The Labor Question
Both before and after the abolition of slavery, changes occurred in many minorities' roles in society and the type of work they performed. Following many manufacturers’ transition to the factory system of labor, many slave holders unsuccessfully tried to implement factory discipline on their plantations in the Caribbean and the mainland South. While many enslaved people remained as agricultural workers, others came to work in the factory system. Both Northern and Southern entrepreneurs purchased or leased slaves to work as industrial workers in positions such as machine tenders, mechanics, cobblers, or tanners.
Racist practices and beliefs, slave resistance, and a fluctuating economy fostered discord between free and enslaved African-American and White workers in the southern United States, enhanced by free Euro-American opposition to the new competition for wage positions. Whites engaged in racist practices such as “job busting” to drive African Americans away from trades in which they had traditionally participated. Despite intergroup tension and societal pressures, southern entrepreneurs continued to employ slave labor at early industrial operations until the onset of the Civil War.
After the Civil War ended, freed slaves attempted to control the conditions and scheduling of their work as much as possible. Freed slaves, unable to buy or find land to work, became wage laborers in the Reconstruction South, working on plantations, construction projects, or in processing and production centers. For many freed women, domestic wage labor became a source of income, pride and a context for developing community organization and resistance. But despite emancipation, the unequal treatment of African Americans persisted.
“The Labor Question” was planters’ response to freedpeoples’ various acts of resistance on their plantations. By looking at the way Southern planters characterized black laborers in this debate, one can see how plantation owners interpreted the various disputes with freed slaves that were erupting on plantations. The freedpeoples’ acts of resistance also serves as a reminder that freed slaves actively fought to improve their status in Southern society. Freed laborers’ insistence on redefining their position in Southern society framed conditions of their emancipation.
“The Labor Question” also displayed how racist ideologies led planters to come to conclusions that in hindsight, made them look like fools. The paternalistic myth from the Antebellum era that slaves liked slavery convinced many planters that the Chinese would willingly flock to their plantations, and joyously perform backbreaking labor out of sheer love and devotion. Planters also believed that white laborers, being white, would be the smartest, most industrial laborers the world had to offer. Their hopes were soon proven to be incredibly unfounded.
It is important to remember that nothing was homogenous. Consequently, individual events described were not always part of broad trends that occurred throughout the South. In terms of relations between planters and their laborers, whether they were black, white, or Chinese, there were bound to have been exceptions to every trend.
While society offered free African Americans a measure of control over employment options and work conditions, employer practices and unfair government legislation plagued African Americans and limited their opportunity for independence and economic success. In later years from the 1900s to the 1930s, many freed slave families emigrated to the north and north central states seeking employment and economic security as wage laborers in major cities. Though they had lived in segregated enclaves in Northern cities before World War II, the degree of this segregation became more intense.
Minority discrimination during the industrial era was widespread. Many African American women, for example, were unable to obtain manufacturing, processing, or sales positions due to racially discriminative policies. As such, they had a choice between becoming agricultural laborers or domestic laborers. A similar discrimination in hiring practices existed for African American males and other minority groups. Many employers preferred to hire Northern and Western European and Euro-American workers over Southern European, Mexican, Asian, or African American workers. Accordingly, only certain less-desirable positions, such as manual or agricultural labor, were open for these workers.
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