The Loyalist Pound, Shilling and Pence.

This article is reprinted with the kind permission of Stephen Davidson of Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Stephen is a frequent contributor to UELAC's Newsletter, "Loyalist Trails", and is currently gathering these into a book which will be available shortly under the title of "Forgotten Tales of the Loyalist Refugees".
Stephen is also the author of "The Burdens of Loyalty: Refugee Tales from the First American Civil War" and "Letters for Elly" a young adult novel about a teenager who discovers her loyalist heritage. Click on the titles for more information on these publications.

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Loyalist Pounds, Shillings and Pence

In reading the documents of the American Revolution, it is often difficult to understand how much furniture, food, or livestock were worth because we do not know the spending power of the pound in 1776. To complicate matters further, the Thirteen Colonies did not share a common currency, so that a pound in Massachusetts might not have the same value as a pound in South Carolina. However, thanks to the records kept of the loyalist compensation claims, we can get a rough idea of how far a pound could go during the War of Independence.

A pound could buy four barrels of flour or twenty bushels of barley, eight bushels of oats or a large copper pot, ten bushels of corn or a large brass kettle, a ton of salt or two hand irons, a dozen towels or a writing desk.

If you wanted to buy livestock at the close of the revolution, what would it cost? Four or five pounds could buy one milk cow, £2 or £4 would purchase a hog, 42 ewes were £14, a pig was just £1. A yoke of oxen cost £30, while an ox cart could be as much as £10.
Horses, of course, were the chief means of land transportation. A saddle and bridle cost £10, and a horse itself could range in price from £5 to £15 to £30. A single horse chaise and harness were worth £15, a "sulky" could be £12, and a wagon cost £10.

One loyalist claim asked for £60 for lost farming utensils, a resting chair, and a “pleasure sleigh”. Rent on a church pew was valued at £10; a rifle cost £6. Two good suits were worth £3, one shilling and six pence.
One hundred bushels of wheat were worth £35; thirteen tons of hay were worth £65; one hundred bushels of wheat were valued at £35.

A watch was £7, a mariner's compass and quadrant together cost £2, a dictionary was worth £6, a clock £15, and hatter's tools were £15. A dining table was worth £2, a bureau £8, eight chairs were valued at £16. A feather bed, bedding and bedsteads cost £18. Ten pillows could be bought for a pound and 10 shillings. Eleven pairs of good sheets were valued at £16.

A tea kettle cost six shillings, a dozen coffee cups were 12 shillings, two dozen wine glasses were worth ten shillings, two iron pots cost 11 shillings, a frying pan could be bought for five shillings, and two large mirrors cost £3. Twenty-one shillings would buy two dozen enamelled bowls; a large oak folding table was valued at £1 and five shillings, two arm chairs "covered with green" cost one pound and 12 shillings.
The cost for stocking a kitchen with irons, shovels, tongs, furniture, dairy pails, tubs, and wooden ware was £30. Plows, harrows and other farm tools sold for £20.

Two years of service in the militia (a portion of which the soldier was wounded) was valued at £193. One loyalist teacher in South Carolina earned between £300 and £500 a year.

While some of these prices are amusing, there is a tragic side to the value of a pound in the days of loyalist persecution. A number of the king’s loyal colonists were slave owners. When these better off refugees made claims for compensation to the British government, they listed among their lost or stolen property fellow human beings who had been kidnapped from their homes in Africa and taken across the ocean to work on plantations or in private homes.
In the days of the American Revolution, a strong, healthy man was generally sold for £40, but could go for as much as £70 or £100 (the cost of three or four horses). A boy once sold for £60 (two yokes of oxen), while a woman and her child went for £80 (eight wagons).
It is sad to reflect that while some loyalists petitioned the government to reclaim the value of their abducted human "property", enslaved Africans faced lifetimes of enforced servitude with no hope of compensation. They lived out their lives in a society that considered them as goods that could be purchased with:
Pounds, Shillings and Pence.

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