Knights of Labor (K of L), officially Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, was an American

labor federation Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

active in the late 19th century, especially the 1880s. It operated in the United States as well in Canada, and had chapters also in Great Britain and Australia. Its most important leader was Terence V. Powderly. The Knights promoted the social and cultural uplift of the worker, and demanded the eight-hour day. In some cases it acted as a labor union, negotiating with employers, but it was never well organized or funded. It was notable in its ambition to organize across lines of gender and race and in the inclusion of both skilled and unskilled labor. After a rapid expansion in the mid-1880s, it suddenly lost its new members and became a small operation again. The Knights of Labor had served, however, as the first mass organization of the white working class of the United States. It was founded by Uriah Stephens on December 28, 1869, reached 28,000 members in 1880, then jumped to 100,000 in 1884. By 1886, 20% of all workers were affiliated, nearly 800,000 members. Its frail organizational structure could not cope as it was battered by charges of failure and violence and calumnies of the association with the

Haymarket Square Haymarket Square may refer to: * Haymarket Square (Boston), in Boston * Haymarket Square (Chicago), in Chicago * Haymarket affair The Haymarket affair, also known as the Haymarket massacre, the Haymarket riot, the Haymarket Square riot, or ...

riot. Most members abandoned the movement in 1886–1887, leaving at most 100,000 in 1890. Many opted to join groups that helped to identify their specific needs, instead of the KOL which addressed many different types of issues. The

Panic of 1893 The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States that began in 1893 and ended in 1897. It deeply affected every sector of the economy, and produced political upheaval that led to the political realignment of 1896 and the pres ...

terminated the Knights of Labor's importance. Remnants of the Knights of Labor continued in existence until 1949, when the group's last 50-member local dropped its affiliation.

Origins

In 1869,

Uriah Smith Stephens Uriah Smith Stephens (August 3, 1821 – February 13, 1882) was an American labor leader. He was most notable for his leadership of nine Philadelphia garment workers in founding the Knights of Labor in 1869, a successful early American labor unio ...

, James L. Wright, and a small group of Philadelphia tailors founded a secret organization known as the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor. The collapse of the

National Labor Union The National Labor Union (NLU) is the first national labor federation in the United States. Founded in 1866 and dissolved in 1873, it paved the way for other organizations, such as the Knights of Labor and the AFL (American Federation of Labor) ...

in 1873 left a vacuum for workers looking for organization. The Knights became better organized with a national vision when, in 1879, they replaced Stephens with Terence V. Powderly, who was just 30 years old at the time. The body became popular with Pennsylvania coal miners during the economic depression of the mid-1870s, then it grew rapidly. The KOL was a diverse industrial union open to all workers. The leaders felt that it was best to have a versatile population in order to get points of view from all aspects. The Knights of Labor barred five groups from membership: bankers, land speculators, lawyers, liquor dealers and gamblers. Its members included low skilled workers, railroad workers, immigrants, and steel workers. As membership expanded, the Knights began to function more as a labor union and less of a secret organization. During the 1880s, the Knights of Labor played a huge role in independent and third-party movements. Local assemblies began not only to emphasize cooperative enterprises, but to initiate strikes to win concessions from employers. The Knights of Labor brought together workers of different religions, races and genders and helped them all create a bond and unify all for the same cause. The new leader Powderly opposed strikes as a "relic of barbarism", but the size and the diversity of the Knights afforded local assemblies a great deal of autonomy. In 1882, the Knights ended their membership rituals and removed the words "Noble Order" from their name. This was intended to mollify the concerns of

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

members and the bishops who wanted to avoid any resemblance to

freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

. Though initially averse to strikes to advance their goals, the Knights did aid various strikes and

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict so ...

s. The

Wabash Railroad The Wabash Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. It served a large area, including track in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Missouri and the province of Ontario. Its primary co ...

strike in 1885 saw Powderly finally adapt and support an eventually successful strike against

Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made him ...

's Wabash Line. Gould met with Powderly and agreed to call off his campaign against the Knights of Labor, which had caused the turmoil originally. This gave momentum to the Knights and membership surged. By 1886, the Knights had more than 700,000 members. The Knights' primary demand was for the eight-hour workday. They also called for legislation to end

child A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person young ...

and convict labor as well as a

graduated income tax A progressive tax is a tax in which the tax rate increases as the taxable amount increases.Sommerfeld, Ray M., Silvia A. Madeo, Kenneth E. Anderson, Betty R. Jackson (1992), ''Concepts of Taxation'', Dryden Press: Fort Worth, TX The term ''progre ...

. They also supported

cooperatives A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

. The only woman to hold office in the Knights of Labor,

Leonora Barry Leonora M. Kearney Barry (13 August 1849 – 18 July 1923) was born in County Cork, Ireland, to John and Honor Granger Kearney. As the only woman to hold national office within the Knights of Labor, she brought attention to the conditions of wo ...

, worked as an investigator. She described the horrific conditions in factories employing women and children. These reports made Barry the first person to collect national statistics on the American working woman. Powderly and the Knights tried to avoid divisive political issues, but in the early 1880s, many Knights had become followers of

Henry George Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era. He inspired the eco ...

's ideology known now as

Georgism Georgism, also called in modern times Geoism, and known historically as the single tax movement, is an economic ideology holding that, although people should own the value they produce themselves, the economic rent derived from land—includi ...

. In 1883, Powderly officially recommended George's book and announced his support of "single tax" on land values. During the New York mayoral election of 1886, Powderly was able to successfully push the organization towards the favor of Henry George. In 1886, the Knights became of the part of the short lived United Labor Party, an alliance of labor organizations formed in support of George's campaign in the

1886 New York City mayoral election An election for Mayor of New York City was held on November 2, 1886. Candidates included four-term former state assemblyman Theodore Roosevelt, author Henry George, and twelfth-term U.S. congressman Abram Hewitt. Roosevelt, at age 28, would h ...

. The Knights of Labor helped to bring together many different types of people from all different walks of life; for example Catholic and Protestant Irish-born workers. The KOL appealed to them because they worked very closely with the Irish Land League. The Knights had a mixed record on inclusiveness and exclusiveness. They accepted women and blacks (after 1878) and their employers as members, and advocating the admission of blacks into local assemblies. However, the organization tolerated the

segregation Segregation may refer to: Separation of people * Geographical segregation, rates of two or more populations which are not homogenous throughout a defined space * School segregation * Housing segregation * Racial segregation, separation of humans ...

of assemblies in the South. Bankers, doctors, lawyers, stockholders, and liquor manufacturers were excluded because they were considered unproductive members of society. Asians were also excluded, and in November 1885, a branch of the Knights in

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Pa ...

violently expelled the city's Chinese workers, who amounted to nearly a tenth of the overall city population at the time. The Union Pacific Railroad came into conflict with the Knights. When the Knights in Wyoming refused to work more hours in 1885, the railroad hired Chinese workers as strikebreakers and to stir up racial animosity. The result was the

Rock Springs massacre The Rock Springs massacre, also known as the Rock Springs riot, occurred on September 2, 1885, in the present-day United States city of Rock Springs in Sweetwater County, Wyoming. The riot, and resulting massacre of immigrant Chinese miner ...

, that killed scores of Chinese workers, and drove the rest out of Wyoming. About 50 African-American sugar-cane laborers organized by the Knights went on strike and were murdered by strikebreakers in the 1887

Thibodaux massacre The Thibodaux massacre was an episode of racial violence that occurred in Thibodaux, Louisiana on November 23, 1887. It followed a three-week strike during the critical harvest season in which an estimated 10,000 workers protested against the l ...

in Louisiana. The Knights strongly supported passage of the

Chinese Exclusion Act The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplo ...

of 1882 and the

Contract Labor Law The 1885 Alien Contract Labor Law (Sess. II Chap. 164; 23 Stat. 332), also known as the Foran Act, was an act to prohibit the importation and migration of foreigners and aliens under contract or agreement to perform labor in the United States, its ...

of 1885, as did many other labor groups, demonstrating the limits of their commitment to solidarity. While they claimed to not be "against immigration", their anti-Asian racism demonstrated the limits and inconsistency of their anti-racist platform.

Decline

Southwest railroad strike of 1886

The Great Southwest railroad strike of 1886 was a Knights strike involving more than 200,000 workers. Beginning on March 1, 1886, railroad workers in five states struck against the Union Pacific and Missouri Pacific railroads, owned by Jay Gould. At least ten people were killed. The unravelling of the strike within two months led directly to the collapse of the Knights of Labor and the formation of the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutua ...

Catholic Church

The Knights of Labor attracted many Catholics, who were a large part of the membership, perhaps a majority. Powderly was also a Catholic. However, the Knights's use of secrecy, similar to the Masons, during its early years concerned many bishops of the

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

. The Knights used secrecy and deception to help prevent employers from firing members. After the

Archbishop of Quebec The archbishop of Quebec is the head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Quebec, who is responsible for looking after its spiritual and administrative needs. As the archdiocese is the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province encompassin ...

condemned the Knights in 1884, twelve American archbishops voted 10 to 2 against doing likewise in the United States. Furthermore, Cardinal

James Gibbons James Cardinal Gibbons (July 23, 1834 – March 24, 1921) was a senior-ranking American prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Apostolic Vicar of North Carolina from 1868 to 1872, Bishop of Richmond from 1872 to 1877, and as ninth ...

and Bishop

John Ireland John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in ''All the King's Men'' (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Oscar nomin ...

defended the Knights. Gibbons went to the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

to talk to the hierarchy. In 1886, right after the peak of the Knights of Labor, they started to lose more members to the

. It has been believed that the fall of the Knights of Labor was due to their lack of adaptability and beliefs in the old-style industrial capitalism.

Legacy

Though often overlooked, the Knights of Labor contributed to the tradition of labor

protest song A protest song is a song that is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of ''topical'' songs (or songs connected to current events). It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre. Among social mov ...

s in America. The Knights frequently included music in their regular meetings, and encouraged local members to write and perform their work. In Chicago, James and Emily Talmadge, printers and supporters of the Knights of Labor, published the songbook "Labor Songs Dedicated to the Knights of Labor" (1885). The song "Hold the Fort" lso "Storm the Fort" a Knights of Labor pro-labor revision of the hymn by the same name, became the most popular labor song prior to

Ralph Chaplin Ralph Hosea Chaplin (1887–1961) was an American writer, artist and labor activist. At the age of seven, he saw a worker shot dead during the Pullman Strike in Chicago, Illinois. He had moved with his family from Ames, Kansas to Chicago i ...

's IWW (

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...

) anthem "

Solidarity Forever "Solidarity Forever", written by Ralph Chaplin in 1915, is a popular trade union anthem. It is sung to the tune of " John Brown's Body" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". Although it was written as a song for the Industrial Workers of the W ...

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notabl ...

often performed this song and it appears on a number of his recordings. Songwriter and labor singer

Bucky Halker Clark "Bucky" Halker (born 1954) is an American academic, music historian, labor activist, singer and songwriter who specializes in American folk music. Halker is best known for his work on labor protest songs, Illinois folk music, and his involve ...

includes the Talmadge version, entitled "Our Battle Song," on his CD ''Don't Want Your Millions'' (Revolting Records 2000). Halker also draws heavily on the Knights songs and poems in his book on labor song and poetry, ''For Democracy, Workers and God: Labor Song-Poems and Labor Protest, 1865-1895'' (University of Illinois Press, 1991).

Racism and wages

The Knights of Labor supported the

, claiming that industrialists were using Chinese workers as a wedge to keep wages low. Anti-Chinese rhetoric and violence were more prevalent among the western chapters of the Knights. In 1880, San Francisco Knights wrote, "They bear the semblance of men, but live like beasts...who eat rice and the offal of the slaughter house. The article also calls Chinese "natural thieves" and states that all Chinese women are prostitutes. In March 1882, Knights joined the San Francisco rally to demand expulsion of the Chinese. Several years later, mobs led by the Knights of Labor, a loosely structured labor federation, rounded up Seattle's Chinese-born workers and campaigned prevent further immigration. Catharine Collomp notes that "Chinese exclusion was the only issue about which the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor constantly lobbied the Federal government."

Grand Master Workmen

(1869–1879) * Terence V. Powderly (1879–1893) * James Sovereign (1893–1901) * John Hayes (1901–1917)

References

* * Blum, Edward J. " 'By the Sweat of Your Brow': The Knights of Labor, the Book of Genesis, and the Christian Spirit of the Gilded Age." ''Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas'' 11.2 (2014): 29–34. * Browne, Henry J. ''The Catholic Church and the Knights of Labor.'' Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1949. * Case, Theresa A. ''The Great Southwest Railroad Strike and Free Labor'' (Texas A&M University Press, 2010)
online review
on 1886 * * Commons, John R. et al., ''History of Labour in the United States: Volume 2, 1860-1896.'' (4 vol 1918). vol 2 * Conell, Carol, and Kim Voss. "Formal Organization and the Fate of Social Movements: Craft Association and Class Alliance in the Knights of Labor," ''American Sociological Review'' Vol. 55, No. 2 (Apr., 1990), pp. 255–26
in JSTOR
focus on steel industry * de Leon, Cedric. "Black from white: How the rights of white and black workers became 'labor' and 'civil' rights after the US civil war." ''Labor Studies Journal'' 42.1 (2017): 10–26
online
* Fink, Leon. "The New Labor History and the Powers of Historical Pessimism: Consensus, Hegemony, and the Case of the Knights of Labor," ''Journal of American History'' Vol. 75, No. 1 (Jun., 1988), pp. 115–13
in JSTOR
historiography * Fink, Leon. ''Workingmen's Democracy: The Knights of Labor and American Politics.'' Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983
online
* Grob, Gerald N. "The Knights of Labor and the Trade Unions, 1878-1886," ''Journal of Economic History'' Vol. 18, No. 2 (Jun., 1958), pp. 176–19
in JSTOR
* Hild, Matthew. ''Greenbackers, Knights of Labor, and Populists: Farmer-Labor Insurgency in the Late-Nineteenth-Century South'' (U of Georgia Press, 2010). * Hild, Matthew. "Building the Alabama Labor Movement: Nicholas Byrne Stack and the Knights of Labor." ''Alabama Review'' 73.2 (2020): 91–117. * Hild, Matthew. "The Knights of Labor and the Third-Party Movement in Texas, 1886–1896." ''Southwestern Historical Quarterly'' 119.1 (2015): 24–43
online
* Hoffman, Richard C. "Producer co-operatives of the Knights of Labor: seeking worker independence." ''Labor History'' (2022): 1–19. * * Kaufman, Jason. "Rise and Fall of a Nation of Joiners: The Knights of Labor Revisited," ''Journal of Interdisciplinary History'' Vol. 31, No. 4 (Spring, 2001), pp. 553–57
in JSTOR
statistical study of competition with other unions and with fraternal societies for members * * Keohane, Jennifer. " 'Labor is Noble and Holy': Ironic Inclusion and Exclusion in the Knights of Labor, 1885-1890." ''Rhetoric Review'' 38.3 (2019): 311–324
online
* Levine, Susan. "Labor's True Woman: Domesticity and Equal Rights in the Knights of Labor," ''Journal of American History'' Vol. 70, No. 2 (Sep., 1983), pp. 323–33
in JSTOR
* Levine, Susan. ''True Women: Carpet Weavers, Industrialization, and Labor Reform in the Gilded Age.'' Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984. * * * McLaurin, Melton Alonza. ''The Knights of Labor in the South.'' Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1978. * Phelan, Craig. ''Grand Master Workman: Terence Powderly and the Knights of Labor'' (Greenwood, 2000), scholarly biograph
online edition
* Taussig, Frank W. "The South-Western Strike of 1886." The ''Quarterly Journal of Economics'' 1.2 (1887): 184–222; detailed coverage by a leading scholar
online
* Voss, Kim. ''The Making of American Exceptionalism: The Knights of Labor and Class Formation in the Nineteenth Century.'' Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994. Sociological study
online
* Ware, Norman J. ''The Labor Movement in the United States, 1860 - 1895: A Study In Democracy.'' (1929). * Weir, Robert E. ''Beyond Labor's Veil: The Culture of the Knights of Labor.'' (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996
online edition
* Weir, Robert E. (1997)
A fragile alliance: Henry George and the Knights of Labor
''

The American Journal of Economics and Sociology ''The American Journal of Economics and Sociology'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1941 by Will Lissner with support from the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation. The purpose of the journal was to create a forum for continuing discu ...

, 56,'' 421–439. * Weir, Robert E. ''Knights Unhorsed: Internal Conflict in Gilded Age Social Movement'' (Wayne State University Press, 2000) * * Wright, Carroll D. "An Historical Sketch of the Knights of Labor," ''Quarterly Journal of Economics,'' vol. 1, no. 2 (January 1887), pp. 137–168
in JSTOR

Outside U.S.

* Arvidsson, Stefan ''The style and mythology of socialism: socialist idealism, 1871-1914.'' Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2017. * Kealey, Gregory, and Brian Palmer, ''Dreaming of What Might Be: The Knights of Labor in Ontario, 1880-1900.'' New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982. * Parfitt, Steven. ''Knights Across the Atlantic: The Knights of Labor in Britain and Ireland'' (2017
contents
also see
online review
* Parfitt, Steven. "A nexus between labour movement and labour movement: the Knights of Labor and the financial side of global labour history." ''Labor History'' 58.3 (2017): 288–302. * Parfitt, Steven. "Transnational Borrowings: Scottish Sons of Labour and American Knights of Labor, 1887–1890." ''Labour History Review'' 85.2 (2020): 127–157. * Parfitt, Steven. "The First-and-a-half International: The Knights of Labor and the History of International Labour Organization in the Nineteenth Century." ''Labour History Review'' 80.2 (2015): 135–167. * Parfitt, Steven. "Completing the Order’s History Down Under: The Knights of Labor in Australia." ''Labour History: A Journal of Labour and Social History'' 110 (2016): 1–18. * Parfitt, Steven. "Constructing the Global History of the Knights of Labor." ''Labor'' 14.1 (2017): 13–37. * , shows that American workers in the window glass industry set up an English chapter in 1884 to watch the business in Europe; it remained small * Toth, Gyorgy. "Knights across the Atlantic: The Knights of Labor in Britain and Ireland." (2019): 151–156. * Watillon, Leon. and Frederic Meyers, ''The Knights of Labor in Belgium.'' Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1978. Also in partial translation by Frederic Meyers, Institute of Industrial Relations, Los Angeles, 1959: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/28722/bk0003t812j/?brand=oac4

Primary sources

By Knights

* * * * * ** *
William Baillie Baird papers
at the

University of Maryland libraries The University of Maryland Libraries is the largest university library in the Washington, D.C. - Baltimore area. The university's library system includes eight libraries: six are located on the College Park campus, while the Severn Library, an o ...

. Baird was a commissioned organizer of the Knights of Labor.

By others

* A.C. Dunham
"The Knights of Labor,"
''New Englander and Yale Review,'' vol. 45, no. 195 (June 1886), pp. 490–498. * John Stephens Durham
"The Labor Unions and the Negro,"
''Atlantic Monthly,'' vol. 81, no. 484 (February 1898), pp. 222–231. * Henry George
"The New Party,"
''North American Review,'' vol. 145, no. 368 (July 1887), pp. 1–8. * Rufus Hatch
"The Labor Crisis,"
''North American Review,'' vol. 142, no. 355 (June 1886), pp. 602–607. * Richard J. Hinton
"American Labor Organizations,"
''North American Review,'' vol. 140, no. 338 (January 1885), pp. 48–63. * M.E.J. Kelley
"Women and the Labor Movement
''North American Review,'' vol. 166, no. 497 (April 1898), pp. 408–418. * George Frederic Parsons
"The Labor Question,"
''Atlantic Monthly,'' vol. 58, no. 345 (July 1886), pp. 97–113. * Carroll D. Wright, "An Historical Sketch of the Knights of Labor," ''Quarterly Journal of Economics,'' vol. 1, no. 2 (January 1887), pp. 137–168.

External links

Record of proceedings of the General Assembly of the Knights of Labor 1878

Catholic University of America. Retrieved October 8, 2006. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Knights Of Labor Knights of Labor American cooperative organizers Defunct trade unions in the United States Defunct American political movements Service organizations based in the United States Trade unions in Canada Trade unions in New Zealand National trade union centers of the United States Trade unions established in 1869 1869 establishments in the United States Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States Anti-immigration politics in the United States