History

To the Englishman William Moraley, Pennsylvania was a paradise. Moraley was an indentured servant who went to Pennsylvania in 1729. The colony was “the best poor man’s country in the world,” Moraley asserted in his autobiography. As we know, multitudes from many lands did go there. Did they settle in the “best poor man’s country”? Or was Moraley’s conclusion unwarranted? Historians want to know how much opportunity the countless immigrants to colonial Pennsylvania found. You will use primary sources to investigate wealth holding and opportunity in this “best poor man’s country.” The challenge will be to separate fact from opinion, reconcile conflicting evidence, determine whether sources are representative or atypical, and understand the outlook of the subjects.
Question I need to answer in each paragraph-
1) How much equality and inequality existed in this society?

2) What was the pattern of wealth distribution?

3) What were the opportunities for indentured servants, once free, to improve their lot in this society?

4) Is there evidence that some people were getting richer at the expense of others?

ANSWER

The Inequalities in the Colonial Pennsylvanian Community

Morale’s assertions attributing Pennsylvania as ‘the best poor man’s country in the world’ following the colonial revolutionary war remains a controversial issue that needs a critical analysis.  As such, this paper identifies Thomas’ An Historical and Geographical Account of Pennsylvania as a case scenario in investigating wealth holding and the prevalent opportunities of wealth in Pennsylvania during the colonial period.

The equality in Pennsylvania was corrupted and replaced with unequal ways of acquiring wealth. For instance, the society of Pennsylvania regarded wealth to be acquired on the basis of a structure of primogeniture where the right to own wealth was accorded to the first-born child. As a result of this system, the land was unfairly owned by a chain of landed gentry (Thomas, 1707). This chain of noblemen deprived of the poor the right to own wealth within Pennsylvania. It was therefore only possible for the Frontier to acquire wealth other than the ordinary settlers of Pennsylvania.

The trend of distributing wealth was also unequal as it was conducted on the basis of first-come human settlement in Pennsylvania. This pattern of distributing wealth was conducted on the basis of the Frontier influence with the early settlers, a small proportion of the society assuming a Frontier influence thereby controlling large proportions of the wealth. The rest of the society could only accumulate small portions of wealth and had little influence in owning the big tracks of land.

The revolutionary war of the colonial period in Pennsylvania created an opportunity for the indentured servants to generate wealth for their loved ones. The war created an opportunity for the redress of the Frontier influence. The noble among the Pennsylvania colonial community lost most of their accumulated wealth to the rest of the community. For instance, the war saw the median wealth drastically drop by 5% while the poor families generate more wealth (Thomas 1707). The poor households collected more wealth with almost 40% of the population disappearing from the tax list (Thomas, 1707). From the lots of wealth acquired, only the least wealthy were motivated to leave this state confirming Morale’s ideas of ‘the best poor man’s country in the world’ (Thomas, 1707). The less privileged had a chance to acquiring wealth and were no longer motivated to leave this state anymore. Only those who had not accumulated wealth were seen supportive of the idea of leaving Pennsylvania. For the communities who had remained, their likelihood of gaining more wealth to improve the lives of their relatives was so high as the revolutionary war had opened an opportunity for even their relatives to acquire wealth.

There exist a lot of evidence supporting the idea that some people were becoming richer at the expense of their Pennsylvanian counterparts. For instance, the record of the poorest families showing an increased assessed wealth was a sign of their engagement in unfair accumulation of wealth at the expense of others. The other prove that some people were gaining more wealth at the expense of others can be attributed to the disappearance of over 40% households from the state’s tax list (Thomas, 1707). Most people also recorded an increased share of the taxable wealth from 84% to 87% only within a period of 5 years. The landless workers were also reported to own large pieces of land than their previous state. Thomas’ An Historical and Geographical Account of Pennsylvania therefore confirms the wealth holding and prevalent opportunities of accumulating wealth in Pennsylvania during the colonial period. The book presents the inequality that existed in wealth creation. The revolutionary war in Pennsylvania however brought a change that saw the low social class acquire more wealth within the society.

References

Thomas, G. (1707). An Historical and Geographical Account of Pennsylvania and of West New- Jersey, 1698. Myers, Albert Cook. Narratives of Pennsylvania New York: Barnes and       Noble, 332.