An illuminating study of America's agricultural society during the Colonial, Revolutionary, and Founding eras
In the eighteenth century, three-quarters of Americans made their living from farms. This authoritative history explores the lives, cultures, and societies of America's farmers from colonial times through the founding of the nation. Noted historian Richard Bushman explains how all farmers sought to provision themselves while still actively engaged in trade, making both subsistence and commerce vital to farm economies of all sizes. The book describes the tragic effects on the native population of farmers' efforts to provide farms for their children and examines how climate created the divide between the free North and the slave South. Bushman also traces midcentury rural violence back to the century's population explosion. An engaging work of historical scholarship, the book draws on a wealth of diaries, letters, and other writings-including the farm papers of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington-to open a window on the men, women, and children who worked the land in early America.
- ISBN10 030022673X
- ISBN13 9780300226737
- Publish Date 10 July 2018 (first published 22 May 2018)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Yale University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 400
- Language English
- URL http://wiley.com/remtitle.cgi?isbn=9780300226737