Global Trade and Luxury in 18th-Century Boston
Inquiry Question 1: How did the acquisition of goods from around the world impact the political and cultural identity of the growing colonies?
Inquiry Question 2: How did the demand for luxury goods in the colonies lead to an increase of global trade?
Inquiry Question 3: In what ways did the institution of slavery play a role in the creation and distribution of these items?
Background Reading for Students
Learn about the materials used to make the objects you'll work with in this source set:
- Where did they come from?
- What labor was involved in their creation?
- How did they end up in Boston in the 1700s?
Ceramics/Porcelain
Porcelain is a special kind of fine pottery from which dishes, bowls, and cups are made.
Porcelain imported into the American colonies by the British East India Company in the 1700s was produced in southeastern China. By that time, the Chinese had been mass producing porcelain for several centuries.
People in Europe and America were fascinated by them because of their beauty and elegance. During the colonial period in Boston, wealthy people started to collect and buy porcelain to show their wealth and good taste. Exceptionally fine porcelain became known as china, and these words became used interchangeably.
In colonial Boston, porcelain was considered a luxury because it was rare, expensive, and came from far away. People used it for special occasions and to impress visitors. As trade between China and Great Britain grew, more porcelain became available in the colonies so that it became a symbol of wealth and style, connecting Boston colonists to the British Empire and to a long tradition of craftsmanship from East Asia.
Silver
The origins of silver in the American colonies come from the discovery of natural deposits in silver mines in South and Central America. These mines were controlled almost extensively by the Spanish. While silver mines were also found in Europe, the mining process was cheaper in the Americas, and as a result most of the silver in the 18th century was exported to Europe and Asia. During the 17th and 18th centuries, silver was highly prized because it was used to make fine items like jewelry and decorative items like teapots and servingware. Another important use of silver was in making currency.
Silk
Silk was an important fabric in colonial Boston because it showed wealth and style. Silk comes from silkworms in China, and the Chinese protected the silk trade so that the process of making silk was kept secret from anyone outside of China. British ships bought raw silk from China and shipped it to England, where it was woven into decorative fabrics and clothing. Then, those silk fabrics would be imported from London to cities like Boston where colonists could buy them.
People in Boston wanted to look fashionable, and wearing silk helped them do that. While clothing and other items made from wool and linen and cotton were very typical, it is not difficult to see how silk would be very desirable! Silk items were advertised in many newspapers: shoes, handkerchiefs, ribbons, hats, and of course fabrics to be made into suits and gowns. The beautiful colors, designs, and the overall feel of the silk fabric was a sign to other colonists of the wearer’s style and luxury.
Mahogany
Mahogany is a special type of wood. In the 18th century, mahogany wood was very valuable and used to make fancy furniture like tables and chairs, or finishing touches on ships and homes like paneling, stairs, and doors. It mostly came from the Caribbean, Central America, and parts of South America. Harvesting mahogany was hard, dangerous work. Workers, many of whom were enslaved people, were forced to chop down mahogany trees in hot climates and dense forests. Then, they dragged the heavy logs to rivers, where the logs were floated down to ports. From there, the wood was shipped across the ocean to Europe and North America. The demand for mahogany grew as Boston became a busy port for trade. Mahogany was very expensive and became a symbol of wealth, showing off the owner’s status in society.
Morocco leather
Moroccan leather is a special kind of leather made from the hides of animals, and Morocco became famous for producing some of the best leather in the world. While leather from deerskin could be sourced easily in North America, Moroccan leather from North Africa and the Middle East was very desirable. It was seen as a valuable import because it was used to make high-quality items like bookbindings, wallets, and shoes. People in Massachusetts and other colonies valued this leather because it was strong, beautiful, and long-lasting.
Benjamin Joy’s mahogany wood sea chest, 1795
This chest was used by Benjamin Joy of Newburyport, MA, who served as first U.S. Consul[a government official who represents their country in a foreign city] at Calcutta, India. This sea chest was made in India by an unidentified maker and is of mahogany wood with brass fittings and Wedgwood porcelain. The heavy chest features a felt covered desk, secure compartments to hold inks and other liquids, more compartments for brushes and a sewing kit, drawers, a mirror, washbasin, chamber pot, and a bidet. Portable chests like these were very important for passengers on long sea voyages. For example, Joy’s return trip from India to Boston took 216 days! No one else on the ship's crew would have had access to these amenities.
Appointed Consul to India by President Washington, Joy arrived in Calcutta in April 1794. The British East India Company refused to recognize him, but he stayed there as a “commercial agent” for about a year before sailing back to Massachusetts. This marked the beginning of America’s official relationship with India.
Citation: Sea chest belonging to Benjamin Joy, circa 1795, Massachusetts Historical Society, www.masshist.org/database/4252
Edes Family porcelain punch bowl, circa 1760-1770
This porcelain punch bowl was made in China during the Qing dynasty and belonged to Benjamin Edes of Boston. Edes was one of the printers who owned The Boston Gazette, one of the most influential Patriot newspapers in Boston leading up to the American Revolution. Edes was a leading voice in the fight against England’s Parliament and often organized meetings of local “Patriots” in town at his home. When Bostonians decided to protest against Parliament’s Tea Act in 1773, participants met at Edes’s home and drank punch from this bowl before proceeding to Griffin’s Wharf on December, 16, 1773. This event later became known as the Boston Tea Party, in which three chests of tea were destroyed and thrown into Boston Harbor.
Citation: Edes family Tea Party punch bowl, Porcelain, made by an unidentified maker in China, circa 1760-1773, Massachusetts Historical Society, www.masshist.org/database/1828
...I recollect perfectly well that in the afternoon preceding the evening of the destruction of the tea, a number of gentlemen met in the parlor of my father's house,—how many I cannot say. As I said before, I was not admitted into their presence; my station was in another room, to make punch for them, in the bowl which is now in your [the Massachusetts Historical Society's] possession, and which I filled several times. They remained in the house till dark,—I suppose to disguise themselves like Indians,—when they left the house, and proceeded to the wharves where the vessels lay.
- Peter Edes, son of Patriot newspaper publisher Benjamin Edes, remembers the night of the Boston Tea Party, which occurred when he was a teenager
Benjamin Franklin's punch recipe, 1763
In the 1700s, colonists used rum and brandy to make punches to drink at parties, or to cure a cold.
Recipe ingredients included:
- Citrus fruits (e.g., lemon and lime) from the Caribbean
- Sugar from the Caribbean harvested by enslaved people
- Boston-made rum
- Spices from Indonesia / the East Indies
Rum was made in the colonies from molasses. Enslaved people harvested molasses in the Caribbean and merchants shipped it to the colonies as part of the triangular trade[A trade system in which British ships took a “triangular route.” One route was bringing sugar and molasses from the Caribbean to New England, where it was turned into rum. Then, merchants sent the rum to Africa and traded it for enslaved people. Those people were taken back to the Caribbean to be forced to work on farms and make more sugar.] route.
Punch was made in large quantities and designed to be sold (and drank) quickly. In most punches, when stored for a long period of time, the citrus and sugar can cause a shorter shelf-life. Ben Franklin's Milk Punch recipe includes milk, which acts as a natural preservative and removes the impurities that form. This makes it ideal for a longer lasting beverage.
Citation: Benjamin Franklin's milk punch recipe, 11 October 1763, From the Bowdoin-Temple papers in the Winthrop family papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, www.masshist.org/database/263
To make Milk Punch
Take 6 quarts of Brandy, and the Rinds
of 44 Lemons pared very thin; Steep the
Rinds in the Brandy 24 hours; then strain
it off. Put to it 4 Quarts of Water,
4 large Nutmegs grated, 2 quarts of
Lemon Juice, 2 pound of double refined
Sugar. When the Sugar is dissolv'd,
boil 3 Quarts of Milk and put to the rest
hot as you take it off the Fire, and stir
it about. Let it stand two Hours; then
run it thro' a Jelly-bag till it is clear;
then bottle it off. --
John Vryling and John Hancock's silver punch strainers, 1700s
In the 1700s, people used strainers made of silver when they made rum punch.
Once the punch was made, a silver strainer was placed on top of a punch bowl. The strainer's two handles would reach to the edges of the bowl. The punch was poured through the strainer so that it would catch the spices and prevent them from ending up in anyone's drinking glass.
The MHS has two silver strainers in its collection, including the one pictured here and another strainer owned by John Hancock. In 1777, Governor John Hancock, one of the wealthiest people in Massachusetts, had an inventory, or list, made of the many pieces of silver he owned, including his punch strainer. Both silver punch strainers have Latin engravings on them, showing that both were valuable items.
Citations:
Punch Strainer, Silver with engraved text on handles, by William Breed, [Boston, ca. 1741], Massachusetts Historical Society, www.masshist.org/database/1920
Punch strainer belonging to John Hancock, Silver, [England, 17--], Massachusetts Historical Society, www.masshist.org/database/2517
Phillis Wheatley Peters’ mahogany wood writing desk, circa 1760
This table is made of mahogany wood and folds out to create more space. Originally designed as a table for playing cards or drinking tea, Phillis Wheatley Peters instead likely used this as her writing desk while she composed poetry and wrote letters to friends. When she and her husband John Peters moved from Boston to a farm in Middleton, MA, they brought her writing table with them.
More about Phillis Wheatley Peters: Born in the Senegambia region of West Africa, Wheatley Peters was kidnapped from her home when she was around seven or eight years old, and the wealthy Wheatley family bought and enslaved her in Boston. She learned to read and write English, Greek, and Latin, and began publishing poetry at the age of 14. She quickly became a celebrated literary figure. Phillis Wheatley Peters became the first Black American to publish a book with the 1773 release of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Wheatley Peters traveled to London to find support for her book, where it was published. The first copies of her book arrived in Boston on one of the ships carrying tea that was destroyed during the Boston Tea Party. Wheatley Peters became a free woman shortly after returning to Boston from London, and depended on book sales to make a living.
Citation: Phillis Wheatley's writing desk, Mahogany folding card table, Charlestown, Mass., circa 1760, Massachusetts Historical Society, www.masshist.org/database/363
"[When they moved to a farmhouse in Middleton,] John and Phillis may have wanted their mahogany table and other furnishings purchased in Boston to have pride of place in the parlor."
- Historian Cornelia Dayton writing about John and Phillis Peters' years in Middleton, MA from 1781-1784 (2021)
Rebecca Tailer’s silk gown & shoes, imported from London, 1747
This silk gown was the wedding dress of Rebecca Tailer (1718-1775) who wore the gown at her 1747 Boston marriage to Old North Church’s Reverend Mather Byles (1707-1788). The raw silk would have originated in China, been shipped to London where the fabric was designed, and then exported[shipped from one country or territory to another to be sold] to the colonies.
The designer of the floral brocade pattern was most likely the renowned Anna Marie Garthwaite who worked in Spitalfields, where London’s finest silks were woven. The quality of Spitalfields silk is evident in the survival of this magnificent fabric and its natural deep green dye, unfaded for over 270 years. During the Revolution, many members of the Loyalist Byles family fled from Boston to Canada, but they managed to preserve this silk dress and matching shoes.
The dress does not look exactly as it did in 1747. In the 18th and 19th centuries, people would make changes to clothing to update them to match changing styles. This dress was refashioned circa 1770 and again by less talented hands in the late 1800s. For example, the pleated length of fabric that fell from the back neckline to the floor was removed and the neckline and sleeves were changed.
Citation: Dress belonging to Rebecca Tailer, Silk brocade by unknown maker, [Massachusetts?], circa 1747-late 19th century, Massachusetts Historical Society, www.masshist.org/database/3542
John Breed's morocco leather wallet, 1732
This wallet, or “pocketbook” as it was called in the 18th century, belonged to the Massachusetts colonist John Breed. It would have been used to hold papers. In the 1700s, Boston newspapers often featured advertisements written by men who had lost their red leather pocketbooks and were seeking help in finding them.
Souvenir pocketbooks of like Breed's were made in northern Morocco and in Turkey from the late 17th century to the 1770s. This wallet is rectangular-shaped and made from red morocco leather, with a scalloped edge on the closing flap and sides stitched together with linen thread. The front is entirely embroidered with metallic threads. Embroidered beneath the flap on the red leather is “JOHN BREED / 1732” in metallic thread, and “TETUAN” (the name of a city in northern Morocco) embroidered within a geometric frame on the back.
John Breed likely never traveled to Morocco. Instead, he bought a wallet that had been made in Morocco for a European marketplace and then imported[brought into one country or territory from another for sale] to London and the colonies. Breed would have had it embroidered in Boston with his name and the date.
Citation: Pocketbook belonging to John Breed, Leather, metallic thread, linen thread by unknown maker, Tetuan, Morocco, 1732, Massachusetts Historical Society, www.masshist.org/database/3559
LOST last Week, a Red Morocco Pocket-Book, having in it a Memorandum Book and some Papers. Whoever will bring it to the Printers shall receive Two Dollars Reward.
-An ad placed in The Boston Evening-Post, 21 December 1772
Where this source set fits in the curriculum
This source set is designed for the 5th and 6th grade classroom. Teachers should have already previewed the 13 colonies, mercantilism and/or the Navigation Acts (for the 6th grade), and the concept of the triangular trade with students prior to using this source set. This source set is also designed to be a part of a larger conversation around the emerging sense of political and cultural identity growing in the 13 colonies as a precursor to the revolution.
Background Readings
Reading 1: Contextual history of the materials used to make the objects in this source set
Ceramics/Porcelain
Porcelain is a special kind of fine pottery from which dishes, bowls, and cups are made.
Porcelain imported into the American colonies by the British East India Company in the 1700s was produced in southeastern China. By that time, the Chinese had been mass producing porcelain for several centuries.
People in Europe and America were fascinated by them because of their beauty and elegance. During the colonial period in Boston, wealthy people started to collect and buy porcelain to show their wealth and good taste. Exceptionally fine porcelain became known as china, and these words became used interchangeably.
In colonial Boston, porcelain was considered a luxury because it was rare, expensive, and came from far away. People used it for special occasions and to impress visitors. As trade between China and Great Britain grew, more porcelain became available in the colonies so that it became a symbol of wealth and style, connecting Boston colonists to the British Empire and to a long tradition of craftsmanship from East Asia.
Learn more: East and West: Chinese Export Porcelain | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Silver
The origins of silver in the American colonies come from the discovery of natural deposits in silver mines in South and Central America. These mines were controlled almost extensively by the Spanish. While silver mines were also found in Europe, the mining process was cheaper in the Americas, and as a result most of the silver in the 18th century was exported to Europe and Asia. During the 17th and 18th centuries, silver was highly prized because it was used to make fine items like jewelry and decorative items like teapots and servingware. Another important use of silver was in making currency.
Learn more: The Complexity of Silver | Colonial Society of Massachusetts
Silk
Silk was an important fabric in colonial Boston because it showed wealth and style. Silk comes from silkworms in China, and the Chinese protected the silk trade so that the process of making silk was kept secret from anyone outside of China. British ships bought raw silk from China and shipped it to England, where it was woven into decorative fabrics and clothing. Then, those silk fabrics would be imported from London to cities like Boston where colonists could buy them.
People in Boston wanted to look fashionable, and wearing silk helped them do that. While clothing and other items made from wool and linen and cotton were very typical, it is not difficult to see how silk would be very desirable! Silk items were advertised in many newspapers: shoes, handkerchiefs, ribbons, hats, and of course fabrics to be made into suits and gowns. The beautiful colors, designs, and the overall feel of the silk fabric was a sign to other colonists of the wearer’s style and luxury.
Learn more: Textile Production in Europe: Silk, 1600–1800 | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Mahogany
Mahogany is a special type of wood. In the 18th century, mahogany wood was very valuable and used to make fancy furniture like tables and chairs, or finishing touches on ships and homes like paneling, stairs, and doors. It mostly came from the Caribbean, Central America, and parts of South America. Harvesting mahogany was hard, dangerous work. Workers, many of whom were enslaved people, were forced to chop down mahogany trees in hot climates and dense forests. Then, they dragged the heavy logs to rivers, where the logs were floated down to ports. From there, the wood was shipped across the ocean to Europe and North America. The demand for mahogany grew as Boston became a busy port for trade. Mahogany was very expensive and became a symbol of wealth, showing off the owner’s status in society.
Morocco leather
Moroccan leather is a special kind of leather made from the hides of animals, and Morocco became famous for producing some of the best leather in the world. While leather from deerskin could be sourced easily in North America, Moroccan leather from North Africa and the Middle East was very desirable. It was seen as a valuable import because it was used to make high-quality items like bookbindings, wallets, and shoes. People in Massachusetts and other colonies valued this leather because it was strong, beautiful, and long-lasting.
Learn more: 1755 red morocco leather pocketbookk | Colonial Williamsburg
Reading 2: International Slave Trade in colonial Massachusetts
Historical Context Essay: The International Slave Trade in 18th Century Massachusetts (Teacher Background)
Slavery was common, legal, and vital to the colonial economy of Massachusetts Bay from the first years of its founding. The first documented reference to the sale of enslaved people in Massachusetts is in the journal of John Winthrop (the founder of Boston), who recorded on February 26, 1638 that the Massachusetts ship Desire had returned from the West Indies carrying "some cotton, and tobacco, and negroes, etc., from thence..." (Dunn et al, eds., Journal, 1996, p. 246). In 1641, Massachusetts established legal precedent for chattel slavery in its first legal code known as “The Body of Liberties,” which justified the lifelong enslavement of Indigenous peoples and people of African descent. This code formed the basis for similar laws in places like New York, Virginia, South Carolina and Barbados.
Massachusetts and Rhode Island were the principal slave trading colonies in New England, and Boston was one of the primary ports of departure for ships carrying enslaved people. The ownership of enslaved people was significant economically in Rhode Island where there were sizable plantations using enslaved labor. In Massachusetts, the ownership of enslaved people probably was of limited economic importance except in Boston where craftsmen used enslaved people in their trades, but the shipping and sale of enslaved people out of Boston was much more significant. Wealthy merchants such as Peter Faneuil enslaved and traded African peoples between Africa, the Caribbean, and New England for profit. The height of this practice in New England is generally considered to be during the period 1740-1769.
In 1644, Boston merchants began importing enslaved people directly from Africa, selling them in the West Indies, and bringing home sugar to make rum, initiating the so-called triangular trade. From 1672-1696, the British Parliament granted the Royal African Company a monopoly. Yankee merchants avoided the monopoly by smuggling enslaved people in through small coastal harbors. In 1681, John Saffin and other Boston merchants wrote to the shipmaster William Welstead, warning him that the authorities planned to seize a ship carrying enslaved people heading for Rhode Island, and that he should intercept the vessel and direct it to Nantasket to offload its human cargo. In 1696 the British Parliament revoked the monopoly held by the Royal African Company, enabling Massachusetts merchants and shipmasters to engage freely in the trade of enslaved people.
Colonial governors in the eighteenth century were specifically forbidden to assent to any law laying duties on or discouraging the trade of enslaved people (Greene, p. 24). There were some attempts to regulate or even to eliminate it, but most were ineffective or of short duration. A miscegenation act of 1705-1706 included a ÂŁ4 import duty on enslaved people brought into the colony, but an owner could recoup his expenses if an enslaved person were sold out of the colony within a year, or if they died within six weeks of import. It has been argued that this act, rather than curtailing the practice of selling and trading enslaved people, was simply a revenue-raising endeavor for the colony (Greene, p. 56).
Hugh Hall, originally from Barbados, was a wealthy, white commission merchant in Boston who carried on a significant trade with his island homeland, part of which involved importing enslaved people from Barbados to Boston. His account book for the years 1728-1733 contains pages (pp. 5, 6, 8, 9, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36) with entries concerning enslaved people and their purchasers. Hall often noted when people he enslaved died, or were sold out of the province, probably so that he could recover the costs of import duties.
Other, heavier duties were proposed at various times through the eighteenth century, but they were either voted down, or took effect for only a year. For example, a 1767 bill (March 1767 manuscript copy, April 1767 manuscript copy) to impose a duty of ÂŁ40 on the importation of enslaved people into Massachusetts, was "unanimously non-concurred" (voted down) in the House.
It is important to note that as long as slavery existed in Massachusetts there were enslaved people who resisted it and took actions to end it. Enslaved people challenged slavery by running (or, sailing) away from their enslavers; taking their enslavers to court in freedom lawsuits; saving up money to purchase their own freedom; coming to an agreement with an enslaver to manumit, or free, them; or, by petitioning the Massachusetts legislature to change the laws and end the entire system of slavery in the colony.
Close Reading Questions
These are individual questions for each source that helps students to think deeply about how each object connects to the source set's themes.
Source 1: Benjamin Joy’s mahogany sea chest, 1795 (4 images)
These questions can be used as a hook activity to introduce students to the source set.
- Benjamin Joy would have filled this chest with items that he needed. What 5 items would you bring with you if you were to move away to live in a different place?
- Imagine that you are going to move very far away to a place that you might not speak the same language or know the customs or culture. What NEW item would you bring with you? Why did you decide to add this item?
Source 2: Edes family porcelain punch bowl, circa 1760-1770
- What does the craftsmanship, design, and origin of an 18th-century porcelain punch bowl tell us about the social customs, trade relationships, and cultural values of its time?
- What other global connections might have been related to the Boston Tea Party? What does this tell you about Boston in 1773?
Source 3: Ben Franklin's milk punch recipe, 1763
- Why would punch be considered a globally sourced item?
Source 4: Silver punch strainers, 1700s
- silver punch strainer made in Boston in 1741
- John Hancock's silver punch strainer, made in England, 1700s (aerial view)
- Why might someone need a strainer like this for serving punch?
- What does it tell you that this item was made of silver?
Source 5: Phillis Wheatley Peters' mahogany writing desk, circa 1760
- Phillis Wheatley Peters' anti-slavery poem, To the Right and Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth ... (MHS Collections online)
- How is the mahogany used to make the writing desk connected to the slave trade?
- In her poetry, Phillis Wheatley Peters often wrote about the colonies’ freedom from being “slaves to England.” What is the significance of an enslaved woman like Phillis writing about freedom on a desk made from materials that are connected directly to slavery?
- How can both the book of poems and the writing desk be considered imports from England?
Source 6: Rebecca Tailer's silk gown & shoes, 1747
- Dress belonging to Rebecca Tailer (2 images)
- Shoes belonging to Rebecca Tailer Byles
- These silk damask shoes were made in London.
- Why is a silk gown and matching silk shoes a symbol of status?
- What different places was this silk dress connected to?
Source 7: John Breed's red morocco leather wallet, 1732 (3 images)
- Why would someone from the colonies want to import Moroccan leather if leather could be sourced cheaper elsewhere?
- How is this similar to / different from ways in which individuals carry things around with them today?
- What does it mean this wallet was likely a souvenir? Do you have any souvenir items from faraway places?
Suggested Activities
Hook Activity: Benjamin Joy's mahogany sea chest
Materials:
Activity Overview: Students make connections to Joy's mahogany sea chest by considering items they would bring on a long journey to a new place.
Context: Joy's journey home to MA from India took him 216 days in 1796! The sea chest he brought home with him in his private cabin contained items for shaving, writing letters, washing, and using the bathroom, and afforded him privacy and luxury the rest of the ship's crew would have lacked.
Gallery Walk Activity
Materials:
- Sources 2-7 in the source set
- Background reading
- Gallery Walk Google slides
- Gallery Walk handout
Activity Overview: Students observe each primary source set and consider the object's context: its purpose, materials and origins, who may have used it, and when. Then, after reading the description of each source they analyze what each object tells us about the people who made and used the objects, and what we can learn about colonial Boston's values from these objects.
Note: Teachers can print out the slides as posters to place around the room, or students can complete the Gallery Walk on computers using the Google Slides. Students should do the background reading before they do the Gallery Walk.
Mapping Trade Activity
Materials:
Activity Overview: Students analyze a map based on a protocol from the National Archives. Then, students place the objects from the source set on one location where they think it best belongs on the map. On the handout or in a turn-and-talk, they explain their thinking about why they made the choice they did.
Exploring connections between 18th century global trade and slavery
Materials:
- Student Background Reading: The International Slave Trade in 18th Century Massachusetts
- Global Trade and Slavery Google Slides
- Uses: sources 1, 3, 4, 5
Activity Overview: Have students read the historical context essay and then share the slide deck. Discuss ways in which the Dutch, Spanish and British empires used forced and enslaved labor to produce and trade goods.
Context: In the 1600s, the Spanish Empire gained wealth by enslaving Indigenous people in South America and forcing them to labor in silver mines. People in the North American colonies used silver in the production of both money and household goods (which could be melted down and turned into money). Enslaved Africans harvested Mahogany from trees in Central America and the Caribbean, which was then shipped to far-flung parts of the British Empire to become furniture. Alcoholic punch recipes used sugar and citrus fruits from English colonies in the Caribbean and spices from Dutch-controlled Indonesia, much of which depended on forced labor and enslaved peoples to grow and harvest it.
Applicable Standards
MA History/Social Science and ELA Frameworks
H/SS Skill Standards
- Develop focused questions or problem statements and conduct inquiries
- Organize information and data from multiple primary and secondary sources
- Argue or explain conclusions, using valid reasoning and evidence
H/SS Content Standards
Grade 3. Topic 5. The Puritans, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Native Peoples, and Africans
Grade 5. Topic 1. Early colonization and growth of colonies
ELA Anchor Standards
Writing
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
C3 Frameworks
- D2.Eco.3.3-5. Identify examples of the variety of resources (human capital, physical capital, and natural resources) that are used to produce goods and services
- D2.Eco.15.K-2. Describe products that are produced abroad and sold domestically and products that are produced domestically and sold abroad
- D2.Geo.4.6-8. Explain how cultural patterns and economic decisions influence environments and the daily lives of people in both nearby and distant places.
- D2.Geo.11.6-8. Explain how the relationship between the environmental characteristics of places and production of goods influences the spatial patterns of world trade
- D2.His.16.3-5. Use evidence to develop a claim about the past
- D2.His.16.6-8. Organize applicable evidence into a coherent argument about the past
Educator Resources for Teaching with Objects
PZ's Thinking Routines Toolbox | Project Zero (Harvard Graduate School of Education)
Below, find additional primary and secondary sources about 18th century goods and resources from the collections of the MHS and external institutions. (There is some overlap between categories.)
Mahogany
From Forest to Foyer: Rhode Island and Mahogany in the 18th Century | The Rhode Island Historical Society
This digital exhibit is based on historian Jennifer L. Anderson’s Mahogany: The Costs of Luxury in Early America (2012) and was created in collaboration between the Rhode Island Historical Society and Dr. Anderson. In Dr. Anderson's own words, her book "explores how the desire for beautiful mahogany furniture in colonial North America had significant human and ecological impacts in the Caribbean and Central America where these coveted trees were harvested by enslaved Africans." The digital exhibit includes written and visual primary sources from the John Carter Brown Library and other New England archives.
The People in the Pews: The Bay Pew | The Old North Church & Historic Site
This blog looks at logwood, another wood with deep ties to Boston's colonial elite and the system of slavery (in this case in Belize).
MHS Collections Online: Octagonal table with drawers [Jefferson’s rent table] | MHS
This mahogany and poplar table belonged to Thomas Jefferson and has been on loan to Monticello since 1928.
Porcelain
Historypin | Ties That Bind: US and China | Boston Tea Party -- "The Party Before the Party" | Five College Center for East Asian Studies
This short blog post gives some additional context about the Edes punch bowl used in the source set and the ways in which the Boston Tea Party (known in the 18th century as the "Destruction of the Tea") was "a product of globalization."
A Grand Souvenir! | Colonial Williamsburg
This blog post explores the rich symbolism in a porcelain Hong punch bowl crafted in China for the U.S. market in 1787-8.
East and West: Chinese Export Porcelain | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
This article explores Chinese porcelain made for and exported to the European market, spanning the 14th through the late 19th centuries.
Silver
Sugar box – Decorative Arts of the Americas | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
This silver sugar box was crafted by John Coney, a Boston-based silversmith, circa 1680-85. The item description describes the human costs of both silver and sugar in this time period, noting that "Sweetness and silver were luxuries purchased at a great price-in both human and economic terms-in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Inhumane slave labor was used to extract silver ore from the mines at Potosi and elsewhere in South America and to grow and harvest sugar cane in the West Indies. Wealthy consumers then expended considerable sums to buy the imported sugar and to commission elaborate silver vessels, such as these three sugar boxes, to hold the precious substance on their tables."
"The Complexity of Silver" | Colonial Society of Massachusetts
This article by the historian Richard Lyman Bushman explores the significance of silver in 16th and 17th century Massachusetts as both money and a material used in material luxury goods. Bushman notes that it was important to colonial families that their silver punch strainers, candlesticks, or teapots were most valuable for their weight in silver and not in their form as a household good.
MHS Collections Online: 1652 New England shilling | MHS
Early settler-colonists in Massachusetts Bay colony used coins made of silver. On 26 May 1652, the Massachusetts General Court authorized John Hull to establish a mint to produce coinage; he chose Robert Sanderson as his partner. Initially, the mint produced three denominations: shilling, sixpence, and threepence. Hull and Sanderson operated the mint for 30 years. This is an example of a shilling. The MHS also holds a Willow Tree sixpence crafted by Hull and Sanderson between 1653-1660.
Silver creamer and sugar tongs made by Paul Revere, 1755-1780 | Classroom Resources | Paul Revere House Museum
The Paul Revere House Museum has developed an educational website for K-12 classrooms, including this page on Paul Revere's silversmithing and other business ventures.
MHS Collections Online: Pepper pot | MHS
This silver pepper pot was made in the mid-18th century and belonged to John Hancock's mother.
- Pepper was native to India and later introduced to Indonesia. From the 1790s through the 1840s, merchants from Salem, MA developed a near-monopoly in the pepper trade in Sumatra, an island in Indonesia, as described in the description of this 1827 map of the west coast of Sumatra in the MHS collections.
Silk
Textile Production in Europe: Silk, 1600–1800 |The Metropolitan Museum of Art
This article explores the production of silk in Europe from 1600-1800, and includes information on London's Spitalfields district and the designer Anna Marie Garthwaite, who is believe to have designed the silk used in Rebecca Tailer's wedding gown (seen in this source set).
MHS Collections Online: Pocketbook belonging to Benjamin Stuart | MHS
This vibrant crewel pocketbook was made for Benjamin Stuart of Boston and is dated 1753. The pocketbook features a brightly hued pastoral view with vining flowers, bird, and goats. Several large blossoms catch the eye. The wool thread is worked on a very basic homespun plain-weave linen substrate. The wool threads have remained vivid, as has the dazzling yellow-gold Chinese silk lining. Image three shows the yellow silk lining.
MHS Collections Online: Embroidered apron | MHS
Mary Woodbury (1717-1747/8) attended one of Boston’s elite schools for young women in the 1730s where she became proficient in needlework, as demonstrated by this apron. It is made of a length of white silk and lavishly embroidered in multicolored silk along the sides and bottom in multicolored silk. Pattern inspired by painted and printed cottons from England and India. Several kinds of silver threads are used. Different colors of silk are used to and could be either domestic or imported. The metallic threads are likely imported from France. Woodbury has outlined her sketched design in both upper corners but not filled them in with embroidery.
MHS Collections Online: Coat belonging to Andrew Oliver, Jr. | MHS
This sleeved silk waistcoat of Boston merchant Andrew Oliver, Jr. (1731-1799) was made in England. Oliver wore this coat in 1755 when posing for his portrait by Joseph Blackburn.
MHS Collections Online: Waistcoat belonging to William Tailer | MHS
This embroidered waistcoat owned by Massachusetts Lt. Gov. William Tailer (d. 1732) was embroidered by professional needleworkers and features a naturalistic rococo floral motif with subtle shading of the leaves and flowers. Gold foil and metallic thread cover wooden buttons and the buttonholes are meticulously finished, also with gold thread.
Morocco leather
1755 red morocco leather pocketbook | Colonial Williamsburg
Like the John Breed pocketbook used in this source set, this pocketbook was also embroidered with the word "Tetuan". CW's description and label text gives additional information about these souvenir pocketbooks crafted in Morocco and Turkey in the 18th century for the European market.
Newspaper ads for men's lost pocketbooks, like the one used in the source set, were common. Here are three examples from the MHS Harbottle Dorr newspaper collection:
- The Annotated Newspapers of Harbottle Dorr: The Boston Evening-Post, 21 December 1772 (masshist.org)
- This is the ad used in the source set along with John Breed's pocketbook. The ad is in the lefthand column.
- The Annotated Newspapers of Harbottle Dorr: The Boston Evening-Post, 22 February 1773 (masshist.org)
- In the righthand column, this is an ad for a lost black leather pocketbook. This newspaper page has several ads for luxury and imported goods, as well as an ad from someone who was seeking to purchase enslaved people.
- The Annotated Newspapers of Harbottle Dorr: The Boston-Gazette, and Country Journal, 22 March 1773 (masshist.org)
- In the middle column, this ad for a lost red leather pocketbook notes that there was a Faneuil Hall lottery ticket inside.
Cacao / Chocolate
MHS Collections Online: Chocolate pot belonging to Rev. Phillips Brooks | MHS
This silver chocolate pot was made circa 1881, but is an example of what earlier 18th century chocolate pots also looked like. Chocolate pots were used for pouring hot chocolate and, as luxury items, were often made of silver or porcelain.
A Brief History of the Chocolate Pot | Smithsonian Magazine
Chocolate pots have a long history around the globe. This article shares information and images of chocolate pots made at different times in different countries.
Cacao & Colonial Chocolate in Boston, MA | Old North Illuminated
Old North has developed two curricula (one for grade 5 and one for high school) about the history of cacao and chocolate and its connections to trade, production and slavery.