
From Privileges to Rights
Work and Politics in Colonial New York City
Simon Middleton(Author)
University of Pennsylvania Press
Published on 3. March 2006
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-0-8122-3915-7 (ISBN)
Description
From Privileges to Rights connects the changing fortunes of tradesmen in early New York to the emergence of a conception of subjective rights that accompanied the transition to a republican and liberal order in eighteenth-century America.
Tradesmen in New Amsterdam occupied a distinct social position and, with varying levels of success, secured privileges such as a reasonable reward and the exclusion of strangers from their commerce. The struggle to maintain these privileges figured in the transition to English rule as well as Leisler's Rebellion. Using hitherto unexamined records from the New York City Mayor's Court, Simon Middleton also demonstrates that, rather than merely mastering skilled crafts in workshops, artisans participated in whatever enterprises and markets promised profits with a minimum of risk. Bakers, butchers, and carpenters competed in a bustling urban economy knit together by credit that connected their fortunes to the Atlantic trade.
In the early eighteenth century, political and legal changes diminished earlier social distinctions and the grounds for privileges, while an increasing reliance on slave labor stigmatized menial toil. When an economic and a constitutional crisis prompted the importation of radical English republican ideas, artisans were recast artisans as virtuous male property owners whose consent was essential for legitimate government. In this way, an artisanal subject emerged that provided a constituency for the development of a populist and egalitarian republican political culture in New York City.
Tradesmen in New Amsterdam occupied a distinct social position and, with varying levels of success, secured privileges such as a reasonable reward and the exclusion of strangers from their commerce. The struggle to maintain these privileges figured in the transition to English rule as well as Leisler's Rebellion. Using hitherto unexamined records from the New York City Mayor's Court, Simon Middleton also demonstrates that, rather than merely mastering skilled crafts in workshops, artisans participated in whatever enterprises and markets promised profits with a minimum of risk. Bakers, butchers, and carpenters competed in a bustling urban economy knit together by credit that connected their fortunes to the Atlantic trade.
In the early eighteenth century, political and legal changes diminished earlier social distinctions and the grounds for privileges, while an increasing reliance on slave labor stigmatized menial toil. When an economic and a constitutional crisis prompted the importation of radical English republican ideas, artisans were recast artisans as virtuous male property owners whose consent was essential for legitimate government. In this way, an artisanal subject emerged that provided a constituency for the development of a populist and egalitarian republican political culture in New York City.
Reviews / Votes
"This remarkable book opens up a new vista on the history of colonial New York City by focusing on the experiences of a group that has never been the subject of a major study. In doing so, it calls into question conventional notions of the work lives and political understandings of a broad strand of the urban population and builds a convincing case for locating the emergence of artisanal republicanism several decades before the revolutionary era." (Joyce D. Goodfriend, University of Denver) "Deeply analytical and richly rewarding, From Privileges to Rights should become essential reading for historians of New York and early America." (New York History) "A powerful and complex refutation of the colonial craft idyll." (William and Mary Quarterly)More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Pennsylvania
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paper over boards
Illustrations
14 illus.
Dimensions
Height: 221 mm
Width: 147 mm
Thickness: 10 mm
Weight
635 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8122-3915-7 (9780812239157)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
06/2011
1st Edition
University of Pennsylvania Press
€68.49
Available for download
Person
Simon Middleton teaches early American history at the University of Sheffield.
Content
Introduction
1. "Earning a beaver:" tradesmen in New Amsterdam
2. "Like a child in their debt and consequently their slave:" the transition to English rule in New York City, 1664-91.
3. "Diverse necessaries and conveniences work found and provided:" trading in a craft economy, 1691-1730.
4. "The only obstruction at this present is our want of people:" the problem with labor, 1691-1730
5. "For so much as he doth reasonably deserve to have:" tradesmen and the English common law
6. "C'mon brave boys let us be brave for liberty and law:" artisans and politics in New York City, 1730-1763.
7. Conclusion
Acknowledgments
1. "Earning a beaver:" tradesmen in New Amsterdam
2. "Like a child in their debt and consequently their slave:" the transition to English rule in New York City, 1664-91.
3. "Diverse necessaries and conveniences work found and provided:" trading in a craft economy, 1691-1730.
4. "The only obstruction at this present is our want of people:" the problem with labor, 1691-1730
5. "For so much as he doth reasonably deserve to have:" tradesmen and the English common law
6. "C'mon brave boys let us be brave for liberty and law:" artisans and politics in New York City, 1730-1763.
7. Conclusion
Acknowledgments