The French-Canadian Family Economy and Standard-of-Living in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1870

Abstract

In contrast to traditional inter pretations of the immigrant experience in America, this study shows that French- Canadian families moving to Lowell, Massachusetts in the 1870s managed to adapt the pattern of the family farm economy to their new, working-class lives, to survive, and in some cases to prosper. But survival meant a continuing cycle of child labor to maintain income levels above the poverty line, and for many, ad verse living conditions at best in an indus trialized society which offered few oppor tunities to escape the new urban proletar iat.