In the USA (or the American colonies) in the 18th century, most people worked as farmers. Others sailed on merchant ships or whaling ships, worked as blacksmiths, barbers, cobblers, silversmiths (like Paul Revere), or printers (like Benjamin Franklin). Unfortunately a lot of people in North America worked as slave laborers.
In the 1700's, most people worked with their hands. In addition to farming, there were many craftspeople whose work supported the farmers. They included blacksmiths, who worked in iron and made things like horseshoes, coopers, who made barrels, buckets and tubs, and millers who ground the grain. Also, the town crier, who spread the news of what was happening.
Consider the 1700s represent a time before the use of petroleum and electricity as energy. Transportation back then involved the use of animals. As such, some occupations from then are not common today: blacksmith, farrier and stagecoach driver, for instance. Others are still widespread: inn keeper, actor, lawyer, baker, farmer.
There were farmers, gunsmiths, doctors, accountants, politicians, moon shiners, sailors, builders and writers just as there are today but without our technology. There were also trappers, explorers, people who led settlers to new lands, homesteaders, blacksmiths and folks who traded with the Indians. Things weren't massed produced so someone had to make whatever households needed.
Many occupations from the 1700s still exist today. Carpenters still build houses, brewsters still make beer, bakers still make bread, surveyors still measure land. Some archaic jobs include cooper, a maker of wooden barrels, sawyer, a person who turns logs into beams, and cordwainer, a maker of leather goods. Some people still practice archaic professions as hobbies.
In the 18th century many people had engaged themselves as farmers. Other people worked as blacksmiths, barbers, cobblers. Many people worked on merchant ships also.
