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The Black Worker, Volume 1

The Black Worker to 1896

Edited by Philip S. Foner and Ronald L. Lewis

With a Foreword by Keona K. Ervin


Published over the course of six years, the eight volumes of The Black Worker: From Colonial Times to the Present contain a voluminous amount of archival material. Through their publication, Philip S. Foner, Ronald L. Lewis, and Robert Cvornyek birthed a new generation of Black labor history scholarship. Theirs was big, synthesis-style, social, political, intellectual, and institutional history that tried to capture as broadly as possible the patterns, trends, and themes that made race and class, and the Black labor experience, in particular, significant, shaping forces in United States history. With its compelling perspective on the salience of Black labor history along with its sheer breadth and depth, The Black Worker was and is required reading for students of labor and working-class history and African American history.


Prior to publication of The Black Worker, Black workers were largely absent from or mere footnotes in established histories; dominant narratives presented a “house of labor” occupied primarily if not exclusively by white, male, industrial workers. These accounts paid little attention to unions’ widespread practice of racial exclusion and discrimination, nor to attempts by Black workers to organize their own labor. Through its documentation of these practices, The Black Worker in no small part helped to bring about acknowledgment of these practices and the start of inclusiveness.


Inserting the voices and actions of the marginal into the canon of history was of monumental importance. By incorporating new voices into the standard chronology of American labor history, The Black Worker helped to push the field to revise its core keywords and conceptual underpinnings.

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Table of Contents

The Black Worker to 1869—Volume I

  • Cover
  • Series page
  • Title Page
  • Copyright
  • Dedication
  • Foreword
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgements
  • Preface
  • Part I: Black Labor in the Old South
    • Part I: Black Labor in the Old South
      • Blacks in the Crafts and Industries of the Old South
        • 1. An Overview: Africa
        • 2. An Overview: The American South
        • 3. The Slave Mechanic
      • Slave Craftsmen in America
        • 4. Plantation Craftsmen
        • 5. Fugitive Skills
        • 6. Carpenters, Caulkers, Bricklayers
        • 7. Sawyers
        • 8. White Washer
        • 9. Bricklayers
        • 10. Cooper
        • 11. Jack-of-all-Trades
        • 12. Watchmaker
        • 13. Painters
        • 14. Goldsmith
        • 15. A Slave Lot
        • 16. Blacksmith's Apprentice I
        • 17. Shoemaker
        • 18. Blacksmith's Apprentice II
        • 19. Seamstress
        • 20. Carpenter
        • 21. A Slave Lot
        • 22. Article of Apprenticeship
        • 23. Apprentice Ironworker
      • Industrial Slavery
        • 24. A Southerner's View
        • 25. Ironworkers
        • 26. Cotton Factory Slaves
        • 27. Stevedores
        • 28. Coal Miners
        • 29. Cotton Factory Hands
        • 30. Slave Labor Upon Public Works in the South
        • 31. Slave Fishermen
        • 32. Working at a Richmond Tobacco Factory
        • 33. Lumbermen
        • 34. Slave Ironworkers
        • 35. Strikes on Attack Against Slave Ownership
        • 36. Tredegar Advertisement for Slaves
        • 37. Annual Maintenance Cost per Industrial Slave, 1820–1861
      • Hiring-Out of Slave Mechanics
        • 38. Slaves Hiring Themselves
        • 39. Frederick Douglass Encounters Racial Violence in a Baltimore Shipyard
        • 40. One Year in the Life of a Hired-Out Slave: William Wells Brown
      • Self-Purchase by Slave Mechanics
        • 41. Free Blacks Purchase Family Members
        • 42. A Call for Financial Help
        • 43. Another Slave Freed
        • 44. A Founder Purchases His Family's Freedom
        • 45. The Late W. H. Cromwell
      • A Slave Mechanic's Escape to Freedom
        • 46. The Escape from Slavery of Frederick Douglass, Black Ship-Caulker
      • Occupations of Free Blacks in the South
        • 47. The Free Negro and the South
        • 48. The Gainful Occupations of Free Persons of Color
        • 49. Occupations of Slaves and Free Blacks in Charleston, 1848
        • 50. Occupations of Negroes in Charleston in 1850
        • 51. Occupations of Negroes in St. Louis in 1850
        • 52. Leading Negro Occupations in Baltimore in 1850 and 1860
        • 53. Occupations of Free Negroes Over Fifteen Years of Age in New Orleans, 1850
        • 54. The Case of Henry Boyd, A Freed Carpenter
        • 55. "As High as a Colored Man Could Rise"
        • 56. The Washerwoman
        • 57. Observations of Samuel Ringgold Ward on Discrimination
        • 58. Well Put -- The Colored Race at the North
  • Part II: Race Relations in Old Southern Industries
    • Part II: Race Relations in Old Southern Industries
      • The Debate Over the Use of Free or Slave Mechanics
        • 1. The Progress of Manufactures
        • 2. "Fisher's Report"
        • 3. James Hammond, "Progress of Southern Industry"
        • 4. A Pro-Industrial Slavery Opinion
        • 5. Letter From William P. Powell
      • Petitions and Protests of White Mechanics Against Black Mechanics
        • 6. Petition of Charleston Citizens to the State Legislature, 1822
        • 7. White Artisans Claim Unfair Competition From Free Blacks
        • 8. Negro Mechanics
        • 9. Georgia Mechanics' Convention
        • 10. Negro Mechanics
        • 11. Petition of Texas Mechanics
      • Free Black Workers and the Law
        • 12. A Supplement to the Maryland Act of 1831 Relating to Free Blacks and Slaves
        • 13. Incendiary Publications in Baltimore
        • 14. Out of Jail
        • 15. Free Colored Population of Maryland
        • 16. Note From the Diary of a Free Black
        • 17. Free Blacks in Virginia
        • 18. State of Delaware vs Moses Mc Colly, Negro
        • 19. Persecution in Delaware
        • 20. 1845 Act of Georgia Legislature Directed Against Black Mechanics
        • 21. The Condition of the Free Negro in Louisiana
        • 22. Exodus of Free Negroes From South Carolina
        • 23. Arrival of Free Colored People From South Carolina
      • Labor Violence in Black and White
        • 24. A Coal Mine -- Negro and English Miners
        • 25. Trouble Among the Brickmakers
        • 26. A Fiendish Outrage
      • Observations on Race Relations
        • 27. Southern Whites and Blacks Could Work Together
        • 28. To the Contractors For Mason's and Carpenter's Work
        • 29. A Visitor Comments on Race Relations in Virginia Coal Mines
        • 30. Free and Slave Labor in Virginia
        • 31. Slave-Labor vs. Free Labor
        • 32. Response to the Strike of White Workers to Eliminate Black Competition at Tredegar Iron Works, 1847
        • 33. A Foreign Traveller's Observations on Industrial Race Relations in the South
        • 34. Two Black Foundrymen Prosper
        • 35. Constitution of the Baltimore Society for the Protection of Free People of Colour, 1827
  • Part III: Free Black Labor in the North
    • Part III: Free Black Labor in the North
      • Northern Free Black Occupations
        • 1. Register of Trades of Colored People in the City of Philadelphia and Districts, 1838
        • 2. Colored Inhabitants of Philadelphia
        • 3. Trades and Occupations in Philadelphia, 1849
        • 4. Occupations of Blacks in Philadelphia, 1849
        • 5. The Colored People of Philadelphia, 1860
        • 6. Advantageous Notice
        • 7. Boot and Shoe Makers
        • 8. An Artist
        • 9. Occupations of Free Blacks Over Fifteen Years of Age in New York City, 1850
        • 10. To Colored Men of Business
        • 11. A Watchmaker and Jeweller
        • 12. Employment of Colored Laborers in New York
        • 13. The Problems Confronting Black Workers in New York, 1852
        • 14. Black Workers in New York, 1859
        • 15. Help! Help Wanted
        • 16. David Walker's "Grog Shop"
        • 17. Black Workers in Boston, 1831
        • 18. Colored People of Boston
        • 19. Occupations of Negroes in Boston, 1837
        • 20. Occupations of Negroes in Boston, 1850
        • 21. Colored Artisans
        • 22. Negro Occupations in Massachusetts in 1860
        • 23. The Colored People of Rhode Island
      • Discrimination Against Free Black Workers in the North
        • 24. Excerpt From Report of Pitty Hawkes on New York-African Free School, October 13, 1829
        • 25. Ex-Slave Frederick Douglass Becomes a Free Black Worker
        • 26. Black Carmen of New York
        • 27. Henry Graves and His Hand Cart
        • 28. New York City Corporation, vs Mr. Henry Graves and His Handcart
        • 29. Henry Graves and His Handcart
  • Part IV: Living Conditions and Race Relations in the North
    • Part IV: Living Conditions and Race Relations in the North
      • Pauperism
        • 1. On Pauperism
        • 2. Impediments to Honest Industry
        • 3. Condition of the Free People of Color in Philadelphia
        • 4. Poverty Among Blacks in Philadelphia
        • 5. Education and Employment of Children
      • Colorphobia
        • 6. The Black Laws of Ohio
        • 7. Inquiry into the Condition of Blacks in Cincinnati, 1829
        • 8. The Difference Between the North and the South
        • 9. Colorphobia in Philadelphia
        • 10. The Racial Attitudes of a Leading White Labor Spokesman
      • White Abolitionists and Jobs for Free Blacks
        • 11. Abolitionists! Do Give a Helping Hand!
        • 12. White Abolitionists and Colored Mechanics in Philadelphia, I
        • 13. White Abolitionists and Colored Mechanics in Philadelphia, II
        • 14. Colored Mechanics -- Free Labor Boots and Shoes
        • 15. Martin R. Delaney Protests Job Discrimination Among White Abolitionists
        • 16. "Is There Anything Higher Open to Us?"
      • Anti-Black Labor Riots
        • 17. The Late Riots in Providence
        • 18. Letter From an Observer of the Providence Riot, 1831
        • 19. Black Workers Assailed in Philadelphia
        • 20. Committee Report on the Causes of the Philadelphia Race Riots, 1834
        • 21. Robert Purvis' Reaction to the Philadelphia Riot, 1842
        • 22. Pecuniary Cost of the Philadelphia Riots of 1838
        • 23. The Columbia (Pa.) Race Riots, 1834
        • 24. Abolition Riots in New York
        • 25. Alleged Rioting of the Stevedores
        • 26. Another Mob in Cincinnati
      • Northern Free Blacks Kidnapped and Sold into Slavery
        • 27. Boston Blacks Petition the General Court on Behalf of Three Victims
        • 28. Caution! To the Colored People
        • 29. Kidnapping in the City of New York
        • 30. The Call at Lynn
        • 31. Liability to be Seized and Treated as Slaves
        • 32. Information Wanted
        • 33. Rally in Boston
        • 34. The Chivalrous James B. Gray
        • 35. Association of Free Blacks to Aid Fugitive Slaves Freedmen Association, Boston, 1845
        • 36. Kidnapping in Harrisburg
  • Part V: Black Workers in Specific Trades
    • Part V: Black Workers in Specific Trades
      • Free Black Waiters
        • 1. Meeting of the Hotel and Saloon Waiters -- Formation of a Protective Union
        • 2. Advertisements of the Waiters Union
        • 3. First United Association of Colored Waiters
        • 4. Arouse Waiters: Traitors in the Camp
        • 5. Meeting of the Waiters' Protective Union
      • Black Seamen
        • 6. Coloured Seamen -- Their Character and Condition, I
        • 7. Coloured Seamen -- Their Character and Condition, II
        • 8. Coloured Seamen -- Their Character and Condition, III
        • 9. Coloured Seamen -- Their Character and Condition, IV
        • 10. Coloured Seamen -- Their Character and Condition, V
        • 11. Boarding House for Seamen
        • 12. Coloured Sailors' Home
        • 13. William P. Powell on the Coloured Sailor's Home
        • 14. A Sensible Petition
        • 15. Extract From a Letter of Wm. P. Powell, Dated on Board Packet Ship De Witt Clinton
        • 16. Black Seamen and Alabama Law
        • 17. Free Negroes in Louisiana
        • 18. Colored Men in Louisiana
        • 19. Resolutions Adopted at a Meeting of Boston Negroes, October 27, 1842
        • 20. Free Black Seamen of Boston Petition Congress for Relief, 1843
        • 21. "An Act for the Better Regulation and Government of Free Negroes and Persons of Color, and for Other Purposes," South Carolina, 1822
        • 22. Laws of South Carolina Respecting Colored Seamen
        • 23. Coloured Seamen in Southern Ports
        • 24. The Law Regarding Colored Seamen
        • 25. Imprisonment of British Seamen
        • 26. The British Seamen at Charleston
        • 27. The Case of Manuel Pereira
        • 28. Coloured Seamen
        • 29. The Colored Seamen Question in the House of Commons
        • 30. Colored Seamen in South Carolina
        • 31. Personal Account of a Black Seaman in the Port of Charleston
        • 32. Appeal to the Public
      • Black Caulkers
        • 33. Strike on the Frigate Columbia
        • 34. Black Caulkers Desert Baltimore
        • 35. The Trouble Among the White and Black Caulkers
        • 36. The Caulkers' Difficulty
        • 37. The Difficulty Among the Caulkers
        • 38. More Violence in the Baltimore Ship Yards
        • 39. The Fell's Point Outrage
  • Part VI: The Free Black Workers' Response to Oppression
    • Part VI: The Free Black Workers' Response to Oppression
      • Free Black Uplift: Unions, Cooperatives, Conventions, Schools
        • 1. American League of Colored Laborers
        • 2. Conventions of Colored People
        • 3. The Quest for Equality
        • 4. Introductory Address
        • 5. School for Colored Youth
        • 6. Program of the Phoenix Literary Society, New York City, 1833
        • 7. Manual Labor School for Colored Youth
        • 8. Committee on Education Report, 1848 National Colored Convention, Cleveland, Ohio
        • 9. To Parents, Guardians and Mechanics
        • 10. "Make Your Sons Mechanics and Farmers, Not Waiters, Porters, and Barbers"
        • 11. Learn Trades or Starve
        • 12. A Plan for an Industrial College Presented by Frederick Douglass to Harriet Beecher Stowe, March 8, 1853
        • 13. Resolutions Adopted by Negro National Convention, Rochester, 1853
        • 14. Report, Committee on Manual Labor, National Negro Convention, Rochester, New York, 1853
        • 15. Plan of the American Industrial School
        • 16. The Colored People's "Industrial College"
        • 17. Colored National Council
      • Integrate or Separate?
        • 18. Editorial: The African Race in New York
        • 19. Martin R. Delaney, "Why We Must Emigrate"
        • 20. Frederick Douglass, "Why We Should Not Emigrate"
  • Part VII: The Northern Black Worker During the Civil War
    • Part VII: The Northern Black Worker During the Civil War
      • The Worsening Status of Free Black Workers in the North
        • 1. John S. Rock at the First of August Celebration, Lexington, Massachusetts
        • 2. Rights of White Labor Over Black
        • 3. "Rights of White Labor Over Black" (Rebuttal)
        • 4. Butts and Pork-Packers and Negroes
        • 5. Riot on the Cincinnati Levi
        • 6. Further Rioting
        • 7. White Fear of Emancipation
        • 8. Black and Immigrant Competition for Jobs
        • 9. "More Riotous and Disgraceful Conduct"
        • 10. The Mob
        • 11. The Disgraceful Riot in Brooklyn
        • 12. Persecution of Negroes
        • 13. Brutal and Unprovoked Assaults on Colored People
        • 14. Bloody Riot in Detroit
        • 15. Anti-Black Mob in Detroit
        • 16. Eyewitness to the Detroit Riot
        • 17. Strike Among the Negrophobists at the Navy Yard, Boston.
        • 18. The Colored Sailor's Home in New York
        • 19. Report of the Colored Sailor's Home
      • Anti-Negro Riots in New York City
        • 20. Trouble Among the Longshoremen
        • 21. The Right to Work
        • 22. Disgraceful Proceeding -- Colored Laborers, Assailed by Irishmen
        • 23. Reign of Terror
        • 24. "Report of the Committee of Merchants for the Relief of ColoredPeople, Suffering from the Late Riots in the City of New York"
        • 25. Personal Recollections of the Draft Riots
        • 26. A Personal Experience
        • 27. The Longshoremen's Attitude Toward Blacks
        • 28. The Colored Refugees at Police Headquarters
        • 29. The Colored Sufferers by the Recent Riots -- Meeting of Merchants
        • 30. "The Mob Exults"
        • 31. The Colored Sailors' Home
        • 32. Attempt to Drown a Negro
        • 33. Fearful of Being Known
        • 34. The Merchants Relief Committee
        • 35. Employers Turn to Negroes Rather Than Irishmen Because of the Riots
        • 36. How Blacks Should Meet the Rioters
        • 37. Colored Orphan Asylum
      • Blacks in the Union Army and Navy
        • 38. Statistics of Enlisted Men
        • 39. Occupations for Black Enlistees
        • 40. Give Us Equal Pay and We Will Go to War
        • 41. Twenty Per Cent Off the Wages of Colored Wagoners
        • 42. Proscription in Philadelphia
        • 43. Out of the Frying-Pan Into the Fire
      • White Northerners Anticipate the Addition of Ex-Slaves to the Labor Force
        • 44. General James S. Wadsworth to Henry J. Ramond
        • 45. Gen. Wadsworth's Acceptance: An Editorial
        • 46. Negro Apprenticeship
        • 47. The Negro and Free Labor
  • Part VIII: Condition of the Worker During Early Reconstruction
    • Part VIII: Condition of the Black Worker During Early Reconstruction
      • Reconstruction in the South
        • 1. Dignity of Labor
        • 2. Biographical Information on Black Leaders in New Orleans
        • 3. General Schurz on Black Workers
        • 4. Work Only for Good Employers
        • 5. Whitelaw Reid's Observations on Newly Liberated Slaves in Selma, Alabama
        • 6. To the Mass Meeting at the School of Liberty
        • 7. The Labor Question
        • 8. An Appeal to the Colored Cotton Weighers, Cotton Pressmen Generally, Levee Stevedores and Longshoremen
        • 9. Appeal to Support the Universal Suffrage Party
        • 10. Notice. Freedmen's Aid Association of New Orleans
        • 11. Short Contracts
        • 12. The Eight Hour System
        • 13. A Typical Labor Contract
        • 14. Constitution of the Commercial Association of the Laborers of Louisiana
        • 15. Labor Notes
        • 16. To the Editor of the Workingmen's Advocate
        • 17. From Louisiana
        • 18. Black Ship-Builders in North Carolina
        • 19. A Louisiana Correspondent's View of Radical Reconstruction
        • 20. The Need for a Second Emancipation Proclamation
        • 21. Two Letters from the South by William H. Sylvis
        • 22. Cooperation Among the Freedmen
      • Labor Discontent in the South
        • 23. Regulations for Freedmen in Louisiana, 1865
        • 24. Resolutions of the Freedmen's Aid Association of New Orleans
        • 25. Whitelaw Reid Witnesses a Plantation "Strike"
        • 26. Chain-Gang for "Idle Negroes"
        • 27. The Substitute for Slavery
        • 28. Black Wages
        • 29. Northern Laborers -- Attention!
        • 30. Letter to a New York Editor from a Freedman
        • 31. Why Freedmen Won't Work
        • 32. Complaint of Tobacco Workmen
        • 33. The Freedmen -- A Strike Expected
        • 34. June 18, 1866, First Collective Action of Black Women Workers
        • 35. Meeting of Planters to Regulate the Price of Labor
        • 36. Freedmen's Bureau Meeting in Norfolk, Virginia
        • 37. Southern Codes for Freedmen
        • 38. An Appeal for Justice
        • 39. White and Black Labor Unity in New Orelans, 1865
        • 40. A Strike in Savannah
        • 41. Discontent Among Negro Workers
        • 42. "A Singular Case"
        • 43. A Difficulty Between Workingmen and a Contractor
        • 44. "Swearing" Mower
        • 45. The City Workingmen
        • 46. The British Consul in Baltimore Reports on Problems Created Over Integrated Ship Crews
        • 47. Black Stevedores Strike in Charleston, S. C.
        • 48. Strike of the Longshoremen
        • 49. Another Longshoremen Strike
        • 50. "The Colored Tailors on a Rampage"
      • Condition of Black Workers in the North During Reconstruction
        • 51. Home for "Colored Sailors"
        • 52. Condition of the Colored Population of New York
        • 53. A White View of the Black Worker
        • 54. Estimated Number of Negroes in Selected Occupations in New York City, 1867
        • 55. Characterization of Selected Occupations for Negroes in New York City, 1867
        • 56. Coachmen's Union League Society, Inc.
  • Part IX: Exclusion of Blacks from White Unions During Early Reconstruction
    • Part IX: Exclusion of Blacks from White Unions During Early Reconstruction
      • Race Discrimination in the Cooper's Union, 1868
        • 1. "Birds of the Feather Flock Together"--A White Cooper's View of Race
        • 2. Caste vs. Race
      • Lewis H. Douglass and the Typographical Union
        • 3. Mr. Douglass and the Printers
        • 4. The Typographical Union -- Prejudice Against Color
        • 5. Frederick Douglass on the Rejection of His Son, Lewis
        • 6. The Typographical Union's Justification
        • 7. The Typographical Union Denounced
        • 8. "Colored Printers"
        • 9. Lavalette's Defense
        • 10. Editorial Response to Lavalette's Defense
      • Exclusion of Blacks from Other Unions
        • 11. The Bricklayers and the "Colored Question"
        • 12. Excluding Negroes from Workingmen's Associations
  • Part X: The Demand for Equality
    • Part X: The Demand for Equality
      • White Labor and Black Labor: The Black Viewpoint
        • 1. Frederick Douglass on the Problems of Black Labor
        • 2. The Chinese in California
        • 3. The American Trades-Unions
      • A White Labor Voice for Black Equality
        • 4. "Justice"
        • 5. Negro Labor in Competition with White Labor
        • 6. The Boston Hod-Carriers' Strike, 1865
        • 7. "Manhood Suffrage the Only Safety for Freedom"
        • 8. "Our True Position"
        • 9. "The Brotherhood of Labor is Universal"
        • 10. Equal Rights for All
        • 11. A Just Criticism
        • 12. Movement to Bring Black Labor North
        • 13. Eight-Hour Men in New Orleans Encounter a Stubborn Fact
        • 14. "The Boston Voice Again"
        • 15. Labor Strike at Washington
        • 16. Can White Workingmen Ignore Colored Ones?
        • 17. The Strike Against Colored Men in Congress Street
        • 18. Work for Labor Reformers
        • 19. Colorphobia
        • 20. A Workingmen's Reminder
  • Part XI: Black Response to Colorphobia
    • Part XI: The Black Response to Colorphobia
      • The National Labor Union and Black Labor, 1866–1869
        • 1. The "Colored Question" at the National Labor Union Convention, 1867
        • 2. The Labor Congress
        • 3. "Shall We Make Them Our Friends, or Shall Capital Be Allowed to Turn Them as an Engine Against Us?"
        • 4. Address to the Workingmen of the National Labor Union
        • 5. The Present Congress
        • 6. Elizabeth Cady Stanton Chides Black Unionists
      • 1869 Convention of the National Labor Union
        • 7. First Delegation of Black Unionists Admitted to a White Labor Convention
        • 8. Philadelphia Labor Convention -- Address of the Colored Delegates
        • 9. "They Gained the Respect of All"
        • 10. Resolution Passed at the Women's Rights Convention in Cleveland, November 26, 1869
      • THE FIRST BLACK LABOR LEADER: ISAAC MYERS, THE BALTIMORE CAULKERS, AND THE COLORED TRADES UNIONS OF MARYLAND
        • 11. A Biographical Sketch of Isaac Myers Career
        • 12. The Colored Men's Ship Yard
        • 13. Condition of the Colored People
        • 14. The Convention of the Colored Men of the Republic
        • 15. Colored Trades' Union in Baltimore
        • 16. Convention of Colored Mechanics
  • Notes and Index
  • Notes
  • Index

Metadata

  • isbn
    9781439917664
  • publisher
    Temple University Press
  • publisher place
    Philadelphia, PA
  • restrictions
    CC-BY-NC-ND
  • rights
    Copyright © 1978 by Temple University—Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education

    First published 1978. Reissued 2019.

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