i^'C: :V'^: vt^"'.: •>> r*^:' '<-'-; 1 ''<^'''':'- •x-^*'- ;'->-- -< '' >' ■ ■ ''i ;- - V' • - -^ •'•■ >'- 'yfi^r- ■■"V-' -■ . ' -'^.' ^^ ■0/^ -'Sftj-i^ ^ Bureau No.fyre Study. hktita, N. )t\ Cornell lllniveteit^ Xibrar^ IRew l^orft State (tollege of Hariculture .fi^.^.-SL.^L-J. , fe.aj-U.lJ..().- Cornell University Library HC 103.W97 1900 The industrial evolution of the United S 3 1924 013 868 355 SAMVEL SLATER. 'The Father of American Cotton r^Ianulacture. THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION OF THE UNITED STATES BY CARROLL D. WRIGHT, LL.D. United States Commissioner of Labor NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1900 lie /0 3 n / o Copyright, 1895, 1897 By Flood & Vincent THE CAXTON PRESS, NEW YORK TO PRESIDENT FRANCIS A. WALKER. lu Nature Study, ^ORlflLL UmVEPSITT, Ithaca, N. Y. PREFACE. The plan of this work comprehends a plain, simple statement of the leading facts attending the planting and development of the mechanical industries of our country. No attempt has been made to discuss some of the influ- ences which have affected their development, such as the varied effects of tariff legislation, financial experiments, foreign policies, or economic conditions and principles. To have entered upon an ambitious field involving such important elements in the evolution of industry would have led to a work much more extensive than that con- templated. The results have been given, however, in such concise form as to present the general story of our industrial growth and the logical effects of such growth as shown in the various phases of the labor movement. Modern industry brought this movement as it is now un- derstood into e.xistence, and its influence upon future de- velopment will be important. As invention has been the vitalizing principle of the factory system, it has been deemed wise to incorporate chapters on the influence of machinery. These chap- ters, the last three, are largely from addresses which I have made, and the line of thought followed in them is the result of extended observation and the wide study of facts, a study which has led me to change the conclus- ions reached by the earlier consideration of what I now see was a limited range of experiences. The inception of great industries during the past quar- ter of a century and the building up of great manufactur- vi Preface. ing establishments are features \\hich, however desirable in an cxhausti\'e work, could not be treated in detail, but the figures showing the results of such undertakings have been freely used, and they tell the story of the gen- eral movement and of the distribution of industrial in- terests. The details of the de^'elopment of transportation are legitimate features of the e\-olution of industry, but they have been omitted, that a continuous general storv might be told in such a way as to interest and instruct the class of readers for whom this ^^ ork is intended ; but their great importance is recognized, as well as the importance of mining, agriculture, and other sources of ourA-ast sup- ply of raw materials. In the preparation of this work I have had the skilful services of Messrs. Samuel C. Dunham and Charles W. IMorris, Jr. , in stenographic work, in proof-reading, and in the verification of names, dates, etc. I am also indebted to Mr. Wm. M. Steuart, late Chief of Di^-ision of Manufactures in the Eleventh Census, for the ^-erifica- tion of figures taken from that and preceding censuses. All the maps and diagrams ha-^-e been drawn by Mr. Charles G. Leonard especially for this ^-olume, and many oi the illustrations are from original sources. CD. w. Washington, D. C. June i , iSg§. CONTENTS. CHAPTER. PAGE. Introduction ii PART I.— THE EVOLUTION OF INDUSTRY : THE COLONIAL PERIOD. I. The Inception of Industries — Shipbuilding 23 II. Shipbuilding (Concluded) .... 33 III. Textile Industries 43 IV. Textile Industries (Concluded) . 53 V. Printing and Publishing .... 61 VI. Sawmills — Buildings and Build- ing Materials 71 VII. The Iron Industry 80 VIII. The Iron Industry (Concluded) . 92 IX. Labor and Wages 104 PART II.— THE EVOLUTION OF INDUSTRY: 1 790-1 890. X. The Development of the Fac- tory System 117 XL The Development of Industries, 1790-1S60 132 XII. The Civil War ; An Industrial Revolution 143 XIII, The Development of Industries, 1860-1890 159 vii Contents. CHAPTER. PAGE. XIV. The Development of Industries, 1860-1S90 (Concluded) 174 XV. The Number of Persons Employed AND Their Tot.\l Wages ... 189 XVI. Women and Children in Industry 200 XVII. Labor and R.\tes of. W.\ges, 1790- 1890 215 PART III.— THE LABOR MOVEMENT. X\TII. The Inception of the Labor Move- ment 231 XIX. Labor Org.\niz.-vtions 241 XX. Labor Organizations (Concluded) 253 XXI. The Basis of Labor Legislation . 264 XXII. Labor Legisl.ation 273 XXIII. Labor Legislation (Concluded) . 283 XXIV. Labor Controversies 293 XXV. Historic Strikes 301 XX\T. The Chicago Strike, 1S94 — Boy- cotts 313 PART IV.— THE INFLUENCE OF MACHINERY ON LABOR. XXVII. The Influence of Machinery on- Labor — Displacement 323 XXVIII. The Influence of Machinery on- Labor — Expansion 336 XXIX. The Ethical Influence of Ma- chinery ON Labor 343 . ILLUSTRATIONS. Samuel Slater Frontispiece. PAGE. Marquette Descending the Mississippi 31 The " Half-Moon " on the Hudson 32 Fulton's "Clermont," 1807 37 Bell's Steamboat, "Comet," 1812 38 "Old Ironsides" 40 A Modern Atlantic Liner 42 The Spinning-Wheel 44 The Hand-Loom 45 Arkwright's Spinning Machine 50 Hargreaves' Spinning-Jenny 54 Crompton's Mule-Jenny 56 Benjamin Franklin 61 The Franklin Press 65 Plymouth, 1621 73 The First Church Erected in Connecticut, 1638 75 Weaving Room in a Cotton-Mill, Lowell, Massachusetts . 124 Eli Whitney's Original Cotton-Gin 127 Hulling Cotton-Gin, with Feeder, Breaker, and Condenser 128 The Self-Acting Mule 129 English Power-Loom for Weaving Calico 130 Weaving Room in a Southern Cotton-Mill 134 The Sewing Machine 141 A Virginia Tobacco Field 144 A Leaf Tobacco Sale in Virginia 148 Stemming Tobacco in a Virginia Factory 150 Drying Room in a Southern Tobacco Factory 153 Picking Cotton 154 "Cotton Day" at Marietta, Georgia 156 Shipping Cotton, Charleston, South Carolina 157 Hand-Loom now in Use in North Carolina 163 A Family Teasing Wool 165 Shoemaker at the Bench 169 "The Champion" Pegger 170 Spinning Room in a Southern Cotton Factory 176 The Dorrance "Breaker," near Wilkes Barre, Pa 179 Wilkes Barre "Breaker Boys" 181 Old-Fashioned Stage Coach 324 Passenger Car, 1834 326 Freight Car, 1835 326 Freight and Passenger Cars, 1848 327 Model of the John Stevens Locomotive, 1825 328 ix Maps and Diagrams. PAGE. Model of tlie Stockton and Darlington Locomotive, No. i 330 The "George \\'ashington " Locomotive, 1835 332 The Hoe Sextuple Stereotype Perfecting Press and Folder 333 First Steam Train on the Pennsyhania State Railroad . . 335 The " Pioneer, " First Locomotive in Chicago 339 A Jlodern Locomotive 340 Masonic Temple, Chicago 344 MAPS AND DIAGRAMS. Map showing Number of Inhabitants to the Square Mile in Each State First front lining page. Map showing Ratio of Imports to E.xports, and General Direction of Each Second front lining page. Centers of Population at Each Census from 1790101890 . . 17 Railway Mileage of the United States 18 Manufacturing Industries 159 Center of Manufacturing, 1850-1890 160 Textiles " igj Cotton j52 Wool ; Carpets j5. Silk .'.'.'.'.'.' 165 Dyeing and I-inisliing 166 Tailoring jg^ Ladies' Clothiniv j58 Foot-wear jgq Food Products jyj Flour, Meal, etc ■ ■ • Meat-packing and Slaughtering 174 Iron and Steel ' j^. Coke ......'.' 180 Petroleum jg. Lumber, etc. ; Brick and Tile iS^ Printing and Publishing \ 185 Total Number of Employees . 191 Total Wages Paid to All Employees ' 192 Number of Women Employees . ' 205 Number of Children Empl'ovees .207 City Public Works ' 217 Cotton Goods ■ . . ^^^ Agricultural Implements ; Books and Newspapers . 219 Lumber ; Metals and Metallic Goods . . 220 Paper ; 'Woolen Goods 221 Railroads ; Building Trades 222 All Industries ....... 223 Carriages and \Vagons . . 224 All Articles Averaged According to Importance'. '. '. 226, 227 Map showmg Distribution of Gold, Silver, Coal, and Iron, -vr.,, 1 ■ ^ ■ ■ ■ ^^ First end lining page. -Alap shoeing Acquisition of Territory . Second ei. ' - ■ " ^ ^ end titling page. Land. THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. INTRODUCTION. LAND. RESOURCES. — POPULATION. By the definitive treaty of Paris, September 3, 1783, between the United States and England, the United States gained all the material objects of the Revolution and came into possession of an imperial estate of 827,844 square miles of territory.* This was the national domain March 4, 1789, when the new constitution went into effect and the federal government under it began its operations. It consisted of the thirteen original states and the territory claimed by some of them. The area of the United States since then has been greatly increased by purchase, by conquest, and by cession. The first great accessions were through the acquisition of the Louisiana and Oregon tracts in 1803-5, covering 1,171,931 square miles. The Accessions. Florida purchase of 1819 added 59,268 square miles. From Texas in 1845 the United States gained 376,163 square miles, while the first Mexican cession added 545,- 753 square miles, and the Gadsden purchase, in 1853, 44,064 square miles. In 1867 Russia, by purchase, *I have used the areas of the original territory of the United States and all accessions thereto as given in the Federal Census Reports. They liave been made with great care by Prof. Henry Gannett, of the Geological Survey and Geographer of the Census. The statements of no two authorities agree, the disagreement resulting from different estimates of boundary lines. The varia- tion, however, is not very great. It seems wiser, therefore, to take the state- ments of the federal government. 12 Industrial Evolution of the Lhtited States. National domain. Public domain. ceded to the United States Alaska, with an estimated area of 532,409 square miles.* All these acquisitions, added to the original territory, make the total area of our national domain 3,558,009 square miles, f The "public domain" of the United States, as distin- guished from the "national domain," comprehends the lands within federal boundaries owned by the government and which were at its disposal for public purposes in va- rious wavs. The "public domain" is the name given by the General Land Office to these lands. Before any dispositions the public domain contained 2,889,179.91 square miles. % This vast quantity of land has been dis- posed of through sales to settlers, grants to states for ed- ucational and other purposes, and grants to railroads to aid them in building their lines, until there remains at the present time onh' 946,938 square miles subject to the disposition of the federal go\"ernment. || Had the govern- ment retained all the public domain, it would now have at its disposal an area of lands somewhat less than that of the whole United States, excluding Alaska. It will be seen that the land element in the industrial development of the countn,' has been amply sufficient to justify the prophecies of the statesmen who founded the govern- ment. The natural resources of the United States consist of almost every species of raw material produced bv or from the earth essential to make a nation great in the three lines of de\-elopment — agriculture, manufactures, com- merce. The people in colonial days were quite content in the utilization of the natural resources of the soil and the forests. In the settlement of \'irginia it was expected * Estimate ori\-an PetrotT, Special .\gent ofthe Tenth Census. T See map showing accessions. X " The Public Domain," by Thomas Donaldson. [ Report of the Commissioner of the General Land Olfice, 1S94. Introduction. 13 that great gold mines would be discovered, and prospect- ing was at once begun. The results, however, were not satisfactory, and attention was turned to the exportation of timber, later on of tobacco, and afterward of cotton. The northern settlements exported manufactured timber Exportation of in the shape of shingles, ship timber, and other products of the forest. The fisheries also added to the resources of the colonists, and as the settlements extended back from the coast, both north and south, various attempts were made, some successful and others unsuccessful, toward winning from nature what she had to give with- out going beneath the surface. The vast tracts of virgin forest supplied the material for building, as well as prod- ucts for exportation. These simple natural products at- tracted settlers and gave them sufficient occupation, but as the country erew the discovery of iron and lead ores 1 r if • ,1 r , 1 , ■, ■ , Gold, silver. and of coal, and occasionally of gold and silver, increased andiron, the wealth of the country and aided in its wonderful de- velopment.* There are no estimates of the area of the iron, gold, and silver lands of the country that can be trusted, but the coal-fields east of the Rocky Mountain and Pacific tiers of states would cover an area of nearly one hundred thousand square miles, a territory a dozen times as large as the state of Massachusetts. The dis- covery of great quantities of gold in California in 1 849 gave a new impetus to the development of our mineral resources, while the states of Nevada, Arizona, and Col- orado have given of their wealth in great abundance. The value of natural products can be stated in figures wealth. for the year 1889. In that year the farms gave $2,460,- 107,454 worth of products for the support of our people and for foreign trade. The value of the products of all *For distribution of mineral products see map showing deposits of gold, silver, coal, and iron. 14 Industrial Evohdion of the United States. Total value of natural resources. Population. mining industries was S587, 230,662 ; of the fisheries, $44,277,514; and of the forests, $446,034,761. This last value includes $8,077,379 worth of tar and turpen- tine, $403,667,575 worth of lumber and other mill prod- ucts, and $34,289,807 worth of timber products not man- ufiictured at mill. The total value of all these natural resources for the year 1SS9 was $3,537,650,391 — cer- tainly a vast product, representing labor, the profitable investment of capital, and the energy of the people. The wealth of the country, including all material exidences of wealth, like land, buildings, merchandise, and all forms of real and personal propertv, in 1S90 amounted to $65,- 037,091, 197, of which amount 539,544, 544, 333 represents the i,alue of real estate and the improvements thereon and $25,492,546,864 that of personal propert}-, including railroads, mines, and quarries. Of course these great amounts are only approximately correct, there being many elements to preclude perfect accuracy, but they ha^'e been arrix'ed at with great care and serve well their purpose to illustrate the development of the country as shown in propert}' in existence. No comparati\'e state- ments for anv colonial period can be made. The per capita wealth at the present time is about one thousand dollars. It will be seen by these figures that the means for de\'elopinent are unlimited and indicate the activity of our people. From the time of the first permanent settlement in Vir- ginia in 1607 and in Massachusetts in 1620, the popula- tion of the colonies grew to be nearly four millions at the time of the adoption of the federal constitution, March 4, 17S9. This constitution provided that a census of the people should be taken every tenth yCLU', begiiming with 1790. The first census sluiucd a populatinn of ^,929,- 214. Mr. Bancroft, the historian, states that in 1775 the Introduction. ' 15 colonies were inhabited by persons "one fifth of whom had for their mother-tongue some other language than the English." The one fifth who could not claim the English mother-tongue came from France, Sweden, Hol- land, and Germany, the importance of the contributions being in the order named. Drawing the line at the date named, the beginning of our constitutional government, the descendants of the people then living now constitute what may be called popularly the true American stock. American At the time of the first census (1790) about seven hun- ^'°'^''' dred and fifty thousand of the people of the United States were colored. The population for each decennial census was as follows : Census Per cent years. Population, of increase. 1790 3.929.214 ■ ■ ■ 1800 5,308,483 35.10 1810 7,239.881 36.38 1820 9,633,822 33.07 1830 12,866,020 33.55 1840 17,069,453 32.67 1850 23,191,876 35.87 i860 31,443,321 35.58 1870 38,558,371 22.63 1880 50,155.783 3008 1890 62,622,250 24.86 The population June i, 1890, excluding Indians and present popuia- other persons in Indian Territory, on Indian reservations, and in Alaska, was 62,622,250, as given in the foregoing table ; but including these persons the aggregate popu- lation of the United States and its territories was 62,- 979,766.* It is probable that now, in the year 1895, the population is about si.xty-eight millions. The average number of inhabitants to the square mile, taking the gross area, land and water surface, was in 1790, 4.75, while in 1890 it was 20.70. The increase of population *See map showing distribution of population at eleventli census (1890). 1 6 Industrial Ei'olnlion of the United States. has come through natural increase and by immigration. Prior to i S 1 9 no account was taken of the number of im- migrants settling in the United States, but the accepted estimate gi\'es the total number between the first census and the year 1819 as 250,000. Since that year the fed- eral go\-ernment has taken account of immigration ; yet it has not been a correct one in all respects, on account Immigration. of the faults in the entries of total alien passengers, etc. ; but since 1S56 immigrants ha\-e been given separately, so that the mo^'ements in this direction for each year are now gi^en with fair accuracy. Up to June 30, 1S94, the total number of immigrants since 1790 was 17.363,977. Nearly one half of the number arri\-ing since the year 1820 has come from Ireland and the German states, in- cluding Prussia, and of this half of the whole foreign im- migration more than one half has come from the German states. The balance of the immigration has come from all parts of Europe and some parts of Asia, while the British possessions and South America have contributed a fair share. According to the census of iSgo, the popu- lation consisted of 53,372,703 native-born and 9,249,547 foreign-born. foreigu-born, but the number of persons having one or both parents foreign-born was 20,676,046, or 33.02 per cent of the whole population. Taking this number and those whose grandparents were born abroad into con- sideration, it becomes quite eA'ident that while in 1775 one fifth of the population of the colonies could not claim for their mother-tongue the English language, now one half cannot make such claim. The strangers attracted to this countrj- through the facilities for gaining land and through a desire largely to better conditions, ha\-e been assimilated with great facility, for the truth that strikes all observers who study to any e.xtent the immigration to this countrj- is Introduction. 17 that the descendants of recruits from all nationalities be- come in one or two generations thoroughly American. The exceptions are few and not sufficient to vitiate the general statement. This great population has spread itself over the whole country, it has multiplied the orig- inal thirteen states to forty-four, it has prospected every region, it knows where its richest deposits are to be found. Jefferson said it would be one thousand years before the Great Northwest would be settled, but he said this not foreseeing the great inventions which have made it possible for the people to settle in the remotest corners of the land. The pioneer element of the Anglo-Saxon race could not content itself until it had reached the ut- most western boundary of its American inheritance. It has developed cities and founded states, like its Aryan Distribution of population. PENNSYLVANIA IBM , J,«*< IWVy , ^"SaanoKv Centers of Population in the United States at each Census from 1790 TO 1890. ancestry in its march from the table-lands of Central Asia center of across and over the whole of Europe. In the forty-four ^°'^^ states there are now 448 cities having a population of 1 8 Industrial Evolution of the United States. Urban popula- tion. more than eight thousand each, while in 1790, at the be- ginning of our federal existence, there were but six such cities. The urban population now constitutes 29. 20 per cent of the total population, while in 1790 it constituted but 3.35 per cent of the total. The center of population has shifted westward. At the time of the first enumera- tion it was twenty-three miles east of Baltimore ; to-day it is twenty miles east of Columbus, in the state of Indi- ana. It has moved westward 505 miles in one hundred years, and constantly along the 39th parallel of latitude, varying but a i&x minutes from that degree. The center of area, not taking Alaska into account, is in northern Kansas, approximately in latitude 39° 55'. These elements — land, resources, and people — are the basic elements of our industrial evolution. With them alone, however, industrial development could not take RAILWAY MILEAGE OF THE UNITED STATES. VS30 I B40 1550 I860 18 70 1860 1890 2 40 60 60 100 (20 140 ICtt 1 I " ■ ^ ™ " ^ " ^ " Railroad mileage. place. There must be added the vitalizing element of intelligence, inventive genius, and courage. The people of the United States have furnished these qualities ; so the foundation for the storj^ has been laid with abundant strength and proper proportions. The great influence of transportation is best illustrated by the mileage of railroads. In 1830 only twenty-three ■'l^Sr -- Introdiidion. 19 portation. miles of railroads were operated in the United States, while in 1S90 there were 163,597 miles, and in 1893 there were 173,433 niiles. This represents the means of carrying on interna! com- Means of trans- merce, but in addition to the railroads, water transporta- tion adds largely to freight and passenger facilities. The navigable rivers and the Great Lakes all have their vast carrying trade ; but the development of the whole inter- nal commerce is fully illustrated by the miles of railroad operated at different periods. The resources of the country, resulting in the products that have been stated, have brought to the United States vast commercial relations. The exports for the year end- ing June 30, 1894, amounted to $892,142,572, while the imports, both free and dutiable, were valued at $654,- 994,622. This great trade is represented on the accom- panying map, and the countries of the world with which the United States has commercial relations are shown thereon. Exports. PART I. THE EVOLUTION OF INDUSTRY; THE COLONIAL PERIOD. PART I -THE EVOLUTION OF INDUSTRY: THE COLONIAL PERIOD. CHAPTER I. THE INCEPTION OF INDUSTRIES. — SHIPBUILDING. The beginnings of great nations are usually shrouded in mystery and doubt. Tradition crystallizes into his- tory or into what is accepted as such. The beginnings of industry are more in doubt than the beginnings of nations themselves. It is impossible to learn when the ordinary handicrafts which have been essential to the progress of man were developed to such an extent that they could be called handicrafts. Weaving, spinning, pottery, stone-working, even iron-working, and many other industries that to-day constitute the greatest and most important elements in our manufactures and com- merce, cannot be traced to their starting-points. The American nation has the advantage of most great nations, for its beginnings are clearly deiined, its growth readily traceable, its expansion matters of record. Doubts may exist as to certain features of American history, but its great trend can be followed with clearness. Its indus- trial development forms part of its history, and consti- tutes one of its most interesting features. The study of the struggles of a people to establish themselves upon an independent industrial basis, the efforts of the infant state to free itself from the control of other states, fill the whole record with the greatest interest, and especially as all Uncertainty of early history. Trend of American indnstrial history. 24 Industrial Evolution of the United States. Purposes of the American colonists. Early con- ditions. such efforts and struggles can be located and brought, as it were, to the family interest which surrounds the growth of our own people. The American colonists were content to win from na- ture the things essential to a fairly comfortable existence. They came here that they might pursue their ways in accordance with their own likes. Whatever their mo- tives in crossing the stormy western ocean, they knew well that they must win their way in all material things and must establish their own freedom in industrial mat- ters. They were without capital and could pursue their simple industries only as individuals. The factory sys- tem had no place in the world then. They very natur- ally followed the conditions and circumstances of the home country, and their necessities resulted in the imme- diate introduction of industries which have flourished and made our country great. Their ambition at first was to be a prosperous agricultural people, as the old country intended them to be, yet they were obliged to carry along with agricultural pursuits mechanical work, that they might be housed and clothed. The industries of the world were conducted under the domestic system of labor ; that is to say, the hand, supplemented with crude tools and machines, was used in the production of goods everywhere. They had at their command all the methods which the mother- country could command for producing goods ; at least, they brought with them the knowledge of handicrafts which enabled them to command the methods in exist- ence. They found here the forests, which had no counterpart in the country from which they came, and they saw at once the opportunities for building their own little vessels and the prospect of shipping to the mother-country some of the products of the forests ; and The Inception of Industries. 25 while they had been led to believe that they would find on the American coast large deposits of mineral wealth which would reward their labors, they were soon obliged to turn their attention in other directions. The London Company, which in 1607 planted the first colony at Jamestown, had stimulated the hopes of the discovery of gold. They must have from the very first, however, had in mind the development, or the establishment at least, of manufactures. From Stith's " History of Virginia"* it is learned that Captain Newport, in his second voyage, which took place late in 1608, brought with him work- 1608. men for the purpose of making pitch, glass, tar, soap- ashes, etc., which, the historian observes, had the country been peopled would have done well, but which proved only a burden and a hindrance to those not so engaged, workmen. He says that ' ' no sooner were they landed, but the pres- ident dispersed as many as were able, some to make glass, and others for pitch, tar, and soap-ashes. Leaving them at the fort under the council's care and oversight, he himself carried thirty about five miles down the river, to learn to cut down trees, make clapboards, and lie in the woods." The council in London made serious complaint that gold and silver were not forthcoming, and made some threats of desertion if the expenses of the expedition were not defrayed by the ship' s return. Captain John Smith sent an answer by the ship, which was dispatched with the results of the pitch, glass, and soap-ash experiments and with what wainscot and clapboards could be pro- vided. So this little cargo was, historically, the first ex- First exports. port which the colonies undertook, with the exception of a load of sassafras gathered near Cape Cod in 1608. This cargo from Virginia was almost exclusively of manufac- tured articles. Many of the experiments proved unsuc- * London, 1753. 26 Industrial Evolution of the United States. cessful, yet during their leisure time, as the historian states it, the Virginia colonists made clapboards and wainscot. Hemp, flax, and silk grass grew naturall}-, and some iron ore was sent to England and found to yield as good iron as any from other parts of the world. By 1617 what works and buildings had been con- structed at Jamestown had fallen to decay, the prospects "5i7. of the country declining rapidly. The people had turned Decav of earlv , . . ' „ . . . ' ^ . , . works. ' their attention irom pnmitiye manufacture to the cultiya- Cuitivation of tiou of the tobacco plant. May 17, 1620, the company in London had a meeting, to which report was made of this attention of the colonists to tobacco-growing, and at which Sir Edwin Sandys, who had been treasurer of the company, made a statement that he had endeayored to turn the colonists from the cultiyation of tobacco to the production ut necessary commodities. He informed the company that lor this purpose one hundred and filty per- sons had been sent to set up three iron works ; that directions had been gi\'en lor making cordage, as hemp, fla.x, and more especially silk grass, grew in the colonies in great abundance, and were found upon experiment to make the best cordage and line that CortUve. '^^"^'s manufactured. Each family was ordered to set one hundred plants of it, and the goyernor himself set five thousand. The colonists had also been adyised to make pitch, tar, pot and soap-ashes, and timber for shipping, masts, planks, boards, etc., for which purpose men and materials had been sent o\'er for erecting sawmills, al- though no sawmill was erected for many years. Salt Saltworks. works, which had originally been started, were restored, and the colony was generalh' imbued with new hopes of plenty, not only to ser\ e the people with salt, but to supply the fisheries on the American coast. It is e\'ident that sufficient proyision had been made The Inception of Industries. 27 for the planting of the principal useful arts in Virginia, for among the list of tradesmen who had settled there Useful arts in ^ Virginia. may be named husbandmen, gardeners, brewers, bakers, sawyers, carpenters, joiners, shipwrights, boatwrights, ploughwrights, millwrights, masons, turners, smiths of all sorts, coopers, weavers, tanners, potters, fowlers, fishhook-makers, net-makers, shoemakers, rope-makers, brickmakers, bricklayers, dressers of hemp and flax, tile- makers, edge-tool-makers, leather-dressers, men skilful in vines and in iron works and mining. As stated in an old chronicle,* "the men sent have been, most of them, choice men, born and bred up to labor and industry ; out of Devonshire about one hundred men brought up to husbandry ; out of Warwickshire and Staffordshire above one hundred and ten ; and out of Sussex about forty, all framed to iron works, etc." This chronicle also says that " cotton-wooll and sugar canes, all of which may there also be had in abundance, with an infinity of other- more," were among the natural resources of the Virginia soil. Many attempts were made to divert the colonists from attempts to the production of tobacco and to establish in place of it ^^,^^1"*^. the work of handicraftsmen. These will be dealt with in a few illustrations. Their history is full of romantic in- terest, illustrating the wants of the colonists and their heroic efforts to supply them. The Virginia colonists were planters by nature and by training more than they were manufacturers, and they Planters in ... . . Virginia. started in the world with the idea that planting and agri- culture generally were far more respectable than commer- cial and manufacturing pursuits. As they grew they left their carrying trade to the seamen of the northern col- onies, and while they had the raw material for many • ■'A Declaration of the State of Virginia," 1620 ; Force's collection. 28 Indiisirial Evolution of the U)iited States. manufactures they were quite content to raise the material and let others work it into completed products. So the Virginia colonists rested dependent upon England for clothing, exchanging their increased staple, tobacco, for it and for such other necessaries as they found essential. In December, 1620, another lot of colonists settled at Settlement at Plymouth, where they found a sterile soil and very rug- Plymouth. -* ' •' . .,..,■', ged climate, but from their way of livmg they early became interested in manufacturing and commercial en- terprises. Like their neighbors in Virginia, they were obliged to turn their attention first to the cultivation of the soil for the supph'ing of the means of subsistence, but they, too, found timber in great abundance, and the con- verting it into marketable products offered resources for trade with the home country, especially as England's timber supply had been greatly wasted in the conduct of her iron works. This waste had been so wanton that means were taken as early as 1581 to restrain it. Thus the colonists at Plymouth and the others which settled in that vicinity became exporters of the products of forest industries. Early exports The Anne was loaded at Plymouth on the tenth of from Plvmouth. ^^ , ^ ■ , r ■^ ^ ■\ t September, 1623, with a cargo 01 clapboards and re- turned to England. The Anne was a small ship of one hundred and forty tons.* With her cargo there were beaver skins and other furs. So the two colonies imme- diately after their settlement were enabled to send the products of their own industry to England. Shipbuilding. The northern colony naturally took to shipbuilding ; first, because of the necessity of making small boats and vessels for their coasting, and, secondly, because they * Tons Bi'Rden.— The tonnage or carrying capacity of a vessel ; the quan- tity or number of tons of freitcht a vessel ^vHl carry : as, a \essel of three hundred tons burden. The internal cubic capacity of a vessel e.xpressed in tons, now reckoned at one lunidred cubic feet each. The Inception of Industries. 29 found the means ready at hand from which vessels could be constructed. The first vessel, barring some small First vessel. open boats built by De Soto's men, ever constructed in this country by Europeans was a Dutch vessel named the Onrest, a vessel of sixteen tons burden. This vessel was built by Captain Adriaen Block, at Manhattan River, in 1614, and its building was necessitated by the destruction by fire of one of four vessels which arrived in that year from Amsterdam. It was in this little vessel, the Onrest, or the Restless, that Captain Hendrickson discovered the Schuylkill River, in August, 1616. He also explored nearly the whole coast from Nova Scotia to the capes of Virginia. Mr. Bishop, in his excellent "History of American Manufactures," relates that during the same year (1614) in which the Restless was built. Captain John Smith sailed for "North Virginia" with two ships and forty-five men and boys, to make experiments upon a gold and copper mine. Coasting along Maine in April, they made some attempts at whaling, but failing in that, they built seven boats, in which thirty-seven men made a very successful fishing voyage. So the first attempt. First attempt humble though it was, at the fishing business in this country was made in American bottoms. Within four years after the landing the Plymouth col- ony was joined by a carpenter and a salt-maker. These prymouth!"^ "" men were sent out by the company in London. This was in 1624. This carpenter built two shallops and a lighter, and the salt-maker selected a site and erected a building and made an attempt to manufacture salt for the fishery, first at Cape Ann, and the next year at Cape Cod, but his attempts were unsuccessful. In 1627 the Plymouth folks built a pinnace at Monamet, now Sandwich, Mass. This was used for fishing, but it was not till 1641 that the first vessel of any size Shipbuildino: at Medibrd and Marblehead. 30 Industrial Evolution of tiic United States. was constructed, Avhich was a bark of fift}' tons burden. The first vessel built by the Massachusetts colony was Massa"chus"eus^ The Blessing of t/te Bay, built at Mystic, now Medford, Mass., and launched on the 4th of July, 1631. This vessel belonged to Governor Winthrop. It made several coasting trips, and it is related that upon one occasion, while passing Long Island, the sailors were greatly sur- iiidian canoes, prised at seeing Indian canoes of considerable size, some of which were capable of carrying eight)' persons. There was another vessel built at Medford in 1633, named the Rebecca, which was of sixty tons ; and, another ship of one hundred and twentj- tons was built at Marblehead by Salem people in 1636. At this time, on account of the peculiar state of affairs, the colonists were thrown upon their own efforts to secure a large proportion of the necessaries of life. The emigrant ships which had come from the home country, and which had constantly added to the numbers of the colonists, had supplied them with most of their provisions, other than corn and fish. The ci\il wars in England interrupted and practically sus- pended this supply ; so the colonists were obliged to re- sort to their own resources, as na\'igation had become precarious. As Go\ernor Winthrop states in his journal, ' ' the general fear of want of foreign commodities, now our money was gone, and that things were like to go well in England, set us on work to pro\-ide shipping of our own ; for which end Mr. Peter, being a man of very At Salem. public Spirit and singular activity for all occasions, pro- cured some to join for building a ship at Salem of three At Boston. hundred tons, and the inhabitants of Boston stirred up by his example, set upon the building another at Boston of one hundred and fifty tons. The work was hard to accomplish for want of money, etc. ; but our shipwrights were content to take such pay as the country could Tlie Inccplion of Industries. 31 make." Corn was made a legal tender for debt. Vessels were built during the following years, notably in 1642, when five vessels of a considerable size were built at Boston, Plymouth, Dorchester, and Salem ; and in 1644, when some as large as two hundred and fifty tons were built at Cambridge. One of these took out a cargo of pipe-staves, fish, etc., to the Canary Islands. Quite a large vessel, three hundred tons burden, was built in 1646 at Boston. By order of the court, on account of the rapid devel- opment of shipbuilding, which the court states was a Vessels built in 1642. Marquette Descending the Mississippi. business of great importance for the common good, and following, as it asserts, the commendable course of Eng- land and other places, surveyors were ordered to be ap- pointed to examine the ships to see if the work had been performed and carried on according to the rules of the art of shipbuilding. This was in October, 1641. Shipbuilders were incorporated and the business flour- ished, for it appears that as early as 1665 Massachusetts Surveyors of ships. 32 Iiidiisln'a/ Evolution of the United States. Incorporation of shipbuilders. Ships built in Massachusetts. had about 80 vessels of from 20 to 40 tons, about 40 from 40 to 100 tons, and about a dozen ships above 100 tons, making in all o\-er 130 sail. The business was regulated bylaw and at the same time encouraged. The evidence of the prosecution of the shipbuilding business was all along the coast — at Salem, at Newburyport, New Bed- ford, Salisburjr, everywhere where harbors, opportunity, and supplies were convenient. These statements are true of the district of Maine, which was then and for a long time a part of Massachusetts, whose coves, ba3-s, and streams near the seaboard and whose great supply of timber made shipbuilding the attractive industr}'. A centur_y before the Declaration of Independence the number of ships which had been built along the Massa- chusetts coast and belonging to the people settled there numbered thirty vessels between 100 and 250 tons, 400 of from 30 to 100 tons, and 300 between 6 and 10 tons. The "Half-Moon" o.x the Hudson. CHAPTER II. SHIPBUILDING {Coficluded). Connecticut started her shipbuilding interest as early as 1640, when the General Court of that colony declared shipbuilding in that it was necessary for the comfortable support of the Connecticut, plantations that a trade in cotton-wool be set upon and attempted. The governor of the plantations, Edward Hopkins, undertook the finishing and setting forth of a vessel to those parts where cotton-wool was to be obtained. The first cruiser employed by American colonists was built in 1646, or a little after, by the New Haven and Hartford colonies, to cruise in Long Island Sound for the purpose of preventing encroachments by the Dutch. This vessel carried ten guns and forty men. Shipbuild- ing flourished in Connecticut, the leading place for such enterprise being at New London, on the Thames. The first actual merchant vessel was built there by merchants of New London and Newport, which cost, exclusive of iron work, etc., ^200, and many vessels of various sizes, but all small, were built for voyages to the West Indies, to Newfoundland, and even to Europe. The barks of that day were small vessels, the name be- ing applied to anything that was larger than an ordinary boat. The pinnaces and shallops were deck boats of pinnaces and perhaps twenty tons. The largest vessel built at New ** ^ °^^' London was named New Lojidon. It was called a ship, was of seventy tons burden, and was the largest vessel that had been built up to that time, 1666. Whale-fishing 33 34 Industyial Evohdion of the United States. in boats along the coast had been pursued by the col- onists, and of course the boats for this industry were in demand. Besides New London, Essex, in Saybrook township, started the shipbuilding industry, and small vessels were also built at Sea-Brook, Killingsworth, and New Ha-\-en. A ^"ery interesting story is told of an invention which was made in colonial days, and while it does not par- ticularly belong to the development of industry in general, it nevertheless has a bearing on the early appli- cation of the inventive genius of this country. The story may be found in the "Transactions" of the American Philosophical Society, and in Silliman's Early journal for 1S20. It relates to a submarine vessel con- submanne vessel. trived by Da\-id Bushnell, of Saybrook, for the pur- pose of blowing up the enem}''s ships. Skilful mechan- ics had pre\ioush- made inventions of submarine boats, but Bushnell' s invention was different from any previous attempt. His design was perfected while he was a student of Yale College, and he carried out his plans in 1775, after his graduation. Silliman's Journal de- scribes Bushnell' s invention as "a machine for sub- marine navigation, altogether different from anything hitherto devised by the art of man. This machine was so constructed that it could be rowed horizontally at an}' given depth under water, and could be raised or depressed at pleasure. To this machine, called the American Turtle (from its resemblance to two upper tortoise shells placed in contact), was attached a maga- zine of powder, which was intended to be fastened under the bottom of a ship, with a driving screw, in such a way that the same stroke which disengaged it from the ma- chine, should put the internal clock-work in motion. This being done, the ordinary operation of a gunlock at the The A}ni-i'icaii Turtle. Shiplniilding. 35 Rhode Island. In New distance of half an hour, or any determinate time, would cause the powder to explode, and leave the effects to the common laws of nature." It was this same Bushnell who sent a fleet of kegs down the Delaware to destroy British ships, which incident furnished the origin of the humorous song well known as ' ' The Battle of the Kegs. ' ' The Connecticut shipbuilding industry was carried on with considerable energy until the War of the Revolu- tion, when it declined, increasing up to that time, as it did in other states. Rhode Island began the shipbuilding industry in shipbuilding in 1646, Narragansett Bay furnishing convenient places for the construction of vessels, Newport, Bristol, Warren, Providence, and places on the Providence and Taunton Rivers flourishing in consequence. New Hampshire took part in the industry, the build- ing of ships having been a prominent branch of business a^rsure. from the very first settlement of the province. The Restless, built by Adriaen Block in 161 4, has already been referred to, and was probably the first vessel built with a deck ever constructed in this country by Europeans. From this the student of the develop- ment of industry would naturally expect to find New York in later years the leading shipbuilding port, espe- cially as the colony was settled under the auspices of Amsterdam, the mercantile metropolis of Europe ; that it was not so was probably owing to the administration of the home company, which stood in the way of taking advantage of the many facilities for shipbuilding. The Knickerbockers, who came after the Dutch adventurers, did build, however, many small vessels, sloops, etc. , for the prosecution of the Indian trade. These vessels were used in the sounds and rivers of the colony and in the bays along the coast ; but the restrictions which existed In I^ev York. 36 Industrial Evolution of the United States. Number of vessels in 16S3. Extension of shipbuilding in New York. War vessels. delayed the opening of the shipbuilding industry, and as late as 1652 New Netherlands had but one small wharf. The accounts of the early shipbuilding there are very meager, and while the shipping interest, after restrictions were removed or modified, grew to extensive propor- tions, just how much of it was the result of home indus- try cannot be clearly stated ; but in 1683 there were three barks, three brigantines, twenty-six sloops, and forty-six open boats enrolled by name, and in 1686, according to an official report of the governor, there were then be- longing to the province nine or ten three-mast vessels of about eighty or one hundred tons burden, two or three ketches, a bark of about forty tons, and about twenty smaller vessels of twenty to twenty-five tons each. These, except the sloops, traded with England, Holland, and the West Indies, a large proportion of which trade was conducted in vessels built in the colony. Near the end of the seventeenth century the shipping of New York had grown to considerable proportions, the colony possessing forty square-rigged vessels, sixty- two sloops, and sixty boats. These vessels, with a pop- ulation not exceeding 6,000, show that the builders of New York were alive to their advantages, and at the time of the Revolution Poughkeepsie and Albany had become prominent in shipbuilding ; and when thirteen vessels of the frigate class were ordered by Congress in December, 1775, the Congress, of twenty-eight, and the Montgomery, of twenty-four guns', were ordered to be built at Poughkeepsie. Many of the vessels built at the port of New York were of large size. Space will not admit of mention of the shipbuilding industry on the western lakes, but the development of interests necessitated the construction of vessels of vari- ous size to navigate those waters. The first mention of Shipbuilding. 37 any vessel built on interior waters, although there may have been some account prior to this, is that of a small vessel of sixty tons, whose keel was laid on the 26th of January, 1679, at the mouth of Cavug-a Creek, on shipbuilding on . . JO the lakes. the American side of the Niagara, and six miles above Fulton's "Clermont," 1807. the falls. It was at this place that the adventurers who accompanied Fathers Tonti and Hennepin, under Sieur de la Salle, finished and equipped with seven small can- non and the usual armament of a man-of-war the first vessel that ever set sail upon Lake Erie. The name given this vessel was the Grijfin. A schooner of forty feet keel was launched June 28, 1755, on Lake Ontario, and was the first English vessel built on that lake, while First English the first American vessel built thereon was at Hanford's Great Lakes. Landing, in 1798. The Washington was built at Four Mile Creek, near Erie, Pa., on Lake Erie, in 1797, and was the first national vessel ever built on that lake. During the Revolution many vessels of different sizes 3S Indiisiiial Evolution of the United States. Ill New Jersey. In Penn- sylvania. Philadelpiiia's prominence in naval architec- ture. were built on the lakes, and prior thereto, as different expeditions made it necessary, vessels had been con- structed for the navigation of the lakes. New Jersey began the building of ships as early as 1683, the industry being carried on at Salem and Bur- lington largely, although it is undoubtedly true tliat ves- sels had been built on the Delaware prior to that time. It was a jirincipal occupation at Little Egg Harbor, in Burlington Count}'. The Governor Livingston, a fine schooner, was fitted out as a letter of marque in 1779 and 1780. Pennsylvania established the shipbuilding industry at a ^'ery early period, and some vessels were built at Phil- adelphia in 1683, the year after the arrival of William Penn. A ship3'ard was commenced at the foot of Vine Street soon after. Six years after the founding of Phil- adelphia she freighted ten vessels with provincial prod- ucts for the West Indies ; yet, as time went on, the industry did not flourish as it did in some of the more northern parts, and during the )'ear just prior to the Revolution but few vessels were built there. At the time of the Revo- lution Philadelphia had become the first in naval archi- tecture, however, and the city originated huge raft-ships. They were immense structures, designed for carryino- great quantities of timber, to be broken up at the close of the voyage. Of the thirteen frigates ordered by Con- gress in 1775, the Washington and Randolph, of thirty- Bell's Steamboat, "Comet," tSi2. K'- Shipbuilding. 39 two guns each, the Effingham, of twenty-eight, and the Delaware, of twenty-four guns, were built at Philadel- phia. The keels of other war vessels were laid at Phil- adelphia, and many smaller vessels built and equipped. The development of shipbuilding through invention has rested very largely upon the inventive genius of residents of Philadelphia. These matters belong to a later date, however, than colonial days. The state of Delaware early saw the establishment of j,j Delaware, shipbuilding. This occurred especially in the locality of the present city of Wilmington. Certain it is that as early as 1642 shipbuilding, boatbuilding, and cooper work were carried on upon Cooper's Island, but the first vessel for foreign trade, which was a brig named the Wilmington, was built in 1740. The industry was also carried on at New Castle as early as the time of the settlement by Penn. The General Wash- ington, a fine ship of 250 tons, was launched from the shipyard of William Woodcock, in Wilmington, in 1790. Wilmington has acquired a wide reputation in ship- building, all classes of vessels being built there. There are but few particulars of shipbuilding in the ,„ kiddie and middle and southern colonies, the result, probably, of f^^^^"^ the tendency to agricultural pursuits rather than to com- merce and manufactures ; but after the earlier years Maryland improved her facilities for shipbuilding. They in Maryland, were unsurpassed by those of any other province. The business progressed rapidly, and Maryland built as early as 1769 twenty vessels, with an aggregate of 1,344 tons. Only small craft had been built prior to this time. In 1772 eight vessels were built in Maryland, a number equal to that built in Pennsylvania at the same time. During the War of the Revolution, Maryland was ex- ceedingly active in fitting out cruisers, and one of the 40 Industrial Evolution of the United States. In \"irginia. Shipbuilding materials. first frigates ordered by Congress, the Virginia, of twenty-eight tons, was built by the Maryland ship- builders. Others were ordered there in later years, while the old Constellation was built at Baltimore for the federal government. The shipbuilding industry of Virginia has already been noticed in slight degree, a few barks, pinnaces, etc., having been built there prior to 1621. The business, howe\'er, did not make much progress, probably the ordinances in prohibition of commerce, under acts of P arl ia m ent, having much to do with the slow progress made there. Never- theless, the Vir- f ginians turned some of their attention from ^ the soil to com- merce, for it is recorded that in 1769 she pro- duced twenty- seven sail of new \-essels, while the Continental Congress ordered two frigates, of thirty-six guns each, to be built in Virginia, and the old frigate Chesapeake was laid at Portsmouth. About the close of the last century shipbuilding had increased considerably in the southern colonies, and so much so that Maryland, \'irginia, and North Carolina each surpassed New Hampshire, while \'irginiaand Mary- land had more manufactories of cordage and cables, used so largely in building ships, than any two of the states of " Old Ironsides.' Shipbuilding. 41 New York and New Hampshire, New Jersey and Con- necticut. Georgia and the Carolinas supplied most ex- cellent material for ships, which material was used by the shipbuilders of the Middle and Northern States. The southern colonies had great advantages in these directions. Cedar, pine, live-oak grew in abundance and gave the very best materials for serviceable ships, and in 1740 the Carolinas began seriously to attend to shipbuilding, five ships being built in that year, and twenty-four square-rigged vessels, besides sloops and schooners, were constructed between the years 1740 and 1779. Some vessels had been built in Georgia as early as 1 74 1, and a new era in shipbuilding, resulting from the discovery of extensive supplies of live-oak, began in 1750. When the Revolutionary War broke out South Carolina availed herself of her facilities, as shown in her activity in fitting out cruisers for the defense of American coasts. It is to be regretted that the data of the shipbuilding interests in the southern colonies are not as extensive as those for the northern colonies, but if the southern colonies lacked in the building of ships, they certainly made up in furnishing the very best material for their building. The industry in the whole country prior to the Revo- Shipbuilding materials in soutiiern colonies. Shipbuilding lution, when, of course, shipbuilding was suspended to a Revolution. large degree, except for war purposes, was satisfactory and showed the enterprise of the colonists. The record is a flattering one and is a fitting statement with which to close this brief account of the shipbuilding of the colonies. The account for all the colonies for the year 1769, the only year for which a summary is found, at least just prior to the Revolution, shows that 389 vessels had been built, having an aggregate of 20,000 tons burden. Of these New Hampshire built 45 ; Massa- 42 Industrial Evolution of tlie United States. Ships built ill dilTerent colonies. Shipbuilding the first mechanical industry. chusetts, 137; Rhode Island, 39; Connecticut, 50; New York, 19; the Jerseys, 4; Pennsylvania, 22; Maryland, 20; Virginia, 27; North Carolina, 12 ; South Carolina, 12; Georgia, 2. The whole number of ves- sels built in all the colonies in the year 1772 was 182. These figures show the development when the Revolu- tion opened. While the history of shipbuilding during colonial days would occupy chapters, this account, brief as it is, has been given much more length than can be .devoted to general industries, because it was the first industry to attract the colonists other than the planting of the soil. It was the first of the mechanical industries to which they paid their attention to any profitable degree. A Modern Atlantic Liner. CHAPTER III. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES. * It is impossible to determine when the manufacture of cloth was first undertaken by the colonists. The records of shipbuilding and other industries give positive dates in most instances ; but a careful search of documents and records fails to disclose the time of the earliest efforts to produce their own clothing. There is no doubt, however, that with the earliest ships that came to the southern and northern colonies there came the spinning-wheel and the spinning-wheel hand-loom, although no mention is made of their advent. It is true, too, that the colonists depended for some time upon the mother-country for textiles. They soon learned the way of the savages and their skill in utilizing the furs of animals, but they could not have entered to any great extent upon the spinning of yarn and the weaving of cloth. The old home of the woolen industry was Holland, and England had received her best workers in wool from that country ; so the colonies had men entirely familiar with weaving. They brought men to Virginia ?''v1r"'in''^a"^ in 1607 who were accustomed to sheep-raising and who knew the intricacies of the manufacture of cloth from wool fibers. The Virginia colony was the first to intro- duce sheep, while the Dutch West India Company brought them to New Netherlands as early as 1625. * For a detailed account of the woolen industry, see " Manufacture of Wool," by S. N. D. North, The Popular Science Monthly, June, 1891 ; for an account of cotton and woolen manufactures, see Bishop's " History of American Manu- factures," Vol. I, and "A National History of American Manufactures." 43 44 Industrial Evolution of the United States. In Plymouth. In Massachu- setts. Number of sheep in the colonies. None were brought to the Plymouth colony, so far as can be learned, at as early a date as that, but the Massa- chusetts colony imported them about 1633, and in order to protect them from wolves and Indians kept them on an island in Boston Harbor. Governor Winthrop stated that the Plymouth folks had about forty sheep brought to them from Boston in 1634. Strangely enough, the year before they felt obliged to forbid the exportation of sheep ; so they must have had a few at that time. The Massachusetts colony had succeeded in acquiring about one thousand sheep by 1642. Dependence had before that been largely -upon importations from Malaga. The flocks of sheep in- creased everywhere, until, taking all the colonies together, the accounts show that in 1 66 1 they had nearly one hundred thou- sand. It is evident, therefore, that at this time the colonists were in a position to make a very large proportion of their own clothing. The raising of wool in- creased, and with it, as a natural result, the manufacture of cloth. It is not known how many sheep there were in the country at the time of the adoption of the constitution, but twenty years later there were ten million. The first mention of the presence of the spinning- Tun Spinning-Wheel. Textile Industries. 45 wheel and the loom occurs in the records of the Massa- chusetts colony, in an inventory in 1639, relating to four First memion yards of home-made cloth, at six shillings per yard, and wheel and loom. two spinning-wheels are mentioned in another inventory in 1638, the spinning-wheels being set down at three shillings. The colonists of New Netherlands could not make woolen, linen, or cotton cloth, or weave any other textiles, and this prohibition was under heavy penalty, any one making such goods being banished and arbi- Thk Hand-Loom. trarily punished as perjurers. This was the restriction of the home government. Governor Dudley, of Massachusetts, in writing home in 1 63 1, stated that clothes and bedding must be brought to the colony until the development of industry enabled them to be produced there ; yet a year or two later the colonial people, from their small clippings, must have commenced the spinning and weaving of wool, and the Prohibition of cloth-making. facture of wool 46 Industrial Evolution of the United States. ten years following saw emphatic progress in the efforts to supply clothing made in the houses of the colonists. Hemp and flax were produced in sufficient quantities to enable the people to make the clothing they absolutely needed ; nevertheless, the farmers gave their preference to foreign cloth, \\-hich they bought with their own wares. Beginning of "phe domestic manufacture of cloth was not p;eneral, but the manu- _ _ . . it is safe to say that the manufacture of wool in this country was practically begun in the period from 1632 to 1642. An event occurred in 163S which gave the Massachu- setts colony quite a start in the woolen industry. This came through the expulsion from Yorkshire, England, of Pastor Ezekiel Rogers and his flock. These people had some capital, and on founding the town of Rowley they set up a woolen and fulling-mill. =i- This little town was incorporated in 1639, and in it the homespun industries of America were commenced. Quite a number of the First fulling- Rogers people were familiar with the manufacture of woolens, and the fulling-mill which they built was the first one erected in the North American colonies. John Pearson was the builder, and the year was 1643. This little mill was in operation as late as 1S09. Although these people came from the woolen districts of England, they used in their homes flax and cotton, as well as wool. Governor Winthrop, in one of his letters, says that Row- ley exceeded all other towns, although the manufacture of wool was general. There is a tradition, amounting to fact almost, of the erection of a fulling-mill in 1640 at Salem. The presence of fulling-mills indicates that the ''^ Fulling-mill,— A power machine for fulling and felting felts and wo\-en fabrics, to improve their texture hy making them thicker, closer, and heavier. Such mills operate by means of rollers, stampers, and beaters, of % arious forms and usually of wood, which beat, roll, and press the fabric' in hot suds and fullers' earth, felting it together till the required texture is obtained. An unavoidable result of the process is a reduction iu length, in width, and, in the case of hats, of size. Textile Industries. ^'j weaving of cloths was sufficient not only to clothe the people in the vicinity but to give a surplus for trade. The Massachusetts colonists also profited by the troubles which existed in England at this period, on ac- count of which there was a less supply of cloths than usual ; so the government of the colony made inquiry concerning the number of persons who would buy sheep and took means to encourage the raising of flocks. Some tide-mills* were erected, notably one at Guilford, Conn. Another stimulating incident was the fact that Restrictions of , „ , . , , ,- , English! laws. the h-nglisn government put an export duty ot three shillings four pence on every piece of woolen broadcloth and prohibited the exportation of sheep, wool, and woolen yarns from England. This stringent legislation led the Massachusetts General Court in 1656 to order the Necessity of people of the towns to turn their attention to spinning manufactures, and weaving. Home manufactures became an absolute necessity, and the other colonies followed the example of Massachusetts, fulling-mills being erected here and there. Every effort was made to stimulate the woolen industry, herdsmen being provided by law or under town orders and bounties given for the destruction of wolves. Later on woolen manufactories were set up in different places ; so that by the time of the adoption of the constitution the northern colonies were producing considerable quan- tities of woolen cloth, one establishment at Hartford, Conn., in the year ending September, 17S9, having pro- duced 5,000 yards of cloth, some of which was sold at five dollars per yard. General Washington visited this Washington's particular factory during his tour in the Eastern States in necticut. 1789, and he writes in his diary that the work seemed to be going on with spirit, and that while their broadcloths * Tide-mill. — A mill supplied with power by means of a water-wheel oper- ated by the tide, either directly in flowing through i. tideway, or indirectly in flowing out of a tidal basin. Woolen manu- facture in X'irginia. 48 Lidtisln'al Evolution of the United States. were not of the first quality, yet they were good. He testi- fied also to the qualit}' of coatings, cassimeres, serges, and exerlastings, and ordered a suit of broadcloth to be sent to him at New York. Tradition gives it that in making his speech to Congress in January, 1790, he wore a full suit of broadcloth made at the Hartford fac- tory. Another cloth-dresser at Hartford, Robert Pier- pont, in 17S9 finished on one press o\-er S,ooo yards of cloth. Virginia made early attempts to stimulate the manufac- ture of woolens, and as far back as 1662 passed laws for the encouragement of that industry. Her first fulling- mills, however, were not erected until about 1692. Gov- ernor Andros, during his administration, made ereat efforts to de\'elop textile manufactures, but his successor, Governor Nicholson, was opposed to such eflbrts, and advised Parliament to pass orders prohibiting the making of cloth in the colonies. From this it is deducible that considerable quantities of domestic cloths were manufac- tured — -enough, at least, to aftect the importation of English goods. At this period (the close of the seven- teenth century) the imports and exports of Virginia and IMaryland were greater than those of all the other colonies combined. Before the close of the colonial period Vir- ginia had fulling-mills in various localities. Pennsyhania took action similar to that of her sister colonies to encourage the production of woolen goods. That state certainly did its share in the early eflTorts of the colonies to produce what they might need for their own wear. There were many fulling-mills in the state by the middle of the eighteenth century, and broadcloths were produced in Philadelphia in the latter half of that Introduction ccutury. Philadelphia introduced the manufacture of of spinning- wheel irons, spinning-wheel irons, the production of which at the In Penn- syhania. Textile Industries. 49 close of the colonial period amounted to 1,500 sets, most of them being for use in families, and not in woolen establishments. Lancaster, Pa. , had erected fulling-mills at a very early date, and was the largest inland town in the country at the time of the adoption of the constitu- tion. It then had 700 families, 234 of which were man- ufacturers, including many weavers of woolen, linen, and cotton cloth. New Jersey, too, came in for her share in the develop- ment of textiles, but not at so early a date as some of the in New jersey, others, of course. The Quakers who came to Jersey from Yorkshire and London, in England, and who settled at Salem, Burlington, and other parts of West Jersey, about the year 1677, lost no time in commencing the manufacture of cloth. A colony was established on the Delaware, under a charter from the court of Sweden, granted in 1640. By the terms of this charter the people were permitted to engage in all manufactures and in all commerce, domestic and foreign, and Governor Printz, who soon afterward came to the colony, was in- structed by his government to do all in his power to pro- mote the propagation of sheep, with the view of export- ing wool to the home country. After this Swedish com- pany came under the proprietary government of Penn- sylvania, it is learned from a letter to a Swedish official, written in 1693, that the wives and daughters of the col- onists employed themselves in spinning wool and flax, and many of them in weaving. They had a few sheep, eighty in number, probably as early as 1663, and were well supplied with wool at the time of the writing of the letter just mentioned. Rhode Island, the present home of the manufacture of some of the best woolen cloths in the country, took ^^^^^^^^ active part in developing the woolen trade, and South In South Carolina. 50 Industrial Evolution of the United States. Carolina, by its first Pro^-incial Congress, was urged to encourage manufactures.. Premiums were offered for the making of wool-cards '•' and for woolen cloth. A fulling- mill was erected in that state before 1790 for dressing fine and coarse woolens. This was on Fishing Creek, Arkwright's Spinning Machine. From the original drawing. Picniiums oflerud. near the Catawba River, and the spinners and weavers of the colony in that vicinity kept the fulling-mill busy in dyeing, fulling, and pressing, all these processes being * Wool-card. — A brush with wire teeth, used in disentangling fibers of wool and la>-iiig them parallel to one another preparatory to spinning. In hand-cards the wires are short atid are passed slantingly through leather, which is then nailed upon a board. Two of these brushes are used, one in each hand, and in use are drawn past eacli other, the fibers being between them. In the carding machine, which has superseded hand-carding, the cards are formed by hard-drawn wire staples, each furnishing two teeth, drawn through leather and bent at a certain angle. Textile Industries. 51 CottOn-Spinningf and Cotton-spinning ^ and weaving. performed in excellent manner by the settlers from Great Britain, who were fully conversant therew ilh. What has been said relates almost entirely to the start- ing of the woolen industries. weaving very naturally kept pace with the manufacture of woolen cloths. Cotton was an indigenous plant in the southern portion of the colonies, and so nature offered the opportunity for the utilization of a fiber which con- stitutes the basis of the great civilizing cotton industry. It is probably true that in the older country the use of Cotton-raising. the cotton fiber antedates that of the animal fibers, and especially is this true of fla.x; and some of the vegetable fibers which require treatment involving more intricate processes than cotton before the finished cloth can be produced ; but its use was recognized at a very early date by the colonists, for when the Pilgrims were earnestly trying to produce their first crops of Indian corn cotton was being raised by the colonists in Virginia. Purchas, the historian, relates that in the year 1621 cotton was planted in this country. The Massachusetts colonists received their first supply from Barbadoes, in 1633, and some cotton goods were made up for home wear in the New England colonies as early as 1643. South Carolina had cotton under cultivation as early as 1664, or it may be two years later. If one refers to a work entitled ' ' Cotton in the Middle States," published in 1862 by Dr. G. Emerson, of Philadelphia, he will find that long before the Southern States took up the culture of cotton the plant was raised on the eastern shore of Maryland, in the southern counties of Delaware, and at various points in the middle colonies ; yet it was regarded as an ornamental plant as late as 1736 and many years after, and its cultivation was confined to gardens. According First supplies of cotton. Cultivation of cotton in Maryland and Delaware. 5- Industrial Evohdion of the United States. to the work just cited, many families in Maryland who came from Sussex County, Delaware, wore clothing made of cotton of their own raising, spinning, and weav- ing. But the culture of cotton in this particular section Decrease of of the colonies gradually diminished. The Middle i^n Manhln'd'' States could not compete with the more Southern States and Delaware. -^^ raising this Staple. Mr. Madison, representing \'ir- ginia in the con\ention which was held in Annapolis in 1786 for the purpose of taking under consideration the means which could be adopted for recuperating the finances of the country, stated it as his opinion that "from the results of cotton-raising in Talbot County, Maryland, and numerous other proofs furnished in \'ir- ginia, there is no reason to doubt that the United States will one dav become a great cotton-producing country." From these and other facts which are ascertainable, it is clearly seen that the cultivation of cotton which first tion transferred drew the attention of the colonists took place on the pen- insula between the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays, then crossed to western Marvland, thence to Mrginia, and finallv lound its home in the far South. No exporta- tions of this great staple of anv consequence were made until the vear ot the Constitutional Con\'ention — 17S7 — when Charleston, S. C. , sent three hundred pounds to England. There was no reason whv the cotton industrj- should not have been established in the colonies on a larger scale than it was and at an earlier date, unless it be, perhaps, the difliculty which existed of separating the cotton from the seed. This process was carried on both by hand and by rude machinery — a difficulty which was overcome in the opening years of the constitutional whitneys saw- period bv the invention of the saw-g-in bv Whitnev. gin. ^ - & . . CHAPTER IV. TEXTILE INDUSTRIES (Concluded). In 1774-75 Alexander Hamilton published some pam- phlets, in one of which he used the following language : With respect to cotton, you do not pretend to deny that a Hamilton's sufficient quantity may be produced. Several of the southern views of cotton colonies are so favorable to it that, with due cultivation, in a 'couple of years they would afford enough to clothe the whole continent. As to the expense of bringing it by land, the best way will be to manufacture it where it grows, and afterwards transport it to the other colonies. Upon this plan I apprehend the expense would not be greater than to build and equip large ships to import the manufactures of Great Britain from thence. If we were to turn our attention from external to internal com- merce, we would give greater facility and more lasting pros- perity to our country than she can possibly have otherwise. . . . . If by the necessity of the thing manufactures should once be established and take root among us, they will pave the way still more to the future grandeur and glory of America. Another difficulty which prevented the growth of the cotton industry along lines equal to the growth of the wool manufacture resulted from the peculiar attitude of .the home country. Prior to the decade of years begin- ning with 1760 the cotton cloths of England were made in the same way that the woolen cloths were made — that Methods in use is, by hand machinery. The colonists used the same ''y^^'o-'ists. methods, and thus produced coarse grades of cotton cloths. 54 Industrial Evolution of the United States. iTivention of cotton machinery in England. During the decade of years from 1760 to 1770 the in\'entive genius of England brought out the wonderful series of spinning and wea\-ing machines which revolu- tionized the textile industries, but England took great pains that none of these machines should reach her col- onists ; so, although waking up to the importance of the cottoii industry at a late period in their history, the col- onists made no headwa)' in establishing it in their midst, and the colonial period closed with no jjarticular advance having been made, and it was only during the earlier Efforts to secure cotton machinery in America. Hargre.wes' SpIN^•I^■G-JENN^■. years of the succeeding period, beginning with the adop- tion of the constitution, that the American people over- came the existing obstacles. They made great efforts to secure English machines, but the legislation of England prohibiting the exportation of machines, tools, or plans, and even the immigration of men who knew how to build machines, presented difficulties which they could not overcome. Some of these difficulties aided in bringing about a frame of mind which led to a conclusion that great efforts must be made to secure industrial independ- Textile Indiislyies. 55 ence, and the colonists actually attempted to introduce spinning machines as early as 1775. Mr. Aitkin, who published the Pennsylvania Magazine, brought out in the ■year iust named a cut of what he called "a new in- Spinning •' -^ _ _ _ machinery. vented machine for spinning of wool or cotton," and he said in a note accompanying the cut that he had seen the machine perform and was convinced of its usefulness. Mr. Christopher Tully was the maker of the Philadelphia machine, but whether it had anything to do with the setting up of a manufactory in that city for the produc- tion of woolen, cotton, and linen goods, in which the machine was used, it is impossible to determine ; but the factory was commenced in 1775, and the efforts of the association which erected it constitute the first actual at- tempt to manufacture cotton goods by new methods in the United States. The provinces urged the manufacture of textile ma- chinery, cotton-cards, etc., and in 1775 there was under- taken at Norwich, Conn., the manufacture of iron wire Card teeth. for the making of cotton and wool-cards. Card teeth were made by hand in 1777 by one Oliver Evans, of Philadelphia, and Jeremiah Wilkinson, of Cumber- land, R. I., was engaged in the manufacture of hand- cards. Evans invented a machine by which he could turn them out at the rate of 1,500 per minute. So be- fore the Revolution the cotton industry was fairly well under way. The war brought many appeals from Con- Effect of war ^ 1 r 1 J ^T_ i ■ 1 on cloth manu- gress to mcrease the supply 01 wool and other materials facture. and for the expansion of the manufacture of cloth. The armies needed clothing, and Congress had to rely upon the people of the colonies to supply it. While the first attempt to manufacture cotton goods Early attempts on any scale occurred in Philadelphia, the second tc°lll'' """'"" attempt was made in Worcester, Mass., in 1780, and a Use of flax. 56 Industrial Evohdion of the United States. spinning-jenny* on the English pattern was procured. This machine and that in use at Philadelphia were in all probability brought over prior to the legislation of Great Britain which prohibited their exportation from that country, for the accounts of manufactures nowhere Ckompton's AIule-Jennv (specification drawing;). British prohi- bition. give any evidence of any other English-made machines having been used in the United States at any time prior to those just mentioned. The use of textile machinery belongs to the period following the Revolution. The use of flax and hemp by the colonists was very * Spinning-jenny. — A machine for spinnin^^ wool or cotton. It has a series of vertical spindles, each of which is supplied with roving from a separate spool, and has a clasping and tra\'ersing mechanism b\- means of which tlie operator is enabled to clasp and draw out all the roving or roll simultaneously during the operation of twisting, and to feed the t\\-isted threads to the spindles when winding on — the whole operation being almost exactly like hand-spinning, except that a large number of rovings are operated upon in- stead of a single one. Spinning-mule. — .\ machine invented b\- Samuel Crompton. in which the rovings are deli\-ered from a series of sets of drawing-rollers to spindles placed on a carriage which travels away from the rollers "while the thread is being twisted, and returns toward the rollers \\'hile the thread is being wound. It draws, stretches, and twists at one operation. So named because it was a combination of the drawing-rollers of Arkwright and the iennv of Hargreaves. Spinning-jack. — A dc\'ice for twisting and winding a sli%er as it comes from the drawing-rollers. It is placed in the can, in N\hich it rotates, the sliver being wound on a bobbin. Textile Industries. 57 general. They produced a coarse kind of mixed fab- rics in which hnen or hemp thread largely entered as material. Linen subserved nearly all the purposes for General use of which cotton is now employed, and for this reason the ''"™' cultivation of flax and hemp plants received great atten- tion.* The linens were of very coarse texture. The kerseys, linsey-woolseys, serges, and druggets consisted of wool variously combined with flax or tow, and formed the outer clothing of a large part of the population dur- ing the colder season. Hempen cloth and linen of differ- ent degrees of fineness, from the coarsest tow-cloth to the finest holland, constituted the principal wearing apparel, outward and inward. The inner garments and the table and bed linen of nearly all classes were almost entirely supplied from the serviceable products of the household industry. The materials were mostly grown upon the farms of the planters, and the breaking and heckhng of Methods of ■^ . . spirming na,\. the flax were done by the men, while the carding, spin- ning, weaving, bleaching, and dyeing were performed by the wives and daughters of the planters, the women taking great pride in the products of their industry. The laborers dressed in home-made goods of hemp or Laborer's dress, flax, and coats, or doublets, and breeches of leather or buckskin were also worn. Felt hats, coarse leather shoes, with brass buckles, and sometimes with wooden heels, were part of the equipment of the workingmen. The Scotch-Irish of New Hampshire undertook to manufacture linen goods, for they were familiar with this industry. The foot-wheel was used by them for spinning the flax, and these men, wherever they were, undertook to improve the linen manufacture. They introduced a better knowledge of the cultivation and manufacture of flax and linen and of spinning flax. Most of the proc- * See Bishop's ' ' History of American Manufactures." 58 Industrial Evolution of the United States. esses of manufacture were manual operations, only crude and imperfect implements being used, and much of the woolen cloth was worn without shearing, pressing, or any other finish. As a result of the efforts of the Scotch-Irish, a public meeting was called in Boston, when a committee was appointed to consider the pro- Spinning school priety of establishing ' ' a spinning school or schools for the instruction of the children of the town."* A large, handsome brick building was erected on the east side of what \\d& Long Acre, now known as Tremont Street, near Hamilton Place. At the opening an immense concourse assembled, and the women of Boston, rich and poor, appeared on the Common with their spinning-wheels, vying with each other in the use of the instrument. Sub- scriptions were raised for the support of the project, and the Assembly, in 1737, laid a tax on carriages and other hi.xuries for the maintenance of the institution. After a few 3'ears of acti\-e work the building was abandoned, and it was afterward used as a manufactory for worsted hose, metal buttons, etc. Hon. Daniel Oliver started a spinning school at Bos- ton about the same time, for the employment of the Public spinning pOOr. in New York. The city of New York in 1734 passed an ordinance for the erection of a poorhouse, which was furnished with spinning-wheels, leather and tools for shoemakers, knitting-needles, flax, etc., for the employment of the inmates. Li'i™ Linen manufacture prospered fiirlv well in the other manufactures. _ _ -^ ^ ^ colonies, the culti\'ation of flax and hemp being much attended to in Pennsylvania, where the German and L'ish people had settled in large numbers. These manufac- * For ail account of this experiment recourse has been had to Bishop's ex- cellent " History- of American .Manufactures." Textile Industries. 59 tures did not flourish so well in the South, because, while the soil was well adapted for hemp and flax, the profits of tobacco culture discouraged other industries ; so the clothing of the southern colonies, as linen, woolen, silk, hats, and even leather, came from the old country. The expense of labor probably had something to do Effects of ex- ^ ^ -^ _ 5=" pensive labor. with these matters, because the raising, dressing, and manufacture of flax and hemp involved a large amount of labor simply to bring the material into such shape that thread could be made of it. The scarcity of labor hindered manufactures in all the colonies. Some forms of industry, of course, afforded the means of purchasing foreign merchandise on fairly easy terms, thus reducing the inducement to undertake the manufacture of goods. This operated to retard the development of the textile industries, as well as others. The efforts to cultivate silk and to make silk goods met with but little success. Some of the colonists brought with them a knowledge of silk-raising and silk manufacture, but the accounts of Silk. this industry are so meager that one cannot state posi- tively the extent to which it was developed. Indigo was introduced and helped to make the textile industries more profitable and easy, but they could not compete with agriculture, commerce, and the fisheries, which were the great strong arms of the colonies. The close of the first century of the colonies found them hampered by the laws of the mother-country. Manufacturers While the first attempts to make a portion of their own ia^%ra!"^'^^ ^ clothing had not drawn much attention to the colonists from English merchants and manufacturers, their subse- quent efforts did draw such attention, and on account of complaints that were made to the Board of Trade, that wool and woolen manufactures of Ireland and the North American plantations were being exported to foreign 6o Industrial Evolution of the United States. markets formerly supplied by England, the British Par- EngHsh prohib- liament passed a law in i6qq which for the first time itive measures. ^ ^^ recognized such manufactures in the colonies. This act, known as lo and ii Wm. III., c. lo, provided that " after the first day of December, 1699, no wool, wool- fels, yarn, cloth, or woolen manufactures of the English plantations in America shall be shipped in any of the said English plantations, or otherwise loaden, in order to be transported thence to any place whatsoever, under the penalty of forfeiting ship and cargo, and ^500 fine for each ofiense ; and the Governors ot the Plantations and Officers of Customs and Revenue there are to see this Act, as it relates to the plantations, duly executed." The total population of the American colonies when this prohibition was placed upon them was probably about 260,000. Under such prohibitions the struggle was a hard one, and with courage, persistence, and ingenuity the colonists went on in their way ; yet when the eigh- teenth century drew to a close and their political inde- pendence ot Great Britain had been won and a new con- stitution adopted, the countn,- found itself still subject to Great Britain in most industrial matters. CHAPTER V. PRINTING AND PUBLISHING. Industry is always allied to the diffusion of knowl- Alliance of edge ; so its development must necessarily require the Cid'mtry printing press. Primitive wants are supplied that com- ''"""•'^'^g'^- Benjamin Franklin. fort may be secured, but general knowledge and the provision for evolution of industry must go hand in hand ; so the first colonists, while working diligently to demonstrate their 62 Industrial Evolution of the United States. First press. First printed matter. First book. First original composition. Second press. capacity, not only to provide their wants, but to export their products, had regard for posterity, and provided at an early day for the best interests of education and the diffusion of knowledge. The first printing press in the country was established at Cambridge, JNIass. , in 1639, pro\ision having been made for a college at that place the year before. The Virginia colonists had made jjrovision for a college at an earlier date, 1619, but the jjlans of the Virginians were not allowed to be carried out. The first issue of any printed matter was from the Cambridge press, in January, 1639, when a small pamphlet, " The Freeman's Oath," was printed.* There was brought out an almanac for the year 1639 from the same press, while in 1640 the first book appeared. It was called ' ' The Bay Psalm Book." It went through many editions, being a popu- lar work, both in America and England, and in the latter country an edition was published soon after its appearance in the colonies, the latest edition being printed in 1754. In 1640 IMrs. Anne Bradstreet, the wife of Simon Bradstreet, who aftenvard became governor of ^Nlassa- chusetts, and who was a daughter of the celebrated Thomas Dudley, brought out a \olume of poems, which was the first original composition printed in America. The second press which «-as brought into use in the colonies was sent over in 1655, accompanied with all the necessary materials for printing. This press was designed particularly for printing the Bible and other books in aboriginal tongues and for the purpose of aiding Rev. John Eliot in his missionary work with the Indians. That great aid to the spread of printed information, the » Isaiali Tliomas, '■ The History of Printing in America," Worcester Mass iSio. ' " ■' Printins: and Publish tiiig. 63 Third press. first press. copyright, was first applied in 1672, under the General Court of Massachusetts, when John Usher, a bookseller, was given the privilege of publishing a revised edition of the laws of the colony. A second press was set up at Boston by one John Foster, in 1674, and he had the honor of printing the first book, so far as known, ever printed in that town. The third printing press which the colonies could boast, and the very first that was erected outside of the Massachusetts colony, was set up in Philadelphia, in the year 1686, by William Bradford. This was at a place now known as Kensington. Some of the authorities give it that his earliest publication was an almanac for the year 1687. New York's first press was established in 1693, and New York's this was by the same Bradford who had set up the press in Philadelphia in 1686. Bradford, after his removal to New York, was appointed printer to the government, being ahowed ;^50 from the public treasury. He held this situation for nearly thirty years, and was also during the same period public printer for the province of New York. The first attempt to publish a newspaper in the colonies occurred at Boston on September 25, 1690, when a sheet entitled Publick Occurrences, both Foreign a7id Domestick, appeared. This publication, which was printed by Richard Pierce and published by Benjamin Harris, and which was to have been issued monthly, never went beyond the first number, being suppressed by the government. The first paper of which there is any record of its having gone beyond the first number was the News- Letter, published on April 24, 1704, by one Green, in Boston, for John Campbell, postmaster of that town. First newspaper. Printing in Maryland. 64 Industrial Evolution of the United States. Second news- paper in the colonies. Soutli Carolina. Rhode Island. New Hampshire. North Carolina. Georgia. The second newspaper «-as the Boston Gazette, issued in Boston. This was printed by James Frankhn, a brother of Benjamin Frankhn, and was pubhshed December 21, 1719. The New York Gazette was published October 16, 1725, by the Bradford already referred to. The lirst regular printing done in Maryland was by William Parks, in 1727 or 172S. A press had been set up at Annapolis in 1726, and on this Parks printed a complete collection of the laws of Maryland. The ne.xt year he began the publication of the Maryland Gazette. Parks also established a press at Williamsburg, Va., in 1729, and did the first printing in that colony. South Carolina's first press was set up at Charleston, by Eleazer Phillips, of Boston, in 1730. Rhode Island's first press was at Newport, and was established by Benjamin Franklin's brother James, in 1732- Other colonies had presses at later dates — New Hamp- shire in 1756 ; and North Carolina in 1754-55, through the establishment of a press at Newbern, by James Dayis. Delaware's first press was established at Wilmington in 1761, by James Adams. Georgia came into the printing business the last of the old states, a press being set up at Sayannah in 1762, by James Johnson. The great ri\-al towns for printing were Philadelphia and Boston, the publishing business of the two cities being nearly equal prior to the Reyolution. Benjamin Franklin, America's greatest typographer, shared the suc- cesses of the two cities. Born in Boston, and receiying his first instructions in the art of printing in the estab- lishment of his brother James, he carried his knowledge to Philadelphia and ga\-e that city his illustrious seryices, Printing and Publishing. 65 his industry, wisdom, and talent making his skill and reputation known throughout all the colonies and the home country. An enterprising undertaking for the primitive colonial press was the bringing out of the first German Bible. This was printed at Germantown, Pa., in 1743, by Chris- topher Saur, and was the first Bible printed for the Euro- pean population in the American colonies. Three years' labor had been spent upon the work, which was of quarto form, containing 1,272 pages. It was the heaviest pub- lication which had been issued from the press in Pennsylvania. The first Amer- ican Bible in the English language was carried through the press at Boston in a private way by Kneel and and Green, about the yean 752. It was chiefly made by Daniel Hench- man, probably the most flourishing bookseller of the American colonies prior to the Revolution. He it was who built the first paper-mill in New England, although the first paper-mill erected in the American colonies was built in Pennsyl- vania, the date of its erection not being clearly ascertain- able. The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle for The Franklin Press. First Bible printed in America. First Bible in English. First paper-mill in the American colonies. First daily newspaper in America. 66 Industrial Evolution of the United States. all the British Plantations in America ■\\-as the first journal having a hterary character pubhshed in this country. This was in 1741, the publication being a duo- decimo monthly, at twelve shillings a year. Benjamin Franklin was the printer and editor. It had but a short life, being published only six months. After Franklin brought out his magazine John Welbe published The American Magazine in opposition to Franklin, but Welbe' s enterprise did not continue long. The Pennsylvania Packet, or General Advertiser, was the first daily newspaper published in America. This was published in Philadelphia, and first appeared as a weekly in November, 1 77 1 , being printed by John Dunlap. The Philadelphia Gazette, established in Philadelphia in 178S by Samuel Relf, was the first daily evening paper. At the breaking out of the Revolution there were nine Yam^y\\"\<\™2x ne\\'spapers in Pennsylvania, of A\'hich six in English and iIoIk " '-<=^°"" one in German were published in Philadelphia, one in German at Germantown, and one in English and Ger- man at Lancaster. At this period there were seven "newspapers published in Massachusetts, of which fi^e were at Boston, one at Salem, and one at Newburyport. Connecticut had four and Rhode Island one, while New Hampshire could claim but one, which was published at Portsmouth. There A\-ere, therefore, thirteen newspapers in New England at that time. There were four newspapers published in the province of New York at the date named, three in the city of New York and one at Albany. Maryland had two, one at Annapolis and one at Baltimore. There were two in the colony of Virginia, two in North Carolina, three in South Carolina, and one in Georgia. In Massachu- setts. In New York. Number of newspapers in Printing and Piiblishing. 67 The colonists could therefore boast, at the time of their movement against the mother-country, of thirty- seven newspapers. Many of the efforts to establish peri- "^^ colonies odicals in the colonies were failures, the entire number between 1704 and 1775 being less than one hundred, of which three fourths were newspaper sheets and the bal- ance magazines of some kind or form. Twenty-two of the whole number were begun in Massachusetts and four- teen in other New England states. Pennsylvania had twenty-two. New York sixteen, and the other colonies or provinces twenty-two. Many of them, however, had but a brief existence, while some continued for a respectable period, exerting a varied influence on the public mind. Materials were costly and were mostly imported ; the price of labor was high and the country sparsely settled, jjigh price of so that but small circulations could be secured, and a general taste and leisure for reading had not been fully cultivated. Another obstacle which the printers and pub- lishers were obliged to meet during the latter part of the colonial period was the legislation of the mother-country. Under the Stamp Act of March, 1765, all pamphlets and newspapers were subject to a duty of one half- penny, and all such, after November ist of that year, were required to be printed on stamped paper. A pub- lication not exceeding six sheets was subjected to a tax of two shillings, and the same tax was imposed upon all advertisements. Two pence a year was fixed for almanacs, if printed on one side of a sheet, and four pence on all others. Dr. Franklin was in London at the time of the passage of the act, having been sent there as colonial agent. In a well-known letter referring to this act,- Franklin says : " The sun of liberty is set ; you must light up the lamps of industry and economy. ' ' The party to whom he wrote responded: "Be assured we labor. Small circula- tions. Tax on publica- tions. 68 Industrial Evolution of the L 'nitcd States. obstacles in Itie way of printing. Printin.tr and boolcselling combined. Boolcsellers in New England, Xew Yorli, etc. shall light torches of quite another sort. ' ' The act of March, 1765, was repealed in 1766, but in 1767 Parlia- ment made another law imposing a duty on paper as well as some other articles. Much embarrassment was ex- perienced under the workings of this last act. On the other hand, later on the Continental Congress, which met in September, 1774, at Philadelphia, forbade printers to execute any printing for the adherents of the British administration. So the printing business of the colonies was hedged in, like most other industries, and printers had to overcome not only great natural but artificial and political barriers. All these causes made literar)' enterprises somewhat dubious. The science and skill displayed in advertising in modern times were not thought of in colonial days. The whole number of printing presses in the countr}' prior to the Re\olution could not have been much above lorty. The printers mostly combined bookselling with their business, while not a few eno-aeed in the selling- of groceries, fancy articles, and a general assortment of goods. Some, indeed, were large dealers in general merchandise, keeping for sale not only domestic but imported books. The staple supply of the colonial bookstores consisted of works on law, medicine, histor}-, and some of the minor departments of science and general knowledge. Ninety-two booksellers had car- ried on business in Boston prior to 1775, while eighteen houses were engaged in like business in other parts of New England. The names of a dozen concerns appear for New York, and thirti,--eight for Philadelphia, while Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia added six to the list. This list, however, is far from complete, but it in- dicates the de\'elopment of a business which has become in our day one of enormous proportions. Printing and Publishing. 6g Some of the early colonial printers undertook the business of bookbinding in connection with their other Bookbinding, work, the first attempts in this direction being upon Eliot's Indian Bible, as early as 1663. The edition of the Psalms, which has been mentioned, was bound in parchment. More than a third of all the booksellers who carried on business in Boston had binderies of their own. This feature of the business was not so general in the other colonies, for in New York there were but few who did binding in connection with their business as book- sellers or printers. In Philadelphia there were several who carried on this feature of the book business, and in Charleston, of the three booksellers there at the close of the colonial period, two executed their own binding. In connection with these brief historical facts a ques- _ Literary char- tion might arise as to the literary character of the col- acteroftiie colonists. onists. There were many persons of good repute for their learning and ability who sustained this character. Many of them had been educated in European uni- versities. Some of these names are found in the " Trans- actions ' ' of the Royal Society of London and those of the American Philosophical Society. The Bibliotheca Amer- icana, in 1789, gives us a pretty clear insight as to the character of some of these men, and from their names and their calling the progress made in literature and in various departments of knowledge and art is learned. The following quotation is taken from the Bibliotheca Americana : The people of North America have now professors in every art and science, with adequate salaries ; and, whatever they may want to import, men of eminence in literature are not of the number. At the head of their philosophers and politicians, stands the venerable Franklin. In the first class, the ingenious Lorimer must not be forgotten. In mathematics, the self- taught Rittenhouse. In divinity, Weatherspoon. In history, 70 Industrial Evolution of the United States. criticism, and policy, the modem Tacitus (Payne). In poetry, Barlow, Smith, and Ray. In painting. West. In law and oratory — how shall I enumerate them ? Take the first class. In Georgia, George Walton ; German Baker, in Virginia ; Jen- nings, in Maryland ; Lewis, Bradford, and Chambers, in Penn- sylvania ; Boudinot, in Jersey ; Hamilton and Bird, in New York ; Johnson, in Connecticut ; and Parsons, in Massachusetts. CHAPTER VI. SAWMILLS. — BUILDINGS AND BUILDING MATERIALS. Many industries other than those already referred to were planted by the colonists. Sawmills and the manu- facture of lumber gave opportunity for the employment of labor and the exportation of the products of the forest. As seen in a former chapter, the first efforts of sawmiiis ^ ' stimulate the colonists outside of raising food were expended in exportation. the manufacture of clapboards for exportation, and both the Virginia and the Plymouth settlements sent home cargoes of these articles. They were made by hand, for in those early days there were no other means of manufacturing. Naturally, the abundance of timber led to the erection of crude sawmills. Artisans were sent as „ , Crude saw- early as 1620 to Virginia to set up sawmills, so that the '"'"^' making of boards and clapboards, which had been ac- complished by hand-labor as early as 1609, might be expanded and the exports increased. When it is known that a man could easily make by hand 15,000 clapboards or pipe-staves in a year, which were worth in the colo- nies ;^4 per thousand and in the Canaries /^2o, it will be understood how desirable it was to have sawmills, and yet as late as 1650, when the value of clapboards was that just stated, there was no sawmill in Virginia, nor does the record show the erection of any permanent mills for some years after that date. For the Carolinas and Georgia, however, the accounts are clearer, although the dates of the erection of the first mills are not ascer- 72 Industrial Evolution of the United States. First sawmills in New England, tainable. Acts were passed in South Carolina as early Encouragement as 1 69 1 for the encouragement of the erection of engines for propagating the staples of that province, and a few years later (in 1712) for encouraging the building of sawmills and other mechanic engines ; 3-et the sawmill does not appear to ha\"e come into extensive requisition in Carolina during colonial times. Turning to the northern colonies, we find that the first sawmill erected in New England was in New Hampshire, near what is now known as Portsmouth, where a sawmill was built prior to the year 1635 ; at least this is the first distinct account found of a sawmill in New England. Among the skilful mechanics sent to the colonies in 1628—29 were those who knew how to erect and operate sawmills. Some accounts gi\'e it that one was built in 1633, and mention is made of mills generally at even earlier dates, but they ha\-e not been described. But well-authenticated accounts indicate that just prior to 1635 a sawmill was erected, as stated. During the first fifty years after the settlement at Pl3-mouth sawmills were erected in different parts of New England, the many streams offering facilities for running them, and before the century expired saw and grist-mills were found at convenient points in most of the northern colonies, and in fair proportion in the others. Rhode Island, Con- necticut, and New York engaged in this work, and in some places wind sawmills were erected, an account of the latter colony, published in 1708, relating that a Dutch-built mill to saw timber would do more work in an hour than fifty men in two days. Sawmills were also erected in Delaware, while New Jersey found it essential to have mills of her own. There seems to be no infor- mation, however, concerning the introduction of saw- mills in Maryland ; but water-mills, for grinding corn, In Rhode Island and Connecticut. In Delaware and New Jersey. Sawmills. — Buildings ajid Building Materials. 73 were erected in that colony by public subscription in j^ Maryland 1639. In many places grist-mills were built alongside of sawmills in order that the same power which moved the one might be utilized in moving the other. The product of the sawmill was considerable, the product of official value of different kinds of lumber exported from all the colonies in 1770 being $686,588. These exports sawmills. Plymouth, 1621. lumber. consisted of boards, plank, scanding, timber for masts, Exports of spars, staves, headings, hoops, and poles. After the close of the colonial period (in 1792) there were exported 65,846,024 feet of lumber, 80,813,357 shingles, 32,039,- 707 hoops, staves, and headings, while of timber, con- sisting of ship and other timbers, frames of houses, etc., large quantities were sent out. The primitive development of the lumber industry naturally closes with the colonial period, for when the next period opened a new power had arisen and a new element grown into the development of industry — 74 Industrial Evolution of the United States. Use of wind- mills. Exports of cereals. Early dwellings. Domestic architecture. Steam ; but the account of the grist and flour-mills, necessities to the existence of the people, can only be told in detail. In general it may be said that nearly all of the colonies erected windmills for the grinding of grain — all of the colonies, or nearly all of them, encouraging the industry — and while the colonists were exporting very considerable quantities of lumber, as just stated, which, of course, were over and above their own wants, they had succeeded, at the close of that particular period in our history, in sending abroad large quantities of flour and other bread-stuffs, the exports from Phila- delphia alone amounting in 1789 to 369,668 barrels of flour. Some of the mills, especiall)^ those in operation near Philadelphia, made not only bolted flour, but ground chocolate, snutf, hair-powder, and mustard, and pressed and cut tobacco, by water-power. The total exports of bread-stuffs from all of the colonies cannot be stated for the year closing the colonial period, but the total export of flour in 1791 was 619,681 barrels, be- sides which there were sent abroad over 1,000,000 bushels of wheat. The first habitations of the colonists were naturally crude affairs. They had plenty of timber with which to build their houses, but they had to wait for other build- ing materials before any ornamental buildings or those having anything that might be called artificial finish could be erected. Log houses and stockades — buildings erected of crude hewn timber — were all that could be ob- tained. The progress of social life is marked as much, if not more, by domestic architecture as by almost any other line, except, it may be, the textile industry. So the first dwellings of the colonists could claim but little advance over the primitive wigwams of the sa\'ages, and, in fact, in many cases were simply temporary huts, like Sawmills. — Buildings and Building Materials. 75 the huts of the savages. The Indian huts had thatched roofs and walls, with warm mats hanging about, and were, perhaps, in the inclement northern climate, more comfortable than the dwellings of the white people. The transition marks one of the clearly-defined features of industrial development, and this takes the dwellings from the rude habitation to the capacious frame house and to the mansion of stone or brick — accomplishments secured only by much toil and patience and years of waiting. When a people pass beyond the rude hut the development of many features of industry begins, and the manufacture of building materials and of everything that can be used in adorning dwellings becomes a neces- sity. Our forefathers were not of a class who were will- ing to dwell always in log cabins. The log cabin is a temporary habitation, and has no relation to future de- velopment, except as a temporary convenience. When the erection of dwell- ings which shall last for years begins, archi- tecture, however prim- itive, must be culti- vated, that the dwell- ings may represent the taste and the intel- ligent progress of the people building them. So the manufacture of boards, brick, lime, and everything entering into the building trades must be provided. It has been seen how the sawmill grew and developed in the colonial days, furnishing one of the profitable branches of business, both through the Development of dwellings. The. First Church Erected in Connecticut. Hartford, 1638. 76 Industrial Evolution of the United States. Stone and bricks. Virg:inia first to make bricks. Limestone and marble. First brick house in Massactiusetts. In Plymouth. supply of the colonists and the manufacture of lumber for exportation. The first stone and bricks which were used in the colonies were brought from England, and were chiefly used in the building of fireplaces. Ten thousand bricks were imported by Massachusetts in 1629. Imported bricks were also used in the erection of dwellings, and there are houses in different parts of the original terri- tory whose owners now boast of the fact that the bricks used in their construction were brought from England. Virginia was the first colony to make bricks. This occurred as early as 161 2. The first brick-kiln in New England was set up at Salem, Mass., in the year 1629, the same year in which a sawmill was started. The discovery of limestone and marble was made at an early time, for in the year just named (1629) limestone, freestone, and marble were found to exist in the eastern part of the Massachusetts colony. The first brick house in Massachusetts, probably, was built in Boston in 1638, as near as the records allow the mention of a particular date. A brick watch-house was built on Fort Hill, in Plymouth, in 1643. The bricks for this were furnished at eleven shillings per thousand. Some writers refer to the fact that as early as 1647 lime, brick, and tile-making were among the independent trades that were pursued in New England. The town of Medford, on the Mystic River, the town being called Mystic at that time, had some brickyards and sent the product to Boston. Mention is found of spacious houses, having brick, tile, slate, and stone settings, existing in colonial towns in the fifties of the seventeenth century, and as early as 1667 the Massachusetts General Court undertook the regulation of the size and manufacture of bricks. Ten vears later Sawmills. — Buildings and Building Materials. 77 a brick college building was erected at Cambridge, while the first brick meeting-house was erected in 1694, to take the place of a wooden one in Brattle Street in Bos- ton. Brick-kilns were started in the Maine district pre- vious to 1675, but most of the towns were supplied with wooden dwellings and buildings. Under the Dutch, many of the buildings in New York Brick buildings were made of bricks, but the material was imported from '" Holland. A church edifice was erected in 1 642, of stone. Some of the early buildings in New Jersey were con- in New jersey, structed partly of bricks, but mostly of spUt trees, the buildings having the appearance of stockades, although they were covered with shingles and plastered inside. Barns built in this way cost about $25 each. Farm- houses were built in a very cheap manner, stone being used for the chimneys. In 172 1 freestone was quarried at Newark — probably the first in the country. Its value was recognized, and it was sent to neighboring colonies. William Penn's manor-house, which was situated a few miles above Bristol, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was built of bricks, and according to his own statement cost over ^5,000. The materials, however, were largely brought from England. The southern colonies do not seem to have developed in southern much in the way of brickmaking or stone-cutting ; yet, while wooden buildings were largely used in the Caro- linas and other southern colonies, there were near the close of the colonial period some spacious brick houses in southern towns. They had a very superior quality of clay, and the manufacture of potters' ware was com- menced about the middle of the eighteenth century. So, as the ambition of the colonists grew relative to their habitations, the industries necessary to meet the ambition developed accordingly, and not only was the production 78 Industrial Evolution of the United States. Exportation of bricks. Glassmaking. First in Virginia, First in north- ern colonies. of bricks at the close of the colonial period equal to the demand for home consumption, but small e.xportations ■were made. These e.xportations were chiefly to the West Indies. While bricks, stone, and lime were produced, the necessity for having glass made at home was felt. Some of the artisans sent to Virginia made an attempt to pro- duce glass as early as 1609. It was an expensive article to import, on account of the breakage which was likely to occur. This fact stimulated the colonists to efforts to produce their own glass, but another and a more curious cause was the facility with which glass trinkets, beads, etc., could be used with the Indians in trading for furs, skins, and lands ; so glassmaking was one of the earliest industries established in this country, and the first of these, as stated, was in Virginia in 1609, when a glass furnace was erected about a mile from Jamestown. In all probability this was the very first manufactory of any kind erected in this country. The business was prose- cuted with some success, but the glass enterprise was conducted under difficulties. The fuel and the alkaline salts required, while cheap, necessitated the employment of labor, which was very scarce, and labor was the chief cost of glassmaking. The first glass that was made in the northern colonies was produced in Braintree, Mass., at a village called Germantown, but glass bottles were the only articles made. The first glass works in that colony were com- menced in Salem, Mass., about 1639, and the persons interested in this undertaking were granted several acres of ground for the purpose of promoting the manufac- ture. It should be understood that window-glass and even mirrors and glassware were not common in England fifty years before the settlement of the colonies, for as late as Saivmills. — Buildings and Building Materials. 79 1 66 1 country houses in some parts of Great Britain had no glass windows, and even ambitious palaces were but partly supplied with glazing. Few attempts were made to introduce the extensive manufacture of glass in col- onies other than those named. On Manhattan Island Giassmaking in New York and there were some glassmakers among the early settlers, Pennsylvania. and one or two attempts were made in Pennsylvania prior to 1700, and between that time and the adoption of the constitution there were quite a number of works erected here and there ; but it cannot be said that there was very much progress made prior to the Revolution. Although the demand increased and the use of glass had , . , . . Scarcity of become an almost universal necessity, it was a scarce giass^during article during the War of Independence, the most of that used prior thereto having been brought from the old country. the Revolution. CHAPTER VII. THE IRON INDUSTRY. Iron ore in Virginia. In northern colonies. Metals were essential in the building trades as well as for domestic purposes. The colonists, however, did not have much knowledge either of the working or of the uses of iron. They had expected to find great quantities of the precious metals. At the time America was colonized the use of iron was increasing greatly in the old country. Information was received by the coun- cil in London, in 1610, that iron ore existed in \'irginia and that it had been found even upon the surface of the ground. This, it is stated, had been tested in England and found to be of excellent quality. In i6ig workmen familiar with the manufacture of iron, to the number of one hundred and fifty, were sent to \'irginia for the avowed purpose of erecting iron works, and smelting furnaces were erected on Falling Creek, a branch of James Ri\er, in that year, but in 'Sla.y, 1622, the works were destroyed by the Indians, and a general massacre of the workmen and their families occurred. The In- dians seemed to have a very jealous fear of works, whether for the manufacture of iron or for other pur- poses. The destruction of the A'irginia works and the slaughter of the people connected therewith of course discouraged the colonists, and no other attempt at the production of iron was made for several years. In the northern colonies the search for iron ore had been carried on, and it had been disco\'ered in some So The iron Industry. 8i parts of the Massachusetts colony as early as 1630, but no attempt was made to produce iron until some fifteen years later. Bog-iron ore* was discovered in Lynn, where numerous peat-bogs were found, and this bog- Bog ore in iron ore supplied the first furnaces of the Massachusetts *""' colony, whose first attempts to manufacture iron were made in Lynn or its vicinity. The colonists were suffering from a scarcity of iron both for use in the manufacture of wares and tools and for the erection of their build- ings. To supply this demand furnaces were started, as stated. Later on attempts were made at Braintree, and a grant was secured for the encouragement of iron works to be set up there. This grant was not surveyed and laid out until January, 1648. There has been much dis- cussion whether the first forge was set up at Lynn or at First iron Braintree, but the Lynn historian, Mr. Lewis, insists Massachusetts, that the first works were erected at that place, on the west bank of the Saugus River. This was probably in 1643 or 1644. According to Governor Winthrop, whose statements relative to these works were made in 1648, the production was fairly encouraging, the works yielding about seven tons per week. The works at Lynn involved much expense, and the members of the company did not live in the immediate vicinity ; so * Bog Ore. — A variety of iron ore which collects in low places, being washed down in a soluble form in the waters which flow over rocks or sands contain- ing oxide of iron, and precipitated in a solid form as the waters evaporate. It is deposited in the bottoms of ponds as well as swamps, and is found in beds now dry, above the level at which it must originally have been collected, or else these are the product of springs which have now disappeared. Bog ore contains phosphorus, arsenic, and other impurities, which greatly impair its qualities for producing strong iron. The pig metal obtained from it, called cold short, is so brittle that it breaks to pieces by falling upon the hard ground ; but the foreign matters which weaken it also give to the melted cast- iron great fluidity, which causes it to be in demand for the manufacture of fine castings, the metal flowing into the minutest cavities of the mold, and retain- ing the sharp outlines desired. Bog ores are very easily converted into iron, and when they can be procured to mi.x with other kinds of ore, they produce a very beneficial effect, both in the running of the furnace and in the quality of the iron. For these reasons, as also for the cheapness with which they are obtained, it is an object to have them at hand, though they seldom yield more than thirty to thirty-five per cent of cast-iron. At Eraintree. 82 Industrial Evolution of the United States. but little profit was realized. The enterprise was prose- cuted at difterent times, howe\x'r, and the works were not finally abandoned until after more than a century from their commencement had elapsed. The works at Brain- tree continued in operation for a period equally as long. According to Mr. Lewis, the author of an excellent his- tor)- of Lynn, Mass., one "Joseph Jenks deser\-es to be Iron enterprise held in Derpctual remembrance in American history as at Lynn, .Mass. . ^ ' . . . being the first founder who worked in brass and u'on on the western continent. By his hands the first models were made, and the first castings taken of many domes- tic implements and iron tools. The first article said to have been cast was a small iron pot, capable of con- taining about a quart. Thomas Hudson, of the same family with the celebrateci Hendrick Hudson, was the first proprietor of the lands on the Saugus Ri\er, where the iron foundry stood. When the forge was established he procured the first casting, which was the famous old iron pot, which he preserved as a curiosity and handed down in the family e\-er since. ' ' The legislature of Massachusetts granted Mr. Jenks a patent. Ma}' 6, 1646, M.issachusetts for the making of scvthes and other edared tools, while in patents lor '- ' '^ edged tools. Octobcr, 1652, the same Mr. Jenks was employed by the government of Massachusetts to make dies from which to supply the deficienc}' of specie by a silver coinage. Bog ores were found along the coast in the vicinity of the small ponds and the marshes ; so lurnaces and forges for smelting and working up the metal which was obtained from the swamps and surrounding hills were quite com- mon in colonial days. Some of the ponds, especially those in Middleboro, Attleboro, Car\-er, Scituate, Hali- fax, and neighboring towns, it is said, supplied from one hundred to six hundred tons of ore annually, the crude iron contained in the ore being about twenty-five per First iron article. The Iron Industry. 83 cent. Many works sprung up wherever bog ore could be found, and its uses were applied in very many direc- tions. Copper ore was discovered near Salem by Governor Endicott in 164S, and some smelting* works were erected by him about 165 1, but the discovery proved of little account. The number of iron works in New England, according to the returns for 1731, was six works for hollow-ware and nineteen forges or bloomeriesf for bar-iron. There were no pig-iron furnaces nor any refineries for pig metal, but refineries came into use during the next score of years. Rolling and slitting-millsj were in existence in Hanover, Milton, and Middleboro in 1750. The rolling- mills produced mostly nail-rods, from which spikes and large nails were made. But these mills suffered under the legislation of the mother-country, through the pro- hibition, by act of Parliament, of the erection of slitting or rolling-mills, plating forges, or steel furnaces. A forge was erected in Rhode Island by Joseph Jenks, but this was destroyed in 1675, during the Wampanoag * Smelting. — The act of obtaining the metal from an ore by a process that includes fusion ; also, in a more limited sense, to reduce by fusion in a furnace. fELooMER'*'. — An establishment in which wrought-iron is made by the direct process, that is, from the ore directly, or \vithout having been iirst intro- duced in the form of cast-iron. Furnace. — A structure in which to make and maintain a fire the heat of which is to be used for some mechanical purpose, as the melting of ores or metals, etc.; specifically, a structure of considerable size built of stone or brick, used for some purpose connected with the operation of smelting metals. Furnaces are constructed in a great variety of ways, according to the differ- ent purposes to which they are to be applied. Forge. — An open fireplace or furnace, fitted witli a bellows or some other appliance for obtaining a blast to urge the fire, and serving to heat metal in order that it may be hammered into form. Forges differ from foundries and blast furnaces in their products being articles of wrought-iron, while those of the latter are castings. Foundry, — A manufacturing establishment in which articles are cast from metal. t Slitting-mill.— A mill in which iron bars or plates are slit into nail-rods, etc. Rolling-mill.— A metal-working establishment using, in connection with heating-furnaces, systems of steel rollers for forming metal into sheets, bars, rods, or wires. Copper. Iron works in New England. In Rhode Island. §4 Industrial Evolution of the United States. Manufactures of iron in Rhode Island. Attempts to make cut nails. war. Several other iron works, as well as some other manufacturing enterprises, were destroyed during the course of this war, greatly reducing the resources of the colonists in Rhode Island. The bog ore which supplied the furnaces was not of a quality sufficiently tough for the production of good nails, spikes, and tools. The shipbuilding around Plymouth and Narragansett Bay increased the demand for all kinds of iron products ; so the colonists were stimulated in their efforts to dis- cover ores in such abundance that this demand might be supplied. Rhode Island made considerable progress in this direc- tion, for toward the close of the eighteenth century the manufactures of iron, which at that time included very many articles, such as bar* and sheet-iron steel, nail-rods, and nails, farming implements, stoves, pots, and other castings, and household utensils, iron-work for ships, anchors, and bells, were important products of industry. Slitting and rolling-mills, anchor forges, nail-cutting machines, and several mills were erected at Pawtucket Falls, some of which were carried on by water. There were in operation toward the close of the century screw- cutting machines and hollow-ware furnaces. The militia companies of the colony were supplied with muskets as early as 1775 by Stephen Jenks of North Providence. One Jeremiah Wilkinson, at Cumberland, was the first to make the attempt to cut small nails from sheet-iron. In this Wilkinson used old Spanish hoops. Wilkinson * Pig-iron. — Iron in oblong masses, or pigs, as turned out by the smelting furnace : so called because the molten metal is run into a long mass with shorter ones attached to it at right angles, the long one being called the sow, and the shorter ones the pigs. Bar-iron. — Wrought-iron rolled into the form of bars. Rolled-iron. — Iron passed between steel rolls of different sizes, according to the shape desired to be imparted to the metal. The Iron Indiisiry. 85 also made pins and needles from wire which he himself drew out. These articles were very scarce and ex- pensive. If, therefore, they could be made by the col- onists and sold without the intermediary expenses of transportation from the old country a good market could be secured. The colony of Connecticut at a very early date (1651) encouraged the discovery of minerals within its territory, iron in for it is recorded that on motion of Mr. Winthrop, who was the prime mover in the organization of the company which undertook the first iron works at Lynn and Brain- tree in 1643, or thereabouts, and who had received a grant for a settlement and iron works in Connecticut, the Assembly of Connecticut passed an encouraging Encourage- act which declared that, "whereas, in this rocky country connectfcm. ^ among these mountainous and rocky hills there are probabilities of mines of metal, the discovery of which may be of great advantages to the country in raising a staple commodity ; and whereas, John Winthrop, Esq., doth intend to be at charges and adventure for the search and discovery of such mines and minerals, for the encouragement thereof, and of any that shall adventure with the said John Winthrop, Esq., in the said business, it is therefore ordered," etc. It granted to him, his heirs, associates, partners, and assigns, forever, the lands, timber, and water within two or three miles of any mines of lead, copper, tin, antimony, vitriol, black lead, alum, stone, salt, or salt springs he might discover, if he should set up any works for digging, washing, melting, or other operations required for such metals or minerals, provided it was not in a place already occupied. The government of Connecticut again, in 1663, offered encouragement to any one who would undertake the discovery of mines and minerals, and the act of 1663 86 Industrial Evolution of the United States. First attempt at the produc- tion of steel in the Connecti- cut colonies. Discovery of copper in Connecticut. was renewed in 1672, but the records do not give any very definite information as to the success which re- warded either the research of Mr. Winthrop or that which resulted under the acts of 1663 and 1672. This encouragement was offered by the General Court. Prior to this the Assembly of New Haven, seven years before the date of the charter of Mr. Winthrop, gave encouragement to the manulacture of iron in Connecti- cut, for on the 30th of May, 1655, it was ordered, "that if an iron worke goe on within any part of this jurisdiction, the persons and estates constantlv and onely imploved in that worke shall be Iree Irom paving rates," and the same year an order was passed concerning the manulacture of steel. This is believed to have been the first attempt at the production of steel in the Connecti- cut colonies. The General Court acquiesced in these privileges, and in the following May e.xempted the per- sons from rates for ten years and ordered that the prop- erty in\'ested in the manufacture of steel should not be attached for the individual debts of those in\-olved in the undertaking, at least to such an extent as to hinder the work or damage the other proprietors. So iron works grew in the Connecticut colonies, the government thereof making provision for the encouragement, through exemptions and otherwise, of the development of the industry. Slitting-mills were erected at Stony Brook as early as 17 16, and these were probably the first works erected subsequent to those just recorded. The efforts to obtain ores led to the discovery in Connecticut of two deposits of copper, which it was confidently hoped would gi\'e a profitable yield. One of these Copper mines was found at Simsbury, now the town of Granby, and after some struggle was success- fully worked until 1773. This mine furnished the ore The Iron Industry. 87 for some copper coins which were struck in 1737 and 1739) t>y Samuel Higley, a blacksmith of Granby. These coins were current for many years, and were known as the ' ' Granby coppers. ' ' Mr. Higley, in May, 1728, was granted a patent for ten years for making steel, the condition of the patent being that the petitioner should improve the art within two years after the date of the act of the legislature granting the patent. Bells were cast in a foundry for that purpose, at New seiis. Haven, in 1736, by Abel Parmlee. Connecticut's most valuable deposits of iron ore were found in the northwestern part of the state, bordering on New York and Massachusetts, Sharon, Salisbury, and Kent being the most favored townships. As late as 1740 Mr. Philip Livingston of Albany, N. Y. , who had received a grant of a large tract of one York'." ^" hundred acres, and who had set up a furnace or bloom- ery at Limerock, where pig-iron, common iron kettles, etc., were made as early as 1736, erected iron works at Ancram, in Columbia County, New York, some twelve miles northwest of the Connecticut mines, and in 1762 a blast furnace was built at the outlet of Wanscopommuc Lake, in Salisbury. With these beginnings the manufacture of iron in Connecticut progressed with good results, so that at the fro°fmlnufec- close of the colonial period Connecticut was doing fairly Connecticut. well in that industry, but in addition to iron and its man- ufactures steel is said to have been made by several parties. Many bloomeries and small works for a variety of manufactures in iron were established on the small streams traversing Connecticut, the forges in the south- ern part of the state being -chiefly supplied with bog ore, while in the interior other kinds of ores, especially the 88 Industrial Evolution of the United States. place of the first manufac- ture of tinware. First iron works in New York. Manufacture of anchors. Cannon. Bar-iron. Steel. hematitic ores found in the northeastern part of the state, gave an impulse to trade. To this day Connecti- cut is noted for the extent and variety of its manufac- tures of metal small wares. Berlin, in Hartford County, Connecticut, is stated to be the first place in this country where tinware was man- ufactured. This was in 1770, by Edward Patterson. Many of the industries which make Connecticut what it is were started in a small way during the latter part of the eighteenth century, but, as already intimated, they related very largely to the manufacture of metal wares. The Dutch colonizers of New York made no success- ful attempts at the manufacture of iron, although they did stimulate prospecting for iron and other ores. The first iron works in New York were erected, as already stated, by Mr. Philip Livingston, at Ancram, who obtained his ore largely from Salisbury, Conn. A company of German miners, who came to this country between 1730 and 1750, were among the earliest ex- plorers of the metalliferous regions of the highlands. They made many excavations and, it is said, set up some iron works in Orange County during the period named, for in 1750 Governor Clinton, in reporting to Parlia- ment, stated that there was a plating-forge with a tilt- hammer at Wawaganda, in Orange County. It was the only mill of that kind in the province, and had been built four or five years before the year named. In the same year some works were built in the town of Monroe, for the manufacture of anchors. These anchors were made from the iron ore found at the south end of Sterling Mountain, and the mines there became very productive. The metal was strong, and was afterward largely used for the manufacture of cannon, bar-iron, steel, etc. The Iron Industry. 89 Mr. Peter Townsend was the first man to produce First steel pro- steel in the province of New York. This he made first York'!' '" ^^^ from pig and afterward from bar-iron, using the German method. He became the proprietor of the Sterling works before the Revolution. It was from the ore from the mines which supplied the Sterling works that the enormous iron chain which was used in 1778 as an ob- , , . ' ' Iron chain struction across the Hudson at West Point was foreed. across the — ,. . , . . Hudson. This cham weighed 186 tons, and under the direction of Col. Timothy Pickering, one of Washington's staff", was produced and delivered in six weeks. According to all accounts this immense chain remained unbroken through- out the Revolution, and some of its links are preserved among the revolutionary relics at Newburgh. These works became historic in their influence upon the prog- ress of the war. Other works were erected by Mr. Townsend and his associates in 1777. These men also owned other mines, especially the Long mine, which was discovered in 1761 by one David Jones. Governor De Lancey, in obedience to a royal procla- mation, in 1757 sent to England an account of the iron works of the province of New York as they existed from 1749 to 1756. In this account is a statement furnished by Robert Livingston, Jr. , son of the first pro- prietor of the Ancram iron works, which have been men- tioned. This statement indicates that these works were the only ones in the province then carried on. Ac- cording to this account the amount of iron made at Ancram for the years named was over 3,300 tons. Besides the Livingston works iron manufactories sprung up at Copake, Hudson, and other places. Will- iam Hawkshurst advertised in 1765 that he had erected pie-iron a refinery and great hammer for refining the Sterling "^^ ""''■ pig-iron into bars, and he announced that flat, square. of iron industn'. 90 Industrial Evohdion of the United States. and bar-iron, cart, wagon, chair, and sleigh-tire, mill spindles, anvils, pots, kettles, forged plates, weights, and many other articles could be supplied to his cus- tomers in New York. Eiicouragement Societies were formed at this time for the encourage- ment of the iron industry, premiums being ottered for products of skill. Among these was the Society of Arts, which opened a fair for the sale of domestic prod- ucts. Other portions of the province of New York, under the demands which were stimulated by the in- creasing population, the necessities of building both ships and houses, and other things, developed the iron industry to a considerable extent, not only suppl)-ing the home demand, but even exporting to some extent, the shipments of iron from the port of New York amount- ing to 2,400 tons of pig and 750 tons of bar-iron in 1775 ; but it was not until after the Revolution that the industry assumed great proportions. Then in the north- ern part of the state iron ore was disco\ered and util- ized and the industry firmly established, although the general progress in the state, so far as the iron industry was concerned, did not equal in the last century that in New England and Pennsylvania. The manufacture of guns was carried on to some ex- °f g""s- tent, muskets and rifles being made in considerable quantities for the Indian trade, while the armories at Albany were employed by the government at the com- mencement of the Revolution. It is quite impossible to gi\'e zwy precise date for the Jersey. erection of the first iron works in New Jersey, but the earliest in that province belonged to Col. Lewis Morris, whose brother Richard and himself were the ancestors of the Morris family so well known in the early history of this countr)' ; but near 1655 one Henry Leonard, who Manufacture Iron in New The Iron Industry. gi had worked in the first iron works in the country, those at Lynn, Mass. , which have ah'eady been described, came to Jersey, and is said to have been the first to set up a forge in that province. It was not until the next cen- tury, however, that much progress was made, during which, and prior to the close of the Revolution, many important works were established, some of which were erected at the very close of the seventeenth century. When the eighteenth century closed ten mines were being- worked within the limits of Morris County alone, which iron works in Morns County, contained two furnaces, three rolling and slitting-mills, n. j. and about forty forges with two to four fires each. Many of the counties during the last quarter of the eighteenth century found ore in fair abundance, and of course forges were erected for working it. The village of Troy, in Hanover County, had a bloomery forge, built in 1743, while the Beach Glen bloomery, three miles north of the village of Rockaway, was built in 1760. A little above Milton the Russia and Hopewell bloomeries were set up, the former in 1775 and the latter in 17S0. Randolph, Mount Hope, Morristown, Boonton, Dover, and other towns, have for a very long time been busy in the manu- facture of iron. Iron works were erected at an early- date on the Ringwood and Pequannock Rivers, and a charcoal furnace was erected prior to 1770 on the Morris ciiarcoai County side of the Pequannock. So at other places Jersey did her share in the early evolution of the iron industry, and to such an extent as to place her on a very firm basis when the new era after the adoption of the constitution was opened. CHAPTER VIII. THE IRON INDUSTRY {Concluded'). The great iron-producing state of Pennsylvania did Iron in not develop her mineral resources at as early a period as Pennsylvania, j^^^ more northern neighbors, yet at an early time her anthracite and bituminous coal gave her great advan- tages in the production of iron ; in fact, while accounts appear of the knowledge of the existence of iron ores during the seventeenth century, there does not appear to be any distinct account of the erection of forges or furnaces during that century. Mr. Swank, in his work, "History of the Manufacture of Iron in All Ages" (and he is corroborated by Bishop and others), states that the settlers on the Delaware, under the successive administrations of the Swedes and Dutch and the Duke No efforts prior of York, appear to have made no effort to manufacture to l6Si. . . '^^ iron in any form down to 1682. From Mr. Swank's work and others it is learned that in the ' ' Journal of a Voyage to New York," in 1679 and 1680, by Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter, who then ^-isited the Swedish and other settlements on the Delaware, it is expressly declared that iron ore had not been seen by them on Tinicum Island or elsewhere in the neighborhood. Dan- kers states : ' ' As to there being a mine of iron ore upon it, I have not seen any upon that island, or elsewhere ; and if it were so it is of no great importance, for such mines are so common in this country that little account is made of them." But under William Penn the manufacture of iron The Iron Industry. 93 in Pennsylvania had its beginning. In a letter written by him to Lord Keeper North, in July, 1683, he mentions the existence of " mineral, of copper, and iron in divers places" in Pennsylvania, and in 1685, speaking of the prospects of trade, he says : "I might add iron, be- cause there is much of it." It is probably true that Penn had iron works at Hawkhurst and other places in Sussex, but it is in 1692 that the first mention of iron having been made in Pennsylvania is found, although this is only a mention. * The first authentic account, however, of the first attempt which was successfully car- First attempt to ried out in the making of iron in Pennsylvania shows Pennsylvania, that it was in 1 7 16. This was a bloomery forge, which was constructed by Thomas Rutter, on Manatawny Creek, in Berks County. The next iron enterprise in Pennsylvania was undertaken by Samuel Nutt, an Eng- lish Quaker, who, in 1717, about the same time that Rutter built his forge on the Manatawny, erected one on French Creek, in the northern part of Chester County. Accounts state that as early as 17 19 the iron at this point promised well. Mr. Swank gives the third iron enterprise in Pennsyl- vania as the Colebrookdale furnace, erected about 1720 by a company of which Thomas Rutter, who has already been mentioned, was the principal member. This furnace was located on Ironstone Creek, in Colebrookdale township, Berks County, the site of which is marked at the present time by cinder. By 1728 the iron industry of Pennsylvania had developed to such an extent that it was really on a firm foundation, for the colony exported 274 tons of pig-iron to the old ^^p"'' °f ''■°" country in 1728-29. After this date forges and furnaces Pennsylvania. * See "History of tlie Manufacture of Iron in All Ages," by James M. Swanlc. 94 Industrial Evolution of the United States. Iron west of the Susquehanna. Nucleus of the Carlisle iron works. Manufecture of nails in Pennsylvania. Manufacture of small arms in Pennsylvania. were erected rapidly in the Schuylkill valley and other eastern portions of Pennsylvania. The history of their erection, the struggles of their progress, their periods of success and adversity, are all connected with the de- velopment of the state. The iron industry of Pennsylvania crossed the Susque- hanna at a very early date, yet not early enough to bring the great development into the colonial period, only a few forges and bloomeries having been erected in the western part of the state prior to the Revolution. There was a bloomery in York County in 1756 and a forge on Codorus Creek in 1770. A furnace and forge were built at Boiling Springs, in Cumberland County, a little after 1762. This formed the nucleus of the Carlisle iron works. A forge is supposed to have been built at Mount Holly in 1756, and another in the same county in 1770. These are the principal works that were erected west of the Susquehanna during the colonial period. The iron manufactures of the state took many forms. Furnaces, foundries, rolling-mills, nail works, wire-mills, and manufactories of metallic and other materials had a rapid growth. The amount of iron exported from Phila- delphia in the year ending April 5, 1766, was 882 tons of bar, worth £26 per ton, and 813 tons of pig-iron, worth £■] and 10 shillings per ton. In the three years preceding the war, ending January 5, 1774, the exports were respectively 2,358, 2,205, and 1,564 tons. The manufacture of nails was begun at an early date in Pennsylvania, certainly as early as 1731, while anchors were made as early as 1755. Works for drawing wire were erected in 1779. Small arms were manufactured in Philadelphia, Lan- caster, and other places. The mechanics of Philadelphia acquired a reputation for inventive skill, as e\idenced in The Iron Indnsi7'\ 95 the construction of machines and instruments. This in- ventive skill was undoubtedly stimulated largely by the ease with which ore could be secured for the manufacture of iron. One of the earliest evidences of this inventive development is found in the employment of a fire-engine, which was recommended by Samuel Preston, one of the early mayors of the city of Philadelphia. This was in December, 17 19. The first experimental steam-engine built in America Experimental was made in Philadelphia in 1773, by Christopher Colles. ^'i^^^-^k'"^- Carding machines, cotton-gins, spinning-jennies, and other textile machinery, were made in Philadelphia, while Carding many other valuable inventions were developed and ap- plied practically by the mechanics of that city. There do not appear to have been works of any extent j^^^ j^ erected in Delaware during the seventeenth century, but Delaware, as early as 1726 mention is made in some accounts of Governor Keith, of Pennsylvania, being the proprietor of iron works in Newcastle County. Mr. Bishop thinks they were probably at Newcastle, the oldest town in the state, or on White Clay Creek or its branches. In the latter part of the eighteenth century a rolling and slit- ting-mill was erected at Wilmington, a place which had achieved a good deal of importance as one of the active centers of colonial industry, but its development in iron, whatever it has, took place after the colonial period closed. Extensive deposits of bog-iron ore were found through- out the whole eastern shore of Maryland, and other kinds of ore were found in other parts of the state. These ores were described as early as 1648 and their uses and advantages understood by the English settlers of Maryland, but the mechanic arts did not find a home in that state at a very early date, notwithstanding the legis- In Maryland. 96 Industrial Evolution of the I 'uitcd States. Legislative encouragement. Cannon cast in Mar>'land. Works stimu- lated by the >var. lature in 16S1 endeavored to turn the industry of the colony into that channel. The manufacture of iron probably commenced not many j-ears after this legislative encouragement, although the earliest forges of which any y&ry positive mention is made were found at Prin- cipio, at the head of Chesapeake Bay. This was known to have been in operation prior to 1722. A rolling-mill, which was in operation at the time of the Revolution, was erected in the colony as early as 1742. This was on Big Elk River, five miles north of Elkton. Other works were built at ^"arious times, at somewhat long intervals, during the colonial period, a furnace being erected in 1734 at the head of Back Ri^er. A slitting-mill was also set up in the same vicinity in 177S. Cannon were cast in Maryland as early as 1780, at a furnace called Northampton. This was situated about ten miles west of Baltimore. The Maryland records have it that this particular furnace ran seventy- years upon a' single de- posit of brown ore. Other furnaces and some forges were erected in Anne Arundel County at as early a date as those just mentioned, and other counties had forges and slitting-mills built in the last century. The preparations to provide for the war which were made in the colonies in the summer and autumn of 1776 stimulated the furnaces and gun-shops, wherever they were, and the forges and the slitting and plating-mills and other iron works of the colonies which had survived the parliamentary restrictions of 1750 found plenty of work. Maryland had eight furnaces and nine forges at that time, that colony, with Virginia, exporting over 2,500 tons of pig-iron yearly to England; so the iron industry of Maryland was quite an important one when the war broke out. On the ist of July, 1776, the Mary- land Convention authorized the Council of Safety to lend The Iron Industry. ■ gy the proprietors of an air furnace in Frederick County the sum of ^2,000 to encourage them to prosecute their cannon foundry, and it added in the authorization, "with spirit and diligence." Small cannon and swivels were ordered in the same year and month from the fur- nace and iron works in Baltimore County. The pig-iron of Ridgely's furnace had the reputation of being the Reputation of 1 J . 1 pig-iron in best made m the state, and the gun-makers of Massachu- Maryland, setts purchased some of it at _;^io per ton. At the close Numberof of the last century there were probably seventeen or oTfhl seve"-*^ eighteen forges for the manufacture of iron in Maryland, "=™"><^™'"''>'- and these works existed in six counties of the state ; but the western part of the state did not develop the industry until after the close of the colonial period. Allegany County, which now has some of the richest mineral and iron-producing localities in the state, was not developed until later. In all probability the very first attempt to manufacture pj^st attempt iron on the American continent v/as made in Virginia, as ?J v^Kinfa""^ early as 161 9. Brief mention of this has been made and of the disastrous termination of the enterprise through the massacre of the operatives by the Indians. No other attempt was made during the seventeenth century, and it was not until 17 15 that the iron industry was practi- cally commenced on any permanent basis in that colony. Mr. Bishop and other writers give an account of a visit of Col. William Byrd to the iron mines and furnaces of Col. Alexander Spottswood, on the Rappahannock. Colonel Byrd stated that he was informed by Colonel Spottswood that he was not only the first in this country, but the first in North America, who had erected a regu- lar furnace, and that they had run altogether upon bloomeries in New England and Pennsylvania till his ex- ample had made them attempt greater works. Other gS Industrial F.volutiov of the United States. accounts would lead to the supposition that these works were erected prior to 1724. At the time of Colonel Byrd's \-isit there were, according- to his host's state- ment, four furnaces in \'irginia, but there was no forge. Early in the last centurv deposits of brown hematite I™" °1 ■'^■"' iron ore appear to have been opened in se\eral places in Ridge. i\^Q great limestone ^"allev of \'irginia, west of the Blue Ridge. Pine forge, three and a half miles north of Newmarket, in Shenandoah County, ^\■as built, according to a statement in Lesley's " Iron ^Manufacturer's Guide," in 1725, and there was also one erected in 1757, on Mossv Creek, fifteen miles north of Staunton, while a furnace was built not iar irom the forge in 1760. From a work entitled "Notes on \'irginia," published in 1781, there is obtained a \'ery good idea of the condition of the iron w orks of \'irginia at that time : The mines uf iron worked at present are Callaway's, Ross's, and Ballandine's on the south side of |ames River, Old's on the north side in Albemarle, Miller's in Augusta, and Zane's in Frederick. These two last are in the valley between the Blue Ridge and Nortli Mountain. Callaway's, Ross's, Miller's, and Zane's make about 150 tons of bar-iron each in the year ; Ross's makes also about 1,600 tons of pig-iron annually ; Ballandine's, 1,000 ; Callaway's, Miller's, and Zane's, about 600 each. Besides these, a forge of Mr. Hunter's at Fredericksburg makes about 300 tons a year of bar-iron from pigs imported from Marj'land"; and Taylor's forge, on Neapsco of Potomac, works in the same way, but to what extent I am not informed. The undertakers of iron in otlier ])laces are numerous, and dispersed through all the middle country. The toughness of the cast-iron of Ross's and Zane's furnaces is remarkable. Pots and other utensils cast thinner than usual of this iron may be safely thrown into or out of the wagons in which they are transported. Salt pans made of the same, and no longer wanted for that purpose, can- not be broken up in order to be melted again unless previously drilled in many parts. The de\elopment in the colony brought many othe' The Iron Industry. gg Development of furnaces and forges into existence before the close of the century, Virginia taking its place in the development, \™yn°a'''^ '" and during the Revolution performing its part in the manufacture of material necessary for the conduct of the war. The Assembly of Virginia at different times en- couraged the erection of mills and iron works ; so that Encouragement when the Revolution stimulated the southern colonies to " "■g'n'^- pay increased attention to manufactures Virginia was ready to adopt new measures. Among other features a resolution was passed in August, 1775, providing "that in case the British Ministry attempts to enforce the Act of Parliament preventing the erection of plating and slitting-mills in America, the Convention will recompense to the proprietors of the first two of such mills as shall be finished and set to work in this Colony all losses they may respectively sustain in consequence of such en- deavours of Administration." The Virginians were no whit behind the other col- onists in their zeal to provide the troops which the Con- tinental Congress was called upon to supply, although Virginia depended more upon her own resources for the cannon and small arms necessary to provide her troops than did some of the others. North Carolina has an abundance of good ore in some parts, and it was first discovered by the colony sent out j^^^ j„ T"ing regulations. Wages Labor and Wages. 109 but legislators found then that the toilers of the land grew more and more independent with the lapse of years and that it was futile to undertake to control them in what they should receive for their services. At this time (1672) common laborers were paid two shillings, as they pf common \ ' ^ ^ , laborers 1672. were forty years before. Women were paid from four to of women, five pounds per annum. Indians who worked in the or Indians. fields were paid eighteen pence per day. These wages continued, for the records show that a common laborer in New England earned two shillings per day at the close of the century, and two shillings and three pence to three shillings in New York. Skilled labor in the mother- country received rather less compensation. With the opening of the new century labor received more in this country, one John Marshall, of Braintree, being paid about four shilhngs per day from 1697 to 171 1. He was what would be called an "all-around man," doing some work on farms, making laths in the winter, and working as a painter and carpenter and a maker of bricks. Wages in the Virginia colony during the same period j^^ Virginia. were computed at ten pounds sterling per annum. It is somewhat remarkable that wages remained so steady during all of the seventeenth century, and in fact there was no great change until far into the following century. The wages of farm laborers v/ere very generally taken as the standard from which the wages paid to mechanics, tradesmen, and other laborers were to be computed. * At the close of the colonial period agricultural laborers were paid only about forty cents per day, and this was very litde in excess of their wages in the middle of the century, the average wages from 1752 to 1760 being in 1752- thirty-one cents per day, while butchers in 1780 were ,,j ^^^^ paid but thirty-three and one third cents per day, and * See Felt's " History of Massachusetts Currency." no Industrial Evolution of the United States. carpenters fifty-two cents. Ship and boatbuilders, when Wages of ship ^j^g colonial period closed, were paid about ninet\- cents and boat- ^ ^ ^ builders. pgr day, and shoemakers se\enty-three cents. Black- smiths were paid nearly seventy cents per day. These illustrations are sufficient to show the general conditions, so far as wages are concerned, of laborers during the colonial period. * The value of a day's wages cannot be estimated by the amount represented in money. That is what politi- cal economists call the ' ' nominal ' ' wage. The real wage must be determined hx considering the prices which the laborer is obliged to pay for the necessaries of life, and when these are considered it ^\ill be found that al- though work was plenty and laborers scarce, the work- ingman A\as obliged to pay comparati\ely high prices, thus reducing his real wage. The records gi^e ample material for price quotations. In 1630, in the northern colonies, ■\\hile a master mechanic was paid on the a^'er- age, we will sav, two shillings per dav, he was obliged to pay from ten to eleven shillings per bushel for corn and fourteen shillings per bushel for wheat, while a good cow was worth t^\•ent^•-five pounds. Manv things, howe^'er, were low, a pound of butter costing but si-x; pence and a pound of cheese fi\e pence, and the price of corn and "wheat T.-aried greatly, for in 1633 corn could be bought for six shillings per bushel ; )-et in 1635 twelve shillings was the price. The prices of commodities varied much more than the price of labor. Taking a few quotations from 1740 we find that carpenters and mowers, who re- ceived two shillings and six pence per da^-, paid about six shillings per bushel for corn. .Summer wheat was ^"^ Slc " iri-.h,r\- ..f \\'ages and I'lites in Massachusclts," : 752-1^^3. b\ Ihe auLhoi". Bunion, i>^^. Prices. \'ariation in prices. Labor and Wages. tii seven shillings per bushel and rye six shillings, while later in the year corn could be purchased for four shil- lings. This latter commodity fell two or three years later to two shillings and four pence per bushel, but meal Prices of wheat, _ ^ ^ corn, and rye, was fourteen shillings per bushel. In 1640 a cow cost but five pounds, while sheep could be bought for ten shillings a head, and yearling swine for twenty shillings. These prices, however, are not very perfect indica- tions of trade prices, as they are often taken from schedules of property which might have been sold under some stress ; yet they indicate something of what labor was called upon to expend for a living. In 1646, if a workingman wished to send his child to school, he had to pay four shillings per quarter. Indian corn is quoted at all sorts of prices, up to ten or twelve shillings and down to two shillings per bushel, at different periods ; but in the closing years of the seventeenth century it was quoted at three shillings per bushel, while wheat was selling at five shillings and rye at two shillings and six pence per bushel, pork at three pence per pound, and beef at two pence per pound. A hogshead of cider prices of pork could be bought for one pound and seven shillings, sell- ing for from six to seven shillings per gallon. There was less variation in prices from 1700 to the close of the colonial period, although during the Revolutionary War fluctuations were, of course, great ; but the year before the war began, that is, in 1774, corn was worth about three shillings per bushel and wheat about six shillings per bushel, and at the close of the war corn could be bought at from three shillings to three shillings and ten pence per bushel, and in 17S9, while carpenters were re- ceiving three shillings and four pence per day and com- mon laborers two shillings and four pence, Indian corn was three shillings and two pence per bushel. and cider. IT2 Industrial Eivlution of the United States. The women rarely worked for wages during the period Women now Under consideration, but thev carded the wool, workers. spun the yarn, and wove the cloth for the manufacture of the homespun clothing of the male members of the family. If they could wea^'e more than was wanted for the consumption of the household they sold the surplus or traded it in barter for the things they needed and which thev could not produce. When thev worked for wages thev recei\ed from four to fii.e pounds per annum. In manv instances they worked on the land, and they did their share in e\ery way to enable the family not only to secure a livelihood but to build itself upon stable lines. The work of the colonial period, except in the towns alter they got thickly settled or fairly so, was ever the work of pioneers. Their struggle was an arduous one — building log houses and supplving the familv, and when they felt crowded by too many neighbors, starting Spirit of ad- out into the wilderness. The spirit of adventure, the \einure. ,. ,_ . . . .... spirit ot tmdnig what was bevond their own hmited horizon, their industry, their willingness to work for what work brought, gave to our forebears everj-where throughout the colonial settlements characters which not only sustained them but which enabled them to build a new nation. Notwithstanding all the vicissitudes and restrictions of petty legislation, the long hours of work, the ceaseless round of toil, they were thrifty and fairly prosperous. After the first half century it must be admitted that Conditions. from a purely physical point of ^'iew the working- men of the colonial period were fairly comfortable in their conditions. They did not have much intellectual stimulation, nor did they meet the mental friction which belongs to our day. They were without many of the I^abor and Wages. 113 things which are now necessities, but which to them would have been great hixuries, for their wants were few and their expectations of acquiring even simple luxuries restricted. It is difficult, from any philosoph- Comparison . , , . with present ical pomt of View, to say whether they were happier "me- than the workingmen of the present time, but when their struggles are taken into consideration it must be conceded that they were far less favorably situated for the cultivation of those characteristics which make of the workingmen of the present time the basis of social stability. They were hardly factors in the politics of the colonies — at least they were not so to any such de- gree as he workingmen are now political factors. The old English relation of master and servant prevailed, and the attempts at legislative regulation of wages showed that the influence of the feudal system still exercised considerable power over the minds of leaders. They had but little education as compared with the working- men of our own day, and their children were inured to the same kind of toil that belonged to their own con- dition. Could they have foreseen the circumstances and the environment of the workingmen of the present day they would have considered that the dream of the social philosophers of their day was to be realized, for they had none of the amenities of life that are free now on every hand. The colonists secured one thing which the working- ^ Freedom of man appreciated. They were free men ; they were not workingmen. tied to the soil, such servitude which had wrought great evil under the feudal system being utterly forbidden. There was no villeinage nor serfdom, and the condition of the laborer was far in advance of his condition in England or on the Continent, but while the demands for common labor were active, the demands for higher- Scarcity of money. Opposition to arbitrary wages. 114 Industrial Evolution of the U)iited States. priced master workmen were not so great. Money was scarce and men were, in general, seeking an independent home and the opportunity to better themselves by ob- taining land. As population increased the demand for laborers by farmers increased, and Indians and negro slaves came in to complicate matters. ' There was always rebellion among the master workmen and the better class of common laborers against the arbitrary wages decreed by courts, and so they preferred to live on their own land. This movement of course restricted the supply of labor and at the same time restricted the opportunities not only for the diversification of industries but for the expansion of individual wants. The colonists were vig- orous in their efforts to settle the country and as rigid in their views as they were vigorous. Narrow in their con- A.X American Plow- of i;76. ceptions of life, exclusive in their relations, dogmatic in their opinions, strangers to pleasure, with the knowledge now open to all a sealed book to them, it is difficult to understand that they could have been happier than are their posterity ; yet there must have been great pleasure in subduing the hard conditions they met on every hand and in feeling that they were overcoming obstacles. Their victory over nature and their constant progress were their great reward and the source of their con- tentment. Bureau Nalure Sludy, Cornell University, Ii/mca, N. Y. PART II. THE EVOLUTION OF INDUSTRY: 1 790-1890. Colonial period. PART II-THE EVOLUTION OF INDUSTRY; 1790-1890. CHAPTER X. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FACTORY SYSTEM. In treating industry and labor in the colonial days, the colonial period for the purposes of this work has been considered as closing March 4, 1789, when the present government of the United States went into op- eration under the new constitution. Politically speak- ing, the colonial period ended when the people of the colonies declared themselves free and independent of the government of Great Britain and that the United Colonies should be free and independent states ; for at that time, July 4, 1776, the colonies assumed independ- ent positions, and from that time each colony took the name of "state." The date of the Declaration of In- Date of dependence, therefore, must be considered, from a po- independenc°e litical standpoint, as the birthday of the nation. Indus- p'5"t "V vfe™ trially speaking, however, this cannot be so considered, and it is a little difficult to determine, from an industrial point of view, exactly what date to assign for the closing of the colonial period. The states, as they had declared themselves, adopted Articles of Confederation March i, 1 78 1. The people of the colonies had made the Decla- ration of Independence, but the Continental Congress which made the declaration was practically a committee of conference, and the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation, adopted March i, 1781, was irS Industrial Evolution of the United States. Colonial status of industry. \'ariation in duties. Change in commercial conditions. but little more. The colonial status existed so far as in- dustry and commerce were concerned, and e-\'en after the definitive peace signed at Paris September 3, 17S3, when the results of the declaration of 1776 were secured and all the wofld recognized the new nation, the indus- trial colonial status still existed, and such condition con- tinued until the adoption of the new constitution in 1787, which went into eftect March 4, 1789 — in fact, it was largely to relieve the states of the colonial status, industrially and commercially speaking, that the new constitution was framed. Prior to that each state regu- lated its own commerce and could and did restrict inter- state commerce. Duties on foreign commerce varied, according to the views and conditions existing in each state. For these reasons it has been thought proper, in treating of the industries and labor in colonial dav's in the preceding chapters, to consider the colonial period as ending March 4, 1789. This is logical, again, from the fact that contempo- raneous with the adoption of the constitution new forces came into existence v\hich aflected, and vitally, the in- dustrial situation. The commerce of each of the states became the commerce of the United States. The change in the method of manufacturing goods came then, and the birth of the factory system in this country followed the birth of the present constitutional government. The second act under the constitution was passed July 4, 17S9, with this preamble : Whereas, it is necessar\- for the support of the government, for the discharge of the debts of the United States, and for the encouragement and the protection of manufactures, that duties be laid on goods, wares, and merchandise imported : Be it enacted, etc. This act, which need not be given, paved the way for The Development of the Factory System. 119 the importation of the factory system of industry, which had ah-eady been established in the mother-country. * When tlie states had won their pohtical independence they found themselves still dependent industrially upon states depend- .. ^ J r eiit upon Great Great Britam, and largely on account of restrictive legis- Britain. lation. England sought by every means to prevent the introduction of mechanical industry into the United States. This was the uniform course all through the colonial period, and after 1760, when cotton-spinning machinery had been invented and perfected to a prac- tical degree, England sought to retain to herself all the benefits which might accrue from the great inventions that had been made. These inventions consisted of means for spinning and weaving by machinery, and were brought into practical use under the patents of various inventors. Prior to 1767 all yarn used in the manufac- ture of textiles of all kinds was spun in single threads upon the domestic spinning-wheel, and the weaving had been done on the old cumbersome hand-loom. The principal machines for spinning were perfected by Har- greaves and Arkwright, who broke down the barrier which had long obstructed the advance of the cotton manufacture and practically inaugurated the factory sys- tem of the United States, which must date from the time of their inventions. But it took the power-loom, in\'ented by Dr. Edward Cartwright, in 1785, to give the spinning machinery all its power, for prior to his invention all the yarn spun by the power machines had been woven into cloth by the hand-loom weavers. The power-loom, there- fore, closed the catalogue of machines essential to the opening of the new era of mechanical supremacy. This Power-loom. * This account of the development of the factory s\-stem in the United States is talien quite large! v from the "Report on the Factory System rf vlic United States," to be found in Vol. II., Reports of llie Tenth Census, which the author made to the Superintendent of Census in 1SS2, I20 Industrial Evolution of the United States. series of inventions was applied during the score of years from 1765 to 1785, and England possessed these inven- tions and was determined to maintain the sole possession thereof. The application of steam aided the rapid development Use of steam. of the new Order of things, for on the breaking out of the American war the steam-engine passed beyond its primiti\e use in draining mines, etc. , and was rapidly adopted for all kinds of manufacturing industry. Tex- tile mills had been located upon streams of water, from which power was obtained. With the application of the steam-engine such location was no longer a physical ne- cessity', for mills could be built and run near large towns, whose crowded population could supply their operatives. It will be seen, therefore, that England, at the close of the Revolution, and even at the time of the adoption of our constitution, held, as she supposed, the key to the industrial \\orld of cotton manufacture ; she certainly held the machinery, without which such manufacture could not be carried on in competition with her own mills. Parliament passed stringent laws prohibiting the exportation of machines, plans, and models of machines. The English policy began to shape itself with regard to trade outside the island, and that policy was to buy as little as possible and sell to everybody, and to use the English policv , . , . - , , . . , toward United colonies, and e\-en the states after they passed into mde- pendent condition, as the ever-increasing market for her products. She possessed all the raw material for a large list of products, but cotton was wanting. This she ex- pected to recei\e from India. The American colonies had been destined for her food-raising department and for an outlet for her surplus manufactures. This had been her expressed policy before the war, and this policy had stim^ ulated her to the long-continued strife w hich followed. The Development of the Factory System. 121 By 14 Geo. III., c. 71, it was enacted that if any per- son exported any tools or utensils commonly used in the Exportation cotton or linen manufactures, or other goods wherein cot- prohibited. ton or linen was used, or any parts of such tools or uten- sils, he should not only forfeit the same, but also ^200. Even the possession of such implements, with a view to exportation, made them liable to seizure and the possessor to arrest. This law was passed in 1774, and related to the inventions of Arkwright and Hargreaves. This legislation on the part of England was contemporaneous with the non-importation resolutions of the American colonies, nearly all of which, prior to the Revolution, took active steps, as has been seen, to encourage manu- factures. The difficulties, therefore, under which the people of Difficulties of the United States labored in securing the development manufactures. of their manufactures with the use of the new machinery of England were aggravated by legislation. This country, however, had the natural position which would enable it to develop the textile industry, for here, as well as in England, existed the germ of the textile factory in the fulling and carding-mills which had been erected at con- venient localities in nearly all the colonies ; and cotton could be raised in the Southern States, and thus be util- ized as nearly at first hands as possible, certainly with an advantage over European competition, for Western Europe was obliged to secure its cotton from India. To secure the factory system there must be the machinery which England was using, and to get this required efforts and struggles which brought out the patriotism and the courage of the manufacturers of the time. The first attempts to secure the spinning machinery pj^jj attempts which had come into use in England were made in Phiia- '^acWneo!""'" delphia early in the year 1775, when probably the first 122 Industrial Evolution of the United States. English laws prohibiting exportation of machines. spinning-jenny ever seen in America -was exhibited in that city. During the war the manufacturers of Phila- delphia e.xtended their enterprises, and even built and run mills which writers often call factories, but which can hardly be classed under that term. They were mills Efforts preiimi- rather than factories. Similar eflbrts, all preliminary to nary to factory ^ ^ system. \\^q establishment of the factory system of labor, were made in Worcester, !Mass. , in 17S0. In 1781 the British Parliament, determined that the textile machinery by which the manufactures of England were being rapidly extended, and which the continental producers were anxious to secure, should not be used by the people of America, reenacted and enlarged the scope of the statute of 1774 against its exportation, to which reference has been made. So by 21 Geo. III., c. 37, it was provided that any person who packed or put on board, or caused to be brought to any place in order to be put on any ^•essel lor exportation, any machine, engine, tool, press, paper, utensil, or implement, or any part thereof, which then was or thereafter might be used In the woolen, cot- ton, linen, or silk manufacture of the kingdom, or goods wherein wool, cotton, linen, or silk was used, or any model or plan of such machinery, tool, engine, press, utensil, or implement, should forfeit every such machine, etc. , and all goods packed therewith, and £200, and also suffer imprisonment for one year ; and the next year, 17S2, a law was enacted which prohibited, under penalty of ^500, the exportation or the attempt to export " blocks, plates, engines, tools, or utensils used in or which are proper for the preparing or finishing of the calico, cotton, muslin, or linen printing manufactures, or any part thereof" The same act prohibited the trans- portation of tools employed in the iron and steel manu- factures. Acts were also passed which interdicted the mechanic arts. The Developrnejit of the Factory System. 123 emigration of artificers. All these laws were enforced with great vigilance, and were, of course, serious obstacles to the institution of the new system of manufacture in America. So the Americans were compelled either to smuggle or to invent their machinery, and it is simply a matter of history that both methods were practiced until most of the secrets of the manufacture of cotton goods were made available in this country. The planting of the mechanic arts became a necessity Necessity of in this country during the War of the Revolution, and afterward the spirit of American enterprise demanded that New England and the Middle States should utilize the water-powers which they possessed, and by such utilization supply the people with home manufactures, and thus secure industrial as well as political independ- ence. It was therefore very natural that when the people of the new nation saw that the treaty of Paris had not brought industrial independence a new form of ex- pression of patriotism should take the place of military service. In obedience to this expression associations were formed the object of which was to discourage the use of British goods, and as the Articles of Confedera- tion, adopted March i, 1781, did not provide for the regulation of commerce, the legislatures of the several states were besought by the people to protect home manufactures. The constitution of 1789 remedied the defects of the articles in this respect and gave Congress the power to legislate on commercial affairs ; and, as industr,' already intimated, the constitution was really the out- come of the industrial necessities of the people, because it was largely on account of the difficulties and the irri- tations growing out of the various commercial regula- ■ tions of the individual states that a convention of com- missioners from the various states was held in Annapolis Benefits of con- stitution of 1789 in developing 124 Industrial Evolution of the United States. in September, 17S6, which convention recommended the one that framed the new or present constitution of the United States. ... The ereat question then was how to secure textile ma- Expenments in o ^ Massachusetts, chinery Hke that used in England. In 1786 the legis- lature of Massachusetts offered encouragement for the First textile factory. Weaving Room in a Cotton-Mill, Lowell, Mass. introduction of machinery for carding and spinning by granting Robert and Alexander Barr £200 to enable them to complete a roping machine, and also to "con- struct such other machines as are necessary for the pur- pose of carding, roping,* and spinning of sheep's wool, as well as of cotton-wool, " and in all probability the machinery built by the Barrs was the first in this country which included the Arkwright devices. The first estab- lishment, howe\'er, which can bv anv interpretation be considered a textile factory ^^as erected at Beverly, Mass., in 17S7. The legislature aided this enterprise. '^■'- Roping. — The act of drawin.q: out or extending a stibstance into a filament or thread. The Development of the Factory System. 125 The factory continued in operation for several years, but its career as a cotton factory was brief, and it did Aided by J ' leg;islature or not meet with much success. During the same period Massaciiuseiifc other attempts were made in Rhode Island, New York, and Pennsylvania, but chiefly in Rhode Island and in that part of Massachusetts lying contiguous to that state. To the states just named belongs the honor of the in- troduction of power-spinning machines in this country and their early practical use here. Rhode Island and Massachusetts certainly have equal claims, for while in the latter state the first experiments were made in em- bodying the principles of Arkwright's inventions and ^jf^t E'n°l'ish in the erection of the primitive cotton factory, Rhode methods. Island is entitled to the credit of erecting the first factory in which perfected machinery, made after the English models, was practically employed. The history of the establishment of this factory is somewhat romantic. It was built by Samuel Slater in 1790, in Pawtucket, R. I. Samuel slater. All efforts at the introduction of the English methods of spinning had failed, but Slater, called by President Jackson " the father of American manufactures," suc- ceeded in introducing them. He was born in Belper, Derbyshire, England, June 9, 1768, and at fourteen years of age was bound as an apprentice to Jedediah Strutt, Esq., a manufacturer of cotton machinery. iNIr. Strutt was for several years a partner of Sir Richard Arkwright in the cotton-spinning business ; so Slater had every opportunity to master the details of the con- struction of the cotton machinery then in use in Eng- land, for during the last four or five years of his appren- ticeship he served as general overseer, not only in making machinery, but in the manufacturing department of Strutt' s factory. Near the close of his term, acci- dentally seeing a notice in an American paper of the 126 Industrial Evohitio7i of the United States. slater's plans. Slater's arrival in New York. Slater's con- •struction of spinniTig machinery in America. efiforts which were being made in the difierent parts of the United States to secure cotton machinery and of the bounties which were offered to parties who might suc- ceed in so doing, Slater determined to remove to this country. He -^ery well knew the provisions of the English laws, and that under them he could carry neither machines nor models nor plans of machines to the States. He therefore completed his full time with iNIr. Strutt, and . then continued with him for a period superintending some new works which Mr. Strutt was erecting. He did this that he might perfect his knowledge of the busi- ness in every department so thoroughly that he could construct machinery irom memory, and thus bring over in his head the knowledge which he could not bring either in plans, models, or specifications ; so Slater embarked at London September 13, 17S9, with a most precious cargo, but a cargo that was contained entirely in his own brain. He landed in New York November 17, 1789, and there made connections with parties interested in cotton manufacture ; but not meeting with just the encouragement he expected, he corresponded with Messrs. Brown and Almy, of Providence, R. I., who owned some crude spinning machines, some of which had been brought from the primitive factory at Beverly, Mass. In the following January, 1790, Slater made ar- rangements with these parties to construct machinery on the English plan. This he succeeded in doing at Pawtucket, making the machinery principally with his own hands, and on the 20th of December, 1790, he started three cards, drawing and ro^'ing, together with se\enty-two spindles, working entirely on the Arkwright plan, and these were the first ot the kind e\'er operated in America. South Carolina comes in, and very properly, for some The Development of the Faetory System. 127 of the claims in this respect, ahhough the record is not clear. A writer in the American A/iiscwn, in July, 1790, refers to a man in that state who had completed and had in operation on the High Hills of the Santee, ginning, carding, and other machines driven by water, and also spinning machines, with eighty-four spindles each, with e'/ery necessary article for manufacturing cotton ; and the writer further states that ' ' if this information be cor- rect, the attempt to manufacture by machinery the cot- ton which they were then beginning to cultivate exten- sively (in the Southern States) was nearly as early as those of the Northern States." Similar efforts were also made at Philadelphia, as already intimated, by Samuel Wetherell, and his attempts, as were those of the Beverly com- pany in Massachu- setts, of the gentle- man in South Carolina, and of Brown and Almy in Providence, were all b e fo r e Slater's coming. While these at- tempts to intro- duce spinning by power did not com- prehend the Eng- lish devices and methods in full, they illustrate the difficulty of locating the origin of the factory system. Notwithstanding these efforts, however, it is considered Early cotton machinery in South Carolina Efforts before Slater's comine Eli Whitney's Original Cotton-Gin. Later form of the same invention. I 28 Indusln'a! Evolution of the I 'nitrd States. Slater the first to erect English .machinery. Tlie cotton-; safe, historically, to start with Slater as the first to erect cotton machinery on the English plan, and this gives 1790 as the year of the birth of the factor}' system in the United States. Another feature came in about this time which en- couraged the growth of the factory s_vstem, not only in this country, but abroad. This was the invention of a machine for separating the lint from the seed of the cot- ton plant. This had been done by slow, laborious proc- esses conducted by hand, but in 1794 Eli Whitney, of Massachusetts, who was residing temporarily in Georgia, invented the cotton-gin. ^'^ by which the lint was picked Hulling Cotton-gin, with FEEr.ER, Ereakt-R, and Co.ndenser. Circumstances attending the invention of the cotton-gin. from the seed by means of sawteeth projecting through slits in the side of a chamber in which the seed of the cot- ton is placed. Mr. Whitney was visiting some friends one day, when mention was made of the difficulties of separating the fleece of the cotton plant from the seed ^ Cotton-gi.n. — .V machine used in separating the seeds from cotton fibers. The Development of the Factory System. 1 29 which filled it and of the value of some machine, could the same be invented, for accomplishing this purpose, and he proceeded at once to elaborate the ideas which were essential for securing the desired result. By The Shlf-Acting Mule. its use cotton became a more thoroughly marketable The cotton-gin article and its production vasdy stimulated. The de- ^^^fl-^atx.ou? velopment of cotton-raising in the South, and now of the cotton manufactures of the South, is due very largely to this invention. The factory, however, needed perfection scientifically. In the old country, where it exists in great perfection, it j^Jlf^P"'^^'^' did not reach the completed structure at as early a date as it did in America. The processes of cleaning the fiber and of spinning the same into yarn were carried on by one set of works, while the weaving and the finishing were carried on by others, usually in separate establish- ments. The perfect factory, the scientific arrangement of parts for the successive processes necessary for the manipulation of the raw material till it came out finished goods, had not been constructed when the system was established in this country. The power-loom, although invented in 1785, did not come into use in England until 130 Industrial Evolution of the United States. ElTnrls ot Francis C. Lriwell. Cotton factoT^- at Waltham, Mass. about 1806, while in tliis country it was not used at all till after the War of 1 8 1 2 ; but even after it came into use in England the custom of spinning the yarn under one management and weaving the cloth under another pre- vailed. In 181 1 Mr, Francis C. Lowell, of Boston, visited luNGLISH P( A\ |-:R-LoOM FOR \\'EA\"ING CaLIC<3. England and spent much time in inspecting cotton fac- tories, with the ^•ie\v to the introduction of improved machinery in the United States. His visit was about the time when the power-loom was being introduced in Great Britain, but, as occurred in other respects, its construc- tion was kept very secret. Mr. Lowell, however, learned all he could regarding it and came home with the de- termination of perfecting it. With the skill of Paul Moody, of Amesbury, Mass. , and through the encour- agement of Nathan Appleton, a company had been or- ganized for the establishment of a cotton manufactory, to be located in Waltham, Mass., on a water privilege which The Development of the Factory System. 131 existed there. The factory was completed in the autumn of 1814, and in it was placed the loom which Mr. Lowell had perfected, having neither plans nor models, and in that year his company set up a full set of machinery for weaving and spinning, there being 1,700 spindles in use. This factory erected at Waltham was the first in the world, so far as any record shows, in which all the processes involved in the manufacture of goods, from the raw material to the finished product, were car- J^p scientific . factory, ried on in one establishment by successive steps, mathe- matically considered, under one harmonious system. Mr. Lowell, aided by Mr. Patrick T. Jackson, who was as- sociated with him, is unquestionably entitled to the credit of arranging this admirable system. Few changes have been made in the arrangement organized at the Waltham factory. So while England furnished the foundation of the in- dustrial structure known as the factory system of manu- facture, America furnished the stone which completed the arch. CHAPTER XI. THE DEVELOPMEXT OF IXDUSTRIES, I79O-1860. The foundation of our indus- tries. Expansion since iSoo. Natural periods. The impetus was now given in good earnest for the rapid development of the great industries of the country. Their foundations had been laid in colonial days in the constitution of 1789 and in the successful planting of the f ictory system. Patriotic enthusiasm called into exist- ence many societies all through the states for the pro- tection and encouragement of industrial undertakings. All the great industries, those that are now the great industries, as has been stated, were in existence and so fully recognized, not only by this country, but by England, that they needed only the fostering care of enterprise and the persistent effort of proprietors of capital and of labor to secure rapid development. From the beginning of this century to the present time the expansion has been steady and rapid, although not always constant. There have been periods when ad- verse conditions resulted in great stagnation here and there, but these conditions have alwavs been overcome and the industries carried along. While the story of the development of industries since the organization of the go^'ernment belongs in a large sense to one grand period, it is naturally divided into two principal periods, one including the A-ears from 1790 to i860, and the other the years from i860 to the present time. This di\'ision is natural on account of, first, the Ci\'il War, and, second, the renewed and accelerated The Devclopmait of Industries, ijgo-iS6o. 133 stimulation which came from the war, the discovery of greater wealth of resources, and the invention and adap- tation of new processes of production. So the story, for the purposes of this work, is divided into these two pe- riods, and the present chapter devoted to that from 1790 to 1 860. It is difficult, however, in this comprehensive history, to deal with the extension of the industries of the country in any particular detail, general statements being all that can be allowed. After the success of the power-loom the cotton manu- facture took rapid strides and the hand-loom and the Displacement of ^ ^ _ _ hand labor. hand-weaver were quickly displaced, although they lin- ger in some parts of the country, especially in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. Factories sprung up on the streams of New England and the Middle States, and purely factory towns, like Lowell, Lawrence, Hol- yoke, Fall River, Cohoes, Paterson, and many other thriving places, were erected, and before the close of the war the industry had taken root upon the banks of southern rivers. The growth of this particular industry well illustrates that of all industries, and its effects are certainly illus- trative of the results of the new system. The first facts relative to the cotton industry which are obtainable are Cotton 11/- industry, for 1 8 ID, when the federal government made the first attempt, through the machinery of the decennial census, to ascertain the condition and value of the products of isio. the country ; but it is impossible, from the statements of that census, to ascertain the exact amount of the cotton goods produced, although the value of cotton, wool, flax, hemp, and silk, including stockings, amounted to $39,- 497.057- In 1831 there were 801 cotton factories in the whole ^""gj".'^''"'^ country ; in 1840 there were 1,240 ; in 1850 there were Increased consumption of cotton. 134 Industrial Evolution of the United States. 1,074, 'in*:! in i860 there were 1,091. This decrease in the number of estabhshments since 1S50 is the result of consohdation and the estabhshment of large works, the smaller factories having closed or united with the larger ones. While the number of factories decreased in the thirty years prior to i860, the consumption of cotton and the production of goods steadily increased. In \\"E\\'INas most in vogue. So in any account of the development or e^•olution of the industries of our country up to the time of the Ci\-il War the chief interest centers in those parts of the countr)- where free labor pre\-alled. Most of the Northern States abolished sla\erv long be- Abolition of slaven- in Northern Slates. A \'iRGixiA Tobacco Fuu-d. fore the Ci\ il War, but it never played any great part as an obstacle or in anv direction in the development of mechanical industry, although it has played a most im- portant part in retarding such de\-elopment in the South. A distinguished southern financier has treated the re- tarding influences of sla\ cry from an industrial point of The Civil War ; An IndiLstrial Revolution. 145 slave labor. Influence of the view with great candor, with perfect knowledge of con- ditions, and keen insight into the influences which led the South to keep her labor employed in certain restricted lines. * According to this writer the destiny of the Uneconomic ^ conditions of South was ruled by forces over which her own people had little or no control. Many events occurred outside of her own territory which affected her industrial history. The inventions of Hargreaves, Arkwright, and Cromp- ton, in England, the application of the steam-engine to the manufacture of cotton goods, and the invention of the cotton-gin by Eli Whitney, all contributed to con- centrate the attention of the South upon cotton-raising. The cotton-gin made cotton-planting exceedingly profit- able, and its rapid extension was stimulated by the cotton-gin. English machinery, while the mobility of slave labor added largely to the inducement for its use. The best soils could be taken up rapidly, because labor could be transported from place to place with little difficulty. The introduction of railroads aided in securing this mobility, and this resulted, as Mr. Trenholm remarks, , , . p , .... . . . Mobility of m the population ot the origmal slave states bemg pri- slave labor, marily distributed over an area much too extended for advantageous occupation by so small a number of people. Invention, science, and the arts had literally put a new face upon the earth ; the division of labor had augmented the pro- ducing capacity of the masses, and multiplied their employ- ments and needs, stimulating trade and diffusing intelligence. The gold of California and Australia, together with the im- provements in navigation and inland transportation, produced universal activity in commerce and trade. The whirl and rush of this progress encompassed the South on every side ; she came into contact with it at every point of her extended inter- ests and on every line of her development ; she felt its in- * " The Southern States : Their Social and Industrial History, Condition, and Needs," a paper read before the Hocial Science Association at Saratoga, N. Y., September 6, 1S77, by Hon. W. L. Trenholm, of South Carolina. Immigralion passed the 146 Industrial Evolution of the United States. fluence upon her industries, and tasted its fruits in her expand- ing wealth. Yet alone in all the world she stood unmoved by it ; in government, in society, in employments, in labor, the states of the South, in i860, were substantially what they had been in iSio, when the abolition of the slave trade had im- pressed upon their development the last modification of form of which it seemed susceptible. Not only had the South re- mained unchanged during all this time, but the flood of immi- gration which poured overall the rest of the country had passed her by. Millions of men and women from every country of Europe passed along the whole extent of her northern border, bringing with them the industrial secrets of even,- quarter of the South. globe, and carrving their skill and thrift to the uttermost wilds of the \\'est ; they passed within sight almost of the fertile soil, untenanted lands, and untouched resources of the South, where, besides, the roads, bridges, and railroads were already built, cities and towns already established, churches and schools al- ready e.xisting ; but they would not come in. The conservatism and isolation of the South are the more remarkable because the centur>' was so full of enriching progress, and because the American people have ever taken the lead in exploring new- ideas and trv'ing new methods. -" The result of all these things was the capitalization of labor in the torm of slavery, a capital which possessed the power of labor and the ease of transition belonging to capital itself It is not strange that immigration passed by the South. It moved along east and west lines and developed the Great Northwest and the West generally ; but the causes were largely industrial. It is probable that immigrants, could they have competed with the mobility of sla\e labor, would readily ha^e sought the richer states of the South rather than many iminigraiits of the unattracti^■e regions of the West. The immierant unable to com- -^ -^ pete ^vith slave could Hot Compete with the current cost of labor, nor labor, _ ^ could he gain possession of the rich soils of the South, because if he had attempted it he would ha^-e found them * See " The Southern States," hy Mr. Trenholm. already quoted. Capitalization of labor. The Civil ]]'ar : An Lidustrial Revolution. 147 occupied. Then, again, the raising of cotton required considerable capital, as well as cheap and mobile labor Necessity of ... ^ mobile labor. and in this the immigrant found himself largely at a dis- advantage. Free labor in itself was too expensive for both laborer and employer ; so many of the whites of the South left that part of the country and sought other regions. The census of the United States discloses the facts in this latter respect, for it is found that in i860 there were 277,000 white persons who had been born in South Carolina still Ii\'ing there, while 193,000 born in that state had found homes in other parts of the country. North Carolina retained 634,000 of her native- born population and 272,000 had left the home state. Virginia showed like conditions, there being 1,000,000 of her native-born whites at home and 400,000 had been separated from the state. These facts relating to the loss of native population Loss of native show of themselves the disinclination of white labor to compete with slave labor ; yet it is undoubtedly true that the chief cause preventing the introduction of the me- chanical industries in the South is to be ibund in the great expansion of territory resulting from the desire to increase the cotton and tobacco crops. Manufactures result in concentration of population : agriculture in ex- pansion. The two interests, therefore, were diverse in the elements that relate to population alone. The southern planter, grown up under the conditions which surrounded him, felt the necessity of having large plan- tations. His dignity, his happiness depended upon it. His wealth was not so much a matter of importance, so long as he could carry on his plantation, as that inborn sentiment which leads a man to adopt certain methods pj^g^ing con- of living. The manufacturer of the North was an en- !jj,d°Souar"'' tirely different type ; concentration, the handling of de- Antagonism of systems. 14S Industrial Evolution of the United States. tails, and the adjustment of the elements of mechanical industry \\ ere natural to him. Here, then, were two types of men and two systems of labor that could not be assimilated so long as the types of labor existed sepa- rately. The indix'idual types of proprietors alone would not have resulted in antagonism, but together with the different types of labor there could be no diversified in- A Lkaf Tobacco Sale in \'iRGiNiA. Diversification of iiidiistr\ ill tlie N'ortfi.' dustry in the South, and the manufacturers of the Xorth naturally projected their works along other lines. So in the Xorth industry became di\-ersified, \^-hile in the South the de\-elopment was always along one line. As Mr. Trenholm, already quoted, remarks in his \'aluable article, ' ' industrv and societ\- at the Xorth were borne along in the general current of progress ; at the South thcA' ^vere fixed in immo\'able conser\"atism." The Civil War ; An Industrial Revolution. 149 The southern shi\'e laborer's consumption was repre- sented by perhaps forty or fifty cents per week, may be Consuming , ; ^ ■' power of states. less, while the free white laborer's consumption was rep- resented by four or five times that amount. The indi- vidual laborers, therefore, could not have been brought into competition by any legislation, or by any movement of capital, or by any movement of reform. Dr. Franklin wrote an essay on "The Peopling of Countries," in which he said : " It is an ill-grounded opinion that by the labour of sla\es, America may possibly ^■ie in cheap- or- Franklin on - ^ ^ ^ expense of ness of manufactures with Great Britain. The labour of slave labor, slaves can ne\ cr be so cheap here as the labour of the workingmen in Great Britain. Any one may compute it. Reckon, then, the interest of the first purchase of a slave, the insurance or risk on his life, his clothing and diet, expenses in his sickness and loss of time, loss by neglect of business (neglect which is natural to the man who is not to be benefited by his own care or diligence), expense of a driver to keep him at work, and his pilfer- ing from time to time (almost every slave being, from the nature of slavery, a thief), and compare the whole amount with the wages of a manufacturer of iron or wool, in England ; you will see that labour is much cheaper there than it e\-er can be by negroes here." Very many observers, from Franklin's time on, marked the indifference and extreme slowness of the movements of slaves and made calculations of the cost of slave labor as compared with that of free labor. Mr. Cooper, a former President president of the College of South Carolina, computed cooper of south that a negro, all hazards included and all earnings de- cost of slave ducted, would cost, at the age of twenty-one, to the person who raised him, at the very least, $500.* An in- labor. *Cf "Wages, or the Whip; an Essay on the Comparative Cost and Pro- ductiveness of Free and Slave Labour," by Josiah Conder. London, 1833. 150 I)!diistn'tr/ Ei'olution of tlic I'liitcd Slates. vestment must be made, therefore, in the man before his labor is a\ailable ; so, while the labor, when it became available, was so cheap that labor under wages could not Hbih ' ^^^Ifll' ^1 "^^^^ W^^JP^^til: / ■' ' ■' ^BT^ ^IHi^'^ ^j^^^^^^^^^^^r /jj^^ffiB 1 ri Stemming Tobacco in a X'irginia Factory. The planter's Compete with it, the capitalist himself — the planter — was \aiitage. ^^ ^ disad\-antage on account of his great outlay fur the labor which he employed. The Civil War ; An Industrial Revolution. 151 Mr. Daniel R. Goodloe, a North Carolinian, who has eriven great attention to the solution of the economic Mr, Daniel r. ° ^ ^ Goodloe on problems connected with slavery and free labor, came to \°^f ^'^^'^ the conclusion more than fifty years ago that capital in- vested in slaves was wholly unproductive and had the effect only of appropriating the wages due to the slave. He illustrated this proposition in various ways. One in- stance was that of two farmers, one residing on the south bank of the Ohio River, in Kentucky, and the other on the north bank, in Ohio, each cultivating one hundred acres and employing ten laborers. All their expenses were the same, except as to labor. The Ohio man hired ten freemen and paid them wages, probably out of the products of his crops. The Kentuckian was obliged to invest $10,000 or more in the purchase of ten slaves in addition to all other investments ; yet the two farms yielded equal crops. The Kentuckian received more money than the Ohio man, but Kentucky was made no richer by that fact than Ohio was by the distribution of the profits between the farmer and his laborers. Mr. Goodloe has put his illustration into concrete form as follows ; * CAPITAL NECESSARY TO GROW COTTON WITH FREE AND WITH SLAVE LABOR. Free labor. Slave labor. 100 acres of land, at |20 per acre |2,ooo $2,000 Costj,^f fr