Themes: Economics, Class, Race, Gender, Labor, Early Republic Capitalism
Geographical Scope: Baltimore
Chronological Scope: Late 18th/Early 19th Century
Thesis Summary: This is a labor history of the working poor in late 18th and early 19th century Baltimore. With its heterogeneous labor system that included a range of unfree and semi-free labor, Rockman argues that free market Capitalism came late for this population; instead Early Republic Capitalism exploited workers and limited their choices. Baltimore provides an excellent antidote to the dominant narrative arc of freedom and prosperity. Capitalism, according to Rockman, dictates “who worked where, on what terms, and to whose benefit.” (5) Very little leeway proved available to the working poor, and the assumption that skilled artisans and laborers enjoyed solidarity together to develop tools of resistance is dispelled.
Chapter Outlines:
1. Coming to Work in the City
- Described as an entrepôt built by a variety of common laborers from Irish to German to laborers from free to enslaved and including women and children. The flour industry boomed during this period.
2. A Job for a Working Man
- Knowing how and where to get work was a skilled job in and of itself, and the Early Republic Capitalists dictated this process. This chapter features representative vignettes of individual laborers and their struggles.
3. Dredging and Drudgery
- Manual labor paid relatively well, but day laborers struggled to get consecutive days of labor, which would equate to a decent wage
- The mudmachine for dredging the harbor was foul-smelling labor and often laborers did not last more than a month working it before they found something else, but Rockman highlights several people who managed to stay for a goodly portion of their working years
4. A Job For a Working Woman
5. The Living Wage
6. The Hard Work of Being Poor
- Families needed at least two incomes just to “scrape by”
- More Black men were heads of household than previously assumed, despite the higher ratio of women to men due to gender discrimination in manumissions
- Develops different experiences for Black and White folks (ex: white parents could send their children for apprenticeships to prepare them to eventually earn mediocre wages without concern they would be kidnapped and sold into slavery)
- Basic items were very expensive, especially clothing and food
7. The Consequence of Failure
8. The Market’s Grasp
Sources:
Newspapers, penitentiary records, almshouse records, petitions (for clemency), receipts, payroll contracts
Historiography:
Early Republic Labor History
Gerda Lerner - “Rethinking the American Paradigm”
Keywords:
Mud Machine
Early Republic Capitalism
Mixed labor