Peddler

Related Category: Businesses and Occupations

or hawker, itinerant vendor of small goods. In rural America peddlers carried their packs or drove a horse and cart from door to door. While the importance of peddlers to the small American community declined considerably with the growth of automobile transportation and mail-order houses, their role in certain sections of the Asian and African markets has remained important.

See R. L. Wright, Hawkers and Walkers in Early America (1927, repr. 1965); J. R. Dolan, Yankee Peddlers of Early America (1964).