(Class 13) The American City, Immigrants, and the Labor Movement

Question 1

Jim Crow

Answer 1

• A character created (1830) by a Caucasian minstrel show performer named Thomas D. Rice, who wore blackface while singing and dancing madly, thus creating this character.
• Rice sang this refrain at the end of the chorus:”Weel about and turn about and do jis so, Eb’ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow.”

Question 2

Jim Crow Laws

Answer 2

• By 1850s, the Jim Crow character had become a standard character throughout the United States.
• The Jim Crow laws took the name of this character in the 1890s.
• Synonymous with segregation
• Indicative of racism

Question 3

Anthony Comstock

Answer 3

• U.S. Postal Inspector
• Believed in Victorian morality
• Campaign to censor what he considered obscene
• Birth Control information
• Anatomy textbooks for medical students?!?!?
• Opposed Women Suffragists
• Clashed with Margaret Sanger
• Anti-vice, anti-immigrant
• “Comstock Laws”

Question 4

Comstock Laws

Answer 4

• A series of federal acts passed by the United States Congress under the Grant administration along with related state laws (little Comstock acts)
• Parent act was passed on March 3, 1873, as the Act for the “Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use“
• After long period of time many declared in 20th century unconstitutional

Question 5

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Answer 5

• United States federal law passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882
• One of the most significant restrictions on free immigration in US history
• Prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers
• FIRST TIME in American History that a law excluded immigrants on the basis of race

Question 6

Ellis Island

Answer 6

• Opened in 1892 by President Harrison
• Fire in 1897 – rebuilt and reopened 1900
• In Upper New York Bay
• Nation’s busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954
• Processed 5,000 immigrants per day
• Over 12 million immigrants went through Ellis Island
• Very overcrowded
• Today is part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument

Question 7

Sweatshop

Answer 7

• Started in garment industry
• Pieceworkers replaced tailors
• Sewing machines fueled the development of sweatshops
• Mostly immigrant women
• Women worked 11 hours a day
• “The faster the work the more you make”
• Earned $4.50 a week

Question 8

Railroad strike of 1877

Answer 8

• In 1877 the B & O railroad announce 10% wage cut and declared a 10% dividend to their stockholders
• Wages already had declined by $70 per month to $30 per month
• Angry brakemen in West Virginia walked out on strike
• Touched off the nationwide “Great Railroad Strike” of 1877
• All told 100,000 RR workers went on strike
• Another 500,000 sympathetic RR workers joined them
• Rail traffic screeched to a halt – paralyzed the country
• Militia fire on crowds in Pittsburgh killing 20
• Workers destroy Railroad property
• Declared an insurrection by 9 states
• Federal troops requested
• President Hayes calls out the army
• Army breaks the strike without any more gun violence
• Opens back up the railroad and after 3 weeks strike is over
• But labor realizes alone they can’t do much so they start to organize

Question 9

Knights of Labor

Answer 9

• Founded in 1869 as the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor
• Secret society of workers
• Universal brotherhood of all workers – skilled and unskilled
• Had No role in the RR strike
• But RR strike increased its membership
• In 1878 gave up secrecy and launched big campaign to organize labor
• Sought very broad membership and broad reforms
• Women were 20% of their membership
• Also recruited 95,000 black workers
• Dominant force in labor in 1880s
• 730,000 members in the Knights by 1886
• Leader was Terence V. Powderly
• Rivals to the Knights included trade and craft unions
• Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers – largest and richest
• Would not join the Knights
• Felt that the reforms that the Knights sought were too broad
• Preferred to focus on purely workplace issues

Question 10

American Federation of Labor

Answer 10

• Founded as Organized Trades and Labor Unions in 1881
• By Samuel Gompers
• Reorganized as the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1886
• Organization of craft unions – skilled workers only
• Aim was to use strikes to get better pay and better conditions
• Much fewer members at first than the Knights (138,000)

Question 11

Haymarket Riot and Bombing

Answer 11

• Laborers wanted an 8 hour workday
• Standard at the time for industry and manufacturing was 12 hours
• May 1, 1886 all labor factions came together in Chicago
• May day rally of 45,000 workers on Michigan Avenue
• May 4th held a rally at Haymarket square
• Turned violent – bomb thrown into crowd – no one knows by whom
• Confrontation between police and demonstrators – 7 police dead
• Eight organizers went on trial in Chicago – all sentenced (7 death and 1 prison)

Question 12

Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall

Answer 12

• Democratic party “machine” in NYC
• Called Tammany Hall – Tweed was the infamous boss
• Was the government behind the elected government
• Machine insured elections were won for Democrats
• Rewarded followers with jobs on city’s payroll – political patronage
• Boss rule and corruption existed in most of the largest American cities
• The public eventually sought reform of “Bossism”
• Tweed at the height of his power was the third largest landowner in NYC
• Tweed’s rule ended in 1871. He was arrested for corruption.
• He was tried and convicted and died in jail
• Tammany Hall political system however continued
• They were considered “corrupt but efficient” in getting things done
• But by the 1930s Tammany Hall’s influence on NYC government waned and eroded