Merchants, Machinery, and
the Middle Class
Aaron Sheehan-Dean
Dayton, Florida
April 8, 2011
Outline
Merchants, Machinery, and the Middle Class
I. The New Landscape of Labor
A. Leaving the Guild Behind
1. Old system
2. New system
B. Skill ed labor gives way to unskill ed labor
C. Emerging industrial economy
D. Bye-bye Papa: work leaves the home and so do men
E. Foreign-born workers
II. Birth of an American class system?
A. "Free land"
B. Not a new problem
C. What is class? Income, wealth, occupation, prestige, social position
D. The new middle class
E. Changes on the ground
III. Relations between employers and workers
A. Avoid Europe's problems
B. Workers stand up
1. Strikes
2. General Trades Union (GTU)
3. Immigration and labor
4. Limited political response
C. Workers as voters
Leaving the Guild Behind
Steam Power
The New system
Textile Mill
Glass Blowing
Skilled to Unskilled Labor
Number of Factory workers in the U.S.
1820: 350,000
1860: 2,000,000
(a seven-fold increase)
Working More for Less
“In this country, the evils of the factory system in the exaction
of an undue portion of the time of the laborer -twelve, fourteen,
and even sixteen and eighteen hours out of the twenty-four, and
in the excessive toil imposed on young children, have been
severely felt.”
"The Ten Hour System."
The Phalanx
May 18, 1844
Labor and Gender
Immigration, 1820-1950
Entry of Foreign-Born Workers
Germans
Irish
"Wanted. A Cook or Chambermaid … must be
American, Scotch, Swiss or African - no Irish."
- Newspaper advertisement for
domestic help (1830)
Birth of an American Class System?
What is class?
Income
Wealth
Occupation
Prestige
Social position
The New Middle Class
“Ours is a country where men start from an humble
origin, and from small beginnings rise gradually
in the world, as the reward of merit and industry.
One has as good a chance as another, according to
his talents, prudence, and personal exertions. This
is a country of self-made men.”
Reverend Calvin Colton
1844.
Fifth avenue
New York, NY
Bowery, NY
"a throng of sickly-looking, dirty people
É [a] wretched and squalid class"
- William Cullen Bryan, describing Edinburgh’s poor
1845
Strikes
Mechanics' Union of Trade Associations:
"an unequal and very excessive accumulation of
wealth and power into the hands of a few."
Philadelphia, 1827
Workingmen’s Parties
Frances Wright Robert Dale Owen
Workers as Voters?