05)Oct2Workshop


 * **October 2** || **The 19th Century Republic of Bay State Workingmen** || Patricia A. Reeve, PhD, Department of History Suffolk University ||

**Readings:** 1.Seth Luther, “An Address, Br. MECHANICS AND WORKING MEN” (1836), in Molloy, Gersuny, and Macieski, eds. Peacably if we can, Forcibly if we must! Writings by and About Seth Luther. Rhode Island Labor History Society, 1998. 2.‘We Are Not Slaves’: Female Shoe and Textile Workers in Marblehead, MA, 1860. Source: "The Bay State Strike. Movement Among the Women. Acts and Proceedings of Employers and Workers," New York Times, February 29, 1860. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6590/ (accessed August 20, 2008). 3.“The Demand for a 10 Hour Day” (1835), quoted in Irving Mark and E. I. Schwaab, The Faith of Our Fathers (1952), 342-343. http://www.albany.edu/faculty/gz580/His316/TenHourDay.html (accessed August 20, 2008). 4.Reeve, “Chapter 2: Hygeia Herself is Ever the Companion of True Liberty,” unpublished, 2007.

**Question:** Historian Sally Alexander has argued that the “experience of class [and work], even if shared and fully recognized [by all workers], does not. . . produce a shared and even consciousness [among them].” How do the assigned readings support and/or challenge her supposition? What do these readings tell us about workingmen’s conception of their rights, and the links between these and manliness?