The Legacy of the Nineteenth-Century New England Farmer

Abstract

UPON arrival in the New World, the New England colonists made a fundamental choice: they rejected the English feudal pattern and instead based their society upon the independent farmer. Wielding axe, hammer, and scythe, the yeoman farmer subdued his acreage himself, while his wife plied the spindle, stirred the churn, and rocked the cradle. With neighbors who shared equal opportunity, he performed the citizen's duties of promoting learning and religion. Even through the close of the nineteenth century, when youth increasingly abandoned the farms for more lucrative urban occupations or land farther west, the self-sufficient rural family continued to be regarded as the cornerstone of a democratic society. Records left by generations of New England farmers during this period of western expansion show their appreciation for a unified society. Agricultural gatherings fostered a strong sense of community, and experiences were exchanged in magazines such as the Cultivator and Country Gentleman and the New England Farmer. In the proceedings of state boards were reported the creation of agricultural societies in the West, the changing character of those in the East, and interests common to both; the southern plantation slave-labor society was also examined. That society recognize the farmer's dignity was a concern commonly expressed at the agricultural meetings. There is no pursuit that tends more directly to the independence and happiness of the people than agriculture, the governor of New Hampshire told the legislature in 1836. It is a matter of gratification and pride that it is a calling scarcely less reputable than that requiring the highest order and severest application of intellect.' In a similar spirit, a speaker before the