LITMIR.BIZ

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Professional Life.—As was to be expected in such religious communities, the clergy formed the most important section of the aristocracy. They led in all public affairs, down to the struggle for independence, and even beyond it, in spite of the loosening of religious ties that began to make itself felt in the eighteenth century. The other learned professions did not at first reach corresponding importance. There were hardly any trained barristers before the beginning of the eighteenth century, although the magistrates were men of good character and general education. The physicians, like their European brethren, used strange drugs, and prescribed heroic remedies which seem very queer to us now; and they frequently combined their profession with that of the gospel or with the trade of the barber.

      81. Mechanic Arts and Commerce.—In the mechanical arts, the New Englanders were more independent than the other colonists. They imported elaborate manufactured products, but supplied themselves with the simpler ones in spite of the repressive effects of English laws. Among the most important industries were mining, timber-cutting, tanning, and distilling. Various needful commodities were manufactured in small quantities, while almost every farmer’s family made homespun cloth for its own consumption, as well as nails and similar articles. Fishing was carried on at great profit, and shipbuilding had developed considerably by the middle of the seventeenth century. The whale fisheries were specially important and attracted many adventurous men. The hardy sailors made both coast and ocean voyages, the trade with the West Indies being of great consequence, since from these islands sugar and molasses were brought home and made into rum.

82. Town Life in New England.—Boston and New Haven were the chief towns, and presented a prosperous appearance. There were many well-kept villages, which were centers of active political life, since those local affairs which were far more important to the inhabitants than the more general business of the colony, were settled by the citizens at town meetings. The houses of the people were on the whole comfortable. Each village had a school for the common branches, and soon good Latin schools were provided. Puritan simplicity prevailed in manners and dress, and, what was better, in conduct, crime being rare. There is practically but one stain on New England character during the early colonial period—the stain of persecution. We have already seen its effects in the religious intolerance displayed against churchmen and Quakers and independent thinkers like Roger Williams; but at the end of the seventeenth century it took an even worse form.

      Cotton Mather.

83. The Persecution of the Witches.—Owing to political disturbances, fear of Indians, and the ravages of smallpox epidemics, the inhabitants of Massachusetts, near the end of the seventeenth century, were seized with great despondency. In common with many persons in England and in Germany they believed that the Scriptural injunction, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” was binding upon a modern Christian community. Under the impulse of this belief they began a persecution of many citizens, chiefly old women, for the supposed crime of witchcraft. Trials were held, presided over by learned magistrates; the testimony of frightened children was taken; and in Salem (1692) nineteen persons were hanged, and one pressed to death. Hundreds of others were arrested on suspicion, and for a time the colony seemed completely to have lost its reason. Even such a distinguished scholar and minister as Cotton Mather^[43] shared in the frenzy and defended it. But Judge Samuel Sewall (now known for a famous diary descriptive of the life of the period) made a public recantation in church of his share in the frightful business. It was indeed a terrible time, but New England emerged from it safely, and could point in extenuation to many similar outbreaks of popular frenzy in the Old World.

      84. Literature.—It has been held, with much show of truth, that only a people, gifted with imagination could have been stirred into such a frenzied state of mind as characterized the New Englanders during the persecution of the witches. Unfortunately, their imaginative powers were employed too exclusively upon religious and theological themes, with the result that although much was written in New England during the seventeenth century, little truly imaginative literature was produced. Drama and fiction were non-existent, and the verse written hardly rose to the dignity of poetry. Mrs. Anne Bradstreet (1613–1672) and the Rev. Michael Wigglesworth (1631–1705, author of a quaint, grewsome poem entitled The Day of Doom) are almost the only poets worthy of mention, and their works are unread to-day. There were, on the other hand, many learned divines, like Thomas Hooker (1586–1647), John Cotton (1585–1652), Roger Williams (1607–1684), and Increase Mather (1639–1723), whose sermons and religious tracts were widely read by their contemporaries; but oblivion has fallen upon them also, save perhaps in the case of Williams. Next in importance to theology stood history, and among the historians the chief place must be given to Governors William Bradford and John Winthrop, who wrote the early annals of their respective colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. But probably the most able and distinguished writer produced in America during the seventeenth century was the celebrated divine already mentioned, Cotton Mather (1663–1728), who was, as scholar, theologian, and historian, an epitome of the learning of the age. His best-known book, Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), is an ecclesiastical history of New England that is of great value to all students of early American annals. There was a little writing done in the Middle and Southern colonies, but it did not differ in quality from that done in New England and does not demand attention here.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MIDDLE COLONIES.

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      85. Social Classes and Occupations.—The Middle colonies, as we have seen, were in the main democratic, but the New York “Patroons” on their estates asserted their privileges as semi-feudal landlords, and in their town houses even lived in comparative luxury. Among the Quakers, too, in the other colonies, there were always some leading families that formed a quasi-aristocracy. The professions, as in New England, commanded the respect of the people, especially in Pennsylvania, which attracted some well-educated settlers. The masses of the people were engaged either in agriculture or in trade. Fur was the most important article of export; but grain and flour were also exported in return for foreign commodities. Manufacturing was carried on in a small way, especially by the Germans at Germantown, Pennsylvania. There was a fair amount of coast and river trade; for the roads were quite bad, except on the main post-line running from New York to Philadelphia through New Jersey, and in consequence the waterways were much used for purposes of transportation of goods and travelers.

      86. Social and Political Life.—With regard to social life the Middle colonies were somewhat less sober than New England. Dancing parties, corn-huskings, and the like festivities diverted the country people; while the towns had races, cock-fights, and other similar amusements of the period. In point of elegance and fashion, New York was inferior to Boston, but was superior to Philadelphia. The English predominated in the towns; but the Dutch, with their sobriety, neatness, and narrowness of life, dominated the country districts, which did not extend much farther than Albany, or, indeed, far away from the Hudson River. The settlers of the outlying districts in both New York and Pennsylvania were rude and simple in their manner of living—were, in fact, our first backwoodsmen. Facilities for education were everywhere far inferior to those of New England, although one or two good schools existed in New York and Philadelphia. Religious influences were much mixed, owing to the variety of creeds tolerated; but Quaker sobriety was almost as strong as Puritan rigor in suppressing Sabbath-breaking and other forms of popular license. Politically, the Middle colonies were not so stable and well governed as New England. In New York and Pennsylvania taxes were heavy, and there was considerable discontent against the colonial officials and the mother country. Rioting at elections was frequent in New York. The Quakers were naturally more peaceful; indeed, their reluctance to bear arms partly prevented a complete union of the colonies for self-defense against the Indians. But all things considered, the Middle colonies in 1700 were in a prosperous condition, and had laid a foundation for the immense wealth and population they possess to-day.

CHARACTERISTICS

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