THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO, ILLINOIS Agents THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY NEW YORK THE CUNNINGHAM, CURTISS & WELCH COMPANY LOS ANGELES THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON AND EDINBURGH THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA THE MISSION BOOK COMPANY SHANGHAI the United States 1640-1860 A Study in Industrial History By ROLLA MILTON TRYON THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS PREFACE In any historical study the closer one gets to the everyday life of the common people the better basis one has for understanding that people's history. Few historical subjects offer better opportunities to get very near the actual life of the common people than the one treated in the following pages. In order to determine the extent to which household manufacturing was carried on in the United States prior to 1860, the phases and processes relative to the industry, and the products resulting therefrom, it was necessary for the writer to go right into the homes of the people engaged in such manufacturing. Such, of course, was historically but not actually possible. Historically speaking, the writer was able to see the system of family manufacturing in operation through the accounts of those persons who both actually saw and were a part of it and were for this reason in a position to record facts, describe conditions, and estimate amounts relative to the system. Because of the author's desire to get as near to the daily life of the people as possible, much use has been made of contemporary accounts, personal recollections, local histories, and census returns. All these have been used with a full realization of their character and of the danger involved in using them solely as a basis for final historical conclusions. Nevertheless, when a census official went into the home and secured data from first-hand sources, when the traveler did likewise and described what he saw, and when a |