Knights of Labor
By Patrick Grubbs | Reader-Nominated Topic
Essay
The Knights of Labor, the first national industrial union in the United States, was founded in Philadelphia on December 9, 1869, by Uriah Stephens (1821-82) and eight other Philadelphia garment cutters. Intended to overcome the limitations of craft unions, the organization was designed to include all those who toiled with their hands. By mid-1886 nearly one million laborers called themselves Knights, making the organization the largest and most influential labor union in nineteenth century America.
Originally called the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, the Knights began as a replacement for the failed Garment Cutters Association of Philadelphia. To sustain the organization, Stephens insisted on a high level of secrecy and fraternalism. Not referred to by name until 1879, the organization chalked symbols on sidewalks and buildings to call meetings. For example, the symbol 8 = 415/1 meant Local Assembly (LA) No. 1 would meet on April 15, at 8 o’clock.
Stephens aspired to unite all wage-earners into a single organization regardless of skill, race, or sex. The organization excluded liquor dealers, lawyers, bankers, and professional gamblers. Stephens stressed the importance of solidarity within the ranks of labor in order to meet the power of capital. He did not limit the organization’s goals to increased wages and lower hours, but believed that workers should strive to build co-operatives to gradually replace the prevailing capitalistic system. Because of this outlook the slogan for the organization became “an injury to one is the concern of all.” Despite this lofty goal early membership in the Knights consisted primarily of skilled, male workers. Even LA 1, Stephens’ garment cutters assembly, admitted only garment cutters and no women. Women were not initiated into the Knights until 1882.
Philadelphia Had Most Assemblies
Between December 1869 and April 1875 the Knights made few gains outside of the city. During that time eighty-five local assemblies were established, seventy within the Philadelphia region. After the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 membership expanded and the first national officers were initiated after a convention in Reading, Pa., in 1878. In 1879 Terence V. Powderly (1849-1924), a native of Carbondale, Pa., replaced Stephens as Grand Master Workman after Stephens resigned the position. Powderly, who also served as the socialist mayor of Scranton from 1878-84, led the Knights until 1893.
Powderly eliminated the secrecy of the Knights and membership grew to more than 750,000 by the summer of 1886. From 1879 to 1886 the Philadelphia region maintained a high national percentage of Knight membership and established a meeting house across the street from Independence Hall at 505 Chestnut Street. The Knights in the city also participated in numerous actions on behalf of labor, such as organizing a successful shoemakers strike, striking in sympathy with female carpet makers in 1884, and formulating a local assembly of Italian barbers in 1886.
The Knights declined after 1886, due in part to internal discord in the aftermath of the disastrous violence that erupted during a labor protest in Haymarket Square in Chicago; strong opposition from capital; and competition from the trades unions of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). In 1893 the Knights removed Powderly as its national leader and staggered into the twentieth century after Daniel DeLeon’s failed attempted to make the Knights a Marxist organization. When DeLeon and his followers left the organization in 1895, Knight membership declined and the organization went back into secrecy. Despite its decline, the influence of the Knights continued into the twentieth century. In 1903 labor organizer Mary “Mother” Jones (1837-1930), who was inspired to fight for labor while attending Knights meetings in Chicago in the 1870s, came to Philadelphia to encourage striking textile workers in the Kensington district.
Patrick Grubbs is a Ph.D. student of American labor history at Lehigh University. (Author information current at time of publication.)
Copyright 2013, Rutgers University
Gallery
Uriah Stephens
Uriah Stephens (1821-82) founded the Knights of Labor, the first national industrial union in the United States, in Philadelphia in December 1869 and led the organization until he resigned his post as Grand Master Workman in 1879.
Born in Cape May, New Jersey, Stephens desired to become a Baptist minister, but quit his studies during the Panic of 1837. Stephens moved to Philadelphia in 1845 and became a tailor. Stephens joined the Garment Cutters’ Association of Philadelphia, created in 1862, and by 1869 became a leader of the organization. While attempting to reorganize the failing Garment Cutters’ Association, Stephens and eight other Philadelphia garment cutters dissolved the organization on December 9, 1869, and immediately formed a secret organization which they named the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor on December 28, 1869. Stephens was elected Master Workman in January 1870.
Stephens aspired to unite all wage-earners into a single organization regardless of skill, race, or sex and stressed the importance of solidarity within the ranks of labor in order to meet the power of capital. He did not limit the organization’s goals to increased wages and lower hours, but believed that workers should strive to build co-operatives to gradually replace the prevailing capitalistic system. Because of this outlook the slogan for the organization became "an injury to one is the concern of all." To sustain the organization, Stephens insisted on a high level of secrecy and fraternalism, which remained within the organization until he resigned as Grand Master Workman in 1879. Replaced by Terrance V. Powderly (1849-1924), Stephens grew alienated from the organization that he founded until he died in 1882. Members of the Knights attempted to raise funds to erect a monument in memory of Uriah Stephens following his death, but were unsuccessful. Stephens was originally buried in Philadelphia’s Odd Fellows Cemetery, but his remains were moved to Mount Peace Cemetery in 1951, where they now reside in an unmarked grave.
-Text by Patrick Grubbs
Terence V. Powderly
Terence Powderly (1849-1924) was a prominent American labor leader, who served as both mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania (1878-84) and Grand Master Workman of the Knights of Labor (1879-93) in the late nineteenth-century.
Born to poor Irish immigrants in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, Powderly began working for the Delaware and Hudson Company (D&H) at the age of 13. After four years of working numerous jobs for the company, Powderly began a machinist apprenticeship at age 17. Shortly after completing this apprenticeship Powderly was fired by the D&H, so he left Carbondale and moved to Scranton in 1869. Powderly joined and quickly became the leader of the local assembly of the Machinist and Blacksmiths International Union (M&BIU) in Scranton. Fired again during the Panic of 1873 Powderly became determined to fight for the cause of labor.
In 1874 Powderly joined the Knights of Labor and on October 14, 1876, he created Local Assembly 222 in Scranton. After a violent encounter between the state militia and labor during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, Powderly decided to enter politics. In December 1877 Powderly was chosen by the Greenback-Labor party as their candidate in the February 1878 Scranton mayoral race. Powderly defeated his opponent by 524 votes. Riding this momentum Powderly replaced the newly resigned Uriah Stephens as Grand Master Workman of the Knights of Labor the following year. Powderly eliminated the secrecy of the Knights in 1882 and oversaw the expansion of membership in the organization to more than 750,000 by the summer of 1886. Knight membership declined after 1886 due in part to internal disunion following the Haymarket Square bombing, opposition from capital and competition from the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Powderly was ousted from the Knights in 1893 and within two years of leaving the organization had once again gone underground.
-Text by Patrick Grubbs
Backgrounders
Connecting Headlines with History
Links
National History Day Resources
- John M. Davis, "A Defense of the Knights of Labor," 1875 (ExplorePaHistory.com)
- Platform of the Knights of Labor, 1878 (Learn North Carolina)
- Constitution of the General Assembly of the Knights of Labor, 1888 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania)
- Thirty Years of Labor, 1859-1889 by Terrence V. Powderly (Historical Society of Pennsylvania)