IMAGINING BOSTON | BRAZIL | BRAZIL - MAKING OF A NOVEL | RIDING THE RAILS | MICHENER'S SECRET COVENANT | HOME
Maritime Boston in early 19th Century
MERCHANT’S ROW Shay’s Rebellion, The Constitution, Embargo, China trade, 1819, Shanghai, Manchester, Lowell -- Rebel, merchantman, factory owner
1782 “The Social Circle” formed from local elite at Concord – 1782-1915m admitted 182 new individuals. The Social Circle began in an effort to forge a local gentry for the new republic, turned into a chamber of commerce by the Jacksonian era, and ended up in the Gilded Age as an important instrument in the forming of an upper class. In each of these phases, Boston played an important part. BS 1783-89 “The Critical Period” 1783 Opening of French West Indies: Guadeloupe and Martinique 1783 October...English ordered seizure of any ship bearing products of a French colony or carrying provisions. During the next three months, the English seized 250 vessels and condemned 150 – 1794 English exempted American trade with French West Indies and Boston ships again took up the trade 1783 Lady Haley, an Englishwoman living in Boston dispatched her ship States to the Falkland Islands x 3000 seal pelts to New York 50 cents x to Orient where they got $5 Russia and the Baltic: Round the world: MA Magazine 1790 The Gazette Attoo – curious Boston was gratified with a sight of him marching after Captain Gray to call on Governor Hancock. Clad in feather cloak of golden suns set in flaming scarlet, that came halfway down his brown legs; crested with a gorgeous feather helmet shaped like a Greek warrior’s, this young Hawaiian moved up State Street like a living flame. = Squanto and others in London. Even before the Columbia returned from first voyage, the 800 ton Massachusetts had started on the direct route around the Cape of Good Hope to India and China. (ill-fated voyage) 1790 70 ton brigantine Hope, Captain Joseph Ingraham – returned May 1792 “So many Boston traders appeared on the NW Coast that the Indians named all Americans “Boston men” 1788 Depression was breaking…Boston began to regain vigor. Boom: Over 1000 local vessels, average less than 75 tons, crowded the Atlantic coastal markets 1790 Boston seemed almost to stand in the water, at least to be surrounded by it and the shipping, with the houses, trees, and churches, have a charming effect. Beacon Hill, a three-peaked grassy slope. Still innocent of its gilded dome, dominated the town. From its base a maze of narrow streets paved with beach stones wound their way seaward among ancient dwellings dividing around Copp’s and Fort Hills to meet again by the water’s edge. One of them, to be sure, led to “landward to the West” but at Spring tides, even that, too, went “downward to the sea.” Buildings crowded out to the very capsills of the wharves, which poked boldly into deep water. The uniform mass of slate and mossy shingle roofs, pointed, hipped, and gambrelled was broken by a few graceful church spires, serene elders of the masts that huddles about the wharves.” 1791 Oct 27 Independent Chronicle “Upwards of 70 sail of vessels sailed from this port on Monday last for all ports of the world.” 1792 BSN Thomas Russell descr. B Charlestown, 1740 he spent time as a young man in the West Indies receiving consignments of cargoes and vessels from NE merchants. After purchasing Gray’s wharf, he was a leader in trade with Russia. He typically sent three ships loaded with NE fish to Lisbon each year arriving in time for the Lenten season. From Portugal the ships would carry cargoes of fruit and wine to Kronstadt, the port of St Petersburg. There Russian iron, hemp and sail cloth would be loaded, for a return trip to Boston and sale to the ship building industry, The Thomas and Sarah was one of Russell’s ships in the Russia trade. Russell also sent ships to the Mauritius in the East Indies for sugar and coffee, on year long trips that matched the Russian voyages. His height was nearly six feet; his eye large, fine, dark, and bright; his countenance, though not fine featured, very expressive and benevolent. He wore his hair powdered and tied, and with a cocked hat; and when seen on Change ( the daily social and business gathering of merchants each afternoon on State Street), wrapped up in his sable lined silk greatcoat from Russia, and having in his hand a gold-headed India cane…. 1793 Wars engendered by the French revolution had began. French extended a boon of incalculable value to Boston: National Convention decree granted American vessels rights of French shipping. During hectic years that followed, trade with France took on uncertain aspect. 1794 Jay’s Treaty between the US and GB, settling differences from non-observation of peace of 1783 caused France to regard the US as unfriendly and to take retaliatory measures, declaring any American vessel submitting to search by English man of war subject to capture. This action led to an undeclared naval wear between U.S. and France that lasted until 1800 and resulted in the capture of 84 French ships. 1794, Nov. Long Wharf “more frequented than any other part of town” – “the harbor at Boston is at this date crowded with vessels. Eighty four sail have been counted lying at two of the wharves only.” (Thomas Pemberton) 1794… “It is reckoned that not less than 450 sail of ships brigs, schooners, sloops, and small craft are now in the harbor.” 1795 In order to purchase opium for the Canton market, the Perkins Company of Boston established a residential agent at Smyrna on the Levantine coast. Within a decade the total merchant shipping of MA had tripled and the Boston fleet second only to New York had grown to three times that of Salem. India Wharf – structure of stores, counting houses and warehouses by Charles Bullfinch. The foremost waterfront development in the US. 1794 keel of the Constitution in Edward Hartt’s yard – her bolts and spikes made by Paul Revere of drawn copper ( drawing = hardening process) 1796 Captain William “Bill” Sturgis entered Boston counting house of his wealthy relative Thomas Handasyd Perkins, At 16 he sailed to the NW and China as foremast hand on Eliza, then chief mate of Ulysses, returning to Boston five years later as master of Caroline. Attacked at mouth of Canton River by Appotsae, a notorious pirate. Battled Atahualpa battle A hero in the eyes of the Mandarin. “Next to a beautiful woman and a lovely infant, a prime sea-otter in the finest natural object in the world.” – Robert Bennett Forbes, to sea at age 12. (13?) Seven years later, not quite 20, Mr. Forbes was bound for Java and China, captain of the 264 ton Levant At age 19, John Boit, Jr. master of the 60 ft sloop Union of Boston…NW coast, his crew of 22 beat off an Indian attack; at Hawaii they found “the females were quite amorous”; they exchanged sea otter for silks at Canton; successfully weathered a four day gale en route to the Cape of Good Hope; seized and then released by a French cruises; fried upon by a British frigate; the battered craft dropped anchor in Boston harbor after a two-year absence. –Indians in NW; fever in tropics; pirates and cannibals in the Pacific; raging storms on the South Seas. By 1800 Boston had reached unprecedented prosperity. BIBL: A Narrative of Voyages and Commercial Enterprises Capt. Richard Cleveland, 1842 x four Boston sloops x NW coast in 1799 “Here is a dramatic story of maritime trade between Boston and ancient China in every voyage via the savage NW coast of North America and the romantic islands of the Pacific.” MARITIME BOSTON Shipping wiped out post-revolutionary Depression and set Boston on a course of financial success that would last the end of the 19th century. Changed from a farm-oriented commercial city to an industrial metropolis. BS F7 “Every ship owner of a generation or two ago hung up two or three of these efforts brought home by a captain or supercargo. The artist who rowed out from shore to ship to solicit a commission whenever a strange craft put into the harbor of his town, charged only a few dollars for his work, and even the humblest sharer in one of the old ships could afford to hang up her picture over his parlor. BS E 56 “The maritime character of Boston in former days is thus exemplified by the description of old Fleet Street by a visitor: “Returning through Fleet Street to Hanover, we find that the use of swing signs and carved figures for the shop fronts or houses of entertainment is by no means so unusual as has been supposed… Jack is represented in every conceivable attitude. We are in no danger of losing our reckoning for quadrants and sextants are pendant from every corner while a jolly tar with spy glass to his eye forever scans the neighborhood for shipping. Female heads with features as weird as those of the famed lady of the Red River gaze from the entrance of some ship artisan, while figures of Venus, Hebe or Mary Ann start forth as if in the act of leaping from the painter’s window to the pavement below. BS D93 Romantic days of commerce: The names of two vessels of this period, the Empress of China and the Grand Turk express quite clearly the feeling of their owners with regard to what they supposed was their great size. They were each about three hundred tons burthen. Major Samuel Shaw, and uncle of Robert Gould Shaw, built the Massachusetts at Braintree, of eight hundred tons burthen. She was looked upon as a monster, and on her outward passage in 1784, was regarded as a show vessel.
BS D98 The wharves with their long row of warehouses were filled with merchandise, lines of square-rigged ships were discharging their cargoes upon the piers, the creaking of hoisting blocks the shouts of stevedores and the bustle of longshoremen in rolling sugar and molasses hogsheads or carrying coffee, bales of wool and cotton, piling up logwood and redwood, counting off and tallying dry hides or horns, arranging great heaps of merchandise for the long-tailed trucks, with white-frocked driver, to take away
BS D99 One of the peculiarities of the early clippers was the provision made on board for “ships cousins” generally bright stalwart lads, friends or relations of the officers who were taken on board to learn seamanship.
1800 BS E69 “In 1800 I was resident of State Street…At that time many estates on the street were occupied as dwelling houses, with offices in the basements…As a boy of four and five years I was playing on the sidewalk in front of my grandfather’s house on State Street. BS E78 Oysters…What a delightful experience it would be after an evening’s attendance at the Tremont Theater to rush down School Street anywhere from ten to twelve o’clock and bring up at Atwood’s oyster shop, near Province street, where a dozen roast on the shell or an old-fashioned stew was at once placed where it would do most good…oysters only were sold, and they were cooked to order on the glowing coals while you waited. It was a small, cheaply fitted up room and blessed were the customers who came in first. There were others and much larger and more elegantly fitted up such as Brighams at Concert Hall, where oysters filled on part of the bill…About the first dealers were the Holbrooks, who sold oysters off two old hulks of vessels in the Town Dock; then came the Atwoods, now a numerous family and well represented in the trade. Merchant Prince rise: Boston developed into an arena for grasping and contending self-interests while the newly ordained federal government continued to serve as a proper medium within which they could promote policies of free enterprise. “Boston: where everyman is for himself; and no man for all” (Robert Crowthey) Government, thought the Boston merchant prince, is based on upon the ownership of property, and the government of Boston was based on the philosophies and behavior of those Bostonians who owned property and whose greatest achievement was the possession of money.
“To a young imagination confined in the straightened girdle of Puritan thought what could be more tempting than a visit to an exotic world, such as Xanadu” 1817 July 4 Daily Advertiser “We understand that the elegant steamboat Massachusetts will be here this day at ten o’clock, and will take a few gentlemen and ladies for a few hours, to sail about the islands in this harbor…The boat came consigned to Messrs. Leland and Robinson, 49 Central Wharf, then recently completed and was moored opposite their store on the north side…
1817 BS E66 “Long Wharf catastrophe of 1817…It was Artillery Election Day. The ship Canton Packet, owned by the Perkinses, 300 to 400 tons, was just loaded with a valuable cargo for the India trade, and ready for sea. Among other things on board were 400,000 dollars in specie, and two casks of gunpowder. The master and crew were on shore enjoying the Boston holiday, leaving in charge a colored lad engaged as a steward and cook. This youth was so exasperated at being deprived of the pleasures of the day that he determined on a desperate and terrible revenge. He fired a pistol into the powder to blow up the ship. The stern was blown off and the incendiary himself was scattered over the harbor. A part of the hull was towed onto the flats then lying north of Long Wharf and saved from entire destruction. The event was the subject of much jocose chaffing directed against the Negroes for many years afterwards, but the colored people when tauntingly asked “Who blew up the ship?” had a habit of retorting, “Who put out the moon?” in allusion to a rush of the fire department to the end of Long Wharf on the appearance of a bright full moon on a hazy summer’s night. Packet Line few Bostonians cared to ship before the mast, and only a scattering of competent British tars and able Scandinavians remained among the motley aggregation of Kanakas from the South Seas, Lascars from India, outcasts, jailbirds and scum form all the seven seas. Easily distinguished by their bell-bottomed trousers and well varnished hats, these “packet rats” could thrive on worse weather, poorer food, less sleep and more rum than any other sailors alive. Only the dreaded belaying pin wielded by a harsh bucko-mate aboard a Boston hell-ship could keep them in subjection. Since the packets had to run on schedule despite the worst kind of weather, the men aboard them were sailing devils, preferring to let canvas blow away rather than take it in.” 1822 Boston and Liverpool Packet Company Colonel Thomas Handasyd Perkins “Long Tom”, Russell and Company – “Come up the hard way, young man” BS E83 Robert Bennet Forbes “At the age of 30 I became gray and imagined myself approaching old age. I had attained the summit of my ambition. I was what was then thought to be comfortably off in worldly goods. I had retired from the sea professionally; I had contributed something toward the comfort of my mother, I had paid off the large debt contracted in building my ship and I began to think more of myself than I had ever done. I felt it was time to settle down and live for myself as well as for others. I bought a house from my old patron and uncle, Thomas H. Perkins, next door to his mansion on Temple Place.
General Frederick Townshend -- War and the Manchu government. As 27-y-o he led 10,000 Chinese “chang-sheng-chun” “ever conquering legion” “Sailing in courses their ancestors had charted” Reverend Edward Thompson Taylor, ex seaman, only preacher that Dickens wanted to hear. FEDERALIST ERA BSN: Tradition that a codfish, gift of Judge Samuel Sewall hung in the house of Assembly of the Province. An old bill dated 1773 presented by Thomas Crafts, Jr. “T painting Codfish – 15 shillings” This fish probably carved by John Welch (born 1711)
BSN: In 1785 Dr. Samuel Myles, a blind man from London and group of his friends at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern founded the Humane Society of Massachusetts at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern. 1786: Opening of the Charles River Bridge between Boston and Charlestown in 1786 – the first long span structure in the new world – gave important impetus to other NE bridge builders. 1786 General discontent in countryside surrounding Boston. Small farmers organized by Daniel Shays, a revolutionary war hero. Armed insurrection. General Ben Lincoln led 4,000 men against the rebels. Rev Jeremy Belknap: “Let it stand on principle that government originated from the peoples but let the people be taught they are not able to govern themselves.” BS F64 “the elaborate woodwork on the Old State House that still attracts passersby on Washington Street was done by Amos Lincoln, one of the Indians who later featured in Shay’s Rebellion and wedded a daughter of Paul Revere NB!!!?? 1786: Shays Rebellion 1787 May Charter of the Independent Boston Fusiliers granted. Uniform adopted was a red coat, white knee breeches, light vest, frilled shirt and a heavy bell-crowned hat with tall white plume. At the first regular parade of the company, July 4, 1787, the Cadets, the Light Infantrymen the Republican Volunteer, the Fusiliers, Captain Green’s Company of light infantry, Captain Spooners and Johnson’s companies of artillery and the Boston and Roxbury Company of cavalry, turned out on State Street to celebrate the ratification of the new federal constitution…On another occasion Governor Hancock gave them entertainment at colonel Coleman’s “Bunch of Grapes” in State Street at which Colonel Green resigned and Colonel William Turner was chosen to command. The company now holds the bill presented to Governor Hancock for the occasion…including 136 bowls of punch, 41 bottles of sherry, several quarts of brandy and 80 dinners.
Philadelphia convention – Marblehead merchant, Eldridge Gerry refused to sign. New city leaders with the British government and officers departed: “Government by the wise, the well-born and the good” Post War “Old Puritan town of wood and thatch transformed into a new Federal style capital of stone and granite “ MA versus Jefferson x atheist and pro-yeoman etc. “political devil incarnate” liberal ideas and secular policies BS F 154 Oct 8, 1789: Rachel Wall hanged on Boston Common for stealing a hat…“on 18 March in the public highway assailed Margaret Benderm and with bodily force seized and put on the bonnet of said Bender of the value of seven shillings. This did she carry away the public peace of this commonwealth. In the document sundry other thefts were referred to, but in point of fact the tradition in the case is that the offence was one involving a quarrel between two women, one of whom snatched the bonnet of the other. The sentence was duly carried out within four days of the time the first president of the United States was welcomed on these streets, The sentence was signed by Hancock…hanged on the spot opposite Mason street entrance to the T BS 314 Public Schools open to girls? Until 1790 no provision was made for girls, though in 1789 three schools were established in Boston for boys, which girls might attend from April to October. It seems incredible that women had no opportunity for education until Harvard College had been founded one hundred and fifty years.” Banks and insurance offices on State Street. Marine insurance companies sprang up. 1792 Gov ordered arrest of actor – School for Scandal BSN: “1793…Civic banquet in 1793 which ended in a glorious drunken brawl which extended from Washington Street to the sea. BSN: Thomas Brattle imported the first church organ from England but the church refused to accept it. Even 77 years later when the church became so worldly as to order an organ from England one of the parishioners was so shocked that he offered to reimburse the church the full cost and to give an equal amount to charity if they would throw the damned thing into Boston Harbor. And he used the word “damned” not as an expletive but with serious conviction. BSN: Franklin Street: Previous to 1792, all the lower part of Franklin Street was a quagmire. No greater change has taken place in Boston than the conversion of this swamp into useful ground. A block of 16 apartment houses was built here in 1793 called the Crescent. In the center was an arch giving access to Arch Street. This was standing as late as 1830. Over the arch was the first public library of Boston 1794 – Theatrical performances were legalized. BS V33 BIBL “Wansey’s Travels in the United States” – “In the year 1794, he found the Bunch of Grapes the best place of entertainment in Boston; that it was kept by Col Colman, and that “though pestered with bugs” his guest paid five shillings a day including a pint of Madeira…Like all foreigners, he complains of the bad bread, and enumerates as a curious phenomena that “there is no tax on candles.”…and that “women and children in most of the country towns go without caps, stockings and shoes.” BS V 6 ….Fr October 9, 1794, Independent Chronicle…”Sung at the celebration of July 4 by a number of French and American citizens at Hamburg. Written by the celebrated Joel Barlow who was then at that place: “Fame let thy trumpet sound “When all the sceptered crew BS E59 Fox Hill: “On morning of July 30, 1794, the seven ropewalks in Pearl Street were burned, when the townspeople have the proprietors leave to, and they built six ropewalks on land where the public gardens now stand.; the brick head houses were on Frog Lane, near Boylston Street, a swampy bog; the one farthest from Charles Street being nearly out on Fox Hill which, at that period, was partially flowed at high tide. The walls of these head houses were cracked and rickety, being on insecure foundations. These ropewalks were all burned on February 18, 1806, and were replaced by five others, like their predecessors, four of five were destroyed by fire on an autumnal evening in 1819 1794 Play prohibition repealed; theater opens in Boston; Massachusetts Historical Society founded, first of its kind in the U.S. (ELU Notes on visit to Otis House) BSN State House cornerstone laid by Paul Revere with full Masonic ceremonies and conveyed to the spot by 15 white horses symbolizing the 15 states which then composed the Union. Bulfinch asked if he were going to bring up his son in the same profession. His reply was, “No, for practically all of the public buildings needed in the country are now complete.” 1799 Trimountaine x Mount Vernon leveled and earth used to fill in river and raise Charles Street 1799 Boston Female Asylum established, an orphanage where homeless girls from three to 10 years were instructed in domestic skills. On departure they were indentured to Boston families. Founded by a group headed by Mrs. Hannah Stillman, the creation of this agency was described in a 19th century history as “the first time women had combined for any public purpose: and the founders had gone “a step beyond what was then considered female duty.”
1800 Theater omitted Saturday night performances 1801 Boston Board of Health orders vaccinations, regulates burials, and quarantines the sick; nondenominational church founded in Lyndon, Vt. 1802 First canal built in U.S. at Bellows Falls, Vt.; Terry and Thomas Connecticut Clockworks mass produce timepieces with interchangeable parts; Bowdoin College opens in Brunswick, ME. 1803 Constitution set off for Tripoli 1805 Iceman Frederick Tudor 130 ton cargo to Martinique 1805 Henry Ware, a Unitarian, elected Hopis Professor of Divinity at Harvard; Daniel Webster pleads his first case in the courthouse in Plymouth, N.H. 1805 = African Meeting House built 1806 Noah Webster publishes first American dictionary at New Haven, Corm.; Massachusetts Congregationalists protesting rising liberalism found Andover seminary to preserve Calvinist orthodoxy; Kittery Portsmouth Naval Shipyard established at Kittery, Me. 1806 June, a total eclipse of the sun at midday without a cloud in the heavens…cows returning from the pastures to the barnyards, fowls slighting on the fences and trees to roost, all of which accompanied by a sky studded with stars in midday of summer, and chill, such as experienced on an autumn evening…Previous evening several Boston gentlemen took their families to Davenport’s Hotel at Milton to view the obscuration from the summit of a hill. It was on the day of this eclipse that a vessel arrived in Boston from Madeira, which gave the name to the Eclipse wine, so celebrated, imported in it by Isaac Davis and others. 1806 Charles Austin, 18, killed by discharge of a pistol by Thomas O Selfridge on Monday, Aug 4 at about one o’clock. A political feud existed between them and on day of killing Selfridge had over his signature in the Gazette branded Benjamin Austin Sr. a “liar, a villain, and a coward.” Mr. Selfridge was a strong Federalist, while Mr. Austin was a Republican. Seeing these words applied to his father, young Austin, then a collegian of Harvard announced his purpose of thrashing Selfridge at night. He met him on State street and after a few hot words, struck at him with his cane when Selfridge drew a pistol and shot him. Death was instantaneous…on the side path near the shop of Mr. Townshend, goldsmith. This shop was identical to the counting room of the Daily Evening Traveler. Selfridge was tried on December 23, 1806 and the jury, of which the midnight rider, Paul Revere was foreman, found him “not guilty” he charge was simply one of manslaughter. Paul Revere was a prominent Federalist and among the Republican section of the people the outcry of indignation at this extraordinary exoneration of Selfridge was loud and long. Admiral Selfridge of the USN is a son of one of the main figures of this old tragedy and another son was murdered on the schooner Plattsburg at sea, and his murderers brought to Boston on a US man of war and hung upon Boston Neck. 1807 Jefferson's Embargo Act, shutting off trade with England, brings economic distress to New England merchants that continues till the end of the War of 1812, in 1814; Boston Athenaeum founded 1810 New seven-story Exchange Coffee House. 1818 BS E66 Exchange Coffee House on Devonshire Street between State and Water Streets burned down…The first house was built in 1808, the same year the late Joy’s building was constructed. For ten years it was one of the wonders of Boston, and nearly every distinguished visitor sojourning in the city made the Exchange his headquarters. It was burned in 1818 and was subsequently rebuilt. In this house was formed the famous Anti-Bell Ringing Society, an organization of the best practical jokers in Boston, formed to bring into ridicule an absurd Boston city ordinance against bell ringing in the “streets, lanes, alleys, and elsewhere in our city. BS CC33 “Columbian Sentinel writes of the Exchange having become the “pride and boast of the metropolis”. The flames brought down everything but the façade which stood isolated at 90 feet. Some sailors were called from the wharves. The latter quickly scaled the wall, and, attaching ropes, succeeded in pulling it within the ruins. It is said that the light of the fire was visible at Amherst NH (?) and Saco, ME. 1812 War of 1812 begins; Fort Cassin, Vt., defended against British; British embargoes on various American ports spur local manufacturing; New England Medical Review and journal (later New England journal of Medicine) begins publication; American Antiquarian Society founded War of 1812: Federalist Leaders throughout New England opposed what they contemptuously called “Jimmie Madison’s war.” 1813 Battle of Chesapeake and Shannon outside Boston Harbor; Colby College founded in Maine; Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry of Rhode Island defeats British in Lake Erie naval battle 1813 May: British Shannon and Temedos were blockading Boston harbor 1814, June 27 General panic in Boston – Paul Revere, 79, assumes helm 1814 BS R1 77 – Private armed brig Armstrong lost after battle with a British squadron at Fayal x Sept 26, 1814 – “Its results were perhaps greater to our country than those of any other battle fought on land and sea in the war.” Capt Samuel Chester Reid. 1814 BSN Along the far edge of the Common is a beautiful mall built with money raised to defend the city from expected attack from the British in 1814. British advance on New York defeated at Plattsburg. BS V151 Boston’s joy at the end of the war of 1812: “Such a day! Men who have for twenty years past cherished a deadly enmity to each other now met and shook hands and smiled together. Federalism and democracy, like the punch which was so liberally quaffed, mingled in sour and sweet, Truck men intoxicated with joy, mounted their sleds and swivels, drove through State Street and at each end made the neighborhood tremble with discharges. Companies paraded. Ladies appeared and sparkled. Shops were closed. The whole town of Boston laughed. As you walked out, you might see whole streets studded with white teeth. In the evening many buildings were illuminated and the moon stood still a whole hour to contribute some little brilliance to the whole scene.” BS U121 “During the embargo, Long Wharf was lined on both sides with dismantled vessels, with barrels over the tops of masts, one head out, to prevent the rain and weather from injuring them. It was a curious sight as you looked down the wharf from State Street. 1815 New England delegates meeting in Hartford protest the commercial disruption of the War of 1812 and demand power for the states; North American Review begins publication
AQ Spring 49 “Indeed so little is known in Europe of the people of the United States,” wrote an American critic of England in 1802 “that it would be necessary if you would describe them…to affirm that they are white as other people, that they live in houses, that they boil and roast their meat, and that they speak the english langiage at least as ell as they do in Devonshire.”…. “In 1810 Europeans clung to the disproved notions regarding the inferiority of American climate, soil, fish, beasts, birds, plants and men.”…”To mid-century the great majority of the educated knew and cared nothing about the men of the United States or its politics, or its condition. Only among the lower classes, to whom America was an escape from the “monotonous prison house” was the United States an object of curiosity and interest.” The House of Perkins : John Perkins Cushing … success of John Perkins Cushing in Canton was largely due to the close relationship he developed with Wu Ping-Chien "Howqua II" (1769-1843), the richest and most powerful of the Hong merchants. The third son of Wu Kuo-Jung "Howqua I" (1731-1810), the founder of the firm, Howqua II grew his wealth through his international trading activities to a magnitude which probably made him the richest man on earth at that time. Houqua was head of the Cohong … Peabody Essex Museum: Rooster tureen x first quarter of the 18th century Cantonese ivory – huge carved tusk Dutch smoking pipe c 1650 with oyster attached. Indian figurehead for ship Ivory desk 1822 Great Fire at Canton Macao pilot up Pearl River Chinese hong Boca Tigris was 40 miles below Canton (Guangzhoo) Canton imperial x foreign trade 1715-1840 Rope design aound door of house.
IMAGINING BOSTON | BRAZIL | BRAZIL - MAKING OF A NOVEL | RIDING THE RAILS | MICHENER'S SECRET COVENANT | HOME
|
