People's History of the United States_ 1492 to Present, A - Zinn, Howard [139]
Class-consciousness was overwhelmed during the Civil War, both North and South, by military and political unity in the crisis of war. That unity was weaned by rhetoric and enforced by arms. It was a war proclaimed as a war for liberty, but working people would be attacked by soldiers if they dared to strike, Indians would be massacred in Colorado by the U.S. army, and those daring to criticize Lincoln’s policies would be put in jail without trial—perhaps thirty thousand political prisoners.
Still, there were signs in both sections of dissent from that unity—anger of poor against rich, rebellion against the dominant political and economic forces.
In the North, the war brought high prices for food and the necessities of life. Prices of milk, eggs, cheese were up 60 to 100 percent for families that had not been able to pay the old prices. One historian (Emerson Fite, Social and Industrial Conditions in the North During the Civil War) described the war situation: “Employers were wont to appropriate to themselves all or nearly all of the profits accruing from the higher prices, without being willing to grant to the employees a fair share of these profits through the medium of higher wages.”
There were strikes all over the country during the war. The Springfield Republican in 1863 said that “the workmen of almost every branch of trade have had their strikes within the last few months,” and the San Francisco Evening Bulletin said “striking for higher wages is now the rage among the working people of San Francisco.” Unions were being formed as a result of these strikes. Philadelphia shoemakers in 1863 announced that high prices made organization imperative.
The headline in Fincher’s Trades’ Review of November 21, 1863, “THE REVOLUTION IN NEW YORK,” was an exaggeration, but its list of labor activities was impressive evidence of the hidden resentments of the poor during the war:
The upheaval of the laboring masses in New York has startled the capitalists of that city and vicinity. . . .
The machinists are making a bold stand. . . . We publish their appeal in another column.
The City Railroad employees struck for higher wages, and made the whole population, for a few days, “ride on Shank’s mare.”. . .
The house painters of Brooklyn have taken steps to counteract the attempt of the bosses to reduce their wages.
The house carpenters, we are informed, are pretty well “out of the woods” and their demands are generally complied with.
The safe-makers have obtained an increase of wages, and are now at work.
The lithographic printers are making efforts to secure better pay for their labor.
The workmen on the iron clads are yet holding out against the contractors. . . .
The window shade painters have obtained an advance of 25 percent.
The horse shoers are fortifying themselves against the evils of money and trade fluctuations.
The sash and blind-makers are organized and ask their employers for 25 percent additional.
The sugar packers are remodelling their list of prices.
The glass cutters demand 15 percent to present wages.
Imperfect as we confess our list to be, there is enough to convince the reader that the social revolution now working its way through the land must succeed, if workingmen are only true to each other.
The stage drivers, to the number of 800, are on a strike. . . .
The workingmen of Boston are not behind. . . . In addition to the strike at the Charlestown Navy Yard. . . .
The riggers are on a strike. . . .
At this writing it is rumored, says the Boston Post, that a general strike is contemplated