“Here, at Rensselaer, a good mechanic, a joiner or shoemaker, for instance—and numbers are needed here—may obtain for his labour in one week:
- 2 bushels of corn.
- 1 bushel of wheat.
- 5 pounds of sugar.
- ½ pound of tea.
- 10 pounds of beef.
- 25 pounds of pork.
- 1 good turkey.
- 3 pounds of butter.
- 1 pound of coffee.
- 1 bushel of potatoes.
and have a couple of dollars left in his pocket, to start with the next Monday morning.”
The moment the ice thawed in the spring, the demand for mechanics exceeded the supply, and the workmen had the master-hand of the capitalists. In June, the following rates were willingly paid to the different classes of workmen—some of the trades being on strike for higher:—
| Dollars per Week. | |
| Boiler-maker | 12 to 20 |
| Blacksmith | 12 to 20 |
| Baker | 9 to 14 |
| Barber | 7 to 10 |
| Bricklayer | 14 to 15 |
| Boat-builder | 15 |
| Cooper | 8 to 12 |
| Carpenter (house) | 15 |
| Confectioner | 8 to 12 |
| Cigar-maker | 9 to 25 |
| Car-driver (city cars) | 10 |
| Car-conductor (city cars) | 10½ |
| Engineer, common | 12 to 15 |
| Engineer, locomotive | 15 |
| Harness-maker | 10 |
| Mason | 10 to 15 |
| Omnibus-driver | 10 |
| Printer | 10 to 25 |
| Plumber | 15 |
| Painter (house) | 15 |
| Pianoforte maker | 10 to 14 |
| Shipwright | 18 |
| Ship-caulker | 18 |
| Ship-fastener | 18 |
| Shoemaker | 16 |
| Sign painter | 25 to 30 |
| Sail-maker | 15 |
| Tailor | 8 to 17 |
At this time I engaged a gardener, who had been boarding for a month or two in New York, and paying for his board and lodging $3 a week. I saw him at the dinner-table of his boarding house, and I knew that the table was better supplied with a variety of wholesome food, and was more attractive, than that of the majority of slaveowners with whom I have dined.
Amasa Walker, formerly Secretary of State in Massachusetts, is the authority for the following table, showing the average wages of a common (field-hand) labourer in Boston (where immigrants are constantly arriving, and where, consequently, there is often a necessity, from their ignorance and accidents, of charity, to provide for able bodied persons), and the prices of ten different articles of sustenance, at three different periods:—
Wages of Labour and Food at Boston.
| 1836. Wages. $1.25 per day. | 1840. Wages. $1 per day. | 1843. Wages. $1 per day. | |
| Dollars. | Dollars. | Dollars. | |
| 1 barrel flour | 9.50 | 5.50 | 4.75 |
| 25 lbs. sugar, at 9c. | 2.25 | 2.00 | 1.62 |
| 10 gals. molasses, 42½c. | 4.25 | 2.70 | 1.80 |
| 100 lbs. pork | 4.50 | 8.50 | 5.00 |
| 14 lbs. coffee, 12½c. | 1.75 | 1.50 | 5.00 |
| 28 lbs. rice | 1.25 | 1.00 | 75 |
| 1 bushel corn meal | 96 | 65 | 62 |
| 1 do rye meal | 1.08 | 83 | 73 |
| 30 lbs. butter, 22c. | 6.60 | 4.80 | 4.20 |
| 20 lbs. cheese, 10c. | 2.00 | 1.60 | 1.40 |
| 44.00 | 28.98 | 22.00 |
This shows that in 1836 it required the labour of thirty-four and a half days to pay for the commodities mentioned; while in 1840 it required only the labour of twenty-nine days, and in 1843 that of only twenty-three and a half days to pay for the same. If we compare the ordinary allowance of food given to slaves per month—as, for instance, sixteen pounds pork, one bushel corn meal, and, say one quart of molasses on an average, and a half pint of salt—with that which it is shown by this table the free labourer is usually able to obtain by a month’s labour, we can estimate the comparative general comfort of each.