The American Farmer in the Eighteenth Century : A Social and Cultural History / Richard Lyman Bushman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bushman, Richard L., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Farmers--United States--History--18th century.

Farmers.

Farm life--United States--History--18th century.

Farm life.

Agriculture--United States--History--18th century.

Agriculture.

Manners and customs.

History.

United States--Social life and customs--18th century.

United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xiii, 376 pages : illustrations, maps, facsimiles ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2018]

Summary:

An illuminating study of America's agricultural society during the Colonial, Revolutionary, and Founding eras In the eighteenth century, three+'quarters of Americans made their living from farms. This authoritative history explores the lives, cultures, and societies of America's farmers from colonial times through the founding of the nation. Noted historian Richard Bushman explains how all farmers sought to provision themselves while still actively engaged in trade, making both subsistence and commerce vital to farm economies of all sizes. The book describes the tragic effects on the native population of farmers' efforts to provide farms for their children and examines how climate created the divide between the free North and the slave South. Bushman also traces midcentury rural violence back to the century's population explosion. An engaging work of historical scholarship, the book draws on a wealth of diaries, letters, and other writings--including the farm papers of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington--to open a window on the men, women, and children who worked the land in early America.

Contents:

PART ONE. FARM THOUGHT. 1. The Farm Idea. The Life Plans of Family Farmers. 2. A Note on Sources. How Documents Think

PART TWO. NORTH AMERICA, 1600-1800. 3. The Nature of the South. The Creation of Sectional Systems. 4. Generation of Violence. A Population Explosion Ignites Conflict

PART THREE. CONNECTICUT, 1640-1760. 5. Uncas and Joshua. The Acquisition of Connecticut. 6. Sons and Daughters. Provision for the Young. 7. Farmers' Markets. How the Exchange Economy Formed Society

PART FOUR. PENNSYLVANIA, 1760-76. 8. Crèvecoeur's Pennsylvania. Farming in the Middle Colonies. 9. Revolution. Why Farmers Fought. 10. Family Mobility. The Lincolns of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois

PART FIVE. VIRGINIA, 1776-1800. 11. Founding Farmers. The Contradictions of the Planter Class. 12. Jefferson's Neighbors. Economy, Society, and Politics in Post-Revolutionary Virginia. 13. Learning Slavery. How Slaves Learned to Be Slaves and Whites to Become Masters

PART SIX. APPROACHING THE PRESENT. 14. American Agriculture, 1800-1862.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

030022673X

9780300226737

9780300235203

0300235208

OCLC:

1005113453