By Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 21st, 2011
The American Spark is proud to present the second part of its short history on American Labor. Check out the first informative part here.
Why publish this quick study? Because many may not know the essential role labor unions have played–and continue to play–in the creation both of American democracy and of the country’s middle class.
Also, an admission: we did not put together this wonderful history. The information seen below comes straight from The Illinois Labor History Society website. Please check out their excellent documentation and resources.
The Illinois Labor History Society is “a non-profit organization with a mission to preserve and promote awareness of labor history” both in Illinois and across America, according to its website.
American Labor History: Part II
Expansion and Sectionalism: 1830-1850
Overview
This was a significant period of reform in American history.
Emerson and Thoreau were contemplating the essentials of life, and William Lloyd Garrison founded the abolition movement. Out of this climate came the ten-hour movement. The ten-hour movement achieved legislative success in several states for the ten-hour day.
However these laws contained one loophole, which employers used. All these laws allowed employees to contract for longer hours if they wanted. Employers manipulated this to apply to all workers and those who refused were fired and/or blacklisted.
The presence of an eager labor pool, caused by immigration, [further] weakened employee’s bargaining power on this and other issues.
Labor Related Issues of the Period
- The threat of conspiracy lawsuits is lifted by the reversal of previous court decisions in Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842).
- Growth of the Ten Hour movement and subsequent passage of ten-hour laws in several states.
- Land reform movements called for the free distribution of the public domain to help cure labor ills.
- In the 1830s children under 16 made up about one-third of the New England labor force.
- Manufacturers had earned a strong voice in determining the nation’s destiny along with agricultural and commercial interests.
- Reform organizations seek a wide range of changes from abolition to child labor restrictions to the ten-hour day.
- Women’s labor organizations increased its voice and militancy.
Labor Related Events of the Period
1831:
Birth of American abolition movement when The Liberator published by William L. Garrison.
Nat Turner leads a slave rebellion in Virginia, he was later killed and executed.
In New York City, 1600 tailoresses go on strike for two months over wages and lose.
1833:
Workingmen’s Ticket is a political party formed of men and women to promote labor ideology.
1834:
The National Trades Union formed in New York City. The first attempt at a national labor federation. The Factory Girls’ Association is formed in Lowell, MA and go on strike over working conditions and wages. 800 women go on strike over the right to organize and wage reductions in Dover, New Hampshire.
1835:
Geneva shoemakers tried and convicted for conspiracy.
1836:
The National Cooperative Association of Cordwainers, the first national union of a specific trade, was founded in New York City.
A convention of mechanics, farmers, and workingmen met in Utica, NY. The wrote a Declaration of Rights which opposed bank notes, paper money, arbitrary power of the courts, and called for legislation to guarantee labor the right to organize to increase wages. They formed the Equal Rights Party to be free of existing party control.
Lowell girls go on strike again over working conditions and wages.
1837:
Panic of 1837 puts an end to the National Trades Union and most other unions. President Jackson declares ten hour day in Philadelphia Navy Yard to quell discontent caused by Panic of 1837.
1838:
One-third of the nation’s workers were unemployed due to the economic hard times.
1840:
Ten hour day without reduction in pay proclaimed by President Van Buren for all federal employees on public works.
1842:
In Commonwealth v. Hunt, the Massachusetts Supreme Court rules that labor unions, as such, are not illegal conspiracies.
Connecticut and Massachusetts pass laws prohibiting children from working over ten hours per day.
1844:
200 delegates form New England Workingmen’s Association to fight for the ten-hour day.
1845:
Female workers in five cotton mills in Allegheny, Pennsylvania strike for the ten-hour day. They are supported by workers in Lowell, Mass. and Manchester, New Hampshire.
First professional teacher’s association is created in Massachusetts. Sarah Bagley helps form the Female Labor Reform Association (an auxiliary of the New England Workingmen’s Association) in Lowell, MA to work for a ten-hour day.
1847:
New Hampshire is the first state to make the ten hour day the legal workday.
1848:
Child labor law in Pennsylvania makes twelve the minimum age for workers in commercial occupations. Pennsylvania passes a ten hour day law. When employers violate it women mill workers riot and attack the factory gates with axes.
1850:
Compromise of 1850 perpetuates slavery and the sectional debates between North and South.
The Civil War and Reconstruction: 1850-1877
Overview
The “peculiar institution” of slavery was obviously a major cause of the Civil War. Yet, it was not solely a moral issue.
Northern workers did not want to compete against slave labor. How could they? As Northern workers sought to increase their share of the wealth, their brethren workers in the South labored without compensation.
Northern labor leaders and industrialists thought the South was trying to destroy capitalism and spread its slave power aristocracy on the nation. Unfortunately there was no solution except war, but with the North’s victory and passage of the 13th Amendment the “peculiar institution” of slavery was abolished.
For blacks, the struggle was not over. A long road toward complete freedom was ahead, as it was for all workers.
Labor Related Issues of the Period
- Beginning of the dramatic growth in American industry, and population. Industry was especially spurred by the needs of war.
- Wartime labor organizing led to the formation of 12 national unions as labor is in high demand and can wield a voice.
- Slavery ended.
- Eight hour movement begins.
- The depression which follows the Panic of 1873 hits industrial America harder than earlier depressions, [while] the agrarian nature of America allowed more to provide for themselves.
Trade unionism spread to the more skilled factory workers.
Labor Related Events of the Period
1850:
US population is 23 million.
1852:
The Typographical Union founded which is the first national workers organization to endure to the present day. First state law limiting women’s working day to ten hours passed in Ohio.
1859:
Iron Molders Union formed in Philadelphia.
1860:
Successful strike of 20,000 shoemakers in New England. Abraham Lincoln, in support of New England shoemakers, says, “Thank God that we have a system of labor where there can be a strike.”
1863:
Emancipation Proclamation issued by Lincoln which frees slaves in southern areas occupied by Union forces.
Working Women’s Union founded.
The present-day Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers founded.
1864:
Legality of importing immigrants by holding a portion of their wages or property is upheld in the Contract Labor Law. These immigrants were often used as strikebreakers. Though this law was repealed in 1868, the practice was not outlawed until the passage of the Foran Act in 1885.
1865:
13th Amendment to the Constitution bans slavery in US.
Great Eight Hour League formed in Massachusetts.
1866:
National Labor Union formed in Baltimore, MD.
1867:
Knights of St. Crispin founded which was a union open to all factory workers in the shoe industry. General strike of Chicago trade unions demanding an 8 hour day.
1868:
First federal 8 hour day passed, only applies to laborers, mechanics, and workmen employed by the government.
First state labor bureau passed in Massachusetts.
1869:
In Washington DC, the Black National Labor Union founded under the leadership of Isaak Myers.
First local of the Knights of Labor founded in Philadelphia, it maintained extreme secrecy. Membership is open to blacks and women.
First national female union is organized, Daughters of St. Crispin. They hold a convention in Lynn, Massachusetts and elect Carrie Wilson as president.
1870:
First written contract between coal miners and coal mine operators signed.
Due to overcrowding and unsanitary conditions, infant mortality in New York is 65% higher than in 1810.
1873:
Panic of 1873 followed by a depression wipes out most national unions.
1874:
Union label first used by Cigar Makers International Union. In New York City, police injured dozens of unemployed at a rally.
1876:
Molly Maguires convicted for coal-field murders in Pennsylvania. Ten later hanged.
The party which will become the Socialist Labor Party organized.
1877:
National railroad strikes crippled the country. Federal troops needed to be called out as some state militias sided with strikers.
