The (Almost) Noble Order: The Knights of Labor

Hey everyone. Welcome back. 

 

When we began our Gilded Age journey together earlier this year, one of the first major events I covered was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Not only did it make sense from a chronological standpoint - occurring mere months into President Rutherford B. Hayes’s administration - but it also served as a perfect introduction to some of the themes that played out over the course of the Gilded Age: what was the proper role of the government when it came to regulating business or mediating labor disputes? How were capital and labor going to coexist? 

 

As I mentioned in the episode about the Great Railroad Strike, while the general strike did not secure quote unquote tangible wins, it nevertheless illustrated the power of collective action. It inspired workers across the country to mobilize and in the 1880s the United States experienced a new surge of labor activism. At the front of this was the Knights of Labor. The first national labor union in the country, the Knights of Labor broke new ground by expanding membership to become one of the largest and most influential labor unions during the 19th century. 

 

So this week, I am diving into the Knights of Labor. How did the organization get started? What made them different? And how did they change the relationship between labor and business?

 

Grab your cup of coffee, peeps. Let’s do this. 

 

The Knights of Labor was originally established as the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor on December 9th, 1869 in Philadelphia. Established by Uriah Stephens and eight other garment cutters, the union was meant to be a place for anyone who toiled with their hands and as a replacement for the failed Garment Cutters Association of Philadelphia. Protective of the new organization, members were sworn to secrecy and fraternalism, with many of their rituals borrowed from the Masons and similar fraternal orders. Even meetings were kept under wraps, with members using symbols and numbers to announce the dates and times. This secrecy actually worked against the organization in its early years, blunting its ability to expand. Members of the Catholic hierarchy were not on board with their parishioners being members of a secret society and barred them from joining. Thus, for its first few years of existence, the Knights remained largely a Philadelphia-based organization.

 

After the Great Railroad Strike in 1877 things shifted. In 1878 the union held its first General Assembly in Reading, Pennsylvania where it hoped to quote “direct the movement along well-defined, harmonized lines,” end quote. The Knights voted on a platform that mirrored the Industrial Brotherhood which called for support of the 8 hour work day, excluding Chinese workers, providing equal pay for both men and women, public employment during economic downturns, greenback currency, and quote “abrogation of all laws that do not bear equally upon capital and labor,” end quote. The following year Uriah Stephens stepped down and Terrence Powderly assumed the leadership role. Unlike Stephens, Powderly was not as worried about keeping the union a secret, focusing instead on growing the organization by taking it public - announcing its existence in newspapers across the country. Powderly also simplified the rituals the Knights employed, likely in the hopes that doing so would make the organization a bit more palatable to the influential Catholic church. Taking the union public had its risks, but it was a necessary step to achieve Powderly’s vision - which was pretty ambitious. 

 

For Powderly, the goal was to create a volunteer national organization of workers. Skilled or unskilled, men and women. And while Powderly achieved this for a short time, his decisions in other aspects of Knights leadership have left many labor historians scratching their heads. Despite leading a labor union - where a reasonable person might expect that confrontation could lead to calling for a strike - Powderly is famous - or rather infamous - for his dislike of strikes. And despite being the leader of a labor union - which represented working class men and women - Powderly claimed he was not a fan of the word class. It begs the question how and why a man who seemed averse to the requirements of the job would become so heavily involved in its leadership. Regardless of his shortcomings - of which there were many - Powderly was successful at scaling the Knights of Labor into a massive union and increasing membership. 

 

The Knights were the first to organize skilled and unskilled workers. Prior to the Knights, unions were limited by trades and tended to favor skilled laborers. One of the issues with limiting membership in craft unions was that it created silos and gave workers very little bargaining power with their employer. The Knights offered something different - they believed in worker solidarity regardless of the skill. While the union would eventually go on to accept Black men and women workers, initially the Knights were an all white, male union. This isn’t to paint the Knights as a purely altruistic organization. The union only accepted the Black Americans and women because they understood the threat they imposed to their white, male members. And while they were eventually allowed membership, neither Black members nor women held positions of power within the organization. In fact, the inclusion of African Americans - and women for that matter - was the result of their own activism. As historian Charles Postel explains, quote “they saw the Knights as a vehicle for their own equal rights claims and seized on the opportunities that it provided,” end quote.

 

Up to 10% of the total membership, or roughly 75,000 workers were Black. While membership was spread throughout the country, it was highly concentrated in the south where a significant number of Black Americans still lived. In Louisiana, the Knights helped organize 10,000 workers to strike against one of the state’s largest industries - sugar. Louisiana in the 1880s of course was right in the heart of Jim Crow and the idea that Black laborers had the audacity to demand fair wages for fair work enraged the white supremacists of the area. The labor action devolved into violence, leading to the murder of at least two dozen Black strikers - with some estimates putting the total death count closer to one hundred. 

 

Women gained acceptance into the Knights in 1881 - when the union discovered they had already established several local unions. As one labor editor wrote in 1883 quote, “in almost every city where the Knights of Labor have an organization the women who work for wages have banned together and formed an assembly,” end quote. Powderly established a committee to investigate the conditions of women’s labor and compile data and the Knights appointed Leonora Barry as the director of the project and the organization’s general investigator. Despite being labeled as an investigator, Barry had no real authority; she could not force employers to allow her entrance onto a job site and she had no recourse for any violations she witnessed. Lacking formal power, Barry still exerted a significant amount of influence and shifted her energy into organizing new members via education and public speaking. 

 

Barry cited two barriers for women joining the Knights - hostility from the men already in the organization and women’s general reluctance to join the movement. As the leader of the Knights, Powderly supported equal pay for equal work and in a demonstration of their inclusivity, the Knights established ladies locals that included both housewives and working women. This was transformational; as historian Susan Levine explains, the Knights quote “offered women a role in the movement not directly dependent upon their status in the labor market,” end quote. The Knights also extended membership to domestic workers, which represented roughly 25% of all women local assemblies. Lastly, the Knights were also supporters of suffrage. Powderly even worked to build alliances with women’s rights folks like Susan B. Anthony, and made a conscious effort to reach out to women to join the organization - regardless of their marital status - something that broke the mold for the era. 

 

These efforts helped increase women’s participation in the Knights of Labor who at their peak counted about 65,000 members. In the 1880s, the Knights chartered over 400 locals that included women, with two-thirds being ladies locals - or made up only of women, and one-third being mixed between men and women. Despite the limited gendered view of women and the idea of separate spheres, women carried their weight as members of the Knights of Labor. They actively participated in strikes, boycotts, and informal protests - all of which drew a significant amount of media attention. Their participation in the Knights of Labor created tension and opposition - both within the organization and out. Powderly tried to convince his male members that women deserved a place within the organization and that they deserved to be treated equitably, , saying quote, “their privileges should be the same and I can see no reason why women should not be entitled to giving to the world its products as well as men,” end quote. 

 

The Catholic clergy still subscribed to the Victorian notions of domesticity and mocked women’s participation in the Knights. They accused women who were Knights as working for immoral purposes and insinuated that by starting local chapters, these women were driving men to quote unquote destruction. Much like the Irish Ladies Land League I covered last week, women working outside of the home created discomfort as it challenged preconceived ideas about the proper place for women in society. Leonora Barry - who had been charged with investigating women’s experiences in the labor market - explained quote “If it were possible, I wish that it were not necessary for women to learn any trade but that of domestic duties, as I believe it was intended that man should be the bread-winner. But as that is impossible under present conditions, I believe women should have every opportunity to become proficient in whatever vocation they choose or find themselves best fitted for,” end quote. Again, what the Catholic church - and others who remained committed to the domestic ideal - failed to realize or chose to ignore - was that wage work was becoming an increasingly common situation for women. Between 1870 and 1910 the percentage of women participating in paid labor in the United States increased from 14 to 20. Thus, while there may have been a desire to hold onto the quote unquote ideal of separate spheres with women in charge of the home, the reality for more and more Americans was that women had to work and families relied on the economic output of their income. Therefore, it was critical that their jobs and access to fair wages was protected - and the Knights of Labor was one avenue to help safeguard both. 

 

By the summer of 1886, thanks to the various outreach efforts and inclusion of Black Americans and women, the Knights of Labor grew to more than 750,000 members - or roughly 20% of the American workforce by some estimates - making it the largest union in the 19th century. Throughout the United States, the Knights represented the first mass organization of works. Their motto - An injury to one is the concern of all - was on display as the Knights helped organize various labor actions including a shoemakers strike or coordinating their members to strike in support of female carpet makers. Of course, the Knights were not universal in their acceptance of labor. Despite being proponents of inclusivity and touting the need to bring all labor under a single banner, the Knights of Labor excluded Chinese workers from joining their organization. The Knights also excluded liquor dealers, lawyers, bankers, and professional gamblers - but for completely different reasons than those of Chinese descent. While bankers and lawyers were excluded because they were seen as being unproductive members of society, Chinese workers were excluded because the Knights viewed them as akin to enslaved labor. In their view, Chinese laborers undercut their members' ability to earn a fair wage and the only remedy they saw was total exclusion. Even when Chinese workers in New York ignored this and formed their own leagues - forcing the issue at the organization’s General Assembly in 1888 - the organization still voted 95-42 against allowing Chinese workers to organize under the Knight banner. 

 

As historian Charles Postel asserts, the railroads were the ultimate test of the Knights quote “egalitarian ethos and inclusive model of organization,” end quote. Railroads were massive influential entities who wielded significant power. The Knights went up against Jay Gould several times - including in 1886 during the Great Southwest strike. While the Knights had achieved success in the past, they would not be so lucky this time. At issue was a disagreement about whether employees could be fired without cause. The existing labor agreement established that no worker could be let go without an investigation, yet a carpenter working on the Texas & Pacific Railroad from Marshall, Texas Charles Hall was summarily fired - without notice or investigation - shortly after attending a union meeting. Martin Irons, chair of one of the locals, called for a strike of the railroad shortly thereafter - and it did not go well. 

 

Instead of caving to the demands of the strikers, Gould let the courts and law enforcement do his bidding. The Texas & Pacific Railroad was bankrupt and was under federal receivership. As such, the courts issued injunctions against the strikers to maintain operations. Further undercutting their efforts, the strikers did not have the support of their fellow unions in the area. Desperate, the striking Knights resorted to using force to prevent Gould’s trains from moving - a decision that only further alienated members from the community. The strike was over just a few months after it began without securing any concessions from Gould. The Great Southwest Strike - and the events of the Haymarket Riot - would contribute to the eventual unraveling of the Knights of Labor. By 1890, membership had plummeted to just around 100,000 and their national headquarters closed its doors in 1917. 

 

The Knights of Labor was the first national union representing wage workers in the United States. For a brief run in the 1880s, the Knights dominated labor politics and demonstrated the power of collective bargaining. They successfully brought in and uplifted women and Black workers - incorporating them into locals across the country. But their commitment to inclusivity was imperfect and their growing nativist sentiment, especially in the aftermath of the Haymarket Riot - combined with the rise of trade unions eventually spelled the end for the Knights of Labor.

 

The tension between labor and capital remained throughout the Gilded Age. However the Knights deserve credit for serving as a very large check against a mostly unregulated capitalist system and championing social and economic changes during an era that was heavily pro-business. The Knights proved that mobilizing workers across a variety of backgrounds was possible and again that there was power in collective action. 

 

Thanks, peeps. I will see you next time.