Unskilled-Lower-Class Workers In The 19th Century

Before the nineteenth century, Americans were an agricultural-based community. There were many farmers, which were a family-based business and many tobacco farmers with plantation using a bunch of slaves. But as the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century approached, there was a dramatic shift in production growth, as well as a drastic shift in the communities. While industrial industries were booming as it resulted in the creation social-economic class between the workers. As stated in Licht’s article, “The wealthier you were the more removed you chose to be from the often crowded, noisy, and hectic new industrial reality. This segmentation led to many other developments where like-minded residents with similar incomes joined forces.” The wealthy
with the wealthy, the middle-class with the middle-class, and the poor with the poor, was the mentality of the individuals based on their classification of work and income. Above the working class, people with more the average income, helped with more social control; furthermore providing a lot of support to grow abolitionists and women’s rights acts. A visible sign of change was transiency.
Large migration of individuals moved to cities and towns. Because of a bunch of democratic revolutions. This allowed men and women to migrate from their homes in pursuit of job opportunities. “Changes in agriculture and rural landholding patterns pushed families away from their places of birth.” - (Licht’s article) Unskilled-lower-class workers would be in search of job offers whether it is something they would be good at or not. These types of people would be roaming about the greatest concentration of unskilled job areas. With the income they would accumulate a month, they would live in extremely crowded boarding houses and tenements. Into the middle-class individuals who were able to bring in a descent amount of income began to inhabit neighborhoods that were around the development of mills. Average workers would live in rented apartments and houses built by their employers; In addition, they would also live in small row homes near local churches, schools, small business, and labor organizations. Into the above-average paying workers, who were skilled, they would live in bigger homes on larger lots of land farther away, and on the borders of the cities and
towns. As decades passed by, one would be able to distinguish the classes because American communities could be mapped. “Every ring about the center representing a different income group; even in districts where a certain heterogeneity prevailed, internal distinctions occurred, with the wealthy living on the avenues and people of lesser means on the side streets.” - (Licht’s article)
Before the nineteenth century, family was seen as a place of social status. Family was the basic unit of economic production, responsible for caring children, in charged with primary responsibilities for education, and as well as the center-view of religious observance. Eventually, at the beginning of nineteen century, ideas of family changed. Family was then perceived as a sacred place for one to fall back to. It was viewed as a place of isolation and safety for the mother and children; in addition, a place where the breadwinner could relax after a stressful and long day at work. In the early of the nineteenth century, the economic force that influenced these changes was called, “industrialization.” The process was that it would strip women of their early productive roles and create them into housewives, thus prolonging the length of childhood which resulted in a new stage of youth called, “adolescence.” Consequently, this ended up reducing birthrates.