Comparison of Knights of Labor and American Federation of Labor

The words in quotation marks are from the textbook. I’ve added cautions and things to notice in the text. To avoid confusing things with citations to specific page numbers when there are four main versions of the textbook in use (each with different page numbering), I’ve explained in the last row, how you can find this information.

Tips:

For some people, placing the same type of data for different organizations side by side makes it easier to learn and to compare.
A cheap way to do this is to make a Xerox of facts you have to be able to compare and contrast and then cut those facts—such as the quoted words show below—apart and move them, so that equivalent facts are side by side. This simple action can speed up learning.

Issue	Knights of Labor	American Federation of Labor
When?	1871	1886
Leader?
Members?
Goals?
Size?
Key Events?
Location information in your textbook	Notes: This union dies out with the Haymarket Square event in this Unit. You can find these facts and part of the quotations in other editions and versions of the textbook by looking up the Knights of Labor in the index.	Notes: There will be more on this union in the era covered in the next Unit. This column’s data includes information from a caption under a picture in the 2^nd edition, not included in many editions. It is useful: “The craft unions that Gompers represented did not reach out to the large, unorganized mass of workers, and barred African Americans and Chinese from their ranks.” You will find these facts by looking up the American Federation of Labor in the index.

WCJC Department:	History – Dr. Bibus
Contact Information:	281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu
Last Updated:	2012
WCJC Home:	http://www.wcjc.edu/