Lesson 12
1
POST-RECONSTRUCTION, MIGRATION, & URBANIZATION UNIT
The Gilded Age: Labor Unions and Working Conditions
LESSON OVERVIEW
In this lesson students analyze personal narratives of men, women, and children who worked in
factories during the Gilded Age. They also learn about the growth and decline of the first
major organized labor union, the Knights of Labor, simulating voting for or against
membership.
OBJECTIVES
In this lesson students will:
• Analyze and reflect on narrative accounts of factory workers and poor working conditions.
• Read newspaper reports of strikes and the issues surrounding labor union membership.
• Contrast the benefits and perils of union membership as well as the reasons for the rise and
decline of unions, especially the Knights of Labor.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
• What factors/events led to the rise of labor movements in the 19th century?
• What changes took place in working conditions during this period? How are they different
today?
KEY EVENTS
• The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
• The Haymarket Affair
• The Homestead Strike
VOCABULARY
• Working conditions
• Union
• Labor
• Garment
• Yellow dog
• Gilded age
GROUPING
• Whole class, pairs, small groups
MATERIALS
Teacher Resources
• 1: Child Labor Photos
• 2: The Knights of Labor Declaration of Principles
• 3: Simulating the Growth and Decline of the Unions
• 4: Making Headlines: The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
• 5: U.S. Union Membership 1900-1940
Funded under Jacob K. Javits Gifted & Talented Students Education Act, Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
Lesson 12
2
Student Handouts
• 12.1: Narrative of a Child Laborer
• 12.2: Union Strikes and Demonstrations: Advocating for Workers Rights
Goal 1
Goal 2
Goal 3
Goal 4
Goal 5
Conflict
Democratic
Citizenship
Historical
Inquiry &
Historiography
Historical
Empathy
Discussion &
Deliberation
X
X
Procedures
Teacher Notes
INTRODUCTION/HOOK
To introduce students to the poor working
conditions in urban centers and the rise of the
labor movements which defined the last two
decades of the 19th century, start by showing
students the images in Teacher Resource 1.
Say:
Many people impacted by poor working conditions at this
time were your age! In today’s lesson you will have an
opportunity to read first-hand accounts of these very young
laborers. You will work in pairs to read different narratives
and then we will share what we have discovered.
✓Before class select three students to
read excerpts included in Teacher
Resource 4: Making Headlines:
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877).
Each newspaper article details the
Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Give
the three students opportunity to
prepare in advance.
✓Each narrative is a first-hand account
or description of either unjust
Place students in pairs. Assign each pair one of the
working conditions and/or
child labor narratives (12.1): Narrative of a Child
membership in labor unions.
Laborer.
✓Narratives were selected to include
both male and female perspectives
Say:
which can also be assigned according
While you are reading your narrative, try to identify specific
to student reading ability.
unfair working practices and the influence of the labor
unions.
✓Because of historical context, some
language may be unfamiliar to
When students have finished their reading, regroup
students and therefore it is
pairs into larger groups of six that incorporate
recommended that students have
students who were assigned to read the various
access to a dictionary to ensure
narratives. If necessary, bigger groups can be
accurate comprehension of the
formed so long as each group includes at least one
narratives.
pair from each narrative. Each pair should
summarize the narratives for the rest of the group. Funded under Jacob K. Javits Gifted & Talented Students Education Act, Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
Lesson 12
3
INTRODUCTION / HOOK (continued)
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
Tell students:
As you just saw, children of your age often had to work long
hours in dangerous conditions.
•What were some of dangers you identified?
•What were some unfair working conditions you found? [low
wages, being charged rent for using sewing machines, etc.].
•How did some of these children respond to bad working
conditions? [join labor unions].
As a class, the students should attempt to come to
some consensus regarding general working
conditions at the time and the impact of labor
unions.
•What were they asking for? [safety at work, higher wages].
•Many children and adults chose to join labor unions to push
for better working conditions, do you know what a union is?
[an organized group workers who advocate on behalf of all
employees in a company/industry for better working conditions
and increased pay – people form unions to gain political and
economic power].
•What were the implications of striking for better pay?
Next ask students to draw a T-Chart in their
notebooks. Have students title one column “approve
and the other column “disapprove.” Tell students
that you will be reading the goals of a specific labor
union, the Knights of Labor. Tell them that as you
read each goal they will indicate on their T chart
what the goal is and whether they approve or
disapprove.
You may ask students to record key
words from each goal or the number
of the goal as you read them.
Select and read approximately ten goals from
Teacher Resource 2: The Knights of Labor
Declaration of Principles.
After reading each of the selected goals, give students
and opportunity to decide if they approve or
disapprove of the goal and mark their responses on
the T-Chart accordingly.
Funded under Jacob K. Javits Gifted & Talented Students Education Act, Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
Lesson 12
4
LEARNING ACTIVITIES (continued)
Once students have filled their chart ask the class by
show of hands how many agreed with most of the
goals (7 or more). Why? Repeat by proceeding to
ask how many students disagreed and why. What
goals seemed the most difficult to accept?
Encourage students to connect this activity to the
Child Labor Narratives exercise.
Tell Students:
I just selected and read goals from the 1878 platform of the
Knights of Labor. These goals directly identify and address the
problems affecting workers during the Gilded Age.
The Knights of Labor was formed in 1869 by a small group
of garment workers who organized secretly to push for workers
rights. In the first ten years of its existence membership grew
tremendously and caused the Knights to become a public
organization. Growth was a result of the Knight’s willingness
to open membership to all workers. This meant that both men
and women, minorities including African Americans and
immigrants, skilled and unskilled laborers, and children were
all allowed to join the union.
The Knights of Labor were very effective in pushing workers
rights. They achieved many of their goals by organizing
strikes or simply threatening a strike. Some of the goals which
I read to you earlier included promoting an 8 hour work day as
opposed to 12+, equal pay for women, and no one under the
age of fifteen working in factories. The growth of the Knights
of Labor inspired many other unions to form.
✓What is a strike? What is its purpose?
When employees refuse to work until
their demands for better pay or
conditions are met. It functions as a
way to put pressure on the employer to
meet worker demands.
Ask students the following question and mark their
responses on Teacher Resource 3: Simulating the
Growth and Decline of the Union:
Raise your hand if you would be interested in joining the
Knights of Labor if you were working in conditions similar to
those described by the narratives we read earlier.
Funded under Jacob K. Javits Gifted & Talented Students Education Act, Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
Lesson 12
5
LEARNING ACTIVITIES (continued)
Tell students:
Would you be surprised if I were to tell you that many
employers did not like labor unions? Can you identify some
reasons why employers would not like these unions? [they
advocated for shorter workdays (8 hours), asked for higher
wages, etc.].
In response to the growing influence of the unions, many
companies started requiring employees to sign contracts
promising they would not join labor unions. If they did join
unions after signing these contracts and were caught then they
could be fired.
These contracts became known as “yellow-dog” contracts.
“Yellow-dog” seems to be a strange name for a contract
involving unions and industries however in the 1800s a
yellow-dog meant ‘coward.’ Coward implied that the people
who signed these contracts and then decided to leave the unions
were scared of being caught doing something (joining/being
part of the unions) which could actually benefit them.
✓The purpose of Teacher Resource 3
is to track students interest in joining
a labor union and simulate patterns
of membership. During the 1870s
the Knights of Labor experienced
drastic increases in membership
enrollments. As businesses started
requiring people to sign yellow-dog
contracts and as strikes ended badly
for workers, the Knights of Labor
gradually lost members. Ideally, as
students learn more about what could
happen to workers who joined unions
like the Knights of Labor, their
‘enrollment’ will similarly increase
and decrease as it did between
1870-1900.
Although many employers required workers to sign “yellowdog” contracts, do you think it affected union membership? [no
– union membership increased] If union membership
increased, how were the people who signed “yellow-dog”
contracts able to join/stay in the unions? [they did so in
secret].
Ask students the following question and mark their
responses on Teacher Resource 3:
If you signed a “yellow-dog” contract promising you would not
join a union but knew others around you still belonged to
groups like the Knights of Labor, would you chose to be a secret
member knowing you could lose your job if the company found
out? Select two students who gave different responses to explain
their decision.
Have the three students you selected in advance read
the newspaper articles from Teacher Resource 4:
Making Headlines: The Great Railroad Strike of
1877). Each newspaper article details the Great
Railroad Strike of 1877. After the students have
presented the three articles, proceed with classroom
discussion.
Funded under Jacob K. Javits Gifted & Talented Students Education Act, Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
Lesson 12
6
LEARNING ACTIVITIES (continued)
•
•
•
•
•
Ask:
What is going on?
Who are the strikers?
What are the responses/reaction of the media?
What are the responses/reaction of the sheriff ?
Did the conflict get resolved? How?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Consider the following:
What caused the workers to strike?
What are they asking for?
Why did they feel striking was the only solution?
How are the railroad industries reacting?
Why do you think they are reacting like this?
Are they listening to the demands of the workers? How?
Continue to summarize the Great Railroad Strike
of 1877 using textual support from the newspaper
articles.
Proceed to ask students the following question and
mark their responses on Teacher Resource 3:
After learning about the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and
the decision by the state government to send militia to end the
strike, would you still want to be a union member? Please
vote accordingly, Yes? No?
✓It may be necessary to remind
students of the union’s goals but also
the dangers (losing their job) of
maintaining membership.
• Please note that the Great Railroad Strike of 1877
did not involve the Knights of Labor. The actions
taken by the state government [i.e. sending the
militia] are not dissimilar to the actions taken
against KOL organized strikes.
Record the student vote.
Funded under Jacob K. Javits Gifted & Talented Students Education Act, Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
Lesson 12
7
LEARNING ACTIVITIES (continued)
Tell students:
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was the first major strike
but it wasn’t the last. Strikes got increasingly violent as many
strikers died as a result. We are going to look at a
demonstration which quickly resulted in violence (the
Haymarket Affair) and the strike which put an end to major
strikes for the next 40 years (the Homestead Strike).
Give students a copy of Union Strikes and
Demonstrations: Advocating for Workers Rights
(12.2). Students will need to know the specifics of
the Haymarket Affair and the Homestead Strike.
You may choose to have them research these events,
look them up in the textbook, or you may just want
to summarize them.
✓Several suggested resources on the
Haymarket Affair and the Homestead
Strike are available on the Project Civis
Wiki site.
After students learn about the Haymarket Affair and
the Homestead Strike, ask:
After looking at the results of strikes, the violence and resulting
bloodshed, how many of you would still like to be members of
a union?
Record their votes.
Assuming most students do not raise their hands, ask
the following:
Why did you decide to withdraw your membership?
What changed between when I first asked you this question and
now?
• Please note that the KOL were involved in the
Haymarket Affair but not the Homestead Strike.
The vote is held at this point to emphasize the
violence which could result in union participation.
Funded under Jacob K. Javits Gifted & Talented Students Education Act, Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
Lesson 12
8
DEBRIEFING
Say:
At the beginning of class I introduced you to narratives of
children who are similar in age to yourselves. The children
described poor working conditions and some detailed their
involvement with unions.
Throughout class I asked you if you were working in these
factories would you want to be members of labor unions.
Each time I asked you to consider a new factor and whether
or not that would affect your decision to join the labor union:
“yellow-dog” contracts, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877,
and finally the Haymarket and Homestead Strikes.
Show students the voting numbers as recorded on
Teacher Resource 3: Simulating the Growth and
Decline of Labor Unions.
This changed over time as workers were forced to leave
unions by signing contracts, and as they witnessed violence
[reference board and declining class ‘membership’]. By the
1890s, large organized labor unions such as the Knights of
Labor had lost thousands of members.
Show students the chart in Teacher Resource 5: ✓Optional Extension: Have students
US Labor Unions and ask them to brainstorm
research present day labor unions,
ideas for why unions might have continued to grow
focusing on what trades they
in spite of the difficulties they faced. List their ideas
represent, membership, and goals.
on a chart.
HOMEWORK
See below - the visual representations are due the day you do Lesson 14
Funded under Jacob K. Javits Gifted & Talented Students Education Act, Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
Lesson 12
9
Special Assignment: Visual Representation of Post-Reconstruction
You will have a few days to complete this special assignment. For our last lesson we will share
our personal visual representations of something from the Post-Reconstruction period we
have been studying.
You are to select from the following topics, focusing on the years 1877-1900:
1. The Great Westward Migration
2. African Americans after Reconstruction
3. Jim Crow Laws
4. Women and Suffrage
5. The Railroad
6. American Indian Conflicts
7. Westward Expansion of U.S.
8. Wealth in America (Captains of Industry, Monopolies)
9. Urbanization
10. Du Bois & Washington
11. Immigration Problems
12. Plessy v. Ferguson
13. Inventions and Industry
14. Organized labor
15. The Temperance movement
Create a visual display that will inform viewers of some important details related to your
topic. Get people’s attention with images and few, if any, words. Give your work a title.
You must use three different references for your information and inspiration, such as
materials used in class or outside resources. Write a paragraph that tells about what you
learned and why you chose to depict it in the way you did. List your three references.
Funded under Jacob K. Javits Gifted & Talented Students Education Act, Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education