Mechanics and Citizens

I N the spring of I792 Connecticut artisans joined in a massive petition drive against the state's system of taxation. On May 2, a convention in Norwich drafted the petition, copies of which were then sent to other towns where craftsmen meeting in similar gatherings adopted it. By the time the General Assembly began its May session, more than I,400 craftsmen, from twenty towns spread evenly over the state, had added their names to the protest.' It puts that number in perspective to note that Samuel Huntington was elected governor in I792 with only 3,544 popular votes and Tapping Reeve won a seat on the Council with only 2,34I.2 A joint effort by over I,400 artisans is thus of some interest, and their protest has other features that command attention. It seems to have been intended to have the petition signed only by artisans. In Canterbury some farmers were allowed to sign, but the organizers of the protest there felt compelled to justify this inclusion of outsiders. In any case, additional support was little needed because the petition attracted artisans of every trade across a spectrum of wealth and rank. In Danbury, for example, every craft represented on the local tax list was represented on the petition, which was signed by 50 to 6o percent of the town's craftsmen. Oliver Burr, forty-seven years old, father of eleven, the leading hatter in the town and perhaps in the state, assessed at LI 56 of taxable wealth, signed the petition. So did Samuel Barnum, twenty-three years old, recently married, a cordwainer who worked alone, assessed at ?20 5S.3 Unlike most other eighteenth-century protests, this one ex

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• Current bibliography of urban history

  Open Access•Diana Dixon, Nicholas Wilson•Urban History•1986

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