The Washington Navy Yard labor strike of 1835 is considered the first strike of federal civilian employees.The Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History editors Aron Brenner, Benjamin Daily and Emanuel Ness, (New York: M.E.Sharpe, 2009), p. xvii.U.S. Dept. of Labor, Third Annual Report of the Commissioners of Labor, Volume 3., Government Printing Office: Washington D.C., 1887, p. 1034.A Proud Past A Bright Future AFGE: The Future is Ours A history of the American Federation of Government Employees, AFC-CIO, Washington D.C. n.d., p. 2. http://www.nylocal3148.org/docs/History.pdf Ziskind, David, One Thousand Strikes of Government Employees, (Columbia University Press, New York, 1940), p.24 The strike began on Wednesday July 31, 1835, and ended August 15, 1835. The strike supported the movement advocating a ten-hour workday and redressing grievances such as newly imposed lunch-hour regulations.Maloney, Linda M., The Captain from Connecticut: The Life and Naval Times of Isaac Hull (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1986), 422.Sharp, John G.M., The Washington Navy Yard Strike and "Snow Riot" of 1835, http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/sharptoc/washingtonsy.html The strike failed in its objectives for two reasons, the Secretary of the Navy refused to change the shipyard working hours and the loss of public support due to the involvement of large numbers of mechanics and laborers in the race riot popularly known as the Snow Riot or Snow Storm.Maloney, pp. 438–439.
Historical background
1835 was an important year for American labor. Workers, particularly in Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington D.C. petitioned for higher wages, better working conditions, and a ten-hour workday.Commons, John Rodgers, et al. History of Labor in the United States, Volume 1. Macmillan Company: New York, 1918 p.393 accessed 6 December 2017 https://archive.org/details/historyoflabouri02comm In Washington D.C., from early in the nineteenth century, workers agitated for a reduction in the arduous twelve-hour workday. At the Navy Yard, employment conditions and enslaved labor created problems and strife. For the first thirty years of the nineteenth century, the Navy Yard was the District's principal employer of enslaved African Americans. "Competition for jobs on the navy yard was constant ... white workers feared that competition from enslaved and even free blacks dragged down the wage scale."Brown, Gordon S. The Captain Who Burned His Ships Captain Thomas Tingey, USN, 1750-1829 Naval Institute Press: Annapolis 2011, p. 147.Sharp, John G. Washington Navy Yard Payroll April 1829 Genealogy Trails http://www.genealogytrails.com/washdc/WNY/wny1829aprlemployees.html On the yard, enslaved African Americans worked as seamen, cooks, servants or laborers; they performed most of the unpleasant and onerous jobs. The white workers at the Navy Yard feared and resented the enslaved and hated free blacks as competitors who would drag down the wage scale. At the Navy Yard, most white workers "opposed slavery in their workplace but simultaneously were opposed to black freedom and abolition."Thomas III, William G. A Question of Freedom The Families Who Challenged Slavery from the Nation's Founding to the Civil War Yale University Press: New Haven, 2020, p. 241
During Commodore Thomas Tingey's tenure from 1801 to 1829, his correspondence with the Board of Navy Commissioners reflects, that after wage demands; racially-based complaints were the most frequent issue needing resolution.Brown, Gordon S. The Captain Who Burned His Ships Captain Thomas Tingey, USN, 1750-1829 Naval Institute Press: Annapolis 2011) p. 147 The number of blacks, free and enslaved, rose rapidly and by 1808, muster lists reflect that blacks made up one-third of the workforce.Sharp, John G. African Americans in Slavery and Freedom on the Washington Navy Yard 1799-1865, Morgan Hannah Press: Concord, 2011, p. 8 The District of Columbia slave population reached its peak of 4,520 in 1820. After that, rapid demographic changes exerted profound social ones, as free blacks increased. The 1830 census for the District reflected that the black population was 9,109. For the first time, this figure included more free blacks, 4,604 (50.5%), than enslaved, 4,505 (49.5%). The number of free blacks continued to increase with each decade; by 1860, the black population totaled 14,316, of which 11,131 were free (77.8). So did the anxiety of white workers who feared ever-increasing economic competition.Ash, Chris Myers & Musgrove, George Dereck Chocolate City A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation's Capital University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, 2017, pp. 45, 71 & 98. On the Navy Yard, slaveholders included naval officers and senior civilians who collected the wages of their slaves, rented to the Navy Yard.Bolden, Tonya Capital Days Michael Shiner's Journal and the Growth of our Nation's Capital Abrams Books: New York, 2015, p. 17. Labor trouble and racial tension broke out periodically as the restive and volatile workforce sought higher wages and better conditions.Sharp, John G. editor Diary of Michael Shiner Relating to the History of the Washington Navy Yard 1813-1869, Naval History and Heritage Command, 2015, introduction https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/d/diary-of-michael-shiner/introduction.html Most all naval shipyard workers were per diem or day labor. They were subject to the whims of the annual Congressional appropriation and periodic seasonal reductions in the workforce.
During the early nineteenth century, workers lived in constant anxiety regarding employment and wages. Wages were subject to considerable change, in some cases daily pay fluctuated dramatically, e.g. Washington Navy Yard carpenters' wages were reduced from a high of $2.50 per day in 1808 to $1.64 per day in 1820.Tingey to Board of Navy Commissioners, January 9, 1821, National Archives and Records Administration Washington D.C. RG 45, Entry 314, Volume 74 Workers actively responded to pay cuts, as early as March 1807; the blacksmiths writing to Secretary of the Navy Robert Smith claimed the "right to Demand an Equal Participation with others in the Benefit of our Labour" and demanded their wages restored.Blacksmiths to Smith March 11, 1807, RG 45/M124, NARA The secretary in reply labeled them "a dissatisfied set of men" and threatened to "dismiss all complaining men as soon as publick convenience will permit" and replace them with a "set of orderly, hard working fellows".Robert Smith to Edward Preble 13 March 1807, RG45/M125, NARA, Three Washington Navy Yard "job actions" had occurred previously.
On September 29, 1806, Commodore Thomas Tingey reported to Secretary of the Navy Robert Smith his problems with "the Ship Carpenters, Smiths and Riggers". They were upset that their wages had been reduced. The ship "Joiners too, believed that they also were to remain at their former rate of pay. They therefore remonstrated but were informed it could not then be altered - A few days afterward (in the first week of August), they unanimously withdrew from work and deputized 3 or 4 of their numbers, who came to the yard presented a written paper to Captain Cassin, who offered it to me, I refused to receive or peruse it. ... It is undeniable that I consider them a steady and valuable set of workmen ... but I deem it inadmissible to advocate, raising their pay to 1.75 per diem."Tingey to Smith, September 30, 1806, letter 34, volume 6, August 1, 1806 - December 31, 1806, Letters Received by the Secretary of the Navy from Captains ("Captains Letters") 1805-61; 1866-85, RG 260 National Archives and Records Administration, Washington D.C. The second on 13 March 1827, when a dispute over wages provoked laborers to leave the yard briefly to express their displeasure. The third began on 23 March 1830, when the laborers were recorded "standing out" for a week to show that their per diem wage rate should have been granted sooner.Sharp, John G. Washington Navy Yard Station Log Entries November 1822 - December 1889 Naval History and Heritage Command https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/w/washington-navy-yard-station-log-november-1822-march-1830-extracts.html accessed June 4, 2017, These job actions represent a period when federal workers, though not unionized, could strike—an option later denied to government employees with the passage of the 1947 Taft–Hartley Act.Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park U.S. Department of the Interior: Washington D.C. 1995, p. 22. Except for the brief entries made by the commanding officer to the secretary of the Navy or the officer of the watch in the station log, little is known about the exact circumstances of these early incidents.
In the United States during the first decades of the nineteenth century, "strikes constituted illegal conspiracies under common law, exposing labor to criminal prosecution".Pessen, Edward, Builders of the Young Republic, Department of Labor,2020, https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/chapter2 Although rarely enforced, strikes, sometimes led local authorities to call out the militia.Howe, Daniel Walker What Hath God Wrought The Transformation of America, 1815 - 1848 Oxford University Press: New York, 2007. p. 549. Federal employee organizations were in their infancy and mostly limited to charitable endeavors. On the Washington Navy Yard, the first such organization was the Navy Yard Beneficial Society founded in 1804. While not representing workers' economic interests, the society did provide members with a nominal sum of fifty cents per pay period, the assurance of a decent funeral, and financial assistance to their spouse and minor children. Records regarding the Navy Yard Beneficial Society are scarce. However, early employee obituaries prove that it was very active as a charitable group from 1804 to the 1860s.Meeting Minutes of Naval Lodge No.4 F.A.A.M. 1813 editor Isaiah Akin, Westphalia Press: Washington D.C. 2013, John G. Sharp "Brother William Henry Burdine Sr." 3rd paragraph The workday in all federal navy yards prior to 1835 was sunrise to sunset, with time off for breakfast and lunch. In May 1835, the Boston carpenters issued their famous "Ten Hour Circular", advocating a ten-hour day which found wide distribution throughout the major cities on the eastern seaboard and the District of Columbia and quickly became a rallying cry for reducing the length of the working day.Commons, John A., ed., A Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Volume VI (New York: Russell and Russell, 1958), 94–99.