Supplemental Family Income Sources: Ethnic Differences in Nineteenth-Century Industrial America

Abstract

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the United States was undergoing an intense period of rapid industrialization which produced dramatic effects on many social institutions. One such institution was the family. The roles and behaviors of the family members were being redefined in response to the changes that were occurring in the family’s economic environment. In particular the family was called on to devise new income producing strategies through the allocation of its household labor resources. The utilization of such supplemental income sources as wives, children, and/or boarders was common during this period.