Lenora M. Barry Describes Women's Working Conditions in New Jersey (1887)
Labor Activism
Work
Lenora M. Barry was the national women’s organizer for the Knights of Labor in the late nineteenth century. The Knights of Labor aimed to improve the lives and health of laborers by encouraging them to organize unions and other groups to fight for better pay and working conditions. In 1886 and 1887, Barry inspected working conditions for women throughout New Jersey, where there were 4,400 women members of the Knights of Labor at the time. This excerpt of Barry's report describes what she found from visiting factories and talking with workers. In addition to noting ways that employers exploited women and children in their factories, Barry described how many Irish immigrants were forced to keep working in order to pay off the expenses of their transportation from Belfast to the U.S.
https://njwomenshistory.org/learn/topics/leonora-m-barrys-report/
1887
3172, 3152
Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913)
A Mill Worker Testifies about Unemployment (1883)
Labor Activism
On October 18, 1883, mill worker Thomas O’Donnell testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Education and Labor about the hardships of unemployment and working-class issues. O'Donnell had immigrated from England in the 1870s. At the time of his testimony, he worked as a mule spinner, a position responsible for tending the large yarn-making machines in a textile factory in Fall River, Massachusetts . Based on new production methods, mule spinners were left unemployed for many months of the year. In his testimony, O’Donnell spoke to the struggles of supporting his family with low pay and irregular work.
U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Education and Labor, Report on the Relations Between Labor and Capital, Vol. 3 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1885), 451–457. https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/27
October 18, 1983
Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913)
African American Exodusters En Route to Kansas (1879)
Immigration and Migration
Tens of thousands of African Americans escaped the harsh economic difficulties and racist systems of the Reconstruction South between the late 1870s and early 1880s. Referencing the book of Exodus in the Old Testament, these migrants called themselves “Exodusters.†Many migrated to Kansas, a state that offered land at low costs based on the Homestead Act of 1862. This 1879 illustration depicts four scenes of “Great Exodus†migration experiences as African American families moved west from St. Louis to Kansas.
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/exodusters-african-american-migration-to-the-great-plains/sources/1666
1879
Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913)
A Domestic Servant Sues for her Son (1735)
Gender and Sexuality
Indentured servitude was common in Spanish colonized areas of North America. Indentured servitude was a system of labor in which a person had to work for four to seven years without pay in exchange for passage to the “New World.†Employers were expected to supply servants' housing, food, and clothing but servants had few legal rights and little chance at upward mobility. In San Antonio, a mixed-race indentured servant, Antonia Lusgardia Ernandes gave birth to a child by her Pátron (master) in 1735. When the Pátron seized the child, Ernandes appealed to a Spanish court to order that he return her son to her. After Emandes argued that she depended economically on her son, the court ruled in her favor.
"Placing Women in the Past," Cultural Resource Management: Information for Parks, Federal Agencies, Indian Tribes, States, Local Governments, and the Private Sector, 20, no. 3 (1997), pp. 46. http://npshistory.com/newsletters/crm/crm-v20n3.pdf
1735
3122, 3112
Colonization and Settlement (1621-1750)
An Indentured Servant Writes Home (1756)
Immigration and Migration
In the eighteenth-century Chesapeake region, female indentured servants faced particular vulnerabilities. Indentured servitude was a system of labor in which a person had to work for four to seven years without pay in exchange for passage to the “New World.†Employers were expected to supply servants' housing, food, and clothing but servants had few legal rights. White men vastly outnumbered white women, making female servants vulnerable to sexual abuse; however, many married after their indenture ended. In this 1756 letter, an indentured servant named Elizabeth Sprigs described to her father in England the mistreatment and brutal conditions she experienced.
Elizabeth Sprigs, “Letter to Mr. John Sprigs in White Cross Street near Cripple Gate, London, September 22, 1756,†in Isabel Calder, ed., Colonial Captivities, Marches, and Journeys (New York: Macmillan Company, 1935), 151–52. https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5796
September 22, 1756
3132, 3112
Revolution and New Nation (1751-1815)
An Indentured Servant Asks Parents for Help (1623)
Labor Activism
Indentured servitude was a system of labor in which a person had to work for four to seven years without pay in exchange for passage to the “New World.†Employers in Virginia (often planters) were expected to supply servants' housing, food, and clothing but servants had few legal rights and little chance at upward mobility. By the mid 1600s, indentured servants made up about half of Virginia's population; with the growth of the African slave trade, however, enslaved men and women supplied the labor earlier done by indentured servants. In this 1623 letter, an indentured servant named Richard Frethorne wrote to his parents in England from a plantation in colonial Virginia. He described the dire conditions he faced while working and living in the colony. He was surrounded by death and disease and needed clothing and food.
Richard Frethorne, letter to his father and mother, March 20, April 2 & 3, 1623, in Susan Kingsbury, ed., The Records of the Virginia Company of London (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1935), 4: 58–62. https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6475.
March 20, 1623
3122, 3132
Colonization and Settlement (1621-1750)
Flyer Project
Policy Proposal
Environmental (In)Justice Bibliography
Please use the following bibliography for additional information on these topics. Many of the books contained analysis of the primary sources included in this collection.
Contemporary US (1976 to the present)
Demands for Legislation Against Industrial Pollution of Rivers (1875)
Environment
In this newspaper article, the Richmond Dispatch advocates for legal protections against the dumping of industrial waste in Virginia's waterways. Throughout North America, manufacturers located on river banks used fast moving water as a source of power and a means to dispose of industrial byproducts. With industrialization dating back to the 1790s, some areas in the country had experienced nearly a century of polluted waters by the time the Dispatch article appeared and residents became aware of its impact on the daily life of citizens and their access to clean water and air.
Richmond Dispatch, "The Pollution of Rivers," February 20, 1875. Chronicling America, Library of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/vi_lauren_ver02/data/sn84024738/00271742083/1875022001/0184.pdf
February 20, 1875
Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-1877)