To keep the balance of trade favorable to the mother-country, the British had established laws with its colonies that restricted trade with foreign nations. Among the oldest of the restrictions was the Molasses Act of 1733. The act established a tariff on sugar molasses from non-English colonies, which was vital to supply New England’s thriving rum distilleries. Such restrictions were in vain, as such laws were hardly ever enforced. Smuggling was an American way of life, and the British did little to prevent it. The West India trade helped shape the young nation, but while the colonists prospered the Empire was suffering.

Generations of warfare had depleted the British treasury and the cost of managing a vast colonial empire was growing. The British government financed the Seven Years War by borrowing from British and Dutch bankers, doubling the national debt.  After the war, it was believed that renewed warfare with France and their allies was eminent. Officials predicted that ten thousand British soldiers were needed in the colonies for their protection, which would further add to the Crown’s staggering debt. Many people in England were paying higher taxes than in the colonies and believed that the colonists should pay the cost for their protection.

The Sugar Act

One of the principal products produced in New England was rum distilled from sugar molasses imported from the Caribbean. The juice from crushed sugar cane is boiled down to make sugar. The dark syrupy byproduct that remains is sugar molasses and it can be fermented and distilled to make rum. In the French colonies they only made rum from pure sugar cane and considered the molasses a waste product. New England merchants were able to cheaply purchase the molasses from the French to fuel a booming distilling industry in the northeast colonies.

To prevent the loss of revenue to their French competitors, the British placed a tariff on molasses imported from the French colonies as early as 1733. By placing a tariff on imported French molasses the British government hoped that they could dissuade merchants from purchasing molasses from the French colonies or profit off the traffic, but many merchants resorted to smuggling. The tariff was poorly enforced and few followed the law.

To address the rising costs of colonial management, in 1764, the British Government passed the Sugar Act, also known as the American Revenue Act, which replaced the Molasses Act of 1733. Although the Sugar Act called for a lower tariff, the British established a stronger presence in the colonies to ensure it was actually collected.  The stricter enforcement made smuggling riskier. The decline in trade, coupled with an increased government presence, provoked the New England colonists to boycott British luxury goods, but it was primarily the merchants and rum distillers in the northeastern colonies that were impacted by the new laws.

The Stamp Act: Taxation without Representation

When the Stamp Act was passed the following year, it changed the power dynamic between the colonies and England, causing widespread discord. The tax on newspapers and legal and commercial papers was common in England and the cost was relatively small, but it set a dangerous precedent. The English Bill of Rights (1689) forbid the government from imposing taxes on subjects not represented in Parliament, and the American colonists held no seats in the House of Commons. If these new taxes were allowed to pass without the approval of the colonial legislatures, then the colonists would be denied their rights to representation.

• The Stamp Act was passed in March 1765, but would not go into effect until November, leaving time for the colonists to organize their opposition to the unconstitutional act:
• In July, the Sons of Liberty was founded in Boston and New York City to oppose the unlawful Act, which they did primarily through the use of threats and public demonstrations.
• Benjamin Franklin reprinted his famous “Join or Die” cartoon to unify the colonists. The press was hugely impacted by the Stamp Act and their response was fierce.

In October, the Stamp Act Congress convened in New York City. This was the first gathering of elected representatives from several of the American colonies to devise a unified, but peaceful, protest against the British.

Amid the increased violent protests, British General Thomas Gage, who had become Commander in Chief of British troops in North America in 1763, was forced to withdraw troops from the western frontier to occupy New York City and quell the uprisings. Despite Gage’s presence, protests continued for several months.

As winter approached, the need to provide adequate food and lodging for these troops became critical.  In response, the British Parliament passed the Quartering Act that required the local government to quarter troops in public dwellings. This further provoked the colonists. To ease the tension, in April 1766, less than one year after its implementation, the Stamp Act was repealed.

It was in Britain’s interest to preserve peace, but the British Parliament maintained their belief that it was within their rights raise revenue from the colonies.  The same day Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, they passed the Declaratory Act that said the Lords could speak on behalf of the colonists in Parliament (virtual representation).  By 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend Revenue Act, taxing glass, paper, and tea, which was cause for renewed protests and riots.

Tea was among the goods taxed under the Townshend Act, and continued boycotts led to huge reserves being built up in Britain’s East India Company’s London storehouses. To prevent the financial collapse of the company, Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773, which gave the East India Company a monopoly on the trade of tea in the colonies.

In response to the new tax, colonists boycotted tea. Coffee, smuggled from the West Indies, became a popular substitute and coffeehouses a common gathering place. Rather than allowing the tea to spoil in colonial ports, many of the boats were directed back to England. In Massachusetts, however, Governor Thomas Hutchinson had interest in the East India Company and was determined to land his boats. Protesters dressed as Indians boarded one of those ships on December 16, 1773, tossing the tea overboard.

Three of the four acts, known collectively as the Coercive Act in Europe, were directed at Massachusetts in retaliation for the Boston Tea Party. The Acts revoked Massachusetts’s charter, removing its elected members and replacing them with the King’s appointees. They also closed the port until the colonists paid for the destroyed tea and peace was restored. General Gage was ordered to disband local governance in Massachusetts.

The First American Congress

What was most concerning to the colonists was that the Crown could revoke a charter and deny citizens their right to local governance. The colonists dubbed them the “Intolerable Acts.” Aware that Gage was on his way to break up their meeting, the assembly moved their meeting to Concord and organized themselves as the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in October 1774. The seeds of local governance were beginning to form.

At the same time, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. A committee was formed to air their grievances to the Crown. The delegates also resolved to establish a national boycott, that would be enforced by local Committees of Safety organized by the Provincial Congresses. In Massachusetts, the Committee of Safety began coordinating the accumulation of weapons and other military supplies.

In order to secure an arms cache, on April 19, 1775, General Thomas Gage dispatched troops from Boston to an armory in nearby Concord. The troops were intercepted at the Lexington town green by local militia. The militia was outnumbered and fell back, allowing the British to proceed. Fortunes then turned as the British forces were routed in a second confrontation. The British suffered heavy casualties as they were chased back to Boston. The colonists had Gage bottled up in Boston Harbor. All of the colonies raised militias in response to this attack and helped form a siege line that restricted the movement of Gage’s troops.

The American Revolution was now underway.

The course and outcome of the 1777 campaign were largely determined by the experience and ambition of one man: Lieutenant General John Burgoyne.

Born to mother Anna Maria and Captain John Burgoyne in 1722, young John Burgoyne was afforded many advantages as a child. In 1731, his Godfather Lord Bingley died with no heirs and left nine-year-old Burgoyne a handsome legacy. As a result of the inheritance, which jumpstarted the young man’s career, rumors stirred about the legitimacy of the young boy’s birth. The next year, Burgoyne was enlisted in the prestigious Westminster School, which many aspiring military officers attended.

By 15, Burgoyne had purchased an officer’s commission in a fashionable cavalry regiment stationed in London.  His duties were light, allowing him time to mingle with the London elite. Burgoyne became known for his fashionable appearance and high living, which led historians to dub him “Gentleman Johnny.” But he was living beyond his means and eventually had to sell his commission to pay off his accumulated debts. Burgoyne was down on his luck, but renewed conflict in Europe would soon afford the young man another opportunity.

The War for Austrian Succession (1740-1748) was the result of a power struggle to maintain the balance of power in Europe. In 1740, King Frederick II of Prussia, also known as Frederick the Great, violated an agreement to allow Maria Theresa to ascend to the throne after the death of her father, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. Frederick invaded Austria, supported by France and Spain; while Great Britain sided with Maria Theresa of Austria. With extended warfare on the continent, Britain’s standing army was expanded and new regiments formed.

In 1745, Burgoyne enlisted in the 1st Royal Dragoons, a light cavalry unit, and was given a commission as Cornet, the lowest grade of commissioned officer in the British cavalry. Since the unit was newly created, he did not need to pay a commission. Burgoyne quickly ascended the ranks. First he was promoted to lieutenant and within two years he managed to purchase a captaincy. He was eager for further advancement, but the end of the war in 1748 brought an end to future prospects.

Upon his return to the London social scene, he became enamored with Lady Charlotte Stanley, daughter of the Earl of Derby. The Stanleys were landed aristocracy, so when Burgoyne, who was of low or illegitimate birth, asked Derby for his daughter’s hand in marriage, he refused. Unwilling to be swayed by Derby’s refusal, Burgoyne sold his commission again, eloped with Charlotte, and moved to France.  It was not until daughter Charlotte Elizabeth was born in 1754 that  Derby reconciled with John and Charlotte. After a short period, John and Derby became close and Derby used his influence to boost his son-in-law’s prospects just as a new war was emerging in Europe—a global conflict known as the Seven Years War.

Thanks to his connection with Derby, Burgoyne was able to purchase a commission in the 11th dragoons just one month after the start of the war. He participated in several expeditions, proving his leadership ability and ascending to the rank of brigadier general. Burgoyne stood out from the British military leadership by revolutionizing recruitment techniques, insisting that his troops be treated with humanity and that they learned military sciences so they could think and act independently during battle. He received distinctions for the Raid of St. Malo on the French coast in 1758 and for helping ward off the Spanish Invasion of Portugal in 1762.

At the end of the Seven Years War, when peace resumed, Burgoyne occupied himself with the luxuries of London nobility. In 1768, he was elected to the House of Commons. He gained notoriety in 1772 when he led a campaign against corruption in the East Indian Company. He also became a playwright. He wrote The Maid of Oaks, which was produced by the famed actor, manager, and producer David Garrick in 1775. When the unruly Rebel colonists caused an uprising, he was promoted to Major General and sent to America.

Burgoyne was dispatched to support General Gage at Boston but was third in command under Generals William Howe and Henry Clinton. He was present during the costly Battle of Bunker Hill, but his primary responsibility was to draft proclamations, which were long-winded and ridiculed by both British and American contemporaries. Frustrated by the lack of opportunities, he returned to England, where he petitioned for a command.

In the summer of 1776, the British launched a three-pronged attack on the Rebel colonies, one of which Burgoyne led: Burgoyne was dispatched to Quebec in April 1776 and helped General Guy Carlton drive out Benedict Arnold and the Rebels from Canada. Burgoyne, who was supposed to continue the campaign, instead returned home to see to the burial of his beloved wife Charlotte in October 1776. Thus, Carleton was put in charge. He constructed a navy on Lake Champlain and launched an attack on Lake Champlain, but failed to secure Fort Ticonderoga before winter.

You will not wonder, my dear friend, at my return to England—a secondary station in a secondary army is at no times agreeable; but many circumstances combine to render it in the present instance uncommonly dissatisfactory. My private [thoughts] are yet more forcible—a mind sunk at time in distress, a constitution unfitted to severity of cold, a few duties yet remaining to the memory of Lady Charlotte, compel me to break through the bars of ice & snow which are forming to seclude this country from the rest of the globe for the next six months. I mean not however to withdraw myself from the American War unless French one breaks out—an uncommitted cipher in the world — the portion lost which made prosperity an object of solicitude—my prospects are closed – Interest, ambition of life is over. Profession & honour is all that remains, & I would rather than finished in a professional grave, than to slow wasting, decrepitude & infirmness of the age. —John Burgoyne to Sir Henry Clinton, November 7, 1776

Burgoyne was not idle for long. In anticipation of the 1777 campaign season, he devised a plan called “Thoughts for Conducting War from the Side of Canada.” On the first day of the new year, Burgoyne wrote Lord George Germaine, Secretary of State for the Colonies, in order to impress him with his ambitions for that year’s campaign. Germaine had the great responsibility of promoting or relieving Generals, taking care of provisions and supplies and the strategic planning of the war.”

Letter from John Burgoyne to Lord George Germaine, Jan 1, 1777:

“My Lord,

My Physician has pressed me to go to Bath for a short time & I find it requisite to my health & spirits to follow his advice— But I think it a previous duty to assure your Lordship, that should my attendance in Town become necessary relatively to information upon the affairs of Canada, I shall be ready to obey your summons upon one day’s notice.

Your Lordship being out of Town, I submitted the above intentions a few days ago—personally to His Majesty in His Closet—and I added – “that as the arrangements for the next Campaign might possibly come under His Royal Contemplation before my return, I humbly laid myself at His Majesty’s feet for such active employment as he might think me worthy of.”

Burgoyne’s plan was not new. It called for a concerted attack to seize possession of the Hudson River-Lake Champlain corridor and isolate New England–the seedbed of the Revolution–from the rest of the continent. The plan called for a three-pronged attack.

• Prong 1: Howe was to sail up the Hudson River to Albany.
• Prong 2: Burgoyne was to sail south on Lake Champlain, to Lake George and the Hudson River to Albany.
• Prong 3: A third army, that eventually fell to the command of Barry St. Leger, was to sail up the St. Lawrence River to Lake Erie and take the Mohawk River to Albany.

The three armies were to converge Albany, where the two generals were to relieve their command to Howe, their superior. Then, if time permitted, they could move eastward into New England and wipe the rebels from the continent. Germaine approved Burgoyne’s plan and gave him command of the primary thrust from Canada.

 

On June 27, 1775, the newly formed Continental Congress authorized General Philip Schuyler to investigate whether an invasion against the British in Quebec was practical. When Schuyler learned that British General Guy Carleton had approached the Iroquois to join his cause and that he was fortifying St. John, Schuyler selected General Richard Montgomery to launch an Invasion of Canada.

Benedict Arnold had written Congress suggesting such an undertaking against Canada when he took control of Fort Ticonderoga. He believed that he should have been selected for the command. Arnold went to Boston and convinced George Washington to send a second force under his command. He was given a Colonel’s commission in the Continental Army and 1,100 men to lead an attack on Quebec.

It wasn’t until December 31, 1775, that a coordinated attack was launched against the entrenched city. Montgomery died and Arnold took a shot in the leg. Their attack was hastily repelled by General Guy Carleton. Arnold continued to lay siege on the city until he was relieved of command in April 1776.

General Carleton was left with much damage to repair at St. John.

Philip Skene was a career soldier, enlisting in the British Army in 1739.  He saw significant action in Europe and then in North America during the French & Indian War, where he was involved in the 1759 assault on Fort Ticonderoga.  This is how and when Skene became familiar with the trade and settlement potential of the area.  He received a land patent for what he would call Skenesborough, now the town of Whitehall, at the southern end of Lake Champlain. He built roads, mills, storehouses, and boats. His boats would be used to transport iron ore that was mined from his land north of Port Henry and brought south to Skenesborough (later known as the Cheever Mine)

A panic is the state of the economy that is a result of numerous simultaneous bank runs.  A bank run happens when patrons begin withdrawing their deposits because they believe that the bank is on the verge of becoming insolvent.  The United States experienced several panics during the 19^th century: 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, and 1893. Panics can lead to significant periods of economic recession or depression. The effects of the Panic of 1873 were felt in Moriah when Witherbee, Sherman & Company announced a reduction in wages in 1874 for all employees, a necessary adjustment to the economic downturn or else they might have had to close the mines altogether.

Despite the national panic of 1873, Moriah and Crown Point were in still their “heydays” in the 1870s. In Moriah, its population was near its peak and there were numerous construction projects in the works: The Lake Champlain and Moriah railroad, the Cedar Point furnace, the new Bessemer furnaces of Crown Point Iron Company. The D&H railroad was completed in 1875. The last ore shipped from the Crown Point Iron Company does correspond, however, with the time of the national panic in 1893.

In 1883 there was a depression in the steel industry. The unpredictability of a market economy was emphasized by periodic financial panics, competitive pricing and the factors of supply and demand.  The one place that management could try to compensate for these ups and downs was in its attempt to control costs associated with labor. This strategy, of course, was always fraught with the possibility of friction between management and workers. There were few companies that didn’t experience some labor agitation during the 19^th century and Crown Point Iron Company was no exception. A correspondent for the Essex County Republican from April 9, 1874 reported:

“There seems to be serious trouble at the mines. As far as I can learn, the C. P. I. Co. some time ago notified a large number of Swedes that their services would not be required after April 1^st.  Yesterday, it seems, the Swedes gathered and attempted to hinder the loading of cars with ore.  The cars were loaded, but the discontented Swedes seemed inclined to violence, threatening Professor Herring, the superintendent, and others, and acting in so outlandish a manner that the General [John Hammond] sent for assistance, and several arrests were made.  Officers and a posse of men went out to the mines on a special train to make further arrests.”

It turns out it was an ethnically charged conflict between laborers instead of worker grievances against management. Concerned for the security of their own wages, laborers of other nationalities had presented a false termination notice to the Swedes.

The newspaper report continued:

“It now seems the notice for the Swedes to leave April 1^st was only a menace posted by jealous and discontented laborers of other nationalities [mostly Irish and French-Canadian], who view Swedes in about the same light as Californians view the Ah Sin’s from China, and no such notice was given by the Company.”

In retaliation… “The Swedes drove the miners out of one pit this morning, and were met and repulsed by Gen. Hammond and posse, on their way to another pit. More arrests are made and the men still held in custody. The Company are paying off and discharging others.”

Prior to 1856, there was no easy way to control the carbon level in iron so as to manufacture steel efficiently and cheaply. Yet beginning in the 1830s, the growth of railroads created a huge market for steel. The first railroads ran on wrought iron rails, which were too soft to be durable (not enough carbon). On some busy stretches, the wrought iron rails had to be replaced every six to eight weeks. The mass production of cheap steel only became possible after the introduction of the Bessemer process, named after its inventor British metallurgist Sir Henry Bessemer (1813-1898). Bessemer recognized that a strong blast of air through molten pig iron should convert pig iron into steel by reducing its carbon content. That’s because oxygen in the air will “attract” the carbon in the molten pig iron. (Regular cast iron has a higher level of carbon, making it brittle.)

In 1865, Bessemer designed a converter, a large, pear-shaped receptacle with holes on the bottom, from where air would be injected. He found that blowing compressed air through the molten metal not only removed the carbon, but also made the molten metal even hotter and so remained molten. It was discovered that actually too much carbon was removed, so the addition of molten manganese, known as spiegel, after the blast of air was necessary. Thus it was possible to convert a whole mass of molten pig iron into steel in just minutes.

The one weakness of the Bessemer process was that it required low-phosphorus iron. (Phosphorus makes steel very brittle.) Iron from the Crown Point-Moriah area fit the bill. In 1876, however, it was noted that adding a chemically basic material, like limestone, would remove phosphorus from the iron ore. Now practically any type of iron ore from almost anywhere could be used. By 1884, steel rails had replaced iron ones.

The USS Monitor was an iron-hulled steamship—the first ironclad warship commissioned by the Union Navy. The need for iron plating on ships only arose after the shell-firing cannon was introduced to naval warfare in the 1820s. (The motivation to build the Monitor was prompted by the news that the Confederates were building an ironclad warship, named Virginia.) Constructed in Long Island in just 101 days, the ship’s machinery, plates, and other iron work were manufactured in Troy, NY.

Troy industrialists John Winslow and John Griswold has the contract with the US government. They called on their connections with Adirondack iron companies for supply.  Iron for the Monitor came from several sources, including Crown Point, Roth’s Forge at North Hudson, and some from the ore mined at 21 Pit by the Port Henry Iron Ore Company. The ship was launched on January 30, 1862, and defeated the Virginia (formerly the Merrimac) on March 9. Eventually, six more vessels of the same type were built.

There are basically two types of mining. Most mining in this area was underground. However, the open pit that became known as the #21 Mine in Mineville was an attempt to strip mine Adirondack magnetite.

Strip mining is a type of surface mining that involves removing the soil and rock lying over the mineral deposit (called overburden) that is being mined. Strip mining is for shallow, mostly horizontal deposits, usually extended over a considerable area.

Underground mines are large tunnels dug deep into the ground to extract minerals that are too far from the surface to be reached by surface mines—from veins that are more vertical. Miners quickly discovered that most of the iron deposits in the Adirondack region were at very steep, vertical angles. As a result, the deposits were only going to be effectively mined by the underground method, which required digging deep tunnels and shafts to access the iron deposits. Rich veins of iron still exist beneath Moriah. By the twentieth century, the deep vertical veins would prove uneconomical to mine, compared to the iron ore that could be strip mined from the surface in open pits in places like the Mesabi Range in Minnesota.