Old North Speaker Series 
Lecture and Community Conversation
Work and Employment in Late 18th Century Boston
Speaker: Christopher Clark
Co-sponsored by the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology

Labor took many forms for Revolutionary-era Bostonians, who conducted work in many types of locations and under a variety of social arrangements. Occupations, levels of skill, and working conditions varied considerably. Men, women, and children, free and enslaved, conducted work in households and workshops, on wharves and slipways, in ropewalks and printing-shops. Join Professor Christopher Clark as he provides insights into the Atlantic world, the beginnings of the American Revolution, race and gender relations, and the origins of Boston’s subsequent urban growth through the lens of laboring people.

After the lecture, please join us for a reception and Community Conversation with Professor Clark and Anthony Benoit, President of the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, for an informal discussion on the parallels between training and apprenticeships in the 18th century and the career training and readiness of our young people today. Weigh in on the state of technology education today and the need for civically engaged students in our increasingly global society.

Christopher Clark, a social historian of Early America, is a professor of History at the University of Connecticut and currently Head of its History Department. His books include The Roots of Rural Capitalism: Western Massachusetts, 1780-1860, Social Change in America from the Revolution through the Civil War, and (with Nancy Hewitt and others) Who Built America? Working People and the Nation’s History.