Almost every American knows the traditional story of July Fourth””the soaring idealism of the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress’s grim pledge to defy the world’s most powerful nation with their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. But what else about revolutionary America might help us feel closer to those founders in their tricornered hats, fancy waistcoats and tight knee-breeches?
Those Americans, it turns out, had the highest per capita income in the civilized world of their time. They also paid the lowest taxes””and they were determined to keep it that way.
By 1776, the 13 American colonies had been in existence for over 150 years””more than enough time for the talented and ambitious to acquire money and land. At the top of the South’s earners were large planters such as George Washington. In the North their incomes were more than matched by merchants such as John Hancock and Robert Morris. Next came lawyers such as John Adams, followed by tavern keepers, who often cleared 1,000 pounds a year, or about $100,000 in modern money. Doctors were paid comparatively little. Ditto for dentists, who were almost nonexistent….
Thank you, Kendall, for this fine article. I’m sure there is much more that could be said, but this pretty well sums it up. Happy Fourth!
Clergy in Virginia were paid 16,000 pounds of tobacco. At a penny a pound that works out to about 66 pounds sterling. In Maryland the pay varied with population but was about the same. Clergy often also had a glebe farm; some farmed and others rented out the farm for about 5 pounds sterling. In other colonies clergy who were SPG missionaries (most of them) received between 30 and 50 pounds sterling and the congregations were expected to provide that much by subscription or from use of a glebe farm. The average of one pound sterling to $1000 2013 seems about right.