I’ve been thinking about the answer to this all day. If I had my current skills, I’d probably be a translator or some sort of academic. Actually I’d probably be one of the most educated people around, at a time when most people didn’t even go to school at all. I’m assuming my musical skills would be useless, as there were better musicians back then and nobody would like to hear what I play. And my little knowledge on today’s technology would make me one of the world’s leading inventors.
But I assume your question asks what if I had been born at that time (eg in 1872) and grew up like everybody else? Well my grandfather was slightly younger than that and he was a farmer. He learnt the alphabet, having spent 3 whole years at school, which at the time was a great feat (it was 3 times longer than any of his brothers stayed at school). Of course girls didn’t even bother. Overall studying was considered a waste of time, a luxury for the rich. When my dad decided to go to university, his father’s attitude was typical of that mentality: “what are you going to do with all these letters? They won’t help your plants grow faster, or put food on the table. Now go fetch some firewood!”
My grandfather was physically strong, and worked many hours a day, his whole life. He was known to be the hardest worker around, often digging a whole field twice as fast as his helpers, and could do all sorts of things like carry enormous weights for miles, and punch an ox unconscious. I guess if I’d grown in the same environment, I would have developed my body more and become something similar. I may have preferred to become a sailor though, or at least a fisherman. I don’t think I’d like farming as much. It’s a life I could never imagine, but I guess they couldn’t imagine ours either.