USA > Illinois > Illinois in 1818, 2nd ed > Part 13
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One visitor in Illinois in 1817 wrote home: "The common productions of the country are much the same as those of Ken- tucky, Indian corn, wheat, rye, oats, tobacco and hemp are raised with as much facility and ease as in the neighborhood of Lex- ington, where I was raised; and judging from information and appearances of the last crops I am persuaded that the productions in the American bottom in particular, are greater and reared with more ease than in the neighbourhood of my nativity-Such is its luxuriancy that one acre of land in that bottom has yielded its industrious cultivator 110 bushels of Indian corn in a season, but this is uncommon, the average is estimated at from 60 to 70 .- A more congenial soil for general cultivation I believe no where exists, it may be called the Elysium of America."140 The "American bottom" to which the writer referred extended along the Mississippi from the Wood river to the Kaskaskia; it was about 80 or 90 miles in length and from 4 to 7 in width, with nearly equal portions of prairie and timbered land. The editors of the Intelligencer made the same claims for this country as
10Thwaites, Early Western Travels, II :218.
1"Intelligencer, May 14, 1817.
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THE ECONOMIC SITUATION
the writer of the letter already quoted, but added: "The upper part of the territory, we learn is equally abundant in the produc- tions of the soil."141 A letter descriptive of the western country written early in 1818 and printed in the Lynchburg Press had the following to say: "The Illinois Territory, I have no doubt, furnishes greater inducements to emigration, than any other Territory belonging to the United States, to such men as are not holders of Slaves. I have no hesitation in saying, that one hand there can make as much annually, as any three in any other part with which I am acquainted. It is far the most fertile soil in the U. States; and quantity of prairie gives it advantages over and above what it would enjoy, from fertility alone. In the general, the farmer has nothing to do, but fence in his fields: plough his ground and plant his crop. He may then expect, from an acre, from 50 to 100 bushels corn; and from 10 to 50 of wheat; the quality of both which articles is superior to that of any I ever saw. Moreover, much less labor than usual is requisite. A farm of any size may be gotten, free from grubs, stones, roots and every obstruction to the plough. In no instance is ploughing required more than twice and hoeing never : with these, the farmer keeps his fields cleaner, than they are where 4 or 5 ploughings, and 2 or 3 hoeings are customary. One man can cultivate 40 acres in corn; which quantity of ground, he can in the fall, sow in wheat."142
This writer's testimony regarding the ease with which the ground was worked is confirmed by a settler from Vermont. Under date of September 12, 1818 Gershom Flagg wrote from Edwardsville:143 "The method of Raising Corn here is to plough the ground once then furrow it both ways and plant the Corn 4 feet each way and plough between it 3 or 4 times in the Summer but never hoe it at all." Yet the corn grew "from 12 to 15 feet high on an average."
Regarding the price paid for corn Flagg wrote: "The price of Corn last harvest was 33 1/3 cents in the spring 50 cents in
""Intelligencer, September 18, 1817.
12Ibid., March 25, 1818.
148Illinois State Historical Society, Transactions, 1910, p. 162.
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ILLINOIS IN 1818
the summer 75 cents." From the other side of the territory a young farmer wrote home: "Corn is worth in this settlement 75 cents in other places around us they have had the [conscience ?] to take a dollar per bushel I do not think there is is [sic] grain enough in the country to supply it oweing to the rapid settle- ment."144 Yet this farmer was concerned, not with raising for the market, but only for his own use. "Our corn," he wrote, "we must not neglect under the penalty of starving." The atti- tude of this man seems to have been the prevalent one at that time; each and all raised produce not primarily to sell, but to save themselves from being obliged to buy. Accordingly the newcomers who reached Illinois too late in the season to plant found that the settlers took advantage of their extremity. An early settler in Jefferson county, according to the local histo- rian, "long followed the business of going to Carmi, a distance of forty miles, with two or three pack-horses, and bringing back meal to sell to these 'movers.' This," comments the writer, "would seem a small business in this day of railroads, as he could only bring two or three sacks of meal at a time, but as he sold it at $2 a bushel, it was a lucrative business for that early day."145 It is probable that the surplus meal for sale came almost entirely from the miller who received it in payment for grinding. The payment was regulated by law and was entirely in kind. By the law of 1819 the charge at a water mill for grinding wheat, rye, malt, or choppings was one-eighth of the whole, for corn, oats, barley, or buckwheat one-seventh. At a horse-mill, the charge was doubled unless the farmer's horse furnished the motive power. Using the term farmer to include all those who raised only for their own consumption, there is probably no exaggeration in the statement made during the campaign of 1818 that ninety-nine in a hundred of the men in Illinois were farmers.
This meant that there was little division of labor. It meant also that though nearly every man farmed, he did not spend his whole time at it. The frontiersmen, who made up so large a
14G. Knight to C. Knight, Palmyra, June 21, 1818.
145Perrin, History of Jefferson County, 124. See also 127.
A PRAIRIE PLOW [Original owned by W. O. Converse, Springfield
-
ASH HOPPER Original owned by W. O. Converse, Springfield]
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THE ECONOMIC SITUATION
part of the population, spent the remainder of their time in hunt- ing or idleness. They felt no need for the things with which they could not furnish themselves by their own labor. Many detailed pictures of this pioneer life have been recorded; the following is an interesting example.146 "The pursuits of the people were agricultural. A very few merchants supplied them with the few necessaries which could not be produced or manu- factured at home. The farmer raised his own provisions; tea and coffee were scarcely used, except on some grand occasions. The farmer's sheep furnished wool for his winter clothing; he raised cotton and flax for his summer clothing. His wife and daughters spun, wove, and made it into garments. A little copperas and indigo, with the bark of trees, furnished dye stuffs for coloring. The fur of the raccoon, made him a hat or a cap. The skins of deer or of his cattle, tanned at a neighboring tan- yard, or dressed by himself, made him shoes or moccasins. Boots were rarely seen, even in the towns. And a log cabin, made entirely of wood, without glass, nails, hinges, or locks, furnished the residence of many a contented and happy family. The people were quick and ingenious to supply by invention, and with their own hands, the lack of mechanics and artificers. Each farmer, as a general thing, built his own house, made his own ploughs and harness, bedsteads, chairs, stools, cupboards, and tables. The carts and wagons for hauling, were generally made without iron, without tires, or boxes, and were run without tar, and might be heard creaking as they lumbered along the roads, for the distance of a mile or more.
"As an example of the talents of this people to supply all deficiencies, and provide against accidents by a ready invention, the following anecdote is related of James Lemon, one of the old sort of Baptist preachers, formerly of Monroe county, but now deceased. Mr. Lemon was a farmer, and made all his own harness. The collars for his horses were made of straw or corn husks, plaited and sewed together by himself. Being engaged in breaking a piece of stubble ground, and having turned out for dinner, he left his harness on the beam of his plough. His
146Ford, History of Illinois, 41-42.
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ILLINOIS IN 1818
son, a wild youth, who was employed with a pitchfork to clear the plough of the accumulating stubble, staid behind, and hid one of the horse collars. This he did that he might rest whilst his father made a new collar. But the old man, returning in the afternoon and missing his collar, mused for a few minutes, and then, very much to the disappointment of his truant son, he deliberately pulled off his leather breeches, stuffed the legs of them with stubble, straddled them across the neck of his horse for a collar, and ploughed the remainder of the day, as bare- legged as he came into the world. In a more civilized country, where the people are better acquainted with the great laws which control the division of labor, a half day would have been lost in providing for such a mishap."
Under these economic conditions women had a heavy and versatile rôle to play. "The wool, the flax and the cotton were raised on the farms by the men, but this material passed in its raw state into the hands of the women and came out cloth ready for the making, and the making was done by the women, and in many instances, the clothing for an entire family was made from the raw material, to its finishing stitch, by the one woman, who was cook, laundress, nurse, and gardner [sic], as well as housekeeper and wife; and who made her own soap, or did with- out, and in the intervals of resting, knit all the hosiery for a large family. The old lady that picked up her knitting to do a few rounds while the crowd gathered at her husband's funeral, may have been an extreme type, but the anecdote illustrates the industry that had become a fixed habit of their lives."147
Of ready money there was little, and little was needed. "Many a family lived a whole year without the possession or use of fifty dollars in cash. Personal property, therefore, during many years, consisted almost exclusively of the products of the farm and of articles manufactured by the citizens at their own homes. The farms, in those days, were worked chiefly by the use of oxen, horses being employed mainly for riding, and for ploughing after the corn came up in the spring. Even wagons and carts were generally drawn by oxen, not only for the hauling of corn, hay,
147Illinois State Historical Society, Transactions, 1904, p. 509-510.
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THE ECONOMIC SITUATION
wood, rails, etc., but for church-going and traveling. The pro- ductions of the farms were very few, such as a little fall or spring wheat, oats, Indian corn, cotton, flax, in some cases castor- beans, and as to fruits, scarcely anything but apples and some peaches. But wild plums and grapes, of good quality, were produced in large quantities in the timbered districts, especially at the edges of the prairies. There was no machinery used on the farms before 1835 or 1840. There were no corn-planters, no reaping or threshing machines, or fanning-mills. Corn was planted by hand, wheat, oats, and grass were cut with sickles or scythes by hand, cotton was gathered and picked by hand, flax was broken and scutched by hand, cotton and wool were carded into rolls by hand, and spinning and weaving were done by hand. Grain was trodden out by horses or beaten out with flails, and winnowed by the breezes or with sheets used like so many great fans. The only articles employed by the farmers that could properly be called machines, were flax-breaks, hackles, looms, hand-mills, and possibly an occasional cider-mill. There were, however, at intervals of ten or twenty miles, water-mills and horse-mills for grinding corn, wheat, rye, and barley; and from the earliest settlement of the country there were not wanting distilleries for the manufacture of whiskey, to minister to the cravings of the thirsty people, who claimed that they could not keep warm in winter or cool in summer, or perform their hard work without fainting, unless they could be assisted by the free use of the 'good creature.' But there were no breweries to be found, unless among the few Germans.
"The clothing of the people, especially in the first settlement of the country, consisted almost wholly of materials prepared by the several families for themselves. The most frequent excep- tion to this remark was found in the leather used for shoes, which was often tanned and dressed by some one man in a neighborhood, who gave a part of his time to a small tannery, of which he was the proprietor. But many were at once tan- ners, shoe-makers, and farmers; and their wives and daughters manufactured the flax and cotton, raised by them, into garments for the family. For during the first quarter of the century,
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ILLINOIS IN 1818
cotton as well as flax was produced on many farms, and spin- ning-wheels were manufactured in almost every neighborhood for the use of the families, which were purchased from the makers by an exchange of various productions from the farins around. As lately as eleven or twelve years ago [about 1868], I found, on visiting Bond County, an old wheel-wright still devoted to his former work, making spinning-wheels, both large and small, not to sell as curiosities, but to supply an actual demand from families that yet preferred to manufacture their own cloth- ing as in former times. Not only were the materials and the cloth prepared, but the dyeing was done in the family; the bark of trees, especially of the butter-nut, and indigo raised on the farm, being used for this purpose. And then the mother made up the clothing for the household. In many cases, deer-skins were dressed by the men, and made into hunting-shirts, pantaloons, and moccasons [sic] by the women, all in the same family. The hunting-shirts were frequently ornamented with a fringe on the lower edge of the cape and at the bottom of the garment, which presented a not unpleasing appearance. Shoes were often con- fined, except in cold weather, to the adult females; the men and children going barefoot in spring, summer, and fall, unless they had occasion to appear in a public assembly. I have many a time seen even young women carry their shoes in their hands until they came near to church, and then put them on before coming to the door and entering. The men's hats for the sum- mer were commonly made of wheat straw, rudely platted and sewed together by the women. Winter hats, usually of wool, were, of necessity, purchased from a manufacturer, who could almost always be found in some village not far distant. The clothes of the women, like those of the men, were almost entirely of home manufacture, except in the older villages. Their bon- nets were occasionally purchased from the stores, but more commonly they were of the simple Virginia style, made of domestic materials, and kept in place either by pasteboard or wooden ribs."148
148Patterson, "Early Society in Southern Illinois," in Fergus Historical Series, no. 14:109-III.
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When the English farmers came to Illinois they expected, with plenty of land and capital, to be able to carry on farming on a large scale. They soon found to their surprise that their plans were impracticable owing to the difficulty of securing laborers. Accustomed as they were to a social system in which there was a numerous class of laborers who accepted their humble posi- tion as a matter of course and seldom aspired to raise themselves above it, these Englishmen had great difficulty in adjusting them- selves to a society in which there was no definite and permanent servant class. "No white man or woman," wrote one of the Englishmen, "will bear being called a servant, but they will gladly do your work. Your hirelings must be spoken to with Civility and cheerfulness." Then, in a tone which suggests that he expected incredulity from his English readers, the writer added: "Respectable families from Kentucky . . .. do all their domestic work, except washing, with their own hands." The reason for this absence of a laboring class was not hard to find. To quote from the same writer: "A man used to work will earn in one day what will suffice for the simple wants of a Backwoodsman a whole week. If he be sober and industrious, in two years he can enter a quarter section of land, buy a horse, a plough, and tools. The lowest price for labour now is 13$ per month with board and lodging. I will give two years net proceeds in figures.
$ $
12 months at 13$. .156$ Clothing for two years-say 100
12 months at 13 .. .156 One quarter of land. .80
One horse and harness and plough 100
Axe grubbing hoe &c. .IO
$312
Gun and powder &c. .15
$305
"After putting in his crop of maize, he can supply himself with meat and some money by hunting, or he can earn $I per day in splitting rails for his neighbours. Many men begin as independ- ent farmers with half the above mentioned sum, but they are thorough Backwoodsmen.
"Now, is it not evident that while land can be bought, no matter how far from navigable rivers, at $2 per acre, and when there are tracts they may 'squat' upon for nothing, that labour will be for many years limited in price only by the ability of those
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ILLINOIS IN 1818
who want it, to pay for it. It is indeed the only expence ; but is so overwhelming that I would rather farm in old England with a capital of 2 or 3000£ than on the North West of the Ohio. If we consider the immense territory to the North West of us, and the roving spirit of the Americans, we may wonder that any work can be hired. The truth is, none are to be hired but Emi- grants from the Eastern States, who intend to be land owners in one, two, or three years. And these are few in number : for the steady and prudent earn the money at home and bring it with them."149 . For the English, the first solution of the difficulty was to import labor. While still at Princeton, Indiana, Birkbeck wrote to a prospective settler: "A single settler may get his labour done by the piece on moderate terms, not higher than in some parts of England; but if many families settle together, all requiring this article, and none supplying it, they must obtain it from elsewhere. Let them import English labourers, or make advantageous proposals to such as are continually arriving at the eastern ports." Flower's scheme was to import those being paid poor rates in England; and he offered to pay to the parishes half the expense of getting them to Illinois.150 But importa- tion was soon found to be only a very temporary solution of the problem. As early as June, 1818, Fordham wrote of Birk- beck's colony: "His English labourers have already caught the desire to be land owners."151
Before many months the English were forced to the conclu- sion that Illinois was a good location only for the small farmer who was willing to work his land without hired labor. There was only one alternative; that was to use slaves. Fordham shows by what process of reasoning an Englishman could reach this conclusion. In June, 1818 he wrote: "I would not have upon my conscience the moral guilt of extending Slavery over countries now free from it, for the whole North Western Ter- ritory. But, if it should take place, I do not see why I should not make use of it. If I do not have servants I cannot farm;
149Ogg, Fordham's Personal Narrative, 124-125, 210-21I.
150 Fearon, Sketches of America, 335; Thwaites, Early Western Travels, II :279.
151Ogg, Fordham's Personal Narrative, 212.
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THE ECONOMIC SITUATION
and there are no free labourers here, except a few so worth- less, and yet so haughty, that an English Gentleman can do nothing with them." Two months later he wrote at even greater length : "I cannot think that any elderly man, especially if he have a family delicately brought up, would live comfortably in a free state. In a slave State, if he have wealth, say, 500c£ and upwards, he may raise upon his own farm all the food and raiment, the latter manufactured at home, necessary to supply the wants of his own family.
"This has been, till lately, the universal economy of the first Kentucky families. Thus, without living more expensively than in a free state, a family may have the comforts of domestic services, and yet find plenty of employment within doors; not sordid slavery that wears out the health, and depresses the spirits of Ohio, but useful yet light labours, that may be remitted and resumed at pleasure.
"There is more difference between the manners of the female sex on the East and West sides of the Ohio River than on the East and West shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Servitude in any form is an evil, but the structure of civilized society is raised upon it. If the minds of women are left unimproved, their morals will be at the mercy of any man. It is much worse where there is no superior rank to influence them by example, or to awe them by disapprobation. I am conscious that I repeat again and again the same arguments-or rather I state similar facts; but it is an important subject.
"Society may suffer more by the abjectness of Slaves than by the want of servants, and a father of a family would prefer to live where there are good free servants as in Europe, or where slaves have more liberty of action than servants, as in Kentucky. The question in these wildernesses is this: Shall we have civili- zation and refinement, or sordid manners and semi-barbarism, till time shall produce so much inequality of condition that the poor man must serve the rich man for his daily bread ?"152
Not having the Englishman's prejudices to overcome, many
102Ogg, Fordham's Personal Narrative, 210, 228-229.
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ILLINOIS IN 1818
Americans had arrived much more readily at the same conclu- sion. The result was that the provision of the northwest ordi- nance prohibiting slavery was in practice continually evaded under cloak of the indenture law, which made it possible to indenture negroes under conditions amounting to slavery. In 1818 the indentured servants in the territory amounted to one- fortieth of the population : a large proportion when one consid- ers the extreme poverty of most of the settlers. That the inden- ture system was virtually identical with slavery is readily seen in the form of indenture drawn up when a negro was trans- ferred from one master to another. One is headed: "General Indenture concerning sale of negro girl." Another, more de- tailed, reads as follows :153
THIS INDENTURE made this twenty second day of June in the year of our Lord, one thousand Eight hun- dred and fifteen, between Silvey a Negroe Woman about the age of twenty four years, last out of the State of Kaintuck and Livingston County, of the one part, and John Morris of the Illinois Territory and Gallaton County of the other part, WITNESSETH, that the said Silvey for and in consideration of the sum of four hundred Dollars, to me paid in hand courant Money of the United States, at or before the signing and deliv- ery of these presents, the Receipt whereof She doth hereby acknoledge, and in conformity to a law of the said Teritory respecting the Introduction of Negroes and Melattoes into the saim, hath put placed and bind himself to the said Morris, to serve him from the date hereof, during the Term and in full of forty years next enshuing, or in other words from the date hereoff untill the twenty second day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty five, during all which Term, the said Silvey, the said John Morris shall well and truly serve, and all his lawfull commands every whair obey, and that She shall not embezzel or waiste her said Masters Goods nor lend them to any person without her said Masters consent, or leave. Nor shall She at any time absent herself from her said Masters Service, or leave, but as a good and faithfull servant, shall and will at all times demean herself towards her said Master, during the Term aforesaid.
158Deed record. A. pp. 2-3, in Pope county.
RUINS OF FORT DE CHARTRES [From Wild, Valley of the Mississippi (1841), owned by Chicago Historical Society
A LOG TAVERN [Copied from Thwaites, Early Western Travels, vol. 12, by permission of the publishers, The Arthur H. Clark Company]
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THE ECONOMIC SITUATION
And the said John Morrice covenants and agrees too and with the said Silvey, that he will furnish her with good and suficient Meat, Drink, lodging and apparell, together with all other needful conveniences fit for such a Servant, during the said Term. And for the true performance of each of the above and aforementioned, Covenants, and Agreements, each of the above and aforementioned parties, bind themselves each to the other, firmly by these presents.
In testimony whereof the aforementioned parties, have hereunto set their hands and Seals the date first
above written. Silvey her
mark Executed and ac-
knoledged in presence of Samuel Omelveny
Deputy Clerk, for Joseph M. Street, Clerk of the John Court, of Common pleas for Gallatin County-) Morris
June 25th 1816. Attest Johna Scott Recorder of Pope County.
Accompanying the above Indenture, is the following Bond, To wit,
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