American Labor History

Labor to provide sustenance and monetary income for oneself and one's family has taken many forms over the centuries of recorded human history. Men, women, and children have worked as farmers, artisans, mechanics, service personnel, and computer specialists, to name just a few broad categories of the many kinds of occupations available over time. Workers have been labeled slaves, indentured servants, blue-collar workers, white-collar workers, professionals, unionists.

Agriculture is generally mentioned when discussing colonial America - the new arrivals from Europe had to farm if they wanted to eat since no grocery stores awaited them on their new shores - and slavery is discussed at length because it was one cause of the American Civil War. But what about other types of work, other types of workers? Exploring labor brings new insight to understanding America's history.

UNIONS

When wage labor began to replace self-employed labor (such as farming and craft work), Americans expressed some reservation about no longer being one's own boss. The increasingly important trade off, however, was the benefit gained by a steady monetary income in a world becoming more dependent on cash transactions rather than old-fashioned barter. And, young women often spent some time working in factories for a few years to help financially support their families before they themselves married and settled into the expected role of stay-at-home housewife. With the rise of industrial capitalism in the late 19th century, workers fell to the mercy of hard bosses unrestrained by protective legislation. Agitation for union formation and its protection for workers swept through the ranks of the common laborer.

The movie Norma Rae (1979) is based on the real-life story of a poor Southern textile worker, Norma Rae (Sally Field), who dared to help a New York City labor organizer, Reuben Warshawky (Ron Leibman), install a workers' union in the mill.

The film clearly shows the chasm that existed between management and labor in the 20th century. The working conditions are not good (noisy machines, lint-filled air) but the managers show no concern for their employees. Norma Rae's mother loses her hearing due to the incessant clanging and banging of the machinery but the company doctor assures her it is only temporary and is reluctant to send her home. Norma Rae's father suffers numbness in his arm but the foreman encourages him to work until his break time arrives - only a few more minutes! - and the father dies on the mill floor. The mill managers do everything they can to thwart efforts to create a union in their factory. The mill represents the major business of the town and the managers know that the employees are well aware of this. The threat of job loss and the lack of recourse to being fired hang over all the workers, making them reluctant to listen to Warshawky, read his fliers, or attend union meetings. The managers post pro-union notices so high on the bulletin boards that no one can actually read them and Warshawky must hound them to place the announcements at a more reasonable level.

The film portrays Warshawky and Norma Rae as the key players in the installation of a union at the textile mill. This was not the case in actuality; many people were involved. However, by focusing on these two people, the audience can track the progress made by them as they struggled against the entrenched autocracy of the mill owners and managers. Their struggles were representative of the difficulties unions faced in getting protection for exploited American workers over the 19th and 20th centuries.

SLAVES

Africans first stepped upon Virginia’s shore as slaves in 1619, and thus began the turbulent story of black slavery in America.

In View of the Great Want of Labor: The Legislative History on Employment of African Americans in the Confederate States of America by E. Renee Ingram. Blacks, both free and slave, were employed in the Confederate States of America to meet the South’s agricultural, military, and technological needs during the Civil War years.

Created To Be Free: A Historical Novel about One American Family by Juanita Patience Moss. This is the life story of a tenacious young black runaway from North Carolina who during the Civil War enlisted in an all white volunteer regiment from western Pennsylvania in 1861 and garrisoned in Plymouth, North Carolina in 1863.

INDENTURED SERVITUDE

Thousands of young English men and women took advantage of the opportunity to cross the Atlantic Ocean in hopes of a better life in the 17th and 18th centuries. By selling the promise of their labor for several years (generally ranging from three to seven), these brave souls, desperate to leave behind a slumped economy that left many people destitute, received free passage onboard an America-bound sailing ship. England also sent convicts as indentured servants to her American colonies.

To Serve Well and Faithfully: Labor And Indentured Servants In Pennsylvania, 1682-1800 by Sharon V. Salinger. Thousands crossed the Atlantic to labor as bound workers in the Quaker colony. They came with little more than vague promises that servitude would propel them toward a future that would enable them to lead independent lives. How did they fare in the New World?

White Servitude in the Colony of Virginia by James Curtis Ballagh, A.B. This concise, scholarly study focuses on the English origins of white servitude and the roll of white indentured servants in the development of the colony of Virginia.

White Servitude in Maryland: 1634-1820 by Eugene Irving McCormac. This work describes the early land system in Maryland, indenture, fugitive servants, the status of servants and freemen, the servant militia, and convicts.

Economics

Philosophical discussion and complex analysis of the connections between money and labor can be found in several books. Each author takes a broad approach to the topic and delves beyond America.