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There are 1017 matching records. Displaying matches 31 through 60 .
“Wee made Good speed along”: Boston Businesswoman Sarah Knight Travels From Kingston to New London, 1704
In October 1704, Sarah Kemble Knight set off on what would be a five month journey, by herself, from her home in Boston to New York and back again. Madam Knight, as she was called, was an unusually independent woman for her time. During her husband’s lifetime she supported herself and her family by running a shop, teaching handwriting to children, copying legal documents, and taking in boarders. After his death she continued to do very well for herself, buying and selling land and keeping an inn. In this section of the journal she kept of her trip, Knight described what it was like to travel on horseback, accompanied by a mail carrier and other travelers, from Kingston, Rhode Island, to New London, Connecticut. Her frank humor and often bigoted descriptions of people she met, anxiety about river crossings, displeasure with the rough inns she stayed in, and habit of turning experience into poetry were all expressed here.
Resources Available: TEXT.
In October 1704, Sarah Kemble Knight set off on what would be a five month journey, by herself, from her home in Boston to New York and back again. Madam Knight, as she was called, was an unusually independent woman for her time. During her husband’s lifetime she supported herself and her family by running a shop, teaching handwriting to children, copying legal documents, and taking in boarders. After his death she continued to do very well for herself, buying and selling land and keeping an inn. In this section of the journal she kept of her trip, Knight described what it was like to travel on horseback, accompanied by a mail carrier and other travelers, from Kingston, Rhode Island, to New London, Connecticut. Her frank humor and often bigoted descriptions of people she met, anxiety about river crossings, displeasure with the rough inns she stayed in, and habit of turning experience into poetry were all expressed here.
Resources Available: TEXT.
“As They Had Been in Ancient Times”: Pedro Naranjo Relates the Pueblo Revolt, 1680
In the late 17th-century, Spain’s empire in the Americas extended north to New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, and California, where Spanish soldiers, settlers, and missionaries began to settle. The missionaries resettled the indigenous Pueblo people into peasant communities, building forts and missions to subdue and convert them to Catholicism. The New Mexico Pueblo people resisted Spanish conversion efforts and forced labor demands. Their sporadic resistance became a concerted rebellion in 1680 under the leadership of the charismatic El Pope. The revolt was the most successful of Native American efforts to turn back European colonists, and for over a decade the Pueblos were free from intrusion. But in 1690 the Pueblos were weakened by drought and Apache and Comanche raiders from the north. Spain retook territory and interrogated and punished the rebels in their “reconquest” of the Pueblo. A Keresan Pueblo man called Pedro Naranjo offered his view of the rebellion and its causes.
Resources Available: TEXT.
In the late 17th-century, Spain’s empire in the Americas extended north to New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, and California, where Spanish soldiers, settlers, and missionaries began to settle. The missionaries resettled the indigenous Pueblo people into peasant communities, building forts and missions to subdue and convert them to Catholicism. The New Mexico Pueblo people resisted Spanish conversion efforts and forced labor demands. Their sporadic resistance became a concerted rebellion in 1680 under the leadership of the charismatic El Pope. The revolt was the most successful of Native American efforts to turn back European colonists, and for over a decade the Pueblos were free from intrusion. But in 1690 the Pueblos were weakened by drought and Apache and Comanche raiders from the north. Spain retook territory and interrogated and punished the rebels in their “reconquest” of the Pueblo. A Keresan Pueblo man called Pedro Naranjo offered his view of the rebellion and its causes.
Resources Available: TEXT.
“Fire, Fire, Scorch, Scorch!”: Testimony from the Negro Plot Trials in New York, 1741
On March 18, 1741, the first of a series of suspicious fires broke out in New York’s Fort George. When a few weeks later a black man was seen running from the scene of one of these fires the cry went up: “The negroes are rising!” The extent of the plot, or even if there really was a plot, has never been absolutely proven. What is true is that the threat of a slave uprising was enough to send the city’s white population into hysteria. Of the 181 people arrested during the “Great Negro Plot,” 34 were sentenced to death and 72 were transported from New York. In this excerpt from the trials, several important witnesses provided evidence. Peggy was a white prostitute who lived in the home of John Hughson, a riverfront tavenkeeper and, like shoemaker John Romme, a receiver of stolen goods. Peggy’s room was paid for by Caesar, a slave with whom she had a child. Today the trial transcripts are valuable for what they reveal about the shady, waterfront world shared by slaves, free blacks, and poor whites in 18th-century New York.
Resources Available: TEXT.
On March 18, 1741, the first of a series of suspicious fires broke out in New York’s Fort George. When a few weeks later a black man was seen running from the scene of one of these fires the cry went up: “The negroes are rising!” The extent of the plot, or even if there really was a plot, has never been absolutely proven. What is true is that the threat of a slave uprising was enough to send the city’s white population into hysteria. Of the 181 people arrested during the “Great Negro Plot,” 34 were sentenced to death and 72 were transported from New York. In this excerpt from the trials, several important witnesses provided evidence. Peggy was a white prostitute who lived in the home of John Hughson, a riverfront tavenkeeper and, like shoemaker John Romme, a receiver of stolen goods. Peggy’s room was paid for by Caesar, a slave with whom she had a child. Today the trial transcripts are valuable for what they reveal about the shady, waterfront world shared by slaves, free blacks, and poor whites in 18th-century New York.
Resources Available: TEXT.
Ran off.
The September 18, 1762 edition of the South Carolina Gazette included notices of stray animals, runaway wives, and escaped slaves. Along with breaking tools, feigning illness, and slowing work, running away, individually or in groups, was a common form of resistance to slavery. Most of those who ran away did so for short periods, often to visit spouses or relatives on other farms, or to escape punishment. Chances were slim for permanent escape, and most of those who ran away were eventually reenslaved. Still, some escaped slaves found refuge with Native American groups or in small, isolated maroon colonies.
Resources Available: IMAGES.
The September 18, 1762 edition of the South Carolina Gazette included notices of stray animals, runaway wives, and escaped slaves. Along with breaking tools, feigning illness, and slowing work, running away, individually or in groups, was a common form of resistance to slavery. Most of those who ran away did so for short periods, often to visit spouses or relatives on other farms, or to escape punishment. Chances were slim for permanent escape, and most of those who ran away were eventually reenslaved. Still, some escaped slaves found refuge with Native American groups or in small, isolated maroon colonies.
Resources Available: IMAGES.
Witchcraft.
Law and custom in seventeenth-century New England gave male property owners authority over the women, children, and other dependents of their families. Women who spoke up or stood out merited suspicion, and many were accused, prosecuted, and occasionally executed for the crime of witchcraft. Women could be excommunicated, as Ann Hibben was in 1641, for “usurping” her husband’s role, or, as Anne Yale Easton was in 1644, for expressing “unorthodox opinion.” During the notorious Salem Village trials of 1692, magistrates put credence in rampant accusations of witchcraft by hanging 19 people, fourteen of them women. Anne Hutchinson, a prominent Boston woman, was tried and banished from Massachusetts in 1637 after attracting a religious following and “casting reproach upon the faithful Ministers of this Country.” Although Hutchinson was never accused outright of being a witch, the delivery of a deformed, stillborn infant to one of her female associates in 1638 was interpreted by the Puritan fathers as the Devil’s work. This illustration from an eighteenth-century chapbook (a cheaply printed pamphlet) presented a “monstrous” birth as a sign of witchcraft.
Resources Available: IMAGES.
Law and custom in seventeenth-century New England gave male property owners authority over the women, children, and other dependents of their families. Women who spoke up or stood out merited suspicion, and many were accused, prosecuted, and occasionally executed for the crime of witchcraft. Women could be excommunicated, as Ann Hibben was in 1641, for “usurping” her husband’s role, or, as Anne Yale Easton was in 1644, for expressing “unorthodox opinion.” During the notorious Salem Village trials of 1692, magistrates put credence in rampant accusations of witchcraft by hanging 19 people, fourteen of them women. Anne Hutchinson, a prominent Boston woman, was tried and banished from Massachusetts in 1637 after attracting a religious following and “casting reproach upon the faithful Ministers of this Country.” Although Hutchinson was never accused outright of being a witch, the delivery of a deformed, stillborn infant to one of her female associates in 1638 was interpreted by the Puritan fathers as the Devil’s work. This illustration from an eighteenth-century chapbook (a cheaply printed pamphlet) presented a “monstrous” birth as a sign of witchcraft.
Resources Available: IMAGES.
“Compare the Ship that bore them hither with Noah’s Ark: Francis Daniel Pastorius Describes his impressions of Pennsylvania, 1683
Francis Daniel Pastorius .
Francis Daniel Pastorius arrived in Pennsylvania in 1683, commissioned by the Frankfort Land Company and a group of German merchants to obtain 15,000 acres of land for a settlement in the new colony of Pennsylvania. Pastorius, well educated in European universities, reported back to his friends in Germany. This report was later published as Positive Information From America, concerning the Country of Pennsylvania by a German who Traveled There (1684), a promotional tract to encourage other Germans to immigrate. Pastorius found the journey to be difficult but the prospects attractive. He remarked notably upon the ethnic and religious complexity of the colony. Pennsylvania attracted many colonists seeking religious freedom and communal prosperity. Pastorius went on to lead settlement of Mennonites and Quakers at Germantown.
Resources Available: TEXT.
Francis Daniel Pastorius .
Francis Daniel Pastorius arrived in Pennsylvania in 1683, commissioned by the Frankfort Land Company and a group of German merchants to obtain 15,000 acres of land for a settlement in the new colony of Pennsylvania. Pastorius, well educated in European universities, reported back to his friends in Germany. This report was later published as Positive Information From America, concerning the Country of Pennsylvania by a German who Traveled There (1684), a promotional tract to encourage other Germans to immigrate. Pastorius found the journey to be difficult but the prospects attractive. He remarked notably upon the ethnic and religious complexity of the colony. Pennsylvania attracted many colonists seeking religious freedom and communal prosperity. Pastorius went on to lead settlement of Mennonites and Quakers at Germantown.
Resources Available: TEXT.
“The Air is Sweet and Clear, the Heavens Serene, like the South Parts of France”: William Penn Advertises for Colonists for Pennsylvania, 1683.
William Penn.
William Penn, a well placed English gentlemen and a Quaker, turned an old debt into a charter for the proprietary colony called “Pennsylvania,” (all the land between New Jersey and Maryland) Penn took great pains in setting up his colony; twenty drafts survive of his First Frame of Government, the colony’s 1682 constitution. Penn was determined to deal fairly and maintain friendly relations with the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians. He laid out in great detail the city of Philadelphia as well as organized other settlements and established the Free Society of Traders to control commerce with England. He sent back glowing accounts of the colony to his English friends and patrons. This Letter to the Free Society of Traders, published in 1683, has been recognized as the most effective of his promotional tracts. And it proved successful; by 1700 Pennsylvania’s population reached 21,000.
Resources Available: TEXT.
William Penn.
William Penn, a well placed English gentlemen and a Quaker, turned an old debt into a charter for the proprietary colony called “Pennsylvania,” (all the land between New Jersey and Maryland) Penn took great pains in setting up his colony; twenty drafts survive of his First Frame of Government, the colony’s 1682 constitution. Penn was determined to deal fairly and maintain friendly relations with the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians. He laid out in great detail the city of Philadelphia as well as organized other settlements and established the Free Society of Traders to control commerce with England. He sent back glowing accounts of the colony to his English friends and patrons. This Letter to the Free Society of Traders, published in 1683, has been recognized as the most effective of his promotional tracts. And it proved successful; by 1700 Pennsylvania’s population reached 21,000.
Resources Available: TEXT.
We are Told that the Americans have 13 Councils Compos’d of Chiefs and Warriors: The Chickasaws Send a Message of Conciliation to Congress, 1783
The Chickasaw Indians occupied a key region of northern Mississippi. They held in check the French and Choctaws with their allies and trading partners the British. The American Revolution ended that balance of power. The Chickasaws sought neutrality but also felt allegiance to the British due to their long-held ties. In 1779, the Virginians sent threatening messages warning them of dire consequences if they did not make peace. The Chickasaw chiefs replied in a bold manner. The Mississippi River valley changed signifcantly when the Spanish replaced the British in West Florida. The Chickasaws found themselves without allies and caught in a competitive crossfire between Spain, the new United States government, and the various new states. The once defiant Chickasaw leaders sought to inaugurate a new relationship with the new United States by sending this message to Congress in the spring of 1783. They desired a halt to encroachments on their land and regular access to supplies in order to appease their belligerent young warriors.
Resources Available: TEXT.
The Chickasaw Indians occupied a key region of northern Mississippi. They held in check the French and Choctaws with their allies and trading partners the British. The American Revolution ended that balance of power. The Chickasaws sought neutrality but also felt allegiance to the British due to their long-held ties. In 1779, the Virginians sent threatening messages warning them of dire consequences if they did not make peace. The Chickasaw chiefs replied in a bold manner. The Mississippi River valley changed signifcantly when the Spanish replaced the British in West Florida. The Chickasaws found themselves without allies and caught in a competitive crossfire between Spain, the new United States government, and the various new states. The once defiant Chickasaw leaders sought to inaugurate a new relationship with the new United States by sending this message to Congress in the spring of 1783. They desired a halt to encroachments on their land and regular access to supplies in order to appease their belligerent young warriors.
Resources Available: TEXT.
“The uncommon increase of Settlements in the back Country”: Sir William Johnson Watches the Settlers Invade Indian Lands
As North American colonists, eager for land, spilled over the Appalachian Mountains in the 1750s, British concern and Indian anger over the expansion rose. Sir William Johnson, a migrant from Ireland who had settled in central New York, was a British official with ties to the Iroquois; in 1756 he was appointed superintendent of Indian Affairs for the northern colonies. In 1772, after British victory in the Seven Year’s War, he wrote to the Earl of Dartmouth, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, describing the abuses of the traders and the Indians’ complaints about the settlers. Johnson feared the loss of authority by the established government, and judging of the settlers that “they are in general a lawless sett of People. ”
Resources Available: TEXT.
As North American colonists, eager for land, spilled over the Appalachian Mountains in the 1750s, British concern and Indian anger over the expansion rose. Sir William Johnson, a migrant from Ireland who had settled in central New York, was a British official with ties to the Iroquois; in 1756 he was appointed superintendent of Indian Affairs for the northern colonies. In 1772, after British victory in the Seven Year’s War, he wrote to the Earl of Dartmouth, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, describing the abuses of the traders and the Indians’ complaints about the settlers. Johnson feared the loss of authority by the established government, and judging of the settlers that “they are in general a lawless sett of People. ”
Resources Available: TEXT.
"Having Tasted the Sweets of Freedom": Cato Petitions the Pennsylvania Legislature to Remain Free
Pressures for abolition of slavery increased in the Revolutionary era; five northern states abolished slavery between 1780 and 1804. Pennsylvania was the first in 1780 when its legislature passed a gradual abolition bill. However, no one was actually freed; all those enslaved when the law went into effect remained enslaved, and all those born after that date were required to provide their mothers' masters with twenty-eight years of servitude before they could obtain their freedom. Despite the law’s extreme gradualism, the following year a more conservative legislature attempted to repeal it. Newly freed African Americans petitioned the Assembly to reject such a move. Cato, newly freed with his children, wrote to Philadelphia’s Freeman’s Journal, an African-American newspaper, in 1781, making his case by using the legislature’s own words about the promise of universal civilization while adding his own views of the meaning of the Revolution. The legislature voted against repealing the gradual abolition act.
Resources Available: TEXT.
Pressures for abolition of slavery increased in the Revolutionary era; five northern states abolished slavery between 1780 and 1804. Pennsylvania was the first in 1780 when its legislature passed a gradual abolition bill. However, no one was actually freed; all those enslaved when the law went into effect remained enslaved, and all those born after that date were required to provide their mothers' masters with twenty-eight years of servitude before they could obtain their freedom. Despite the law’s extreme gradualism, the following year a more conservative legislature attempted to repeal it. Newly freed African Americans petitioned the Assembly to reject such a move. Cato, newly freed with his children, wrote to Philadelphia’s Freeman’s Journal, an African-American newspaper, in 1781, making his case by using the legislature’s own words about the promise of universal civilization while adding his own views of the meaning of the Revolution. The legislature voted against repealing the gradual abolition act.
Resources Available: TEXT.
“We Are All Equally Free”: New York City Workingmen Demand A Voice in the Revolutionary Struggle
The struggle against Great Britain in the years leading up to the War for Independence promoted an expansion of popular participation in politics. Popular pamphlets,urban demonstrations, and voluntary associations such as the Sons of Liberty gave voice to the sentiments of ordinary men and women. In May 1770 an anonymous author named “Brutus”—believed to be the New York City merchant and Son of Liberty Alexander McDougall—addressed his fellow citizens and urged them to reject the claims of leading merchants or “Mercantile Dons,” as he labeled them, to decide unilaterally issues of great political and economic concern. Two years earlier, some merchants had organized boycotts against certain products imported from Great Britain (a strategy known as nonimportation) to resist British taxation measures aimed at the rebellious Americans. And these merchants regarded the decision to resume trade as their decision alone to make. But Brutus disagreed, and responded with this single-sheet broadside.
Resources Available: TEXT.
The struggle against Great Britain in the years leading up to the War for Independence promoted an expansion of popular participation in politics. Popular pamphlets,urban demonstrations, and voluntary associations such as the Sons of Liberty gave voice to the sentiments of ordinary men and women. In May 1770 an anonymous author named “Brutus”—believed to be the New York City merchant and Son of Liberty Alexander McDougall—addressed his fellow citizens and urged them to reject the claims of leading merchants or “Mercantile Dons,” as he labeled them, to decide unilaterally issues of great political and economic concern. Two years earlier, some merchants had organized boycotts against certain products imported from Great Britain (a strategy known as nonimportation) to resist British taxation measures aimed at the rebellious Americans. And these merchants regarded the decision to resume trade as their decision alone to make. But Brutus disagreed, and responded with this single-sheet broadside.
Resources Available: TEXT.
“I Believe It Is Because I Am a Poor Indian”: Samsom Occom’s Life as an Indian Minister
Samsom Occom.
By the beginning of the eighteenth century Mohegan Indians had lost vast amounts of their land to the English colonists. They found it hard to continue with their traditional tribal economy; some turned to alcohol for escape and others found an answer in Christianity. Evangelical ministers converted Mohegan Samsom Occom to Christianity during the Great Awakening in the late 1730s and 1740s. He attended the Reverend Eleazer Wheelock’s school and trained as a missionary and teacher for his people, first in New London, Connecticut, and then moving to Montauk on Long Island as an ordained Presbyterian minister. Occom composed a short autobiography where he described the difficulties of making a living, his experience as an Indian minister, and his poor treatment at the hands of the religious establishment.
Resources Available: TEXT.
Samsom Occom.
By the beginning of the eighteenth century Mohegan Indians had lost vast amounts of their land to the English colonists. They found it hard to continue with their traditional tribal economy; some turned to alcohol for escape and others found an answer in Christianity. Evangelical ministers converted Mohegan Samsom Occom to Christianity during the Great Awakening in the late 1730s and 1740s. He attended the Reverend Eleazer Wheelock’s school and trained as a missionary and teacher for his people, first in New London, Connecticut, and then moving to Montauk on Long Island as an ordained Presbyterian minister. Occom composed a short autobiography where he described the difficulties of making a living, his experience as an Indian minister, and his poor treatment at the hands of the religious establishment.
Resources Available: TEXT.
A Shoemaker and the Tea Party
George Robert Twelve Hewes.
George Robert Twelve Hewes, a Boston shoemaker, participated in many of the key events of the Revolutionary crisis. Over half a century later, Hewes described his experiences to James Hawkes. When Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773, colonists refused to allow cargoes of tea to be unloaded. In the evening of December 16, with Hewes leading one group, the colonists dressed in “the costume of a Indian.” They boarded the ships in Boston harbor and dropped the tea overboard. Hewes’ account shed light on how resistance became revolution. The“Boston Tea Party,” as it became known in the 19th century, became a powerful symbol of the Revolution. And Hewes, artisan and ordinary citizen, was celebrated as a venerable veteran of the struggle for Independence.
Resources Available: TEXT.
George Robert Twelve Hewes.
George Robert Twelve Hewes, a Boston shoemaker, participated in many of the key events of the Revolutionary crisis. Over half a century later, Hewes described his experiences to James Hawkes. When Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773, colonists refused to allow cargoes of tea to be unloaded. In the evening of December 16, with Hewes leading one group, the colonists dressed in “the costume of a Indian.” They boarded the ships in Boston harbor and dropped the tea overboard. Hewes’ account shed light on how resistance became revolution. The“Boston Tea Party,” as it became known in the 19th century, became a powerful symbol of the Revolution. And Hewes, artisan and ordinary citizen, was celebrated as a venerable veteran of the struggle for Independence.
Resources Available: TEXT.
“Born Yet We Are Debarred Englishmen’s Liberty”: A Massachusetts Soldier Confronts British Society, 1759
During the 18th century, American colonists found themselves increasingly involved in wars, often imperial ones, spiraling out of European battlefields onto the North American continent. The Seven Years War between France and Great Britain began along the western frontier and spread in 1754. New Englanders eagerly volunteered for expeditions leading to the invasion of French Canada. British and colonial forces succeeded together in capturing the great French fortress of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia in 1758. But as Massachusetts soldier Gibson Clough discovered, the British regular army looked down on the colonial militia. British concepts of discipline and social hierarchy varied significantly from colonial ones, and the war experience began to encourage colonists’ conception of themselves as Americans.
Resources Available: TEXT.
During the 18th century, American colonists found themselves increasingly involved in wars, often imperial ones, spiraling out of European battlefields onto the North American continent. The Seven Years War between France and Great Britain began along the western frontier and spread in 1754. New Englanders eagerly volunteered for expeditions leading to the invasion of French Canada. British and colonial forces succeeded together in capturing the great French fortress of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia in 1758. But as Massachusetts soldier Gibson Clough discovered, the British regular army looked down on the colonial militia. British concepts of discipline and social hierarchy varied significantly from colonial ones, and the war experience began to encourage colonists’ conception of themselves as Americans.
Resources Available: TEXT.
“I Was Sure of Getting a Trade”: John Fitch’s Long Journey Towards Becoming an Artisan
In colonial America, apprenticeship was the usual means by which young men entered a trade and master craftsmen obtained the labor necessary to staff their workshops. A young man’s guardian signed an indenture (contract) for a period of time and the apprentice in turn was to receive food, lodging, and knowledge of “the mysteries of the trade,” or traditional craft practices. For young John Fitch of Connecticut in the 1760s, anxious “to learn a trade” and “subsist myself in a genteel way when I came for myself,” that exchange was no simple matter. The Cheney brothers, Connecticut clockmakers who were innovated in making moving wooden clocks that were far cheaper than the usual brass ones, were not eager to share either their dinner or their knowledge of clockmaking with Fitch. He found himself caught between his father’s and his master’s patriarchal expectations of receiving his labor, while he had to worry about how he would support himself when he came of age.
Resources Available: TEXT.
In colonial America, apprenticeship was the usual means by which young men entered a trade and master craftsmen obtained the labor necessary to staff their workshops. A young man’s guardian signed an indenture (contract) for a period of time and the apprentice in turn was to receive food, lodging, and knowledge of “the mysteries of the trade,” or traditional craft practices. For young John Fitch of Connecticut in the 1760s, anxious “to learn a trade” and “subsist myself in a genteel way when I came for myself,” that exchange was no simple matter. The Cheney brothers, Connecticut clockmakers who were innovated in making moving wooden clocks that were far cheaper than the usual brass ones, were not eager to share either their dinner or their knowledge of clockmaking with Fitch. He found himself caught between his father’s and his master’s patriarchal expectations of receiving his labor, while he had to worry about how he would support himself when he came of age.
Resources Available: TEXT.
“I Wove To-day”: Elizabeth Fuller Grows Up in Rural Massachusetts
Farm households depended heavily on the work of women and children. At first children were assigned simple tasks; later they learned chores that were differentiated according to gender roles. In the 1790s, young unmarried women such as Elizabeth Fuller pursued work in the dairy or in home manufacturing along with their housework and garden tasks. Fuller lived in the central Massachusetts town of Princeton; her diary recorded her health, social activities, and any unusual events in her life. Mostly, she faced a regular round of household tasks such as making cheese or baking pies. She often washed, carded, and spun wool, since her most significant labor was the household textile production that provided most farm families with their clothing.
Resources Available: TEXT.
Farm households depended heavily on the work of women and children. At first children were assigned simple tasks; later they learned chores that were differentiated according to gender roles. In the 1790s, young unmarried women such as Elizabeth Fuller pursued work in the dairy or in home manufacturing along with their housework and garden tasks. Fuller lived in the central Massachusetts town of Princeton; her diary recorded her health, social activities, and any unusual events in her life. Mostly, she faced a regular round of household tasks such as making cheese or baking pies. She often washed, carded, and spun wool, since her most significant labor was the household textile production that provided most farm families with their clothing.
Resources Available: TEXT.
George Hewes’ Recollection of the Boston Massacre
Beginning in the mid-1760s, colonists began taking to the streets in Boston and other port cities. Crowds of artisans and laborers joined the elite in protesting British policies, although their differing points of view revealed the divisions within colonial society. Protests mounted in 1767 when Britain passed the Townsend Act, which included a series of unpopular taxes. In Boston, resentment and tension also grew over the presence of British troops, quartered in town to discourage demonstrations, who were also looking for jobs. A private seeking work at a ropemakers’ establishment sparked a confrontation on Boston’s King Street. When some in the crowd pelted the assembled British soldiers, the troops opened fire; five colonists were killed and six wounded. George Robert Twelves Hewes, a Boston shoemaker, participated in many of the key events of the Revolutionary crisis. Over half a century later, Hewes told James Hawkes about his presence at the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party.
Resources Available: TEXT.
Beginning in the mid-1760s, colonists began taking to the streets in Boston and other port cities. Crowds of artisans and laborers joined the elite in protesting British policies, although their differing points of view revealed the divisions within colonial society. Protests mounted in 1767 when Britain passed the Townsend Act, which included a series of unpopular taxes. In Boston, resentment and tension also grew over the presence of British troops, quartered in town to discourage demonstrations, who were also looking for jobs. A private seeking work at a ropemakers’ establishment sparked a confrontation on Boston’s King Street. When some in the crowd pelted the assembled British soldiers, the troops opened fire; five colonists were killed and six wounded. George Robert Twelves Hewes, a Boston shoemaker, participated in many of the key events of the Revolutionary crisis. Over half a century later, Hewes told James Hawkes about his presence at the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party.
Resources Available: TEXT.
The War for Independence Through Seneca Eyes: Mary Jemison Views the Revolution, 1775–79
The American Revolution divided Indian communities as well as Euro-American ones. Captured at the age of fifteen along the Pennsylvania frontier and adopted and integrated into a Seneca community, Mary Jemison watched the war through the eyes of a wife and mother. The Iroquois attempted to remain neutral in the conflict, and Jemison watched tribal leaders return from a meeting with Patriot colonists at German Flats, secure in their belief that Indian neutrality would be respected. Instead, the British sought to attract Iroquois support and four of the six Iroquois nations declared their allegiance to the crown. Soon, Seneca lands became a battleground and their fields were laid waste by the colonists’ scorched earth tactics. Jemison described the ensuing destruction and disease in 1823 when she related her life story to James Seaver, a local doctor near her home among the Iroquois of western New York.
Resources Available: TEXT.
The American Revolution divided Indian communities as well as Euro-American ones. Captured at the age of fifteen along the Pennsylvania frontier and adopted and integrated into a Seneca community, Mary Jemison watched the war through the eyes of a wife and mother. The Iroquois attempted to remain neutral in the conflict, and Jemison watched tribal leaders return from a meeting with Patriot colonists at German Flats, secure in their belief that Indian neutrality would be respected. Instead, the British sought to attract Iroquois support and four of the six Iroquois nations declared their allegiance to the crown. Soon, Seneca lands became a battleground and their fields were laid waste by the colonists’ scorched earth tactics. Jemison described the ensuing destruction and disease in 1823 when she related her life story to James Seaver, a local doctor near her home among the Iroquois of western New York.
Resources Available: TEXT.
“The Treatment of the Help in Those Days Was Cruel”: Hiram Munger Remembers Factory Life
Hiram Munger.
After the War for Independence small-scale industrial activity spread throughout the northeastern states. Saw and grist mills had long been features of colonial life, processing local wood and grain for the rural population. In 1790 Samuel Slater, an English immigrant, set up machines for spinning cotton yarn in Pawtucket Falls, Rhode Island. New England’s abundant water power drove many small textile mills. Family labor was very important in those early mills as small children often tended the machines while their parents wove the yarn into cloth. Hiram Munger worked in a small cotton factory in Massachusetts. Born into a family with scant means, Munger only worked in a textile mill for a short while, but when he recorded his autobiography forty years later he remembered the experience vividly. Hiram Munger worked at a series of manual occupations most of his life, eventually becoming an itinerant Methodist lay preacher.
Resources Available: TEXT.
Hiram Munger.
After the War for Independence small-scale industrial activity spread throughout the northeastern states. Saw and grist mills had long been features of colonial life, processing local wood and grain for the rural population. In 1790 Samuel Slater, an English immigrant, set up machines for spinning cotton yarn in Pawtucket Falls, Rhode Island. New England’s abundant water power drove many small textile mills. Family labor was very important in those early mills as small children often tended the machines while their parents wove the yarn into cloth. Hiram Munger worked in a small cotton factory in Massachusetts. Born into a family with scant means, Munger only worked in a textile mill for a short while, but when he recorded his autobiography forty years later he remembered the experience vividly. Hiram Munger worked at a series of manual occupations most of his life, eventually becoming an itinerant Methodist lay preacher.
Resources Available: TEXT.
Sarah Osborn Recollects Her Experiences in the Revolutionary War, 1837
Women participated actively in a variety of ways during the War for Independence; some even traveled with the Patriot army. Sarah Osborn was a servant in a blacksmith’s household in Albany, New York, when she met and married Aaron Osborn, a blacksmith and Revolutionary war veteran, in 1780. When he re-enlisted as a commissary sergeant without informing her, Sarah agreed to accompany him. They went first to West Point, and Sarah later traveled with the Continental army for the campaign in the southern colonies, working as a washerwoman and cook. Her vivid description included a meeting with General Washington and memories of the surrender of British forces at Yorktown. This account comes from a deposition she filed in 1837, at the age of eighty-one, as part of a claim under the first pension act for Revolutionary war veterans and their widows.
Resources Available: TEXT.
Women participated actively in a variety of ways during the War for Independence; some even traveled with the Patriot army. Sarah Osborn was a servant in a blacksmith’s household in Albany, New York, when she met and married Aaron Osborn, a blacksmith and Revolutionary war veteran, in 1780. When he re-enlisted as a commissary sergeant without informing her, Sarah agreed to accompany him. They went first to West Point, and Sarah later traveled with the Continental army for the campaign in the southern colonies, working as a washerwoman and cook. Her vivid description included a meeting with General Washington and memories of the surrender of British forces at Yorktown. This account comes from a deposition she filed in 1837, at the age of eighty-one, as part of a claim under the first pension act for Revolutionary war veterans and their widows.
Resources Available: TEXT.
William Manning, “A Laborer,” Explains Shays Rebellion in Massachusetts: “In as Plain a Manner as I Am Capable”
The end of the War of Independence in 1783 curtailed wartime loss of life and destruction of property. However, peace also brought economic distress through cycles of depression and glut. These cycles were exacerbated when Massachusetts authorities pursued strict policies on money and debt and British creditors called in their debts during the post-Revolutionary depression. When merchants turned to already pressured farmers and rural traders who had no cash to pay their debts or taxes, courts and jails filled with debtors. In protest, Daniel Shays, a former captain in the revolutionary militia, led an uprising in western and central Massachusetts to close the courts and prevent the seizure of property for unpaid debts. Massachusetts Governor Bowdoin sent a military force that scattered the rebels. In his 1799 treatise to his fellow working men and women, William Manning offered a history of Shay’s Rebellion along with his prescription for avoiding such insurrections in the future by an organization of working people.
Resources Available: TEXT.
The end of the War of Independence in 1783 curtailed wartime loss of life and destruction of property. However, peace also brought economic distress through cycles of depression and glut. These cycles were exacerbated when Massachusetts authorities pursued strict policies on money and debt and British creditors called in their debts during the post-Revolutionary depression. When merchants turned to already pressured farmers and rural traders who had no cash to pay their debts or taxes, courts and jails filled with debtors. In protest, Daniel Shays, a former captain in the revolutionary militia, led an uprising in western and central Massachusetts to close the courts and prevent the seizure of property for unpaid debts. Massachusetts Governor Bowdoin sent a military force that scattered the rebels. In his 1799 treatise to his fellow working men and women, William Manning offered a history of Shay’s Rebellion along with his prescription for avoiding such insurrections in the future by an organization of working people.
Resources Available: TEXT.
“All Men Are Born Free and Equal”: Massachusetts Yeomen Oppose the “Aristocratickal” Constitution, January, 1788.
The constitution of the United States was composed in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. Afterward, ratifying conventions were held in the states. In Massachusetts, site of the previous year’s Shay’s Rebellion against government enforcement of private debt collection, ratification did not go uncontested. Farmers from the western part of the state, such as the “yeomen” who signed this letter published in the Massachusetts Gazette in January, 1788, were suspicious of the power that the constitution seemed to centralize in elite hands. Rural smallholders were not the only ones who felt this way, however. Thomas Jefferson, then in Paris as the United States' minister to France, felt similarly. Massachusetts ratified the constitution on February 7, 1788.
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The constitution of the United States was composed in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. Afterward, ratifying conventions were held in the states. In Massachusetts, site of the previous year’s Shay’s Rebellion against government enforcement of private debt collection, ratification did not go uncontested. Farmers from the western part of the state, such as the “yeomen” who signed this letter published in the Massachusetts Gazette in January, 1788, were suspicious of the power that the constitution seemed to centralize in elite hands. Rural smallholders were not the only ones who felt this way, however. Thomas Jefferson, then in Paris as the United States' minister to France, felt similarly. Massachusetts ratified the constitution on February 7, 1788.
Resources Available: TEXT.
“From a Child I Was Fond of Reading”: Benjamin Franklin Becomes a Printer
College education was rare in colonial America, mostly intended for young men entering the ministry. Artisans learned the skills and secrets of their trade through an apprenticeship to a master as Benjamin Franklin related in this excerpt about his education as a craftsman from his famous autobiography. After their service they became journeymen, hired for a time while they saved to open a workshop of their own. Franklin’s father, with seventeen children, had to plan carefully in order to secure a niche for his youngest child, Benjamin. Printers stood near the top of the mechanical arts because the trade required literacy. Printers, clustered in the port cities, often formed a network of interrelated families; Benjamin’s brother James was a master before him. Benjamin quickly learned the printing trade and ventured out into independent activities. Armed with his valuable training and a penchant for independence, he never finished his term of service and instead moved on to ply his trade in Philadelphia and London.
Resources Available: TEXT.
College education was rare in colonial America, mostly intended for young men entering the ministry. Artisans learned the skills and secrets of their trade through an apprenticeship to a master as Benjamin Franklin related in this excerpt about his education as a craftsman from his famous autobiography. After their service they became journeymen, hired for a time while they saved to open a workshop of their own. Franklin’s father, with seventeen children, had to plan carefully in order to secure a niche for his youngest child, Benjamin. Printers stood near the top of the mechanical arts because the trade required literacy. Printers, clustered in the port cities, often formed a network of interrelated families; Benjamin’s brother James was a master before him. Benjamin quickly learned the printing trade and ventured out into independent activities. Armed with his valuable training and a penchant for independence, he never finished his term of service and instead moved on to ply his trade in Philadelphia and London.
Resources Available: TEXT.
“Natural and Inalienable Right to Freedom”: Slaves ’Petition for Freedom to the Massachusetts Legislature, 1777.
The colonists ’revolutionary struggle against British political authority also raised issues about equality and human rights at home. Enslaved people throughout the colonies seized upon the rhetoric of liberty and equality to point out the contradiction of fighting Great Britain over principles not fully followed by the colonies themselves; they also appealed to Christian precepts. Scores of petitions flooded the newly established state legislatures. This one, submitted to the Massachusetts General Court in 1777, linked the cause of American freedom with the struggle of African Americans for liberty. Several lawsuits seeking freedom were successful. When Quok Walker sued for his freedom and back wages in 1781, the Massachusetts Chief Justice ruled that his enslavement violated the new state constitution’s statement that “men are born free and Equal.” His case effectively ended slavery in Massachusetts and other New England states.
Resources Available: TEXT.
The colonists ’revolutionary struggle against British political authority also raised issues about equality and human rights at home. Enslaved people throughout the colonies seized upon the rhetoric of liberty and equality to point out the contradiction of fighting Great Britain over principles not fully followed by the colonies themselves; they also appealed to Christian precepts. Scores of petitions flooded the newly established state legislatures. This one, submitted to the Massachusetts General Court in 1777, linked the cause of American freedom with the struggle of African Americans for liberty. Several lawsuits seeking freedom were successful. When Quok Walker sued for his freedom and back wages in 1781, the Massachusetts Chief Justice ruled that his enslavement violated the new state constitution’s statement that “men are born free and Equal.” His case effectively ended slavery in Massachusetts and other New England states.
Resources Available: TEXT.
“Is It Not Enough that We Are Torn From Our Country and Friends?”: Olaudah Equiano Describes the Horrors of the Middle Passage, 1780s
In one of the largest forced migrations in human history, up to 12 million Africans were sold as slaves to Europeans and shipped to the Americas. Most slaves were seized inland and marched to coastal forts, where they were chained below deck in ships for the journey across the Atlantic or “Middle Passage,” under conditions designed to ship the largest number of people in the smallest space possible. Olaudah Equiano had been kidnapped from his family when he was 11 years old, carried off first to Barbados and then Virginia. After serving in the British navy, he was sold to a Quaker merchant from whom he purchased his freedom in 1766. His pioneering narrative of the journey from slavery to freedom, a bestseller first published in London in 1789, builds upon the traditions of spiritual narratives and travel literature to help create the slave narrative genre.
Resources Available: TEXT.
In one of the largest forced migrations in human history, up to 12 million Africans were sold as slaves to Europeans and shipped to the Americas. Most slaves were seized inland and marched to coastal forts, where they were chained below deck in ships for the journey across the Atlantic or “Middle Passage,” under conditions designed to ship the largest number of people in the smallest space possible. Olaudah Equiano had been kidnapped from his family when he was 11 years old, carried off first to Barbados and then Virginia. After serving in the British navy, he was sold to a Quaker merchant from whom he purchased his freedom in 1766. His pioneering narrative of the journey from slavery to freedom, a bestseller first published in London in 1789, builds upon the traditions of spiritual narratives and travel literature to help create the slave narrative genre.
Resources Available: TEXT.
“Kentucke, Which I Esteemed a Second Paradise:” Daniel Boone Crosses the Mountains and Visits Kentucky, 1769–71
As eighteenth-century colonists eyed the lands across the Appalachian Mountains for further settlement, they needed explorers and promoters. Daniel Boone was both. Born in Pennsylvania in 1734, he settled his family along the Yadkin River in North Carolina in 1757. A decade later he traveled across the Appalachians to explore and hunt in the rich area around the Kentucky River. Boone and his hunting partners actually shared many values with the local Indians, but the goals of natives and newcomers diverged when permanent settlement occurred. By 1775, Boone was leading settlers through the Cumberland Gap along the Wilderness Road to the stockaded settlement of Boonesborough. He described his most significant trip, which took place between 1769 and 1771, in this selection from his 1784 “autobiography.” John Filson, a land speculator and author of Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke, created Boone’s legend as a frontier hero by appending a ghostwritten first person narrative by Boone to his promotional tract. Soon after, Boone abandoned Kentucky because of disputed land claims; he eventually died in Missouri in 1820.
Resources Available: TEXT.
As eighteenth-century colonists eyed the lands across the Appalachian Mountains for further settlement, they needed explorers and promoters. Daniel Boone was both. Born in Pennsylvania in 1734, he settled his family along the Yadkin River in North Carolina in 1757. A decade later he traveled across the Appalachians to explore and hunt in the rich area around the Kentucky River. Boone and his hunting partners actually shared many values with the local Indians, but the goals of natives and newcomers diverged when permanent settlement occurred. By 1775, Boone was leading settlers through the Cumberland Gap along the Wilderness Road to the stockaded settlement of Boonesborough. He described his most significant trip, which took place between 1769 and 1771, in this selection from his 1784 “autobiography.” John Filson, a land speculator and author of Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke, created Boone’s legend as a frontier hero by appending a ghostwritten first person narrative by Boone to his promotional tract. Soon after, Boone abandoned Kentucky because of disputed land claims; he eventually died in Missouri in 1820.
Resources Available: TEXT.
Iroquois Creation Myth, 1816
Many Indian peoples had and still have stories of creation that explain how they came to be and to live in their homelands. These narratives offer a glimpse into the belief systems present before Europeans entered North America. Many northeastern Indian peoples share a legend of how the world was created on the back of a giant sea turtle (some still refer to North America as a “turtle island”). While there are many versions of the tradition, the following selection is from the Iroquois Indians of New York State. Anthropologists collected and transcribed most versions of the Iroquois creation myth in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. However, John Norton, son of Scottish and Cherokee parents and adopted by the Mohawks, recorded this version, one of the earliest, in 1816. Norton traveled widely in the eastern woodlands, playing an important role in the life of the Mohawks in the early-nineteenth century.
Resources Available: TEXT.
Many Indian peoples had and still have stories of creation that explain how they came to be and to live in their homelands. These narratives offer a glimpse into the belief systems present before Europeans entered North America. Many northeastern Indian peoples share a legend of how the world was created on the back of a giant sea turtle (some still refer to North America as a “turtle island”). While there are many versions of the tradition, the following selection is from the Iroquois Indians of New York State. Anthropologists collected and transcribed most versions of the Iroquois creation myth in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. However, John Norton, son of Scottish and Cherokee parents and adopted by the Mohawks, recorded this version, one of the earliest, in 1816. Norton traveled widely in the eastern woodlands, playing an important role in the life of the Mohawks in the early-nineteenth century.
Resources Available: TEXT.
“It Will Require Much Time to Model the Manners and Morals of these Wild Peoples”: Charles Woodmason Visits the Carolina Backcountry, 1768
Charles Woodmason, a newly ordained Anglican minister, left the comforts of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1761 to travel for six years in the Carolina backcountry as an itinerant minister, seeking to bring the established church to areas where it had not taken hold. He also became a fierce partisan of the Regulator movement, a frontier rebellion attempting to obtain a greater voice and fairer claims for backcountry residents who resented the monopolization of power by the coastal leaders. Although Woodmason was hostile toward the colony’s elite for their lack of concern over the political and especially religious life of the frontier, the British migrant held traditional beliefs about morality and social order. He was appalled by the immoral and irreligious behavior rampant on the frontier, as he made clear in this selection from his journal of 1768.
Resources Available: TEXT.
Charles Woodmason, a newly ordained Anglican minister, left the comforts of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1761 to travel for six years in the Carolina backcountry as an itinerant minister, seeking to bring the established church to areas where it had not taken hold. He also became a fierce partisan of the Regulator movement, a frontier rebellion attempting to obtain a greater voice and fairer claims for backcountry residents who resented the monopolization of power by the coastal leaders. Although Woodmason was hostile toward the colony’s elite for their lack of concern over the political and especially religious life of the frontier, the British migrant held traditional beliefs about morality and social order. He was appalled by the immoral and irreligious behavior rampant on the frontier, as he made clear in this selection from his journal of 1768.
Resources Available: TEXT.
"The Sentiments of a Labourer": William Manning Inquires in the Key of Liberty, 1798
Many ordinary Americans entered into political debates in the revolutionary era and its republican aftermath. While the innovative political ideas that appeared during the constitutional debates in Philadelphia are well known, creative thinking at the grassroots level is harder to locate. William Manning, a farmer, revolutionary foot soldier, and political theorist, became agitated during the postwar political debates and economic crisis. In 1798, he completed a treatise called “The Key of Liberty.” Manning hoped to take advantage of the growing availability of newspapers and pamphlets during the post-revolutionary period to distribute his ideas. “The Key of Liberty” outlined a plan for a national association of American laboring men and their political allies, and also offered a broader historical commentary on the social origins of American politics. The Billerica, Massachusetts, farmer wrote several drafts but failed in his efforts at publication. Family members later deposited his papers in the Harvard University library.
Resources Available: TEXT.
Many ordinary Americans entered into political debates in the revolutionary era and its republican aftermath. While the innovative political ideas that appeared during the constitutional debates in Philadelphia are well known, creative thinking at the grassroots level is harder to locate. William Manning, a farmer, revolutionary foot soldier, and political theorist, became agitated during the postwar political debates and economic crisis. In 1798, he completed a treatise called “The Key of Liberty.” Manning hoped to take advantage of the growing availability of newspapers and pamphlets during the post-revolutionary period to distribute his ideas. “The Key of Liberty” outlined a plan for a national association of American laboring men and their political allies, and also offered a broader historical commentary on the social origins of American politics. The Billerica, Massachusetts, farmer wrote several drafts but failed in his efforts at publication. Family members later deposited his papers in the Harvard University library.
Resources Available: TEXT.
"Shame Bows Her to the Earth": Charlotte Temple, a Seduction Tale From Revolutionary New York
Charlotte Temple: A Tale of Truth, published in 1791, was the first American bestseller. The author, Susanna Haswell Rowson, was born in England circa 1762, and died in Massachusetts, where she spent most of her life, in 1824. Charlotte Temple tells the story of a young English girl who is lured away from her school by an army officer, Montraville. On board ship to his posting in revolutionary-era New York, Montraville seduces Charlotte. Once in New York, Montraville gradually abandons the “ruined” Charlotte who, after a downward spiral into remorse, illness, poverty, and the birth of a child, dies. Seduction novels were popular in the 18th century, and the widely read Charlotte Temple went through more than two hundred editions. But Rowson, who despite her childhood as the daughter of an English revenue officer became a committed republican, used her novel to protest the sexual double standard that ruined the lives of women like Charlotte.
Resources Available: TEXT.
Charlotte Temple: A Tale of Truth, published in 1791, was the first American bestseller. The author, Susanna Haswell Rowson, was born in England circa 1762, and died in Massachusetts, where she spent most of her life, in 1824. Charlotte Temple tells the story of a young English girl who is lured away from her school by an army officer, Montraville. On board ship to his posting in revolutionary-era New York, Montraville seduces Charlotte. Once in New York, Montraville gradually abandons the “ruined” Charlotte who, after a downward spiral into remorse, illness, poverty, and the birth of a child, dies. Seduction novels were popular in the 18th century, and the widely read Charlotte Temple went through more than two hundred editions. But Rowson, who despite her childhood as the daughter of an English revenue officer became a committed republican, used her novel to protest the sexual double standard that ruined the lives of women like Charlotte.
Resources Available: TEXT.