In The Cradle of Industry and Liberty

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Above: Although this photograph dates
from 1906, it depicts the practice of
“outwork” that was common in nineteenthcentury
Philadelphia of textile workers
processing materials in their homes and
shops under arrangements with mill
operators. Shown here are wool combers
at the Yewdall & Jones woolen mill in West
Philadelphia. The man in the doorway is
picking up raw wool to comb, while the man
at right is returning a sack of combed wool.
PHILADELPHIA COMMERCIAL MUSEUM PHOTOGRAPH
COLLECTION, PENNSYLVANIA STATE ARCHIVES.
Below: William Horstmann & Sons silk
factory, which operated at Fifth and Cherry
Streets from 1854 to 1880. Horstmann
started a silk weaving workshop in
Philadelphia in 1815 and in 1824
introduced the Jacquard loom into
American silk weaving.
SOCIETY PRINT COLLECTION, HISTORICAL SOCIETY
OF PENNSYLVANIA.
widespread. According to the 1820 census
some forty percent of textile workers in the
City of Philadelphia were children. Various
reform movements undertaken at the time
to address the problem met with limited
success; it was not until the early twentieth
century that oppressive child labor practices
were effectively abolished in Pennsylvania.
Labor confrontations became common in
Philadelphia in the early nineteenth century,
as workers began to organize and press
for better pay and working conditions.
When the Federal Society of Journeymen
Cordwainers, a union of Philadelphia shoemakers
established in 1794, went on strike
in 1805 to secure higher wages, several of
their members were brought to trial and
convicted of conspiracy. The case is considered
a key moment in U.S. labor history.
Other important developments in the
American labor movement that occurred in
Philadelphia in the early nineteenth century
include the formation in 1827 of the
Mechanics’ Union of Trade Associations, the
first central labor council in the nation,
and the 1835 Philadelphia General Strike,
the first general strike in America. The latter
involved some 20,000 workers who struck
for a ten-hour workday and increased
wages, an effort that ended in victory for
the workers.
Labor issues turned violent in the 1840s
among Philadelphia’s many independent
handloom operators, who were working
under very difficult economic conditions.
One of their chief supporters was the
provocative Philadelphia journalist and
novelist George Lippard, who in 1849
declared in his news-paper, The Quaker City,
“We would advise Labor to go to War, in
any and all forms—War with the Rifle,
Sword, and Knife! The War of Labor—waged
with pen and sword—is a Holy War.” No
such war ensued, although there were many
battles, to be sure. The evolving relationship
between labor and management—sometimes
cooperative, often distrustful and confrontational—would
be a major factor throughout
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
IN THE CRADLE OF INDUSTRY AND LIBERTY
44