Benjamin Bannan

Benjamin Bannan (1807-1875) of Pottsville, Pennsylvania was a journalist and political economist. Bannan is best known for his work as editor of the Miners’ Journal. The Miners’ Journal reflected Bannan’s belief in the Whig and then Republican ideology with which he closely identified. Bannan’s connection to the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania had an impact on his political affiliation and career, as he advocated tariff protection for US industry and internal improvements.

Early Life

Benjamin Bannan was born into a farming family, though they lived moderately. When Bannan was eight years old, his father passed away, leaving his agricultural business to the family to tend to in the spring, summer and fall. For the next seven years of his life, Bannan only attended school for two years all together. During that time, schools were only open in the winter. The other seasons of the year were spent out in the fields, farming.

Bannan was inspired to become a printer and editor after reading the Village Record, which his teacher subscribed to. At the age of 15, he learned the printing business at the Berks and Schuylkill Journal. With time, Bannan was asked to become a partner and associate in the business.[[|[3]]] Eventually, Bannan traveled to Pottsville in April 1829 where he purchased the Miners’ Journal, which he owned for over forty years.[[|[4]]]

Political Career

Though not a politician himself, Benjamin Bannan became a spokesman for the Whig party in Schuylkill County. After the collapse of the party, he continued to go against the Democrats and thus identified as Republican. To align with his political affiliation, Bannan ran the Miners’ Journal as a “leading Whig, nativist, and Republican newspaper”. The Miners’ Journal was distinctively opposed to the predominately Democratic Schuylkill County.[[|[5]]] The ideas of the Miners’ Journal and Bannan’s personal affiliation were also heavily influenced by the writings of economist Henry C. Carey (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Charles_Carey).[[|[6]]]

Overall, Bannan was a follower of the “free labor” ideology of the nineteenth century. The ideology was built upon the belief that social mobility was an inherent aspect of economic expansion. Labor, then, “embraced all producers of wealth”, an economy centered on independent farms and small shops, rather than factories. In this ideology, capitalism and labor worked in harmony and were not opposing factors. The Miners’ Journal was a play on the “free labor” ideology: the journal was for the small operating class, not the mine workers.[[|[7]]]

To Bannan, the ideal society had an independent middle class made up small entrepreneurial businesses. In the anthracite region he lived in, he saw this as coal operators. Bannan saw the possibility for upward mobility by starting as a laborer, moving to a miner and finally taking the next step to a property holder.[[|[8]]]

Bannan & Irish Immigrants

Since Bannan’s ideology did not always happen as he imagined, he held a strong aversion to Catholic immigrants, namely the Irish immigrants who generally held the laborer jobs. Bannan’s dislike of the Irish immigrants extended to a hatred of alcohol as well. He began to push for the prohibition of alcohol. The effects of alcohol went against the “free labor” ideology because it pushed people into poverty and ruined morality. Bannan saw the Irish immigrants as the prime example of the raging effects of alcohol.[[|[9]]]

In 1857, Bannan mentioned the Molly Maguires (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Maguires) in an issue of the Miners’ Journal, in which Bannan linked the group to violence in the area. Bannan made the argument that if more immigrants came, society would be threatened.[[|[10]]] More likely, the increasing number of Irish population was swaying the political power to the Democrats, a fate that Bannan did not like as a staunch Republican.[[|[11]]] Though Bannan made the claim, there were no accounts of violence from the Molly Maguire until 1862.[[|[12]]]

Contributions

Bannan was one of the first to propose a national currency.[[|[13]]] Additionally, Bannan organized the first Tariff League in 1840 and the Tariff of 1842.[[|[14]]] These tariffs reversed the Tariff Acts of 1832 and 1833 that imposed high duties on goods production in the United States. Overall, the Tariff of 1842 was to protect the cotton textile industry in the United States but catered more to politicians than to manufacturers.[[|[15]]] In 1841 and 1861, Bannan also petitioned for the protection of home industry.[[|[16]]]

Coal, Iron, and Oil

In addition to Bannan’s newspaper publication of the Miners’ Journal and contributions to government policies, Bannan co-authored Coal, Iron, and Oil with Samuel Harries Daddow. The book deals with mineral resources and the manufacturing industry.[[|[17]]] Coal, Iron, and Oil was the most expensive single volume book published at the time.[[|[18]]]

Through the publication of the Miners’ Journal and his affiliation with politics, Benjamin Bannan became a prominent Whig and later Republican figure in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Driven by his “free labor” ideological mindset, he worked passionately to urge acts through Congress that benefited the economy and business.

Works Cited

Bannan, Benjamin & Samuel Harries Daddow. Coal, Iron, and Oil, Or, The Practical American Miner: A Plain and Popular Work on Our Mines and Mineral Resources, and a Textbook Or Guide to Their Economical Development Pottsville: Benjamin Bannan, 1866. Accessed February 26, 2016. https://books.google.com/books?id=F6o6AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.

“Benjamin Bannan.” Berks County PAGenWeb Project. January 11, 2009. Accessed March 20, 2016. http://www.berks.pa-roots.com/Biographies/BenjaminBannan.html.

History of Schuylkill County, Pa: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers Schuylkill County: W. W. Munsell & Company, 1881. https://books.google.com/books?id=fycUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.

Kenny, Kevin. Making Sense of the Molly Maguires. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Kenny, Kevin. “Nativism, Labor, and Slavery: The Political Odyssey of Benjamin Bannan, 1850-1860.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History & Biography 118, no. 4 (October 1994): 325-361.

Wallace, F.C. Anthony & Paul A. W. Wallace. “Social and Technological Change.” Historical Society of Schuylkill County. Accessed March 25, 2016. https://amphilsoc.org/exhibits/wallace/technology.htm

“What has been the practical effect of the Tariff of 1842?” Digitial Scholarship Lab. 2015. Accessed March 25, 2016. https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/2838

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[[|[1]]] “Benjamin Bannan, ” Berks County PAGenWeb Project,  January 11, 2009, Accessed March 20, 2016. http://www.berks.pa-roots.com/Biographies/BenjaminBannan.html.

[[|[2]]]  History of Schuylkill County (W. W. Munsell & Company, 1881) https://books.google.com/books?id=fycUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false, 293.

[[|[3]]] History of Schuylkill County ,293.

[[|[4]]] “Benjamin Bannan.”

[[|[5]]]Kevin Kenny, Making Sense of the Molly Maguires (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 74.

[[|[6]]] Kevin Kenny, “Nativism, Labor, and Slavery: The Political Odyssey of Benjamin Bannan, 1850-1860,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History & Biography 118, no. 4 (October 1994): 330.

[[|[7]]] Kevin Kenny, “Nativism, Labor, and Slavery: The Political Odyssey of Benjamin Bannan, 1850-1860,” 328-330.

[[|[8]]] Kevin Kenny, “Nativism, Labor, and Slavery: The Political Odyssey of Benjamin Bannan, 1850-1860,” 331.

[[|[9]]] Ibid, 336.

[[|[10]]] Ibid,359-60.

[[|[11]]] Anthony F.C. Wallace & Paul A. W. Wallace, “Social and Technological Change,” Historical Society of Schuylkill County, Accessed March 25, 2016. <https://amphilsoc.org/exhibits/wallace/technology.htm>.

[[|[12]]] Kevin Kenny, “Nativism, Labor, and Slavery: The Political Odyssey of Benjamin Bannan, 1850-1860,” 359-60.

[[|[13]]] History of Schuylkill County,294.

[[|[14]]] “Benjamin Bannan.”

[[|[15]]] What has been the practical effect of the Tariff of 1842?” Digitial Scholarship Lab, 2015, Accessed March 25, 2016, https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/2838

[[|[16]]] “Benjamin Bannan.”

[[|[17]]] Benjamin Bannan & Samuel Harries Daddow, Coal, Iron, and Oil, (Pottsville: Benjamin Bannan, 1866) https://books.google.com/books?id=F6o6AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false, 5-6.

[[|[18]]] History of Schuylkill County,294.