This article studies the characteristics that defined the middle-class sectors in the urban world of nineteenth-century Colombia. From the case shows how the artisans from the XVIII century miscegenation played an important role in the reordering of society, especially in the redistribution of the economy of honor, which was reinforced over the next century. In this process, the article places particular emphasis on the role of manual labor in the reorganization, which when crossed with the public and political life, allowing the craft to build elements of a counter liberal society and the nation.