8217;s initial support of monopolies created another similar clash, this time between the industrial aristocrat and the common man. Though technology began to advance after the civil war, it caused the increase in human exploitation. In Paterson, industrialists held absolute control over their workers. The Society of Useful Manufactures formed at a time when this town did not even have its own government, and the S.U.M. was quick to makes its presence and power known by owning and running everything. When Paterson finally did receive a town charter, it gave only minimal powers to the common people and permitted the S.U.M. to maintain its tax-free status. This new form of aristocracy was actually worse than the proprietors. The industrialists were isolated from the government and seemed to get away with anything. They abused every ounce of power that they could attain, “corrupted the legislature, the courts, and the newspapers to maintain their advantages.” Like the land-monopolizing proprietors of the eighteenth century, they would reap a whirlwind of violence.”17Though Flemming analyzes many important points of New Jersey history, one missing element in his account is the creation of a picture of what New Jersey looked like during its developing years. The most he dedicates to this less than a page, in which he describes how the state had acquired the nickname, “the Garden Colony. He describes the cultivated farms in the Raritan and Hackensack valleys, the richness of New Jersey’s soil, and the falls of the Passaic very briefly, and never quite illustrates the environmental changes that occurred during the Industrial Revolution besides stating that many roads were developed.18 By reading a book that concentrates on the beauty that New Jersey once and still has in a smaller portion, though, it is easier to understand what initially attracted settlers. In The Pine Barrens, by John McPhee, a pictu...
