United States 1867, 1869

Synopsis

Massachusetts shoemakers organized the International Knights of St. Crispin (KOSC) in the mid-nineteenth century to oppose the worst effects of industrialization on the work of shoemaking and to preserve the values of their equal rights ideology based on artisan culture. Industrialization centralized production of boots and shoes in factories. The introduction of steam-powered machinery increasingly divided jobs by specialization. Resistance to the growing power of industrial capitalism required factory workers to organize and confront their employers as trade unionists. Resisting both wage cuts and seeking control of work processes as mechanization continued, the activities of the KOSC, led by the craft lodges in Massachusetts, expanded into emerging shoe centers in the American Northeast and Canada.

The sexual division of labor and the mechanization of sewing light leather also introduced women shoeworkers into shoe factories. With the goal of protecting women who...