cloth, and other European goods, would yield fifty to one hundred per cent profit and the return cargo of sugar would bring in another inordinate profit; for £400,000 invested in New York or Boston, a shipowner might earn in one voyage £3,200,000!1 It is one of the phenomena of a new country that its first settlement by an alien people is always accompanied by an excessively high death-rate because of the hardships to be overcome and the time required to adapt the new stock to the changed conditions of climate and mode of living, but after that period of trial has been successfully met, the increase of population is rapid, provided that the country is suitable and can afford support for a quick breeding race. We have seen 2 how excessive was the mortality in the early Puritan days, and we are now to observe the other illustration of this natural law. Franklin, testifying before the House of Commons in 1776, was asked the reason that the people of America increased faster than they did in England, and he answered that "any young couple that are industrious may easily obtain land of their own, on which they can raise a family." At the time of the Revolution the first period of the long struggle was over. America was then a sparsely settled, rude country as compared with England, without many of the refinements and the comforts of civilization that Englishmen were ac 1 Channing: A History of the United States, vol. 11, p. 567, n. customed to enjoy, but it was no barren wilderness nor merely a chain of rough frontier outposts.1 In Philadelphia, we are told, at the close of the war, it was the fashion to celebrate public events by processions of tradesmen and mechanics, and in one such pageant, nearly fifty distinct trades were represented; companies existed for the better protection of the interests of the trades, and a library had been founded fifty years before, chiefly by this class. Upon the solid foundation of manufactures and trade had been built a society living in comfort and ease.2 Philadelphia lacked nothing that was possessed by any city in England, except a close corporation and a bull-ring, is Trevelyan's description of the city. Pennsylvania, about the middle of the eighteenth century, could be justly called the most flourishing of the English colonies. A fleet of four hundred sail left Philadelphia yearly with the season's produce. The colony's free population numbered 220,000 souls. As early as 1700 it was possible to ride from Portland, Maine, to southern Virginia, sleeping each night at some considerable 3 4 1 "As respects cleanliness and that decency of living which distinguishes man from the brutes, though primitive if judged by modern standards, the colonial New Englander contrasted favorably with other communities of the same time, whether in America or in Europe.' Adams, Three Episodes of Massachusetts History, vol. II, p. 794. 2 Bryant and Gay: A Popular History of the United States, vol. iv, p. 91. Trevelyan: The American Revolution, part 1, p. 77. 4 Winsor: Narrative and Critical History, vol. v, p. 216. Cf. Grahame: The History of the United States, vol. 11, p. 403; Douglas: A Summary of the British Settlements, vol. 11, pp. 324-25; Sheffield: Observations on the Commerce of the American States, table vII. village.1 That there was more luxury in the colonies than we commonly give them credit for possessing is shown by the inventories of estates. As early as 1648, Thomas Nowell, of Windsor, Connecticut, disposed of real estate and personal property valued at £368, and among the items enumerated are "one couerlitt, 4 pairs of sheets, 3 pair pillow beers, 3 table cloaths, 5 table napkins."2 During the following century, as the permanency of settlement became firmly established, the colonists surrounded themselves with greater comforts and luxuries.3 I think it is stating only the exact truth to say that, taking them as a whole, the three million people in the American colonies were, at the outbreak of the Revolution, really better off than the ten million people who constituted the population of England. I do not mean that there was more wealth in America than in England. There was not. I do not mean that any American enjoyed more luxury than did some Englishmen, or that the richest and best provided colonial had the luxuries and comforts that even the moderately rich Englishman was able to command. That were impossible. But the general standard of living among the people was higher; there was less poverty and degradation and vice.4 1 Semple: American History and its Geographic Conditions, p. 46. 2 Trumbull, in Hart's American History told by Contemporaries, vol. 1, p. 477. 3 Cf. Bruce: Economic History of Virginia, vol. II, chap. XII et seq. "In colonial Massachusetts there was, outside of Boston, which was a A charming picture of life in Penn's colony almost a century before the Revolution is given in a quaint letter written by a young girl. One would like to know more of this Sally Brindley, with her acute observation and sprightly description. DEAR GRANDMOTHER: THE MANOR, BUCKS COUNTy, Pa. The 28th of 11th Mo., 1685. Mamma has been writing to thee since last Fifth day, and she told me I could put a sheet into the letter. We want to get it off on the packet which sails from Philadelphia about the 10th of the Twelfth month. Our new house is all done. I wish thee could see our big kitchen. It has a fireplace entirely across one end of the room. Papa brings the back log in with the horse, and when the boys pile wood up against it, such a fire as it does make. We have so much wood. Papa says he would be rich if we had this timber in England. I gather chips. We had a nice time roasting chestnuts this fall in the ashes. I have four quarts dried. The new house is built of logs and all nicely plastered inside. We'll be good and warm this winter. There is room in the fireplace for papa's big chair and mamma's rocker. There is a bench on the other side of the fire for us children. There is a little narrow window near the seaport town of large commerce, no appreciable criminal class, whether male or female. There was enough and to spare of individuals with criminal tendencies more or less fully developed, the weak minded, or the inherently vicious, and such there will always be in every community; but during the colonial period there was no considerable or recognized portion of the Massachusetts community those composing which made their avowed livelihood, such as it was, by vice or crime." — Adams: Three Episodes of Massachusetts History, vol. 11, p. 797. chimney where the spinning wheel stands. I've learned to bake cakes on the coals. We have a Dutch oven now. I wish thee could have seen our garden this summer. Besides the rows of sage, camomile, thyme, comfrey, and rue, with yarrow and some onions, we have great big love apples. They are almost as large as an apple. They grow up on a bushy plant which starts from a seed in the spring. Uncle Henry found them last summer among the Indians, and brought some of the seeds home. Mamma says they are poison if we eat them. They are just pretty to look at. The men dug a long, winding ditch around the meadow bank this fall. It will carry the water along the side of the meadow so they can let it out to run all over the bank. It keeps the grass very green and pretty. We have so many horses and cows that are not ours. Papa is Ranger now, and takes up all strays. Thee don't know about this, does thee? Well, everybody here lets their cows and horses run loose in the woods. Sometimes they don't come back, and it takes a long time to find them. We heard of a little girl this fall who got lost while hunting for the cows. Dark came on her and she heard the wolves howling. It was very late when she found the cows all huddled together. Her father found her next morning fast asleep alongside of the bell cow. She was safe and sound. I'm glad I wasn't that little girl. All the cows here have ear marks. William Penn's cows have this mark. I copied it from Papa's book: .. It must hurt to have their ears cut. I also found this in the book. Papa put it in last summer: |