Home of the American Labor Museum
New Jersey was the home of many silk mills during the last century.
It is now the home of the American Labor Museum.
Thousands of people were employed in those silk mills, under deplorable conditions.
Long hours doing difficult and back-breaking work was the norm. Pietro and Maria Botto, immigrants from northern Italy, were two of those workers.
So was their daughter.
In 1913, the workers decided to go on strike.
Over 25,000 of them walked out, shutting down the silk industry.
They wanted an eight-hour day, among other demands.
Pietro and Maria Botto House in Haledon, New Jersey
The workers were forbidden to strike in Paterson, so they moved over the town line to neighboring Haledon.
Pietro and Maria had a modest house in Haledon, but the front balcony was perfect for giving speeches. At the time, there was much free space and lawns for large crowds to gather in front of the house.
Soon labor leaders from around the country descended upon this home. Upton Sinclair, the author of The Jungle, a famous and muckraking novel of conditions in factories and mills, was one of the speakers.
The Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.), better known as the “Wobblies”, also were there. They were considered the “outside agitators” of the strike.
This is a wonderful and succinct video of the strikes:
The Botto house is now an official National Historic Landmark and the American Labor Museum is located there.
More About the American Labor Movement
To see how the other half lived, you can check out my photos from 2014: Lambert Castle Parts 1 and 2
To read more about the silk strikes of 1913: Paterson Silk Strikes of 1913
If you are interested in reading books about labor, please read my reviews of Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich, and Punching In: The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front-Line Employee by Alex Frankel.
Thanks for visiting New Jersey Memories!
That is such a cool place. Thanks for sharing it with us.
ReplyDeleteIt's a very interesting place. Thanks for visiting!
DeleteI think they were very brave to go on strike and risk losing everything.
ReplyDeleteThey sure were. They really did risk losing it all.
DeleteWhat courageous people they were! I would like to read more about it. I knew about the Wobblies and some about the labor movement but had never heard of this couple. Muckracking seems like such a derogatory term for an author who actually I think accomplished a lot with his writing.
ReplyDeleteI never cared for the term "muckraking" either. I do agree that the strikers back in those days were very brave.
DeleteHistoric events. always interesting. Love their kitchen stove!
ReplyDeleteIt's a very interesting place.
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