Scraping by : wage labor, slavery, and survival in early Baltimore / Seth Rockman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rockman, Seth.

Series:

Studies in early American economy and society from the Library Company of Philadelphia

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Labor--Maryland--Baltimore--History--19th century.

Labor.

Wages--Maryland--Baltimore--History--19th century.

Wages.

Slavery--Maryland--Baltimore--History--19th century.

Slavery.

Working class--Maryland--Baltimore--History--19th century.

Working class.

African Americans--Employment--Maryland--Baltimore--History--19th century.

African Americans.

White people--Employment--Maryland--Baltimore--History--19th century.

White people.

Capitalism--Social aspects--Maryland--Baltimore--History--19th century.

Capitalism.

Capitalism--Social aspects.

History.

White people--Employment.

African Americans--Employment.

Baltimore (Md.)--Economic conditions--19th century.

Baltimore (Md.).

Baltimore (Md.)--Social conditions--19th century.

Baltimore (Md.)--Race relations--History--19th century.

Maryland--Baltimore.

Physical Description:

xii, 368 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.

Summary:

Enslaved Mariners, white seamstresses, Irish dockhands, free black domestic servants, and native-born street sweepers all navigated the low-end labor market in post-Revolutionary Baltimore. Seth Rockman considers this diverse workforce, exploring how race, sex, nativity, and legal status determined the economic opportunities and vulnerabilities of working families in the early republic.

Rockman Delves into the material experiences of low-wage workers-how they found work, translated labor into food, fuel, and rent, and navigated underground economies and social welfare systems. He also examines what happened if they failed to find work or lost their jobs. Rockman argues that the American working class emerged from the everyday struggles of these low-wage workers. Their labor was indispensable to the early republic's market revolution, and it was central to the transformation of the United States into the wealthiest society in the Western world. These rich accounts of day laborers and domestic servants illuminate the history of early republic capitalism and its consequences for working families.

Contents:

Coming to work in the city

A job for a working man

Dredging and drudgery

A job for a working woman

The living wage

The hard work of being poor

The consequence of failure

The market's grasp.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [269]-347) and index.

ISBN:

9780801890062

0801890063

9780801890079

0801890071

OCLC:

214322654

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description