PATTERNS OF POWER IN A MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY TOWN: HUNTINGTON, LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK, 1848-1862.
Item
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Title
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PATTERNS OF POWER IN A MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY TOWN: HUNTINGTON, LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK, 1848-1862.
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Identifier
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AAI8401944
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identifier
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8401944
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Creator
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MARCUS, GRANIA BOLTON.
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Contributor
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Edward Pessen
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Date
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1983
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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History, United States
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Abstract
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This study analyzes the exercise of power in a predominantly agricultural, relatively stable, town from 1848 through 1862, focusing on four indicators of power: wealth, holding political office, holding voluntary office, and extending credit. It relies primarily on federal census records, including population, agricultural, and manufacturing schedules, assessment rolls, newspapers, chattel mortgages, and real property mortgages, but other sources including account books, diaries, letters, inventories, town records, and the R. G. Dun & Co. credit reports have also been used.;Chapter I examines in detail the nature of Huntington's economy, focusing on the town's major occupational groups and fitting them into the overall occupational structure. It includes a geography of work. Chapter II analyzes the town's social structure, focusing on patterns of wealth and landholding, persistence and geographic mobility, the influence of old family connections, and the recruitment of the dominant economic groups, primarily farmers and merchants. Chapter III describes how the town's government works and analyzes the backgrounds and behavior of town officeholders, comparing them to nonofficeholders on a variety of social and economic variables. The chapter also identifies and analyzes a core political leadership elite of repeat officeholders, and compares them to ordinary leaders. Chapter IV undertakes parallel analyses, but looks instead at associational life and at the holders of voluntary positions. Chapter V considers credit relations as an exercise of power, describes the dynamics of lending in the town, compares the backgrounds of borrowers and lenders on a variety of variables, and identifies and describes the town's core lending elite of repeat lenders. It also assesses the importance of secured credit within the town's overall credit allocation. A conclusion compares these leadership groups, describes the extent to which they overlapped, and looks at future research goals. Appendices detail methods of classifying residents by occupation, locating town residents geographically and constructing a base map, identifying Revolutionary-era families, and linking leaders to various data sources.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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History
