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MODULE 2.4 The Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Economy 103

Industrious Americans in
Boston, 1770 This English
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engraving appeared as a
broadsheet (a kind of poster
to spread news) in London.
It depicts American colonists
engaged in agricultural
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and artisanal labors on the
outskirts of Boston.
Compare this image
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to the painting of the
Charleston port on page 102.
What similarities and
differences do you notice?
Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy What accounts for both?

elites also redesigned the urban landscape, donating money for brick churches and stately
town halls. They constructed new roads, wharves, and warehouses to facilitate trade, and
they donated funds for the construction of bowling greens and public gardens.
The spread of international commerce created a lively cultural life and great afflu-
ence in colonial cities. The colonial elite replicated British fashions, including elaborate
tea rituals. In Boston, the wives of merchants served fine teas imported from East Asia
in cups and saucers from China, while decorated bowls held sugar from the West Indies.
However, a colonial elite emerged within view of growing inequality. Increasing income
gaps and differences in property ownership accelerated in the eighteenth century. The fre-
quent wars of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries contributed to these
economic and social divisions by boosting the profits of merchants, shipbuilders, and arti-
sans. They temporarily improved the wages of seamen as well. But in their aftermath, rising
prices, falling wages, and a lack of jobs led to the concentration of wealth in fewer hands.
Economic trends and migration to the British North American colonies produced
growing numbers of young people seeking land and employment. Thus, many free labor-
ers migrated from town to town and from country to city seeking work. They hoped to find
farmers who needed extra hands for planting and harvesting, ship captains and contrac-
tors who would hire them to load or unload cargo or assist in the construction of homes
and churches, or wealthy families who needed cooks, laundresses, or nursemaids.
Seasonal and temporary demands for labor created a mass of transient workers
described as “the strolling poor.” Many New England towns developed systems to “warn
out” those who were not official residents. Modeled after the British system, warning-out
was meant to ensure that strangers did not become public dependents. Still, being warned
did not mean immediate removal. Sometimes, transients were simply warned that they
were not eligible for aid given to the poor. At other times, local officials returned them to
an earlier place of residence. In many ways, warning-out served as an early registration
system, allowing authorities to encourage the flow of labor, keep residents under surveil-
lance, and protect the town’s finances. But it seldom aided those in need of work.
Residents who were eligible for public assistance might be given food and clothing
or boarded with a local family. Many towns began appointing Overseers of the Poor to
deal with the growing problem of poverty. By 1750, every seaport city had constructed
an almshouse that sheltered residents without other means of support. In 1723, the
Bridewell prison was added to Boston Almshouse, built in 1696. Then, in 1739, a work-
house was opened on the same site to employ the “able-bodied” poor in hopes that prof-
its from it would help fund the almshouse and prison. Still, these efforts at relief fell far
short of the need, especially in hard economic times.

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