{"id":16104,"date":"2019-11-08T15:16:48","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T20:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/2019\/11\/08\/200-years-ago-journeymen-shoemakers-strike-in-philadelphia\/"},"modified":"2019-11-08T15:16:48","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T20:16:48","slug":"200-years-ago-journeymen-shoemakers-strike-in-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/2019\/11\/08\/200-years-ago-journeymen-shoemakers-strike-in-philadelphia\/","title":{"rendered":"200 years ago: Journeymen shoemakers strike in Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"april-2016-cordwainer\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

By MICHAEL SCHREIBER<\/strong><\/p>\n

The autumn of 1805 was unusually mild. Farmers were able to plough their land almost until Christmas. And in Philadelphia, the balmy tem\u00adperatures might have \u201cgone to the head\u201d of a group of jour\u00adneymen cordwainers [shoemakers], who had the temerity on Nov. 1, 1805, to undertake what was one of the earliest labor strikes for wages in U.S. history.<\/p>\n

The journeymen had organized themselves back in 1794 into an elemental trade union known as the Federal Society of Journey\u00admen Cordwainers. This came about as a reflection of the fact that a revolution in production in the shoe\u00admaking industry had pro\u00adduced a new workforce. In colonial times, shoes gen\u00aderally had been made to order for customers by individual craftsmen, who might have employed merely a few journeymen or apprentices as helpers. But by the end of the 18th<\/sup>\u00a0century, custom-made shoes were constructed only for wealthy cus\u00adtom\u00aders. More often, shoes were produced according to pattern for the whole\u00adsale as well as retail trade. Far fewer craftsmen worked alone; now they became employers of larger groups of journeymen, who were given piecework wages to produce the commodities.<\/p>\n

The wage rate varied according to the quality of the shoe. This formula might be \u201cjustified\u201d partly on the assumption that an average worker would produce a cheaper shoe in less time than it took to produce a better one, but it also reflected pricing con\u00additions in the markets. Thus, men employed in making what were called \u201cmarket-work\u201d shoes\u2014those sold to poorer customers by retailers in the public shambles\u2014would receive wages that were only a third of what they could earn in ordinary \u201cshop work.\u201d The journey\u00admen grumbled that \u201cmarket-work\u201d wages were not enough for them to feed and house their families. Although they often la\u00adbored from five in the morning until past midnight, they still could not make ends meet.<\/p>\n

And they also complained that the employers were giving them a lower wage for producing shoes for retail sale than for custom-made products\u2014even though the quality of the two articles and the care put into their manufacture was often the same. \u201cI made some work for Mr. Ryan,\u201d a journeyman named John Hayes said in court, \u201cand he made a similar reduction upon me, because they were to go into the shop, when he used before to give the same price for shop goods as he did for bespoke work.\u201d The journey\u00admen highlighted the unjustness of the situation by noting that the employers would still often sell the shoes for two or three times what they would pay their workers to produce them.<\/p>\n

The journeymen had struck before, in 1799, when the masters had threatened to reduce wages. The employers then advertised for \u201cscab\u201d workers, but had little success in recruiting enough to break the strike. In the settlement, the journey\u00admen succeeded in stopping the wage reduction. In 1804, another strike ensued, and again the employers agreed to keep the current wage rate\u2014but when busi\u00adness slackened after Christmas, they began cutting wages again.<\/p>\n

The November 1805 walk-out was provoked by an action that had taken place two days earlier, when an informal organization of employers met together to consider the demands of the jour\u00adney\u00admen for higher wages, and resolved unan\u00adim\u00adously that \u201cwe will not give any more wages than we have given for some time past.\u201d<\/p>\n

As in 1799, the employers advertised for scabs to take the jobs of the strikers, and several employers attempted to fire men who had gone on strike. Street battles took place between the scabs and strik\u00ading workers, which resulted in the arrest of the leaders of the journeymen\u2019s union and the collapse of the strike.<\/p>\n

Public opinion in Philadelphia was polarized over the strike. Wil\u00adliam Duane\u2019s\u00a0Aurora\u00a0<\/em>stood up for the strikers, while the Fed\u00aderalist press, reflecting the opinion of the wealthier sector of Phila\u00addelphia society, sided with the employers and the scabs. On Nov. 27, the pro-Federalist\u00a0United States Gazette<\/em>\u00a0polemicized\u00a0against the\u00a0Aurora\u00a0<\/em>by promoting the bosses\u2019 view of the events: \u201cElection\u00adeering trick.\u2014The\u00a0Aurora<\/em>\u00a0this morning has trumped up a pleasant story of certain journeymen shoemakers, who, he says, were last week committed to jail, \u2018for meditating and proposing to demand an augmentation of the reward for their manual labor.\u2019\u2014We then hear a good deal of rhodomontade about English common law, aristo\u00adcracy, nobility, oppression of the poor, &c. &c.\u00a0<\/sup><\/p>\n

\u201cNow the story as we have heard it is thus: For a considerable time past, ever since the inclement season commenced, a great pro\u00adportion of the journeymen shoemakers of this city have been conspiring to raise the price of their labour; and for the purpose of accomplishing this end have refused to work for the usual wages. Some few, however, finding honest industry to be more profitable than idleness and caballing, returned to their work. This exas\u00adper\u00adated those who chose to stand out, and it is said they appointed a certain number of sturdy individuals of their fraternity, to be dom\u00adinated [nominated?] \u2018The Hammering Committee,\u2019 whose duty it sho[u]ld be to find out and flog all such as should return to their work at the customary wages.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is said that some of the members of this committee in the execution of their duty, have been unkindly seized and thrown into prison. This circumstance is caught by the\u00a0Aurora<\/em>\u00a0as proof that the object is to deprive these worthy\u00a0hamme\u00adr\u00ading<\/em>\u00a0citizens of a vote at the senatorial election tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following day, the\u00a0Aurora\u00a0<\/em>let the journeymen speak for them\u00ad\u00ad\u00adselves by printing their \u201cAddress of the Working Shoe\u00admakers of the City of Philadelphia to the Public.\u201d At the be\u00adgin\u00adning, the document took a defensive tact by citing the guarantees of the Penn\u00adsylvania state constitution \u201cthat the citizens have a right in a peaceable manner to assemble together for the common good.\u201d And in accord with that pro\u00adposition, it asserted that, \u201cfor the past fifteen years and up\u00adwards,\u201d the journeymen had been assembling \u201cin a peaceful man\u00adner\u201d for such constitu\u00adtionally protected pur\u00adpos\u00ades. Now they wished \u201cto shew to the industrious of all trades, what danger threatens them, and what wrong has been done to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then the Address went on the attack against the master cord\u00adwainers, \u201cwho are only the retailers of our labor, and who in truth live upon the work of our hands\u201d: \u201cAs they are rich and we are poor\u2014they seem to think that we are not protected by the constit\u00adu\u00adtion in meeting peaceably together and pursuing our own happi\u00adness\u2014They suppose that they have a right to limit us at all times, and whatever may be the misfortunes of society, the changes in the value of neces\u00adsaries, the encrease or the decrease of trade, they think they have a right to deter\u00admine for us the value of our labor; but that we have no right to determine for ourselves, what we will or what we will not take in exchange for our labor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the master craftsmen, with the support of the wealthier echel\u00adons of the business community, decided to retaliate in the courts against the strikers and their union. They brought charges against the union and eight elected offic\u00aders for \u201cconspiracy.\u201d A major charge against the union was that they had used various meth\u00adods of compulsion\u2014even violence\u2014to force journeymen work\u00aders to not scab against their fellows who were on strike. In effect, the bosses professed that in prosecuting the union, they were merely standing up for the democratic rights of their workers.<\/p>\n

The trial was put on the docket of the Philadelphia Mayor\u2019s Court for January 1806. The twelve men on the jury could hardly be con\u00adsidered peers of the defendants. The jury included three master craftsmen\u2014a hatter, a tailor, and a watch\u00ad\u00admaker. And the nine others were employers, such as innkeepers, merchants, etc.<\/p>\n

In final arguments, defense attorney Walter Franklin reiterated the strikers\u2019 insistence that they had been exercising their just right to assembly. But more to the point, he asked, since the master cordwainers had assumed the right to set the level of wages, did not journeymen also have a right to bargain the price of their labor power? And since the employers had taken action to join forces in order to fix prices and wages, did not the journey\u00admen also have the right to seek collective action \u201cto determine for themselves the value of their own labor?\u201d<\/p>\n

In summary, Franklin appealed to the jury: \u201cIf you are contented with the blessings enjoyed under our free constitution, which secures to the citizens and equality of rights, and recognizes no distinction of classes \u2026 I shall look for the result of these feelings and these sentiments in a verdict of acquittal.\u201d<\/p>\n

But such arguments failed to deflect the bias of the jury. They re\u00adtired at 9 p.m. and came to a decision soon afterward. The court then asked the jury to wait until morning before pronouncing the verdict\u2014\u201cguilty.\u201d The eight defend\u00adants were each fined $8, and required to pay court costs.<\/p>\n

Just months after conclusion of the journeymen\u2019s conspiracy trial, the transcript of the proceedings, taken in shorthand by Thomas Lloyd, was published in book form. An advertisement for the vol\u00adume noted: \u201cThis trial is deeply interesting, and shews to men of all professions, that by the English common-law (now for the first time introduced into Pennsylvania, since its first settle\u00adment as a province under William Penn) they are not at liberty to associate together, for the purpose of fixing the price of their labor, in the way attempted by the society of Journey\u00admen Cord\u00adwainers.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a strong setback for labor\u2019s cause. Three decades later, however, the labor movement rose again in Philadelphia, with a general strike and the forma\u00adtion of the first U.S. work\u00ading\u00adman\u2019s party. By that time, machine-driven factories had increas\u00adingly sup\u00adplanted handicrafts, and the system of masters and jour\u00adney\u00admen had developed into a new system, with a clear division between capitalists and proletarians.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By MICHAEL SCHREIBER The autumn of 1805 was unusually mild. Farmers were able to plough their land almost until Christmas. And in Philadelphia, the balmy tem\u00adperatures might have \u201cgone to the head\u201d of a group of jour\u00adneymen cordwainers [shoemakers], who had the temerity on Nov. 1, 1805, to undertake what was one of the earliest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13882114,"featured_media":14891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[30840,27755],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-labor-2","category-american-history"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/workersvoiceus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/april-2016-cordwainer.jpg?fit=600%2C796&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdQxqk-4bK","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13882114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}