ABSTRACT
Many of us take for granted the idea that most people, male or female, will hold down jobs for much of their lives. Waged work is so much a normal part of our lives that we lose sight of the fact that it was once a controversial activity. During the early days of U.S. nationhood, the Jeffersonian ideal was a relatively self-sufficient farmer who owned land, worked his farm with his family, and produced most necessities at home. In pursuit of this ideal, the territory of the U.S. was expanded westward, repeatedly displacing the Native American inhabitants, to carve out farms for European American settlers. Given access to land, who would choose to submit themselves to an employer or risk unemployment due to changed fortunes or mere whim? Wage labor was scarce. In its place, there was slavery or indentured servitude. In the South, those who could afford not to do their own labor often kept slaves. People who could not afford to pay the fare to come to the U.S. – debtors, and some criminals – were sold as indentured servants to work until their monetary or social debts were repaid, a temporary form of bondage. In the urban areas of the North, independent artisans (for example, silversmiths, cobblers, and blacksmiths) took on apprentices and journeymen who lived with the family until they could set up their own business.
