civil war and reconstruction lecture 1. administrative reading for next class – all reading for...

Civil War and Reconstruction

Lecture 1

Administrative

• Reading for next class – all reading for this topic

• Essay Reminder

Review

• The continued importance of forced labor in the American Republic

• The limited rights of free labor in the USA

• Early unions developed around crafts

• The government intervened early on the side of employers, criminal conspiracy

Today

I. Workers during the Civil War

II. African-American workers during Reconstruction

I- Workers During the Civil War

• Which side did most workers support?

• Why?

• How did working people participate in the War?

• What was the effect of the Emancipation Proclamation on worker attitudes?

Workers During the Civil War

• What role did African-American’s and African-American workers play?

• How were they treated by the Union?

• How were they treated by white workers in the North?

• 13th amendment abolishing slavery was not adopted until after the war

II- African-American Workers in Reconstruction

• Really three phases– Immediately after the war, Andrew Johnson

puts southern whites back in charge– Reconstruction bans confederates and former

slave owners from positions of power, beginning in 1867

– End of reconstruction and the reinstallation of racialist society, by early 1870s

• Few of hopes of ex-slaves realized

Phase 1

• Former confederate states adopted “Black Codes.” What were they?

• Widespread violence against freedpeople

Phase 2

• Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866– Gave all Americans (except Native

Americans) equal right to benefits of citizenship without regard to race

– Was routinely ignored in the South

• What was done in this period to distribute land to former slaves?

Phase 3

• Reinstitution of white control

• Creation of system of segregation

• Development of the sharecropping system– What was this?– How did it work?– What was the impact on African-American

farm workers

In the North

• Even in the north, continued employment segregation

• Also routinely paid less than white workers

• In both north and south, African-Americans resisted and demanded equal treatment

Next Time

• Alternative groups of workers

• Development of Unions

Civil War and Reconstruction

Lecture 2

Development of Unions and Working Class Protest

Administrative

• Reading for next time

• Essay reminder– Not accepted any other time– Don’t put your name on the essay– Hard copy and e-mail– Read instructions, especially re citations

Review

• Role of workers during the Civil War

• African-Americans in the Reconstruction period

Today

I. Other groups in the labor force

II. National Labor Union

III. Knights of Labor

IV. Colored National Labor Union

V. Panic of 1873

I. Other Groups in the Labor Force

• Were African-Americans the only racial group to suffer significant discrimination?

• How were the Chinese treated?

• How were women treated?– Still paid less– Still subject to occupational segregation

II. National Labor Union

• Founded 1866• President was William H. Silvis, 1st truly

national labor leader • Ended in 1872 over decision to emphasize

currency reform and National Labor Party project

• Why would workers be interested in currency reform?

• Why no labor party in the United States?

III. Knights of Labor: Origins and Philosophy

• Founded by nine Garment Cutters in Philadelphia, Dec. 1869

• The Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor

• Membership open to anyone who had ever worked for a wage

Knights of Labor

• Secret and highly ritualistic organization with quasi‑religious overtones

• Uriah Stephens ‑ 1st Grand Master Workman– Trained for the Baptist Ministry– Had to abandon school and become tailor

after Panic of 1837

• Stephens completely obsessed with secrecy

Stephens

• “Cultivate friendship among the great brotherhood of toil”

• Eventually he became interested in politics and currency reform

• Ran for Congress on the Greenback ticket in 1878 and resigned from the Knights

Goals and Philosophy

• "to raise the wage earner above the narrow view of his class, or trade or job“

• Antithesis of craft unionism

• Objected in principle to strikes

• Alternatives– Cooperation – definition– Arbitration - definition

Structure

• Individual workers joined the Knights and its districts directly

• Also, whole unions affiliated and became districts

• Dominance of the “mixed district assembly”

• More about Knights later

IV. Colored National Labor Union

• Founded in Washington, D.C. 1869

• Called for equality of job opportunity and equality before the law

• Called for land for freedmen

• Endorsed the Republican Party

V. Panic of 1873

• Almost total collapse of unionism– 2/3 of national unions disappeared– Union membership fell to less than 20% of its

previous total

• Employers took advantage to promote racial divisions

• For an idea of what times were like in the coal mines, see the film “The Molly Macguires”

Tomkins Square Riot

• January 1874 New York’s unemployed rallied in Tomkins Square

• Mayor sent the police who began clubbing people on all sides

• Witnessed by a young cigar maker, Samuel Gompers

Next Time

Begin Labor in the Gilded Age