10/4/2016
(59) The Knights of Labor | The Gilded Age | The Gilded Age (1865-1898) | US history | Khan Academy
The Knights of Labor
In the late nineteenth century, the Knights of Labor attempted to organize workers of all
kinds into a union to improve working hours and conditions for laborers. Share
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Overview
Labor unions arose in the nineteenth century as increasing numbers of
Americans took jobs in factories, mines, and mills in the growing industrial
economy.
The Knights of Labor, founded in 1869, was the first major labor
organization in the United States. The Knights organized unskilled and
skilled workers, campaigned for an eight hour workday, and aspired to
form a cooperative society in which laborers owned the industries in
which they worked.
The Knights’ membership collapsed following the 1886 Haymarket
Square riot in Chicago. By 1886 the American Federation of Labor (AFL),
an alliance of skilled workers’ trade unions, was growing.
What's a union, and how does it work?
Modern labor unions arose in the United States in the 1800s as increasing
numbers of Americans took jobs in the factories, mines, and mills of the
growing industrial economy during the Industrial Revolution. For the first one
hundred years of its history, the United States had been a nation composed
mainly of small farmers, but by 1880 the American economy had shifted to
industry. For the first time in the country's history, more people worked for
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other people for wages than for themselves as farmers or craftsmen.
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In these early years of industrial capitalism, government played little to no
role in regulating businesses.Monopolies (single entities which control an
entire industry, eliminating competition) could set prices for goods and
services as high as they liked. Likewise, industries could conspire to keep
workers' wages low. Wealthy business owners routinely bribed judges and
members of Congress to side with them in disputes. With such enormous
resources at their disposal, business owners could easily overpower any
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individual worker who might complain about his or her treatment.
Labor unions attempt to reconcile the disparity in resources between large
businesses and individual workers in order to improve the conditions of
workers. Unions are organizations of workers who join together as a group to
bargain with the owners of the businesses that employ them. Unions bargain
with owners for higher wages, shorter hours, better working conditions, and
union recognition.
A union’s power lies, in part, in its ability to strike. A strike is when workers
refuse to work (and prevent others from working in their place if possible),
leaving factories and mills idle and costing businesses valuable production
time. Unions are valuable to their members because they protect individual
workers’ jobs and enforce ongoing labor-management contracts.
Owners, in turn, have a variety of options available to combat strikes. Owners
can, for example, fire striking workers and hire new workers, or hire shortterm workers for the duration of the strike (known as strikebreakers or scabs).
The Knights of Labor
The Knights of Labor was a union founded in 1869. The Knights pressed for
the eight-hour work day for laborers, and embraced a vision of a society in
which workers, not capitalists, would own the industries in which they
labored. The Knights also sought to end child labor and convict labor.
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The Knights of Labor was an exceptionally progressive organization for its
day. Most earlier unions restricted membership to skilled laborers (those with
specialized training in a craft) and to white men. Led by Terence V.
Powderly, the Knights welcomed unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled workers
into their ranks. Immigrants, African Americans and women were also
welcome as members. In the 1870s and 1880s, the Knights of Labor found
support among coalminers in Pennsylvania, and among railroad workers
following a successful 1885 strike against the Wabash Railroad.
By 1886, thanks to a number of successful strikes, the Knights claimed more
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than 700,000 members nationally.
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Print showing the leaders of the Knights of Labor. Terence Powderly
is pictured at center. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
The Haymarket Square riot
On the evening of May 4, 1886, hundreds of people gathered at a rally in
support of the eight-hour work day in Chicago's Haymarket Square. Among
them were a number of anarchists (radical socialists who advocated the
violent overthrow of the American government). Someone—to this day, no
one knows who—threw a dynamite bomb, and in the mayhem that followed
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seven Chicago policemen and four citizens were killed. In the aftermath, eight
anarchists were charged with preaching incendiary doctrines and sentenced
to long prison terms or death, though there was no evidence tying them
directly to the bombing. In addition, the public came to associate the Knights
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with anarchism and violence. Membership in the organization collapsed.
Anarchy and violence weren't the only problems the Knights faced. It also
proved difficult to organize unskilled workers, as owners could easily replace
them if they went on strike. Skilled workers, whose specialized knowledge
gave them a leg up in bargaining with owners, began to believe that their
alliance with unskilled laborers was hindering, rather than helping, their
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cause.
Engraving depicting the Haymarket Square riot, published
in Harper's Weekly in 1886. Image courtesy Chicago Historical Society.
American Federation of Labor
In the late 1880s, skilled workers fled the beleaguered Knights of Labor and
joined the newly-formed American Federation of Labor (AFL). The AFL
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was an umbrella organization that brought together craft unions—unions of
skilled workers who organized together by individual trade, such as
carpenters, stonemasons, and printers. Led by Samuel Gompers, head of
the Cigar Makers Union, the AFL focused on higher wages, shorter hours,
and better working conditions for its members. By 1900, the AFL had 500,000
members.
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Despite the agitation of the labor movement, which staged a combined
23,000 strikes between the years of 1881 and 1900, unions made relatively
little progress in this era. As of 1900, only about three percent of working
people belonged to a union. Not until the mid-twentieth century would
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organized labor become a significant force in the American economy.
What do you think?
What social and economic consequences accompanied the United States'
transition from a nation of farmers to a nation of wage laborers?
How did unions in the nineteenth century shape the labor system and the
workplace in the United States?
Why did the Knights of Labor grow so large as an organization? Why did its
membership decline?
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