ABSTRACT
CERTAINLY not the least of the changes which make the first half of the nineteenth century of peculiar interest were those which affected the organization, the social status, and the well-being of labor. As transportation improved, as markets for standardized products developed, and as the domestic and factory systems arose, the whole manner of making a living underwent fundamental alteration. The story of this transition claims attention in this and the following chapter. They trace the path by which, between 1815 and 1860, most craftsmen, many men, women, and children from American farms, and, finally, increasing hordes of immigrants became a part of that great body of industrial wage earners now regarded as typical of capitalistic economy.
