Wiert Valentine: Cartman of New York City Politics, Food and Drink in Early Republican New York

Abstract

During the early Republican period (late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century), New York saw the increasing separation of economic groups or classes in their material culture, foodways, and neighborhoods. Wert Valentine was a cartman in New York during this period. Cartmen hauled goods around the city in one-horse carts. Because they performed a crucial function for the economic life of the city, they had greater economic benefits and political influence than other laborers in spite of periodic conflicts with merchants and city politicians. During this period, people from different classes lived next to each other and Valentine lived a couple of doors from a lower level merchant named Vreelandt. It was apparent in the dishes and glasses and the food and drink they put on their tables that the two households had different ways of living. This was true even though Vreelandt was not a wealthy merchant. Valentine’s story shows these increasing differences as seen in the archaeological record.