The Canal Management in the Antebellum South and the Riot of the Immigrant Laborers, with Special Reference to a Case Sutudy of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal

Abstract

Recent trend in studies of the labor history which became to be called "The New Labor History" in the United States established a new viewpoint. Because it set a high valuation on the long established work habits and the elements of different native cultures which the immigrant laborers brought into America, and considered them to have had a very important historical significance as constituting a counter culture towards capitalism. The new perception has influenced Japanese historians deeply, and consequently, many studies of the immigrant laborers in the second half of the 19th century and the turning point of the century have been accumulated in Japan. On the contrary the Japanese economic historians had formerly focussed on the period of the first half of the 19th century, because it was the period of the industrial revolution. Even though they made progress in the excellent studies, they neglected those of the immigrant laborers in this period. Therefore the neglected should be now remedied. Then the purpose of this paper is to analyse the problem of the immigrant laborers in the antebellum period with special reference to the riot caused by the Irish immigrant laborers in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. This riot is important. Becausc it is said to have been the first riot in American history when federal troops were called to suppress the rebelling laborers. Also because it has very important economic aspects in itself. Thus this paper will examine firstly the course of the riots which occurred repeatedly in this canal minutely, secondly survey the circumstances of the so called canal era in which the canal project was developed, and thirdly clarify the economic situations of the immigrant laborers who were engaged in the construction of this canal. After by analysing the substance of the canal scrip which was issued by the canal company from 1834 and examining the relation between the issuance of the scrip and the riot which occurred simultaniously, this paper will conclude that the failure of the company's management resulted in the serious damages and suffering to the immigrant laborers, and that these were the causes which made the riot repeated. Taking account of the facts that only a few canal succeeded in the management and the most part of laborers in a canal construction sites were the Irish immigrants, the riot of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was not exceptional case of the riots accompanied with the canal construction. Similar cases seem to be found in almost other canals too. Therefore such a case was the one which the immigrant laborers who came into America, "Land of Freedom", in the period of the primitive accumulation of capital were generally obliged to encounter.