cordwainers

The artisans issued a startling public challenge to the price control system in July, a sweeping statement of market principles that bore the rhetorical stamp of Pelatiah Webster, but was subscribed by a committee of tanners, curriers, and cordwainers.

Robert Morris Charles Rappleye 2010

The artisans issued a startling public challenge to the price control system in July, a sweeping statement of market principles that bore the rhetorical stamp of Pelatiah Webster, but was subscribed by a committee of tanners, curriers, and cordwainers.

Robert Morris Charles Rappleye 2010

In town, tanners, cordwainers, and other artisans took to the streets to protest the limits placed on what they could charge for their services.

Robert Morris Charles Rappleye 2010

In town, tanners, cordwainers, and other artisans took to the streets to protest the limits placed on what they could charge for their services.

Robert Morris Charles Rappleye 2010

After these none-too-subtle reminders that nonunion journeymen let down not only their colleagues but also their families, the tract ended with an explicit challenge to non-unionized cordwainers:

Advocating The Man: Masculinity, Organized Labor, and the Household in New York, 1800-1840 2006

Journeymen cordwainers, on trial for conspiracy in 1809, emphasized the learned, elite, and almost mystical nature of their craft, describing themselves as "workmen and journeymen in the art, mystery, and manual occupation of cordwainers."

Advocating The Man: Masculinity, Organized Labor, and the Household in New York, 1800-1840 2006

The appeal ran during the middle of June; however, it seems as if the strike ran much longer for some of the city's cordwainers.

Advocating The Man: Masculinity, Organized Labor, and the Household in New York, 1800-1840 2006

Such circumstances even led to the famed cordwainers 'conspiracy trial in 1809, when journeymen in master shoemaker Charles Aimes' employ refused to continue working until he fired an apprentice who worked outside of union guidelines.

Advocating The Man: Masculinity, Organized Labor, and the Household in New York, 1800-1840 2006

Journeymen cordwainers James Melvin and Morehouse formed their own business just a few years after Melvin was the lead defendant in the 1809 conspiracy trial.

Advocating The Man: Masculinity, Organized Labor, and the Household in New York, 1800-1840 2006

This challenge to nonunion cordwainers was not an economic plea or rally for class consciousness; it was a battle for masculine legitimacy.

Advocating The Man: Masculinity, Organized Labor, and the Household in New York, 1800-1840 2006