The Crown and Colonial Manufacture
It should be noted that, in general, the history of pottery making in colonial America is fragmentary and inconclusive. Scattered documents bear hints of potters and their activities, and occasional archeological deposits contain the broken sherds and other material evidence of potters' products. Difficulty in obtaining information about early pottery manufacture may be related in large part to a reluctance on the part of the colonists to reveal evidence of manufacturing activity to the Crown authorities. It was the established principle of the Mother Country to integrate the colonial economy into her mercantile system, which was run primarily for her own benefit. As a consequence, there increasingly developed a contest between those who sought to protect English manufactures by discouraging production of colonial goods and those who, in America, tried to enlarge colonial self-sufficiency, the latter inevitably resorting to evasion and suppression of evidence in order to gain their advantage.
The outlines of this struggle are suggested in the laws and official reports relating to colonial manufactures. In Virginia, during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, influential landowners encouraged manufactures as a way to offset the dominance of tobacco in the colony, while several acts were passed in the Virginia Assembly to establish official port towns which, it was thought, would result in flourishing craft communities. Although, for a variety of reasons inherent in Virginia's economy and geography, most of these failed, the acts nonetheless were consistently opposed by the Crown authorities. The 1704 Act for Ports and Towns, for example, was vetoed by the Crown in 1709 for the following reasons:
The whole Act is designed to Encourage by great Priviledges the settling in Townships, and such settlements will encourage their going on with the Woolen and other Manufactures there. And should this Act be Confirmed, the Establishing of Towns and Incorporating of the Planters as intended thereby, will put them upon further Improvements of the said manufactures, and take them off from the Planting of Tobacco, which would be of very ill consequence, not only in respect to the Exports of our Woolen and other Goods and Consequently to the Dependance that Colony ought to have on this Kingdom, but likewise in respect to the Importation of Tobacco hither for the home and Foreign Consumption, Besides a further Prejudice in relation to our shipping and navigation.[185]
This forthright exposition of official English attitudes reiterated the policy of colonial economic dependence. The wording of the veto—"encourage their going on with the Woolen and other Manufactures" and "a further Prejudice in relation to our shipping" [italics supplied]—shows that the dangers feared by the Board of Trade regarding the establishment of towns had already become a reality and a threat to English economic policy.
Victor S. Clark, in The History of Manufactures in the United States, points out that the colonists passed so many laws to encourage their own manufactures "that such British intervention as occurred must be regarded rather as indicating the passive disposition of the home government than as defining an administrative policy vigorously carried out."[186] Nevertheless, from 1700 until the Revolution, reports on American manufactures made by royal governors to the Board of Trade demonstrate not only that the Americans were vigorously promoting manufactures but also that they were being evasive and secretive in doing so in the face of official disapproval. The Board of Trade reported in 1733: "It is not improbable that some former governors of our colonies ... may, in breach of their instructions, have given their concurrence to laws, or have connived for many years at the practice of trades prejudicial to the interest of Great Britain...."[187] Governor Belcher of Massachusetts in his report to the Board of Trade complained that "we cannot conceal from your lordships that it is with the greatest difficulty we are able to procure true informations of the trade and manufactures of New England; which will not appear extraordinary when we acquaint your lordship, that the assembly of the Massachusetts Bay had the boldness to summon ... Mr. Jeremiah Dunbar [Surveyor General of his Majesty's woods in North America] before them and pass a severe censure upon him, for having given evidence at the bar of the House of Commons of Great Britain with respect to the trade and manufactures of this province...."[188]
After the Port Act of 1704 was disallowed, the Virginians were harder pressed than the northern colonists, who managed to maintain their frowned-upon industries. Ignoring the Virginians' resentment at being limited almost exclusively to the growing of tobacco, additional economic pressures were put upon them. For example, whereas stripped tobacco—the leaves separated from the stalks—had constituted the principal form of exported tobacco, an Act of Parliament was introduced on January 17, 1729, containing clauses prohibiting the importation into England of "Stript Tobacco." John Randolph, Clerk of the Council of Virginia, wrote a letter to Parliament, petitioning the repeal of the clause. By having to export the stalks, he complained, the planters
are loaded with the duty and Freight of that which is not only of no Value, but depreciates the pure tobacco at least 2d in every pound. The Tobacconists are under a temptation to manufacture the Stalk and mingle it with the leaf, whereby the Commodity is adulterated, and of course the consumption of it is lessend. And the Merchants are obliged to keep great quantities in their Warehouses, and at last to sell upon long Credit. In consequence of which the price of the Planters Labors, is fallen below what they are able to bear. And unless they can be relieved, they must be driven to a necessity of Employing themselves more usefully in Manufactures of Woollen and Linen, as they are not able under the present circumstances to buy what is Necessary for their Cloathing, in this Kingdom....[189]
Although the usual covering phrase, "other manufactures," was omitted here, it could well have been included. Under such adverse restraints, enterprising Virginians were almost forced to turn to surreptitious manufacturing; perhaps the restraints became excellent excuses for pursuing such manufactures, which, perhaps, were in any case inevitable.
Relief came by 1730 with the passage of a new tobacco act, liberalizing the restrictions on the planters. Meanwhile, in 1727, William Gooch was appointed Lieutenant Governor and, owing in part to his political astuteness and sympathetic awareness of the colonists' difficulties, the lot of the planter was greatly improved. Nevertheless, manufacturing persisted as the colonists increased in strength and numbers. Although official restrictions may have been a perverse encouragement to manufactures, the dynamics of a growing population in a new country predetermined even more an expansion of enterprise. Not only did economic depression force the industrious to turn to manufactures as an alternative to poverty, but economic prosperity, when it occurred in the 1730s, provided a financial stimulus to further that prosperity by means of local manufacturing.
Governor Gooch doubtlessly understood this. He was remarkable among Virginia's colonial governors for his ability to achieve what the colonists wanted while pleasing the home government. His administration created an era of good feeling during which the Virginians frequently expressed their gratitude and praise. In 1728, after serving as Governor for seven months, he was given £500 by the Assembly as well as an illegal grant by the Council of £300 from the royal quit-rents, which led George Chalmers, an English historian, to comment sourly in 1782 that for this gift "he in return resigned in a great measure, the government to them."[190]
This was not altogether a fair conclusion, for, though Gooch, as Campbell in his History of Virginia states, may have been possessed of "some flexibility of principle,"[191] he was an extraordinarily successful Governor. Percy S. Flippin concluded that Gooch "was a striking example of what an energetic, forceful royal governor, who was influenced by conditions in the colony and not altogether by his instructions, could accomplish, both for the colony and for the British government."[192] He repeatedly acted in the interests of the colonists, particularly regarding improved tobacco laws. He attended almost every meeting of the Council, whose members constituted the most influential persons in the colony, and thus established a close working relationship and understanding with those who expressed the colonial view-point. Quite evidently he understood that prosperity in the colony was a prerequisite to successful trade with England and to a substantial tax return. In respect to improving the tobacco laws, we know that he opposed existing British attitudes; in relation to colonial manufactures beneficial to colonial prosperity, we may assume that he was sympathetic, even though he could not advocate them openly. Certainly, as Campbell stated, "Owing partly to this coalition [between Gooch and the planters], partly to a well-established revenue and a rigid economy, Virginia enjoyed prosperous repose during his long administration."[193]
Gooch's reports on manufactures to the Board of Trade provide an exercise in reading between the lines. They suggest that he was doing his best to support the colonists while observing the letter of the Crown's instructions. They allude to manufactures here and there, but usually in terms that minimize their importance or that brush aside the possibilities of their growth. Yet in his depreciations one senses that while he was trying to state such facts as were necessary, he actually was trying on occasion to create an impression that was at variance with the whole truth. In tracing the Yorktown potter we shall see that this must have been the case.
In his report of 1732 he made a general statement calculated to allow the Lords of the Board of Trade to relax in calm reassurance, while at the same time encouraging their recognition of his wisdom in initiating a new tobacco law:
There hath been much Discourse amongst the common People of Sowing Flax and Cotton, and therewith supplying themselves with Cloathing: but since the late Tobacco Law hath begun to raise the Price of that Staple, all these projected Schemes are laid aside, and in all probability will Continue so, as long as Tobacco is of any Value, seeing the necessary Cloathing for the Planters and their Negroes, may be more easily Purchas'd with Tobacco than made by themselves. Nor indeed is there much ground to suspect that any kind of Manufactures will prevail in a Country where handycraft Labour is so dear as 'Tis Here; The Heat in Summer, and severe Colds in Winter, accompani'd with sundry Diseases proceeding from these Causes, such as Labouring People in Great Britain undergo, and where the Earth produces enough to purchase and supply all the necessitys of life without the drudgery of much Toil, men are tempted to be lazy.
He then added inconsistently that four ironworks making pots and "Backs for Fireplaces" had been set up in Virginia and admitted that one even included an air furnace. The Lords of the Board of Trade might well have asked how these were accomplished without "the drudgery of much Toil."
He also stated that: "there is one poor Potter's work of course earthen Ware, which is of so little Consequence, that I dare say there hath not been twenty Shillings worth less of that Commodity imported since it was sett up than there was before."[194] It is remarkable that Gooch felt the need to mention the potter at all, since pottery making was usually an anonymous, little-noted craft. Nevertheless, in 1733 he reported again on this seemingly insignificant enterprise:
As to Manufactures sett up, Wee have at York Town upon York River one poor Potter's Work for Earthen Ware, which is so very inconsiderable that I dare Say there has not been forty Shillings' worth less of that Commodity imported since it was Erected than there was before; the poorest Familys being the only Purchasers, who not being able to send to England for such Things would do without them, if they could not gett them Here.[195]
Clearly, we, like the Lords of the Board of Trade, are led to believe that a semiskilled country potter was operating a small shop which produced crude pottery incapable of competing with English wares. The word "poor" can be interpreted doubly, connoting both poverty and low quality. Hence, by inference, it was an enterprise destined to failure. But such an impression of failure was not supported by Gooch's own evidence that the pottery works were continuing year after year. In 1734 he reported:
As to Manufactures We have at York Town, on York River, one poor Potters' work for earthen Ware, which is so very inconsiderable, that there has been little less of that Commodity imported since it was Erected, than there was before.[196]
The 1735 report was equally depreciating,[197] while the following year Gooch opened his report with the comment: "The same poor Potter's Work is still continued at York Town without any great Improvement or Advantage to the Owner, or any Injury to the Trade of Great Britain."[198]
The 1737 report on Trade and Manufactures even contained a special subheading: "Potters' Work." There then followed: "The Potter continues his Business (at York Town in this Colony) of making Potts and Panns, with very little Advantage to himself, and without any dammage to Trade."[199] One wonders why Gooch's persistence in mentioning this enterprise in such terms almost annually did not lead the Board of Trade to question his reasons for mentioning it at all if the pottery was so insignificant. Perhaps they did question it, because in the next report, filed in 1739 after a two-year interval, Gooch dismissed the pottery succinctly, almost impatiently, as though to turn aside further questions that might be raised: "The poor Potter's Operation is unworthy of your Lordships notice." Gooch then proceeded with an admission that:
The Common People in all Parts of the Colony, and indeed many of the better Sort, are lately gott into the use of Loom Weaving coarse cloth for themselves and Negroes; And our Inhabitants on the other side of the Mountains, make very good Linnen which they sell up and down the Country. Nor is the making of Shoes with Hides of their own Tanning less practiced, tho' the Leather is very Indifferent.[200]
It was easier, of course, to admit that the "common People in all Parts of the Colony" were engaged in domestic manufactures than to allow attention to concentrate on a single commercial, industrial enterprise. Only with difficulty could sanctions have been brought to bear against home industries throughout the colony—a single manufactory reported almost annually for eight years was quite another matter. To have lasted this long, the "poor potter" must have been less than poor, and his pottery must have had an importance that either had to be revealed by truthful statement or dissimulated. It appears that Gooch chose the latter course: the pottery being a large enterprise was noticeable; being noticeable it had to be reported; but being large it contributed to the wealth of the colony while competing with British imports which did not, and therefore it should be condoned. Gooch made a practical decision which may reflect his obligation to the colonists: the pottery works had to be downgraded in his reports and attention distracted from it.