Labor, Farmers, and Populism
Analyze labor organizing, strikes, farmer protest, Populism, monetary debates, and responses to industrial capitalism.
A lesson of US History, in Industrialization, Immigration, and Reform, about 10 minutes.
Labor Movement and Populism in the Gilded Age
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to explain the conditions that drove labor organizing, analyze the rise and fall of Populism, and evaluate the effectiveness of worker and farmer responses to industrial capitalism.
The Labor Problem
Industrial workers in the Gilded Age faced:
- 12-hour workdays, 6–7 days per week
- Dangerous conditions (mine explosions, factory accidents killed thousands annually)
- Child labor: ~2 million children under 16 worked in factories and mines
- Wages insufficient for family support
- Company towns: employers controlled housing, stores, and local government
- No job security — workers fired at will
These conditions drove workers to organize — despite fierce employer resistance and government hostility.
Early Labor Organizations
The National Labor Union (1866)
First national labor federation; advocated 8-hour workday. Collapsed after the Panic of 1873.
The Knights of Labor (1869–1890s)
Structure: Open to all workers — skilled and unskilled, Black and white, men and women (with some limits). Refused to organize based on race or craft.
Goals: 8-hour workday, abolition of child labor, equal pay for equal work, producer cooperatives, land reform, public ownership of railroads.
Rise: Membership reached 700,000 in 1886 after a successful railroad strike against Jay Gould.
Fall: Haymarket Affair (May 4, 1886): Police confronted striking workers in Chicago's Haymarket Square. Someone threw a bomb, killing police. Eight anarchists convicted with little evidence. Public turned against labor radicalism; Knights' membership collapsed.
The American Federation of Labor (AFL, 1886)
Founded by Samuel Gompers as an alternative to the Knights' industrial unionism.
Model: "Pure and simple" unionism
- Organized skilled workers only, by trade (craft unionism)
- Focused on bread-and-butter issues: wages, hours, conditions
- Excluded most unskilled workers, women, Black workers, and immigrants
- Did NOT challenge capitalism; worked within the system
- Strike when necessary, but primarily collective bargaining
Strengths: Practical; skilled workers had more bargaining power; remained stable.
Weaknesses: Left most workers unorganized; reinforced racial and gender divisions.