Though the First Census did not classify the population by
occupation it is certain that nine-tenths of the breadwinners
worked more or less upon the soil. The remaining tenth were
engaged in trade, transportation, manufacturing, fishing and
included also the professional men, doctors, lawyers, clergymen,
teachers, and the like. In other words, nine out of ten of the
population were engaged primarily in the production of food, an
occupation which today engages less than three out of ten. This
comparison, however, requires some qualification. The farmer and
the farmer's wife and children performed many tasks which are now
done in factories. The successful farmer on the frontier had to
be a jack of many trades. Often he tanned leather and made shoes
for his family and harness for his horses. He was carpenter,
blacksmith, cobbler, and often boat-builder and fisherman as
well. His wife made soap and candles, spun yarn and dyed it, wove
cloth and made the clothes the family wore, to mention only a few
of the tasks of the women of the eighteenth century.
The organization of industry, however, was beginning. Here and
there were small paper mills, glass factories-though many houses
in the back country were without glass windows--potteries, and
iron foundries and forges. Capitalists, in some places, had
brought together a few handloom weavers to make cloth for sale,
and the famous shoemakers of Massachusetts commonly worked in
groups.
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