Troy Before the Civil War

Ward 1, in the downtown center of Troy, New York. Detail of the 1861 "Map of Rensselaer County, New York."

Ward 1 serves as a good sample for the city of Troy, the population of which was nearly 40,000 in 1860.

Troy is a quintessential example of northern urban industrialization in the 1800s. Founded in 1789, Troy began to industrialize in the early 1800s. The scale of industrialization accelerated in the fifteen years before the Civil War. There were two major industries. Men worked in iron mills and stove foundries. Women worked in the shirt and collar mills. Troy’s population doubled between 1840 and 1860, and it increased 85% between 1845 and 1854.

Let’s examine a 10.4% sample portion of Troy's population to get a picture of what the city was like in 1860. 4,140 people lived in the central downtown of Troy in Ward 1. The people were mostly white (95%) with a small yet significant black population (5%). Females (54%) slightly outnumbered males (46%). Adults (60%) somewhat outnumbered children (40%). Most of the black population (75%) was born in New York State, with some (9%) from Maryland. 69% of the black men and boys were black, and 31% were mulatto. 34% of the black women and girls were black, and 66% were mulatto.

Downtown Troy had a very large immigrant population. The adult white population was about half native-born (49%) and immigrants (51%). Many of the white adults were born in New York State (36%) and the rest came from numerous other states and even Canada, Burma and the West Indies. The majority of adult immigrants were from Ireland (40%). In 1860, we can characterize the downtown Ward 1 Troy population as 47% native-born whites, 38% Irish immigrants, 10% other European immigrants and 5% blacks.

An illustration of men working in the iron industry, tapping a furnace.

Printed from a wood engraving in Harper's Weekly magazine, on November 1st, 1873.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress Digital Collections.

The 1860 Census lists 170 occupations for white males. The most common occupations were laborers (20%), clerks (10%), carpenters (6%), shoemakers (4%), painters (3%) and grocers (3%). In terms of ethnicity, 80% of the laborers were Irish, many of which likely worked in the iron mills and factories. Some of Ward 1 were skilled workers employed in the iron industry as molders, stove fitters/mounters, pattern makers and machinists - 24% of which were Irish. None of the managerial positions in the iron industry, such as stove dealers and firemen, were Irish. Downtown Troy can be characterized as largely working class with class stratification.

The 1860 Census lists 35 occupations for white females. Most of the white women (69%) did not have an occupation listed in the census. Most of these women were spouses that worked as housewives raising children, as well as older women in the care of their families. The most common occupations amongst white women were servants (14%), tailoresses (4%), dressmakers (3%) and washerwomen (3%). When combining all the work that white women did related to sewing, stitching and the like, this type of works comprises 11% of their occupations.

Amongst working black males of any age there was a limited range of working-class occupations. These included waiters (28%), laborers (19%), barbers (14%), whitewashers (painters, 12%), boatmen (9%), cooks (7%), and one each of green manure, grocer, coachman, hostler, clerk and a music teacher from the West Indies. Amongst working class black females of any age, the occupations included washerwomen (55%), cooks (11%) and seamstresses (11%), along with a few waitresses, servants, dressmakers, church sextons, a teacher and a tailoress. As with black males, the range of occupations was limited. Many black women were spouses that worked as housewives raising children, as well as older black women in the care of their families

An image depicting a woman working textile machinery. On the cover of Harper's Weekly magazine, January 14th, 1882. Cover illustration shows a man labeled "King Cotton" leaning against a bale of cotton and stomping on the back of a slave in 1861. Textile mills spewing smoke as African Americans pick cotton in 1882. Columbia working at a spinning machine in the middle.