26.]
In opposing the encroachment of Negroes on their field of labor the
northerners took their cue from the white mechanics in the South. At
first laborers of both races worked together in the same room and at
the same machine.[1] But in the nineteenth century, when more white
men in the South were condescending to do skilled labor and trying to
develop manufactures, they found themselves handicapped by competition
with the slave mechanics. Before 1860 most southern mechanics,
machinists, local manufacturers, contractors, and railroad men with
the exception of conductors were Negroes.[2] Against this custom
of making colored men such an economic factor the white mechanics
frequently protested.[3] The riots against Negroes occurring in
Cincinnati, Philadelphia, New York, and Washington during the thirties
and forties owed their origin mainly to an ill feeling between the
white and colored skilled laborers.[4] The white artisans prevailed
upon the legislatures of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Georgia to enact
measures hostile to their rivals.[5] In 1845 the State of Georgia made
it a misdemeanor for a colored mechanic to make a contract for the
repair or the erection of buildings.
Pages:
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361