A cooper is an individual whose profession is making and repairing barrels and casks. Coopers date back since the very beginning of history, often the Gauls are credited with making the first barrel. They were used to hold liquids, food, and precious cargo. It is a very taxing job involving mainly manual labor. Today due to technological advancements in materials, such as stainless steel, plastic and aluminum, coopering with wood is seen as unpopular. However, during the 1800s, when this Diary was written, a cooper was a popular occupation. Often as it is displayed in the Diary, it required few tools and rigorous labor. Because coopering required a lot of labor, companies outsourced the work, putting coopers in high demand. During the 19^th century, penitentiaries were “industrialized” for public and private production; this meant prison labor supported the institution. Many Quakers agreed that, “all prisons should be workhouses,” to provide punishment and reformation. Coopering was one form of prison labor prisoners learned the trade and could use the skill on the outside. Upon release according to an article by Larry Goldsmith about prison labor, prisoners received, “payment for overwork,” and “a valuable tool…one can imagine him using towards an occupation.” Prisons also trained incarcerated men to do carpentry, stone cutting and other labor intensive occupations.       

Sources:

Goldsmith, Larry. "`To Profit by His Skill and to Traffic on His Crime': Prison Labor in Early 19th-Century." Labor History 40, no. 4 (1999): 439, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=30h&AN=2627504&site=e host-live.

Staples, William C. "In The Interest of the State: Production Politics in the Nineteenth Century Prison." Sociological Perspectives 33, no. 3 (1990): 375-395, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=31h&AN=9606215876&sit e=ehost-live.