ABSTRACT
Undoubtedly inexpensive passage and a shorter time at sea were significant fac-tors that encouraged Italian transatlantic immigration previous to its dramatic curtailment. One of Dad’s lasting childhood memories was that of always being hun-gry. Homeworkers took advantage of the “putting-out system” whereby factories farmed out piecework in the manufacturing process. Homework was an essential component of the family budget in the early years of Italian immigration. In fact, obtaining a clerical or secretarial post was considered a significant sign of mobility during years in Lower Manhattan’s Little Italy as well as in Rochester’s Mount Allegro. But contract labor and homework aside, the vast majority of Italians in America, as well as their second-generation children, found work in America’s burgeoning manufacturing economy, working in a variety of factories from large to small—steel foundries, glass and ceramics plants, cotton and paper mills, shoe and garment shops, food packers and confectionaries.
