Classes.
In the middle colonies, as in New England and the South, there existed an acknowledged aristocracy, although there was a wide gap between the haughty and elegant Dutch manor-chiefs in New York and the rude gentlemen farmers who headed New Jersey society. The servile classes common to the Southern colonies were also present here, as a foundation for aristocratic distinction; but they were comparatively insignificant in number. Nowhere in this middle group was free white labor regarded as degrading; nearly all the colonists were workers, whether behind the desk or the counter, in the shop or in the field. Trade was exalted to a high station.
Slavery.
New York had many negroes, left over from the Dutch rule, but there was a strong physical prejudice against them, and their further importation was gradually restricted. In 1711 and 1741, on insufficient evidence, the blacks were accused of plots against the whites of New York city, and were cruelly dealt with,—on the former occasion nineteen were hanged; on the latter, eighteen suffered death by the gallows, and thirteen were burned at the stake. The laws against negroes were harsh in all of the middle colonies. But in practice, slaves were mildly treated, compared with those in the South. The Quakers were opposed to human bondage on principle, yet many employed slaves, chiefly as house-servants. There were numerous indented servants, especially in Pennsylvania, and most stringent laws were adopted for their regulation. From these and the negroes the criminal class was recruited. Among Pennsylvania Quakers were formed the first abolition societies.
The Dutch aristocrats.
No aristocrats in America so nearly resembled the nobility of the Old World as the great-landed Dutch proprietors in New York,—such as the Van Rensselaers, the Cortlandts, and the Livingstons. Their vast estates up the Hudson, granted to their fathers in the days of the Dutch West India Company, were rented out to tenant-farmers, over whom they ruled in princely fashion, dispensing justice, and bountifully feasting the tenants on semi-annual rent-days. Some of these estates were entitled to representatives in the assembly, and the lords of the manor practically held such appointments in their keeping. There was an impassable gulf between the rural aristocrats and the small freeholders and tradesmen. This condition of affairs was not calculated to encourage settlement; and out of these feudal privileges, often harshly exercised, there arose conflicts which became riotous as the Revolution approached.
Aristocracy among the Quakers.
The aristocrats of Pennsylvania and Delaware were also the wealthy landed gentry, chiefly Penn's followers; but the class was not strongly marked, and almost imperceptibly faded away into the ranks of the merchants and small freeholders. Each village, however, had its Quaker "squire" or magistrate, in powdered wig, broad ruffles, cocked hat, and gold-headed cane, who meted out justice at the neighboring tavern and was highly regarded. Rich and poor alike, among the Quakers, were simple in tastes and habits. In New Jersey there was a mild recognition of the social superiority of the gentlemen farmers, notwithstanding a strong underlying spirit of democracy; a rude plenty prevailed, and the gentlemen's houses were not without some degree of elegance.
94. Occupations.
The professions.