Antiques.(Book Review)

 
The true state of every nation is the state of common life. The manners 
of a people are not to be found in the schools of learning, or the 
palaces of greatness.... The true state of every nation is the state of 
common life.... The great mass of nations is neither rich nor gay: they 
whose aggregate constitutes the people, are found in the streets, and 
the villages, in the shops and farms. 
Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775 

The first major scholarly examination of the role of the craftsman in early American society was Carl Bridenbaugh's The Colonial Craftsman, published in 1950 and never superseded. He argued that the "driving desire" of early artisans here was to achieve material well being, respect for their work, and freedom from overbearing economic or statutory control. The desire of most artisans was not to shoot for the top but to get off the bottom.

The urban laboring man's realistic view of what was possible was shaped by the nature of eighteenth-century America. Work patterns were dictated by the weather, the duration of daylight, erratic deliveries of raw materials, and vacillations in consumer demand. Every urban artisan knew "broken days," slack spells, and dull seasons, but unemployment was virtually unknown. Artisans here earned more than in their homelands relative to the cost of household necessities, and land was reasonably priced.

In England and on the Continent workers formed guilds that controlled entrance to the trades, maintained standards of quality, and regulated training and employment. However, the open environment of the New World discouraged the establishment of guilds or state regulation of trades. ...