Free and Efficient Seamen: Labor Mobilization of U.S. Sailors, 1866-1920

• In Event: Modes of Labor and Access to Citizenship: Looking beyond Judith Shklar

Abstract

While various occupations sought protective labor legislation in the early 20th century, American sailors did not. They already had such protection, dating back to the Constitution of 1787. The early federal government provided seamen with proto passports, a fund for health care, and certain provisions on board ship, but when sailors were exploited by boardinghouse keepers, the federal and state governments were slow to protect them. Seamen’s bodies and welfare were protected only when that protection benefited maritime commerce. American seamen found that protective labor legislation was inadequate and—by the early 20th century—unwanted. The Sailors’ Union of the Pacific instead joined forces with the American Federation of Labor and spoke of maritime regulations in terms of involuntary servitude and slavery. In winning passage of the federal Seamen’s Act of 1915, they spoke of a right of ownership in one’s body. Seamen present a peculiar status of worker—protected by the federal government yet exploited, they were workers who endured brutal working conditions while lacking a sense of civic belonging on shore. This paper points to the resources that seamen drew upon to advance their material condition and civic status.

Author

• Kathleen S. Sullivan, Ohio University