for fettering horses and horse-kind between March and the last of October ; " which giveth a liberty of five months for those horses to trape over fences and tread and spoil our meadows." And in 1741 they equalised the rates for taxes in all the towns, accord- ing to a classified list.^ A " township " on the Piscataqua River, having sixty houses and a sawmill actually built in 1738, offered fifty acres of land to any family joining them.^ When any proprietor did not pay a tax assessed by his co-residents in a township, they advertised his " rights " at auction, as in Winchester, Mass., in 1741.* Colchester,^ Conn., sold a black stone horse, three years old, because his height fell below the legal requirement. In this massing of droves, earmarks and other brands of ownership were very important. They were registered, often with a rude drawing to define the mark ; as in An- dover,* Mass., for James Frie, " a half cross cut out of the under side of the left ear, split or cut out about the middle of the Top of the ear, called by som a figger of seven."

In 1733, Windsor,^ Conn., put the sheep of the town into three flocks, to be further divided if necessary. These flocks were assigned different pastures, and the whole matter of hiring a shepherd, folding, etc., was directed by a committee for '' ordering the prudentials." As I have mentioned before, the commons were broken up and sold differently in the various towns ; often por- tions had been misappropriated by individuals.®

Municipal routine and regulation did not classify and

* Prov. Pap.y iii. 805. * See N. Hamp. Prov. Pap., v. 165.

« Bos, Gazette, 1738. * Bos, News Let., May 14, 1741.

» Records, p. 10. « BaUey, Hist., Dec. 25, 1734.

' Stiles, p. 15. ® See Butler's Groton, p. 46.

524 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION, [1713-46.

establish itself without many halting steps. I have al- Regulation Iw^ed to the disputes about markets and public of marketii. ^^Xq^ in the previous generation.^ Academical themes always interest, for they illustrate the questions agitating the popular mind in their day. In 1725 the candidates for master's degree at Harvard^ pro|)osed, '' Can the price of articles for sale be regulated by law? " answering in the affirmative ; and " Is it always lawful to give and take the market price ? " answering in the nega- tive. In both cases the young economists formulated opin- ions exactly opposite to those prevailing in a later time.

Weights and measures, the regulators of domestic ex- change, were overhauled thoroughly in 1730. New models of the Winchester standard ^ were obtained from his Maj- esty's exchequer, and the constables of every town, not al- ready supplied, were directed to procure sets within three months.

The most prominent and significant memorial of eigh- Paneuu tccuth ccutury economic history is in the now ^^^' humble brick building, then " incomparably the

greatest benefaction ever yet known to our western shore." I shall treat Peter Faneuil more at length in his relation to the foreign commerce of the period. Now we must consider the founder of Faneuil Hall,* given to Boston in 1740. The benefactor hardly lived to see the higher uses of his admirable creation, for the first town meeting in the hall was on the occasion of his funeral eulogy in 174 1. The hall was for the community of Boston in concourse assembled ; but the main purpose of the building was in a market for the petty intercourse of persons in daily buying and selling. The hall, rebuilt after a fire in 1761, came to be, in the life of the following generation, literally the " cradle of American liberty." Its most significant feature is in the fact that it was the gift of a private mer-

1 See above, p. 406. ^ Proc. M. H, S. 1880, 124, 137.

« Mass, Arch., cxix. 323. * Mem. Hist. Bos., ii. 263, 463.

1713-45.] MARKET-PLACE AND NATION. 525

chant, prompted by the necessities of the economic life of the people. Political machinery in the germinating* pe- rio<ls of the Revolution was necessarily more or less un- der control of the royal officers, and persons under crown influence, especially in crowded centres of population. On the other hand, economic life underlies and precedes po- litical government and administration. Always, in polit- ical crises, where towns have existed, the burgher and the burgess have rallied to support the noble and statesman. In old " Faneuil," that guild temple of traders and alder- men, butchers and clerks, hucksters and civic magistrates, the spirit of the people conceived an embryonic nation.

It was not without much difference of opinion and agi- tation that this municipal concentration of mar- citizen and keting was achieved, and this convenient means '"«°***^ was provided for developing the Boston freeman into the American citizen. Great results always swallow and as- similate many minor causes. Any student of our New England community perceives the constant interplay of two forces. One bound the citizen down with many ties, economic, religious, and political, creating his social re- sponsibility ; the other impelled the freeman outward, to the possession of himself in his own liberty ; the fellow must be less than the man. The liberty of marketing — of buying or selling one's goose at pleasure, to profit or no profit, which Uring^ noticed a generation earlier — was disputed ground, and was a matter of freeman's privilege. The market in Boston was opened and closed fitfully sev- eral times. The record of petitions and counter-petitions ^ attest the public interest, especially about 1730. Even after Faneuil's gift had been accepted, many wished the market closed. All this regulation of markets is an in- teresting phase of local history.^ Parties for and against public markets were almost equally divided, when Fan-

^ See above, p. 406. * Mem. Hutt, Bos., ii. 463.

• See Felt, An. Salem, ii. 193.

526 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-45.

euil offered to build one at his cost. A petition of some 343 leading citizens, including Hutchinson, Eliot, Gray, Chardon, and Scollay, asked for a town meeting to con- sider the proposition. But while 367 votes were in favor, 360 were cast against it. The founder did not fal- ter, but enlarged his plans; the splendor of his munifi- cence outshone and illumined the stolid opposition. Town offices, as well as the hall for 1,000 persons, were placed in the market building. This municipal palladium, to- gether with the Old South, became the meeting-place of Boston freemen.

New Hampshire appointed market and fair days in May and October, at Hampton Falls, in 1734.

We wonder that parties could divide on the question Municipal ^^ markets in Boston when paternal government todlStiyILd was freely undertaken in other directions. The *'**^®' purchase and sale of grain for supplying the

citizens was a regular business of the selectmen for many years. Notes of operations ^ may be found in 1713, 1715, 1716, 1718, 1722, 1724, 1725-1728. At one time in 1716 the stock on hand was 5>000 bu., and in 1718 the fathers bought 10,000 lbs. of bread for public use. The weight of the penny loaf was regulated from time to time.^ They varied the economic parts of municipal business by excur- sions into the domain of morals. They entertained com- plaints against Eivers Stanhope for keeping a dancing- school, and against Edward Enstone for a music-schooL^

Individuals and persons as well as communities and governments had their rights of conscience. The scruples of a Seventh Day believer or a Sabbatarian came in to confound municipal regulation. Nathaniel Wardell ad- vertised February 14, 1743, that he could not weigh hay

1 Bos. Town Rec, pp. 99, 121, 127, 133, 171, 185, 191, 197, 199, 210, 221, 239.

2 Bos, News Let, Aug. 27, 1724. « Bos. Town Rec, p. 236.

^

1713-45.] TOWNS MANAGE SPINNING. 527

on that day, as was his office. His conscience aflfected his scales also : " both he and his Engine will rest from their Labour on that Day." ^ Some change was made, for a notice given the next week says that weighing on Saturday would be performed as usual. The town ex- tended its communal grasp into industry as well as trade. In 1720 ^ a committee recommended the procur- ing a house and the hiring a weaver, whose wife should instruct children in spinning flax. The children were to be furnished by the overseer of the poor, and the town was to pay their subsistence for three months. After that the master was to allow them their earnings. The town was to provide twenty spinning-wheels, and offered a premium of <£5 for the first piece of linen spun and woven in the town, if worth 4s. per yard. The proposi- tion was changed the next year into an offer of <£300 to be loaned without interest to any one undertaking the school. At first " good security " for the loan was re- quired, then " personal security " was declared sufficient. The modifications of the scheme from time to time show the constant interest of the people in it.

Indeed, the towns varied their action according to the view of social management prevailing in the community of any district. The~olcl (Termanic7eccentrici- and English governing customs continued, inter- laced with new and sometimes eccentric actions prompted by the immediate democracy. Not often, but sometimes, the staid bodies of freemen escaped the routine of polit- ical development and gave themselves to the passion, even ^o the fancy, of the moment. Worcester* '^ perambulates the bounds " of its territory, and Hardwick * elects " 2 tiding men, 2 fence viewers, 2 hog-reaves," in the old Btvl'^ ; while in Cape Cod,^ a widow having been burned

nos. Eve, Post, F^b. 14, 21, 1743.

^o- Town P^- Dp 1^^. 153, 162. » Records, ii. 16.

- .<P>A T> 1> • TTn^e"'****!!, p. 211.

628 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION, [1713-46.

out, the town votes her the materials of the old meeting- house toward rebuilding. They keep the pews for the owners, lest individual and communal rights should clash in this irregular charity. Dedham ^ and Hanover ^ kill wildcats ; while Bristol ^ fines householders bs, — one half for the poor, one half for complaint — for any chimney fire blazing from the top. Salem * forms a fire club in 1744. In the Khode Island towns this democratic ten- dency shows itself most fully. In East Greenwich it had been the custom to build houses fourteen feet square, with posts nine feet high ; in 1727 the town votes that houses shall be built eighteen feet square, with posts fif- teen feet high, with chimneys of stone or brick as be- ' '^ fore.^ In 1745 the town voted to expend j£90 in

tickets in the Providence lottery for building Weybosset Bridge; only £29.5 of prizes returned from this losing venture.

If we would pass from the characteristics of the com- munity to the essential and peculiar features

Seating the i»j.i»j'»ii j

meeting- ot tue inclivuiual men and women composing it, we shall find no better transition steps than in the curious methods for seating persons in the meeting- houses. If we had the whole record of the doings of the congregations in classifying and seating their members, it would picture forth the social condition of New Eng- land in our period. Aristophanes' comedies would not be more entertaining or instructive. Each man must be considered, and changing circumstances must be embodied in the social privilege of his seat. Then the women! Court chamberlains could not have adjusted all their sub- tile claims and conflicting rivalries. Committees duly appointed, from time ^'^ +-m<», tvo^^t**'! ^nt thp«»A difRonlf, oroblems as they besi .^ulu

1 Worthin^on ^'"''"»'»»' »»» i <,w. jji^^^j. . 3d

* Munro, p. li)/ ^l*

• G-'jene, East u/

\

1, QP^

17ia-46.] GLORIES OF THE FORESEAT. 629

Judge Sewall, in position, influence, and urbane de- meanor, was thoroughly fitted for the task. But he dreads his responsibility for assiffuins: the in" the * * ^

. . . " Foreseat "

seats in 1713, and fears that his non-action will injure his son Joseph, the newly made pastor of the Old South.^ Again, when he marries Mrs. Tilly in 1719, he would have sat with her in his own "pue." But that was too retiring a position for a judge's lady, and the "overseers" invite her to sit beside the magistrate ya the " Foreseat." Worcester ^ grants Hon. Adam Win- throp the first pew to right of the door, fifteen others being assigned, " Foreseat," second seat, etc., were main- tained for places of consolidated rank, as in Boston. Colchester,^ Conn., has all the metropolitan sense of dis- tinction, voting the pew next the pulpit " to be first in dignety, the next behind it to be 2^ in dignety & the fore- most of the long seats to be third in Dignety," etc. Bichard Hazzen, in Haverhill,* Mass., is allowed to build a small pew, as he has " no place to sit but upon courtesy of Mr. Eastman or crowding into some foreseat too honor- able for me."

The building changed in outward form very little dur- ing this period. The interior was developing constantly. The foreseat shone in the full refulgence of heaven, and lesser places were equal to the lower steps of the heavenly throne. New London ^ votes Mrs. Green, the deacon's wife, into the foreseat on " the woman's side," and Mercy Jiggels into the third seat. But here the communal au- thority girded itself for tasks even more minute, preca- rious, and delicate. The families of two brothers-in-law occupied a pew together : the upper seat being the post of honor, neither wife would yield precedence, and the quarrel waxed strong. Finally the town meeting ap-

1 M. H. C, vi. 379 ; vii. 234. « Records, ii. 27.

• Records, p. 14. * Chase, p. 253.

» Caulkins, p. 379.

530 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-46.

pointed a committee to hear all the facts and assign the seats.

Do not imagine that this arranging of seats for the Evolution of congregations was in any way peculiar to Bos- ***^®*^' ton, New London, or any other locality. It was a necessary evolution prevailing everywhere, and proceed- ing from principles I have defined. First the community fell into a democratic meeting on the long seats, then an aristocratic selection was gathered into pews. New dis- tricts generally went through a process similar to that already described, and occurring so frequently in the first- settled towns. In western Massachusetts, about 1717, pews came in slowly. Many persons disliked that the town should build pews for the principal families while "others sat in seats." ^ Votes for building a few pews were reconsidered generally before their actual accom- plishment. We remark the community was now passing beyond mere sufferance of the aristocratic distinction. At first it allowed, after much discussion, private persons to build for themselves especial pews. Now the whole community reluctantly but certainly took unto itself the business of seating the families of its promiment members in a decorous manner.

The meeting-house itself was improved and elevated in its style, a change according with the general improve- ment in living we have noticed. The Old South, built in Boston in 1730, is a present example of the style of archi- tecture prevailing. Dr. Porter ^ considers this the type of meeting-houses for the century following. It had two galleries, and the houses in the populous towns of Milford and Guilford in Connecticut had the same. That at Guil- ford mounted the first steeple in Connecticut in 1726.

Old Trinity Church, at Newport, R. I., was known from an early day as "the Church." Episcopalians have al- ways cherished this preferential nomenclature with fond care.

* Judd, Hadlepf p. 319. ^ New Englander, xlii. 308.

1713-45.] COLONIAL MANSIONS. 531

The ordinary houses of the average people we are con- sidering were little changed. In 1745 not a house in Kennebec (now Maine) had a square of glass in it.^ The style of one and two storied dwellings remained ncoioniai" like that of the previous half century, and paint "cwt^cturo- began to be used about 17 34.^ But a more sumptuous and larger type dates from the beginning of the century. Sir William Phipps's " fair brick house " was noteworthy in 1692. Brick was well established after the fire of 1711. The buildings erected in Coruhill were of brick, and generally three-storied. What is now known as colonial architecture, gradually developed, dates some of its best examples from about 1720. Boston, the lesser towns, and especially Newport and Salem, built many fine three- storied mansions. Solid and portly, like their merchant owners, these houses — of brick in Boston, generally of wood elsewhere — took good hold of the present, and waited in quiet dignity for the coming generations. The nation was new and in embryo. These stately houses al- ways seemed old. The Bromfield and Faneuil Boston man- homesteads were examples in Boston.^ The "®^' Champlin or Chesebrough house still standing in New- port * is a fine specimen of the ample luxury of these days. A wide hall from front to rear suggested the comfortable country dwellings of our English ancestors, and the stair- case was as roomy as it was elegant. Wainscots mounted from floor to ceiling, while carving in relief adorned the mantels. Broad window-seats looked out upon well-or- dered grounds, and four entrances opened their hospitable doors to a gay and social concourse of friends.

The large houses in Boston, which were preserved for subsequent generations, had these features and surround- ings, as is well known. Many dwellings went out in the changes occurring through the growth of the large towns,

^ Bourne, Wells and K.^ p. 650. * Chase, Haverhilly p. 96.

' Mem. Hist, ii. 521, 523. ^ Masou^s Reminiscences.

632 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-45.

which had the same arrangements for living in ample comfort. R. Auchmuty's house in Essex Street, Boston, was offered for sale in 1738,^ with gardens, coach-house, stable, wood, cow, hen and three coal-houses, with a back kitchen in an outhouse. We remark the large provision for coal. Grates were common, and the coals ^ of Scot- land, Newcastle, and Nova Scotia were burned in them. The mansion was wainscoted from " garret to cellar," ex- cepting one chamber, which was " well hung." The most of the chimney-pieces were in marble, with hearths of the same stone ; all had " Glasses over them." In 1721 ^ a brick dwelling-house in King Street, renting at £41 per annum, was appraised at X400. Another house, of wood, in the same street, with garden, yard, wood-house, and smith's shop, is priced at £1,000 ; a wharf, X300 ; a large wooden warehouse, <£325 ; three other wooden do., £675 ; one brick do., <£300. A lime-kiln was located near the Bowling-gTcen in Boston, 1723.* An estate offered at £700 in 1732 brought an income of 8 per ceut.^

The large towns were more luxurious,® but comfort. Increase of moderate afflueucc, and ordered good living, ap- luxury. pears to be the rule in all the older parts of our colonies. The dress of the people of the better sort did not change its general character in the half or three quar- ter century which saw the development of New England commerce, and the large increase of wealth among the

* Bos, Gazette.

2 Bos, News Let., Sept. 23, 1724 ; Ibid., March 23, 1732 ; Ibid., Oct. 22, 1737 ; and Bos. Evening Post, July 26, 1736 ; also R. Hale's MS. Diary, Am. Aut. Soc.

8 Bos. Gazette, April 24, 1721.

* Bos. News Let., March 28, 1723.

fi New Eng. Weekly Jour., Dec. 4, 1732.

* Samuel Greenwood (Suffolk P. R., xxxvi. 68, 69), in Boston, had eleven pictures, "Metzintinto," valued at £5. Rev. T. Harvard had six " Apostles " ip frames, two being glazed, valued at 12s. An, King*s Chap., i. 428.

1713-45.] MORE GENEROUS LIVING, 633

people. Materials were richer and more abundant, and wardrobes were more ample. The royal governors, coming shortly after commercial prosperity began, helped the on- ward course of luxury, but the main cause was in the more abundant resources of the people. The staff and at- tendant officials of the governors, the ladies coming from polished society, formed a miniature court in Boston, the influence of which went through all the settlements. But it was rather the more subtle and diffused influence of the mother country, working through intercourse and cor- respondence, which shaped and affected the customs of our land.

Gentlemen wore the deep, broad-skirted frock-coat so long established. It was more or less orna- Gentlemen's mented with varied trimmings, running up to **'®^' gold lace in the more splendid specimens. But the use of broadcloth was becoming more general, and embroideries or trimmings were not so necessary with this solid ma- terial. The long waistcoat, deep - pocketed, with loose, swinging flaps, hung over breeches or small-clothes, hose, buckled shoes, frills or cuffs, neck-bands and ruffled shirts, a felt hat,^ generally three-cornered, completed the dress of the better sort of citizen. Almost every inventory to- ward 1746 contains a valuable suit or at least a coat of broadcloth, generally black, but sometimes in shades of fancy color. Adam Winthrop,^ in 1744, had a black coat and waistcoat valued at £\2 ; six ruffled shirts at the same figure, one holland and one dimity waistcoat, with an old gown, completed his wardrobe. One of the best- dressed men by the record, in 1741, was William Ben- nett : ^ a " suit of fine dark-colored broadcloth clothes," <£35 ; a suit of gray Duroy, X20 ; a coat and breeches of " grey cloth," £12 ; blue cloth coat, £2 10s. ; light-col- ored cloth coat, £b ; dark frieze coat, £3 ; an '^ AUipeen

^ Felt, An, Salem, ii. 170.

« Suffolk P. R,, xxxvii. 399. » Ibid., xxxv. 417.

634 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-45.

speckled jacket & breeches, <£9 ; red Whitney jacket & breeches, <£1 10s. ; white plain fustian jacket, £2 ; brown hoUaud coat & jacket and 3 pair breeches, £2." In an- other instance. Captain Thomas Templer's ^ best suit was a ''double Alpeen coat & breeches," £26. He had " Padusoy," figured velvet, " grogium," and black cloth waistcoats ; in addition to his coats, a ^' fustian " frock and a serge coat. But serge is not as common as it was at the close of the seventeenth century. They seemed to wear jackets in undress or half dress. The wealthy mer- chants wore rich dressing-gowns of flowered silk or other material. Generally there was a blue cloak or greatcoat in a good outfit. Captain Samuel Osgood, of Andover,^ Mass., in 1743, had a suit of red, another of blue, a dark green coat and jacket, an " old white coat, with camlet and fustian jackets." The captain had one fine linen shirt and six of cotton, stockings both yarn and worsted. Plush was a common material for breeches. Both cotton and holland, i. e, linen, were used for sheets.^ In a Hartford inventory of 1719 all the shirts were linen.* William Mitchell,^ a " merchant " of Windsor, Ct., in 1725, had a blue coat, another of duffel, another of gray drugget, one do. blue, a suit of " beggars' velvet," and leather breeches with silver buttons. His wardrobe was ample and varied, but not as valuable as the better sort in Boston. Leather breeches kept in, well through the century; breeches generally worn by servants and laborers, they

Burvive

appear also in well - furnished Boston ^ ward- robes. Most substantial men had walking - staffs, fre- quently with silver heads. Silver watches, rapiers, and pistols were common. Ensign Leffingwell, at Norwich, Ct., in 1724, had, perhaps, the largest estate there, valued at

1 Suffolk P. 22., xxxviii. 368. ^ Bailey, p. 79.

» Suffolk P. R.y xxxiv. 127.

* John Eliott, Hartford P. 22., May, 1719.

« Ibid., 1725. « Suffolk P. 22., xxxiv. 327.

1713-45.] RUNAWAY SERVANTS. 535

<£9,793 9$.^ He had elegant furniture, abundant stores of linen, with some plate, and wearing apparel worth j£27. This did not include wigs, side-arms, etc., which were accounted for separately. This is an index and one of the signs of the increasing wealth scattered among the people, in the fact that the wardrobe is a very small fraction of the estate. It was not so in the cen- tury preceding. As we saw in 1670 and 1680,^ the dress of a man of substance was an important item in his inventory.

The fabrics and stuffs for all this varied wearing ap- parel were being imported constantly from Europe, espe- cially from England and the Mediterranean ports, where the fish and timber laden vessels made their exchanges. They were offered for sale ^ by traders, who received them from the Faneuils and other merchants. The stocks were generally mixed, containing all goods, from pork and hard- ware to ribbons and laces.

Kunaway servants, white and black, are often adver- tised,* and their dress indicates the costume of j^^^^ ^f the lower classes. Leather breeches are the «®'^*"*^ most common item, and coats with frogs appear fre- quently. The garments are similar to those worn by the masters, but in poorer quality of material. The dress of a runaway '' English man-servant " is a complete picture of the luxurious living prevalent in Boston in 1741 : ^ " A blue straight-bodied coat with black velvet buttons and black button holes, a bluish silk camblet jacket, a fine white shirt with ruffles at bosom and wrists, cloth breeches,

^ CaulkioSy Norwich^ pp. 191, 192. * See above, p. 290.

« See Bos. News Letter, Nov. 17, 1712 ; Dec. 8, 1726 ; Nov. 6, 1735 ; April 8, 1736 ; Bos, Gazette, Oct. 15, 1733 ; Bos, News Letter, Dec. 11,1735.

* Bos. News Letter, May 17, 1714 ; Aug. 27, 1716 ; July 14, 1718 ; Aug. 25, 1718.

« Ibid., Feb. 5, 1741.

536 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION, [1713-45.

worsted stockings, new calf-skin shoes with metal buckles, a blue shag greatcoat, a beaver hat and a linen cap."

Metal shoe-buckles for women were worn until about 1727, when they went out, together with the fashion of square-toed shoes ; ^ the round or peaked toe of the seven- teenth century came in again, ^^ pointed to the heavens in imitation of the Laplanders."

Alas for the manes of Samuel Sewall, who fought wigs Troubles ^'^th. cvcry possible weapon, — scriptural, ethical, from wigs, ecouomical, and prudential ! By 1740 they were in such common wear as hardly to be noticed. In 1721 they still vexed the Puritan mind, and a meeting at Hampton, after solemn consideration, decided " ye wear- ing of extravegent superflues wigges is altogether contrary to truth." 2 About the same time, in the quiet precincts of the Old Colony, the Rev. Joseph Metcalf, who carried a sensible pate under his artificial tresses, devised a better way to trim his top-gear, and atrthe same time employ the restless energies of the female critics of his congregation. They had complained of his new wig as " too worldly." He made each one trim off locks of hair until it suited them all.^

The dress of the ladies was growing richer ; it did not Ladies, fully surpass the male bird until the next gen- ^^^ eration. A " fine brilliant diamond ring " was

advertised in 1738.* Whitefield, on his visit to Boston in 1740, complained of the *' jewels, patches and gay apparel commonly worn by the female sex." The finery of boys and girls and of infants, also, vexed the eager evangelist. Bennett says in the same year, " both the ladies and gen- tlemen dress and appear as gay in common as courtiers in England on a coronation or birthday." ^ Madam Eliza-

^ Newhall, Lynn^ p. 90 ; Drake, Roxbury, p. 64.

2 Coffin, Newbury, p. 221. ^ Freeman, Cape Cod, p. 443.

* Bos, Evening Post, February 20, 1738.

« Proc. M, H. S., p. 125.

1713-46.] SINFUL HOOP-PETTICOA TS. 537

beth Gedney, in 1738,^ has fourteen shifts, X8.4 ; nine handkerchiefs and thirteen petticoats, £10.7. A "suit of dark-colored flowered silk " at X8, a striped lutestring gown at £,1, a velvet hood, a lutestring do., two silk aprons, all at £1.4., make up the wardrobe of a comfort- able matron. The hood was an important item for every lady. Mr. Thomas Amory in 1724 writes to England for a *' good fine fashionable riding hood, or a cloak with a hood to it, embroidered." * Any color suitable for a young woman would be agreeable, except scarlet or yellow.

Aq umbi'ella was carried about 1740 by a dame of Windsor, Conn., whose husband^ brought her various elegances for her toilet from the West Indies. It excited so much attention and satire that her neighbors mocked her on the streets, carrying sieves balanced on broom- handles.*

The greatest innovation in the realm of feminine adorn- ment was an immense hoop, which spread the -q^^^ - lutestring skirts in ample volume, like a fishing- '"™"'°- smack under full sail. In 1723 Pepperell, afterwards Sir William, married Mary Hirst, granddaughter of Judge Sewall,* lofty people on both sides. Among other presents he gave her a large hoop. The fashion was well established by 1727, for Mr. Amory condemned a lot of petticoats received from a consignor lioi'auso t>n;y too scanty for hoops. Such a breezy i volume of petticoats* did not come in without j ethical disturbance and physical portents, accordim

• Suffolk P. R., EtiiT, 14. * Amory Correct

' Stiles, Windsor, p. 482. * Parsons, Pepj

' 1722. Rev. Hiigli Adams inveighed agaii petticoats, piopbeRyiiig Indian barbarities in consequd

.■■.&-58,p

638 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-45.

magnitude of the change. The good women had hardly adjusted their trains to the enlarging demand of fickle Fashion, when Nature, by an unusual disturbance, fright- ened the poor dames into narrower draperies. An earth- quake occurred, and the people of a considerable town in Massachusetts were " so awakened by this awful Provi- dence that the women generally laid aside their Hoop Petticoats." i

Rings were the most common article of jewelry, and the gift of these with scarfs and gloves became as general and inapposite as the useless custom of bridal gifts in our day. At the funeral of Governor Belcher's wife in 1736, over 1,000 pairs of gloves were given away. In 1742 an act forbade the giving of rings, scarfs, or gloves at funer- als, except six pairs of the latter to bearers, and one pair to the pastor ; it did not stop the practice, however.

I referred to women's shifts in an inventory. This Marriage garment, essential as it was, symbolised a curious inaahift. custom, wliicli marked a step in the evolution of the institution of marriage. The new husband was generally responsible for the previous debts of his bride. If he married her in her shift or chemise on the king's high- way, then the creditor could follow her person no further in the pursuit of his debt. Many such marriages were recorded in Khode Island, often " at evening," as on the .20th day of April, 1724, at Westerly .^ The practice con- tipiyed a half century or more later. The observance on , tbe\highway relaxed, for I have seen a certificate stating tlu^l; 'tibet bride stood in a closet, extended her arm through Or b<mtfiddbe door, pledged her vows, and joined her heart to .t^^^^j3Ku^ating groom, who stood with the company assemb^ir^in the adjoining room.

We^^aie ItBigij^^sCurious to know how another generation lijpfiff^;^! Jbrank, what nourished the daily board, ai^i^JMll good cheer warmed the social life,

1 Mag, ^ Ite^jii. 631. » Tovm Records,

V*. . .j '

^

I . " »

,-^■..;.-^

1713-45.] EARLY TEA DRINKING. 639

These things animate the time. The greatest change ever effected in diet, except through alcoholic spirits, was made by the introduction of tea and coffee among the Western nations. Malt was superseded by alcoholic spirits and by cider in New England ; finally tea and coffee supplanted these as the common beverage. The political conse- quences, of this economic introduction of tea some three- score years later into our colonies, were too vast to be ex- pressed here. It suffices to say that in this little Chinese leaf was folded the germ which enlarged into American independence.

We wonder that Sewall did not mention tea in all his fussing about win6s, chocolate, raisins, almonds, figs, etc. It was advertised, together with coffee, other by Edward Mill, Sudbury Street, Boston, May 24, 1714,^ " Very fine green tea, the best for color and taste." In 1718 the accounts at Lynn ^ say it was "little used." There were no tea-kettles as yet, and when the ladies went for a gossip and drinking, each carried her own teacup, — very small, — with saucer, and spoon. By 1740 Bennett finds the ladies in Boston drinking tea, and " in- dulging every little piece of gentility and neglecting the affairs of their families with as good a grace as the finest ladies^ in London." * Madeira wine and rum punch were

1 Bos. News Letter. 2 Newhall, p. 313.

' Tea and tea drinking was matter of comment in England as late as 1740, as we see by the following old English letter : —

" They are not much esteemed now that will not treat high and gossip about. Tea is now become the darling of our women. Almost every little tradesman's wife must set sipping tea for an hour or more in a morning, and it may be again in the afternoon, if they can get it, and nothing will please them to sip it out of but china ware, if they can get it. They talk of bestowing thirty or forty shillings upon a tea equipage, as they call it. There is the silver spoons, silver tongs, and many other trinkets that I cannot name." — CofQn, Newbury, p. 191.

* Proc. M. H. S. 1860, p. 126.

540 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-45.

the social drinks, while the " generality of the people with their victuals " drank cider, which was plentiful at three shillings per barrel. There was no good beer,^ yet English malt was imported occasionally. Coffee was planted in the West Indies about 1720, but it made its way slowly in our colonies. A coffee-mill appears occa- sionally in the inventories during this period. Chocolate was common, and handled by elaborate methods.^ Kobert Hale^ confirms the free drinking of wine and punch. On his way to Nova Scotia in 1731 he is royally enter- tained at Portsmouth by Benning Wentworth, Hunking, Walton, and others. He is not allowed to go to a tavern^ but is taken from house to house, where " splendid treats " are served. He saw no women at these parties, excepting the serving maids. And, according to another account, sumptuous entertainments are given in New London,* at the Browne-Win throp and the Stewart-Gardiner marriages.

Bennett's ^ account of food and marketing in Boston in Boston 1740 is careful and full. Butcher's meat, beef,

market. muttou, lamb, and veal averaged 2c?., the very best 6cZ., New England currency; venison plenty and cheap ; poultry very cheap, — turkeys at 2s. which would be 6s. or 7s. in London ; wild pigeons abundant and cheap from June to September; a twelve -pound cod at 2rf; smelts plenty ; salmon about \d. per lb., and it was at the same price on the Connecticut River ;^ oysters and lobsters in course, the latter in large size at three half- pence each ; bread cheap, but not as good as the average in London ; butter excellent at 3c?. ; cheese neither good nor cheap ; milk at London prices, but full measure.

They tried to get good cheese, though our varieties did

1 Bos. News Letter, May 6, 1736.

2 New England Weekly Journal, May 1, 1727 ; and Bos. News Let' ter, December 30, 1731.

* MS., Am. Ant. Soc. * Caulkins, New London, p. 408.

» Proc, M. H, S., pp. 112, 113. « Judd, Hadley, p. 315.

1713^5.] FORKS ARE MORE COMMON. 541

not suit a European palate. Rhode Island furnished the best here, probably the best in America. Cheshire was imported constantly. We presume Bennett included only the domestic varieties in his criticism. Loaf sugar was used, and " white " English salt bettered the poorer sort from the Tortugas. Irish beef and butter come, though the latter is sometimes only fit for the soap-boiler; wheat from Maryland and flour from New York, with " pease " from Albany. " Choice ship, white and milk bread " appears.^

This was the comfortable diet of the larger towns, and of affluent people. The commonalty ate salt pork and fish, baked beans, Indian pudding, rye-and-In- The common dian bread, fried eggs, and black broth. A ^*^^®* " boiled dinner " of salt meats, cabbage, and other vege- tables, flavored together, was a common dish, served gen- erally in wooden trenchers. " Barley fire - cake " for breakfast, parched corn " nocake," and for company cake made of parched corn and strawberries, was served. Baked pumpkins were common in winter.^ Potatoes were scattered about after 1720 ; the first crop in Haver- hill yielded only the balls for cooking, for they did not find the tubers until next spring's ploughing.^

Knives and forks appear in stocks of merchandise by 1718.* The forks were still a luxury, for in the same year Judge Sewall, then courting Mrs. Denison, presents her with two cases, each containing a knife and fork ; " one Turtle shell tackling, the other long with Ivory handles squar'd cost 4s. 6c?." ^

Sewall's experiences, in his various courtships before contracting his second marriage, are very enter- taining. After a long and happy married life,

1 Bos. News Let, Aug. 19, 1734 ; Sept. 25, 1735 ; Dec. 1, 1737.

2 Drake, Roxbury, pp. 56, 57.

* Chase, Haverhill, p. 250 ; Coffin, Newbury, p. 190 ; Bourne, Wells and K,, p. 647.

* Suffolk P. R.y xxi. 415. ^ 5 M. H. C, vii. 188.

542 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION, [1713^15.

biM wife, Judith Hull, died October 19, 1717. By the sixth of February following he had put off the old love suiKcieiitly to peu this naive statement : " This morning wandering in my mind whether to live a Single or Mar- ried life/' ^ In less than three weeks more, he could gossip with neighbors hi this fashion : ^^ They had laid one out for me; and Ciovernor Dudley told me 'twas Madam Winthrop. I told him had been there bat thrice, and twice ui>on Business: He said Cave tertium." *

Tlie most striking feature of all his courtships ^ is the SimiM iii*. very sharp bargaining on both sides. These in- tfutiniiutM. ,|(,^.tjn(; widows and this kindly magistrate hig- gle like hucksters and pedlai*s. Madam Winthrop, in h<tr turn, was " courteous,'' but spoke *' pretty earnestly ? about his kt^epiug a coach : '' I said twould cost XlOO per anfim; she said twould cost but <£40.'' He gave Mrs. I>ciiison a pair of shoe-buckles^ cost 5^. 3J.,andin another inUrrview t4>ld her ^^ twas time now to finish our Business. AskM h(;r what I should iillow her ; she not speaking, I told her I was willing to give her Two [Hundred?] and Fifty [Kiiinds per anitni during her life, if it should please O'hI to take me out of the world before her. She answered she haii better k(*ep as she wus^ than give a Certainty for an uncertainty ; slie should pay dear for dwelling at IioMt,on. I desired her to make pi*oposal$, but she made none."

Kitlier the ehanns of Mrs. (vibbs were less dear, or his pfiHsion liail wcaUi'Tiod, or the gi»noral bride-market had fallen, for lin wa« nui<*h more severe in chaffering with this |>oor huly. \U^ proposes that her sons be bound to priy liiin **X|00 providnl \\\v\v mother dieil before me: I to p;ty \u'.v X/>0 piT imx'wn during her Life, if I left her a widow," till] XI 00 hring to indemnify him against former <Icl)iH in lii*r '' administration." Marriage settle-

1 r> M. If. r ., vii. U\l\. a Ihid,y p. 172.

« //>iv/., pp. iiM>, 20*-', 2m, ;mk).

1713-45.] HUCKSTERS IN MARRIAGE, 643

ments must never be viewed too closely, but the petty spirit appearing in all these negotiations is painful. Romance in matrimony was superficial; the economic factor was deep and abiding in a prudent people just yielding to the approach of luxury. Notwithstanding the judge's wary scruples, his example did not seriously af- fect his young relative, Samuel. He was a " bride man " at the wedding of CJoiirade Adams's nephew in 1713. Cupid seems to have seized upon his susceptible heart after the ancient fashion, and he "could scarce Refrain his thoughts from the Bliss of matrimony." ^ When the groom carried his bride home " wee were all decently merry two days after the conjunction."

Woman, a " sweet sex " even in the singular celibate eyes of Sir Thomas Brown, was held closely to Roman's in- domestic matters, according to modern notions. ^"^*'«- Yet she influenced larger affairs, as well as that social world all societies have yielded to her almost exclusively. When she trespassed into the outward world of govern- ment and administration, she made her gentle hand to be felt. In 1713 2 "most of the Gentlewomen" of Boston waited on the governor " with Prayers and Tears " for the' lives of Berry and Mark, condemned to be hanged for counterfeiting paper money. The poor governor's firm- ness melted in this torrid flood of sympathy. But the feeling against counterfeiters was very urgent and strin- gent. This incident shows the constant power of feminine sentiment.

Though in a dispute for a wife between two men in Boston ^ one sold his right for 15 shillings, the wives seem to have been able to take care of themselves generally, and the condition of widows was considered carefully in the disposition of property. The bulk of estates was real generally, and the right of dower protected the widow.

* Stephen SewalVs Papers, MS., in Am. Ant. Soc.

« Bos, News Let,, Sept. 21, 1713. » Bos, Eve. Post, March 15, 1736.

644 THE PERIOD OF INFLATION. [1713-45.

In nearly all wills there are minute provisions for the minor rights and comfort of the widows. In Gideon Freeborn's will,^ at Portsmouth, R. I., ITJo, he leaves his wife the use of the " great lower " room, with lodging- room adjoining, firewood and fruit, the use of bed and bedding and of a " good gentle riding horse," one bed and bedding for her own disposing, and <£15 yearly dur- ing her widowhood ; if married again, she would receive only £10.

The use of a riding-horse was a common bequest to widows. Governor Benedict Arnold, a merchant of New- port, but dwelling in Jamestown, R. I., in 1733,^ after pro- viding well for his widow, and leaving her the service of three negresses, left a three - year - old gray horse, to be kept in a particular pasture, for twenty years. It was to be for " the use of the women of the public ministry of the Quakers " who desired to visit in their