1800s Today in Labor History May 19, 1850: Four thousand Mexican workers gathered in Sonora, California, to protest the “Foreign Miners’ Tax.” Legislators enacted the law to drive the Chinese from California. (For more on historical anti-immigrant legislation, read here). However, white Californians didn’t care much for anyone who didn’t look like them, including Mexicans. In […]
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Execution of Tupac Amaru II Today in Labor History May 18, 1781: Tupac Amaru II was drawn and quartered in the Plaza Mayor del Cuzco, Peru. Tupac II had led a large indigenous uprising against the Spanish conquistadors. As a result of his heroic efforts, he became an inspiration to other Latin Americans in the
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Coeur d’Alene War. Today in Labor History May 17, 1858: 1,200 Coeur d’Alene, Palouse, Spokane & Skitswich Indians defeated Colonel Steptoe’s forces near Colfax, WA. Colonel George Wright returned with a larger force and defeated the indigenous warriors in early September during the Battle of the Four Lakes. In 1851, Washington Territory Governor Isaac Stevens
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Today in Labor History May 16, 1717: Voltaire was imprisoned in the Bastille for writing subversive satire. Today in Labor History May 16, 1871: The Paris Commune destroyed the Vendôme Column (“monument de barbarie”). Karl Marx predicted the destruction of this monument in 1852, in his political pamphlet Le 18 Brumaire de Louis Bonaparte. “But if the Imperial
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Today in Labor History May 15, 1872: Julia Ward Howe declared the first Mother’s Day as an anti-war holiday. Howe was an abolitionist and a feminist who wrote the lyrics for the Battle Hymn of the Republic. However, despite her disgust with slavery, she never thought black and white people were truly equal. 1890s May 15,
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