Artisan

In the years following the American Revolution, independent artisans embodied the ideal of virtuous, republican manhood. By the nineteenth century, however, the market revolution and industrialization made it increasingly unlikely [Page 37]that a craftsman could become a property-owning artisan. Although artisanal manhood remained a prominent ideal in American culture throughout the nineteenth century, it faded during the twentieth century as manhood ceased to be defined by the combination of skilled labor, control of production, and property ownership.

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, artisanal manhood was embodied in the daily process of work itself, which reinforced the association between craftsmanship, property ownership, production, manual labor, and self-control. As property owners, artisans labored with their own tools in their own shops, which were usually located on the ground floor of their homes. They employed a small number of apprentices (young men training in the craft) and journeymen (men who had completed their training) who aspired to become masters themselves. Artisans also controlled their own labor time. Artisans and their employees were task-oriented, working to complete a particular job rather than laboring for a set number of hours. Often, recreational activities such as games, drinking, and breaks for cakes and sweets occurred throughout the workday. The fluid mix of work and recreation tied masters and journeymen together as men and craftsmen, since both participated in the work and leisure activities of the all-male shops. This combination of labor and play also continually reasserted artisans' control of themselves and their labor, reinforcing their positions as the “yeomen of the cities.”

Popular images of artisans from the early nineteenth century depict them as the physical embodiment of republican manhood: self-sufficient, sturdy, hard working, and personally independent. Illustrations typically show artisans as tall, muscular men, standing erect with firmly planted feet. Their sleeves usually are rolled up to reveal sinewy forearms. At their sides rest the tools of their trade, material symbols of their ownership of property both in real estate (such as shops) and in skill and knowledge. Their position as property owners assured their economic, and consequently political, independence, which Thomas Jefferson and other supporters of republican manhood considered necessary for a virtuous and effective citizenry.

Artisanal manhood rested not only on property ownership but also on the ideology of producerism, which contended that artisans' wealth and independence stemmed from their role as creators of commodities. The skill, time, and knowledge put into making each commodity determined its value; consequently, commodity value was a reflection of an artisan's skill and work. Producerism suggested that work created wealth, which revealed a continuing belief in work as a means to self-advancement. Artisans defined themselves in opposition to groups they deemed nonproductive and therefore unmanly—particularly male and female wage earners; women in the home; slaves who did not control their own work; and speculators, stockbrokers, and lawyers, whose wealth resulted from the manipulation of the products of other men's labor. Like women and slaves, wage earners were dependent on another man for economic sustenance, and, as dependents, male wage earners risked forfeiting their positions as independent citizens.

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