OCR A-Level History A H505
Y101: Alfred and the Making of England 871–1016Unit group 1
Y102: Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest 1035–1107Unit group 1
Y103: England 1199–1272Unit group 1
Y104: England 1377–1455Unit group 1
Y105: England 1445–1509: Lancastrians, Yorkists and Henry VIIUnit group 1
Y106: England 1485–1558: The Early TudorsUnit group 1
Y107: England 1547–1603: The Later TudorsUnit group 1
Y108: The Early Stuarts and the Origins of the Civil War 1603–1660Unit group 1
Y109: The Making of Georgian Britain 1678–c.1760Unit group 1
Y110: From Pitt to Peel 1783–1853Unit group 1
Y111: Liberals, Conservatives and the Rise of Labour 1846–1918Unit group 1
Y112: Britain 1900–1951Unit group 1
Y113: Britain 1930–1997Unit group 1
Y201: The Rise of Islam c.550–750Unit group 2
Y202: Charlemagne 768–814Unit group 2
Y203: The Crusades and the Crusader States 1095–1192Unit group 2
Y204: Genghis Khan and the Explosion From the Steppes c.1167–1405Unit group 2
Y205: Exploration, Encounters and Empire 1445–1570Unit group 2
Y206: Spain 1469–1556Unit group 2
Y207: The German Reformation and the Rule of Charles v 1500–1559Unit group 2
Y208: Philip II 1556–1598Unit group 2
Y209: African Kingdoms c.1400–c.1800: Four Case StudiesUnit group 2
Y210: Russia 1645–1741Unit group 2
Y211: The Rise and Decline of the Mughal Empire in India 1526–1739Unit group 2
Y212: The American Revolution 1740–1796Unit group 2
Y213: The French Revolution and the Rule of Napoleon 1774–1815Unit group 2
Y214: France 1814–1870Unit group 2
Y215: Italy and Unification 1789–1896Unit group 2
Y216: The USA in the 19th Century: Westward Expansion and Civil War 1803–c.1890Unit group 2
Y217: Japan 1853–1937Unit group 2
Y218: International Relations 1890–1941Unit group 2
Y219: Russia 1894–1941Unit group 2
Y220: Italy 1896–1943Unit group 2
Y221: Democracy and Dictatorships in Germany 1919–1963Unit group 2
Y222: The Cold War in Asia 1945–1993Unit group 2
Y223: The Cold War in Europe 1941–1995Unit group 2
Y224: Apartheid and Reconciliation: South African Politics 1948–1999Unit group 2
Y301: The Early Anglo-Saxons c.400–800Unit group 3
Y302: The Viking Age c.790–1066Unit group 3
Y303: English Government and the Church 1066–1216Unit group 3
Y304: The Church and Medieval Heresy c.1100–1437Unit group 3
Y305: The Renaissance c.1400–c.1600Unit group 3
Y306: Rebellion and Disorder Under the Tudors 1485–1603Unit group 3
Y307: Tudor Foreign Policy 1485–1603Unit group 3
Y308: The Catholic Reformation 1492–1610Unit group 3
Y309: The Ascendancy of the Ottoman Empire 1453–1606Unit group 3
Y310: The Development of the Nation State: France 1498–1610Unit group 3
Y311: The Origins and Growth of the British Empire 1558–1783Unit group 3
Y312: Popular Culture and the Witchcraze of the 16th and 17th CenturiesUnit group 3
Y313: The Ascendancy of France 1610–1715Unit group 3
Y314: The Challenge of German Nationalism 1789–1919Unit group 3
Y315: The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945Unit group 3
Y316: Britain and Ireland 1791–1921Unit group 3
Y317: China and Its Rulers 1839–1989Unit group 3
Y318: Russia and Its Rulers 1855–1964Unit group 3
Y319: Civil Rights in the USA 1865–1992Unit group 3
Y320: From Colonialism to Independence: The British Empire 1857–1965Unit group 3
Y321: The Middle East 1908–2011: Ottomans to Arab SpringUnit group 3
Y319: Civil Rights in the USA 1865–1992
Trade Union and Labour Rights: unions from 1865 to the 1890s
- 2 things to know
- Unit group 3
Overview
Recall questions on the legal position of unions in 1865, the Knights of Labor, Haymarket, the AFL, immigration, industrialisation and skilled workers, the railroad strike of 1877, Homestead and Pullman, and antitrust law.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Describe the aims and fate of the Knights of Labor.
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
Describe the legal position of trade unions in the United States in 1865.
Model answer
Almost none: unions had no statutory right to exist or bargain, employers could dismiss organisers at will, and courts still treated collective action as a criminal or civil conspiracy in restraint of trade, so the National Labor Union of 1866 had to seek change through political lobbying rather than law.
- 2
Describe the aims and fate of the Knights of Labor.
Model answer
Formed in 1869 and led by Terence Powderly, the Knights admitted skilled and unskilled workers, women and Black members alike and campaigned for the eight-hour day, co-operatives and an end to child labour, peaking at around 700,000 members in 1886 before public reaction to the Haymarket bombing and lost strikes destroyed them.
- 3
What happened at Haymarket Square in 1886 and why did it damage the labour movement?
Model answer
During a Chicago rally in support of the eight-hour day a bomb thrown at the police led to the deaths of seven officers, and the trial and execution of anarchist organisers on almost no evidence allowed employers and the press to identify unionism with foreign terrorism, choking off recruitment for a generation.
- 4
How did the American Federation of Labor differ from the Knights of Labor?
Model answer
Founded in 1886 under Samuel Gompers, the AFL organised skilled craftsmen only into autonomous national unions, avoided socialism and third-party politics, and pursued immediate gains in wages, hours and conditions through collective bargaining and the strike, a strategy that let it survive where broader bodies collapsed.
- 5
Explain the effect of the New Immigration on union development.
Model answer
The arrival of millions from southern and eastern Europe after 1880 gave employers a supply of desperate, often non-English-speaking labour who could be used as strike-breakers, divided the workforce along ethnic and religious lines, and pushed craft unions towards exclusion and support for immigration restriction rather than mass organisation.
- 6
Explain how industrialisation weakened the bargaining position of skilled workers.
Model answer
Mechanised, subdivided factory work stripped out the craft knowledge that had given skilled men their leverage, replacing them with machine-tenders who were easily replaced, while the concentration of capital in giant corporations left individual workers facing employers with far deeper resources during a strike.
Other ways to work this
The same content, four other ways.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Every question in Y319: Civil Rights in the USA 1865–1992, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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