Workingmen's Party

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The Workingmen's Party was established in 1829 in New York City. It advocated the abolition of debtors' prison, lien laws for construction laborers, a ten-hour working day, and universal education. Under the leadership of the American reformer Fanny Wright and her young protégé, Robert Dale Owen, the movement spread rapidly. The agnostic teachings of Owen and Wright antagonized many people, however. The abandonment of the Tammany opposition to the mechanic's lien law and to the repeal of imprisonment for debt, together with the formation of the Whig Workingmen's Party in New York City, hastened the end of the Workingmen's Party.

Bibliography

Foner, Philip S. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. New York: International Publishers, 1975.

Wilentz, Sean. Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788–1850. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.