Greenbackers, Knights of Labor, and populists : farmer-labor insurgency in the late-nineteenth-century South / Matthew Hild.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hild, Matthew.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Knights of Labor.

Labor unions--Political activity--Southern States--History--19th century.

Labor unions.

Working class--Political activity--Southern States--History--19th century.

Working class.

Farmers--Political activity--Southern States--History--19th century.

Farmers.

Populism--Southern States--History--19th century.

Populism.

Southern States--Race relations--History--19th century.

Southern States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (344 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Athens : University of Georgia Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Historians have widely studied the late-nineteenth-century southern agrarian revolts led by such groups as the Farmers' Alliance and the People's (or Populist) Party. Much work has also been done on southern labor insurgencies of the same period, as kindled by the Knights of Labor and others. However, says Matthew Hild, historians have given only minimal consideration to the convergence of these movements. Hild shows that the Populist (or People's) Party, the most important third party of the 1890s, established itself most solidly in Texas, Alabama, and, under the guise of the earlier Union Labor Party, Arkansas, where farmer-labor political coalitions from the 1870s to mid-1880s had laid the groundwork for populism's expansion. Third-party movements fared progressively worse in Georgia and North Carolina, where little such coalition building had occurred, and in places like Tennessee and South Carolina, where almost no history of farmer-labor solidarity existed. Hild warns against drawing any direct correlations between a strong Populist presence in a given place and a background of farmer-laborer insurgency. Yet such a background could only help Populists and was a necessary precondition for the initially farmer-oriented Populist Party to attract significant labor support. Other studies have found a lack of labor support to be a major reason for the failure of Populism, but Hild demonstrates that the Populists failed despite significant labor support in many parts of the South. Even strong farmer-labor coalitions could not carry the Populists to power in a region in which racism and violent and fraudulent elections were, tragically, central features of politics.

Contents:

Agrarian discontent and political dissent in the South, 1872-1882

Building the Southern farmer and labor movements, 1878-1886

The Knights of Labor and Southern farmer-labor insurgency, 1885-1888

Toward a third party in the South and nation, 1889-1892

Southern labor and Southern populism, 1892-1896

Southern farmer and labor movements after the populist defeat of 1896.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 293-318) and index.

ISBN:

9786612552908

9781282552906

1282552902

9780820336565

0820336564

OCLC:

613684012