I am happy to have the opportunity to review Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America (2019) by Professor Joe Trotter, courtesy of Press Shop PR. The themes and history Trotter explores in this book are greatly relevant to our understanding of black and labor history and American history as a whole–to put it bluntly, American history is not what it is without this history. Reading and learning from this book has also informed me in my own work exploring the history of labor and the working class, subjects that are sorely under-explored in most history books.
The Meaning of Workers on Arrival
As Trotter explains in the Prologue, the title Workers on Arrival refers to the reason Africans were brought to the Americas in the first place:
“Brought here through the African slave trade specifically for their labor—hence, the title Workers on Arrival—African Americans produced wealth not only through their labor power and toil without pay but also as “commodities” bought and sold for profit in the capitalist marketplace. They were the most exploited and unequal component of the emerging modern capitalist labor force.”
Trotter, Workers on Arrival, p. xvi
Trotter demonstrates that black workers have been through the building of the American economy every step of the way, from the birth of the republic, through the Civil War and early 20th century, to modern times. Yet they remain some of the poorest people in the country, continuously left behind by politicians and political parties. He traces this history showing how participation by African Americans as workers has changed over time, but their importance never has, providing us important historical context as we enter 2021 during a once-in-a-century pandemic and a new presidential administration.
In this book, Trotter builds on decades of research on “black urban labor and working-class history since the early twentieth century” (Appendix, p. 185), which has also changed over time, but he brings it together to create a coherent, dynamic narrative of black people in American history.
The book is divided into two parts: Preindustrial Beginnings and The Twentieth Century, with an Epilogue on what this history means for our current era.
The Early Black Working Class
Trotter begins in the late 1700s, at the start of America’s history. Until the 1860s, of course, millions of black men and women were enslaved, though some were free and worked in various trades and crafts and were key to building the economies of early American cities. Trotter explains how the nation’s founding also established the black working class that has evolved to what it is today:
“Free and enslaved black workers helped to build, develop, and maintain the preindustrial city. Without them, no doubt, economic productivity, infrastructure development, and wealth creation would have slowed considerably in the major cities of the North and South. And, in turn, their efforts also created the beginnings of the African American working class.“
Trotter, Workers on Arrival, p. 26
By the time the Civil War broke out in 1861, there was a community of black workers that worked towards both full freedom as well as “workers and citizens,” despite differing views on issues such as leaving the US for other countries like Canada or Haiti or “repatriating” to Africa. And, of course, whether enslaved or free, there was always the threat of violence from whites.
The post-Reconstruction period into the early 20th century was a period of great change for the country, its economy, and the working class, and, Trotter describes, “fueled the growth of the black urban industrial working class” (p. 47). Black workers from the South migrated North for both (relative) safety and more economic opportunity. Just as they did in the pre-industrial era, black workers helped grow the new urban industrial economy.
An interesting phenomenon began happening during this period: “interracial solidarity between black and white workers .” This occurred due to white workers becoming dissatisfied with “industrial elites” which “creat[ed] a breach in the armor of white supremacy” (p. 73), meaning they were directing more of their anger towards the rich white men in power instead of the black workers who were more similar to them than different. This solidarity was not consistent by any means, due to the white supremacy inherent in all aspects of American life and history, but it set an important precedent for workers’ movements that would take place later in the 20th century.
Black Workers Through the 20th Century and Today
As the years went by in the 20th century, black workers soon realized that while living and working in the North was different in many ways from their mainly agricultural work in the South, much of the racism, inequality, abuse and violence remained the same and extended into all areas of life from employment to housing and more. Yet these realities all contributed to
“…vibrant new social movements to meet the demands of life and labor in the industrial age, movements that insisted on full citizenship, equality before the bar, and social justice. Similar to the transformation of the nation during and following the Civil War, their struggles would help gradually to reshape the political culture and institutions of the industrial age.”
Trotter, Workers on Arrival, p. 109
The New Deal era of the 1930s and 40s saw a resurgence in the solidarity across racial and even class lines hinted at earlier. While they allied with white workers as before, black workers also teamed up with black and white people in the middle class and elite to work towards social and economic justice. These alliances along with what was called the “Black Metropolis,” or a vision of a new black identity or nationalism and economic assistance in the New Deal era, would help usher in a post-segregationist society–though the struggle, of course, would continue.
Thanks to efforts like the March on Washington Movement for jobs and justice spearheaded by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, leading to the Modern Black Freedom movement of the 1950s and 60s, much of the segregationist policies of the Jim Crow era were dismantled, which opened up more opportunities for the black poor and working class. Unfortunately, however, the decline of the industrial economy and the rise of right-wing politics in figures like Nixon and Reagan dampened much of this progress, leading to a need for alternative strategies towards the end of the century, namely electoral politics.
Deindustrialization paired with globalization meant more hard times for much of the black working class. Moving away from the grassroots activism of the past, many African Americans decided that trying to win power from electoral politics was the best path forward. They helped elect black mayors in cities like Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, and eventually the first black president. More recent movements like Black Lives Matter have brought renewed attention to police brutality and mass incarceration of black men, which is just the latest iteration of white supremacy (or “The New Jim Crow”).
What’s Next for Black Workers: The “Post-Trump” era and Biden Presidency
“From the ongoing issues of poverty, health, housing, and employment to the recent upsurge of lethal police-community relations, black people continue to stand at the intersection of class and racial conflict in twenty- first-century America.“
Trotter, Workers on Arrival, p. 183
Workers on Arrival provides a great deal of important historical context for how we can understand the very strange era we find ourselves in today: the exit of probably the most polarizing, if not the worst, president in modern American history during a once-in-a-century global health and economic crisis: millions of people falling ill and losing employment along with health insurance, since the United States is the only industrialized country in the world without some type of national health insurance system. Entering the fray is Joe Biden, familiar to most Americans as Barack Obama’s vice president, and to many a sign of stability, if not a return to “normalcy.”
If Biden’s presidency is anything like that of his former boss (and of his own long career in the Senate), the many black groups who supported him under the threat of a second Trump term are bound to be disappointed. While he may be stacking his cabinet with many “diverse” picks, Biden has done almost nothing to assure workers of all races, and particularly the black community, that they will be a priority for his administration, particularly during this extremely challenging period.
And as people across the country grow exasperated with our essentially non-functioning government that can’t even give its people basic support as this crisis drags on, many, including former Trump supporters, are beginning to realize that their enemy is the people in power, not their black or immigrant neighbor or coworker. This is a realization that has been made and then forgotten throughout history, because it inevitably leads to class solidarity and uprising, which the powerful want to quell as much as possible, as Trotter mentions in his Epilogue: “The discomfort and resistance of economic and power elites will no doubt intensify as working-class movements spread and escalate demands for social justice (p. 182).” (I explore this issue more here.)
Similarly, much of the history of the various Civil Rights movements leaves out the “class” and “jobs” part, which go hand-in-hand with the racial justice part; Workers of all races, especially African American ones, won’t truly have justice and equality in this country until they have both racial and economic justice. In Workers on Arrival, Professor Trotter reminds us of the rich history of this struggle.
Thank you for reading! Please check out my new book on great women in Groundbreaking history, including Pauli Murray, Jeannette Rankin, Shirley Chisholm, and more!
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