header by Emerson Taymor, 2005
1. The Colonial Era: 1607-1763
2. The Revolutionary Era: 1763-1789
3. The Early National Period: 1789-1824
4. Jacksonian America: 1824-1848
5. Antebellum America: 1848-1860
6. The Civil War Era: 1861-1877
9. The Twenties
10. Depression and New Deal: 1929-1939
14. The Sixties
Cadwallader Colden, "State of the Province of New
York" (1765),
in Collections of the New-York Historical Society (1878), 10:68-69.
The people of New York are properly Distinguished into different Ranks.
1. The Proprietors of the large Tracts of Land, who include within
their claims from 100,000 acres to above one Million of acres under one
Grant. Some of these remain in one single Family. Others are, by Devises
and Purchases claim'd in common by considerable numbers of Persons.
2. The Gentlemen of the Law make the second class in which properly are
included both the Bench and the Bar. Both of them act on the same Principles,
and are of the most distinguished Rank in the Policy of the Province.
3. The Merchants make the third class. Many of them have rose suddenly
from the lowest Rank of the People to
considerable Fortunes, and chiefly by illicit Trade in the last War [French
and Indian War]. They abhor every limitation of Trade and Duty on it, and
therefore gladly go into every Measure whereby they hope to have Trade
free.
4. In the last Rank may be placed the Farmers and Mechanics. Tho'
the Farmers hold their Lands in fee simple, they are as to condition of
Life in no way superior to the common Farmers in England; and the Mechanics
such only as are necessary in Domestic Life. This last Rank comprehends
the bulk of the People, and in them consists the strength of the Province.
They are the most useful and the most Morall, but allwise made the Dupes
of the former; and often are ignorantly made their Tools for the worst
purposes.