Agriculture was the principal occupation of the early settlers of
Long Island, although many of the people were engaged in
shipbuilding and whaling. Gradually other industries were introduced
and about 1700 the manufacture of woolen clothing was begun. This
enterprise, small as it was, caused alarm to the English crown
officials.
Governor
Cornbury was very much upset about it and in 1705 wrote as follows
to the home government:
“ I am
well informed that upon Long Island and Connecticut they are setting
up a woolen manufacture, and I myself have seen serge made upon Long
Island that any man may wear. Now if they begin to make serge, they
will in time make coarse cloth and fine. I hope I may be pardoned
if I declare my opinion to be that all these colonies, which are but
twigs belonging to the main tree (England) ought to be kept entirely
dependent upon and subservient to England. This can never be if
they are suffered to go on in the notions they have, for the
consequence will be that once they see they can cloth themselves not
only comfortably but handsomely, too, without the help of England,
they who are not very fond of submitting to government, who soon
think of putting in execution designs they had long harbored in
their breasts.”
Three
years later in 1708 Caleb Heathcote, a member of the council, wrote
to England:
“ They
are already so far advanced in their manufactories that three
quarters of ye linen and woolen they used is made amongst them,
especially the coarser sort, and if some speedy means is not found
to put a stop to it, they will carry it on a great deal further, and
perhaps in time and very much to the prejudice of our manufactorys
at home.”
Governor
Moor in 1767 wrote home as follows. “ The custom of making coarse
cloths in private families prevails throughout the whole province,
and in almost every house a sufficient quantity is manufactured for
the use of the family, without the least design of sending any of it
to market. This I had an opportunity of seeing it late in the tour
made, and had the same accounts given me by all those persons of
whom I made inquiry. Every house swarms with children, who are set
to work as soon as they are able to spin and card, and as every
family is furnished with a loom, the itinerant weavers who travel
about the country, put finishing touches to the work.”
In the
latter part of the seventeenth century tanning came into vogue, but
the product, as leather, was inferior.
About
1715 beaver fur was used for hat making. This industry became so
important, being carried on in shops in many of the settlements,
that Parliament enacted a law forbidding the exportation of hats.
In 1715
the manufacture of linseed oil was begun. Shortly after the
Revolution paper mills were established, and in 1791 the first
newspaper in the country was printed at Sag Harbor. This was the
Long Island Herald, published by David Frothingham.