Ah the Gilded Age. What a time to be a business owner in America! In a post-civil war landscape, the economy was booming and corporate greed was flourishing like never before! As for the workers… things weren’t so rosy. There were no laws to protect their rights, ensure their safety, secure their pay or limit their hours.

Enter The Knights of Labor - one of the first large-scale union efforts of its kind, founded by Uriah Smith Stephens in 1869. The group had a vision of society in which workers owned the industries in which they labored; they pressed for eight-hour work days and sought to bring an end to child labor. Anyone deemed a producer of a physical product could join, while lawyers, bankers and academics were excluded.