Origins of the Charleston Mechanic Society

Abstract

In chapter 1 Brown examines the emergence of labor activism in Charleston during the early national era. Concern about slave competition with journeymen was the major impetus for the formation of the various mechanics’ societies. The early labor movement was not an overt class struggle between capital and labor. However, class interests did influence the movement’s trajectory. Elite slave-owning mechanics were able to move into the leadership and control the movement for their own financial and political benefit and prevented any significant limitations on slave labor in the mechanical trades to the detriment of the journeymen’s interests.