ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos

U.S. History 1877-Present 12: Knights of Labor 2326 Views


Share It!


Description:

The Knights of Labor is a pretty awesome name for a labor organization. Especially with groups like "The Wobblies" popping up around the same time.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Dangerous working conditions long hours and low pay were [Man screaming on a conveyor belt]

00:07

standard for the workers of the 19th century

00:10

America was growing in population and wealth but the workers who toiled in

00:15

factories did not see their piece of the pie increase in some cases their pieces [Man screaming in factory]

00:20

of pie were getting smaller or even by rats well this might have been good for

00:25

sweeping waistline slim but it wasn't so good for being at all satisfied with [Mother takes giant sandwich away from boy]

00:30

life the conflict came from the labor pool being well huge the continual

00:36

stream of new immigrants created a situation where owners had a constant

00:41

source of people who were willing to work for not a lot this made it super

00:46

easy to replace a disgruntled employee technology was also adding to the [Man kicks employee]

00:51

situation by replacing the need for some skilled workers in the end management

00:55

had all the power owners often said stuff like oh you want to work fewer

01:01

hours no problem about zero hours because you're fired [Man discussing working hours with employee]

01:06

yeah didn't Donald Trump say that the federal government mostly stayed out of

01:11

labor disputes until 1930 state and local officials were often left to pass

01:16

regulations like in 1874 when the state of Massachusetts passed a law that [Man standing outside of clock tower]

01:20

limited working hours for women and children to ten hours a day Wow and new

01:25

days kids actually complain about having to do naptime there were two big [Boy complaining in bedroom]

01:29

philosophies dominating Americans thought at this time there were social

01:32

Darwinism which basically said that society should be like the jungle where [Tribesman appears in jungle]

01:37

only the strong survive the government doesn't interfere with Lions eating

01:41

zebras right why should they interfere with workers and then there was live a

01:45

fair capitalism let's say fair translates to roughly you know let it be

01:50

like the Beatles thing and the idea was that the government shouldn't mess with [Beatles group members appear]

01:55

the free market or else fire would fall from the sky many believes that if there

02:00

were a problem all powerful capitalist market would take care of it well this

02:04

cocktail social Darwinism and let a fair capitalism did fuel a manufacturing [Man holding social darwinism laissez-faire cocktail]

02:08

booms but it also made sure that laborers worked in awful conditions

02:13

latest 1900 more people died on the job in the United States and in any other [Woman looking at gravestones]

02:17

industrialized country in the world and workers were risking their lives for

02:21

peanuts even though they work 1012 hours a day they were struggling to survive so

02:27

since the government was busy letting the Lions do their thing while the [Lion sitting on a desk]

02:30

Zebras decided to unite yeah unions are the Zebras in this

02:34

metaphor people were not metaphor masters so what was dry anyway

02:39

the Knights of Labor formed in 1869 and became the first organization to bring

02:43

workers across the nation under their banner the Knights invited laborers [Man dressed as knight holding knights of labor board]

02:47

regardless of skill gender and race into their group it was kind of like when

02:51

Robb Stark calls in the banners in Game of Thrones and well just as ill-fated [Woman watching Game of Thrones]

02:56

the Knights wanted to improve working conditions through political action and

03:00

many thought of them as socialist reformers they had a good run empowering

03:04

workers to win a few strikes and even touted 500,000 members at one point but

03:09

unfortunately for them during a Knights of Labor rally at Haymarket Square in [Mass meeting headline on newspaper]

03:13

Chicago a bomb detonated no one knew who threw the bomb but the death of 9 and

03:18

injury of 60 made everybody think the Knights basically sucked then a new

03:23

labor organization was formed by guy named Samuel Gompers some suspected that

03:28

with a name like mr. Gompers Sam must have been moonlighting as a birthday [Clown appears at birthday party]

03:31

clown but what Sam really did was establish the American Federation of

03:36

Labor by uniting several smaller skilled labor unions they had three major goals

03:40

to increase wages to reduce working hours and to improve working conditions

03:46

well in that day and age these things were easier said than done all over

03:50

workers begin to unite trying to stop the abuse and tragically many strikes [construction workers appear]

03:54

got downright violence in 1892 workers went on strike at Andrew Carnegie steel

03:59

factories things got crazy when the workers would not budge from the [Man pointing to striking workers]

04:03

property and they refused to get back to work well 300 Pinkerton detectives were

04:08

hired to break up the strike and protect the scab labor the company brought in to

04:12

replace the striking workers jobs were fired people died and the Pinkertons

04:17

were sent packing but the workers victory was short-lived in the end the

04:21

National Guard was brought in and after even more violent resistance for the [Soldiers marching]

04:25

workers that Union eventually gave up going back to

04:28

work for slashed wages and twelve hour workdays not even mr. Gompers balloon

04:33

animals could cheer them up [Mr Gompers holding balloon animals]

Up Next

Why Does the Constitution Still Work for Us?
5721 Views

Ever heard of a "living document"? They eat and breathe just like the rest of us! They even walk around on their own two legs. Okay, fine—maybe t...

Related Videos

The Puritans and the Division of Church and State
1280 Views

If the Puritans had gotten their way, religion would play a much larger role in lawmaking these days. Want to know more? Watch the video for all th...

Shays' Rebellion
6346 Views

What happened between the creation of the Articles of Confederation and the ratification of the current U.S. Constitution? This video analyzes the...

There's More Than One Way to Crack a Modernist Egg
539 Views

The Modernists thought the world had a lot of problems, and they were intent on fixing them—or at least talking about fixing them. Unfortunately,...

Federalism
2532 Views

This video explains Federalism and the quest for a fair balance between state and national power. It covers the progression and compromises of Fede...