Civil War and Reconstruction

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Civil War and Reconstruction

• Lecture 1

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Administrative

• Reading for next class all reading for this
  topic
• Essay Reminder

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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

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Today

1. Workers during the Civil War
2. African-American workers during Reconstruction

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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?

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Workers During the Civil War

• What role did African-Americans 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

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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

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Phase 1

• Former confederate states adopted Black Codes.
  What were they?
• Widespread violence against freedpeople

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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?

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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

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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

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Next Time

• Alternative groups of workers
• Development of Unions

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Civil War and Reconstruction

• Lecture 2
• Development of Unions and Working Class Protest

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Administrative

• Reading for next time
• Essay reminder
• Not accepted any other time
• Dont put your name on the essay
• Hard copy and e-mail
• Read instructions, especially re citations

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Review

• Role of workers during the Civil War
• African-Americans in the Reconstruction period

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Today

1. Other groups in the labor force
2. National Labor Union
3. Knights of Labor
4. Colored National Labor Union
5. Panic of 1873

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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

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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?

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Tomkins Square Riot

• January 1874 New Yorks unemployed rallied in
  Tomkins Square
• Mayor sent the police who began clubbing people
  on all sides
• Witnessed by a young cigar maker, Samuel Gompers

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Next Time

• Begin Labor in the Gilded Age