America: The Land of Opportunity -- Manufacturing in Colonial Pennsylvania: Bethlehem

Sample Teacher Resources/Lesson -- Upper Elementary-Middle School

David Saxe, Penn State Education Dept.

Teacher Overview | Background Essays | Steps | Learning Objectives | Strategies | State Standards

The colonial community at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was a beehive of activity and enterprise. Bethlehem was a special place. Here settlers with roots in Bohemia and Moravia (in what are now the Czech Republic and Slovakia)were given the chance to make new homes for their families. These settlers, called Moravians, were very religious people. They did not come to America to seek religious freedom (they already had that). They also did not come to America to escape oppression. The Moravians came to America because they recognized America as a great opportunity to spread the word of God. They believed their purpose was to become missionaries to the Indians and other German families who lived in Eastern Pennsylvania.

To accomplish this task—to be missionaries to Indians and German settlers—the Moravians built an amazing community, a model of what we might call a modern industrial complex. This was very unusual for colonial America. Most people who lived on the frontier worked very hard to build farms and produced only enough to feed their families. Since Moravians wanted to provide religious services to other people and not everyone could be a missionary (and missionaries had to devote themselves to visiting the Indians and other settlers and could not farm or do other work), they had to develop a system to support the work of missionaries.

From the earliest beginnings of America, nearly all the people on the frontier worked to support only themselves and their families. Even in to the 19^th century most communities were largely agrarian—growing food and tending stocks of animals. At Bethlehem, before the Revolutionary War, the Moravians managed to reverse the existing work model by employing 80% of their citizens in trades and manufacturing with only 20% working to support the entire community with food. That was a very important development, a new idea.

This new idea attracted the attention of John Adams (then Member of the Continental Congress and future second president of the United States). Adams came to Bethlehem in January of 1777. By this time, the Patriots had declared their independence from England (July 4, 1776). This was a dangerous time and war was a constant threat throughout the former colonies now struggling for their Independence. Still, Adams found time to visit Bethlehem. What he found there amazed him. Adams called Bethlehem a “curious and remarkable Town,” immediately recognizing the importance of this community for the future of the United States—Bethlehem demonstrated what was possible: how opportunity, freedom, and liberty can be applied to build a prosperous and happy community. Adams had seen the future of America.

[Quotes from Adam's Visits Here]

What made Bethlehem so amazing? The center of the community was its manufacturing that spawned more than fifty crafts and industrial trades. One of the most important parts of the community was its system of mills, especially its gristmill that provided everyone the flour to make their daily bread—the staple of the community.

Some exciting things were happening at Bethlehem, new ideas mixed with old. Here Old World technologies mixed with the opportunities of the New, creating unimagined results. At first, Bethlehem was “controlled” by Church authorities and the nuclear family of husband-wife and children was unknown and individuals were separated by gender. All was done for the good of the community. This social-economic model worked while Bethlehem was relatively isolated from other communities.

[Work Patterns and Relationships Diagram]

By the 1750s, just before the French and Indian War, the wider colonial world became connected to Bethlehem. The community began to trade tanned hides, linseed oil, food stuffs, and other products to outsiders in exchange for iron, gunpowder, glass, and salt.

To improve trade, the Moravians established stores and inns for visitors and soon Bethlehem became a center of trade between Moravians and other colonial people.

This greater trade increase wealth and prosperity. These new opportunities to make money also created a new demand among Moravian tradesmen and craftsmen who began to establish their own businesses. Soon a new system of economics was established market capitalism. Individuals set up their own businesses and to sell and trade independently of church (or state) restrictions. This new opportunity created a strong independent entrepreneurial spirit among the Moravians and other colonial people.

Long before the Revolutionary War, the beginnings of capitalism and a government system to support it (that sponsored individual freedom and opportunity). The importance of nuclear families as supporting institutions was also demonstrated by the Bethlehem experience.

The Declaration of Independence created a new nation, but it also confirmed and protected a new economic system that was to spread throughout the emerging United States of America. On that count, Bethlehem provides an excellent case study for the study of early American life and institutions; how Old World ideas and technologies were applied and improved in America; how freedom and liberty created unimagined opportunities to improve the lives of Americans.