Settlers - San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center

INTRODUCTION
1. AU references to discussions at the conference from: The African
World, Vol. N, No. 5, July, 1974: "Historic ALSC ~onference
Discussed: WHICH ROAD FOR BLACK PEOPLE?"
2. Black Revolution. Vol. 1. No. 1. Winter 1980: "Editorial: The Party
Line."
I. THE HEART OF m S S
1. WILLIAM BRADFORD - Of Plymouth Plantation - N.Y.. 1952. p.
23
2. MJLDRED GUWBELL - "Social Origins of Some Early
Ameriqans". In SMITH. ed.. 17th Century America. N.Y.. 1972. p.
68. Other accounts are similar. For example, see: C.E. BANKS.
The Winthrop Fleet of 1630 - Cambridge. 1930: Morisan's account
of Sir Walter Raleigh's second Virginia Colony of 1587 describes
the coloniete as: "All were middleclass Eoghh or Irish,
(MORISON, p. 657)
3. CAMPBELL - op. cit.. p. 82
4. Treasury Papers 47: 9-11 - Quoted in RICHARD B. MORRIS.
Government and Labor In Early America. N.Y., 1946. p. 48.
5. CHRISTOPHER HILL - Reformation to lndustrid Revolution - N.Y..
1967. p. 48: p. 64.
6. RICHARD HOFSTADTER - America at 1750 - N.Y.. 1973. p.11-12.
This is but one source out of many, all essentially in agreement.
7. MORRIS - op. cit., p. 48
6. CAMPBELL - op. cit.. p. 83
9. THEODORE ROOSEVELT - The Winning of the West - Vol. I - N.Y..
1900. p. 90
10. WILCOMB E. WASHBURN - "The Moral and Legal Justification
for Dispossessing the Indians." In SMlTH, ed. p. 23
11. Testimony of Wilbur R. Jacobs at Sioux Treaty Hearing. In R.
DUNBAR ORTIZ - The Great Sioux Nation. San Francisco. 1971.
p. 80, HENRY F. DOBYNS "Estimating Aboriginal American
Population. An Appraisal of Techniques With a New Hemispheric
Estimate." Current Anthropology, Vol. EX. No. 4. p. 395.
12. PHILIP GIBSON - Quoted in HOFSTADTER - op. cit. p. 69: also see
COOK & SIMPSON (1948).
13. HAROLJI E. D- - Indians of North America - Chicago. 1968 -
p. 804.
14. N.Y. Times - May 10. 1898.
15. KARL MARX - The Poverty of Philosophy - N.Y.. 1963. p. 111
16. See: HOFSTADTERap. cit. p. 99: O m Y & WEATHERBY. e&.-
The Negro In New York - N.Y., 1967: EDITH EVANS ASBURY.
"Freed Black Farmers Tied Manhattan's Soil in the 1600s". N.Y.
Times - Dec. 7, 1977.
17. See: VERNER W. CRANE - The Southern Frontier. 167G1732 - Aan
Arbor. 1956: ORTIZ - op. cit. p. 86.
18. GARY B. NASH - Red. White. And Black. Englewood Cliffs. 1974.
p. 112-113.
19. ibid.
20. ibid.
21. SAMUEL ELIOT MORISON - The European Discovery of
America: The Northern Voyages. N.Y., 1971. p. 678
22. CLINTON ROSSlTER - The First American Revolution - N.Y.,
1956. p. 41. 1
24. ROBERT E. & B. KATHERINE BROWN - Virginia 1705-1780:
Democracy or Aristocracy? East Lansing, 1964. p. 22.
25. PHILIP S. FONER - Labor and the American Revolution -
Westport 1976. p. 89.
28. JACKSON TURNER MAIN - The Social Structure of Revolutionary
America - Princeton. 1965. p. 66-67. While we use Maids finding~.
it is evident that although Euro-hriktau his to ria^ have
widely differing conclusions about cla~ stratification in thia
period. their factual baeea are very similar.
For example, James A. Henretta. in hie well-known essay,
"Economic Development and Social Structure in Colonial
Boston", concludes that the Colonial era was one of rapidly growing
settler class inequality, with the "appearance of ...'p roletariane'."
This ia an oftenquoted conclusion. Yet, a careful examination of
his research shows that: 1. In rural Massachusetts of the 1770's
land ownership was near-universal among the settlers (over
90%); 2. Even in Boston, a major urban center, the clear majority
of settler men were self-employed property-owners (60.70%): 3.
Henretta himself points out that many settler men who wen,
without taxable property were not poor, but had comfortable incomes
and were respected enough to be elected to public office.
So, although Henretta chose to stress the appearance of inequality
among settlers, his own research confirms the general picture
of shared privilege and an exceptional way of life for the E m
Amerikan conquerers.
27. HOFSTADTER - op. cit. p. 161.
28. AUDREY C. LAND - Bases of the Plantation Society - N.Y.. 1969, p.
105
29. MORRIS - op. cit. p. 40
30. KARL MARX - 18th Bnunaire ... In Selected Works [SW) - N.Y.,
1980. p. 104.
31. KARL MARX - Wages. Price and Profit - In SW. p. 192.
32. FONER - op.cit.. p. 12.
33. MORRIS - op. cit.. p. 46: BROWN 8 BROWN - op. cit.. p. 22.
34. MORRIS - op. cit.. p. 45.
35. KARL MARX - SW. p. 226
36. FRED SHANNON - America Farmers Movements - Princeton.
1957. p. 9: MORRIS. op. cit.. p. 36.
37. HILL - op. cit.. p. 74.
38. MORRIS - op. cit., p. 3637.
39. THOMAS J. WERTENBAKER - The Shaping of Colonial Virginia -
N.Y.. 1958. p. 134.
40. MORRIS - op. cit.. P. 29.
11. STRUGGLES & ALLIANCES
1. HERBERT APTHEKER - The Colonial Era. N.Y., 1959. p. 62.
2. THEODORE W. ALLEN - Class Struggle a ~ d the Origins of
Slavery. Somede, 1976. p. 34.
3. A photograph of this plaque can be seen in: CHARLES W.H.
WARNER. Road to Revolution. Richmond, 1961.
4. Except as otherwise noted. events in Bacon's Rebellion are taken
from WILCOMB E. WASHBURN. The Governor and the Rebel.
66 Chapel Hu, 1957.