Boston and the Labor Movement

Article by Kayla Allen

UMass Boston, Archival Studies MA & Certificate in Public History, 2022

Demonstration Legislation Words

Boston’s Battleground for the Pursuit of Fair Labor Practices

Boston’s “revolutionary corridor” has been one of the major settings of the fight for fair labor since the late 1700s, with Faneuil Hall at the center of the battle. Using the Hall itself and the surrounding area, generations of people from all walks of life have supported the struggle for workers’ rights with words and action, hoping to bring about new work standards and legislation. Events have included celebrations, parades, strikes, protests, meetings and combinations of all of the above. Many famous politicians and union organizers spoke at these affairs in support of craftsmen and both skilled and unskilled workers. Boston also set the stage for one of the most compelling labor newspapers in the history of the United States.

There were dozens of associations and unions that organized these demonstrations and works of advocacy. Their members sought to attain an eight-hour workday, higher wages, employment opportunities, and fair work practices for the American people. Some of their efforts took decades to come to any sort of conclusion. Altogether, the history of workers assembling at Boston’s revolutionary corridor is rich and multilayered and connects deeply with the history of activism around the world.

Color image of an engraving titled

Thomas Prior engraved this image of Faneuil Hall in 1838, only four years after the establishment of the General Trades’ Union in Boston.

Courtesy Binghamton University Art Museum, Binghamton, New York.

Workers Organize

One of the first notable labor events held at Faneuil Hall was a celebration of the formation of Boston’s General Trades’ Union [GTU]. New York City’s skilled trade workers formed the first GTU in 1833, and Boston soon followed suit and created its own the next year. The General Trades’ Union was an all-encompassing organization, designed to bring together multiple different trade unions in order to better protect workers’ rights. This focused on the rights of white male skilled workers and did not yet include unskilled workers, women, or people of color.

To celebrate their formation, Boston’s new General Trades’ Union threw a huge celebration. Just over half a century after the Revolution, on July 4, 1834, the GTU greeted a procession of supporters and advocates on downtown Boston’s streets. They marched for several hours and finally gathered at Fort Hill to listen to Frederick Robinson, a constituent of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He gave a rousing speech about the importance of unionization in protecting democracy and the vision of the founders. He cautioned that “no permanent benefit could be gained to any one, by an encroachment upon the natural rights of a fellow creature” and proposed that unionization would protect United States citizens from the fate of “grossest ignorance, degradation and slavery.” [1] “An Oration Delivered before the Trades Union of Boston and Vicinity,” New England Artisan, and Farmer’s, Mechanic’s and Laboring-man’s Repository, July 26, 1834, 2.

  • Food For Thought
    In 1834, when Frederick Robinson gave this speech, slavery existed in the United States. The movement to abolish slavery officially began in 1830, four years earlier. Though he never officially mentioned abolitionism, do you think that Robinson was considering this in his speech?

After the speech, almost 900 people gathered for a banquet at Faneuil Hall and listened to toasts from leaders of labor organizations in Boston. The general message promoted “free suffrage, free trade, and free schools–these united are the only sure guarantees against corruption in government, monopolies in business, and exclusive privileges in legislation and the administration of justice.” At this time in the United States, slavery was still in full force, and only white men had “free suffrage”–the right to vote in elections. There was a dissonance between the message of this meeting and the reality of American society. [2] “The Trades Union,” Columbian Centinel, July 9, 1834, Number 5242, 1.

“The Only True and Legitimate” Labor Newspaper in Massachusetts

The revolutionary corridor and Greater Boston not only provided a space for physical demonstrations of activism, but also laid ground for great works of the written word and nurtured writing as a powerful tool for advocacy.

Sepia toned image of a black and white photograph of George E McNeill. The background is dark and blurry, but there looks to be something on the left side of the image, potentially a flag hanging on a flag pole. George E. McNeill is at the center of the image. It depicts him from the chest up. He is angled slightly to his left, but is looking straight at the viewer. He is a white man with a long white beard. He is balding at the top of his head, but has medium length white hair coming off the sides. He has dark eyebrows and a kind and contemplative expression. He is resting his chin on his left hand. Presumably, he is sitting, and his left elbow is resting on an armrest. He is wearing a black jacket with a white shirt underneath.

George E. McNeill was one of the most influential labor activists in Massachusetts. He started working when he was only ten years old and participated in his first strike when he was a teenager. He went on to become an advocate of the eight-hour day movement. He was an active member of the American Federation of Labor, and an avid supporter of the Boston Daily Evening Voice.

Courtesy Mass Moments, massmoments.org

According to George E. McNeill, a prominent labor activist, worker, and writer in the 1800s, the most influential labor newspaper in the United States came from the streets of Boston. The Boston Daily Evening Voice was created in the 1860s, when union printers from several of Boston’s newspapers were locked-out from their jobs in an attempt by the newspaper companies to dissolve the Printers’ Union. These men went on strike and rallied together to form a new newspaper; their first issue launched on December 2, 1864 from 77 Washington St., right within our revolutionary corridor.[3] Foner, Philip S., “A Labor Voice for Black Equality: The Boston Daily Evening Voice, 1864-1867,” Science & Society 38, no. 3 (1974): 304-25, Accessed February 17, 2021, … Continue reading

The main goal of the Voice was to advocate for “the rights of Labor–without distinction of sex, complexion or birthplace.” They championed the eight-hour workday, a superior education system, better access to libraries, and free public colleges. The Daily Evening Voice was also ahead of its time in its support of women in the work force, warning that “the laboring classes will never be elevated without the elevation of women–never.”[4] Boston Daily Evening Voice, December 2, 1864, quoted in Foner, 306; Boston Daily Evening Voice, May 2, 1865, quoted in Foner, 309.

On November 2, 1865, a mass meeting of workers in Faneuil Hall celebrated the adoption of the Voice by the Boston Trades’ Assembly as its official newspaper. They praised it as the “the only true and legitimate organ of labor published in the State.”[5] Boston Daily Evening Voice, November 3, 1865, quoted in Foner, 307.

The most remarkable aspect of the Daily Evening Voice came after the Civil War and the end of slavery. Most labor unions excluded Black workers from their ranks, and newspapers at best ignored the plights of the formerly enslaved who wanted to find and keep good jobs. The Voice, in contrast, allied itself with Boston “Radical Republicans” and took a strong stance in support of “a plan of Reconstruction that offered blacks more than mere legal freedom and advocated black-white labor unity.” They argued that this was not only what was best for the newly free men and women, but it was also best for white workers and unions. Black workers could easily be brought in as strikebreakers or hired as cheaper labor, and without their support, unionism would eventually fail everyone. The Voice believed that “labor had the duty of rectifying past errors and flaws in American democracy,” and that “the oppression of any large number of workingmen in any section of the country” would have a negative effect on all workers everywhere.[6] Foner, 313; Foner, 315; Foner, 317; Boston Daily Evening Voice, November 1, 17, December 1, 1866, quoted in Foner, 322.

  • Food for Thought
    The Boston Daily Evening Voice was way ahead of its time, and that, unfortunately, led to its demise. If the Voice were published today, where would it fit in with our modern array of newspapers and other news sources?

The Boston Daily Evening Voice ended production in October of 1867, due to a heavy loss of readership and funds. The very last sentence of their final issue was prophetic:

“We shall never succeed till wiser councils prevail and these prejudices are ripped up and thrown to the wind.”[7] Boston Daily Evening Voice, August 27, 1867, quoted in Foner, 324.

Black and white image of a drawing made to disseminate Ulysses S. Grant's National Eight Hour Law Proclamation. The image in the center has the shape of an oval laying on its long side and is full of different symbolic motifs. It has a border of multiple lines varying in thickness with small decorations outside the border at each corner of the page. The bottom of the drawing within the border has two small drawings labeled

President Ulysses S. Grant issued the National Eight Hour Law Proclamation in 1869. He declared that employers could not cut down their employees’ wages because of a reduction in the number of hours in a work day. The struggle for the eight-hour day is one of the most prominent labor fights in America’s history. It took generations before it became law under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Courtesy Special Collections & University Archives, University of Maryland

Protesting for the Eight-Hour Day and Reacting to Injustice

Faneuil Hall also hosted many meetings and protests where citizens came together in support of working people.

The fight for an eight-hour workday was arduous; it lasted for decades and is still not necessarily honored in many parts of the United States. On May 16, 1867, Wendell Phillips, famous Boston advocate for human rights, gave his second speech in Faneuil Hall to show his support for the cause. Almost 2,000 people attended, mostly unskilled workers, both women and men. Phillips predicted that in ten years, they could hold a reunion celebrating their success in getting an eight-hour work day.[8] “Workingmen’s Mass Meeting in Faneuil Hall—Address by Wendell Phillips,” The New York Times, May 18, 1867, 1.

In fact, almost twenty years later, the battle was still raging. Chicago was the site of a major labor-related incident in May 1886. Multiple consecutive eight-hour day protests ended when police raided an as yet peaceful meeting and a protestor detonated a dynamite bomb. Panicked, the police fired their guns into the crowd. At the end of the night, seven policemen and four workers were dead. This series of events was later referred to as the Haymarket Riot–or Haymarket Affair–and resulted in penalization of eight innocent men, seven of whom received the death penalty from Chicago courts.

The sentencing of these men impacted the labor movement around the world and inspired protests in many cities, including Boston. On October 24, 1887, the month before these men were set to hang, a group of 700 people joined together at Faneuil Hall to protest their sentences. Multiple men and several women spoke on behalf of the Haymarket Eight, including Dr. James Waldock, a member of the Socialist Labor Party and chairman of the event, and Charlotte Smith, the President of the National Women’s Industrial League at the time.[9] Bridgman, A. M., A Legislative Souvenir: A Souvenir of Massachusetts Legislators, Boston, MA: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1892, file:///C:/Users/keall/Downloads/ocm08580879-1892%20(1).pdf, 8;  … Continue reading They praised the “anarchists” as good men, not murderers, who did not deserve death. They sent a telegram to the Amnesty Association in Chicago that read:

“Faneuil Hall responds to the message from Chicago, which demands justice for the men unjustly condemned to die.”[10] “Anarchists’ Friends.”

The workers of Boston joined people from all over the world who agreed that this was “judicial murder.” Following “national and worldwide pressure,” the Governor of Illinois changed the fates of two of the men. Emotions and personal bias are still shaping the narrative of the Haymarket Affair, even today.[11] “Anarchists’ Friends;” Adelman, William J, “The Haymarket Affair,” Illinois Labor History Society, 2021, http://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/the-haymarket-affair.

As for the eight-hour day, workers continued to hold meetings and protests at Faneuil Hall. In total, there were over nine such events at the Hall between 1865 and 1916. These featured honored guests such as Wendell Phillips, Ira Steward, and George E. McNeill, prominent labor leaders. Over the years, different laborers won the eight-hour day at various times, but it was finally provided to most US workers in 1938 through the Fair Labor Standards Act. This was a major part of the New Deal, a series of reforms and programs created to support Americans under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Color image of a black logo on a manila pamphlet. The logo is in the center of the image, It is circular and has the words

This logo is taken from a pamphlet created by the Chicago National Women’s Trade Union League in 1915 supporting women’s rights to an eight-hour work day.

Courtesy Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries

Women Organize

One of the most significant labor events that took place in Faneuil Hall happened at the twenty-third annual convention of the American Federation of Labor [AFL]. In November of 1903, AFL President Samuel Gompers presided over a two-week long series of events. During this time, women of all socioeconomic backgrounds–from wealthy to working-class–joined together to create the Women’s Trade Union League [WTUL], later known as the National Women’s Trade Union League [NWTUL]. The organization’s main purpose was to support and facilitate the creation of trade unions for women and the fight for fair labor practices, regardless of gender, age, and status.

A sepia toned image of a black and white photograph of young white girls, in their teens, working in a factory. There is a line of girls that starts in the center of the photograph and extends into the background towards the right of the photo. The line comprises eight young women sitting at complex looking metal machinery, each with a large box of loose stockings on the floor to her right. The girls are focusing intently on hanging the stockings from a circular part of the machines at their eye level. They each sit in a black wooden chair, have their hair back, and wear the same clothing: a white blouse and a long grey skirt. The wall in the background of the photograph has three large windows in it with multiple window panes, giving the room natural light. It does not look like the windows can be opened. There are more people working at other machines in the background of the image to the far left. The bottom right corner of the photograph has been destroyed in some way, there is a large splotch of off-white where the photograph should continue.

School girls making stockings in Ipswich Mills, just north of Boston. This photo was taken by Lewis Wickes Hine in 1917 in order to document both legal and illegal child labor in the United States for the National Child Labor Committee. One of the WTUL’s most successful campaigns was the one to abolish child labor.

Courtesy National Child Labor Committee Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

The women of the WTUL “achieved a number of [their] legislative goals, including an eight-hour workday, a minimum wage, and the abolition of child labor.” Eleanor Roosevelt, prominent activist and First Lady, Rose Schneiderman, long-time suffragist, and Margaret Dreier Robins, labor leader, were among the members and activists of this organization.[12] “National Women’s Trade Union League,” Social Welfare History Project, Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries, Accessed March 21, 2021, … Continue reading

The Women’s Trade Union League was forced to dissolve in 1950 after a long decline in membership and funds.

One Very Long Strike

As labor movements continued over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many unions felt that they needed to turn to increasingly drastic measures in order to have their voices heard. When conversation with employers failed, workers would turn to their risky plan B: the strike. Many such demonstrations gained public attention and a platform at Faneuil Hall and on its storied grounds.

Color image of a postcard featuring the Thomas G. Plant Factory. The photograph on the postcard looks to have been black and white and filled in with colors later. In the center of the image is a large brick building, viewed on an angle from its front left corner. It is a large building with hundreds of windows, several smokestacks, and two flags on the roof. It looks like on the other side of the building, the name of the factory is written out in metal letters on the edge of the roof. On the left of the factory there is a dirt road and what looks to be a construction site. Above the site, on the far left of the photograph, is a background with some more buildings and trees, a peek into the rest of Boston. In front of the factory is a wide road lined with tall telephone polls connected with wires and, in front of the construction site, a wall with many different colorful posters. Dozens of people walk on the streets' sidewalk. In the bottom right corner of the image, overlapping the street, is a little banner drawn on later that reads

A postcard of the Thomas G. Plant Shoe Factory from the early 20th century. In 1919, workers of the Plant Factory started a year-and-a-half-long strike in an attempt to shut the shoe factory down.

Courtesy Jamaica Plain Historical Society Archives

Workers at the Thomas G. Plant Shoe Factory in Jamaica Plain, for example, held a strike that lasted for almost a year and a half. At least two of their strike meetings took place at Faneuil Hall, the first one on December 2, 1919, a little more than six months after they started their strike on May 13. At this event, multiple members of different shoe unions in Boston who supported the strikers declared the strike a necessary part of “collective bargaining.”[13] “Striking Shoe Workers Addressed by Jewett,” The Boston Globe, December 2, 1919, Main Edition, 5.

A year after the start of the strike, these workers held a second meeting at Faneuil Hall for their one year anniversary. The speakers ranged from radical to conservative, and some expressed ambivalence about the strike in the context of the Red Scare, which associated labor organizations with radicalism and communism. Some workers and union leaders believed that there were “big interests behind [the Plant Factory] in an effort to break unionism in this section.” At this same meeting, the strikers’ lawyer, Frederick W. Mansfield, tried to discourage workers from linking their cause with immigrants and radicalism, calling for a moderate approach. He warned that “now that labor has acquired power it must not fall into the error of abusing that power” by making friends with radicals.[14] “Mansfield Warns Unions Against Reds: Would Require Members to be Citizens,” The Boston Globe, May 15, 1920, 1; “Mansfield Warns Unions,” 8.

  • Food for Thought
    The Boston Globe took note of “several officers of the Boston Policeman’s Union” in attendance of the second Plant Factory strike meeting at Faneuil Hall.[15] “Mansfield Warns Unions,” 1. This would have been about eight months after the Boston Police Strike in 1919. What were they doing there? How do you think they felt?

    Read more about the Boston Police Strike here.

The strike ended in November of 1920, almost a year and a half to the day after it started. It was broken up by the Massachusetts Superior Court. Any members of shoemaker unions were forbidden from keeping the strike going and intimidating or coercing any of the new employees that the factory hired.

Photograph of a large room, named The Great Hall in Faneuil Hall. On the left are two floors of chairs framed by white columns of classical design creating windows of space that allow spectators to view what is happen in the middle of the room on the ground floor. In the middle are rows of wooden chairs. Most remain empty, but several rows near the front of the room are occupied by visitors. On the right side is a stage lined with red, white, and blue arched banners. Flags stand on top of the stage, along with chairs. On the back wall are several paintings in gold framed, including one significantly larger than the rest that is the length of the stage.

The Great Hall in Faneuil Hall, where many of the labor meetings, votes, protests, and speeches took place.

Courtesy Della Huff: Photographer

Conclusion

Boston, especially Faneuil Hall and its surrounding corridor, has been a home to all forms of labor activism over its centuries of history. The struggles for fair work and pay have made significant progress, but there is still a fight to be fought. This location continues to be a hub for public demonstrations and the written word, a place with historical and cultural significance that draws people in and gives them a space to speak for what they believe in. It has seen violence and peace, silence and speech, and it connects Boston’s world of activism to that around the globe.

Footnotes[+]



Questions to Consider:

  1. What do you think is the most important labor movement going on right now in the United States?
  2. How could newspapers contribute to the labor movement differently than other types of protest?
  3. The authors of the Daily Evening Voice hoped to see a world in which all people would be treated equally in the workplace. What causes are most important to you in the pursuit of fairness and equity?


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Further Reading

“Early American Labor Organization and The General Trades Union.” Young American Republic. Accessed March 1, 2021. http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/youngamerica/exhibits/show/jacksonian-economy/labor-organization.

“The Eight-Hour Day.” Hornbake Library. University of Maryland, 2021. https://www.lib.umd.edu/unions/labor/eight-hour-day.

Foner, Philip S. "A Labor Voice for Black Equality: The Boston Daily Evening Voice, 1864-1867." Science & Society 38, no. 3 (1974): 304-25. Accessed February 17, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40401799.

“George McNeill Organizes Workers.” Mass Moments, Mass Humanities. Accessed April 3, 2021. https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/george-mcneill-organizes-workers.html.

“National Women’s Trade Union League.” Social Welfare History Project. Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries. Accessed March 21, 2021. https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/organizations/labor/national-womens-trade-union-league/.

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