The Other Civil War

Anti-Renter movement
1. In the Hudson Valley
  1. Protest against the patroonship system
    1. "Few families intricately intermarried, controlled the destinies of three hundred thousand people and ruled in almost kingly splendor near two million acres''
      1. Landlord had right to timber on all the farms
      2. This angered tenants
    2. Tenants paid taxes and rent
    3. Largest manor owned by the Rensselaer family
2. 1839 crisis
  1. Unemployed seeking land
    1. Thousand of farmers organized into Anti-rent associations
      1. Against landlords from evicting
      2. Good cause
3. 1845 anti-renters elected 14 members to the state legislature
  1. Legislature had decided to make illegal the selling of tenant property for nonpayment of rent
    1. Constitutional convention that year outlawed new feudal leases
4. 1846 new governer elected
  1. Anti-rent supporter
    1. Promises to pardon the Anti-rent prisoners
      1. 1850s Court decisions began to limit the worst features of the manoral system
Common theme in American history
1. Rich win over the poor
  1. Farmers fight, crushed by law
    1. System stabilized by enlarging the class of small landowners
      1. It shocks me how this cycle keeps going on
  2. Mechanics are working men too
    1. This handbill was circulated
  3. In modern times, this problem is disguised
2. Textbooks do not include such information
  1. Little on class struggles
    1. Continues to show "heroes" and ignore the people struggle's
      1. By the year 2013 I would have hoped education would have changed and we expose our students and future leaders to the truth of US history
The Dorr Rebellion
1. Rhode Island
  1. Movement for electoral reform and radical insurgency
    1. Prompted by Rhode Island's charter's rule that only owners of land could vote
2. Rhode Island Suffrage Association formed
  1. Working people were apart of this
    1. Want electoral reform
      1. Organizes People's Convention and drafted a new constitution without property qualifications for voting
      2. Voted on it in 1842
      3. Dorr was arrested
      4. This is a great example of fighting for change
      5. This offered some good solutions, but overrepresented rural areas
Luther v Borden, 1849
1. Decision reinforces the essentially conservative nature of the Supreme court
  1. On decisions of war and revolution it would defer to the President and Congress
Andrew Jackson and the "Jacksonian democracy"
1. First President to master the liberal rhetoric for the average man
  1. Brought political victory
    1. Speak for lower and middle classes to get support
      1. Turns into the two party system
      2. We still see this rhetoric today
  2. Achieve stability and control by winning the Democratic party
Living conditions in major cities
1. Philadelphia
  1. Working class families lived 55 to a tenament, 1 room per family
    1. No garbage removal, no toilets, fresh air or waiter
      1. Unsanitary and unimaginable conditions
2. New York
  1. Poor lying in the streets with garbage
    1. No sewers in the slums
      1. Filthy water
      2. Poses high risk for contagious diseases
3. Boston
  1. Ralph Waldo Emerson
    1. Describes Boston as a certain poor-smell in the streets
      1. Money is the strongest power of the nation
  2. Trades Union
Growing class of white-collar workers and professionals
1. Paid enough to consider themselves members of the bourgeois class
  1. Turnpikes, canals, railroads bringing more people west, products east
    1. Technology developing
      1. More capital needed, more risks taken, big investments
      2. Turning modern
2. Working class
  1. Jacksonian democracy tried to create a consenus of support
    1. Obviously, black, indians, women, and foreigners were outside
      1. Important to note some white workers declared themselves outside
  2. George Henry Evans
    1. Believes that all adults are entitled to equal property
Business
1. Way to achieve stability to decrease competition, organize businesses, move toward monopoly
  1. Price agreements and mergers became common
    1. To minimize risk government needed to play traditional role
Flour Riot of 1837
1. Crisis of hunger and increased food prices
  1. Addresses bad working condition as well as intolerable living conditions
2. Other notable riots
  1. 50 different trades organized unions in Philly
    1. Successful strikes
      1. Ten-hour laws developed
      2. Stated that employers could have employees sign contracts for longer hours
      3. In 1840 Irish immigrants worked at home for employers struck for higher wages
      4. Antagonism developed between Irish Catholic weavers and native-born Protestant skilled workers over issues of religion
      5. Develops into fragmentation of the Philadelphia working class
      6. Immigrants fleeing from Ireland because of starvation because failing of potato crop
  2. 1849 NY mob
    1. A mob, mainly Irish, stormed the fashionable Astor Place Opera House
      1. Shouting burn the aristocracy
  3. 1857 Economic crisis
    1. boom in railroads, manufacturing, immigration, speculation of stocks and bonds, stealing, corruption, manipulation
      1. Left a lot of people unemployed
      2. NJ- rally demanding city to give work to unemployed
      3. Women- United Tailoresses of NY demanding higher wages
      4. New Hampshire women mill workers go on strike
      5. I really like the idea of a nonviolent strike to get their voices heard
      6. "The Lowell system"
      7. Young girls go to work in mills and live in dorms seemed beneficial
      8. But dorms became prison like, dictated by rules and regulations
      9. Girls organized and started newspapers
      10. Protested against weaving rooms= poorly lit
      11. March through streets of Lowell
      12. 500 men and women petitioned the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company not to cut down an elm tree
      13. Didn't want another mill
      14. 1835 20 mills went on strike to reduce the workday
      15. It is very interesting and beneficial that workers are taking an active role in their lives and not afraid to speak out
      16. Paterson NJ, first series of mill strikes started by children
      17. Marched off the job, cheered by parents
      18. Shoemakers in Lynn, MA
      19. Started largest strike
      20. Brought shoe business to a halt, anger at machines, increase prices
      21. Women shoebinders and stichers join strike and hold mass meeting
      22. manufacturers offered higher wages to bring the strikers back into factories but without recognizing the unions
      23. Most shoemakers were native-born Americans
North problems
1. High prices for food and necesities
  1. Prices of milk, eggs, cheese rose a very high amount
    1. This must really hurt the average family and poor because these are critical
Results of war
1. Brings many women into shops and factories
  1. Pay them less wages
    1. As a result, Working Women's Protective Union was formed
      1. Strike of women umbrella workers in NY/Brooklyn
    2. Causes stikes, naturally
      1. Union troops used to break strikes
      2. Federal soldiers were sent to Cold Springs, NY
      3. End a strike at a gun works place
      4. Came into city and stopped rioting after returning from Battle of Gettysburg
2. Antidraft riots
  1. Took place in Northern cities
  2. In the south, confederacy law provided that the rich could avoid service
3. Passing of Morrill Tariff
  1. Made foreign goods more expensive, allows American manufacturers to raise prices, and forces Americans to pay more
    1. While in theory, this favors American products, it is not the proper way to take care of this problem
      1. It will only anger peoples
4. Movement for 8 hour work day, clean conditions
  1. National Labor Union founded
    1. 3 month strike of workers makes this possible
      1. I could not imagine working longer days up to 14 hours
    2. Political issues, currency reform, demand for issuance of paper money
  2. Women organized unions- cigarmakers, tailoresses, umbrella sewers, capmakers, printers
    1. Daughters of St. Crispin
      1. Successfully creates unions
      2. Great to see action being made
  3. Dangerous working conditions
    1. Dangers of mill work intensified
5. Most unions kept Negroes out
6. 1873 another economic crisis
  1. Closing of the banker house of Jay Cooke
    1. Crisis built into a system which was chaotic, only very rich were secure
      1. Labor depression continues to 1870s and through it
      2. Some women slept in police stations known as revolvers
      3. People evicted from homes
      4. Mass meetings and demonstrations of unemployed took place
7. In Chicgo 20,000 unemployed marched through City Hall asking for basic necesities
  1. It is imperative that these people have their voice heard
8. Immigrants brought in the break strikes
  1. These people were desperate for work even despite language gaps
9. 1877 brought tumultuous strikes
  1. Railroad workers strike because of wage cuts long work days, deaths of workers, etc
    1. This poses a serious threat to the wellbeing of workers and needs to be taken care of
  2. Even news of these strikes were making news in Europe
  3. Blacks learned did not have enough strength to make real promise of equality
    1. Working people learned not united or powerful enough to defeat private capital
      1. When will this vicious cycle end? Never.
10. St Louis
  1. Workingmen's party called an open-air mass meeting to which 5000 people came
    1. Leadership of the strike
      1. Nationalization of the railroads, mines, and all industry
  2. At the end over 100 dead, many to jail
    1. Death is never good even in fighting passionately for a cause
First modern warfare
1. Deadly artillery shells, Gatling guns, bayonet charges
  1. Combining indiscriminate killing of mechanized war
    1. Very bloody killings
      1. It's very disheartening to hear these battles and killings actually took place
2. 600,000 volunteered for Confederacy
  1. Many in the Union were volunteers
    1. This relates to the whole idea of patriotism and moral dedication