Ten hours' labor: religion, reform, and gender in early New England

Although antebellum popular evangelicalism has been considered a middle-class phenomenon, Teresa Anne Murphy maintains that it was also a vital--and contested--arena of working-class life. Drawing on sources which include labor and temperance journals, marriage records, diaries, and correspondence,...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Murphy, Teresa A. (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Ithaca u.a. Cornell Univ. Press 1992
Edition:1. publ.
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Summary:Although antebellum popular evangelicalism has been considered a middle-class phenomenon, Teresa Anne Murphy maintains that it was also a vital--and contested--arena of working-class life. Drawing on sources which include labor and temperance journals, marriage records, diaries, and correspondence, she illuminates the extraordinary role of religion in the labor organization of New England mill towns
At the same time, she reconstructs the complex evolution in gender relations which enabled women workers to find a voice in the once exclusively male movement for a shorter workday
Murphy surveys the different patterns of labor organizing across the region, showing how the discourse of moral reform provided skilled and unskilled workers with a common language, as well as compelling arguments with which to confront their employers. She examines how working-class moral reform movements such as the Washingtonians challenged the pretensions of middle-class piety, while labor activists went on to attack the paternalism which had shaped labor relations in New England
Physical Description:XII, 231 S.
ISBN:0801426839

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