Labor Press Paper: Labor Movement of the Late 1820’s and Early 1830’s

Suppressed by the wealthy elites and mainstream newspapers, the growing Labor Movement of the late 1820’s and early 1830’s, created the labor press papers that projected the voice of the working man which had previously been muffled. Headed by The Mechanics Free Press and the Working Man’s Advocate, the labor press looked to achieve political power for the working class and to criticize politicians for their total disregard of the working-class people. The Industrial Revolution and emergence of capitalism provided many jobs for the working class, but forced the laborers into terrible work conditions. The labor papers provided the working class a forum to voice issues such as child labor and 12-hour work days, that impacted the lives of workers but were previously ignored by the established newspapers.

As the movement continued to grow, the mainstream press continued to ignore the issues the laborers raised but they could no longer ignore their presence. Rodger Streitmatter states in the Origins of the American Labor Press, that one of the most important legacies of the labor papers was their role in helping to transform measure’s that were unpopular in the 1820’s into key elements in the nation’s progress toward increased democracy. Streirmatter also states that the papers demonstrated that labor journalism could in fact produce major rewards for the disenfranchised readers that it served. The working-class readers of these papers who previously had no means of engaging in the news, achieved a political the voice that they were once denied.

Although the over-arching basis for the formation of the Labor Press was to achieve a political presence for the working man, there were many factors at work that pushed the laborers to thi...

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... children under the age of nine from working.

The dramatic increase in production and sudden rise of capitalism sparked by the industrial revolution, stifled the political power of the working man, and forced the laborers to create the labor press. The economic shift created imbalanced class distinctions in which the rich got richer and the poor, working class laborers were left powerless. Denied access to the mainstream newspapers, the burgeoning Labor Movement created the Labor Press to obtain political power for the working class, and to demand solutions to their issues that had long been ignored. Despite its short lifespan, the labor movement succeeded in establishing the 10-hour work day and implementing child labor laws. The Labor Press provided the working class with the means to engage politically, which was carried on through the Penny Press papers.