The Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor

Hour 1

DBQ

The Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor, or AFL, were the first national labor movements. However, these two unions and other's accomplishments were limited. Between the years of 1875 and 1900 organized labor worked to improve the position of workers but achieved little success while factors such as immigrant labor, lack of government support, and ineffective strikes all hurt the labor movement.

Document A shows that that organized labor had little success in lowering working hours and raising wages. Over the span of sixteen years the average daily hours only decreased by about half an hour and the average daily wages only increased by a little more then three dollars. These small fluctuations probably were not even primarily due to the actions of the unions, but to other factors such as reform sentiment, changes in management philosophy, and changes in technology. This fact is illustrated in Document