Knights of Labor
The Oxford Companion to United States History
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2001
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© The Oxford Companion to United States History 2001, originally published by Oxford University Press 2001. (Hide copyright information)
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Knights of Labor. Founded in 1869 as a secret society of
Philadelphia garment cutters, the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor by the early 1880s emerged at the center of a powerful movement among working people determined to challenge the terms of American industrialism. Under the leadership first of the Philadelphia tailor Uriah S. Stephens (1821–1882) and then the former machinist Terence
Powderly, the Knights and their missionary message—“An Injury to One Is an Injury to All”—gained national prominence with a successful strike against Jay Gould's Wabash railway system in 1885. For the next year, the order experienced explosive growth, recruiting 700,000‐plus members distributed in every state and territory. Knights of Labor cooperatives planned large‐scale manufacturing and even
mining operations. Boycotts, strikes, or the threat of a strike by the Knights won negotiated settlements from hundreds of employers. Knights‐based political tickets, operating both inside and outside the two‐party system, competed in municipal elections nation‐wide. Perhaps most significant was the Knights’ encompassing appeal to “producers” across the divisions of crafts, race, and gender.
The Knights’ decline, however, was equally precipitous. Following unsuccessful strikes against the railroad and meatpacking industries, and suffering from the repression that followed Chicago's
Haymarket affair of 4 May 1886, the order collapsed into feuding disarray. The trade‐union base of the labor movement moved into the new
American Federation of Labor. By the time the Knights linked up with the
Populist party in 1895, their ranks had dwindled to fewer than fifty thousand members, and the order had lost all real influence.
See also
Gilded Age;
Industrialization;
Labor Movements;
Meatpacking and Meat Processing Industry;
Populist Era;
Railroads;
Strikes and Industrial Conflict;
Working‐Class Life and Culture.
Bibliography
Gerald N. Grob , Workers and Utopia: A Study of Ideological Conflict in the American Labor Movement, 1865–1900, 1961.
Leon Fink , Workingmen's Democracy: The Knights of Labor and American Politics, 1985.
Leon Fink
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 "The Record (Bergen County, NJ)")
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Knights labor through long summer days
Newspaper article from: The Record (Bergen County, NJ); 8/14/2002; ; 663 words
; 00-00-0000 Knights labor through long summer days By ADITI KINKHABWALA, STAFF WRITER Date...up the intensity level a bit, he said of the pads. The Scarlet Knights will practice today across from the RAC at 8:30 a.m. and then...
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The Making of American Exceptionalism: The Knights of Labor and Class Formation in the Nineteenth Century.
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; ...States, however, the Knights of Labor collapsed, and was...American Federation of Labor. The failure of the Knights, Voss suggests...perspective, the American labor movement began to look...the history of the Knights in New Jersey to prove...
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A fragile alliance: Henry George and the Knights of Labor.(Special Issue: Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Death of Henry George)
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Greenbackers, Knights of Labor, and Populists: Farmer-Labor Insurgency in the Late-Nineteenth-Century South.(Book review)
Magazine article from: Journal of Southern History; 5/1/2008; ; 700+ words
; Greenbackers, Knights of Labor, and Populists: Farmer...1892) owed to the Knights' Reading Platform (1878), the Greenback-Labor Party's Toledo Platform...Grange, Greenback-Labor Party, and Knights of Labor most successfully...
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Lords of capital and knights of labor: Worcester's labor hisotry during the Gilded age
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The replacement of the Knights of Labor by the International Longshoremen's Association in the port of Boston
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; The growth of the Knights of Labor as a national labor organization...this strike led them to abandon the Knights of Labor and move en masse to the International...lack of support from their brother Knights in District Assembly 30 helps explain...
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From the knights of labor to the New World Order: essays on labor and culture.
Magazine article from: Labour/Le Travail; 9/22/1998; 700+ words
; ...reformist hopes of Rhode Island Knights of Labor in the 1880s to the radical aspirations...thirteen essays included in From the Knights of Labor to the New World Order...understanding of the failure of the Knights of Labor to sustain their movement...
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Joseph Gerteis, Class and the Color Line: Interracial Class Coalition in the Knights of Labor and the Populist Movement.(Book review)
Magazine article from: Labour/Le Travail; 3/22/2009; ; 700+ words
; ...Interracial Class Coalition in the Knights of Labor and the Populist Movement (Durham...American history. His subject is the Knights of Labor and the Populists, which...colour line. In reassessing the Knights' and Populists' activity in the...
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From wage slaves to wage workers: cultural opportunity structures and the evolution of the wage demands of the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor, 1880-1900.
Magazine article from: Social Forces; 3/1/2007; ; 700+ words
; ...boycotts and the growth of labor organizations. (1) In describing...slavery informed post-bellum labor organization by identifying...slaves! (Journal of United Labor, May 1881). By 1890, however...together. (Journal of the Knights of Labor, July 1887). This...
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Knights of Labor
Dictionary entry from: Dictionary of American History
KNIGHTS OF LABOR KNIGHTS OF LABOR. The Noble Order of the Knights of Labor reached a peak...turnover in leadership represented a deeper ideological shift. The Knights of Labor proclaimed the underlying unity of the condition of all who work...
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Labor
Book article from: American Eras
...x2019; s critique of wage labor. Still, the Knights ’ biggest obstacle...many of the goals of the Knights became central principles of other labor organizations that took...laborers. And unlike the Knights of Labor or the twentieth-century...
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Labor Unionism (Issue)
Encyclopedia entry from: Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History
...Noble Order of the Knights of Labor. Their platform called for...companies in Texas. The Knights of Labor had no sooner reached their...financial problems. In addition the Knights faced competition from a new...as the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The origins of the...
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Organized Labor
Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy
...immigrants. The short-lived National Labor Union, under the leadership of...International and the more predominant Knights of Labor, which was created in 1869 and...the mid-1880s. Indeed, some Knights of Labor activists and leaders adopted...
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Labor Movements
Book article from: The Oxford Companion to United States History
...the dynamic center of labor organizing. The Knights...biracial unionism. The labor movement reached its...000 workers in the Knights and another 250,000...American Federation of Labor (AFL) , led by the...which included former Knights, Populists, and socialists...
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