A Study of the Industrial Worker in Pennsylvania; 1800 To 1840

332 Pages·017.762 MB·English

by  Sullivan, William Arnold

Copyright by
William Arnold Sullivan
1951
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A STUDY OP THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER IN PENNSYLVANIA
IOOO to 1840
Submitted in p a rtia l fu lfillm en t
of the requirem ents for the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy, in the
Faculty of P o litic a l Science,
Columbia U niversity.
W illiam A. S u llivan
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PREFACE
At the beginning of the nin eteenth century the term
"workingman" rarely if ever appeared in public p rin t. The
in d u stria l worker as such was unknown. But by the decade of
the 1830’s, the "workingman" had come to co n stitu te a novel
but indeterm inate fo rce in the American community. He was
a product of the In d u strial R evolution which, in th is f ir s t
h a lf o f the century, was su b tly transform ing the whole mode
of American lif e .
I t was not u n til the la te n in eteenth century that the
so cia l upheaval brought on by the In d u strial R evolution and
it s Impact on the workingman attracted the a tten tio n of
serious scholars. In 1886, Richard T. E ly, of Johns Hopkins
U n iversity, published the Labor Movement in America, and the
follow in g year George^E. M cN eill, a w ell known labor lead er,
edited The Labor Movement - the Problem of Today. These
stu d ies, although adm ittedly inadequate, opened up fo r the
students of American economic and so cia l h isto ry a v a st,
unexplored fie ld fo r inquiry.
John R. Commons and h is A ssociates at the U n iversity of
W isconsin undertook the enormous but ex citin g task of
unearthing the m anuscript m aterials which would d isclo se the
ro le of labor in shaping the course of American h isto ry .
Their e ffo r ts resu lted in two monumental p u b lication s: the
f ir s t being a ten volume c o lle c tio n of manuscript m aterials
referrin g to American labor e n title d Documentary H istory of
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11
American In d u stria l S o ciety : and the second being the most
exhaustive and sig n ific a n t study of the American labor movement
to date - a four volume p roject e n title d the H istory o f Labour
in the U nited S ta tes.
Since the appearance of the la tte r study, a ll subsequent
h is to r ie s of the American labor movement, e sp e c ia lly those
referrin g to the f ir s t h a lf o f the nineteenth century, have
been, w ith rare excep tion s, l i t t l e more than "generalized
summarizations o f what had been presented in d eta iled fash ion
1
in the H istory of Labor in the U nited S ta te s. "
Two exceptions to th is gen eralization are the follow in g:
F ir st i s Professor Richard B. M orris’ b r illia n t study of
Government and Labor in Early America, an o rig in a l and
com prehensive in v e stig a tio n of labor In the C olonial Period;
and the second i s , Dr. Norman W are's challenging h isto ry of
The In d u strial Worker 1840 - I860. Dr. P h ilip S. Foner has
undertaken an am bitious p roject e n title d H istory of the Labor
Movement in the Unitod S ta te s. The f ir s t volume of th is
p rojected two volume study appeared in 1947, and Its o r ig in a lity ,
p a rticu la rly in it s treatm ent of the labor movement in the
f ir s t h a lf of the n in eteen th century, lie s la rg ely in In terp reta­
tio n rather than in new m aterials uncovered.
Since the vast canvas of American labor h isto ry has
attra cted the a tten tio n of some of America’s outstanding
1. P h ilip S. Foner, H istory of the Labor Movement in the U nited
S ta tes (New York, 194*7) , P* 1(3 ~
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sch olars, and the general h isto ry of the American labor
movement has been to ld a number of tim es th is p roject is
r e str ic te d to a more concentrated theme. (The ind ivid u al
sta te s have always been a sig n ific a n t fa cto r in American
h isto r y , and the w riter in th is volume undertakes), a
comprehensive study of the in d u stria l worker in a lead in g
in d u stria l s ta te , Pennsylvania, from 1800 to 1840,
In the follow in g chapters the w riter has examined the
impact of the In u d stria l R evolution on the Pennsylvania wage
earner and h is reaction to i t . His sources have been,
prim arily, m anuscript account books (day books, led g ers,
journals and receip t books) which have been preserved in
the numerous rep o sito ries throught Pennsylvania. In ad d ition ,
contemporary newspapers have been used e x ten siv ely , e sp e c ia lly
for tracin g the development of the trade union movement.
These newspapers were invaluable and alm ost the only sources
of inform ation for the d iscu ssio n of labor-management r e la tio n s
and the numerous strik es which broke out as a r e su lt of the
in a b ility of these two groups to reco n cile th eir d ifferen ces.
They a lso provided indispensable leads to the p o litic s of the
workingman.
Without the aid of numerous in d ivid u als th is study
would never have been p o ssib le . To Dr. S. K .Stevens, S tate
H istorian of Pennsylvania, and to the Pennsylvania H isto rica l
and Museum Commission I am deeply indebted for generous
fin a n cia l a id , w ithout which, th is study could not have been
completed at th is tim e. I sh a ll always remember how
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graciou sly Henry Howard Eddy, Chief of the Public Records
D ivision of the Pennsylvania Museum and H isto rica l D iv isio n ,
remained open a fter hours and a ssiste d me in other ways too
numerous to mention. To the sta ffs of the numerous h isto r ic a l
s o c ie tie s scattered throught Pennsylvania, I am e sp ec ia lly
indebted, I sh a ll remember w ith kindness Barney Cheswiek of
the Ridgway Branch L ibrary, who never tired of answering
the innumerable requests o f th is w riter*
To Dr* J. Martin KLotsche, President of Milwaukee State
Teachers C ollege, I am indebted for f ir s t having suggested
to me a study of labor in the Jackson Era. Nor can I fo rg et
the patience w ith which Professor John A. Krout liste n e d
to my papers and a ssiste d me through the doctoral seminar
in which th is paper was begun. I must also acknowledge the
gen erosity of Professor Arthur C. Bining of the U n iversity
of Pennsylvania, who shared w ith me h is notes on the iron
industry of Pennsylvania in the nineteenth century.
P rofessors Dorfman and Malone gave me many valuable c riticism s
to imrpove the m anuscript. To Bean Harry J* Carman of
Columbia U niversity I am indebted for having consented to
read th is en tire m anuscript.
Above a ll I am g ra tefu l to Professor Richard B. M orris
of Columbia U n iversity. Throughout a ll my graduate stu d ies
he has p a tien tly guided and a ssiste d me. He has been generous
w ith h is time and c riticism . His suggestions have been
numerous and invaluable throughout the whole course of th is
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p ro je c t, both as to in v estig a tio n of the sources and the
preparation and rev isio n of the manuscript#
Whatever errors appear in th is m anuscript, errors of
fa c t or in terp reta tio n , of ommission or com m ission, are
mine.
W illiam A. Su llivan
Brooklyn, N. Y#
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
page
Preface i
Chapter I - The Industrial Setting 1
A. Industrial Centers 4
B. Industrial ftrogress 8
C. The Growth of the IronI ndustry 14
D. Growth of the TextileI ndustry 25
E. Other Industries 35
II The Wage Earners 42
A. The Factory Operatives 45
III The Wage Earners - Part H 85
A. The Iron Workers 85
B. The Conaacaa Laborers 104
C. The Skilled Artisans 110
IT Growth of Trade Unions 124
A, Labor Organization 1SQO-I828 132
V Labor Organization Curing the Age
of Jackson 142
VI The Skilled Artisans and Industrial
Strife 169
VII Labor Strife Among the Unskilled
Wage Earners 202
7IH Labora nd Politics Curing the
Jackson Era 219
A, The Working Men’s Party of
Philadelphia 231
B. The Working Men's Party of
Pittsburgh 248
c. The Working Men’s Party of
Dauphin County 261
c. The Working Men’s Party of
M ifflin County 263
E. Critique of the Working Men’s
P olitics 264
The Wage Earners and Social Reform 281
Appendices - A Trade Societies in Pennsylvania in the 1830's
B Summary of Strikes in Pennsylvania 1800-1840
C Votes in the Presidential and Gubernatorial
Elections 1828 - 1840
Bibliography
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THE INDUSTRIAL SETTING
The years from l800 to 1840 form a convenient unit
for a study of the In d u strial worker. During these years
the statu s of the worker was undergoing a subtle but
profound transform ation. The Introduction of steam-
driven machinery and the growth of the factory system
menaced the preeminent p o sitio n of the sk ille d artisan ,
and brought u n sk illed hands,and women and child wage
earners into d irect com petition w ith him. These same
decades w itnessed, too, the emergence of labor as an
organized and a ctive force in the economic and so cia l
lif e of the nation.
Pennsylvania, during these f ir s t four decades of
the nineteenth century, provides an ex cellen t locale for
the study of the labor movement. Probably no other sta te
could match its w ealth in natural resources. Its fe r tile
v a lle y s, its wooded m ountains, its alm ost inexhaustible
d eposits of coal and its beds of iron ore provided a
firm foundation for a w ell integrated economy. In the
East two m agnificent waterways, the Delaware and Chesapeake
Bay, promised ready access to World Markets for its
products from the earth, the fie ld and the fo r e st. And
beyond the mountains, the Ohio River carried the produce
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of the w estern country to the outside world.
Both as colony and commonwealth, Pennsylvania
attracted wage earners o f a va riety of trades and
occupations from the ©Id World. A generous land p olicy,
a lib er a l frame of government and a bold ad vertisin g
campaign made Penn's colony the most cosm opolitan
settlem en t in E nglish North America. German em igrants,
-the greater part o f whom were mechanics and weavers,
1
arrived sh o rtly a fter the colony was founded. Throughout
the eighteenth century they came in ever increasing numbers,
s e ttlin g on the rich farm lands in Lancaster County. Welch
s e ttle r s arrived ea rly , esta b lish in g them selves in Chester
and Philadelphia C ounties. The S cotch -Irish came in
alarm ing numbers. Contemptuous of land t it le s and
disregarding the Indian tr e a tie s, they squatted on the
u n settled lands of the fr o n tie r . Decades before the
Quaker colony was esta b lish ed , the Swedes and the Dutch
had planted settlem en ts along the Delaware. This rich ly
endowed colony w ith its heterogenous population was
destined to assume a commanding p o sitio n among the E nglish
settlem en ts in North America. Throughout the eighteenth
century, its commerce and in d u stries held a preeminent
1. J. Franklin Jameson (ed. ), O riginal N arratives of E arly
American H istory ; Francis D aniel P astorius,
C ircum stantial D escription of Pennsylvania, 1700jprinted
in N arratives of E arly Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and
Delaware - 1707 (New York, 1$12), pp. 207 ff-
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