4. Elbridge Henry Goss, The Life of Colonel Paul Revere (Boston: Plimpton Press, 1902), pp. 579, 590–593, 611; Jayne E. Triber, A True Republican (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998), p. 194; Esther Forbes, Paul Revere and the World He Lived In (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969), pp. 416–418, 440–441, 443–444.
5. Revere’s relationship with Paul Jr. had always been close, beginning with Paul Jr.’s apprenticeship as a silversmith and continuing when Paul Jr. took over the silver shop and helped in the foundry. Paul Jr. had worked for some years in his own silver shop and bell foundry and occasionally required small amounts of financial help from his father. Triber, A True Republican, p. 181.
6. Paul Revere’s last will and testament, dated March 14, 1818, reel 3, RFP.
7. Transactions of the American Medical Association, 1850, as quoted in Triber, A True Republican, p. 182.
8. A reverberatory furnace separates the fuel from the material to be smelted, thereby preventing the infusion of impurities into the final product.
9. Otis E. Young Jr., “Origins of the American Copper Industry,” Journal of the Early Republic 3 (Summer 1983): 131; Goss, Life of Colonel Paul Revere, pp. 573–576; Canton historical society website at http://www.canton.org/history/revere1.htm; Revere House website at http://www.paulreverehouse.org/copper/index.shtml. The Revere Family Papers contain many volumes pertaining to Joseph Warren’s managerial and business practices.
10. Alan Dawley, Class and Community: The Industrial Revolution in Lynn (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1976), pp. 220–223; Nathan Rosenberg, “Why in America?” in Yankee Enterprise: The Rise of the American System of Manufactures, ed. Otto Mayr and Robert C. Post (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981), p. 59; A. E. Musson, “British Origins,” in Mayr and Post, Yankee Enterprise, p. 43; Walter Licht, Industrializing America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), pp. 42, 46–47.
11. Direct government sponsorship of manufacturing never received much notice among historians. Most American studies focus on the growth of the military-industrial complex in the twentieth century, and some have explored the military’s support of early developments such as interchangeable parts, railroads, canals, and machine tools. The earliest timeframe for most of this work is the early nineteenth century, which featured critical events such as the drive toward interchangeable manufacturing or the establishment of West Point and a military engineering academic program, both after 1811. The importance of these events and others like them cannot be overemphasized, but Revere’s example illustrates that the story actually began earlier and involved other institutions besides the army. One form of direct government aid, the influence of military research and purchases upon technological and industrial growth, has received some attention. Several studies have investigated the way that European military forces became huge consumers of ordnance, a process that gave a huge impetus to mining, metallurgy, and machine production. See Merritt Roe Smith’s introduction to Military Enterprise and Technological Change (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1985) as well as Alex Roland’s bibliographic essay in the same volume. Also see William McNeill, The Pursuit of Power (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982).
12. Brooke Hindle, Emulation and Invention (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1981), p. 11.
13. Hindle, Emulation and Invention, p. 16, quoting from John Adams’s “Discourses on Davila,” 1790–1791.
Index
Page numbers in italics indicate illustrations
accounting. See recordkeeping
Adams, John, 81, 211, 213, 226, 233, 234, 339–40
Adams, Samuel: and gunpowder mill establishment, 62, 86
as influential government leader, 71, 81, 101, 375n13
and Midnight Ride, 1–2, 76–77
on social class erosion, 93
agriculture: and agricultural cycles, 153
and agricultural revolution, 18, 363n6
and entrepreneurial farmers, 14
productivity of, in 1800s, 250–51
and riparian lawsuits, 314–16
and societal role of farmers, 24
and surplus population, 250–51
and tariff, 264
alcohol, 35, 138, 145–46, 275, 279, 355, 369n47
American system, the, 296–97.
See also mass production; standardization
Ames, Congressman Fischer, 102
annealing. See metalworking
Ansart, Lewis. See de Maresquelle, Louis
apprentices: and “art and mystery” of a craft, 31–32
decline of, after 1800, 115, 275–76
and guild regulation in England, 23
and indentures and contracts, 32–33, 112–13, 274, 368n40
and iron foundry parallels, 140
legal regulation of, 116–17
Revere’s silver-working, 47, 111–12, 371n67
and runaways, 33, 274
schooling of, 31, 368n39
traditions and practices of, 33–34, 112, 115.
See also artisans
army. See War Department
artillery. See cannon casting
artisans: in ancient civilizations, 21–22
and capital shortages, 251, 254–55, 337
craft hierarchy of, 28–29, 367n32
and Constitution advocacy, 101
culture and traditions of, 21, 24, 35
decline and fragmentation of, 112, 114–17, 202, 251, 254, 273–76, 333
defined, 21, 364n11, 365n20
economic impacts of, 24
guilds of, 22–23, 25, 364nn16, 17
independence of, 27–28, 367nn31, 33, 35
and industrialization, 190, 218, 251, 254, 273
managerial skills of, 253–54
and masculinity and paternalism, 22, 25, 113
merchant aspirations of, 95–96
numbers of, 24, 365n20
organizations of, 100, 116, 218
in patriot resistance movement, 63–75 passim, 374n8, 375n12
and Revere as leader of, 101, 116–18, 341
societal position and mobility of, 23, 25–28, 93, 114–15, 121, 273, 363n9, 367n30, 375n12
and tariffs, 264
and trade mysteries and secrets, 31–32, 133–34, 294.
See also apprentices
journeymen
Association of Tradesmen and Manufacturers, 100
banks, 103, 234, 255, 258, 272, 383n48, 403n18
bar iron. See under iron
Barbary pirates, 211, 247, 396n11
barter, 56, 57, 95, 106, 116, 144, 249
Belknap, Reverend Jeremy, 71, 376n26
bells: acoustic properties of, 162
and bell metal, 164–65
casting process for, 167–68, 169
church types, 161
history of, 160–61
Liberty Bell, 165
Revere’s, 157–58, 165–70, 171–72, 299–300
Benson, George. See Brown and Benson
bespoke items, 50–51, 104, 155, 353
Blanchard, Thomas, 252
blast furnace. See under iron
bloomery. See under iron
bolts. See fasteners
bookkeeping. See recordkeeping
Boston: colonial society of, 14, 15–17, 27, 49
and George Washington’s 1789 parade, 29
laborer population in, 276
as manufactory site, 149, 159, 309–10
and postwar silver, 106
and resistance movement, 65–68, 70–78
silverworking in, 39–40, 51.
See also Boston Massacre
Boston Tea Party
Boston Massacre, 67–68, 69, 73
Boston Mechanic Association. See Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association
Boston Tea Party, 67–68, 70
brass. See bronze
British empire: and colonial America, 17–19, 64–65, 128–29, 313–14, 361n3, 374n3
and copper sheathing
, 219–20
and failure of copper mines, 221–22, 224
and Jefferson’s embargo, 257–58
naval dominance of, 18, 175
technological superiority of, 17–18, 130, 131, 175
and war with France, 257–58.
See also British manufactures
mercantilism
resistance movement
Revolutionary War
British manufactures: bolts and spikes, 191, 197–98
and colonial imports, 64
and naval sheathing, 219–22
and postwar glut of imports, 98–99, 130
and tariff, 264
technological superiority of, 17–18, 130, 131, 175, 191, 201.
See also British empire
mercantilism
bronze: bolts and spikes of, 191, 196
in “composition” copper, 191, 196
gunmetal, 174, 176
history of, 22, 163–64, 174, 390n11
properties of, 164. See also bells
cannon casting
copper tin
Brown, Moses, 135, 152
Brown, Nicholas. See Brown and Benson
Brown and Benson, 119, 135–36, 148–49, 165–66
Byers, James, 179–82, 339
cannon casting: and boring, 88, 177, 179, 187, 246, 297, 300
and gunmetal, 176, 180
history of, 174–76
labor charges for, 186
process of, 176–78
and proving process, 177–78, 181, 185, 214, 300
and Revere’s cannon, 87–88, 132, 173–74, 178–82, 182–86, 184, 214
in Revolutionary War, 87–88, 175–76
and Stoddert’s support, 214
and wasted metal, 181–82.
See also bronze
Canton mill (Massachusetts): and Cantondale poem, 324–27
equipment and buildings of, 233, 297
labor force and policies of, 276–81
property map, 318
purchase and renovation of, 230–31, 239–40
and riparian lawsuits, 316–20
and road-building conflict, 320–21
sketch of, 298
capital (investment capital): capitalist attitudes on, 19–20, 34, 116, 152, 216, 249–51
and corporations, 271–72
and craft hierarchy, 28
and credit, 57
and government aid, 217–18, 255, 337–38
in manufacturing, 137–38, 254–55
and merchants, 95, 96, 258
and proto-industry, 8, 351
shortages of, 57, 60, 96–97, 151, 254–55, 337–38.
See also capitalism; industrial capitalism
capitalism: in colonies, 19–20, 34
in nineteenth century, 249–51
recordkeeping evidence of, 57–59
and Revolutionary War, 88–89, 114–15.
See also industrial capitalism; market economy
carronade. See cannon casting
Carson, Joseph, 258, 259, 261, 307, 309
cast iron. See under iron
casting. See under bells
cannon casting
iron
silver
charcoal: abundance of, in America, 130, 147, 309–10, 386n18
and deforestation, 150, 309–10
in ironworking, 123–24
shortages of, in England, 123
chasing. See under silver
Coercive Acts, 67–68
cold-working. See metalworking
composition copper. See under bronze
Coney, John, 16–17, 20, 29–30, 41, 52
Constitution, USS: bolt and spikes in, 191, 196, 199
construction of, 211–12, 396n12
copper sheeting of, 283, 406n1
Copley, John Singleton, 11–13, 15, 57, 60, 298, 366n28
copper: American imports of, 189–90, 221–22, 308–9
American production of, 189–90
battering process for, 222
and British mine failure, 221–22, 224
and copper plate engraving, 48, 72, 83–85
and coppersmiths, 189, 221, 307
cost of, in ship construction, 225
history of, 163–64, 188–90
material properties of, 163–64
mining of, 188–89, 394n61
“old” (reused), 180, 182, 194, 200, 265–66, 308
price of, 222
refining of, 163, 188, 194
rolling (see rolling mill, copper)
as sheathing material, 220–21
shortages of, 176, 181, 198, 200, 202, 225, 237, 260, 308–10
smelting of, 163, 188, 229, 394n60
for steamboat boilers, 305–7
in sterling silver, 42, 45, 370n59
tariff on, 264–68
uses of, 189–90.
See also fasteners
metalworking
rolling mill (copper)
sheathing
corporations, 269, 271–72, 322, 331, 352
Coxe, Tench, 182, 206, 217, 219, 285, 310
craftsmen. See artisans
credit: in colonies, 63–64
management of, 57, 144–45, 171, 260–61
and merchant loans, 96–97, 254–55, 380n14
network of, 57, 99, 144–45, 335–36
and postwar economy, 98–99
and proto-industrial changes, 57, 58, 116, 152, 249.
See also banks
capital
customization. See bespoke items
Davis, Amasa, 200, 238, 300
de Maresquelle, Louis, 87–88, 132, 173, 176
Dearborn, Henry, 235, 267–68
deforestation, 123, 147, 149–50, 307, 309–10, 313
Democratic-Republican party, 210, 234–36, 257–59.
See also Jefferson, Thomas
Dexter brothers, 279, 281, 359
division of labor, 103–4, 108, 113–14, 218, 274
engraving. See under silver (for silver engraving) or printing (for copperplate engraving and printing)
entrepreneurship: of artisans, 27–28
and capitalism, 19–20
definition of, 19–20
government support for, 287, 305
in large technological system, 126, 152, 284
in manufacturing endeavors, 120, 151–52, 247, 252, 254–55, 296
and postwar opportunities, 89, 115, 252
and proto-industry, 7–8.
See also capitalism
environment: Americans’ resource assessment of, 147, 307
and manufacturing, 147–51, 307–8, 314–15, 389n54
and middle landscape, 327
and pastoralism, 327
and proto-industry, 351
and riparian management and legislation, 312–16, 410nn55, 60
and woodland management, 150–51.
See also raw materials
waterpower
Evans, Oliver, 252, 255
Eve, Oswell, 62, 86
farmers. See agriculture
fasteners (bolts and spikes): British technology for, 192–93, 220
definition of, 190
Revere’s manufacturing process for, 190–92, 302–3
and Revere’s sales and profits, 197–201, 262–63, 263
tariff on, 268
and technology transfer, 193–95
Faxon, Elib, 187, 356, 392n36
federal government: administrative inexperience of, 179, 182, 206–8, 240–41
and Articles of Confederation, 207
cannon purchases of, 179–80, 182–83, 214
and Constitution, 101, 207
foreign policy of, 209–10, 234
and government contracting, 187, 190–92, 197, 203, 206, 208–9, 225, 240–43
and Hamilton’s financial policies, 209–10, 234
and Jefferson’s cost cutting, 234–37
and loose vs. strict construction, 208, 213, 235, 237
and manufacturing
support, 224, 255, 287, 337–38, 412n11
and non-importation and embargo under Jefferson, 257–58
partisan nature of, 208, 212, 234–35.
See also Navy, Department of
patents
Postal Service
tariff
War Department
Federalists: and Constitution, 100–101, 207–8
manufacturing support of, 217–19, 337
and navy program, 210–11
partisan strife of, with Jefferson, 234–35
policies of, under Washington and Adams, 209–10, 234
silver style of, 106
and Stoddert’s policies, 211, 213–14
finer. See under iron
Fitch, John, 252, 255, 286, 305
flatting mill. See rolling mill (silver)
founder. See under iron
foundry. See under iron
France: and cannon development, 174
and copper sheathing development, 399n34
and French Revolution, 247
and Napoleon, 247
and Quasi-War with America, 210, 212–13, 396n8
and war with Great Britain, 257–58.
See also French and Indian War
Quasi-War
Franklin, Benjamin, 28, 33, 34, 216, 218, 339, 378n40
Freemasons. See Masons
French and Indian War, 18, 40, 63–64, 85
Fulton, Robert, 152, 246, 252, 258, 305–6, 399n42
furnace. See iron
Gallatin, Albert, 235–36, 264–65
gentlemen: and artisans, 100
in colonial society, 26–27, 366n26
Esquire as a title for, 100, 197, 269, 301, 324, 329
and labor, 27, 254
and middle class, 66
in the military, 79, 377n32.
See also social classes and mobility
gentry. See gentlemen
gold, goldsmiths.See silver
government. See federal government
Massachusetts government
guilds. See artisans
gunpowder, 61–62, 85–86, 378n40
Hamilton, Alexander: as Federalist leader, 234
fiscal policies of, in 1780s, 115, 159, 209, 234, 383n48
manufacturing support of, 206, 217–18, 234, 242, 285, 398n29
and national government, 207, 396n6
Hancock, John, 1, 2, 71, 75–77, 101
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