Research Article: Ten-Hour Day Movement

United States 1820s-1850s

The 10-Hour Movement began among skilled craftsmen in the major East Coast cities of the United States in the early 1820s. Workers' early efforts were unevenly successful in the short term and, with the exception of the building trades in New York City, uniformly unsuccessful in the long term. In the 1830s the movement spread as skilled workers organized across crafts to form community trades unions. These organizations saw some successes, but only among skilled workers in particular crafts and cities. In 1840 President Martin Van Buren ordered the 10-hour day for workers employed on federal projects. In the early 1840s interest in the 10-hour day spread to noncraft workers. By the mid-1840s the 10-hour day was a central demand of the new "Labor Reform" societies that attempted to organize industrial workers across skill levels and genders. Labor Reformers petitioned for and won state legislation for the 10-hour...
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