Humanity in Our City — Accounts of the Laboring Poor in New Orleans, 1873

Sources describing the daily life of the laboring poor tend to be scarce in any setting, particularly before the beginning of the twentieth century when sociologists began producing detailed studies. In February and March 1873, an unknown correspondent for the New Orleans Times wrote a series of four sketches, each running to almost 4000 words, describing the lives and economics of different segments of the poor of New Orleans in the months before the Panic of 1873 rocked the economy. These accounts have been transcribed on the pages linked below

• Humanity In Our City. Our Poor White People. Among Mechanics, Longshoremen, and Laborers—At Their Firesides, with Their Wives, Sons and Daughters. Hard Times—Grocery Credit and the Wonders of Daily Life
  
  
• Humanity In Our City. Poor Jack. Sailors' Boardinghouses— How they are Conducted—Their Capacity—The Old System of Shipping and the New—Their Libels, Wages and Articles—Wrongs—Outrages
  
  
• Humanity In Our City. Among the Barrel Houses—Gambling and Wretchedness—How Such Places are Kept, and Who Keeps Them—A Panorama or Horror—Fire Water Maniacs, Etc., Etc., Etc.
  
  
• Humanity In Our Cities. Among the Sewing Girls. Their Work-rooms and Homes—What they Wear and How they Live. Their Beaux, Brothers and Sisters—Their Earnings, etc., etc.