An Attempt to Discourage Labor Organizing in Amesbury’s Mills
Today's Gateway Arch, the entrance to Amesbury’s Upper Millyard and the site of the 1852 Derby Strike riot. At the time of the riot, only the counting house on the left stood. The arch and right-hand building were built later. (The building on the right replaced a stable in that location.)
In observance of this Monday’s Labor Day holiday, the ACM presents a vignette contributed by ACM Industrial Survey volunteer Tom Murphy from his ongoing research on the history of labor in Amesbury.
It’s the story of 19-year-old Austin Swan and his prosecution for taking part in a riot associated with the 1852 Derby Strike. The so-called riot, on Main Street near today’s Gateway Arch entrance to the upper millyard, was quite subdued by today’s standards. So it seems that the riot-related complaint against Swan was really retribution for encouraging female mill workers in Amesbury to join 100 male workers who had walked off their jobs because their lunch breaks had been eliminated by a new mill agent named John Derby.
Learn more about Swan and his role in one of the earliest U.S. labor actions by reading Tom Murphy’s “Swan Song; The Derby Strike Riot.”