manual labor movement

manual labor movement
Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 21:43:25 -0500


Date: Thu, 07 May 1998 21:23:17 -0500
From: Mark Lause < lause@worldnet.att.net >
Organization: University of Cincinnati
Subject: Re: manual labor movement

Oberlin's prehistory takes us back to the great schism at Lane Seminary
in Cincinnati. Not all of the dissenters moved on to form Oberlin. An
important portion of them remained here, organizing the first black
schools in the city which were clearly oriented towards trade
education. The project involved Augustus and John O. Wattles
(Fourierists and spiritualists), Thomas and Maria Varney (Owenites),
and Josiah Warren of the cooperative Labor-for-Labor Store.

One important figure to emerge from this milieu was Peter H. Clark who
learned printing through this school system. Clark went on to be the
superindent of the city's black schools and the first African-American
socialist of prominence.

Mark Lause
University of Cincinnati
--

Lause's Links
<http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Quad/6460/index.html>

manual labor movement?
Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 18:30:49 -0500


From: "David G. Vanderstel" < dvanders@ruby.iupui.edu >
Subject: Manual Labor Movement
Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 16:46:56 -0000

To H-SHEAR list readers:

Is anyone familiar with the manual labor movement in early 19th century
schools? I am working on a biography of Edmund O. Hovey, a cofounder
of Wabash College here in Indiana (1832). The college began as the
"Wabash Manual Labor College and Teachers' Seminary" and, as the
founders noted, was modeled on practices in eastern schools. I have
noted that Hovey and others were educated at Dartmouth College and
Andover Seminary, both of which had manual labor programs. While I
understand that the program appears like today's "work-study program",
I am curious about its origins, leading advocates, etc.

I would appreciate any assistance that you can offer. Please contact
me off-line at my address below. Thank you.

David G. Vanderstel
Executive Director
National Council on Public History
425 University Boulevard - Cavanaugh 327
Indianapolis, IN 46202

317.274.2718
317.274.2347 (fax)
dvanders@iupui.edu

manual labor movement
Date: Wed, 6 May 1998 13:21:11 -0500


Date: Wed, 6 May 1998 11:05:58 -0400 (EDT)
From: Hal Morris
< hal@panix.com >
Subject: Re: manual labor movement?

Theodore Weld attended Oneida Institute at Whitesboro, NY, which was a
"manual labor institution" bounded by George W. Gale who "having
impaired his own health through hard study had regained it through farm
work". It may have been an informal sort of institution until the
Oneida Presbytery took it over (making Gale the president). [Benj.
Thomas, _Theodore Weld_, Rutgers U Press, 1950 -- p18].

The reformer/philanthropist Lewis Tappan and/or Arthur Tappan started
to promote the concept and there arose (whether through their direct
efforts or not, I don't know), a "Society for Promoting Manual Labor in
Literary Institutions", which then paid Theodore Weld to go into the
west and "collect data from which might be deduced guiding principles
for the most successful union of manual labor with study; to ascertain
to what extent the manual labor system was suited to conditions in the
West; and to compile a journal of his findings." (Thomas, p31). Weld
lost the journal in a near-fatal carriage accident and "for some reason
never resumed it. As a matter of fact, he thought of himself more as a
missionary of manual labor education than as an investigator. To be
sure, he interviewed educators and collected facts, but his chief
activity was speechmaking." (Thomas, p32). Weld seemed to life to
promote causes, intil by the late 1830s, he burned himself out and went
into semi-seclusion. It sounds as though he may well have helped ignite
a grassroots movement rather than promote the ends, directly of the
"Society for promoting ...". Thomas cites L.F. Anderson, "The Manual
Labor School Movement", _Educational Review, XLVI, p369-86.

Bertram Wyatt-Brown calls Thomas' book, "a short, lively life of the
great antislavery orator, though it accepts uncritically the
anti-Garrisonian interpretations popular at the time of its
composition". (W-B: _Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War against
Slavery, 1997 LSU paperback edition of 1969 Case Western Reserve U
original, p352 in "Bibliographic Essay") (I was hoping to find a more
up-to-date article citation on the Manual Labor education movement in
W-B).

_The Founding of American Colleges and Universities Before the Civil
War_ by Donald G. Tewksbury (Orig 1932 by Teachers College, Columbia
U.; 1965 facsimile reprint) gives a list of colleges founded before the
civil war from pp28-54. It lists Wabash Manual Labor Colege (p40),
Indiana Baptist Manual Labor Inst (later Franlkin College), and Knox
Manual Labor College (later Knox college) (p41)

I have no particular expertise on this - just recollected Weld's
experience and grabbed what likely books were handy -- there are
probably much better resources on it.

Hal Morris ( hal@panix.com )
'Tales of the Early Republic' (http://www.panix.com/~hal)
A History Web Site, Focusing on the 1830s-1840s.

manual labor movement
Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 18:12:55 -0500


Date: Wed, 6 May 1998 12:46:45 -0700 (PDT)
From: Seth Rockman < serockman@ucdavis.edu >
Subject: Re: manual labor movement

I hope people haven't forgotten Paul Goodman's 1993 prize-winning essay
"The Manual Labor Movement and the Origins of Abolitionism," Journal of
the Early Republic 13 (Fall 1993):355-388.

Seth Rockman
UC-Davis

manual labor movement
Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 18:13:23 -0500


Date: Wed, 6 May 1998 16:51:58 -0400 (EDT)
From: "J. Douglas Deal" < deal@Oswego.EDU >
Subject: Re: manual labor movement

Manual labor is discussed throughout Jonathan Glickstein's _Concepts of
Free Labor in Antebellum America_ (New Haven, 1991). The endnotes are a
book in themselves.

Doug Deal
History/SUNY-Oswego

manual labor movement
Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 18:13:45 -0500


From: BURT151 < BURT151@aol.com >
Date: Wed, 6 May 1998 18:20:57 EDT
Subject: Re: manual labor movement

The motto of Oberlin College is "Learning and Labor" and the central
section of the campus is known as Tappan Square. Apparently one of the
Tappans had an Oberlin connection. I don't remember who posted the
original question on the "manual labor movement," but it might be
worthwhile to contact the archivist at Oberlin College - he's probably
listed via their web site, and I found him very helpful on a query
several months ago.


Burt Knauft - Washington D.C.