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The Craft Apprentice: From Franklin to the Machine Age in America
The apprentice system in colonial America began as a way for young men to learn valuable trade skills from experienced artisans and mechanics, and soon flourished into a fascinating and essential social institution. Benjamin Franklin got his start in life as an apprentice, as did Mark Twain,
Horace Greeley, William Dean Howells, William Lloyd Garrison, and many other famous Americans. But the Industrial Revolution brought with it radical changes in the lives of craft apprentices. In this book, W.J. Rorabaugh has woven an intriguing collection of case histories, gleaned from numerous
letters, diaries, and memoirs, into a narrative that examines the varied experiences of individual apprentices and the massive changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution. Rorabaugh traces the evolution of apprenticeship from its colonial roots, to the part it played in the settlement of the West,
through to its decline in the 19th century, when money and machines transformed age-old crafts, and relations between master and apprentice began to crumble. No craft was transformed more than printing, and this original study shows how the Civil War destroyed lingering tradition and left in its
wake a powerful economy dominated by machines, nostalgic memories of handicrafts, and idle, alienated youths.
Horace Greeley, William Dean Howells, William Lloyd Garrison, and many other famous Americans. But the Industrial Revolution brought with it radical changes in the lives of craft apprentices. In this book, W.J. Rorabaugh has woven an intriguing collection of case histories, gleaned from numerous
letters, diaries, and memoirs, into a narrative that examines the varied experiences of individual apprentices and the massive changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution. Rorabaugh traces the evolution of apprenticeship from its colonial roots, to the part it played in the settlement of the West,
through to its decline in the 19th century, when money and machines transformed age-old crafts, and relations between master and apprentice began to crumble. No craft was transformed more than printing, and this original study shows how the Civil War destroyed lingering tradition and left in its
wake a powerful economy dominated by machines, nostalgic memories of handicrafts, and idle, alienated youths.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 9, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 28, 2019
Historian William J. Rorbaugh provides an insightful discussion of how and why the institution of apprenticeship training came apart in the United States between the American Revolution and the American Civil War. He argues that various of social and economic changes helped contribute to this shift in how young men were educated and prepared for future careers.
Rorbaugh builds this book upon the diaries and letters written by young men who served as apprentices in various trades. Before staring the research, Rorbaugh had expected to create a social science history through a statistical analysis of local apprenticeship records, but argues that the unusual set of young men who left behind records of their personal experiences, hopes, fears, and motivations were, nonetheless, a good stand in for the masses of young men who did not create such records.
Having read the book as part of a historical research project that will draw heavily on local court records, census returns, tax records, land records, and probate files to create a data base forming the backbone of my research, I must reserve judgment for the moment on Rorbaugh’s assertions; however, I do tend to that that drawing on a fairly broad range of records from such an unusual cohort does help alleviate some misgivings about his data set. It also points on the strengths and weaknesses of both sorts of historical research.
At the beginning, Rorbaugh lays out a brief history of craft apprenticeship in England and Europe. Due to strong craft guilds, craftsmen were able to maintain economic status and keep each trade’s methods secret. In the British colonies of North America, there were very few master craftsmen and thus a much broader range of men were able to take in apprentices, whether voluntarily, informally, or court ordered. Yet, formal articles of apprenticeship were still standard, giving protection and rights to the master craftsmen and the apprentice. These arrangements reflected the assumption that economic status quo and the authority of the master over his apprentices would be maintained into the foreseeable future.
As suggested by the title, William Rorbaugh argues that the rise of modern manufacturing, as well as The Market Revolution, stand out as the major reasons for the demise of apprenticeship in the United States. First, this period witnessed the rise of centralized manufacturing which undermined the ability of independent craftsmen to rise from apprenticeship to own their own shop. Second, the development of more modern manufacturing technology was accompanied by the making such knowledge available through books, undermining the secrets of craft knowledge and thus the practical monopoly that guilds had supported in Europe and in the colonial era of American history.
Beyond these economic and technological factors, William Rorbaugh traces the intellectual and religious underpinnings of changing social structures. In this regard, the ideology of republicanism and the concept of social equality among, at least all white men, and thus the related decline of deference to one’s social betters undermined the authority of master craftsmen over their young male apprentices. He mentions in some degree the related challenges to the legal authority of husbands and fathers, which flowed from the ideological underpinnings of the American Revolution. This trend can be traces into the ideas of Jacksonian era white manhood suffrage. In this regard, he does mention some information from Professor Harry Watson of UNC Chapel Hill, an undergraduate mentor of mine, at least in the foot notes.
The primary text itself does expressly engage other historians, such as Gordon Wood, The Radicalism of The American Revolution, a well-known book of similar vintage which one may conclude informed portions of Rorbaugh’s analysis. Moreover, in terms of the flowering of the more democratic views of Christian theology in the Second Great Awakening, as argued by Nathan Hatch in The Democratization of American Christianity.
In this new era of American history, Rorbaugh notes, master craftsmen could not demand deference from apprentices. Moreover, many craftsmen were losing money and their businesses failing. They were often unable, at least outside of flush periods, to support the long-term obligation of training and providing economically for a teenager. A related trend was the tension over whether fathers should be able to exercise their common law rights to control son’s work, education, and apprenticeship options, plus all earned wages, until the son turned 21 years of age.
By the 1840s, apprenticeship was a steep decline. The cash was had raised expectations of boys and parents, such that many accepted poorly paid and unskilled factory jobs, in lieu of the uncertainty of apprenticeship, given the decline of many trades. Few working class boys or sons of craftsmen were allowed to pursue the emerging public schools and thus qualify themselves for more lucrative careers in business.
Instead, William Rorbaugh argues, many teenage boys and young men became involved in volunteer fire departments and urban street gangs in search of an identity, unable to achieve the status of master craftsmen owing to these changes. He noted that the anti-immigrant setntimetn of the young white men, under age 30, who made up the voting core of the Know-Nothing party of the 1850s owned much to their economic and social angst.
One shocking measure of the overall trends Rorbaugh traces was his calculation that a full 10% of unmarried white young men went to California in the Gold Rush. Such mobility, risk taking, and defiance of authority was break taking.
By the end of the book, at the coming of the Civil War, apprenticeship has largely been eclipsed, argues Rorbaugh, at least in the northeastern and Midwestern United States. He does provide brief sketch of the different scene in the southern states before this conclusion. White mechanics were largely foreign born by 1860. Most artisans were enslaved or free African Americans. He does paint with some broad stokes on how apprenticeship and slavery could clash as legal systems, at least when enslaved apprentices were formally bound on via indentures to master craftsmen who went bankrupt. Whether the creditors of such failed businesses could claim some lien upon at least the labor of such enslaved men and boys stood out as an interesting question.
In his book, William Rorbaugh provides a fairly convincing portrait. One might quibble, beyond the points he tried to answer in the introduction, that the book cannot be stretched quite as far as he would suggest. For example, Samuel Langhorne, known more readily as author Mark Twain makes several appearances in the book. His home state of Missouri was a slave state, to be sure, but hardly typical of the Midwestern or northeastern United States of the era. The short treatment of the southern states suggests the need for a through treatment of this subject. Despite such short comings, William Rorbaugh has provided a book worth the time to read.
Rorbaugh builds this book upon the diaries and letters written by young men who served as apprentices in various trades. Before staring the research, Rorbaugh had expected to create a social science history through a statistical analysis of local apprenticeship records, but argues that the unusual set of young men who left behind records of their personal experiences, hopes, fears, and motivations were, nonetheless, a good stand in for the masses of young men who did not create such records.
Having read the book as part of a historical research project that will draw heavily on local court records, census returns, tax records, land records, and probate files to create a data base forming the backbone of my research, I must reserve judgment for the moment on Rorbaugh’s assertions; however, I do tend to that that drawing on a fairly broad range of records from such an unusual cohort does help alleviate some misgivings about his data set. It also points on the strengths and weaknesses of both sorts of historical research.
At the beginning, Rorbaugh lays out a brief history of craft apprenticeship in England and Europe. Due to strong craft guilds, craftsmen were able to maintain economic status and keep each trade’s methods secret. In the British colonies of North America, there were very few master craftsmen and thus a much broader range of men were able to take in apprentices, whether voluntarily, informally, or court ordered. Yet, formal articles of apprenticeship were still standard, giving protection and rights to the master craftsmen and the apprentice. These arrangements reflected the assumption that economic status quo and the authority of the master over his apprentices would be maintained into the foreseeable future.
As suggested by the title, William Rorbaugh argues that the rise of modern manufacturing, as well as The Market Revolution, stand out as the major reasons for the demise of apprenticeship in the United States. First, this period witnessed the rise of centralized manufacturing which undermined the ability of independent craftsmen to rise from apprenticeship to own their own shop. Second, the development of more modern manufacturing technology was accompanied by the making such knowledge available through books, undermining the secrets of craft knowledge and thus the practical monopoly that guilds had supported in Europe and in the colonial era of American history.
Beyond these economic and technological factors, William Rorbaugh traces the intellectual and religious underpinnings of changing social structures. In this regard, the ideology of republicanism and the concept of social equality among, at least all white men, and thus the related decline of deference to one’s social betters undermined the authority of master craftsmen over their young male apprentices. He mentions in some degree the related challenges to the legal authority of husbands and fathers, which flowed from the ideological underpinnings of the American Revolution. This trend can be traces into the ideas of Jacksonian era white manhood suffrage. In this regard, he does mention some information from Professor Harry Watson of UNC Chapel Hill, an undergraduate mentor of mine, at least in the foot notes.
The primary text itself does expressly engage other historians, such as Gordon Wood, The Radicalism of The American Revolution, a well-known book of similar vintage which one may conclude informed portions of Rorbaugh’s analysis. Moreover, in terms of the flowering of the more democratic views of Christian theology in the Second Great Awakening, as argued by Nathan Hatch in The Democratization of American Christianity.
In this new era of American history, Rorbaugh notes, master craftsmen could not demand deference from apprentices. Moreover, many craftsmen were losing money and their businesses failing. They were often unable, at least outside of flush periods, to support the long-term obligation of training and providing economically for a teenager. A related trend was the tension over whether fathers should be able to exercise their common law rights to control son’s work, education, and apprenticeship options, plus all earned wages, until the son turned 21 years of age.
By the 1840s, apprenticeship was a steep decline. The cash was had raised expectations of boys and parents, such that many accepted poorly paid and unskilled factory jobs, in lieu of the uncertainty of apprenticeship, given the decline of many trades. Few working class boys or sons of craftsmen were allowed to pursue the emerging public schools and thus qualify themselves for more lucrative careers in business.
Instead, William Rorbaugh argues, many teenage boys and young men became involved in volunteer fire departments and urban street gangs in search of an identity, unable to achieve the status of master craftsmen owing to these changes. He noted that the anti-immigrant setntimetn of the young white men, under age 30, who made up the voting core of the Know-Nothing party of the 1850s owned much to their economic and social angst.
One shocking measure of the overall trends Rorbaugh traces was his calculation that a full 10% of unmarried white young men went to California in the Gold Rush. Such mobility, risk taking, and defiance of authority was break taking.
By the end of the book, at the coming of the Civil War, apprenticeship has largely been eclipsed, argues Rorbaugh, at least in the northeastern and Midwestern United States. He does provide brief sketch of the different scene in the southern states before this conclusion. White mechanics were largely foreign born by 1860. Most artisans were enslaved or free African Americans. He does paint with some broad stokes on how apprenticeship and slavery could clash as legal systems, at least when enslaved apprentices were formally bound on via indentures to master craftsmen who went bankrupt. Whether the creditors of such failed businesses could claim some lien upon at least the labor of such enslaved men and boys stood out as an interesting question.
In his book, William Rorbaugh provides a fairly convincing portrait. One might quibble, beyond the points he tried to answer in the introduction, that the book cannot be stretched quite as far as he would suggest. For example, Samuel Langhorne, known more readily as author Mark Twain makes several appearances in the book. His home state of Missouri was a slave state, to be sure, but hardly typical of the Midwestern or northeastern United States of the era. The short treatment of the southern states suggests the need for a through treatment of this subject. Despite such short comings, William Rorbaugh has provided a book worth the time to read.
November 29, 2010
I read this book for my continuing project to self-educate in labor history. The early part of my education, this book and a book about merchant sailors, mostly cover ground predating the existence of labor unions as we know them today (or even as we knew them in the '50s), but I understand why Professor Jamie Bronstein at New Mexico State covers this material -- it's impossible to understand labor unions (i.e. working people) of the 20th century and today if we don't understand the conditions of working people generations ago.
Rorabaugh's book discusses the final age of the apprentice, from just pre-Revolution America to the Civil War, a war that finished off the institution of apprenticeship for all intents and purposes. Apprenticeship was, like slavery, a combined social/economic institution -- it provided cheap labor while also teaching youths about hard work and keeping them restrained from running wild in the streets. (One of the odd features of Rorabaugh's book is that he appears to believe in the salutary aspects of this social control, even at the cost of freedom and self-reliance.)
It's hard to pinpoint chickens and eggs, but the downfall of the apprentice system coincided with a rise in evangelical religious belief (a personal relationship to God, rather than God-as-master) and increased education, along with concentration of economic activity in urban areas. All of these factors were intertwined in the general cause of a rise in individuality and a moral system of self-determination.
Mechanization, of course, was probably the single most important factor in destroying the apprenticeship system. When machines perform crafts, skilled craftsmen can be replaced with unskilled machine-operators. Further, machines and factories are expensive -- capital is far more important than skill in establishing a business. An apprentice, then, who might have formerly finished his apprenticeship and gone out to the world as a journeyman in order to save money to open his own shop now had no such path -- where was he going to get the money to compete with a Massachusetts textile factory?
More particular to my interests, unions are hardly mentioned in the book. Journeyman formed trade groups to advocate for wages and to keep apprentices out of their industries (since more apprentices result in more journeyman, i.e. more labor, thus resulting in lower wages), but these seemed more akin to guilds of masters than to full-fledged unions of working people.
The book closes with the Civil War, the end of which results in an enormous labor force "returning" from war, both of newly freed African-Americans and soldiers, many of whom ran away from apprenticeships to enlist.
The book is obviously written for an academic market, but for that, it is well-written and mostly engaging. Rorabaugh sometimes engages in too much anecdote, rather than letting those stories illustrate his analytical points, to the point where his point is sometimes lost in pages of mind-numbing detail about the letters sent from apprentice to father and back. Still, to get a sense of the nature of middle-class work "from Franklin to the Machine Age in America," the book is quite useful.
Rorabaugh's book discusses the final age of the apprentice, from just pre-Revolution America to the Civil War, a war that finished off the institution of apprenticeship for all intents and purposes. Apprenticeship was, like slavery, a combined social/economic institution -- it provided cheap labor while also teaching youths about hard work and keeping them restrained from running wild in the streets. (One of the odd features of Rorabaugh's book is that he appears to believe in the salutary aspects of this social control, even at the cost of freedom and self-reliance.)
It's hard to pinpoint chickens and eggs, but the downfall of the apprentice system coincided with a rise in evangelical religious belief (a personal relationship to God, rather than God-as-master) and increased education, along with concentration of economic activity in urban areas. All of these factors were intertwined in the general cause of a rise in individuality and a moral system of self-determination.
Mechanization, of course, was probably the single most important factor in destroying the apprenticeship system. When machines perform crafts, skilled craftsmen can be replaced with unskilled machine-operators. Further, machines and factories are expensive -- capital is far more important than skill in establishing a business. An apprentice, then, who might have formerly finished his apprenticeship and gone out to the world as a journeyman in order to save money to open his own shop now had no such path -- where was he going to get the money to compete with a Massachusetts textile factory?
More particular to my interests, unions are hardly mentioned in the book. Journeyman formed trade groups to advocate for wages and to keep apprentices out of their industries (since more apprentices result in more journeyman, i.e. more labor, thus resulting in lower wages), but these seemed more akin to guilds of masters than to full-fledged unions of working people.
The book closes with the Civil War, the end of which results in an enormous labor force "returning" from war, both of newly freed African-Americans and soldiers, many of whom ran away from apprenticeships to enlist.
The book is obviously written for an academic market, but for that, it is well-written and mostly engaging. Rorabaugh sometimes engages in too much anecdote, rather than letting those stories illustrate his analytical points, to the point where his point is sometimes lost in pages of mind-numbing detail about the letters sent from apprentice to father and back. Still, to get a sense of the nature of middle-class work "from Franklin to the Machine Age in America," the book is quite useful.
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May 31, 2021Rorabaugh wrote about the apprentices' experiences, who live between 18th and 19th centuries, in a very fluent way. He uses apprentices' notes/their own records. He mentioned the mainline trend of decline in apprenticeship and craft production. In this book, you can find the master-apprentice relationship which is disappeared with the decline of craft production and masters' authority, guilds, and their regulations, deskilling with mechanization, wage dimension, etc. In short, he gathers all dimensions about craft, apprenticeship, and reasons behind the decline of craft production and relation.
I think he gives a comprehensive study that brings together all the dimensions of the craft and reveals the reasons for its destruction. It is shown as an example for those who work on factorization, where they can see the effects of mechanization.
I think he gives a comprehensive study that brings together all the dimensions of the craft and reveals the reasons for its destruction. It is shown as an example for those who work on factorization, where they can see the effects of mechanization.
February 26, 2016
William J. Rorabaugh's survey of craft apprenticeship's decline through the first half of the 19th century is contrasted with the concentration of capital in America's cities (and the restriction of capital for small business owners), the rise of factory work and cash wages, and a rising professional class of bookkeepers, clerks, and clock-punchers--and the bourgeois attitudes of a growing material culture. Adolescent individualism, reflected in the "personal" relationships of evangelical Christian revivalism, growing educational opportunities, and the literature of "self-help,"grew, and the master craftsman as unchallenged lord of the shop, mentor, and head of an adoptive "family" of apprentices faded from the American scene. The Civil War accelerated these trends until, by the late 19th century, apprenticeship, where it still existed, resembled slavery: a system of blatant exploitation, with mutual obligations replaced by one-sided relationships, with little or no opportunity to better one's station in life. An essential read.
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