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Themes in U.S. History
Chapter 24
Reform
The National Labor Union, organized in 1866, lasted 6 years and attracted 600,000 members. Black workers also formed their own Colored National Labor Union. The Colored National Labor Union's support for the Republican Party and racism of white unionists prevented it and the National Labor Union from working together.
After the National Labor Union pretty much died out in 1877, the Knights of Labor took over.
Led by Terence V. Powderly, the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor was formed in 1869 as a secret society and remained secret until 1881. It sought to include all workers in one big union and campaigned for economic and social reform, including and codes for safety and health.
The Knights of Labor were blamed for incident at Haymarket Square and as a result, it lost public support. Another downfall of the Knights of Labor was that it included both skilled and unskilled workers. When unskilled workers went on strike, they were just replaced.
The American Federation of Labor's inclusion of only skilled worked drained the Knights of Labor of its participants.
The American Federation of Labor was founded in 1886 and was led by Samuel Gompers. The federation consisted of an association of self-governing national unions, each of which kept its own independence. It sought for better wages, hours, and working conditions. The federation's main weapons were the walkout and the boycott.
The greatest weakness of organized labor was that it still embraced only a small minority of all working people.
Labor Day was created by Congress in 1894.
Religion
The wealthy proclaimed that they were justified by God to have so much wealth. They claimed that God gave them their money or they were a product of natural selection.
Plutocracy, government controlled by the wealthy, took control of the Constitution. The clause that gave Congress sole jurisdiction over the interstate commerce was a bonus for the monopolists; they used their lawyers to thwart controls by state legislatures. Large trusts also sought safety behind the 14th Amendment, arguing that corporations were actually legal "people."
Slavery and Its Legacies in North America
War and Diplomacy
On May 4, 1886 in Haymarket Square, Chicago police advanced on a meeting called to protest alleged brutalities by authorities. A dynamite bomb was thrown and killed dozens of people. 8 anarchists were tried and convicted; 5 were sentenced to death while the other 3 were sent to jail. In 1892, the governor of Illinois, John P. Altgeld, pardoned the 3 who were in prison.
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