A Documentary History of American Industrial Society Volume I Plantation and Frontier Documents: 1649-1863 Illustrative of Industrial History in the Colonial & Ante-Bellum South Collected from MSS. and other rare sources and edited by Ulrich B. Phillips, Ph. D. Professor of History and Political Science, Tulane University of Louisiana Volume I Separate publication of Volumes I and II of Documentary History of American Industrial Society Cleveland, Ohio The Arthur H. Clark Company 1909 COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY THE ARTHUR H. CLARK CO. All rights reserved AMERICAN BUREAU OF INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH DIRECTORS AND EDITORS RICHARD T. ELY, PH.D., LL.D., Professor of Political Economy, University of Wisconsin JOHN R. COMMONS, A. M., Professor of Political Economy, University of Wisconsin JOHN B. CLARK, PH.D., LL.D., Professor of Political Economy, Columbia University V. EVERIX MACY, Chairman, New York City ALBERT SHAW, PH.D., LL.D., Editor, American Review of Reviews ULRICH B. PHILLIPS, PH.D., Professor of History and Political Science, Tulane University EUGENE A. GILMORE, LL.B., Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin HELEN L. SUMNER, PH.D., United States Bureau of Labor JOHN B. ANDREWS, PH.D., Executive Secretary, American Association for Labor Legislation THE DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY COMPRISES VOL. I Plantation and Frontier, Volume 1, by Ulrich B. Phillips VOL. II Plantation and Frontier, Volume 2, by Ulrich B. Phillips VOL. Ill Labor Conspiracy Cases, 1806-1842, Volume 1, by John R. Commons and Eugene A. Gilmore VOL. IV Labor Conspiracy Cases, 1806-1842, Volume 2, by John R. Commons and Eugene A. Gilmore VOL. V Labor Movement, 1820-1840, Volume 1, by John R. Commons and Helen L. Sumner VOL. VI Labor Movement, 1820-1840, Volume 2, by John R. Commons and Helen L. Sumner VOL VII Labor Movement, 1840-1860, Volume 1, by John R. Commons VOL. VIII Labor Movement, 1840-1860, Volume 2, by John R. Commons VOL. IX Labor Movement, 1860-1880, Volume 1, by John R. Commons and John B. Andrews VOL. X Labor Movement, 1860-1880, Volume 2, by John R. Commons and John B. Andrews CONTENTS OF VOLUMK I GENERAL PREFACE by Richard T. Ely. . . GENERAL INTRODUCTION by John Bates Clark . .19 . 33 INTRODUCTION to Volumes I and II by Ulrich B. Phillips . 69 BIBLIOGRAPHY, Volumes I and II . . . 105 PLANTATION AND FRONTIER DOCUMENTS : I PLANTATION MANAGEMENT 1 Standards of managerial duty .... 109 (a) Instructions by Richard Corbin to his agent; Virginia, 1759 (b) Instructions by J. W. Fowler to his overseers; Mis sissippi, 1857 (c) Rules on P. C. Weston's rice estate; South Carolina, 1856 * (d) Contract between Charles Manigault and his over seer; Georgia, 1853 - (e) Instructions by Alexander Telfair to his overseer; Georgia, 1832 (f) Advice by a professional planter; Jamaica, circa 1800 2 The inconvenience of a rigid labor supply . . . 130 Letter of Newyear Branson to Robert Carter; Virginia, 1785 3 Soil wastage, typical . . , . .131 Extract from J. L. Williams's The Territory of Florida (1837) i. 4 Soil preservation., exceptional .... 132 Editorial from the Federal Union ( Milledgeville, Ga.)> April 23, 1850 5 Breakdown of the plantation system in the cereal producing area . . . . . . - 133 Advertisement from the Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg), Oct. 22, 1767 ______AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY________ Records of a rice plantation .... *34 Extracts from the plantation records of Louis Manigault; Chatham County, Georgia, 1833-1860 (a) General statement for 1833-1839 (b) Lists of negroes in 1857 (c) Lists of negroes in 1860 (d) Operations; 1855-1860 (e) Plantation jottings; 1845 Accounts of expenses, cropp, and sales on a sea-island cotton and rice plantation . . . . .150 Extracts from the plantation record book of A. Porter, ex ecutor of the Alexander estate; Liberty County, Ga. (a) Expense account, debit and credit, 1829-1830, 1830- 1831 and 1831-1832 (b) Account of crops, proceeds, and division of profits; 1829-1830, 1830-1831 and 1831-1832 (c) Expense account; 1747-1848 and 1848-1849 (d) Account of crops, proceeds, and division of profit; 1847-1848 and 1848-1849 (e) Expense account; 1852-1853 (f) Account of crops, proceeds, and division of profit; 1852-1853 Management of scattered plantations; Georgia, 1844-1840 167 Letters of John B. Lamar (a) To Howell Cobb; Jan. 8. 1844 (b) To Howell Cobb; March 17, 1844 (c) To Howell Cobb; May 15, 1844 (d) To Howell Cobb; Feb. 17, 1845 (e) To Howell Cobb; Feb. 19, 1845 (f) To Mrs. Howell Cobb; Dec. 2, 1845 (g) To Howell Cobb; Apr. 12, 1846 (h) To Mrs. Howell Cobb; Apr. 2.2, 1846 (i) To Howell Cobb; Dec. 29, 1846 (j) To Howell Cobb; Jan. 10, 1847 (k) To Howell Cobb; May 16, 1847 (1) To Howell Cobb; Feb. 7, 1848 (m) To Mrs. Howell Cobb; Nov. 18, 1849 /// success in nonresident planting; Alabama, 1835- Experi ment abandoned . . . . .183 CONTENTS OF VOLUME I (a) Letter of Daniel McMichael to Thomas W. Glover; Lowndes County, Ala., Sept. 10, 1837 (b) Letter of Thomas W. Glover to Daniel McMichael; Orangeburg, S.C., Sept. 21, 1837 (c) Letter of Daniel McMichael to Thomas "W. Glover; Lowndes County, Ala., Oct. II, 1837 IO Plantation, by-industries ..... 186 (a) Letter of Alexander Spotswood to the British Council of Trade; Virginia, 1710 (b) Extract from A Perfect Description of Virginia (1649) (c) Extract from the "Diary of John Harrower, Vir ginia, 1774-1775" (d) Letter of George Washington to Thomas Newton Jr.; Virginia, Jan. 23, 1773 (e) Letter of George "Washington to Thomas Newton Jr.; Virginia, Dec. 14, 1773 (f) Extract from a letter of Elisha Cain to Alexander Telfair; Georgia, Sept. II, 1829 (g) Extract from a letter of same to same; Nov. 5, 1829 (h) Extract from a letter of Elisha Cain to Miss Mary Telfair; Oct. 25, 1833 (i) Extract from a letter of James Gunnelly to M!iss Mary Telfair; Georgia, Jan. n, 1835 II PLANTATION ROUTINE 1 ''Diary of ivork on a sea-island cotton plantation" . . 195 Extract from the plantation diary of Thomas P. Ravenel; 1847-1850 2 "Routine of incidentals on a sea-island plantation" . . 203 Memoranda by C. C. Pinckney; 1818-1819 3 Work on a large tobacco and ivheat plantation; Virginia 208 Extracts for typical weeks in 1854; manager's journal of Belmead Plantation 4 Routine of "work on a great sugar plantation . . 214 Extracts from the Plantation Diary of Valcour Aime; 1827, 1833, 1837- 1844, 1845, 1852, and 1853 5 Cotton Routine . . . . . .23! Extracts from the plantation diary of Leven Covington; 1829-1830 io______AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY________ III TYPES OF PLANTATION 1 Virginia tide -water ..... 245 (a) Advertisement from the Virginia Gazette, Feb. 5, 1767 (b) Advertisement, ibid.; Oct. 6, 1774 2 Plantation equipment; Virginia Northern Neck, 1771 . . 247 Report of Thomas Oliver, overseer, to James Mercer; May, 1771 (reproduced in facsimile) 3 A rice estate on the North Carolina coast . . . 251 Advertisement from the Charleston City Gazette, Jan. i, 1825 4 A sea-island cotton estate ..... 252 Advertisement from the Charleston City Gazette, Jan. 17, 1825 5 The Georgia uplands ..... 252 Advertisement from the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, July 12, 1800 6 A Red River establishment . . ' . 253 Advertisement from the R.ed River Republican (Alexan dria, La.), Jan. 6, 1849 7 The Shenandoah regime ..... 254 (a) Extract from the Diary of Lucian Minor; 1823 (b) Advertisement from the Winchester (Va.) Gazette, Jan. g, 1799 8 Poor husbandry in East Tennessee . . . 256 Extract from the Diary of Lucian Minor; 1823 9 A vast sugar estate ..... 256 Extract from W. H. Russell's My Diary North and South (1863) IV STAPLES 1 Rice ....... 259 Extract from R. F. "W. Allston, Essay on Sea Coast Crops (1854) 2 Indigo, account of its introduction as a staple in South Caro lina ....... 265 Letter of Eliza Lucas Pinckney to her son ; South Carolina, 1785 3 The introduction of sea-island cotton . . . 266 Letter of Thomas Spalding; Georgia, 1828 CONTENTS OF VOLUME I Sea-island cotton, methods .... 27* (a) Extract from R. F. W. Allston's Essay on Sea Coast Crops (1854) (fa) Kxtract from Whitemarsh B. Seabrook's Memoir on Cotton (1844) Upland cotton methods ..... 276 (1857) Extract from J, A. Turner's The Cotton Planters' Manual Sugar methods in Jamaica . . . .281 Extract from M. G. Lewis's Journal of a W^est India Pro prietor; 1815 Uncertainty of returns in tobacco .... 282 Letter of Benedict Calvert to Lord Baltimore; Maryland, 1729 The tyranny of King Cotton .... 283 f (a) Article from the Georgia Courier (Augusta), Oct. n,1827 - (b) Editorial.from the Georgia Courier (Augusta), June 21, 1827 (c) Report of the Wateree Agricultural Society; South Carolina, 1843 (d) Editorial from the Federal Union (M!illedgeville, Ga.), June 13, 1843 V PLANTATION SUPPLIES AND FACTORAGE A Georgia planter buys negro clothes in London . . 293 Letter of James Habersham to William Knox; Georgia, 1764 An invoice of plantation, household, and personal supplies 296 Order of George Washington; Virginia, 1767 Flour, Codfish, and Vegetables from the North . . 299 News item from the Baton Rouge (La.) Gazette, Oct. 21, 1826 Cause of the high rates of planters' supplies . . 299 Extract from the Diary of Edward Hooker (South Caro lina, 1805) Dearth of shops inconvenient .... 300 "Extracts from the Diary of Col. Landon Carter" (Vir ginia, 1770-1774) Complaint against factors, foreign and local . . 301 1______AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY________ (a) Letter of George Washington to Robert Gary & Co.; Virginia, 1770 (b) Extract from letters of George Mason to his son; Virginia, May 22, 1792 An efficient factor and broker in Charleston . . Advertisement from the South Carolina State Gazette, Sept. 6, 1784 VI PLANTATION VICISSITUDES Losses by disease and accidents among the slaves . . (a) Extract from a letter to Eliza Lucas [Pinckney] ; South Carolina, 1760 / (b) Letter of Jonas Smith to J. B. Lamar; Georgia,Aug. 25, 1852 * (c) Same to same; Oct. 5, 1852 * (d) Same to same Oct. 18, 1852 * (e) Letter of Stancil Barwick to J. B. Lamar; Georgia, July 15, 1855 * (f) Letter of Stephen Newman to Miss Mary Xelfair; Georgia, Feb. 28, 1837 " (g) Extract from a letter of Elisha Cain to Alexander Telfair; Georgia, Jan. 16, 1830 * (h) Letter of J. N. Bethea to W. B. Hodgson; Georgia, May i, 1859 " (i) News item from the Federal Union (Milledgeville, Ga.), Sept. 17, 1834 (j) News item from the Federal Union, Sept. 17, 1834, clipped from the Charleston Courier (k) News item from the Red River Republican (Alex andria, La.), Aug. 3, 1850 (1) News item from the Red River Republican, March 16, 1850 (m) Letter of James Habersham to William Knox; Georgia, 1772 (n) News item from the Louisiana Courter (New Orleans), March 3, 1828 Bad seasons and slave runazue^ys .... (a) Letter of Joseph Valentine-to George Washington; Virginia, 1771 307 309 319 CONTENTS OF VOLUME I (b) Letter of William Capers to Charles Manigault; Georgia, 1861 Embarrassments from debt . . . .321 Letter of Mason to George Washington; Virginia, 1773 VII OVERSEERS An overseer's testimonial ..... 323 Letter of S. P. Myrick to J. B. Lamar; Georgia, 1854 Overseers wanted ...... 323 Notice from the South Carolina Gazette, Jan. 6, 1787 A planter's apprentice ..... 324 Extract from the Diary of Col. Landon Carter (Virginia, 1770) A question of authority ..... 324 Letter of S. L. Straughan to Robert Carter; Virginia, 1787 The Shortcomings of overseers .... 325 (a) Extract from a letter of James Habersham to \Villiam Knox; Georgia, 1776 (b) Extract from a letter of G. M. Salley to Thomas W. Glover; Alabama, 1836 (c) "Extracts from the Diary of Col. Landon Garter" (Virginia, 1772-1774) (d) Extracts from the "Diary of John Harrower" (Vir ginia, 1775) (e) News item from the New Orleans Bee, May 17, 1845 The routine problems and policies of an efficient overseer 330 Letters of Elisha Cain to his employers; Georgia, 1831-1840 (a) To Alexander Telfair; Feb. 18, 1831 (b) To Miss Mary Telfair; Nov. 20, 1836 (c) To Miss Mary Telfair; Dec. 14, 1840 Assistant overseers ..... 336 Extract of a letter from Charles M^anigault to J. T. Cooper ; Paris, July 12, 1848 The purchase of a plantation foreman . . . 337 Extracts of letters from William Capers to Charles Mani gault; Georgia 1860 (a) Letter of Aug. 5, 1860 (b) Letter of Aug. n, 1860 (c) Letter of Oct. 15, 1860 14_____AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY_______ VIII PLANTATION LABOR: INDENTED WHITES 1 Classes and conditions of -white servants . . . 339 Extract from Hugh Jones's Present State of Virginia (1724) 2 Favorable views of the indented system. ... 340 (a) Extract from John Hammond's Leak and Rachel (1656) (b) Extract from a letter of George Alsop to his father; IVlaryland, circa 1659 3 An adverse criticism . . . . .343 Extract from William Eddis's Letters from America 4 Indented labor useless on a disturbed frontier 344 Letter of Valentine Crawford to George Washington; Vir ginia, 1774 5 Runaway redemptioners and convicts . . . 346 (a) Advertisements from the Virginia Gazette, 1736- 1737 (b) Advertisements from the Virginia Gazette, Feb. 26, 1767 (c) Advertisement from the South Carolina Gazette, June 16-23, 1799 6 A stampede of Spanish and Italian bondmen in British Florida ....... 348 (a) News item from the Boston Chronicle, Sept. 26, 1768 (b) Extract from Bernard Romans's A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida 7 Indented artisans ...... 352 (a) Advertisement from the Virginia Gazette, April 16, 1767 (b) Advertisement from the Virginia Gazette, March 26, 1767 (c) Advertisement from the Virginia Gazette, Nov. 26, 1767 8 Wage-earning servants and artisans imported under contract 354 (a) Letter of Richard Cumberland to Roger Pinckney at Charleston; London, 1767 (b) Extract from a letter of Wm. Fitzhugfh to Fraser Partis; Virginia, 1680 (c) Extract from a letter of George IVTason to his son; Virginia, 1792 CONTENTS OF VOLUME I 9 The autobiography of a criminally disposed redempttoner 357 Extract from the Vain Prodigal Life and Tragical Penitent Death of Thomas Hellier (1678) 10 Career and observations of a high grade redemptioner 366 Extracts from the "Diary of John Harrower, 1773-1776" 11 Convict transportationt vicissitudes ... 372 News item from the Boston Chronicle^ March 14-21, 1768 12 Items on the trade in servants .... 374 (a) Extract from a letter of Wm. Byrd to Mr. Andrews of Rotterdam; Virginia, 1739 (b) Extract from a letter of John Brown to William Preston; Virginia, 1774 (c) Advertisement from the Knoxville (Tenn.) Reg ister, Dec. 8, 1818. ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME I PHOTOGRAPHIC FACSIMILE of the indorsement by Thomas Oliver, overseer, of his Report on Equipment of a Plantation, Virginia, 1771 ...... 247 PHOTOGRAPHIC FACSIMILE of the above Report . . 249 PREFACE To the thoughtful man the genesis of a great under taking has an interest of its own apart from the final result. It is but natural, therefore, to suppose that those interested in the Documentary History of Amer ican Industrial Society should wish to know something of the causes that led to the organization of the Amer ican Bureau of Industrial Research and of the purposes in view in the work prepared under its auspices. In 1886, I published a book The Labor Movement in America, as the first step to a more exhaustive study of industrial society. In the preface to that book I said, "I do not claim to have written a history of the labor movement in America. I offer this book merely as a sketch which will, I trust, some day be followed by a book worthy of the title History of Labor in the New World." I thought then, that within a few years at most, I should be able to accomplish my purpose, but the undertaking was greater than I anticipated, and as often as I attempted to begin the work, I was deterred by the difficulties to be overcome. In the first place there was not sufficient collection of material for such a work as I proposed to myself, and the material that might exist was scattered throughout the country in public and private libraries, much of it inaccessible. In no country has the value of economic records been sufficiently appreciated; but in America least of all has their bearing on national history been understood. 20_____AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY_______ Something had already been done in France in col lecting and editing the records of the guilds of the Middle Ages. In 1837 under the patronage of the king, and the direction of the minister of public instruc tion, M. Depping was enabled to reprint Les Registres des Metiers et Marchandises de la Ville de Paris, begun in the thirteenth century by Ktienne Boileau in the reign of Louis IX, Boileau's Jearned editor in 1837, in including this single volume in the magnificent Collection de Documents inedits sur I'histoire de France, apologetically observes that though it is but the records of primitive associations of artisans, yet it deserves a place in a series designed to illuminate the civil and political history of France. The movement towards the preservation and publica tion of economic records had also a small beginning in other countries, although documents of economic his tory have not been the main object of any single large undertaking, but have worked their way to the atten tion of societies and governmental authorities interested originally in the genealogical, political, literary, eccle siastical, and legal muniments of their nation's history. Such, for example, have been the Camden and Selden Societies of Great Britain, and the numerous local and county societies such as the Surtees Society for the Northern Counties, the Chatham Society for Lancaster and Chester, the Oxford Historical Society, and others. But in America when I began preparations for my book, there was nothing of the kind to fall back upon, and I had to make my own collection, which in time included many books, newspapers, scrap-books, and pamphlets indispensable for the interpretation of our labor history. The value of fugitive pamphlets, re ports, manifestos, advertisements, and newspaper arti- _________________PREFACE________________21 cles as material for the understanding and interpreta tion of social conditions and movements was then so little appreciated that I met with scant encouragement. I well remember that once a friend and colleague, look ing at the stacks of newspapers in my office at the Johns Hopkins University, said to me: "Ely, what you need is a good fire to rid you of all this rubbish." Extensive as was my collection, it was altogether inadequate for the larger work I had in mincl, and the mere labor and expense of collecting, to say nothing of the task of or ganizing and writing, were beyond my own resources. I decided, finally, that a work of the scope I had planned was beyond the power of one man to accom plish, and I set myself, therefore, to secure by the co operation of many what could not be accomplished by one. By letters and personal interviews with prominent men throughout the country, I strove to secure the organization of a society for industrial research, with a fund sufficient to cover the expense of investigation. After various fruitless efforts, Mr. Robert Hunter of New York, who was interested in my plan, introduced me to Mr. V. Everit Macy, also of New York. Mr. Macy made the initial contribution to our contemplated society, and generous contributions were made also by Mr. Robert Fulton Cutting and Mr. Justice Henry Dugro of New York, Mr. Stanley McCormick of Chi cago, Captain Ellison Smyth of Greenville, S.C., and others. By these contributions our success was assured, and in March 1904, the American Bureau of Industrial Research was organized for the purpose of preparing a full and complete history of American industrial society. Mr. V. Everit Macy was elected treasurer, an advisory committee was appointed, consisting of Professor John B. Clark of Columbia University and 20_____AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY_______ Dr. Albert Shaw, editor of the American Review of Reviews, and the direction of the work was entrusted to Professor John R. Commons and myself. Professor Commons had been a student of mine at Johns Hopkins University, attracted there by my Labor Movement in America. He had become a specialist in labor sub jects, and at the time of our organization was connected with the National Civic Federation. He was inter ested in the new enterprise and promised his coopera tion and was therefore associated with me in the direc tion of the work. We secured also, as collaborators, the services of Dr. Ulrich B. Phillips, Dr. Helen L. Sumner, and Dr. John B. Andrews, and we had the assist ance of Professor Eugene A. Gilmore of the University of Wisconsin, the special work of each being indicated in the title of these volumes. On consideration it was decided to continue the work of collection already begun on the larger and more extended scale which the possession of our fund made possible, and the first year of our activity as an organi zation was devoted to preliminary preparation, our efforts being confined chiefly to locating material. Visits were paid to many of the large libraries of the country, to the headquarters of national labor union organizations, and to many employers' associations. Correspondence was also begun with libraries every where, asking for the names of all labor papers or papers sympathetic to labor in their possession. A list of nearly two hundred newspapers of this description known to have existed were sent to over five hundred libraries with the request that those might be checked which were in their files. In this way it was possible to locate all the important newspaper sources of labor history now accessible. __________________PREFACE________________23 While Professor Commons and his force -were thus en gaged in a preliminary survey of the field, I visited the most important centers, Chicago, Boston, Richmond, Washington, and New York, conferring with men who were interested in our work, securing contributions, and examining source material. I also visited the Mesaba iron range, and investigated labor conditions in that important industry. As a result of the interest thus aroused -we afterwards received a number of valuable collections of papers and documents bearing on labor and labor movements. The next step was to secure as much as possible of the material thus located. Personal visits were made to the libraries of Indianapolis, Cincinnati, New York, Providence, Boston, Lynn, Lowell, Worcester, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City, Topeka, Pittsburg, and other places. Wherever possible, the desired material was secured, and where it could not be obtained, transcripts were made of the more important documents and news paper articles. This work for the East and West was under the direction of Professor Commons, ably assisted by Dr. Helen L. Sumner and Dr. John B. Andrews. Dr. Ulrich B. Phillips undertook the investigation of the scarcely touched southern field, visiting personally the libraries of Richmond, Charleston, Columbia, Atlanta, Savannah, Louisville, Nashville, New Orleans, and other minor points. This field survey revealed an unexpected and surprising wealth of sources in the form of newspapers published in the interest of early labor movements in America, manuscripts, and pamphlet material, but the difficulties to be overcome were dis heartening. Some of the newspapers had never, so far as the librarians in charge were aware, been consulted before, and in one case an important file of a daily 24_____AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY_______ paper published by the trade unions of New York dur ing sixteen months in 1834-1835 could not at the time be examined because it lay under the accumulations of fifty years. In some libraries labor journals were dis covered whose existence had been forgotten, although they gave information which was absolutely indis pensable to any understanding of the labor history of that important period from 1830 to 1850. In different libraries a large number of priceless pamphlets were discovered which were not classified under any subject, but are to be found by looking up such catch words as Report, Remark, Circular, Address, etc. Words like these were magic incantations that brought to light treasures not to be otherwise discovered. Numbers of pamphlets were published between 1827 and 1837 f which only a single copy is known to be preserved, and of others that were circulated by thousands not a single copy remains. Of the sixty or more papers that were distinctly on the labor side during this same period, files of not more than fifteen can be located, and it is probable that not a single file of the true labor papers is complete. Nearly every city and almost every trade organization of national scope had its labor paper, con vention proceedings were published in pamphlet form, constitutions and by-laws ran through several editions, and yet, except for a few scattering copies they seem to have disappeared from the earth. Days and nights of fruitless search have led to nothing but disappointment, though now and again the heart has been gladdened by real "finds". Every possible place was ransacked and some apparently impossible ones, old book shops and dusty attics. Auction lists were scanned, plantation records, family correspondence, diaries, commission re ports, census tables, tax digests, deed books, probate re- __________________PREFACE________________25 turns, everything has yielded its treasures to these re search workers. Among the rarer and more important labor papers secured by the Bureau are: a volume of the Man, New York, 1834, the IForkingman's Advocate, Chicago, 1864-1876, Fincher's Trades Re-view, Philadelphia, 1863-1866, and Le Socidliste, New York, 1871-1873. A most valuable file of the earliest German labor paper, Die Republik der Arbeiter, edited by William Weitling, 1850-1855, was presented by the Deutsche Freie Gemeinde of Philadelphia, also a file of The Practical Christian, edited by Adin Ballou, 1840-1860, presented by his daughter Mrs. Abbie Ballou Heywood. The Bureau has also secured files of the Yiddish newspapers beginning with 1886 and convention proceedings of Yiddish labor Unions and socialistic groups which re veal most clearly the history of the Yiddish movement in America. Of perhaps even greater importance is the pamphlet collection. The first step in collecting this material was to make a list of all the pamphlets referred to in news papers of the times. This list grew from three hundred names to nearly two thousand. Most of these pamphlets were of a fugitive character, dating back to the begin ning of the nineteenth century, or, as in the case of the Rules of Work of the Masons of the Town of Boston to the latter part of the eighteenth century. This collec tion includes constitutions of local trades unions, reports of local and state conventions, platforms of labor unions and workingmen's political parties, reports of the pro ceedings of national trades union conventions, constitu tions and by-laws of national trades unions, judicial decisions in county and state courts, travellers' notes re garding important strikes, pronunciamentos of associa- o6_____AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY_______ tions of employers and workingmen at the time of im portant strikes. Under this head may also be noted a collection of editorials, advertisements bearing on the labor situation, such as calls for meetings and conven tions, announcements of scales of wages, runaway ap prentices, and communistic and socialistic movements. Another department of the collection is that of tran scripts. Many of the papers and documents unearthed, the Bureau could neither borrow nor purchase. In all such cases a competent corps of copyists made tran scripts of whatever was deemed valuable and these transcriptions are the very cream of the literature upon industrial society in all the libraries of the country out side of the Madison libraries. They have been classified just as the papers, documents, and pamphlets have been, and afford a third rich source of information. A fourth important department is represented by the collection of accounts of labor conspiracy trials prior to the Massachusetts case of Commonwealth vs Hunt in 1842. Starting out with the list of eleven cases named in the Sixteenth Annual Report of the United States Bureau of Labor, six new cases were later discovered, and of these more or less complete records were ob tained, most of them in the form of stenographic ac counts. It is perhaps true that the wealth of economic and social documents derived from the life of a Kuropean nation far exceeds anything that can be discovered in America. M. Gustave Fagniez has brought together, in two small volumes, documents relating to the com merce and industry of France, beginning with extracts from the writings of Caesar, Strabo, and Diodorus. 1 1 Fagniez, Gustave. Documents relatifs a I'ftistoire de I' Industrie et dtt commerce en France (Paris, 1898 and 1900). ________________PREFACE__________________2^7 And to this long stretch of time is added the multitude of institutions whose daily dealings have left their records. It requires four thousand, five hundred and twenty-two titles for M. Stein to recite the published and unpublished French cartularies, those important files of bills, receipts, privileges, immunities, exemp tions, and other business records of the church in France.2 And when to this is added the immense field of the merchant and craft guilds of the Middle Ages, with their wealth of documents published by indi viduals, societies, and governments throughout western Europe, the one isolated charter of the shoemakers' company conferred by the colony of Massachusetts Bay in 1648 stands out a precious and curious instru ment. 3 At the same time, while America is lacking in the peculiar resources that flow from long antiquity and manifold forms of organization, yet we have our own peculiar institutions that will eventually yield a rich store of records for their interpretation. In addition to the collection of American material, the Bureau has acquired, largely through the liberality of Mr. William English \Valling, a very valuable library of German socialistic literature. It contains some works said not to be found even in the party archives of the German social democracy in Berlin, among other things the now rare first works editions of early works of Marx and Engels. It contains not only most of the pamphlets printed in the sixties and seven ties previous to the exclusion law against social de mocracy (1878), but many of the leaflets and pamphlets 3 Stein, Henri. Bibliographie generate des Cartulaires Francois ou relatifs a I'histoirc de France (Paris, 1907), 8 Records of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, vol. iii, 132. 28_____AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY_______ that were secretely circulated after that law made litera ture of the sort illegal. There are almost complete pro ceedings of all the socialist congresses of the German, Austrian, and Swiss socialistic parties so far as these have been published in separate form. The principal organs of the German central democracy, and those of the socialist party-which are printed in foreign countries and secretely circulated in Germany, likewise form a part of the collection and there are various files of the socialistic labor papers published later in Berlin. Of great significance for scientific research is the com plete series of political reviews and monthlies published by socialists in the German language. There is also much material for the history of the German labor movement in America, with nearly all the newspapers which the German-American laborers published from 1846 to 1875 in support of their struggles and interests and for the dissemination of their ideas. Along with the collecting was carried on the equally arduous and important work of classifying and cata loguing. For this a large staff of stenographers, clerks, and copyists was necessary. A card catalogue has been made of all books, manuscripts, and pamphlets dealing with labor conditions and labor movements from 1815 to 1875, and a second card catalogue for those from 1875 to the present. Another card catalogue has been made of all labor papers and papers sympathetic or actively hostile to labor in the country, so far as known. This information has been classified in two ways, first under the name of the paper and second under the name of the library where the paper is to be found. Another card catalogue lists all the material to be found in Madison, and finally a card catalogue has been made of _________________PREFACE________________29 all articles transcribed from documents or newspapers in other libraries with a notation where they are to be found. Longer articles are arranged under subject headings and in some cases where there is a large amount of material, there is a further division by years. As the scope and value of the material thus gathered together became more and more evident, the suggestion was made by Professor Commons that the most im portant documents be printed for the benefit of scholars to whom the collection itself was not accessible. The wisdom of the suggestion was apparent and prepara tions were begun to select such material as might be most significant for the study of industrial society. Such a publication would be part of the general movement throughout western civilization which is diverting the interest of students and historians from -wars, politics, and various forms of government to the economic life of the people. Contemporary with the organization of the Bureau was the action of the French Parliament, November, 1903, which created a commission for the publication of documents of the economic history of the French Revolution. This commission of forty-six senators, deputies, government officials, professors, and archivists, under the presidency of M. Jaures, is now publishing a series of some sixty volumes, covering such matters as the proceedings of committees on agriculture and commerce, the abolition of feudal rights, the de preciation of paper money, and so on throughout the entire field of labor and industry during that tragic period.4 This is the largest venture of its kind, and may well draw upon the resources of a great nation for its fulfilment. Yet its value can not be overestimated when 4 Sf