Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Spring 2007 From the Bottom up: Isaac Craig and the Process of Social and Economic Mobility During the Revolutionary era Melissah Pawlikowski Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Recommended Citation Pawlikowski, M. (2007). From the Bottom up: Isaac Craig and the Process of Social and Economic Mobility During the Revolutionary era (Master's thesis, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/1028 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected]. From the Bottom up: Isaac Craig and the Process of Social and Economic Mobility During the Revolutionary era A Thesis Presented to the Faculty Of the History Department McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of The requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts By Melissah Pawlikowski April 3, 2007 Pawlikowski, 2 Melissah J. Pawlikowski Title: From the Bottom up: Isaac Craig and the Process of Social and Economic Mobility During the Revolutionary era Degree: Master of Arts March 19, 2007 APPROVED______________________________________________ Holly Mayer, Ph.D APPROVED______________________________________________ Elaine Parsons, Ph.D APPROVED______________________________________________ Jean Hunter, Ph.D, Chair, Department of History, McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts APPROVED______________________________________________ Francesco Cesareo, Ph.D., Dean McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Pawlikowski, 3 Table of Contents Introduction 5 Historiography 12 Chapter 1: Migration Mobility and Regional Opportunities 19 Hammer and Nails: A Carpenter’s Life in Philadelphia The Luck of the Draw, Craig Buys Land Craig Becomes a Master at Carpentry and His Own Fate Chapter Two: Craig, an Officer in the Making 47 A Timely Decision High “Seize” Adventure A Means to a Social End Three Misleading Letters Chapter 3: Captain Craig in the Continental Army 76 Payment for Service The Importance of Men Victory on the Battlefield Combating Social Hierarchy off the Field Long Knives and Loud Cannons The Sled Strike Chapter Four: Opportunities on the Western Front 112 An Officer and a Speculator Farther Into the Woods Another Step up the Economic and Social Later Pawlikowski, 4 White Men Skulking Holding Down the Fort Independence Chapter 5: The Fruits of Labor; A New Republic 139 Society of the Cincinnati Cashing Out of the Army…and Cashing In Craig, Bayard & Company: Stores, Land, Boats, and Booze Expansion of Opportunities Marriage Mobility Taming the Wild Chapter 6: Big Business 177 As One Door Closes, Nepotism Opens Another On the Coattails of Others Deputy Quarter Master, Hero The Price of Opportunity Rises: The $30,000 Glass Bottle Epilogue: The Lost History of Upward Mobility 206 Bibliography 211 Pawlikowski, 5 Introduction The question of upward mobility has long been fodder for academic debate by early American scholars. On this subject, however, no concession has been reached. Traditionalists substantiate the claim that the unique environment found in early America gave birth and legitimacy to the self-made-man. Revisionist and new left historians, however, have dismissed the myth of upward mobility as an exceptional act for the lower class. An examination of the life of Isaac Craig, a Scots-Irish immigrant who catapulted from lower-class carpenter to affluent entrepreneur and land speculator, reveals that much of the analysis supported by both camps may be seen as accurate. Furthermore, the main objective of this project is to define the actual process of upward mobility so as to expose and promote understanding of the paradox presented in which the Revolutionary era was an exceptional time for successful social and economic mobility yet few men were able to accomplish it. 1 During the Revolutionary era the flood gate of opportunity for mobility and economic growth opened as it had not done before in early American history. That said, few men successfully climbed the social and economic ladder more than a few rungs. These two facts are true because upward social mobility encompasses a combination of increased social and economic prosperity. 1 A substantial portion of this project stems from data collected in the underutilized Craig Collection, 1768- 1868 housed in the Special Collections division of the Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. This collection boosts an astounding 16,000 pages which include personal papers, letters, receipts, deeds, military certificates, legal documents, journals, newspaper clippings, business ledgers, land warrants, indentures, business contracts, muster rolls, military orders, tax documents, business papers, checks. Similar papers, though to a lesser extent, from the Craig-Neville Family collection, held by the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania have also proved valuable. Due to the biases of Neville B. Craig his papers and sketch were used sparingly and with caution. Other primary sources utilized included government transcripts, newspaper ads, census data, the personal papers of multiple men, daybooks, military and other legal documents. Pawlikowski, 6 Historians that tout mobility’s existence isolate the economic prosperity from that of social standing which enables them to illustrate more cases of successful mobility than Historians who view mobility as also requiring social standing. While it is true that the era allowed for many men to gain more economically, as this case study demonstrates, there were still hindrances to social mobility. Difficulties were due to the process of both social and economic mobility being highly individualized complex and arduous process that included an almost endless list of both material and nonmaterial requirements. Many of these requirements included migration, networking, obtaining an officer’s commission if in a war, a dependable support system of socially and economically superior and inferior men, capital, timeliness, location, deception, good decision making skills, aptitude, risk taking, both the ability to recognize and seize opportunity, a likable character, personal drive, as well as both luck and sheer chance. As this lengthy list indicates, many of the factors that helped men increase their wealth were dependent on their increasing their social standing as well. In this, the inability to increase one’s social standing limited one’s economic standing. It should also be noted that many, if not most, of these necessary factors did not fall within any one man’s own control. Thus upward mobility was not an act fully within the agency of, or could be accomplished by, the sheer hard work of any one given man. Social mobility was not based solely upon competition but upon collaboration and cooperation. The rapid economic growth that did take place during the Revolutionary era made economic mobility a predominant feature of American culture, identity, and presumable possibilities. The years following the Seven Years’ War witnessed vast economic growth based on expansion of trade and land. These offered large groups of lower and lower- Pawlikowski, 7 middle-class men increased opportunities to achieve personal independence and desire for larger roles in the growing economy. 2 Subsequently, the rhetoric and ideology of the era and the Revolutionary War itself created the exceptional conditions needed to foster social mobility. Participation in the Revolutionary War provided lower and lower- middle-class men with unique situations that both allowed and called for reorganized relationships to new groups of socially and economically superior men. Moreover, it enabled some lower-class men to develop and demonstrate the required social characteristics believed to be inherently possessed by the supposedly natural aristocracy. Aside from monetary gains, these characteristics included gaining respect from others, demonstrating a strong public moral character and, most importantly in the case of officers, a title which placed men normally in socially similar ranks in positions whereby they received deference as enlisted men. The needs produced by the war ensured that the war could and would be used by lower and lower middle class men as tool that enabled some of them to achieve the final step to upward mobility required in an honor culture. Thus by utilizing a mixture of the revolutionary ideology and the war itself, men like Craig exploited the war in a manner which allowed them to take full advantage of the ongoing transformation of social hierarchy, from one based on rank to that of class. In many ways successful mobility by men like Craig in the military may have assisted others as well. As men like Craig achieved socially advanced positions they brought with them a perspective that did not hold men to standards they themselves did not have, i.e. good breeding. Instead, men like Craig looked for men who offered skills 2 It should be noted I have purposely refrained from using the term “working class,” although I agree with the general use of this term some of the frontier men used in this research are not employed in a traditional manner, i.e. squatters and fur traders. For this reason I have categorized the group of men this research focuses on by