Scraping By: Wage Labor, Slavery and Survival in Early Baltimore
Seth Rockman is an Associate Professor of History at Brown University who focuses in on the study of American economics, labour, and slavery during the Early American Republic. His second book, Scraping By: Wage Labor, Slavery and Survival in Early Baltimore, Rockman argues that the growth of the American Republic’s capitalist economy and the growing prosperity afford to merchants and producers at the time was cyclically tied to the exploitation of wage laborers and slaves and their subsequent inability to reap the rewards and prosperity of their own labour. (8) As such, Seth concludes that class distinctions are “material condition” by those who can consolidate the labour of workers, i.e. the upper classes, and those who would become dependent on the wages and commodities afforded to them by the consolidators, e.g. the laborers and slaves. (11)
To argue such, Rockman relies heavily upon primary source material from the area of Baltimore, which due to developing market dynamics at the time was becoming a center of trade and manufacturing in the Mid-Atlantic region, thus providing an interesting case study for this period of time. Continuing the theme of bottom up perspectives in line with our past readings, Rockman, instead of looking at the growth of the economy through the mechanism of the, “entrepreneurial energy of merchants and financiers,” the book details the lives of laborers and the hardships they face growing at this time. (259) From the necessities of survival, like foodstuffs, alcohol, and heating wood to the costly rents of their living quarters, Rockman made it apparent that in a society of ever expanding prosperity for some, that for the people of “small means” they could rarely afford to perpetuate their own livelihood let alone afford the time to dedicate towards news skills, or the money necessary to afford new tools to enable upward mobility and or the ability to save money to buy at wholesale prices (140, 259, 260) Pushed by this inability to provide oneself or one’s family with a level of support afforded by a singular bread winner’s wage, wives a children where typically forced to support the family, in addition to the reliance upon others within their community to provide in times of need. Also, while the growing Atlantic service economy provided women the ability to earn an income, the narrow fields of work and general competitiveness for positions drastically drove down wages. The glaring example of this was that of the seamstress, who’s pay was just pennies per finished article of clothing, and who’s full time work would provide nothing short of starvation wages.
A multitude of the examples provided within the text show this pigeonholing of labour work. While the American dream and advertisements of good paying jobs by foreign agents promised a sense of economic freedom, low paying work forced laborers into a perpetual cycle of debt, scarcity, and the potential for beggary. (172) The notion of working hard and it’s ability to generate prosperity and freedom was antithetical to the reality of experiences held by the many documented. For white women, domestic work wages were in direct competition with slave work driving down their rate, and like black women domestic work reduced the chances of women from finding a mate and the higher wages they could potentially share. Mudmachinist were offered wages higher then the average laborer, but it was seasonal, lacked a guaranteed weekly schedule and placed workers and their dependents one injury away from the almshouse. For those who saw themselves as craftsman able to afford a living off their skilled work at the turn of the century, they began to see themselves pushed out of their own fields of industry. (42) As some master craftmans began to consolidate work into factories and ostracizing the highly skilled workers. These entrepreneurs created systems of manufacturing based on the specialization of single tasks, which consequently moved an industry away from apprenticeship into limited skilled work and reduced the overall wages for workers while generating more wealth upward. These craft fields more and more so became under the, “interests of employers rather than the workers” on top of employers using cultural and social differences as a way to divide the workforce, drive down wages, and prevent the rising of one’s statute through ownership. (68,99) While overall suffrage and political freedoms increased during this time, for a large section of society limited choice in work opportunity or the ability of one to truly pull themselves up by their own boot straps and succeed was “desperately constrained.” (260) Freedom, which many consider the ability to improve their own lot in life as they see fit, was not obtainable for many, and for the large swath of society who were beginning to prosper, it was on the backs of impoverished workers and slaves.
While the direct content of the material does rely upon academic language and may be complex for students to digest. This material could easily be implemented in lectures to show students to divergence of experiences of the time. However, within the text is a series of interesting primary sources that students can analysis and use to form their own conclusions. The documents can be used to answer questions exploring the notion of wages within the Early Republic. Graphing material can also be used as a could methods towards developing students mathematical reasonings skills within the realm of the social sciences.
