Abbott, Carl Urban America in the Modern Age: 1920 to the Present, 2nd edn.
Aldridge, Daniel W. Becoming American: The African American Quest for Civil Rights, 1861–1976
Barkan, Elliott Robert And Still They Come: Immigrants and American Society, 1920s to the 1990s
Bartlett, Irving H. The American Mind in The Mid‐Nineteenth Century, 2nd edn.
Beisner, Robert L. From the Old Diplomacy to the New, 1865–1900, 2nd edn.
Blaszczyk, Regina Lee American Consumer Society, 1865–2005: From Hearth to HDTV
Borden, Morton Parties and Politics in the Early Republic, 1789–1815
Carpenter, Roger M. “Times Are Altered with Us”: American Indians from First Contact to the New Republic
Carter, Paul A. The Twenties in America, 2nd edn.
Cherny, Robert W. American Politics in The Gilded Age, 1868–1900
Conkin, Paul K. The New Deal, 3rd edn.
Doenecke, Justus D., and John E. Wilz From Isolation to War, 1931–1941, 4th edn.
Ferling, John Struggle for a Continent: The Wars of Early America
Ginzberg, Lori D. Women in Antebellum Reform
Greenberg, Brian The Dawning of American Labor: The New Republic to the Industrial Age
Griffin, C. S. The Ferment of Reform, 1830–1860
Hess, Gary R. The United States at War, 1941–45, 3rd edn.
Iverson, Peter, and Wade Davies “We Are Still Here”: American Indians since 1890, 2nd edn.
James, D. Clayton, and Anne Sharp Wells America and the Great War, 1914–1920
Kraut, Alan M. The Huddled Masses: The Immigrant in American Society, 1880–1921, 2nd edn.
Levering, Ralph B. The Cold War: A Post‐Cold War History, 3rd edn.
Link, Arthur S., and Richard L. McCormick Progressivism
Martin, James Kirby, and Mark Edward Lender “A Respectable Army”: The Military Origins of the Republic, 1763–1789, 3rd edn.
McCraw, Thomas K. American Business Since 1920: How It Worked, 2nd edn.
McMillen, Sally G. Southern Women: Black and White in the Old South, 2nd edn.
Neu, Charles E. America’s Lost War: Vietnam, 1945–1975
Newmyer, R. Kent The Supreme Court under Marshall and Taney, 2nd edn.
Niven, John The Coming of the Civil War, 1837–1861
O’Neill, William L. The New Left: A History
Pastorello, Karen The Progressives: Activism and Reform in American Society, 1893–1917
Perman, Michael Emancipation and Reconstruction, 2nd edn.
Porter, Glenn The Rise of Big Business, 1860–1920, 3rd edn.
Reichard, Gary W. Politics as Usual: The Age of Truman and Eisenhower, 2nd edn.
Reichard, Gary W. American Politics since 1968: Deadlock and Disillusionment
Remini, Robert V. The Jacksonian Era, 2nd edn.
Riess, Steven A. Sport in Industrial America, 1850–1920, 2nd edn.
Simpson, Brooks D. America’s Civil War
Southern, David W. The Progressive Era and Race: Reaction and Reform, 1900–1917
Storch, Randi Working Hard for the American Dream: Workers and Their Unions, World War I to the Present
Turner, Elizabeth Hayes Women and Gender in the New South, 1865–1945
Ubbelohde, Carl The American Colonies and the British Empire, 1607–1763, 2nd edn.
Weeks, Philip “Farewell, My Nation”: The American Indian and the United States in The Nineteenth Century, 2nd edn.
Wellock, Thomas R. Preserving the Nation: The Conservation and Environmental Movements, 1870–2000
Winkler, Allan M. Home Front U.S.A.: America during World War II, 3rd edn.
Wright, Donald R. African Americans in the Colonial Era: From African Origins through the American Revolution, 3rd edn.
This edition first published 2018
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
The right of Brian Greenberg to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
Registered Office
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA
Editorial Office
350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148‐5020, USA
For details of our global editorial offices, customer services, and more information about Wiley products visit us at www.wiley.com.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats and by print‐on‐demand. Some content that appears in standard print versions of this book may not be available in other formats.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty
While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this work, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives, written sales materials or promotional statements for this work. The fact that an organization, website, or product is referred to in this work as a citation and/or potential source of further information does not mean that the publisher and authors endorse the information or services the organization, website, or product may provide or recommendations it may make. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a specialist where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Greenberg, Brian, author.
Title: The dawning of American labor : the New Republic to the Industrial Age / Brian Greenberg.
Description: 1st edition. | Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2017022272 (print) | LCCN 2017035631 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119065784 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119065555 (epub) | ISBN 9781119065685 (cloth) | ISBN 9781119065708 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Labor–United States–History. | Labor movement–United States–History. | Labor unions–United States–History.
Classification: LCC HD8070 (ebook) | LCC HD8070 .G74 2018 (print) | DDC 331.0973/0903–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017022272
Cover Image: First Labor Day parade in the United States, New York City, September 5, 1882.
From Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, September 16, 1882.
Courtesy American Social History Project.
A concise history of labor and work in America from the birth of the Republic to the Industrial Age and beyond
From the days of Thomas Jefferson, Americans believed that they could sustain a capitalist industrial economy without the class conflict or negative socioeconomic consequences experienced in Europe. This dream came crashing down in 1877 when the Great Strike, one of the most militant labor disputes in US history, convulsed the nation’s railroads. In The Dawning of American Labor a leading scholar of American labor history draws upon first‐hand accounts and the latest scholarship to offer a fascinating look at how Americans perceived and adapted to the shift from a largely agrarian economy to one dominated by manufacturing.
For the generations following the Great Strike, “the Labor Problem” and the idea of class relations became a critical issue facing the nation. As Professor Greenberg makes clear in this lively, highly accessible historical exploration, the 1877 strike forever cast a shadow across one of the most deeply rooted articles of national faith—the belief in American exceptionalism. What conditions produced the faith in a classless society? What went wrong? These questions lie at the heart of The Dawning of American Labor.
Accessible introductory text for students in American history classes and beyond, The Dawning of American Labor is an excellent introduction to the history of labor in the United States for students and general readers of history alike.
Brian Greenberg, PhD, is the Emeritus Jules Plangere Chair in American Social History at Monmouth University, West Long Branch, New Jersey, USA. He has also taught at Lehman College, Princeton University, and the University of Delaware, where he was director of the Hagley Graduate Program from 1980 to 1987. In addition to courses on the worker in America, he has taught courses on the rise of modern America, law and society in America, and the history of American public policy.
| P.1 | Labor conflict on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in West Virginia during the Great Strike of 1877 |
| P.2 | A march in Pittsburgh against the railroads during the Great Strike of 1877 |
| 1.1 | Banner of the Society of Pewterers carried during New York City’s Federal Procession celebrating the ratification of the Constitution, July 23, 1788 |
| 1.2 | An eighteenth‐century pewterer’s shop |
| 1.3 | The interior and exterior of an eighteenth‐century cordwainer’s ten‐footer shop |
| 1.4 | An example of a family employed to produce cloth in their home during the “putting‐out” period in the early textile industry |
| 1.5 | “Scenes and Occupations Characteristic of New England Life” |
| 1.6 | Workers on the Erie Canal in the early 1830s |
| 2.1 | Samuel Slater |
| 2.2 | A drawing of the original 1793 Slater Mill |
| 2.3 | Slater’s spinning frame |
| 2.4 | A view of cotton mills at Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1852 |
| 2.5 | December 1845 cover page of the Lowell Offering |
| 2.6 | A membership certificate for the New York Coopers Society in the mid‐1820s |
| 2.7 | A banner displayed by housewrights during an 1841 parade in Portland, Maine, sponsored by the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association |
| 2.8 | A banner displayed by blacksmiths during an 1841 parade in Portland, Maine, sponsored by the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association |
| 3.1 | The bottoming room of the shoe manufacturer B. F. Spinney and Company in Lynn, Massachusetts, in the early 1870s |
| 3.2 | Lady shoemakers’ procession during the Great Strike of 1860, in Lynn, Massachusetts |
| 3.3 | Upheaval in the streets of Lynn, Massachusetts, during the Great Strike of 1860 |
| 3.4 | The Norris Locomotive Works in Philadelphia in 1855 |
| 3.5 | A section of the forge shop at the Norris Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, 1855 |
| 4.1 | William Sylvis |
| 4.2 | The National Eight Hour Law |
In January 1989 I was invited by the distinguished historians John Hope Franklin and A. S. Eisenstadt to write a book on the history of labor in America in the early industrial era, 1783–1860. My book would be a volume in The American History Series, which they edited for the publisher Harlan Davidson. I was thrilled to be asked and immediately accepted, but other projects and changes in my academic and personal life continuously intervened, derailing my best intensions to finish this book. As the years passed, I would return to the manuscript for brief periods whenever I could. Fast‐forward to 2014, when, during a sabbatical, I finally completed a draft of the book. I then sent the manuscript to Andrew Davidson, my editor at Harlan Davidson, which was now a part of John Wiley & Sons. Among his other responsibilities at Wiley, Andrew continued to oversee The American History Series. His response to my query about Wiley’s interest in my book was to express shock as it was the first time that he had been contacted by an author who was not bowing out of a long‐delayed book but was actually sending him a draft manuscript. From that point to this, once again a process that took much longer than I had planned, Andrew was all that an author could hope for in an editor. In gratitude for his abiding faith in this project and in me, I dedicate this book to him.
Andrew has since left Wiley, but my project has been ably shepherded by a number of capable individuals. In particular, I am very grateful to Janani Govindankutty for all she did to help me get my book into production and to Jacqueline Harvey for her meticulous copyediting. The draft that I sent to Andrew was reviewed by two anonymous readers, and I would like to thank them for their excellent comments. At their suggestion, I broadened the scope of the draft and, I believe, produced a stronger book as a result. I hope that they agree.
It is a pleasure to acknowledge the research support I received as Jules Plangere Chair in American Social History and from Monmouth University. These funds were immeasurably helpful in my being able to obtain the many books and articles that I used in writing this book and in giving me the time necessary to think and to write. Similarly, I am grateful for the assistance that numerous librarians and their institutions provided me in obtaining necessary sources, particularly the Hagley Library in Delaware, especially Michael Nash, and Monmouth University’s Guggenheim Library, especially Susan Bucks, Linda Silverstein, Eleonora Dubicki, and George Germek. Sherri Xie in Monmouth’s Interlibrary Loan office always found what I needed in an amazingly short amount of time.
A number of people facilitated the process of obtaining and reproducing the images that are included throughout the book. For their kind assistance and permission to reprint these images, I want to thank Pennee Bender and Joshua Brown, at the American Social History Project; Jane Ward, the American Textile History Museum; Bryan Wright, Colonial Sense; Robert Delap, New‐York Historical Society; Jennifer Strobel, Smithsonian Institution; Lori Urso, Old Slater Mill; Arthur Gaffer, Maine Charitable Mechanical Association; Sofia Yalouris, Maine Historical Society; Peter Hansen, Railroad History; Steven Lubar, Brown University; Glenn Roe, The ARTFL Project; and Shane MacDonald, American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives. I am also very grateful to Wayne Elliott at Monmouth University for all his help.
An earlier version of the history of the 1806 cordwainers’ conspiracy trial appeared in Pennsylvania Legacies (Brian Greenberg, “Class Conflict and the Demise of the Artisan Order: The Cordwainers’ 1805 Strike and 1806 Conspiracy Trial,” Pennsylvania Legacies 14 no. 1 [Spring 2014]: 6–11). I acknowledge the journal’s permission to draw from that material in this book and thank, in particular, the journal’s assistant editor, Rachel Moloshok. I would also like to recognize the research support that I received from the McNeil Center for Early American Studies.
A book like this, a synthesis intended to provide an introduction for undergraduate students to the key themes and issues that confronted Americans during the dawning of labor, relies heavily on the work of others who have tilled this field. The work of my many fellow labor historians has influenced my thinking on early labor history. Although the contributions of these scholars are noted throughout the book and in the bibliographical essay, I would like to single out Irwin Yellowitz, whose course on labor history at City College of New York first introduced me to the topic of labor history, and Charles Stephenson, who was also there at the beginning of my journey as a labor historian. Finally, at Monmouth, where I have had the opportunity to work with and to learn from many excellent colleagues in the History and Anthropology Department, I especially thank the many graduate and undergraduate students who, over the years, have taken my “Worker in America” course.
Of primary importance to my being able to complete this project was the support and love I have received from my family. Kae, Molly, and now Romina are contemporary examples of the concern for others and the desire for social justice that has motivated American workers. But the writing of a book is also a practical matter. I cannot imagine having a better critic of my ideas and my writing than my wife, Susan. I have been most fortunate to be able to share with her all the highs and lows that come with writing a book.