Seth Luther

Luther became one of New England's most influential labor activists after publishing this speech.

"An address to the working men of New England..."

Quick Facts

Significance:

Labor Activist

Place of Birth:

Rhode Island

Date of Birth:

1795

Place of Death:

Brattleboro, Vermont

Date of Death:

April 29, 1863

Place of Burial:

Brattleboro, Vermont

Cemetery Name:

Cemetary of the Vermont Asylum for the Insane

Active early in the United States labor movement, Seth Luther never saw his work towards the ten hour work day come to fruition. Nevertheless, Luther laid important groundwork that still benefits workers today. 

Born in Rhode Island in 1795, Seth Luther grew up as the son of a veteran of the American Revolution. At age 22, Luther left New England to travel and work around the western United States. Historian and Political Scientist Louis Hartz wrote about Luther's travels: 

In the wilderness, alongside the pioneer, he acquired a direct, hard-hitting approach to social problems and a pugnacious individualism… For as Luther insisted upon his return, contact with the cultures of the frontier, the Indian, and the slave, gave him a cosmopolitan grasp of the basic human uniformities that transcended distinctions of class and race and region.¹

Luther traveled for around fifteen years, refining his views on class and society. During this time, New England became more industrialized. Growth brought problems for workers, as factory owners attempted to maximize profits at the expense of their workers. These economic changes came to a blow in May of 1824, with what is considered to be the first general strike of wage workers in United States history.  

Workers in Pawtucket, Rhode Island faced extreme conditions. To maximize profits, mill owners planned to extend hours, reduce lunch times, and cut wages. Workers did not accept these changes. In response, around 100 women, joined by other laborers of the town, organized the strike.² Though Luther did not participate in this strike, the Pawtucket workers helped initiate a labor movement in which Luther soon become a major figure.   

Luther returned to New England in the early 1830s, where he worked in cotton mills and as a carpenter. He found himself in the midst of the labor movement that began in his absence — for which he soon became a leader.³ 

In May 1832, Boston and Charlestown's Shipwrights and Caulkers went on strike, advocating for a ten-hour day.⁴ Although this strike failed, it inspired Luther to call for workers' rights. 

By that summer, Luther began traveling around New England. On this tour he spoke to factory workers, encouraging them to unite and take action.⁵ By November, Luther published his touring speech as "An Address to the Workingmen of New England." In it, he evoked the memory of the Revolution, and used the imagery of the Bunker Hill Monument, at the time still under construction, to excite his audience.  

As we have adverted to Bunker Hill, we remark, in passing, that the unfinished monument is a most excellent emblem of our unfinished independence. There let it stand unfinished, until the time passes away when aristocrats talk about mercy to mechanics and labourers [sic]. There let it stand unfinished, until our rights are acknowledged, and we, as working men, will carry it to its destined height without screwing a five dollar bill out of the hard earnings of the poor man, or appealing to our fair countrywomen to replace money which we believe has been expended— extravagantly; leaving, after all, that structure a moument[sic] of disgrace to this age and this nation, and a deeper, blacker disgrace to same of its managers, who, while they are calling on us for money to raise a monument to national glory, are using their influence to prevent us from improving our condition in any way whatever.⁶

This tour and address solidified Luther as a leader in New England's labor movement. From then on, his influence continued to grow.⁷

In 1834, Luther helped organized the Boston General Trades' Union.⁸ This union soon collapsed, but as with the strikes, this failure only invigorated laborers. The following year, Luther and two other authors drafted a circular letter calling once again for a ten-hour day. This letter sparked yet another strike in Boston, which lasted for several months. The letter soon made its way to Philadelphia. There it prompted a general strike which, unlike in Boston, succeeded.⁹ 

In addition to his labor activism, Luther supported the suffrage movement in Rhode Island. Rhode Island had strict property laws that kept most working-class residents from voting. Luther argued that this "contradict[ed] and [set] at defiance every principle of the American Revolution. [And was] wicked, ridiculous, unnatural, impolitic, tyrannical, and unjust in every point of view."¹⁰ 

Luther’s suffrage activism led to his participation in the Dorr Rebellion. In 1841, members of the Rhode Island Suffrage Party established a "People's Constitution." This constitution allowed "all white adult male citizens" to vote. In November of that year, the people of Rhode Island elected two governors, one for each Constitution.¹¹ Luther supported Thomas Wilson Dorr, the illegally elected "people's governor." Over the next several months, Dorr attempted to forcibly take control of the state. In June 1842, authorities arrested Luther for his involvement in this rebellion. On August 25, 1842, the grand jury charged Luther, along with Dorr and five others, with high treason.¹² 

Being imprisoned for nearly a year caused his mental state to deteriorate. Upon his release, Luther toured New England once again, sharing his prison experience. In 1846, Luther rejoined the labor movement as a leader at the "New Hampshire Ten Hour Conference." Soon, the Mexican War broke out, and Luther attempted to enlist. Before he could though, authorities arrested him for an attempted bank robbery.¹³ 

Luther entered the Lunatic Asylum in East Cambridge in June 1846. He spent the rest of his life at various New England asylums. Luther died in the Vermont Asylum in Brattleboro on April 29, 1863.¹⁴ 

Seth Luther's activism proved instrumental for the early labor movement. Luther faced institutionalization before widespread adoption of the ten-hour workday. Nevertheless, his work laid important groundwork. 

Footnotes

1. Louis Hartz, “The Story of a Working-Class Rebel,” The New England Quarterly 13, no. 3 (Sep. 1940): 402, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/360191.pdf.
2. “1824 Strike,” Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park, last modified March 2, 2023, https://www.nps.gov/blrv/learn/historyculture/1824-strike.htm.
3. Luther identified himself as a Housewright in Seth Luther, An Address on the Right of Free Suffrage, (Providence: S. R. Weeden, 1833), xi, https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=dorr_pamphlets; In addition, he described that he had “for years lived among cotton mills, worked in them, travelled among them, and is extensively acquainted with them, and with persons who are engaged in them” in Seth Luther, An Address to the Working Men of New England, second edition, (New York: George H. Evans, 1833), 26, https://books.google.com/books/about/An_Address_to_the_Working_Men_of_New_Eng.html?id=PHdGAAAAYAAJ.
4. This was not the first strike for the ten-hour day in Boston. In April of 1825, a group of Boston Carpenters and Housewrights went on strike for a ten hour day and failed. For primary sources relating to the 1825, 1832, and 1835 strikes, see A Documentary History of American Industrial Society Volume VI, ed. John R. Commons, Ulrich B. Phillips, Eugene A. Gilmore, Helen L. Sumner, and John B. Andrews, (Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1910), 76-99, https://archive.org/details/adocumentaryhis03gilmgoog/page/n18/mode/1up.
5. Within this tour, Luther visited Charlestown, Cambridgeport, Waltham, Dorchester, Portland, Saco, and Dover. Luther, An Address to the Working Men of New England.
6. Luther, An Address to the Working Men of New England, 26.
7. Hartz, “Seth Luther,” 405.
8. A Documentary History Society, 90, 92.
9. For further exploration into Philadelphia’s strike, see Leonard Bernstein, “The Working People of Philadelphia from Colonial Times to the General Strike of 1835,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 74, No.3 (July 1950): 323-339, https://journals.psu.edu/pmhb/article/view/30723/30478; Luther also discusses the Philadelphia strike in Seth Luther, An Address Delivered Before the Mechanics and Working-Men of, of the City of Brooklyn, on the Celebration of the Sixtieth Anniversary of American Independence, (New York: Alden Spooner and Sons, 1836), 18-20, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=yale.39002005636494&view=1up&seq=5.
10. Luther, An Address on the Right of Free Suffrage, 10. Quote edited from present to past tense.
11. Matthew Wills, “The Dorr Rebellion for Voting Rights,” JSTOR Daily, February 17, 2022, https://daily.jstor.org/the-dorr-rebellion-for-voting-rights/.[1] Hartz, “Seth Luther,” 408.
12. Ibid., 409-410.
13. For more details on Luther’s arrest, experience in jail, and time institutionalized, see Carle Gersuny, “Seth Luther—The Road from Chepachet,” in Rhode Island History ­Vol. 33, no. 2, (Rhode Island: The Rhode Island Historical Society, 1974), 47-55.
14. Ibid., 55.