Social hierarchy & Occupations In the Revolutionary period

Social Hierarchy in 1776

landowners and Merchants

The elite consisted primarily of white landowners and merchants, as their wealth gave them access to education and social capital. In 1775, Robert Morris was regarded as the wealthiest man in the colonies. Morris was born in Liverpool but his father was a tobacco trader in the colonies. At the age of 14, Morris crossed the Atlantic and began his apprenticeship at a Philadelphian mercantile firm. After becoming a partner, his shipping business allowed him to accumulate great wealth and led to his role as key financier of the Continental Congress. Morris’ story illustrates how connections and generational wealth would often be instrumental to entering a lucrative occupation such as mercantilism.

Beyond mercantilism, land ownership also provided avenues for men to secure a high social standing. For instance, while George Washington inherited little from his father as the second-born son, his familial connections that allowed him to maintain a reputable social standing with Virginia’s landowners and to obtain his job as a surveyor. After the death of his older brother, sister-in-law, and niece, he then inherited Mt. Vernon at the age of 22. His marriage to Martha Curtis six years later would expand his ownership of prime acres that would secured his status as a landowner.

Farmers and artisans

Yeoman farmers and urban artisans comprised the middle class during this period. As historian Jackson Turner Main writes in his book, The Social Structure of Revolutionary America, these groups “owned some property and perhaps some skill, were poor but not impoverished,” and had some room for social mobility. Farmers and artisans were predominantly white men with some educational background, though their political power was far more restricted than that of landowners and merchants.

Local farmers made up a considerable portion of the town’s people, “comprising 40 percent of the whites and one third of the whole population.” These farmers typically earned enough to sustain their households, and relied on family labor to maintain their property rather than hiring servants or enslaved people, as wealthier landowners did. Like farmers, artisans and skilled workers were generally self-employed. They made up half the total population of seacoast cities by 1776 and included shoemakers, silversmiths, soap-makers, and tailors. Artisans often hired indentured servants to support their trade, but hiring free laborers became far more common after the Seven Years’ War. Teenage apprentices and adult journeymen would also assist master artisans in their work.

Indentured Servants

Indentured servants constituted a lower class of colonial society. They had limited legal rights given their white status, however, there are accounts of abusive contractors and unreasonable contract extensions throughout the colonies. By the 1750s, while English migrants were a major source of servants, German and Irish servants increased in number as immigrants looked for economic opportunity and religious freedom in the colonies. Those who willingly became indentured servants were known as “redemptioners” and they typically served for 4-6 years in order to pay off the cost of their voyage. Other servants were sent to the colonies by force as convicts of crimes in England and Ireland, mostly having to do with charges related to being in debt and vagrancy. Depending on their status as a criminal, it could take up to seven years for their contract to end.

While serving a contract, indentured servants had limited freedom to move, marry, or have children depending on the decision of their contractor. The range of work varied, with accounts showing servants who would work as tutors, coachmen, or ironworkers. While most indentured servants were white during this time period, there were some who worked alongside enslaved Africans. Broadsides from the time account for instances when white indentured servants and enslaved Africans ran away from their contractors together. However, following the Revolutionary Era most Mid-Atlantic and Southern states would turn to enslaved Africans as their main source of labor. In the states of New England, gradual slavery abolition systems would use indentured servant contracts for children of enslaved Africans to obtain their freedom.

Indigenous people

As the colonies continued to develop under English rule, Native Americans were widely cast out of all aspects of colonial society–even those that attempted to assimilate to English culture. In 1776 tensions between colonists and Indigenous people were high. In part, this was due to the Seven Years’ War which ended in 1763. While the English won the war, the majority of Indigenous nations had sided with the French and future conflicts would not guarantee a British victory. In light of this, the Proclamation of 1763 emphasized Indigenous land boundaries as a way to appease Indigenous leaders. Yet despite the “Proclamation Line,” the colonists continued pushing towards claims for frontier lands. Beyond land encroachment, imperial officials noted that the colonists often cheated or stole from Indigenous people when conducting trade. While attempts at diplomacy existed, the racial discrimination towards Indigenous people would continue in the nascent America and at the end of the Revolutionary War, no Indigenous representatives would be present at the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

It is important to note that Indigenous societies had their own social structures that was based on gender, age, and political positions. For example, the Cherokee had a matrilineal society where children and the home would belong to the woman should she separate from her husband. The Cherokee were also composed of seven clans, each of which held distinct roles and occupations, such as healers or protectors.

Enslaved Africans

Enslaved Africans were held at the bottom of the colonial social pyramid. Enslaved people were considered property and subjected to harsh treatment and afforded no room for social mobility. Philip Fithian, a white tutor for one of Virginia’s largest plantations from 1773 to 1776, explained how he’d witnessed the slaves be subjected to methods of torture, including being rubbed with dry hay and salt after a whipping. At the start of the revolution enslaved Africans made up almost 1/5 of the colonial population.

Of the estimated 2.1 million people in the colonies, only 2.4% consisted of free African Americans. Most free African Americans during this time, such as Corradan/Corydon from Massachusetts in 1756, paid for their freedom or in some cases sued their slaveowners for extended contracts or assault after their contracts ended. Others escaped to Northern colonies where although enslavement was still practiced, there were more opportunities for free African Americans. It was in Boston where an enslaved woman by the name of Phyllis Wheatley became the first African American to publish poetry in 1773. The Wheatley Family who provided her with an education would emancipate her shortly after, but lack of funds would limit her ability to continue selling her writing.

Following the Revolution, the demand for enslaved Africans would expand as the cotton industry grew towards the end of the century. However, this period would also usher a new wave of legal cases that would be grounded on the basis of enslavement as a violation of constitutional rights. Such was the case of Elizabeth Freeman of Massachusetts who won her case in 1781 by using the language of the state’s constitution as grounds for her freedom; this was around the same time when many Northern states began adopting gradual abolition systems.

Intersections of Gender & SOcial Class

Wealth & Education

Women in society were seen as caretakers and during this time it was normal for women birth up to ten children. This was largely due to the fact that not all would survive to adulthood. However, women who came from wealthy families would often care for not just their children but also the family’s estate. Such was the case of Elizabeth Hamilton Schuyler who was known to manage her household’s finances efficiently. Like other women from the genteel (high-class) families, she had no formal education, however most likely had private tutors and access to literature.

For women in rural towns or of poorer families, they were caretakers and responsible for cooking, cleaning, and helping with farm work. Single women would sometimes work as teachers in local schools or were artisans. Unlike women of the genteel class, they often had less access to literature and had comparatively limited literacy skills. As a result, diaries and writing from these women are often rare, however not nonexistent. Mary Cooper, a farmer’s wife and mother to six children from Long Island, New York, kept a diary starting at the age of 54. In it she described the mundanity of her days, the small joys, and often her loneliness:

“July the 13, 1769, Thirsday: This day is forty years sinc[e] I left my Father's house and come here, and here have I seene littel els[e] but harde labour and sorrow, crosses of every kind. I think in every repect the state of my affairs is more then forty times worse then when I came here first, except that I am nearer the desierered haven. . A fine clear cool day. I am un well.” - Mary Cooper

Marriage & property rights

For women in the 18th century, marriage was central to the rights they would or would not have. According to English law, after a woman was married, “coverture” was applied as a legal status to wives so that women were no longer independent agents after marriage. As a result, all property she had possessed would become her husband’s. This limited both their economic and political rights, as described in the “Voting” module.

Nonetheless, there were exceptions to coverture, which included trusteeships or prenuptial agreements. Furthermore, if their husbands died, their coverture would end and they often became overseers of the remaining property and assets. For example, after Martha Washington’s first husband passed away in 1757 without a will she “owned nearly 300 enslaved individuals and had more than 17,500 acres of land.” Widows with less wealth, such as Cave Willams (right), could even become successful business owners. Even so, young widows, like Martha, would often remarry to secure the social and financial standing of their children.

Religion & heritage

Cultural norms shaped by religion and heritage also influenced the opportunities of women in the late 18th century. For example, the Quaker tradition preached spiritual equality between men and women. As such, women could become ministers and would travel alone for purposes of preaching and visiting Quaker meetings. During the Revolution, Charity Wright Cook was a Quaker minister who toured the South to preach pacifism. Quaker women were also often literate and came from established families that had enough wealth to privately educate their daughters.

Access to education, along with her egalitarian background, empowered Hannah Griffits from Philadelphia to become an outspoken poet and writer on the values and ideas of the Revolution. In 1768, she wrote “The Female Patriots” celebrating the courage of the Daughters of Liberty. While she chose to not publish her poems and only circulated them privately, some would be printed in newspapers. It is important to note that while Quaker women had avenues to leadership and influence not available to other women, inequality persisted between Quaker men and women, who were still bound to English laws of coverture.

Occupations of the Revolution

At its most basic level, the American Revolution allocated service members among three critical groups: leaders, soldiers, and camp followers. Most often the roles of individuals in the War would be based on their socioeconomic status. Nonetheless, for some, the War offered avenues of expanded influence and even promises of freedom that had not been possible before.

Leaders of the Revolution

Figureheads of the Revolution were commonly white men who had already been members of the elite prior to the Revolution and held positions of influence. Some prominent leaders of the Continental Congress include George Washington, Samuel Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. Prior to the War, Washington had served as a commander of the Virginia Regiment and in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Washington’s role as the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army was invaluable. While he lost more battles than won, he executed strategies which led to America’s crucial victories at the Battle of Trenton and Yorktown. Benjamin Franklin, on the other hand, did not participate in battle during the Revolution; however, he made significant contributions in negotiating the end of the conflict and developing the Treaty of Paris of 1783. Franklin did not come from wealth like most of his colleagues in the Continental Congress, however he had become a successful entrepreneur and public figure in Philadelphia by the beginning of the Revolution.

Soldiers

Soldiers were primarily made up of lower and middle-class white men, as well as Native American and Black men. Apart from the latter, many willingly joined for the promise of a lifetime of steady pay and pension. Most soldiers were in between the ages of 15-40 and enlisted for one year starting in 1775. By 1777, the Continental Congress enlisted soldiers for three years at a time or indefinitely until the war ended.

The majority of enslaved Africans who served on both sides of the Revolution ran away for a chance of freedom. However, some slaveowners sent enslaved Africans to fight in their place. While Britain promised emancipation to those escaping Patriot plantation owners from the onset of the war, the Continental Army only allowed African Americans to join after 1778 due to recruitment shortage. By the end of the war, 20,000 enslaved men had served in the British army while 5,000 enslaved men had served in the Continental Army. While states made emancipation promises as the war drew on, these promises were not always upheld. Despite these challenges, some enslaved soldiers were able to petition for their freedom and 3,000 left with the British to Nova Scotia following the war.

Native Americans also fought on both sides, but the majority remained neutral or sided with the British as many tribes held longer alliances with the Crown and believed there lands would be secured if the British won. Nonetheless, some Indigenous tribes including the Oneidas, Tuscaroras, and Stockbridge-Munsees fought on the side of the Patriots. The decision of these tribes to join the Patriot cause was an attempt to protect their lands and also based on local ties with missionaries and neighboring towns. Men of the Stockbridge-Munsees were present as minutemen when the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord in 1775; they would serve as spies and scouts for the Continental Army through the remainder of the war.

Camp FOllowers

“The sick suffered much for want of good female nurses.” - June 14, 1775, Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates to Commander-in-Chief George Washington

Laborers of the war, better known as “camp followers,” consisted of women and children who followed their beloved soldiers into the Continental Army. Genteel women like Martha Washington made social contributions to encampments, including writing for their husbands, fundraising, and visiting hospitals. Lower-class women were responsible for providing domestic necessities for the army including washing, cooking, and administering medical aid when needed. Black and Indigenous women also participated as camp followers, and received some form of payment for their service. Hannah Till, an enslaved cook and servant to General George Washington, purchased her freedom during the Revolution and continued as a paid cook. Women’s earnings during this time, however, were limited. While their rations were dependent on the amount of work they offered, women would usually earn only half of what a male soldier received and children would only get a quarter.

Nurses made up a large portion of the camp followers, with one nurse assigned to every 10 patients by the Continental Congress. For every 100 patients, there would be one matron who would supervise the nurses and tend to patients. While many camp followers received compensation for their services, others volunteered. For example, in the South, Quaker women volunteered as nurses for both sides of the war.

Module by Maria Reyes Pacheco, with contributions from Sophia Suh. Click here for bibliography.