yeoman

(noun)

A non-slaveholding, family farmer who owned a small amount of land in the United States in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Related Terms

  • Federalist
  • Jay Treaty of 1794
  • slave patrols
  • Alexander Hamilton
  • Tecumseh
  • manufacturing
  • overseer
  • commerce
  • Virginia Emancipation Law
  • Haitian Revolution
  • Church of England
  • plantation
  • export
  • animal husbandry
  • craftsmen
  • Thomas Jefferson
  • autonomy
  • Alien and Sedition Acts
  • manumission
  • federalist
  • Florida
  • Judicial Review
  • Great Awakening
  • Louisiana Purchase

(noun)

A former class of small freeholders who farm their own land; a commoner of good standing.

Related Terms

  • Federalist
  • Jay Treaty of 1794
  • slave patrols
  • Alexander Hamilton
  • Tecumseh
  • manufacturing
  • overseer
  • commerce
  • Virginia Emancipation Law
  • Haitian Revolution
  • Church of England
  • plantation
  • export
  • animal husbandry
  • craftsmen
  • Thomas Jefferson
  • autonomy
  • Alien and Sedition Acts
  • manumission
  • federalist
  • Florida
  • Judicial Review
  • Great Awakening
  • Louisiana Purchase

(noun)

A non-slaveholding, family farmer who owned a small amount of land in the United States in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; a commoner of good standing.

Related Terms

  • Federalist
  • Jay Treaty of 1794
  • slave patrols
  • Alexander Hamilton
  • Tecumseh
  • manufacturing
  • overseer
  • commerce
  • Virginia Emancipation Law
  • Haitian Revolution
  • Church of England
  • plantation
  • export
  • animal husbandry
  • craftsmen
  • Thomas Jefferson
  • autonomy
  • Alien and Sedition Acts
  • manumission
  • federalist
  • Florida
  • Judicial Review
  • Great Awakening
  • Louisiana Purchase

(noun)

A person who owns and cultivates a small farm.

Related Terms

  • Federalist
  • Jay Treaty of 1794
  • slave patrols
  • Alexander Hamilton
  • Tecumseh
  • manufacturing
  • overseer
  • commerce
  • Virginia Emancipation Law
  • Haitian Revolution
  • Church of England
  • plantation
  • export
  • animal husbandry
  • craftsmen
  • Thomas Jefferson
  • autonomy
  • Alien and Sedition Acts
  • manumission
  • federalist
  • Florida
  • Judicial Review
  • Great Awakening
  • Louisiana Purchase

Examples of yeoman in the following topics:

  • Jefferson's Agrarian Policy

    • The Jeffersonians believed in democracy and equality of political opportunity, especially for the yeoman farmer and the plain folk.
    • The Jeffersonians believed in democracy and equality of political opportunity (for white male citizens), with a priority for the yeoman farmer and the plain folk.
    • The yeoman was the backbone of American society because independent farming, land ownership, and control of one's labor were values that Jeffersonian Democrats hoped to embody in a decentralized system of limited government and maximum individual liberty.
    • The frugality, austerity, and self-reliance of the yeoman farmer were virtues that should be emulated by the federal government: to circumscribe tyrannical powers in favor of encouraging individual industry and improvement .
    • Jefferson's vision of a decentralized agricultural society, in which yeoman farmers acquired land across vast amounts of territory, seemed a possibility in 1803 with such a vast opening for settlement.
  • "Poor Whites"

    • In his study of Edgefield County, South Carolina, Orville Vernon Burton classified white society into three groups: the poor, the yeoman middle class (also called the plain folk of the Old South), and the elite.
    • A clear line demarcated the elite, but according to Burton, the line between poor and yeoman was less distinct.
    • However, Stephanie McCurry argues that yeomen were clearly distinguished from poor whites because yeoman owned land.
    • Wartime shortages increased the economic divide between planters and yeoman farmers; nevertheless, some planters honored their paternalistic obligations by selling their corn to plain folks at the official Confederate rate "out of a spirit of patriotism. " Wetherington's argument challenges other scholars' suggestions that class conflict contributed to the Confederate defeat.
  • The Middle Classes

    • The middle classes of colonial America consisted mostly of yeoman farmers and skilled craftsmen.
    • Migration, agricultural innovation, and economic cooperation were creative measures that preserved New England's yeoman society until the 19th century.
  • White Society in the South

    • Antebellum society in the South consisted of a class of wealthy plantation-owners, a middle class of yeomans, poor whites, and slaves.
    • In his study of Edgefield County, South Carolina, Orville Vernon Burton classified white society into the poor, the yeoman middle class, and the elite.
    • A clear line demarcated the elite, but according to Burton, the line between poor and yeoman was never very distinct.
  • American Republicanism

    • Thomas Jefferson and the Democrat-Republicans, on the other hand, believed that federal government should be limited by state sovereignty, and that the national economy should be structured around yeoman agriculture.
    • Yeoman agriculture, as depicted by the Democratic-Republicans, was a system of small-share farming in which an independent (white male) farmer owned his own land and the fruits of his labor.
    • The yeoman was wholly self-sufficient and reliant on his industry to produce the items he required, rather than obtaining them through commercial activity with foreign nations.
    • According to this vision, the yeoman was to be the backbone of American society, rather than the merchant or the artisan.
  • The Rise of the West

    • Westward expansion was motivated by the Jeffersonian ideal of the yeoman farmer and enabled by technological improvements.
  • Middle Class

    • In the book he used statistical data to analyze the make-up of southern society, contending that yeoman farmers made up a larger middle class than was generally thought.
    • Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democrats favored the term "yeoman" for the independent land-owning farmer.
    • Plain Folk argued that southern society was not dominated by planter aristocrats, but that yeoman farmers played a significant role.
  • Plain Folk of the Old South

    • Plain Folk argued that yeoman farmers played a significant role in Southern society during this era rather than being sidelined by a dominant aristocratic planter class.
    • In his study of Edgefield County, South Carolina, Orville Vernon Burton classifies white society into the poor, the yeoman middle class, and the elite.
    • A clear line demarcated the elite, but according to Burton, the line between poor and yeoman was less distinct.
  • Early New England Society

    • Early New England Puritan society was characterized by yeoman farming communities and a growing merchant class.
    • Migration, agricultural innovation, and economic cooperation were creative measures that helped preserve New England's yeoman society.
  • Agricultural Interest Groups

    • Specifically, the vision of the yeoman farmer was one of the important American archetypes moving into the progressive era.
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