In chapters five and six of the
Artificial River by Carol Sheriff the residents near the canal have had
enough of the canal board ignoring their wants and needs. The people are
tired of waiting for their compensation of damaged property due to the
canal so they seek individual commercial opportunities to make their own
living. They have already spent way too much time and energy trying to
persuade the canal board to make changes. The men are not the only ones
who seek commerce, but their wives as well. The canal diggers wives and
children have began to go boat to boat selling their baked goods and
sell fruits as well. In 1825, the Grand Celebration - celebratory
flotilla docks in 30 towns and on the fourth day in Rome its residents
stage a mock funeral. This is to symbolize the end of their old 2 mile
canal that they loved. Fun fact: The canal produced economic rivals to
its east and west. At the time Danube too wanted access to the canal.
Many outskirt towns did not yet have a main route that would link them
to the canal. These requests were the main argument and petitions the
board received regularly. With so much construction debt water too was
at an all time debt and the residents still faced rationing their water
from their mills. There were very few ways to earn money at the time
that is if you let your morals limit you. A lot of the residents accused
each other for trying to profit off of their own expenses. With the
canal not being open people cannot transport their goods and this
affected farmers the most. Their temporary solution was to use private
railroad. When private railroads became the popular method for transport
this meant that the canal would lose its revenue and this caused a
financial struggle from 1830-1840. Businessmen were very particular with
how they worded their petitions to the canal board. They believed that
reducing tolls would help ‘the least fortunate people”, and that if the
board made the choice to put the canal in a route they favored that the
state would increase traffic of goods subject to the toll connection.
Petitioners urged the canal to lower the toll on firewood because
winters were very heavy and it would be beneficial for the good of the
people. Farmers feared that businessmen and the state would unite
because this turn of events would not favor them much.
Canal workers did not only include
men, but male children as well ranging from ages 6,7,and 12. Children
made up more than a quarter of the workforce. Women disguised themselves
as young boys so that they can be hired to work on the boats too. Some
tasks the children took on working on the boats included: Handling the
horses to pull boats, driving, and scrubbing decks. In the 1840s nearly
30 thousand men, women, and children contributed their hard works and
efforts to support the canal day and night. State workers tracked the
weight of the boats before and after arriving to tolls. They were to
need official document proving what the weight was and the type of
product it had aboard. Some workers earned their wages through the state
and others earned it through private employers, at times some kids were
taken advantage of and not given fair wages. Working on the canal was
not what anyone would desire for a child. Children working on boats were
often exposed to a lot of profanity and alcohol. Older men that worked
on the canal were arrested on the daily for being intoxicated, violent
and soliciting sex. Middle class viewed the canal workers as a threat
they didn't see them in a very humane way and thought less of them
because they did not study. They encouraged their kids to fear being
like them. The American Bethel Society was born during the second Great
Awakening. The society fought for the right to give the canal workers
the day off on Sunday aka Sabbath the Lords’ Day to take advantage of
learning the Christian word. Paid theologians traveled the canal boat to
boat preaching to canal workers and provided their services in 5
different languages. One of their goals was to convert these sinners to
Christians.Sometimes people would camp out for days to listen to these
preachers. Businessmen believed that if they support the Bethel Reform
that their pocketbooks would go up. When the canal closed for winter it
usually closed for 4-5 months meaning men women and children had no job
nor a place to stay. If they had no shelter some would purposefully
commit crimes that would get them arrested so that they can have a warm
place to stay and eat in. Some women went to poor houses and other
seeked refuge in churches.
The purpose of Sheriffs choosing to
inform so much about the duties on the boat was to shift focus on who
was performing these duties and under what circumstances. We did not
hear much dialogue from the canal workers. To be exact, the children
workers had no voice we simply were told about their experiences from
Sheriff's perspective.
In class we studied a painting called Lackawanna Valley by George Innes 1855. Our
first observation was a main railroad with a train not yet finished
being built. You see a lot of tree stumps meaning there is more progress
in building the rest of the trains routes. We noticed a roundhouse
where the train was leaving and learned that that's where the train
switches tracks. You can tell there's much more to be done and some
establishments have already been set up near exists. Having your
establishment near the canals exits meant more revenue.
A question im still left wondering is why werent store workers viewed as businessmen? Did
any of the children canal workers ever die due to hard labor? Were
children canal workers able to petition their voice to the canal board
and what would their petitions possibly conclude? These were some of the
unanswered questions my peers and I as well asked.
