For Our Blessing: The Benefits of Work

He was a plate layer for the railroad. She braided and assembled straw hats. He alternated between gardener and agricultural laborer. She made boxes in a factory. He was a skilled weaver who assembled carpets in a manufacturing plant. She tended a loom at the age of eight and he was in the mines by nine years. Young and old, they worked for the meager necessities of life. 

Plate Layers at Whitacre Junction Station, Warwickshire Railroad, ca 1840

Labor Day. Not a day to do one's labor, but a gift to the workers of America, giving them an opportunity to enjoy a day off from that work. In response most people rush around in an effort to have fun. Once established to recognize the contributions of the worker to American life, this day has devolved into a day for families to have one last vacation before the end of the summer. Depending on the school schedule in any particular part of the country, it is an awkwardly placed weekend set just after the beginning of school where school children careen around in one last fling with their tired parents in tow. And then there are the commercial enterprises that offer no rest at all for their employees because business must go on, and it is generally acknowledged that American families can't have fun without spending money in the process.

Cheers to the workers throughout the world, not just in America, who labor to provide for the good of the family whole. Those moms and dads who struggle to supply the wants and needs of those for whom they are responsible. And then turn around and work to have fun on their day of holiday. The method of celebration aside, cheers to those who toil, especially those who toil in drudgery, who spend their day in dull, fatiguing or uninspiring work. Prayers to those, though, with no work available to do as that lot is the hardest of all.

I come from a long line of laboring class in England and America. Those few in England who had owned land had, by the mid-1800s, been reduced to the lives of workingmen and women, toiling primarily for the benefit of others. Those who owned land previously had not been wealthy, but had worked by the sweat of their brows, although with more autonomy in some cases. Those who were tenant farmers with legal contracts certainly had more stability than those who were itinerant agricultural laborers . Times were changed, however. If by circumstance, a head of family was still listed in the census records as farmer, his children were often agricultural or general laborers, railroad workers, factory workers, coal miners or colliers.  

Usually the wife was found to be “working in the home,” but some of these stalwart women were seamstresses and midwives. Many organized the necessities of the home and then tilled the garden as well, while managing a cottage industry on the side. They worked the land side by side with their husbands. Younger girls were hired out as milkmaids, brick makers, or in later years scholars. Boys often were working in the trades of their fathers or scholars. The luxury of going to school, however, was often found to be short-lived as they quickly assimilated into the working class. These were my people.

The Harvesters, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Netherlands - 1565

 Much to their distress, a few families were even confined to the poorhouse or from the records of the parish overseer of the poor records found to be on the charitable dole. A shroud for the burial of George and Fanny Randall’s son was purchased by the parish because they could not afford that necessity of their own. I am sure that x-Great Grandfather Randall would have agonized over his inability to adequately provide for his family. This undoubtedly took an inexorable toll that would have been heavy on his heart and soul.  I imagine the distress of Grandmother Randall who, no matter the effort, could not supply enough to heal the dying child so dear to her heart.

Dowlais Ironworks (the world's largest) by G. Childs. Merthyr Tydfil - 1840

The English civil and parish records create a bleak picture of the struggles in the Randall family during the Industrial Revolution. 

Yesterday was Labor Day 2015. A national holiday, Labor Day is celebrated the first Monday in September. It is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country (1). Working, though, provides an additional benefit to the fabric of America and the world. Beyond the tangible advantage to the economy of gainful employment is the psychological boost to the individual of self-respect and dignity (2). 

My immediate paternal grandfather was a descendant of those earlier Randall grandparents. He worked well into the night as a linotype operator throughout his adult life. He struggle with emotional and mental demands of his work. Joining a labor union must have allowed him the dignity of membership in an organization of men who understood his daily tasks and lauded his efforts. During the Great Depression he worked for pennies an hour, long hours a day. Grandma would sometimes walk through the dark streets to visit with him a moment in his most lonely moments. The anxiety of missing so many of the family's activities for so little monetary reward took a great toll on him as well. As difficult as this situation was for him, being without any work would have been much more stressful. I'm sure he was grateful for the ability to bring home a regular salary. Even pinched for money, he and my grandmother scraped together enough to purchase a small piece of farmland. This helped to augment payday wages.

Sources

1. http://www.dol.gov/laborday/history.htm

2. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865636237/How-work-benefits-the-workers.html?pg=all
3. http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/mrwj1171.htm
4. Note: Thank you to David Edwards for 2006 research in Wingerworth sources for Hibbs and Randall families.