The Upper Ten Thousand
FALSE FACE, FALSE HEART, my YA Historical fiction project, set in the Bowery Theatre in New York City during the tumultuous year of 1849 has sent me on a journey Combing Through Research.
Income inequality isn’t a new concept in the United States. Neither are the negative terms that refer to the ultra-wealthy. “We are the 99 percent” was coined during the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011. The other one percent refers to the small number of hyper-rich Americans who control about $41.52 trillion of the countries wealth, according to the Federal Reserve as of June 2021. One percenters have become a symbol of greed and excess while the rest of the population experiences grave hardships.
Occupy Wall Street. 2011.
Photo Credit: Purchased from Canstock Photo.
In the mid-nineteenth century the gentry were referred to as the “Upper Ten.” The phrase referred to the wealthiest 10,000 residents of New York City.
The Upper Ten label came from the writer Nathaniel Parker Willis who complained that the city’s elite had nowhere to promenade and socialize. “At present there is no distinction among the upper ten thousand of the city. There is no place where equipages (carriages) are exclusively looked for,” says Willis in his 1844 article. Although he meant for the term to be complimentary and give working class citizens something to strive for, the poor were outraged by the term’s elitist connotations. The gentry ended up detesting the expression as well because it implied that anyone could simply buy their way into high society. The term was shortened to Uppertens and shortly after working Americans were nicknamed Lowers.
Ironically, even though Lowers disliked the privileged Uppers, they followed the social circles of the elite in much the same way Americans obsess over the rich and famous on Instagram and Twitter today.
In my current project, False Face, False Heart, musician Copeland Doyle is a Lower living in the Bowery and Ida Rose Blair is an Upper living in the exclusive Lagrange Terrace. (See earlier post about Ida Rose’s home here: )
In 1863 Tony Pastor wrote the comedic song, “The Upper and Lower Ten Thousand” a satirical look at the growing disparities between the classes. Some of the lyrics to the popular song are below.
Entertainer Tony Pastor - 1837-1908
Photo Credit: Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library. "Tony Pastor" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-35cb-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
The Upper and Lower Ten Thousand
Written and sung by Tony Pastor
Of the Upper and Lower Ten Thousand I sing.
The Upper Ten Folks are the wealthy, I’m sure –
The Lower Ten Thousand the folks that are poor.
And now in my song I’ll the difference show
‘Twixt the folks that are high and the folks that are low.
The Upper Ten Thousand in mansions reside,
With frouts (bricks) of brown stone, and with stoops high and wide
While the Lower Ten Thousand in poverty deep,
In cellars and garrets, are huddled like sheep.
The Upper Ten Thousand have turkey and wine,
On turtle and ven’son and pastry they dine.
While the Lower Ten Thousand, whose means are so small,
They’ve often to go without dinner at all.
The Upper Ten Thousand wear jewels and lace.
‘But the Lower Ten Thousand have rags in their place;
If an Upper-Ten fellow a swindler should be,
And with thousands of dollars of others make free –
Should he get into court, why, without any doubt,
The matter’s hushed up, and they’ll let him step out.
If a Lower-Ten-Thousand chap happens to steal,
For to keep him from starving, the price of a meal,
Why, the law will declare it’s a different thing –
For they call him a thief, and he’s sent to Sing Sing. (prison up the Hudson River)
Sources:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/23/how-much-wealth-top-1percent-of-americans-have.html
http://www.laglib.org/Civics%20Corner_Income%20Inequality.pdf
