By 1820 well over a quarter of the labor force in New England and the mid-Atlantic states was working in small factories, making everything from shoes to textiles. But such statistics concerning the number of factory workers are misleading; for not only was at least 30 percent of the manufacturing labor force in 1820 composed of women and children, but this factory work does not include the extraordinary amount of manufacturing taking place in rural family households. Family farms were doing more than farming; they were manufacturing as well. In 1810, for example, 90 percent of the $42 million
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