Lesson 1
1704-1790 -- Growth and Struggle
Newcomers joined the settlers who remained or
who returned after the Deerfield raid of 1704. Together they rebuilt
and improved the community. By the 1710s, newly-settled towns to
the north helped to provide a buffer from further raids on the scale
of the 1704 attack, but there continued to be smaller raids on outlying
areas as late as 1746.
During King George's War (1743-1745) and the
Seven Years War (1756-1763), Deerfield became an important staging
area for defensive operations to the north and west. The economic
stimulation provided by the war effort and the fertility of Deerfield's
soil enabled farmers on the Street to prosper through the sales
of wheat, rye, and livestock. These farmers built new houses, added
to or remodeled others, erected farm outbuildings, improved fields
and orchards, and intensified their use of the land. This was also
a period of substantial growth and expansion of the supporting professionals
and craftsmen necessary in a settlement whose population, by the
middle of the Seven Years War, had reached more than seven hundred
residents. Deerfield was now the most well developed of the English
settlements situated on the Connecticut River Valley's northern
frontier.
The period between 1760 and 1790 was difficult
for some families. The capture of New France in 1760 ended the threats
of attack, but it also diminished the patronage and influence of
wealthy Connecticut Valley families. In the next 15 years, as political
conditions between colonists and the crown worsened, the town became
divided between the Patriots and Tories. In spite of this tension,
the period of 1755 to 1775 saw several families building new dwellings
or remodeled old ones. Although Deerfield farmers sold agricultural
products to the Continental Army during the Revolution War, economic
and social conditions remained strained throughout the conflict
and into the 1780s. From 1770 to 1790, most families did not undertake
large building projects. War debts and economic reconstruction dominated
politics and society in the post-war era. A few families failed
financially. In the fall of 1786, some families in western and central
Massachusetts towns joined Shays' rebellion, but Deerfield
residents remained loyal to the Massachusetts government. By the
late 1780s, conditions improved, the population continued to rise,
and families again began to invest in new building projects.
top of page
|