Labor History Timeline--The Colonial and Revolutionary Eras

The Colonial and Revolutionary Eras

1619    First slaves brought to American colonies: They were brought to Jamestown by Dutch traders who had stolen them from a Spanish ship. Because the Spanish usually baptized captured Africans and the English exempted baptized people from chattel slavery, these first African Americans joined around 1,000 English indentured servants in the colony. (Source:Wikipedia)

Bacon's Rebellion-The Burning of Jamestown

1676    Bacon’s Rebellion: Nathanial Bacon led Virginia settlers in a rebellion by against the rule of William Berkeley and local Native Americans, who were scapegoated for the colony’s economic woes. While Bacon himself was disdainful of labor, his rebels came from all social classes, and included poor whites, former indentured servants and African slaves, an alliance that terrified the ruling elite. (Sources: Wikipedia, PBS)

1712    New York Slave Revolt: 23 slaves rose up, killing 9 whites. 21 of the conspirators were eventually executed. 70 other Africans were arrested and jailed in response, with several committing suicide in jail. In the aftermath, African Americans were prohibited from gathering in groups of more than three, carrying firearms, or owning property, even if they were free. (FromWikipedia)

1741    New York Bakers Strike: Possibly the first work stoppage in U.S. history occurred when New York bakers, who were predominantly small business owners, rebelled against price fixing by the city. (Sources: UHWO, Inc.)

Boston Massacre

1770    Boston Massacre: As British soldiers quartered in colonists’ homes started taking jobs from local workers, the rope makers started provoking British soldiers, who fired and killed Crispus Attucks, a multiethnic colonist (African and Wampanoag). They went on to kill 4 others. Attucks is considered the first casualty in the American Revolution. (From Workday Minnesota)

Portraits of Daniel Shays and Job Shattuck

1787    Shays Rebellion: On January 25, Daniel Shays and 800 followers marched to Springfield, Massachusetts to seize the Federal arsenal during Shays’ rebellion. They were ultimately defeated by the Massachusetts State militia. The rebellion, which began in August, was an attempt to end the imprisonment of farmers for debts, confiscation of their lands and other attempts by the wealthy to make the poor pay for the Revolutionary War. The U.S. Constitution was written in the wake of Shays’ rebellion and designed in part to prevent other similar uprisings by the common people against slave owners, bankers, landlords and businessmen. (Sources: the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)