1820s
Today in Labor History December 18, 1829: Scientist Jean-Baptiste Lamark died. He was best known for his discredited theory of inheritance of acquired traits. This is the idea that characteristics acquired during the parents’ lifetime would be passed on to offspring. Scientists later discovered that traits of the parents are passed down to offspring through DNA, while acquired traits (e.g., losing a finger in an accident or getting larger muscles from weight lifting) do not involved changes to the DNA and cannot be passed down.
Over the past decade, with the discovery of epigenetics, scientists have shown that Lamarck’s theory actually is true under certain circumstances. Some experiences that occur during the parents’ lifetime that do not change the DNA, but add epigenetic markers to the DNA, are not only passed on to the their children, but can be passed on to grandchildren and great grandchildren, too. (For more on epigenetics, see the NOVA special “The Ghost in Your Genes.”)
Labor History December 18, 1830s
Today in Labor History December 18, 1830: The “Swing Rioters” went on trial on this date. The rioters were agricultural laborers who fought for a minimum wage during the early decades of the 19th century. During this time, England shifted from self-sufficient, open fields to farms rented by tenant farmers. Technology, including the increasing use of threshers, and a surplus of labor, drove down wages. Farm workers in the “swing” counties of the south and east of England responded by destroying farm machinery. Hundreds were arrested, jailed and executed.
1860s
Today in Labor History December 18, 1865: US Secretary of State William Seward proclaimed the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery throughout the USA. However, the thirteenth amendment included the following clause: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” Jim Crow laws in the past and racial profiling today result in large numbers of African Americans being incarcerated and subjected to legal slavery. Sometimes they were even rented out to plantations that had used chattel slaves in the past. But with the U.S. having both the world’s highest number of incarcerated people (2.1 million) and the highest incarceration rate (665 per 100,000), there are a lot of people from all ethnicities being subjected to legal slavery.
Labor History December 18, 1870s
Today in Labor History December 18, 1878: Joseph Stalin was born. He ruled the USSR from 1922-1952. There were up to 1.2 million executions during the Great Purge (1936-1938). Another 1.7 million died in his gulags. While up to 9 million more starved during the famines that occurred during his reign. The Ukrainian famine (1932-1933), during which 3.5 million died, is considered by many to be a genocide.
Labor History December 18, 1910s
December 18, 1878: 1917: Ossie Davis, American actor and activist was born. Davis was close friends with Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr. He helped organized the 1963 civil rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. He had a long acting career that included roles in “No Way Out,” “Do the Right Thing,” and “Malcolm X.”