Labor organizer Ella Reeve "Mother" Bloor born on Staten Island, NY. Among her activities: investigating child labor in glass factories and mines, and working undercover in meat packing plants to verify for federal investigators the nightmarish working conditions that author Upton Sinclair had revealed in "The Jungle" - 1862

Group of workers in San Francisco found the Mechanics' League to fight against competition from convict labor. 1861

American Miners’ Association formed - 1861